Standing Out On The Web
KELLEY DAMORE is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Mass.
MG Electronics no longer gets its kicks on Route 66.
When the company was started 10 years ago, it was selling custom-built computers at national and regional trade shows.
“We were going to computer shows with our trucks, our products and our technicians. We would go to two to three shows in a weekend and travel as far as California to attend these events,” said Alex Sonis, president of MG Electronics, Warrensville Heights, Ohio.
“With the advent of the Web, it became much more convenient to sell online than to drive overnight from state to state,” he said.
With customers such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and 44 percent growth in average monthly system sales last year, MG Electronics has found a strategy that appears to be working. The company reported building 1,510 systems a month last year.
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It was not as easy as just moving sales to the Internet, though. “Everyone looks the same on the Web,” Sonis said. The challenge was how to stand out.
Sonis hired two people to put product recommendations and easy-to-understand information on MG Electronics’ site at www.mgepconline.com.
“We’re trying to put things in plain English so people understand what they can use the products for,” Sonis said. “We are always looking at profit margins and how to specialize, but it is really your human resources that are critical.”
Another secret to its success: flexibility. When David DuShane, IT specialist for the College of Engineering and Architecture at North Dakota State University, first started doing business with MG Electronics he found it could accommodate the slow payments and other issues related to government contracts.
“MG Electronics was able to honor a state purchase when very few vendors would,” DuShane said.
DuShane also appreciates MG Electronics’ service and has been buying its workstations from the company ever since. ”With Gateway, you are a number,” he said. “At MG, you have the same representative, and you work with the same people for an extended period of time. They know your needs.”
Today, the bulk of the PCs and workstations MG Electronics produces each month are custom built. The company is also looking at gaming PCs and servers as a possibility for growth. These would complement the already broad spectrum of servers it offers, ranging in price from $500 to $30,000.
While most of MG Electronics’ $8 million in sales last year came from direct sales to customers, about 10 percent to 15 percent were derived from sales to solution providers, Sonis said.