Black Box Network Services
Black Box Network Services is the world's largest technical services company dedicated to designing, building and maintaining today's complicated network infrastructure systems. Black Box services clients of all sizes in 141 countries throughout the world.
Our History
The Past
- 1976 - 1977 - A little company called Expandor, Inc. opens for business, selling connectivity devices - the little black boxes - that clients need to connect their primary data communications products. The first Black Box Catalogue rolls off the presses. It's six pages, contains nine products and generates $170,000 in sales.
- 1981 - Black Box begins operating in Australia and New Zealand. Customers from all over Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Rim, have access to our superior technical advice and extensive inventory from the Pacific Support Centre in Melbourne, Australia.
- 1982 - The Company changes its name to Black Box since the majority of customers began calling the company by its catalogue name.
- 1994 - Black Box goes online and within the first two weeks, visitors from 36 companies find the site.
- 1994 - The company's size, plans for growth, and financial stability prompt Black Box to go public.
- 1998 - Black Box first offers on-site data network infrastructure services in the Pittsburgh, PA area. Later that year, Black Box expands its on-site offerings to Florida.
- 1999 - The number of employees at Black Box hits 1,000.
- 1999 - Black Box begins offering network infrastructure services in the United Kingdom. Today, Black Box offers data and voice services in 141 countries.
- 1999 - Black Box is named one of the "200 Best Small Companies in America" by Forbes magazine.
- 1999 - A new state-of-the-art distribution centre opens in Lawrence, PA.
- 2000 - Black Box expands its on-site capabilities to include telephony as well as data infrastructure services. Services are also offered throughout Europe and in the Pacific Rim.
- 2001 - The BLACK BOX(r) Catalogue grows to 1,488 pages.
- 2002 - BusinessWeek magazine recognises Black Box as one of the "Best 100 Small Companies."
- 2002 - An Internet-based project tracking system called e-Status is launched.
- 2003 - The number of team members at Black Box hits 3,000.
- 2004 - Black Box wins Catalogue of the Year at the Multichannel Merchant awards.
- 2005 - Black Box wins Catalogue of the Year at the Multichannel Merchant awards, again.
- 2005 - Black Box now offers more than 118,000 products in its catalogues and on its web site.
- 2005 - Black Box expands its voice services with the acquisition of Minnesota-based Norstan, Inc.
- 2006 - At the Multichannel Merchant awards, Black Box wins Best in Category in the Computer Equipment category for the eleventh consecutive year.
- 2006 - Black Box acquires NextiraOne, LLC, greatly expanding its voice services. Voice services now account for more than 40% of Black Box business.
- 2006 - The number of Black Box Team Members hits 5,000.
Black Box Australia Present
- Black Box Network Services now offers more than 90,000 networking solutions and the best technical support in the industry. Our Catalogue, which in 2005 has in excess of 450 pages, is still the largest and most comprehensive in the industry offering valuable technical information via the 'Black Box Explains' tutorials. These features make the Black Box catalogue an invaluable learning tool.
The Future
- As the world's largest technical services company dedicated to designing, building, and maintaining today's complicated data and voice network infrastructure systems, Black Box plans to stay focused on providing clients with the best value for complete network services from a single provider.