66 | Issue 115 | August 2018
Scan Magazine | Special Theme | A Spotlight on Greenland
When distances and travel times are as long as they are in Greenland, flexible and
reliable IT solutions are absolutely essential. This is one of the reasons why Comby
A/S, a local provider of IT solutions and services, has made reliability and honesty its
trademark. Scan Magazine talks to founder Brian Torp about the specific challenges
for Greenland’s IT industry, and how his company works to solve them.
By Signe Hansen | Photos: Comby A/S
Founded on a vision of providing clients
with better, faster, and more reliable IT
services, Nuuk-based Comby A/S has
grown rapidly since its beginning in
- Today, founder Brian Torp has 22
colleagues, including co-owner Michael
Collin. This is despite the fact that, when
Torp set out, he had no business plan
other than a desire to do things better.
“The thought was to create a business
that had service at its core and with
which we could build long-lasting cli-
ent relationships. That was the founding
idea, and then things just took off really
quickly,” explains Torp. “One of our cli-
ents is the Municipality of Sermersooq,
which expands from the east to the west
coast of Greenland — an area the same
size as France — and that means that we
have to sail or fly to get to a site. Some
of the most remote villages can take us
two weeks to get to! That’s why we have
to be one 100 per cent sure that when
we provide a solution, it is reliable and
can be serviced and manned remotely.
Of course, that’s a focus for companies
across the world, but here it’s based on
extreme necessity.”Torp’s experience and new approach to
service quickly gained him major clients
and, just a year after starting, his busi-
ness, which at that time was just himself
and a part-time employee, had a turno-Local commitment, local strength
ver of about 14 million DKK (around 1.67
million GBP).Expanding and planning ahead
In 2001, Comby A/S merged with A-team
Greenland, a local division of a large
Danish provider of consultancy services
and training. With the merger, the com-
pany gained nine new employees giving
Torp and Collin, Torp’s new co-owner
from the A-team, a bit of time and space
to look at the company’s strengths and
future prospects. “Up until then, we
hadn’t had the time — we’d been too fo-
cused on delivering what we promised
our clients,” Torp explains. “After the
merger, however, we sat down and cre-
ated a full strategy and business plan.
What was important to us was that all
the products and services we offered
were things about which we could offer
expert service and knowledge.”This, amongst other things, led to a de-
crease in the selection of hardware prod-Photo: Jukku Kielsen