23 October marks 10 productive operational years for BTSC!

Today, Biroja tehnikas servisa centrs (hereinafter – BTSC) celebrates its 10th anniversary of a beautiful and fruitful business.

BTSC is a bold and distinct company, therefore some of our team members are confident to share their vivid memories of the company’s beginnings –

Kaspars Skribanovskis, Chairman of the Board, says with a smile: “At first we rented an office at the Academy of Sciences. We had a very small space – a small office upstairs, and a small room in the basement where we did our cartridge refills. When visiting clients during the day, we wore suits. At nights we changed to work clothes and got busy filling up cartridges in our basement. We learned how to do everything from A to Z ourselves.”

The office on the 13th floor had a beautiful view over Riga – maybe it gave us additional inspiration, ideas and energy.
Our first BTSC client manager, Artis, still works with us. He recalls that every Friday night the team went to relax at Akvaparks. He also remembers his first big order – 50 cartridges to be refilled. “At the time we prepared and printed invoices ourselves. I then took the order to a customer in Talsi.”

Aivars, just like Artis, read the job ad in the Diena newspaper and applied for a job at BTSC: “As the office of BTSC was located on the 6th, 10th and 14th floor of the Academy of Sciences, one had to use the elevator. Sometimes it took too long and I ran up the stairs instead. We folded the boxes for refilled cartridges ourselves. I even remember gluing customer logos on these boxes – Neste, Nelss, etc. Our team both then and now has always been terrific!”

Jānis Slaviks, Member of the Board, has participated in the selection of every client manager. He has developed and formed the language and habits of every sales person in the company. “Back then, an individual approach was created for each customer, and we have managed to keep that to this very day!”

All these years, Kaspars’ wife Ilze has stood beside him and been a great support. Today she is our Quality Manager. Over the years, she has also been bookkeeper and assisted the secretarial team.

Edijs Lācis, Office Equipment Service Manager: “Each day was a huge step forward. It was the biggest motivation to move ahead and not stop. Our team just grew bigger every day!”

“Initially I was the only courier for the whole city of Riga,” says Andris Neibergs, who still delivers office supplies to our clients just in time! Now our courier team has added 10 more colleagues.

Over the years, the company and its managers have been able to make the right decisions, because they were not afraid of the work and were ready to take risks. Here are a few ‘Then and now’ facts for our readers to consider:
- In the early days we could fill 10 cartridges per day. Now this number has grown to nearly 300 or more cartridges per day;
- Back then we were happy if one printer over a period of three days or some other device was brought to us for repairs. Now we have eight handymen working full time;
- When the company was established, BTSC was renting a few rooms of a dozen square metres at the Academy of Sciences. Currently BTSC is constructing its own office and production building in Mārupe, with an area larger than 5400 m2. The building should be put into operation at the end of the year, or at the latest January 2013;
- The business started with two employees. Now we have about 80! All departments should be mentioned – sales, secretariat, accounting, warehouse, supply department, wholesale, quality department, couriers, refill workers (day and evening shifts), packaging division, cleaning personnel, marketing and human resources departments.
- The company has two ISO quality standard certificates, a large warehouse with useful supplies for offices, a well-organised work environment, resource management software, and a modern and convenient online store – the BTSC Online system!

We have many reasons to celebrate! Not just our first decade, and not just the results. The passion of working, team spirit and wholehearted attitude are worth celebrating the most!

We give thanks to our fantastic and loyal team and our customer base for the work accomplished. Our biggest motivation is when our customers say ‘Thank you for the good and quality work.’

Yours truly, BTSC
23 October 2012