Gary Tonniges organized TriQuest Technologies, Inc., in Fort Worth, but the computer-services company owes its origins to a mountaintop trek outside Aspen, Colo. “I decided that if I could make that 35-mile hike, then I most certainly could start my dream company,” Tonniges says. The dream-to-reality transition is symbolized in the company’s distinctive triangle logotype, which represents the Maroon Bells location where the TriQuest concept took shape.

As a Microsoft Certified Partner, TriQuest provides network management services tailored to companies operating between 25 and 150 computers. In its five year-and-counting, the company has grown from two employees and a physical plant consisting of a truck and file cabinet, to nine employees and a 3,000-square-foot office. TriQuest has garnered national media attention for an innovative accounting-software package and developed a variety of major-league corporate partnerships.

Last year saw a breakthrough to a formalized business plan, with calculated growth achievements, including a client-tracking system and the development of a manual of standard operating procedures. But while 2001 was a year of building, it also provided for growth in revenues, meeting a minimum goal of 60 percent.

TriQuest’s community involvement includes a STAR Foundation scholarship, enabling one underprivileged student to attend a private academy. The company also sponsors a scholarship for 4H students participating in the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.

Although Tonniges characterizes the business plan as “a living document revised annually,” he also acknowledges it as “simply a plan,” allowing flexibility in response to the internal and external economic forces that can affect any business at random. A roster of key objectives provides a barometer for improvement initiatives, keeping specific goals in perspective with what Tonniges calls “our understanding of the big picture.”

Success, Tonniges says, is largely a matter of reliance upon proven technology and interest in emerging technologies, to the extent of having TriQuest serve as a test facility before offering new applications to the clients.

“The most important thing,” he adds, “is that we do not take ourselves too seriously, check our egos at the door…Within this environment, productivity and job satisfaction are natural by-products.”

The Small Business of the Year Award for TriQuest Technologies is in the category of between $1 million and $5 million in annual revenues.