I’m Dean Christensen.
I set up practical automation for small businesses. I’m based in Ephrata, serving Moses Lake and the Columbia Basin. Basin Automations is my company, and I do the work myself.
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Installer, developer, executive
I spent about 20 years in the internet provider business, from doing installs to sitting on the executive team. Along the way I helped turn a struggling company around and see it through a sale, and worked alongside local public utilities on fiber.
Installer
I’ve done the field work, so I know what a day on the road actually looks like.
Developer
I wrote the software those companies ran on, so I know where systems tend to break.
Executive
I ran the operation, budget included, so I expect every fix to pay for itself.
I’ve also used Linux for more than 20 years and know servers and networking well, so the plumbing behind a website, email or phone system isn’t a mystery to me.
Having seen the same work from all three seats is a big part of why the systems I set up fit how a business actually runs.
One thing stayed true the whole time. Most support is the same handful of conversations on repeat: can I get service here, what do I owe, when’s my tech coming, is there an outage. Good people spend a lot of their day answering those, and the customers with harder problems wait in line behind them. That’s the kind of problem I like working on, and it shows up in almost every small business I’ve looked at.
What I’m building now
Right now I’m building a support platform that any ISP can plug in, so customers can text their provider the way they’d text a person and get signups, billing, plan changes and appointments handled any hour of the day. The AI runs the conversation, and code handles the money and the rules, so it can’t make up a price or promise something the system didn’t approve. Here’s the full write-up.
How I think about AI
I’m cautious about it, honestly. I’m careful about privacy and security, and I’ve watched AI tools do things I didn’t expect. So I set things up the way I’d want them set up in my own business: clear limits, a person approving anything that matters, and a simpler tool whenever a simpler tool does the job.
I also use these tools every day, and some of them save me real time. I write about the ones I actually use on the blog.
Basin Automations
Basin Automations is my company. I’m an AI and automation consultant based in Ephrata, serving Moses Lake and the Columbia Basin. I work with small and medium businesses here, trades first, and I’d rather meet in person than over a video call. I also work remotely with businesses farther out, and in person for the right project. For websites, I work alongside my sister business, Moses Lake Web Design.
For you, that background means one person who understands the field work, the software and the budget, from the first call to the finished system. Here’s how working together goes.
If you’d rather talk in Spanish or Portuguese, that works too.
Other ways I can help
Fractional work
I’m open to part-time technology or operations roles with a business that needs someone steady for a while.
Speaking
I’m happy to talk to local groups and conferences about using AI in a small business, practically and without the hype.