SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
In the final days of 2014, Global Storm IT became something of a giant slayer when the company beat Northwestel in a bid to upgrade the GNWT's telephone network.

Global Storm IT Corporation founder, president and CEO Kirby Marshall at his desk in Yellowknife on Jan. 16. Marshall landed a $2.6 million contract to upgrade phone systems for the GNWT, beating out Northwestel in the process. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo

The almost $2.6 million contract is to install a new voice over internet protocol (VOIP) system and related hardware connecting GNWT offices in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Norman Wells and Inuvik. The new network, which will roll out over the next three years, will connect approximately 3,300 GNWT workers.

Kirby Marshall, Global Storm IT founder, president and CEO, said the company's winning bid was an 11th-hour proposal that he almost didn't put together.

"The RFP (request for proposal) was very ... onerous in terms of the skill set, knowledge and experience they wanted the (winning) proponent to have," Marshall said.

Marshall will be the first one to tell you that the scale of the install is beyond Global Storm's resources without a large partner.

"The GNWT's RFP had requirements we could not meet on our own," Marshall said.

For example, Marshall said the GNWT wanted a company with at least two 5,000-person network installs.

"Anybody in the North bidding on it would need a partner."

Global Storm teamed up with Connex Telecommunications, a Canadian designer and supplier of these networks on an enterprise level.

"Partnered with them, we met all the requirements of the tender," Marshall said.

Connex will handle the design and engineering of the system and Global Storm will handle the installs and ongoing service.

"If you look at the bulk of the labour hours, it's going to be us," Marshall said. "They're creating the programs and the plans, but as for boots on the ground, that's us."

But it almost didn't happen.

Marshall had decided not to bid on the contract when an early search for suitable partners came up dry. Just five days before the tender was to close, Marshall got a call from Avaya, the Internet telephone provider he has been working with for several years for smaller scale installs. Avaya asked if Marshall would be interested in teaming up with Connex on the bid.

"Most organizations had several months to work on it (the bid)," Marshall said.

"We put our proposal together in four long days. I did it (the bid) from Edmonton on this," he said, holding up his Blackberry.

On the most basic level, the new network is carried by data networks rather than over analogue land lines.

Switching a phone network from analogue to digital data transmission can bring with it a number of advantages, not the least of which are savings in both long-distance charges, and savings through cutting the number of land lines needed.

One of Marshall's biggest installs of such a system was for the Tlicho Government. Global Storm was contracted to install the digital telephone system throughout all the Tlicho Government buildings and offices in Yellowknife, Gameti, Whati, Behchoko and Wekweeti.

"They had a real mishmash of phone systems," Marshall said.

"What we ended up with was a homogeneous phone system across five communities, including Yellowknife. They're all connected by the data network, so within the Tlicho network, there's no long distance (charges.)"

Previously, every call between, for example, a Tlicho Government office in Behchoko and Yellowknife produced a long distance charge.

"We ended up massively reducing their long-distance (charges) within their organization," Marshall said.

Most long-distance charges between Tlicho Government offices all but eliminated, but Marshall went further,

tweaking the network to replace another set of long distance charges.

"We looked at years of (Tlicho Government) phone bills to determine where their costs were," Marshall said.

"We found there were a lot of calls going from Behchoko, for example, to Yellowknife suppliers, partners and other companies."

Those calls would have remained long distance had Global Storm not tweaked the system so callers from any Tlicho building could dial into the local system of any other Tlicho building, then dial out from that local number.

"We can have a call from any Tlicho (government) phone to any phone in the five communities ... and it's a local call," Marshall said.

The savings can add up quickly, not only in terms of eliminated long-distance charges, but in terms of eliminated land lines and their associated monthly fees.

In its basics, this is what Global Storm will be doing

for the GNWT, expect on much larger scale.

Marshall said Global Storm won the bid by doing what he does best; targeting what he wants for his business and then going after it.

Marshall was aggressive in this bid. Global Storm's bid left more than $700,000 on the table compared to the second highest of the three bidders, and was almost $1 million under Northwestel's bid.

"Am I a little sad we left a bunch of money on the table, absolutely," Marshall said.

"You want to win a bid by a buck."

"However, I'm happy with the bid we put in. As a small IT company, we're more aggressive than a large company. We're used to operating on smaller margins. I have no regrets."

The large scale install could open doors for Global Storm in the coming years. Installing and servicing a large government contract raises Global Storm's profile, Marshall said. This could open the door for contracts with other Northern governments or organizations, including Alaska.

"For most U.S. businesses, Alaska is a way-up-there, out-of-the-way frontier," Marshall said.

"For me it's a wonderful business opportunity."

Global Storm already has U.S. contracts after opening a small Austin Texas branch in January of last year.

"It's going to be an interesting next few years,"

Marshall said.

"Everyone has a

phone system."

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