SMART Technologies Inc. Among Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies for 2002
Calgary-based company recognized for exceptional growth, innovative products, sound financial management and global commercial success
Calgary, AB --- January 2, 2003 --- SMART Technologies Inc., manufacturer of the award-winning SMART Board
interactive whiteboard, has been named one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies for the seventh consecutive year. Sponsored by Deloitte & Touche, CIBC Commercial Banking, National Post and Queen's School of Business, 50 Best is now in its 10th year of honoring Canadian private and public companies that demonstrate excellence in business practices, global commercial success and the adoption of new technology.
SMART is one of only eight Alberta-based companies to make the 50 Best list.
“We are committed to growing our business by developing innovative products based on customer feedback,” says Nancy Knowlton, president and co-CEO of SMART. “This award is especially gratifying given the challenges facing technology companies today.”
Starting out as a home-based business 15 years ago, SMART has grown rapidly to become a global market leader in easy-to-use interactive whiteboards and other group collaboration tools. David Martin, chairman and co-CEO of SMART, originally developed the product concept for the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. SMART shipped its first SMART Board interactive whiteboard in 1991, creating a new product category and enhancing distance collaboration and interactive learning. The interactive whiteboard enabled people to work and learn in shared spaces whether they were located in the same room or at remote locations.
SMART continues to develop innovative products that help people collaborate more effectively, pioneering several other new product categories, including mobile multimedia cabinets, whiteboard cameras and meeting-productivity software.
Since winning its first 50 Best award seven years ago, the company has increased overall sales by 920 percent and export sales by 1,183 percent, introduced 120 products or product upgrades, and opened offices in Bonn, Tokyo, New York City and Washington, DC. SMART has achieved a five-year compound annual growth rate of 50 percent, and in each of the past five years, export sales have accounted for more than 90 percent of revenues. SMART sells its products through resellers in more than 65 countries worldwide. Product installations include the University of Alberta, NATO, Canadian Department of National Defence, Los Angeles Lakers locker room, and classrooms, boardrooms and military bases around the world.
The company has been granted seven U.S. and Canadian patents since 1995 for the technology embodied in the SMART Board interactive whiteboard, with additional patent applications now pending in the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Europe and other foreign jurisdictions.
SMART is also the founding and funding partner of the SMARTer Kids Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that offers a variety of programs for the benefit of educators and students across the world. More than US$100 million in technology grants is available for the current school year through the foundation.
The 2002 Canada Export Award and ASTech Award for Outstanding Commercial Achievement are among some of the recent awards won by SMART.
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For more information, please contact:
Public Relations
SMART Technologies Inc.
300, 1207 - 11th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB CANADA T3C 0M5
Phone +1.403.802.3337 Fax +1.403.228.2500
pr@smarttech.com
Please note that SMART is written in all capital letters.