Arctic Digital has been a mainstay for a dozen years in Inuvik, but owner Bernie MacNeil said they've grown out of the old shop at the corner of Mackenzie Rd. and Union St. They've now moved shop one block north on Mackenzie.

"We've got 1,800 square feet here and 600 at the other location," MacNeil said. "We must have really had it jam-packed over there, because once the stuff got over here, we found that although we had three times the space, we could still use more space."

MacNeil said the old building was actually two buildings put together from Inuvik's early days.

"It used to be the old dynamite shack for Ace Explosives," MacNeil said.

The two shacks were moved into town from Juk Park. It was once known as Dynamite Hill, where the explosives were stored, during the town's construction in the early 1960s.

The shop offers a selection of retail computer hardware and software, but MacNeil said they are moving more into the area of technical support and service.

"As opposed to a government office or business hiring their own IT (information technologist) support, we can do it for them cheaper and at a higher level of support," MacNeil said.

While he still offers the retail computers, printers and consumables like toners and inks, he says they do that for customer convenience more than anything.

"The margins on retail are so small, we are almost offering it just as another service for the customer," he said.

MacNeil said the move is phase one of a two-step plan in the offing to provide new infrastructure for a web-based service called application service provider (ASP).

For a fixed price, software and data will be securely stored on the shop's servers to provide clients the latest software and store their data without cluttering up their own servers and drives.

"The users can sit at their facility running Microsoft Word, for example, and it would actually execute here and their files will be stored here," he explained. "I'll ensure that the software is the latest version. It's virus-free and their files will be stored securely here."

While the technology is new to the North, MacNeil said ASPs have been operating for years in Southern cities.

"It's a very mature technology, but rather new for the Northwest Territories," he said.

The new service will be phased in gradually, but in the meantime, it will be business as usual for Arctic Digital.

MacNeil said they've worked through the lean times in Inuvik and look forward to securing a foothold for the new boom.

"We want to establish a good footing and we're very happy to be here," he said.