The 30-Year Evolution of ANM: A Story of Engineering Excellence & Adaptation
How It All Started
In 1994, ANM was born from a simple yet powerful idea. “We tried to bring the same high level of engineering expertise that large companies enjoyed to small business customers in New Mexico, and it worked,” recalls Tim Harrison, ANM Cofounder. ANM didn’t need ads or a sales team; their reputation grew through word of mouth. “All we did was answer the phone because people called asking for services,” he adds.
Tim and his co-founders believed in a straightforward philosophy: “Keep customers happy and do the best job you can. And if you have to take one for the team once in a while, you just do it, but always do what’s right for the customer.” This commitment to customer satisfaction became the cornerstone of ANM’s ethos.
Vance Krier, ANM CTO and co-owner, joined ANM about four years into its journey. “We didn’t have an office. We were working mostly with doctors and dentist offices, focusing on Novell and Microsoft. It was a super small business. Most of the customers didn’t have internet, so we drove to their sites and did all the work on site,” he reminisces. A pivotal moment came when they discovered a Cisco router in a closet, marking the beginning of their deep dive into networking.
The early days of ANM were marked by a unique culture and a hands-on approach. “One of the unique and unconventional things we did was have all technical folks work on 6’ or 8’ benches that we made out of 2x4s and plywood. They were raw and very DIY, but they emphasized who we were. If you worked at ANM, you should plan on getting your hands dirty. When you were a new hire, one of the first things you did was build your bench,” Vance recalls. This do-it-yourself spirit embodied their startup mentality and laid the foundation for a collaborative work environment.
“Back in the early days, our lab was an open area, and we were there to fix problems as a team,” Tim adds. “It was a very collaborative environment. It was all about fixing the issue for the customer. And this company is still a lot like that. There’s a lot of collaboration between the engineers; everybody talks. We’ve never lost that team approach, which pays off in the end for our customers.”
Kyle Petree, ANM Solutions Architect, who joined when the company was still small, saw firsthand how this culture of collaboration translated to success. “The company was like twelve people when I joined. We were helping customers and doing great things. We were just doing what was right for customers consistently and reliably, and that was enough. Now we have a lot more process and procedure, but at the same time, I feel like every employee is still empowered to make the right decision for the customer, no matter what.”
Growth & New Challenges
As ANM grew, so did its ambitions and expertise. In 2006, Chris Hammer, ANM Cybersecurity Architect, then working for a large community bank, partnered with ANM on significant projects. “I was tasked by our CIO to modernize by replacing our PBX with a modern VOIP system and virtualize the majority of our workloads. We partnered with ANM on these hefty projects, and that was how I got to know ANM. I was so impressed that by 2009, I came to work for ANM.”
Chris’s transition from client to employee underscored ANM’s commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. “When I was on the customer side, responsiveness and the commitment to making things right were why I loved working with ANM. The projects we were working on at that point, some of these were fairly new technologies, we knew there were going to be some bumps and some hurdles along the road, but I always knew I had ANM to fall back on and I always knew that the team was going to figure it out. And I think that still stands true today.”
Alan Smith, ANM IT Manager, who joined ANM in 2008, experienced the hands-on nature of the company’s work. “It was my first job out of college. I was a contract engineer. And I would spend my days driving around Albuquerque to offices fixing computer problems, fixing printers, checking up on servers, scheduling server reboots, that kind of stuff. But eventually, I became more specialized as the firewall guy.”
A New Era with New Ownership
In 2013, ANM entered a new era when it was acquired by Raminder Mann, ANM CEO and Co-owner. “When we were approached by Raminder to buy the company, it was perfect for us because it was not an acquisition. He was buying everything, so nobody lost their jobs,” Tim Harrison explains. This smooth transition maintained the company’s stability and allowed it to continue growing.
Bringing a vision of structure and expansion, Raminder states, “I had worked for two different resellers and a major manufacturer, and I felt like there were gaps. So, I set out to build something stronger with strong sales, engineering, and administration. And that’s what we’ve been striving for over the past 10 years. But at the core, ANM has always been an engineering company. What we did was take that raw talent, put structure around it, create a broader product out of it, and then continue to expand on that raw talent to feed from underneath and help it scale.”
Goran Velickovski, ANM Account Manager, who joined in 2014, vividly remembers those early days under the new ownership. “It was a great culture, with strong engineering from the beginning. It was a culture of taking care of our customers from the very beginning, and kindhearted people.” Paul Cooke, ANM Sales Director, another key team member, echoes this sentiment. “Raminder called me when he decided to buy ANM, and he told me, ‘We’re building something special here.’ And he wasn’t wrong. In the 9 years I’ve been here, we have never failed at a project.”
The Consistency of Core Values
Despite the changes, some things at ANM have remained constant. “One thing that has never changed is if you’re a successful engineer at ANM, you can go anywhere else, and you’ll be the smartest guy in the room. That’s always been our claim to fame, engineering excellence,” Alan Smith notes.
Stephanie Mendenhall, ANM Sr. Accounting Executive, who started working at ANM in 1998, highlights the company’s adaptability. “I can tell you that the one thing about ANM is there’s always change. And if you’re not ready for that, then it’s not a place for you, because the growth and change has been amazing, but it also offered all the employees the opportunity for growth and change as well.”
The company’s unwavering commitment to its values has also been a key factor in its success. “The big thing about ANM is that we’ve had success without compromising our values and we’ll always do what’s right, what’s ethical, we do what’s best for the customer, for the employee, and those things are always a given,” Stephanie continues.
Goran adds, “One thing that we never wavered on, even in the early days, was hiring good people. If you hire the best people, you’re going to get the best results.” This focus on talent and integrity has been crucial to ANM’s enduring reputation.
Embracing Change & Looking Forward
Change has been at the heart of ANM’s journey. “At ANM, across the board from leadership to sales to engineering, we’re all willing to grow, and that’s a big part of our success. We’re not one of those technology companies where we’re just going to do one thing because this is our thing. We’re continually keeping a pulse on technology and changing and adapting,” Chris Hammer explains.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a significant moment for ANM, prompting a reevaluation of its priorities. “COVID was important for us because we saw how quickly we could be irrelevant. When people went remote, network infrastructure was no longer as important as it was previously, and it forced us to think about what else we wanted to do,” Goran recalls. This led to increased investments in cloud, data center, security, and building a more holistic portfolio.
Kyle reflects on the ever-evolving nature of their work. “Our target market is constantly changing and that means there’s a constant state of change. The reality is that’s what makes it interesting. We go out and solve problems and meet our evolving customer needs.”
Paul emphasizes the stability and adaptability that have defined ANM. “The partner landscape is volatile with lots of acquisitions and bankruptcies. Here at ANM, we’ve got 30 years of stability, we’re privately owned with no debt, no private equity, and we’ve got a lot of nimbleness on how we can change and adapt.”
Vance highlights the transitions ANM has navigated over the years: “We’ve experienced numerous technology transitions throughout our 30 years in business. The internet was a major shift for most of our clients, followed by VoIP, mobile, virtualization, cloud, cybersecurity, and now the burgeoning AI evolution. A significant transition for our business was catching the Voice over IP wave very early in ‘99 with 3Com NBX, and later with Cisco after their acquisition of Celsius in 2000. That’s just one example, but we’re constantly transitioning and evolving.”
Raminder sums up the company’s approach to change. “The amount of change that ANM goes through is way more than any other company I know. I talk to my peers, and none of them want to make changes because they don’t want to rattle anything. They’re afraid something is going to break. But not here… we embrace breakage as part of progress.”
30 Years & We’re Just Getting Started…
From its humble beginnings in 1994 to today as a leader in the IT infrastructure industry, ANM’s journey has been marked by engineering excellence, a commitment to customer satisfaction, and a remarkable ability to adapt to change. Through every transition, the core values of integrity, collaboration, and a relentless pursuit of quality have remained steadfast.
As we look to the future, we will continue to embrace change and innovation, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of technological advancements while staying true to the principles that have driven our success for three decades.