Channel Daily News

Getting under Boardwalk

Boardwalk Communications, a Vancouver-based value added reseller specializing in network integration and unified communications solutions, as well as a premier Cisco certified partner, is still trying to rise to the top of its game.Founded in 2002 and initially consisting of only two employees, the company now has offices in Vancouver and Victoria, B.C. and the team now consists of 14 staff members. Today, Boardwalk has grown to establish itself as B.C.’s largest government reseller of Cisco products and equipment, therefore making the company one of Cisco’s predominant partners in the province as well.

Philip Stone, president of Boardwalk, says its customers range from enterprises to school districts, to health institutions to small to medium business customers.

“We cover the full spectrum,” Stone said. “We’re growing in the 25 to 30 per cent range every year with our customers.”

Stone credits this increase in part to steady growth in the demand for IT telephony in the marketplace just within the past year.

“We’ve seen huge growth in demand for [this] in the past 12 months,” Stone said. “What’s helping to drive this, is market awareness and also the realization of huge cost savings. People are now beginning to think of technology as being more mature too.”

Stone believes that having a strong focus and specializing in a particular area are what helps set Boardwalk apart from similar resellers.

In addition, the company also customizes solutions based around the needs and requirements of every customer.

“We have specializations in wireless and unified communications,” Stone said. “We’re focused on networking integration and because we’re small [in staff size], we’re more flexible and nimble with what we can offer.”

Among other things that Boardwalk offers are network design and analysis consulting, staging and logistics of equipment, installation and management services for products, as well as help with maintenance and troubleshooting.

What the company found in the past was that many customers didn’t have the skillsets or knowledge that was needed to easily and successfully deploy and install equipment and other applications. In response to this, Boardwalk created a network operating centre a couple years ago for its customers to use.

“Before we were very focused on pre-sales and implementation,” Stone said. “Now, we can keep customer satisfaction post-sales so when people phone up, they can get support.”

In addition to its operating centre, training is also provided to those that want or need it in the form of informal, over the shoulder training as well as in-class training conducted by an outside trainer.

Boardwalk is looking beyond its B.C. roots.

“We’re actually going to expand all the way to Alberta,” Stone said. “We think there’s a real need in Western Canada for partners like ourselves who are specialized with these services. Because technology is so complex now, it’s hard to have a reseller generalized in every aspect of IT. With us, we pride ourselves on our focus.”

An Alberta office is set to open up within the first quarter of next year and will maintain all of Boardwalk’s current strategies and values.

“The demand for our support services is already very strong,” Stone said.

“We will continue to refine ourselves in that area even when we expand.”