Future Tech Enterprise

In its relatively short history, Future Tech Enterprise has delved into multiple markets and services--providing IT offerings wherever the company sees a need.

That aggressive go-to-market strategy has paid off. Future Tech has enjoyed sales increases and profitability every year of its existence, and a 2,000 percent revenue growth during the past five years. The company's successful approach to delivering IT services has earned it a VAR of the Year award for Business Ingenuity.

Future Tech was founded in 1996 when Bob Venero, president and CEO, started reselling hardware out of his basement. The business grew quickly and now operates out of a 60,000-square-foot campus facility in Holbrook, N.Y. The company also has sales and service offices in California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Texas and Virginia.

First-year sales for the privately held company totaled $100,000; this year, Future Tech is on track for sales of $80 million, according to Venero. "Never in our history have [sales] been down from the year prior," he says.

The company has entered markets, such as equipment maintenance and repair, application-software development, print-catalog sales, an array of managed IT and security services, consulting and help-desk support.

Future Tech has also developed "repeatable" practices and offerings for multiple vertical markets. For example, it has developed a help-desk program called Insource America Help Desk, building a highly skilled support staff that provides U.S. companies with an alternative to offshore outsourcing. The service was initially deployed for a hotel, which used Insource America to manage its wireless operations, Venero says. Two years later, more than 40 other hotels are using the service, which Future Tech is now marketing to Fortune 500 companies.

Among Future Tech's most innovative offerings is ContractOne, an automated contract and lease-management system that allows companies to proactively manage and leverage their IT assets for cost savings, including lower procurement costs. The customizable, Web-based system enables enterprises to manage the complete life cycle of technology contracts.

One of Future Tech's highlights of the past year was building what Venero calls the East Coast's first structurally secure disaster-recovery data center, which will offer more than a dozen managed services. The center, which is scheduled to be operational next month, is designed to withstand floods, fire, bombs and other threats.

These efforts, aimed at offering customers a comprehensive portfolio of solutions, have helped Future Tech attract new business partners, add new customers, and expand into vertical markets and geographic territories.