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.
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?!” datamax jonesboro arkansas
While “Datamax” in Jonesboro, Arkansas, might not be a household name like Walmart (which was founded in nearby Bentonville), the story of this specific office technology and IT solutions provider is a classic Arkansas tale of local resilience, the death of the analog world, and a surprising pivot that saved dozens of jobs. Using a car battery and a power inverter
Today, Datamax in Jonesboro is a regional powerhouse for cybersecurity and cloud hosting. But they still keep a single, refurbished 1990s copier in their lobby as a monument to the “Ice Man of Caraway Road.” Ask any old-timer at the Jonesboro Couch’s Barbecue: “Why does Datamax answer their phones 24/7?” The answer: “Because Mark still sleeps better on a stack of paper boxes than in his own bed.” It was a brutal transition
That’s the story of Datamax Jonesboro—not a giant corporation, but a gritty local business that survived the death of the fax machine by being willing to get very, very wet.
The interesting twist? They didn’t fire their copier repairmen. They retrained them.
