Former theologian and pastor, Ralph Loewen, takes on the business world, turning Itergy into a Gold Certified Microsoft Company, and winning the coveted top spot in the Profit Magazine awards.

In 2007, they edged out Garda and RIM based on an impressive 30 to 50% growth per year.

In very large enterprises, Itergy will architect, design and implement systems, business applications, including accounting, human resources, security, servers, web portals, etc. When one logs onto a network and puts in their password, Itergy is likely to have set up the security system behind it. When sending e-mail, they are possibly the ones who put the servers into place.

Loewen says business has always been a part of his life. Inspired from watching his father, he started his first business in high school and hasn't stopped since. “Running a business is much more secure than having a job. There's some sense that we control our future. We like the rewards that come with success, and we accept quite easily the difficulties that come when you're not a success, cause as you know, it takes a few failures for every success when you're an entrepreneur.”

Loewen and partner established Itergy just a few months before the dot com crash. Their first client went bankrupt; the client that had placed them with the first client went bankrupt, and they lost their startup funds. “So we had to build the company on a totally new model than we had planned on. We had to recast the vision very quickly in the beginning. We switched from a product company to a services company. Everybody thought the Internet had arrived, hundreds of thousands of companies went bankrupt within months. There were no business fundamentals behind them.” You're as good as the people who work for you, says Loewen, the quality of your consultants and your client list.

Itergy grew without marketing--and managed to win awards for it. “We learned that you hire on demand,” says Loewen. “These are things we learned from the dot com crash late 1990s and 2000. You have to have a business plan, and it has to make sense for what your shareholders are expecting. We are in the services business; there is no room for error.”

Fixated on bringing business value to every client, whether here or abroad, Itergy has opened a support office in the UK, with 24/7 monitoring services, and plans on expanding and adding as need arises. “You don't spend the money before the money is there. Every piece has to work for itself. When each piece is built and it makes sense financially and technologically, then we keep going. Acquisition should do the same thing.” Loewen plans to continue acquisition activity, to increase capacity. “It makes sense to bring together certain companies.”

Ethics

“I've always been technical but have not always been passionate about IT. I've always been passionate about people,” says Loewen. “Our faith has always been very important to us. We built a business ethic right off our own sense of ethic. Ethics are necessary. At the same time we have a clear vision, one of which is family. RRSP plan, insurance...we always make sure that people are properly taken care of. We spent a lot of time doing the rights things--not always doing it right. Processes need to follow.”

Loewen's best advice to entrepreneurs is to keep the complex things simple. Business must always make sense. “Technology exists for us, we don't exist for technology. Get rid of things that are unnecessary. People spend way too much time on the wrong things. You've got to spend time on things that add value. It's better to be number one or two, than to be number six, seven, eight, nine or ten, then you're lost.”