• Sovran founded December 29, 1987 by three employees of the former Control Data Corporation, a supercomputer firm based in Bloomington.
  • Operated as a third-party maintenance provider for IBM and Wang Laboratories mainframe systems.
  • Original office was located off of East Bush Lake Road in Bloomington.
  • Henry Rogers, a Sovran salesperson, purchased the company in 1990.
  • Lisa Loken joins Sovran in 1990.
  • Began a partnership with Novell, Inc., a large contributor to the adoption of local area networks (LAN) in 1992.
  • Acquired another IT firm in 1993.
  • Began partnering with Microsoft by offering Windows NT in 1993, a multi-user operating system for workstations and servers.
  • Deubener Award Recipient from St. Paul Chamber of Commerce in 1994.
  • Moved to second office off of Pilot Knob Road in Eagan.
  • Lisa Loken buys into Sovran as a minority owner in 1998.
  • Partnered with Cisco Systems, Inc. a networking and telecommunications company in 2000.
  • On September 11, 2001, Sovran moved to the current office at 2915 Commers Drive in Eagan. This space has 24,000 square feet with a seminar and lab area for customers to come for lunch and learn opportunities.
  • Survived the dot-com bust of 2000-2002, where many IT firms failed and many companies restricted spending on new technology.
  • Lisa Loken becomes majority owner in 2003. Sovran becomes a fully woman-owned business.
  • Survived the great recession of 2007-2009, started by the financial crisis which caused restricted spending among many businesses and corporations.
  • Sovran was named one of the top 25 women-owned businesses by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal in 2010.
  • Sovran was named one of the top 25 women-owned businesses by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal in 2011.
  • Lisa Loken started a New Horizons franchise in the Twin Cities in May 2011. Located in the same building as Sovran, New Horizons is a computer learning center for technology and business skills. New Horizons and Sovran work together synergistically.
  • Traci Leffner joins Sovran in 2016.
  • At peak, Sovran has employed more than 60 individuals.
​​Sovran has been proud to partner with multiple local charities, either raising funds and materials for or volunteering time at:
  • The Open Door – A food pantry in Eagan and Sovran’s main charity in 2017. Every month employees hold a competitive food drive between Sovran and New Horizons. Some employees also take a class, then teach food pantry clientele how to cook on a budget.
  • The Salvation Army – Employees volunteer as bell ringers over the holiday season annually.
  • Feed My Starving Children – Employees volunteer to pack meals at the Eagan location.
  • Ronald McDonald House – Employees volunteer to cook meals for families staying near a sick child.
  • Neighborhood House – Employees volunteer to help distribute fresh produce directly to those who need it most, and raise funds through charity golf games.
  • Toys For Tots – Employees hold a toy drive annually.

Over the past 30 years, Sovran has built partnerships with a number of excellent firms including:
  • APC – Barracuda – Cisco Systems – Citrix – Dell –  Hewlett Packard Enterprise – HP – Meraki – Nimble Storage – Polycom  – Sophos – Symantec – Tegile – Trend Micro – Veeam – VMware – WatchGuard – Zix Corp
Sovran collects client information such as name, address, email and phone numbers for the specific reason to send out email and prospect potential clients. The information is stored in a password protected CRM that is available only to internal Sovran staff. Sovran does not share or sell this data to any external source. Customers can opt out at anytime by sending an email to sales@sovran.com.