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Hawaii tech
firm, Dell form
partnership

Axean Pacific will be able
to push the PC maker's products
while selling its own network services

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By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

Dell Computer Corp., looking to change the face of its Hawaii operations, is giving the reins of its hardware sales promotion efforts in the islands to a local technology company.

Axean Pacific, formed earlier this year to engineer computer network systems for businesses, plans to announce at a Honolulu high-tech conference tomorrow that it will begin promoting hardware products made by Dell.

Dell already has invested in more than $100,000 in new equipment to establish a sales demonstration lab in Axean's downtown office, making it Dell's first local outlet.

"It's really bringing Dell to town," said Dennis Daley, partner and chief executive of Axean.

Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, is often seen by Hawaii customers as a far-off mainland company with no local contacts, said Pamela Rigg, partner and chief operating officer of Axean. That doesn't work in this state, she said.

Dell spokeswoman Kate Connolly said Dell has just started entering these types of partnerships in local markets to step into the network services sector without abandoning its core business: hardware.

"We've gone way outside of their (traditional) model," Daley said.

Axean won't be paid by Dell because it's not reselling Dell products. Dell must still handle its own transactions and will sometimes send over its own agents for joint sales efforts, Daley said. Axean simply recommends Dell products to its customers.

For example, Axean earlier this month began work on a nine-month, $550,000 contract to modernize the state Department of Health's monolithic computer system. Axean will now recommend the sale of Dell's equipment to the state, which would make the ultimate decision over what to buy.

Daley also noted that all state agencies are under executive order to modernize their systems, which could mean dozens of more projects for Axean and Dell.

Axean is also inking another $1.5 million consulting deal for a private firm that could include more than $500,000 in equipment Axean could push for Dell.

In turn, Axean gets the weight of the Dell name behind it, Rigg said.

Joe Blanco, technology adviser to Gov. Ben Cayetano, will announce the partnership at "HiTechHawaii@2000," a two-day event beginning today at the Hawaii Convention Center. The conference, which is expected to attract 750 people, will include more than 40 tech-related workshops for businesses. The event's keynote speaker, Trevor Woodage, is a researcher with Celera Genomics Group, which develops software to handle genomic information. Admission is $200.

The conferences serves as the perfect backdrop to reveal the Dell-Axean alliance, Daley said.

Axean Pacific, based in Honolulu, is the registered trade name of Platinum Research & Development Group, managed by Daley, Rigg and the president of Axean Group, a 4-year-old, San Francisco-based Internet and network systems design company.