Nortek recognized for innovation, growth; computer engineering firm is an industry leader.Tucked away on Main Street West in North Bay, overlooking Lake Nipissing Lake Nipissing (French: lac Nipissing) is a lake in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is km ( sq mi) in surface area, has a mean elevation of m ( ft) above sea level and is located between the Ottawa River and Georgian Bay. is the unassuming home of Nortek Computers Ltd. At first glance passers-by would never suspect that the building houses a computer engineering firm which is a North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. leader in computer hardware manufacturing and servicing. Upon closer inspection, a visitor discovers that the store front conceals a larger, highly technical facility that houses Nortek Computer's elite team of engineers. Nortek Computers recorded $4.1 million in revenue last year from the manufacture and repair of computer hard drives, ranking it second in the North American industry. The company recorded $1.2 million in revenue from the repair of tape drives, ranking it third in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . Nortek Computers estimates that its sales will be between $5 million and $6 million this year. Its clients include NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. , IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , AT & T, Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. and Honeywell, and its two main competitors are Veltron Industries and Dyne dyne (dīn), unit of force in the cgs system of units, which is based on the metric system; an acceleration of 1 centimeter per second per second is produced when a force of 1 dyne is exerted on a mass of 1 gram. Systems, both of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . It is the company's growth, leadership and technological innovation which have earned Nortek Computers the Company of Year Award (26 to 50 employees). The award is sponsored by Canadian Partner. Nortek Computers began modestly in 1978 in the basement of the home of company president and chief executive officer Brian McGaffney. Today the company has assets worth an estimated $30 million, and it is debt-free. Nortek Computers currently employs 47 "hand-picked and hand-trained" people and has an annual payroll of more than $1 million. The company also specializes in "reverse engineering" which McGaffney describes as the disassembling, inspection and customizing of computer components. The company's latest development is a state-of-the-art Model 3000 servo An electromechanical device that uses feedback to provide precise starts and stops for such functions as the motors on a tape drive or the moving of an access arm on a disk. writer. Designed and built in-house by Nortek Computers' engineers, McGaffney says the Model 3000 is revolutionary in the reverse engineering of hard discs. McGaffney describes his company as self-sufficient in all aspects of production, equipment repair and employee training. All of Nortek Computers' engineers are trained in-house by McGaffney who gained much of his expertise while employed by NASA. He attributes much of his company's success to the expertise and dedication of its employees. "The goal and dream of all of us is to maintain a high degree of science and integrity," explains McGaffney. "Our company grew and became successful because of our emphasis on science." McGaffney states with pride that there has never been a layoff at Nortek Computers and that the company has an employee turnover rate that approaches zero per cent. He chose to locate the firm in North Bay because of the quality of life the city offers. McGaffney indicates that the company is considering opening a branch in Europe "because that is where the growth is." However, he says Nortek Computers will concentrate on serving its existing markets for the short term. |
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