Elise Hernandez McGuire, owner of Ideal System Solutions, Inc., Pine River, has been named Minnesota Minority Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The award recognizes Hernandez for excellence in her field, demonstrated leadership, and community involvement.

Ideal System Solutions, Inc. is a woman-owned, Hispanic-owned company providing information technology solutions and services to the government, system integrators and commercial customers. Ideal is headquartered in Pine River with its main sales office and technical facility located in Maple Grove. Ideal also has offices located in New Mexico, California, South Carolina, and Virginia and a services organization that expands nationwide. Major customers include the Department of Energy, General Dynamics, and the Department of Defense including the Minnesota Air National Guard.

Ideal is a value-added reseller for leading-edge technology manufacturers including SUN, HP, IBM and CISCO, just to name a few. In addition to offering the full spectrum of IT solutions, Ideal provides financing options, product leasing and rental, trade and consignment to enable flexibility in purchasing. Ideal’s IT staffing organization offers versatile trained and certified technicians for long term and short term contract or projects. The company's huge portfolio of products means more options to meet customer requirements, and the ability to respond to requests for proposals with competitively priced, cutting-edge solutions. "Ideal strives to be your single source for developing an integrated IT solution within your budget requirements"

Hernandez knows the value of customer service. She says, "Our goal is to exceed customer expectations, provide the best value, and maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction."

Hernandez is a participant in SBA’s 8(a) Business Development program and is also certified with SBA as a HUBZone small business.