morth Shore news Hard work pays Michael Becker News Editor michael@nsnews,com THE co-owners of a North Vancouver com- pany received a rare boost in recent weeks: back-to-back entrepre- nieurial awards. Daniel Sacks, 23, and Johan Arnet, 24, are the founders of Imaginative Computer Solutions Inc. In five years the company has grown to three divisions and 15 emplovees (average age — 23) servicing the computer and networking needs of about 600 corporate clients and 3,000 persona! clients. Anticipated sales next year are expected to be somewhere in the order of $3 million... ICS has been located in a building on Rupert Street for just over a year. The company just doubled its square foorage from 2,000 sq. ft. to 4,000 sq. ft. In April the office is set to grow again. The. company’s service reach is broad. Desktop sys- tems, software development, system integration, local area networking and custom data- bases have been the bread and _ butter items of the: business. ~Much of the .thrust now involves solving the challenges “of Jinking larger databases with interactive Web pages. It’s this kind of work that will create the infrastructure for .: the emerging online world of . e-commerce. FCS established - its i-create division this year £0 manage that erid of the busi- ness. Earlier ‘last .month in - Quebec City, Sacks and Arnet - "were co-named winners of the Young, Entrepreneur Award for B.C. by the Business Development Bank oof Canada. Last Wednesday the pair followed up to win the Young Entrepreneur Award handed out by the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. Said Sacks of the honours, “We've put in a fot of long hours and there isn’t any short-term reward. This isn’t the quick. get-rich scheme. This is the long way te do it and when we get an award for doing a good job, it’s a good pat on the back.” Thanks to a whole tot of hype, there’s a commoniy held perception thar the intor- mation technology field is dominated by brash young go-getters and 20-something insta-millionaires. Yer even a guy like Sacks has had to pay his dues. “You don’r exactly avoid the hard, part-time jobs. Iran a pizza business (a Panagopoulos outlet in North Vancouver) for three years.” He started cooking when he was 14 and was managing the place by the time ke was 15. “I put in my slave hours working in front of a hot oven, cutting pizzas. | had burns up and down my arms. “People sometimes iook at me, especially people of my age group, and say, ‘How did he get there so fast?” The way I did was by starting early and working hard all the way through,” said Sacks. “As far as young kids being in the technology industry and starting the companies, that’s true. Of course we were the ones brought up on the technology. We don’t think of it as_a separate knowledge base. To us it’s native. recently received two awards In recognition of their entrepreneurial spirit. Wednesday, November 3, 1999 — North Shore News — NEWS photo Mike Wakefield DANIEL Sacks, 23, left, and Johan Arnet, 24, are riding a wave of success with imaginative Computer Solutions Inc. The co-owners of the North Vancouver West Vancouverite wins insurance award - Jacob (Jake) Brouwer of West Vancouver has been‘chosen to receive” Canada & Co. Led., Vancouver. .: Brouwer, 72, was born in Holland and emigrated to Canada in 1938. Following a stint as a police officer, he entered insurance in. Vancouver — kicking off a 50-year career in the claims business. During ‘this period, Jake Brouwer’: built, from the ground up, not one but two large independent insurance adjusting organizations. Nineteen years ago, at age 53, he sold his first firm, a 100- “bre: ach international operation. At’ 58, he © started Brouwer Claims Canada. The company now has 38 offices throughout Western Canada = and - Ontario. He also sits on seven boards: Vancouver Aquarium,YMCA, Vancouver Bach. Choir, Pc Canada Fund, Doman Industries Ltd., Microvision, U.S.A., and the West Vancouver Police Board. The award was presented to Brauwer at the Salute "99 banquet, Oct. 14 at the Waterfront Centre Hotel. The event is a special occasion for the entire gen- eral insurance industry to honour one of its own Monitors British Columbia. members from the insurance company, insurance broker- age or claims adjusting sec Selection of the winner is ©: made by’ an ail-industry committee which considers a candidate’s level of profes- sionalism, carcer success, personal achievement, and community involvement. As weil, the winner must . represent a high level of insurance. industry profzs- sionalism to the insuring public and to the overall sin © JACOB Brouwer: best insurance person in B.C. ACSESSORIES Lexmark Carividges 4000 & 1100 bik...$44.95 Online shopping expands THE anew phenomenon of buying and selling goods and services over the Internet is often referred to as “e-com- The explosive growth of e- commerce activity over the last couple of years has been dramatic, and this exponential trend is expected to continue. North American online sales approached $40 billion in the first quarter of 1999, and the expectation is that holiday sea- son sales will be even greater. Internet technologies and applications have grown more rapidly than anyone could have envisioned even five years ago, opening up brand new frontiers in advertising, mar- keting and sales between con-_ sumers and businesses on the Internet. - Whart’s revolutionary about Internet commerce isn’t that you or I can buy books, plane tickets and even groceries over. the Web — that’s just part of the story. What's going on behind the scenes when we click on the “order” button on a Web page is much more significant. Companies, to varying degrees, are successfully selling . .. goods over the Web — but delivering the goods to the consumer is a different matter. “ When J order the top-\ . rated computer game for my kid online and my credit card is debited, i don’r think it’s - “unreasonable to expect that should receive the goods in reasonable period of time. But. unless you plan.to compicte : your online shopping carly,” you can forget about receiving - your giftsintime for’ - Christmas. Anew industry survey. fe found that 75% of online con- sumers have abandoned their . virtual shopping carts without, completing a purchase. 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