This December Future Tech Enterprise made its first donation on behalf of the company's Change for Change initiative, an effort to help local charities fight for a worthy cause by collecting spare change.
Through Strategic Partnerships with Original Equipment Manufacturers, Future Tech Can Now Help Local Organizations Meet State-Mandated SWaM Requirements
LI Fight for Charity Thrills Over a Thousand Spectators and Raises Much Needed Funds for Local Organizations
In its inaugural football season this fall, Future Tech Enterprise became a sponsor of Little Mustangs, Big Hearts, a community program developed by the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Athletic Department designed to encourage underprivileged children use athletics to help them pursue a college education.
Future Tech Enterprise, Inc. has been approved as an IBM PartnerWorld Premier level partner, which has allowed the organization to apply for a Business Continuity accreditation.
Presales Engineer Recognized for Effective Management and Client Satisfaction
Stephen Alaimo has joined the Future Tech Sales Team as an Account Executive.
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Ask most people the question and be prepared for silence and a blank stare.

November 6, 2008
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Venero leads this Holbrook-based full-service information technology solution provider, representing more than 700 different product lines. He also took a seat this year on the board of directors of the Long Island Software and Technology Network. This year, Future Tech, under Venero’s leadership, won a LISA or Long Island Software Award from LISTnet for the third time in four years.
Ms. Zdanius' role at Future Tech is business development, focusing on strategic relationships with service integrators and to expand Future Tech in the southeast region through her longstanding relationships with the Commonwealth of Virginia and Northrop Grumman while also exploring new relationships and opportunities for the company.
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September 30, 2008
Change For Change
Future Tech Enterprise Strives to Make a Big Difference with Small Change
Future Tech Enterprise has been added to the Hewlett Packard New York State Contract for Print Management Services.
Future Tech Enterprise has been added to the Hewlett Packard New York State Contract for Print Management Services.
Future Tech Enterprise has been selected as one of four information technology solution providers to be included on Lenovo’s State of New York Aggregate Purchase Initiative.
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CRM Software Increases Productivity and Efficiency Company-Wide
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Future Tech Enterprise, Inc. has once again been ranked on the prestigious VARBusiness 500 list, the benchmark of the top performing information technology solution providers in the United States and the industry standard for VARs (Value Added Resellers).

 
 

In search of the perfect office chair
 

by Ambrose Clancy
Published: November 7, 2008

Ask most people the question and be prepared for silence and a blank stare.

But when we asked some Long Islanders to talk about their office chairs they responded with the enthusiasm, even passion, usually reserved for answering questions about their loved ones.
Don’t tell these people it’s just a matter of taking a load off. For these folks, a chair is an aesthetic choice, a matter of healing, a status symbol or all of the above. One respondent had to get a new chair because the device she’d been using was plotting to turn her into a contortionist before disabling her. Another has a chair that can do so many things she hasn’t figured out all the options yet. Two have chairs that are extremely uncomfortable, but wouldn’t think of ditching them for two very different reasons. In one case a chair even provides inspiration.

No matter if the chair cost $212 or $2,800 or has been used since 1974, for these people the simple matter of parking it to get down to business has become a love affair.

Katherine Heaviside is a still a bit baffled by her $300 HON chair. “It can do 27 things and I’ve figured out three so far,” said Heaviside, president of Huntington’s Epoch 5 Public Relations. About two years ago she started having back pain and went chair shopping and her new chair cured her. “I don’t know if it’s a placebo chair but it’s certainly effective,” she said. “Part of me is really happy I had back pain because I love my chair and never would have gotten it.”

“The thing I really like about my office chair is that I see it there every day when I come in,” said Anthony Pomes, marketing director of Garden City Park’s Square One Publishers. “And in this economy that’s a good thing to be able to say. It’s an olive green Steelcase with wheels and adjustable arms that I can raise or lower, depending if I’m doing a lot of typing or using the phone a lot. Yes, I love my chair.”

Miller Place attorney John Ray loves his chair even if it doesn’t love him in return. “It’s a broken old chair and extremely uncomfortable,” Ray said. But the chair, a wooden swivel captain’s chair, was once the property of an actual English sea captain who plotted courses and downed port at sea more than 100 years ago. An obsessive Anglophile, Ray received the chair as a gift in 1983. “The captain was also a member of the House of Lords,” Ray said with some wonder. He sits with history when he goes to work, he added.

John Caracciolo, president of WDRE, WBON and WLIR Radio is another person who has a chair that hurts him. “I’ve had this thing for 11 years and when I picked it out I got the most uncomfortable chair I could find. It was a Staples special and now it’s got tears in it and duct tape all over it. It forces me to get out of it and be with clients and talk to people. I don’t want to spend any time sitting. I got the same kind of chair for all my salespeople.”

“Everybody who comes in the office says, ‘Can I sit in the chair?’” said Bob Venero, chief executive of Holbrook’s Future Tech Enterprises. “Then they sit in it and say, ‘This is incredible.’”
The Norwegian-made Stokke looks incredible, with the back looking like a large, leather backward “c” and a high leather headrest. The price, incredibly, was $2,800. “It’s extremely comfortable and if you put yourself in a fetal position and go all the way back you can sleep in it,” Venero said. But it wasn’t just comfort Venero was looking for. “The name of the company is Future Tech and if I don’t put that out there, then what am I doing?”

Tom Brown, a Ronkonkoma accountant with his own firm took his time selecting a chair that he could spend at minimum eight hours a day in. He finally settled on a Canadian-made $340 Global Mesh TYE with a “waterfall seat edge” and double-wheel casters. “I had two herniated discs so it was really important to get a comfortable chair,” Brown said. He’s enamored of the vented back and the extra wheels. “It’s very maneuverable.”

Never underestimate the seduction of a moving chair. “It’s super comfortable and I can zoom around in it,” said Nancy Schuman, vice president of marketing at Lloyd Staffing, which has offices in Holbrook, Melville and Great Neck. Her companion for 10 years, she has no idea what brand her chair is or how much she paid for it. All she knows is it gets her around the office in style. “I have a Mac in front of me and a PC behind me and I spin like a top in my chair. I’ve never had back or wrist problems like I’ve had with other chairs.” Think chairs are important to Schuman? “The last job I had I was so attached to my chair I asked for it as part of my buyout package.”

Flo Federman got a chair to match chairs on the other side of her desk, but there was a little problem about two months in. “One day my chair decided to stop working and suddenly my legs were perpendicular to the ceiling,” said Federman, director of marketing communication at Melville’s Holtz Rubenstein Reminick and president of Public Relations Professionals of Long Island. She paid $212 for her 2070 Gamut Seating High Back Pneumatic for comfort as well as safety. “I like something that fits the tush,” Federman said.  Her research method bugged her colleagues. “I went into every office and butt-tested the chairs.”

At the Spector Group, a Woodbury architectural firm, everyone has the same seat, the Knoll Life Chair, which goes for about $800.

“It’s an ergonomic, light and adaptable chair,” said director of design Rhonda Scharf.  The Life Chair has a slim silhouette, a mesh back and a fabric seat. “The days of the bulky leather chairs are gone,” Scharf said. Another modern concept is to have a chair that can multitask. “Most conference rooms now are glass, and have multipurposes. You want a chair for that room that’s lighter looking and moveable. We can take our chairs and move them right into the conference room.”

Stuart Levine, a business consultant and author, got a $1,500 Steelcase office chair when he had back pain about three years ago. But Levine would rather talk about his home office chair, the one he sits in when he writes books. “When you leave the New York State Assembly they give you your chair,” Levine said. When he left Albany in 1974 he put the heavy green leather chair in his home office. “I get great energy and inspiration from that old chair,” Levine said.

Seats of Power - A guide to buying your office chair

Jenny-Lynn Georgiades has had people come to her with doctor’s notes and she’s made house calls.

Georgiades is a specialist who treats people with chair problems. An executive with Waldners Business Environment, she recently rolled out a selection of top-selling chairs in the Farmingdale showroom. Many looked as if they had come directly from the flight deck of the Starship Enterprise. The trend in slimmer, ergonomically correct space-age seats has taken off in the last six years or so, she said.

This is due to several factors, including new designs, materials and a new generation. Many older executives are still most comfortable in the funeral-colored tufted and buttoned thrones, Georgiades said, while younger movers and shakers are going for slighter silhouettes in bright colors. Women execs especially are looking for chairs that are modern, light and comfortable. One hot seller is the Steelcase Leap in chocolate brown leather, polished aluminum trim and the ability to change shape to mimic and support the movement of the spine.

It’s not just executives who are going for chairs that breathe with you, are louvered in the rear with “live back technology” and adjust themselves by tilt and height to each individual’s weight.

“Executives bring in their assistants for comfortable chairs,” Georgiades said. “They realize assistants can be sitting for up to eight hours a day and they want to keep them happy.”

She’s received specific written instructions from physicians requesting chairs for their patients. And she’s delivered chairs to offices so customers can test drive them before buying.

So what’s all the fuss about? Is a $2,000 chair worth the money? Hard to say, but try sitting in a Siento (Spanish for “I feel”) and you’ll attain a sense of total support, lightness and comfort. If you have two grand burning a hole in your pocket there could be worse ways to spend it.

But if you have $1.5 million and need your derriere and back caressed at the office, Pininfarina will make sitting down something special. The Italian car design firm wants to put you in its Aresline Xten because the cushions conform to the part of you where the sun doesn’t shine.

Too rich for your butt? Lay down $65,000 for an office chair by Hadi Teherani of Germany. Comfortable? Who cares? You get to tell everyone your chair is silver- and gold-plated.