IKANO Communications Ranked the 175th Fastest Growing Technology Company in North America on the 2004 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Written by Dedra LaBelle
IKANO Attributes its 1,253 Percent Revenue Growth to a Philosophy of Innovation Salt Lake City — IKANO Communications, nation’s largest provider of private-label Internet services, today announced that it ranked 175th on 2004 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 listing of fastest growing technology companies in North America. Highlighting both established and emerging technology companies, rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over five years, from 1999–2003. IKANO grew 1,253 percent during this period. IKANO’s CEO, Henry Smith, credits company’s commitment to innovation and efforts of its employees with company’s 1,253% revenue growth over past five years. He said, "In an industry such as ours, it is simply not possible to hold steady. We must always be pushing forward and staying on cutting edge. Our employees understand this focus and work hard to make sure that IKANO remains premier company in our space." “Making Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is a testament to a company’s commitment to technology,” said Mark A. Evans, national managing partner of Deloitte’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group. “With its 1,253% growth rate over five years, IKANO Communications has proven that its leadership has vision and determination to grow in difficult conditions.” IKANO has received a total of $33.5 million in venture capital funding. During past five years, company expanded from 50 employees to more than 325 employees. IKANO ranked 132nd in 2004 Inc. 500 listing of nation’s fastest growing companies. In 2003, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Inc. Magazine ranked IKANO Communications second in “Inner City 100,” a listing of fastest growing companies located in America’s inner cities. In addition, Mountain West Venture Group ranked IKANO fifth fastest growing company in state of Utah as part of its 2003 Utah 100 Awards program.
| | What Exactly Is Internet Marketing?Written by Neil Street
The internet, like every other field, has a language all its own. And when it comes to marketing on internet, labels proliferate rapidly. Can you tell “search engine marketing” from “search engine optimization?” How about “website promotion” from “online promotion?” Can you tell your Yahoo Yellow Pages from your Yahoo Local? Or “pay-per-click,” from “pay for performance,” not forgetting “paid inclusion?” Is it any wonder people are confused? Adding to confusion, many of these phrases are shortened to acronyms (SEO, PPC, SEM, to name a few). Next week, at a seminar for professional marketers, participants will wrestle with issue of SEM for SMEs. This rapidly growing field is in dire need of simplification and organization. As a starting point, it would be good to just have a name for all of it. And that’s where term “internet marketing” comes in.Consider this: twice in past week I have seen an online press release turn into an offline publicity placement. In first instance, an online press release about an antiques-related website was picked up by a leading consumer magazine, who wanted to use images from client’s website in an upcoming article. Full credit, of course, goes to client and their website. In second instance, an online press release about marketing was picked up by a writer for an offline business magazine. The writer wants to interview creator of press release for an article about migration of local print advertising onto internet. I especially love irony of second one – an online release is picked up by an offline magazine for a story about how advertising is moving from offline to online space. But are these example of traditional P.R? Or is it online P.R? Perhaps it’s website promotion? The answer, of course, is that in this amazing new world of interconnectivity, a P.R. campaign can be any of these things, often more than one thing, and it can frequently morph into something unexpected. That’s beauty of internet. And because internet is cause of this phenomenon, most obvious choice for an umbrella term, under which a growing variety of promtional techniques can be organized, is “internet marketing”. The term “internet marketing” is still somewhat slippery, and may mean different things to different people. But as an umbrella phrase it is very useful because it’s so comprehensive. It is clear that a broad new discipline is emerging, one which crosses media lines in many directions. As this broad discipline emerges, its various subsets - “search engine optimization,” for example, or rather ambiguous “search engine marketing” - should be seen as tools within larger framework, components to be utilized, with or without other components, depending on marketing needs of each project.
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