History

Our company traces its genesis back almost 26 years to 1981 when Jim Brandl was hired as the IT manager for the Weitz Corporation, a Des Moines company who was most notable as a major national building contractor. The very first person he hired was a student intern named Steve Sikkink, who is now our Chief Operating Officer. Long term relationships are certainly one key to our success. In 1993, the Weitz family made the decision to sell their holdings to employees. Steve and Jim had the chance to purchase the IT department and set it up as a free standing company along with two other Weitz Corporation spin–offs, Life Care Services, Inc., and the Weitz Company, Inc. On April 1, 1994 Information Technology Group was founded with nine employees and two partners who were also our only customers.

By 2000, the company had grown to over 25 employees and was working with more and more customers. We changed our name to Alliance Technologies to better describe the way we chose to conduct business; as an alliance between partners. The next year the company also moved to larger office space in Capitol Square (pictured left). By the end of 2002, Alliance became totally employee owned by exercising the agreements to re–purchase the stock held by our two partner companies. In 2003, Alliance merged with Mike Lang's company Modern Solutions Inc. This merger helped Alliance grow and round out our service offerings by adding consulting solutions to our base of hardware and software solutions. In October 2006, Alliance continued our growth by purchasing the assets of Computility a Des Moines subscription computing provider and software developer. This acquisition added 50+ customers and 14 additional employees. In June 2007, Alliance announced the acquisition of ANE Technology Services. Alliance acquired the network management services portion of their business from Perimeter eSecurity.

In February 2008, Jim Brandl retired and Mike Lang was named president and CEO of Alliance Technologies. Mike has helped lead Alliance to two major acquisitions and several consecutive years of double-digit revenue growth. As a result, Alliance Technologies was named to the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest growing private companies. Mike was also named to the prestigious 40 Under Forty class in 2008, which recognizes leaders who stand out in their professional careers and community involvement.

In June of 2008, local telecommunications firm Iowa Network Services (INS), took a majority ownership investment in Alliance Technologies. This engagement has enabled both companies to offer a wider array of products and services to their business customers. Iowa Network Services specializes in telephone and Internet services, high capacity network circuits, data security and hosting, video programming through Digital Entertainment Television and quality support services. More information about Iowa Network Services can be found on their website at www.iowanetworkservices.com.