With Some Ingenuity, Central Data Builds A Wireless Business

Three years ago, the Titusville, Fla., solution provider was weathering a stormy sales climate and decided to hone its focus on selling solutions rather than product, said Executive Vice President Grady Crunk. Scott Nelson, a Central Data account rep, heeded the strategy shift.

While racking his brain for a solution, Nelson saw an ad for a wireless-equipment cart. He bought one, configured it with 16 notebooks, attached a printer and sheepishly wheeled it into a sales engagement at a local school. "I was as surprised as anyone when it sold," Nelson said. The following week, he sold another, then another and then some more.

Since rolling out the cart solution two years ago, Central Data has sold about 135 wireless labs, which sell for $28,000 to $43,275 each, depending on the configuration, Crunk said.

As more clients ordered wireless carts, Crunk needed a way for them to send and receive data between central and satellite locations. Central Data's major customers,which include health-care facilities, public schools, higher-education facilities and NASA,also wanted more bandwidth to handle their rising use of Web-based applications. Because the area lacked relay towers, Crunk bought a bucket truck so he could erect the towers himself,saving the cost of contracting out that work.

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Central Data's wireless foray has strengthened bonds with customers and yielded repeat business, Crunk said. Space Coast Middle School in Cocoa, Fla., purchased two of Central Data's wireless labs for $28,000 apiece. Each lab has 16 IBM Thinkpads with wireless network-interface cards, Cisco wireless LAN access points, a Hewlett-Packard network printer, a four-port hub and a wireless cart painted Corvette teal, the school's color.

The wireless technology helps Space Coast students conduct research and study over the Web because they're not chained to the classroom or the school's computer labs, said Assistant Principal Timothy Hurd. "We have hard-wired labs, but just getting the students there takes up most of the class time," he said. "To conduct the actual learning in their normal environment is more positive. Having the carts has turned every class into a computer lab."

Next year, Hurd hopes to use school funds to build a wireless TV studio. And, he said, there's little doubt about who would get the job.