Fast Lane demonstrates strength with sustained global growth

IT training specialist ends year with a positive annual balance

Fast Lane, one of the leading high-end training and consulting companies, can look back with satisfaction on a successful 2008, a year in which the company achieved further growth of 55%. This resulted in total sales increasing to 72 million USD. The significant growth in both sales and profits has its roots in the consistently pursued strategy of expansion: the focus on key IT technologies, such as storage solutions and data centres, security, unified communications and wireless, as well as the accompanying expansion of the training portfolio and consulting skills, are all important factors in this respect. In addition, a focus on the provision of practical training has been facilitated by the targeted investments made in laboratory infrastructure. Further strategic partnerships and the opening of new training centres are also factors that have contributed to the success of the company.

“Our strategy of expansion continues. We achieved the planned extension of our activities to over 50 countries last year, thereby closing gaps in our global training network,” summarises Torsten Poels, Senior Vice President & General Manager Europe, Americas & Japan at Fast Lane. “Further strategic partnerships with leading manufacturers and sales cooperation agreements have also enabled us to further increase our market presence. Key factors making significant contributions to our continuing success are our focus on key high-end IT technologies and our concept of providing practically-oriented training using modern laboratory facilities.”

Fast Lane will continue to pursue its current strategy throughout 2009. New training centres in Europe and elsewhere in the world are already being planned. The company is also making further investment in the establishment and expansion of laboratory infrastructure for use in practical training, consulting and for the purposes of evaluation. For example, the data centre environment labs are being expanded with an extensive Cisco Nexus lab and a VMware lab. The experienced training specialist will also be supporting manufacturers such as Cisco and NetApp with the development of new training content. Furthermore, the continuous expansion of the company’s own portfolio of courses helps to bridge existing gaps in knowledge, thereby providing a better and more comprehensive introduction to specialised topics. In 2009, the training and consulting business will continue to concentrate primarily on high-end technologies in the fields of storage/data centre, virtualization, security, wireless and unified communications, as well as ‘emerging technologies’ such as TelePresence, Digital Signage and Physical Security.

Torsten Poels
Senior Vice President & General Manager Europe, Americas & Japan von Fast Lane

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