Burnley Blog
Wow! What an eventful last 12 months it has been for everyone connected with Lanway.
It’s fair to say our business is totally unrecognisable compared to this time last year.
Twelve months ago we were a relatively unsophisticated operation selling commoditised products to a lot of great local businesses. Now I like to think we are highly sophisticated IT solutions provider, offering business critical solutions that increase efficiencies and mitigate risk to customers nationwide.
To achieve such a major step change we have had to make fundamental changes. This has involved recruiting new sales people and completely changing our sales focus. We have also spent a small fortune training our technical and sales staff so we can start to provide customers with a different offering.
In simple terms, it’s no longer about asking clients ‘how many laptops do you want?’ What a proactive IT solutions provider should be asking is: ‘What are your future growth plans?’ ‘And what do you do if you’re business is growing at X and then all of a sudden there’s a huge fire at your plant? What is your contingency for such an event?’
For me it’s ultimately about taking time to understand what the client’s needs are, identifying what their problems are, and then making sure the solution is right for them, both in terms of budget AND its ability to deliver exactly what they need, not just now but in three years’ time.
We want to build lasting partnerships with East Lancashire businesses so, together, we can kick-start the local economy.
That means working closely with clients to identify efficiency savings, and also ways in which they can use technology to work smarter.
Over the last 12 months we have staged a series of free seminars – or Special Interest Groups (SIGs) – which put leading providers such as VMware and Microsoft directly in touch with key business leaders from East Lancs.
Some of the topics discussed include desktop storage solutions and virtualisation.
Going forwards, we will continue to bring some of the UK’s leading IT experts to Burnley so they can impart their knowledge and help businesses grow.
By working together, we really can make a difference.
Steve Ackers, Managing Director, Lanway