Jeff Karpel, President of Karpel Solutions, announces the firm has been engaged by BancStar, Inc to provide managed IT services to the bank for a period of two years. The value of the contract is approximately $275,000 and covers both on site and off site support. Festus, MO-based BancStar Inc. is a bank holding company with four bank charters, 14 branches and nearly $400 million in assets. Bank Star of the LeadBelt has six branches: Park Hills, Desloge, Leadwood, Farmington and Festus (2); Bank Star of the BootHeel has two branches: Steele and Caruthersville; Bank Star One has five branches: Fulton, New Bloomfield, Lake Ozark (2) and Osage Beach; and Bank Star has one branch (Pacific) and a mortgage company (Bank Star Mortgage) in Kirkwood. All branches are in Missouri. Karpel will provide remote services for all of the banks locations including oversight of some 20 servers and 240 desk top computers. “We appreciate the technical expertise Karpel brings to our banks,” said Tom Keiser, President of BancStar Inc. “With 17 branches and offices around Missouri it is mportant to partner with a firm that understands our industry and the importance of both network security and productivity achieved by constant maintenance of our network.”