dec-2017

66 67 for you to look at so that you don’t have to filter through this vast array of products, yourself. I think that’s what distinguishes us. “Plus,we offer some unique programs that other companies don’t, for instance, our buyback program and our extended life program.We helped a school district in the Midwest that had a thousand laptops that the teachers were using and they wanted to re-use these and get them into the hands of the students.We took those back in, refurbished them, put in new batteries, upgraded them toWindows 10, and gave them back with a lifetime warranty for $200 a machine,which enabled them to pass them out to their students.And we’re the only one that I’m aware of that’s offering that kind of service.” Netka proudly reports that STS has moved into a new facility in February 2016.“It’s a 27,000-square- foot refurbishing and configuration center,”he states. n Luxor/H. Wilson Company www.luxorfurn.com Luxor, a division of EBSCO Industries, is a market leader in designing and manufacturing innovative workspace products that include standing desks and tables, industrial carts, com- puter workstations, charging carts, and dry-erase boards. Luxor products are sold through its network of dealers and distribu- tors.More information can be found at www.luxorfurn.com . For Inquiries, contact Kim Fox at kfox@luxorfurn.com ; 800-323- 4656. PREFERRED VENDOR STS EDUCATION “Within that we have a modern, 700-square-foot classroom and we use that as an event center where we run professional development days; or have the local school districts hosting their princi- pal meetings.That’s exciting for us.The other big initiative on our end is starting to do more part- nering with our competitors,which I thinkmakes us unique.We’re working with some of the largest companies in our space, getting them to work with us on our asset value recovery buyback program or use our facility for white glove services.That’s been an initiative we launched this last year and that’s starting to pay big rewards.” Going forward,Netka says that STS Education is poised to grow into a hundred, or even a hun- dred-and-fifty-million dollar company.“We believe that we have a unique niche, not just in what we’re doing, but our typical customer is a smaller school district, so while all of our big competitors are focusing on the top quartile of school districts, we’re focused on the lower quartile, and we drive a tremendous amount of lifetime value out of them,” he explains.“We think that by continuing to focus on the smaller districts that really need someone to do the curation for them, because they have even less help than large school districts, that we can continue to grow.And when we look at why we were able to grow, I think it’s all about accessi- bility.We return our phone calls; we don’t run from problems and issues; we have a hands-on ap- proach,which suits us well for the education cus- tomer we’re targeting.And we’re going to continue to add services, such as becoming an authorized service provider for all the major manufacturers, which will also benefit our customers.” For Marc Netka and STS Education, it appears as if the days of adversity are over. From here on in, it’s only about the creativity part of the equation.