Bellevue-based IT company Net-Tech is looking for a larger space as it looks to cut the cost of storing its hardware.
Net-Tech currently has offices in Bellevue Business Park, at 2100 124th Ave. NE, in what Net-Tech managing partner Matt Bratlien said is Class A space. The company's lease is up in October, and the company is looking for warehouse space or mixed-use space to better fit its needs.
"I'm paying way too expensive rates to store equipment," Bratlien said. "I'm putting racks in Class A space, and that just doesn't make financial sense."
Net-Tech has 25 employees, including three who started last month, Bratlien said. Fifteen in all are based in Bellevue. The company has been in the same space for 10 years, he added.
Net-Tech launched in 1986 and for years operated as what is called a "managed service provider," or a firm clients use to outsource their IT work for a fixed subscription cost. About 10 years ago, Bratlien said, the company switched to its current model that, in addition to IT labor, offers hardware as part of clients' subscription costs. Net-Tech calls this model a "professional technology organization." The model, Bratlien said, keeps clients' IT expenses predictable and regular, and it allows Net-Tech to better control the IT.
Bratlien said Net-Tech has about 100 clients and manages laptops in all 50 states. As clients adjust to new realities caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Bratlien said he believes desktops are on the decline and laptops will become the new standard. He added that laptops will need to have more random-access memory (RAM), mostly to accommodate videoconferencing software such as Microsoft Teams.
Net-Tech is looking to open an East Coast office sometime in the next year and a half. According to Bratlien, the company is looking at South Carolina and Florida, in something of a self-preservation move.
"Our employees keep getting gobbled up by Amazon and Microsoft, so we're trying to at least shelter them and get them away so they can't talk to their buddies in the bar and talk about how much money they make," Bratlien said.
"We'll train them up, and then they'll know a buddy who works for Microsoft, and they'll go out drinking with them, and they're like, 'Oh wait, you make how much?'"
