Earning a spot in the top 20 for the third year in a row is Burlington, Ont.-based Telecom Computer, which reached number 17 with estimated annual revenue of $70 to $80 million in 2004.
Company president Phil Davidson said Telecom has been able to maintain position by focusing on what it does
best.
“”We’ve really stuck with what we do well and not flying all over the board,”” said Davidson, who founded the company 18 years ago.
Telecom, which has also has offices in Ottawa and St. Catharines, Ont., provides solutions from Internet commerce to applications in finance and communications based on tier one manufacturers. These include Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Toshiba and Cisco Systems Inc.
People make the difference
Telecom employs over 45 engineers and technicians, who on any given week, are studying for or writing an exam to keep on top of manufactuer’s certification. Telecom employs around 22 sales people.
From a financial perspective, the company is run conservatively. “”We’ve grown and managed things well.””
For example, Telecom doesn’t lease a photocopier, let alone its 26,000 square-foot facility in Burlington, said Jim Naysmith, the company’s general manager. “”If we need something, we make sure that we can cost-effectively afford it and then we buy it and that’s it,”” he said.
Aside from solutions and finances, Davidson says what makes Telecom a success is the people behind it.
“”We’ve got great people in the organization. A lot of our people have been with us for over 10 years,”” said Davidson, adding that the company also has very little turnover in its customer-base.
“”Our customers have gone through their own turmoil and downtime. Most of them have stuck with us and they’re seeing a lot of growth right now,”” Davidson said.
80/20 split
Thirty per cent of Telecom’s business is in government with another 30 per cent in the public sector and the remainder in the corporate market. Davidson said this breakdown puts Telecom in a good position to not be too dependent on any one customer segment — a problem that he says a lot of people in the IT industry have suffered with.
Products made up 80 per cent of Telecom’s revenue while the remaining 20 per cent is services, which are broken down into two groups.
On one side, Telecom provides solutions with tier one manufacturers from server consolidation audits to blade servers and storage area networks. Telecom also has resource outsourcing and supplementing services, which have grown “”dramatically”” over the last 18 months.
Service contracts range from annually-renewed to monthly.