DEALER PROFILE - Express yourself over the internet

Company name - LAN Express

Company founded - June 1995

Company headcount - 15

UK board members - Neal Greenfield, sales director; Tony Shrier, financial director

Last year's turnover - #1.6 million

And profit? Non-disclosed. We are a privately owned company.

Any plans to go public? No

Company headquarters - Watford. Other offices situated in Marlborough.

What type of company is LAN Express? LAN Express supplies, installs, configures and supports networking hardware, software, PC Server products and infrastructure cabling. Our primary target markets are the corporate sector, local government and NHS Trusts.

What proportion of your business is from pure sales and what proportion is from value-add? Our ratio is about 70:30. This may change depending on product and market forces. We would like to provide more value-add for our customers but many just want a well priced, quick delivery service.

Main manufacturers used Compaq, HP, Livingston, Extreme Networks, Cisco, 3Com, Bay Networks, and Sun Microsystems.

Main accreditations held Compaq, Cisco, HP, Extreme Networks, Sun, 3Com, and Intel.

Key accounts - Birds Eye, Walls, Delta Group, BBC, Bristol University.

Main distributors used - Logitech, Equinox, RBR Networks and Westcoast.

Main competitors - Compel, Action Computer Supplies, Specialist Computer Centre, Alcatel.

Biggest challenge LAN Express is going to face in the next 12 months Doubling our turnover and increasing our focus on enterprise-related systems.

How do you intend to do this? Hard and smart work with more project-based business within our target markets. We are also planning an e-commerce site.

How much revenue/business do you expect to generate from the e-commerce site?

#1 million in the first year.

Is the UK heading for a recession? If we think it, it will happen.

Has LAN Express gained any revenue from the year 2000 issue? Yes - many opportunities have arisen as companies see this as a chance to rid themselves of ageing IT kit - something their IT budgets would not normally expand to accommodate.