Business Awards: Now for an even bigger byte of action!

4:09pm Monday 19th November 2007

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COMPUTER company Lanway won the Deal of the Year Category for its part in clinching a £45million contract to supply laptops to higher education establishments.

This summer Lanway was appointed a preferred supplier to the higher education sector's National Notebook Agreement list of approved suppliers.

The contract means the firm supply computers and specialist IT support to higher education institutions across the country.

A number of other computer hardware suppliers are involved in the contract, which is worth £45million over three years.

It is anticipated the deal could be worth at least £4million to Lanway alone in the first year and could be worth several million more over its duration. The contract has transformed Lanway into one of the key players in the higher education sector.

In a tightly contested category, Lanway got the nod from judges as they believed the deal would transform business the most out of the shortlisted finalists.

The company employs 60 staff and has a turnover of £13million.

Steven Ackers, managing director and founder, is now forecasting further growth on the back of the deal.

He said: "This is only the start, we have a lot more going on and we are in talks with a number of people about contracts.

"We have put a huge amount of effort into growing the business and it is growing by about 50 per cent year on year.

"And we have put a huge effort into the education sector and one of the areas we are targeting is the UMPC (ultra mobile personal computer) market. The concept is all about children being able to learn anytime anywhere and creating a paperless classroom.

"This award is going to open up a tremendous number of opportunities for us. We have found before that we were having to chase a lot of clients for business but now it has turned on us and a lot of clients are contacting us about supplying them, which we have never experienced before."

Based on the Network 65 Business Park, Hapton, Lanway started life more than 20 years ago as Bytes and Pieces, in Burnley town centre.

The firm was then re-named Burnley Computer Centre before becoming Lanway in 1994.

The company's philosophy of constant evolution and investing in training and new products has seen it win a number of leading industry accreditations.

These include Microsoft Gold status, HP preferred partner status, Samsung ASP, Sony preference partner and an Avaya partner.