This October, Lanworks is marking a major milestone – 30 Years in business. What started in a basement apartment in 1986 has evolved into an organization providing personalized IT for businesses; including SMB’s, governments, universities and F500 companies across Canada. At its start back then, Local Area Networks (Lans) were simply evolving and revolutionary and IT as we know it today, was in its infancy. The founders had a vision that IT was going to drastically change with the advent of LAN’s and the accessibility and sharing of data, would reinvent the workplace. Hence the name Lanworks – short, simple and easily recognizable – the business was born!
1986
2016Lanworks solutions at the time included:
- Novell Networks
- Custom building computer clones (on Everex Kits); as well as providing AST Research Computers (which were equivalent to IBM and Compaq computers at the time)
- Arcnet and thin coax Ethernet network adapters
- Active and passive hubs
- Tallgrass tape backup units
- CDC full height 5 1/4 drives 344mb, at a staggering price of $3k
- Thin coax cable installations
Several IT organizations have come and gone since then, and Lanworks has successfully transitioned itself with technological change. This can be attributed to an understanding of the ever changing IT marketplace, focusing on staff technical certifications, our solution partners and properly understanding (via discovery sessions) what customers require. This could not have happened for 30 years, if it was not for the culture at Lanworks. At Lanworks everyone is empowered to make the “right” decisions, we have no such thing as a political hierarchy and above all, we feel as if we’re all “family”. We have a true team environment, and everyone genuinely cares to do what’s right for the customer. If there was a litmus test for success, it may be longevity, as the average tenure of our staff is over 10 years.
Lanworks does not sell products, simply to sell them! We work with our customers and we understand that success means working together as a partnership for the long term. In fact, 60% of our customers have been associated with us for over 5 years and over 85% of our revenue is via repeat business and referrals.
Going forward, as in the past, our success will be attributed to adopting IT advancements along with excellent customer service, integrity, trust…and our employees!
Thank you to all our CUSTOMERS who supported us during the past 30 Years.
PS: Don’t forget to enter our “Blast from the Past” Contest and share your IT memories.
