The following story appeared in Business in Calgary (September 2018)

When asked about Compugen, Terry Mirza, Compugen’s VP of Sales – Canada West and United States, says, “We’re in the business of building long-term, trust-based relationships. We refer to this as CustomerFIRST thinking.” This is not the response most would expect when discussing a typical IT solutions and services provider. However, upon further investigation, it becomes apparent that Compugen is anything but typical; trust and partnership are the foundational elements of the organization’s culture and corporate values. They are attributed to driving Compugen’s success in Calgary and across North America.

Since its inception in Ontario in 1981, Compugen, has been an active participant in the evolution of the IT industry. Its founder, President and CEO Harry Zarek, continues to lead the company forward in the new world of digital transformation. With portfolio priorities focused on The Modern Workspace and HybridCloud, mid-market and enterprise organizations in both the public and commercial sectors are able to benefit from Compugen’s mission to facilitate business transformation, leveraging these disruptive platforms. Customers are active participants in all stages of the dialogue to discover the best solution(s) for their required business outcome. The passion to work collaboratively with customers and to leverage the value of IT for their business, has become both the vision and tagline for the company: “Simplifying the business of technology…together.”

Compugen opened its first Calgary office in 1995. This was in response to market demand from large national clients who were seeking continuity in the IT supply and service chain. Establishing a western office allowed Compugen to meet these existing requirements and increase its capacity to serve additional customers; as Calgary was home to the highest head office concentration per capita in the country.

Fast forward some 20 years and the same rationale still applies; albeit with additional benefits. Compugen endeavours to adhere to sustainable business practices and assists charitable organizations in the local community. Compugen’s subsidiary, Compugen Finance (CFI), is a market leader with its Green4Good® program. This program lets customers responsibly and securely dispose of all decommissioned hardware and donate the proceeds to non-profits of their choice. Recently, CFI was designated as a B-Corp, which is a prestigious designation based on a rigorous standard of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. The company also earned membership in the United Nations Global Compact, a corporate sustainability initiative. These recognitions validate the company’s commitment to support environmental and community programs.

Another unique differentiator is CFI’s CarbonBank™ program. Compugen is able to generate CSA certified carbon credits through the asset reuse program. Many of the larger Green4Good customers have integrated the associated carbon credits into their carbon reporting regime, allowing them to demonstrate a reduced carbon impact.

Compugen’s values-based philosophy, has driven its growth in Calgary, even during the recent economic downturn. The disruption within the resource sector required innovative strategies by all parties. In response, Compugen created a new solution that provides incentives for the service provider and customer to work together to drive efficiencies, improvements, and enable transformation. This provides predictability and removes the incentive for one party to profit at the expense of the other – a ground breaking model of partnership to achieve business outcomes. Although this innovative solution was designed for the needs of the resource sector, Compugen is optimistic that customers with less volatility will also want the predictability that this type of service provides.

This type of innovation, coupled with the belief in Calgary’s resiliency, led Compugen to expand its reach by opening a new Western Hub. Located in the Sunridge Business Park, this location provides state-of-the-art advanced configuration, ISO quality warehousing, as well as parts and logistic services. The expanded footprint displays game-changing market differentiation for infrastructure sourcing, coupled with “smarthands” field services teams to deploy, support, and maintain – all centralized through common tools, processes and service levels.

Compugen is hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony at its new Western Hub on September 20th. They will showcase the facility to customers and the community to thank them for their ongoing support. In addition, Compugen wants to highlight the hard work and dedication of its local staff. Compugen attributes its success to the amazing people who have embraced the Compugen values and CustomerFIRST philosophy.

To learn more about Compugen, please go to https://www.compugen.com.

Reprinted by permission of Business in Calgary..Download a printable copy of the story.