Using a car battery and a power inverter ripped out of a broken-down Datamax service van, Mark rigged a makeshift power supply. He then waded into waist-deep, 34-degree water holding a plastic tarp over the server rack to keep the dripping ceiling water off the electronics.
However, Datamax also hosted a small, forgotten server rack in the damp basement of their old building on Caraway Road. This server handled payroll and inventory for three local manufacturing plants (including a major rice mill). datamax jonesboro arkansas
In late January 2009, a catastrophic ice storm hit Northeast Arkansas. Jonesboro was paralyzed. Power lines snapped like twigs, trees fell on roofs, and the entire city was dark and silent for nearly two weeks. Datamax, which at the time primarily sold and serviced , saw its entire business model evaporate overnight. No power meant no office workers, and no office workers meant no broken printers to fix. Using a car battery and a power inverter
For two years, former copier technicians—guys who knew how to fix gears and fusers—were taught how to configure firewalls, manage Microsoft 365 tenants, and stop ransomware. It was a brutal transition. One old-timer famously threw a network switch across the room yelling, “This doesn’t have any moving parts! How do I fix something with no moving parts?!” This server handled payroll and inventory for three
When the power finally returned, the plants were the first in Jonesboro to reopen. The rice mill’s owner later told a story at the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce: “Datamax didn’t just sell us a service contract. They froze in a lake for us.” That ice storm changed Datamax forever. Mark (who was promptly promoted) convinced the owners that selling physical boxes—copiers and fax machines—was a dying industry. The future was managed IT services .