Corrections or additions?
Life in the Fast Lane
These articles by Barbara Fox and Peter J. Mladineo were published
in U.S. 1 Newspaper on February 4, 1998. All rights reserved.
Many predict that computer superstores and sales of
computers over the Internet will eventually dominate computer sales.
But three proprietors of Princeton-based computer companies are
fighting
back. And the three — immigrants from Taiwan, New Delhi, and
Saigon
— are following distinctively different strategies.
Bruce Tung of PC USA has closed his retail storefront at Mercer Mall
and moved to an office location at Lawrence Commons to concentrate
on business to business customers and expand his Internet operations.
Tony Sethi of Princeton Computer Repair has expanded at 12 Roszel
Road and aims to service the service contracts that the superstores
generate. Meanwhile Phat Le has established a high-end niche: he has
moved Le Camera from selling only cameras to selling digital cameras
plus computers at a new Route 1 location.
Tung’s response to the changing computer market is to relinquish his
storefront and concentrate on business to business marketing and
Internet
services. He has closed PC USA’s storefront next door to Palace of
Asia restaurant and moved six employees to Suite 202 at Lawrence
Commons.
“We are not moving out of the retail business, but simply
relocating
our service center to a professional building and our storefront onto
the Internet,” says Tung, partner and general manager of both
PC USA and Advanced Online Services Inc. “Our move will allow
us to focus on what we do best: service, networks, and Internet
solutions.”
“We will cater to our existing customer base, referral and repeat
customers, and pursue business to business opportunities,” says
Tung. PC USA will continue to service all brands of computers,
including
Apple, and it will incorporate the Internet for its business and SOHO
(small office and home office) customers.
PC USA launched its Internet services two years ago and has been
providing
dial-up Internet connections and corporate web services for its
computer
user through AOSI. AOSI offers unlimited analog dialup, ISDN, Web
hosting, Web designing, dedicated lines, and corporate dialups.
When in it moved last month AOSI went from an analog to a digital
backbone with full ISDN capability and dedicated lines suitable for
K56flex (analog) modems. To the T-1 (analog) line it added three PRI
(Primary Rate Interface) ISDN lines for a total of 72 ISDN channels.
“Most of our AOSI website clients are not taking full advantage
of their Internet presence, and our new Internet store will also serve
as a model for more businesses to focus on the Internet as a sales
asset, ” says Tung.
The Internet store will have a comprehensive database searchable
for more than 70,000 computer products, plus shopping cart features
and a secure server for online ordering. Just in time inventory will
cut down on overhead, “so we are able to keep up with the pricing,
which drops every few months,” says Tung. “Usually businesses
don’t need an order the same day — and they can have it in the
next day or two.”
Though the Internet store is of course open 24 hours, the physical
store will now be open only on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and
closed Saturdays. Saturday customers, as it turns out, consisted
mostly
of the computer equivalent of “tire-kickers.”
Tung’s father (a jet pilot in the Nationalist Chinese air force) and
mother (an English teacher) had immigrated to West Caldwell when he
was 10 years old. He worked in his parents’ restaurant in Elizabeth,
and former governor Tom Kean was one of their customers. “My
parents
moved us here for our education and for our future,” Tung says.
“This is the land of opportunity. Anyone with a desire and a dream
and who is willing to work for it should be able to achieve.”
Tung started as a pharmacy major but switched to business
communication
at Rutgers College and graduated in 1988. He had various sales and
technical jobs, ranging from selling Wall Street mutual funds to
computers.
“I’m a fast mover,” he says. “I guess I pick up things
fast and then I get bored with it so I love to move on and pick up
new projects.”
His first firm was a one-man consulting firm, Tungsten International,
based in Princeton Service Center, and then he and his brother started
T2 Enterprises. Jeffrey Tung is a Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
graduate with two engineering degrees and a MBA from Harvard.
PC USA, 3371 Route 1, Lawrence Commons, Suite 202,Lawrenceville 08648. Bruce Tung, owner. 609-734-8484; fax,609-951-9390.Advanced Online Services, Lawrence Commons, Suite202, Lawrenceville 08648. Bruce Tung, owner. 609-631-8553; fax,609-631-8554.Home page: https://www.aosi.com.Top Of PagePrinceton Computer RepairA small expansion makes a big difference when you movefrom the back of the building to the front. Tony Sethi has expandedfrom 1,300 to 1,500 at 12 Roszel Park, but the new space opensdirectlyinto the lobby and boasts a conference room.”My customers are major corporations as well as individuals,”says Sethi, “and the nicer space will help us attract largerclientsand get into networking areas.” He is renting out his formerofficeand has a lease-to-buy arrangement for this one.He is a certified Compaq service technician and works for suchextendedservice warranty companies such as National Warranty Corporation,Vac Service Corporation, Warrantech (which deals with Comp USA) andCES (which has government clients). He also sells systems and upgradesand does sales and repairs of all brands of notebooks, printers,monitors,and systems.”It doesn’t matter who makes it, we service from Acer toZenith,”says Sethi. He does Novell and NT networking and is starting two newbusiness areas — creation of web pages and selling business forms,checks, and business cards.A native of New Delhi, Sethi immigrated to Denver, Colorado, whenhe was 25. Trained as a computer technician at Mercer County College,Sethi checked inspectors’ work on a pacemaker assembly line and workedfor a defense contractor (Base 10 Systems) as senior quality auditor.In 1990 he began selling computers at trade shows then moved tosellingsystems to major corporations. In 1993 he acquired a partner.”We specialize in service with a quick turn around time (within48 hours) and a free estimate,” says Sethi. “My reason forsuccess: I am very honest with my customers and work hard,” saysSethi.Princeton Computer Repair & Services Inc., 12RoszelRoad, Suite B-101, Princeton 08540. Tony Sethi, vice president.609-452-8747;fax, 609-452-0208. E-mail: tsethi@ix.netcom.com.Top Of PageLe CameraPhat Le has not only expanded into the computerbusiness,he has expanded his retail space. That’s because his market nicheis digital cameras, a high-end computer product that needs lots ofhand-holding for buyers to make the right decisions.”If you go to where all the cameras are locked up in the cage,nobody will advise you as to what to get or what to do,” saysLe. “It is different from a supermarket where milk is milk. Withthe wrong choice on a digital camera, you can lose $1,000.”Le started out with a mail order camera business in 1991 and thenopened six years ago at 4040 Quakerbridge Road. Now he has tripledhis space and moved 10 employees from 2,200 square feet to 7,000squarefeet in a building next door to Mrs. G’s on Route 1 North.He sells new and pre-owned cameras and lenses (including collectoritems) plus digital cameras and the computer equipment needed to usethem. He also has a repair service.Le immigrated from Saigon, Vietnam, where his family owned a gasstation.”When the government took over those kinds of businesses, we hadno income,” says Le. In 1979, at age 21, he left the country.One of his former high school friends managed to get a Michigan churchto sponsor him. “I came here with one pair of shorts that’sit,”says Le. “We got out in 1979 by boat. The people up there wereextremely helpful, extremely nice; they helped us get started.”Five days after he disembarked he was working at his first UnitedStates job — dishwashing for $2.90 minimum wage — and he begantaking English classes.He met his future wife, Winnie, at the University of Chicago, wherehe was a mathematics major, Class of 1983. Together, they startedthe camera business in 1991, and now they have children ages six,two, and seven months. “We are concentrating on the imaging partof computers,” says Le. “We are not competing with ComputerCity for selling mom and pop systems. We are experts on computerimaging,an integral part of photography now. You have to have the proper kindof computer and the proper kind of hardware and software.”How does he deal with customers who seek his expert advice but maketheir lowball purchase at a “big box” store? “That happenswith cameras, and we are used to it,” says Le. “But actuallymost of our customers appreciate our presence and our service andthey are willing to pay a little bit more for our advice. We spenda lot of time discovering what is good on the market. If you spend$1,000 and you get the wrong digital camera, what good is it? Yetyou spend $1,200 and you get the right equipment.””The smart people come to professional people to get advice. Thenot so smart people shop for price and they are lost.”Le Camera, 2936 Route 1 North, Lawrenceville 08648.Phat Le, owner. 609-912-0200; fax, 609-912-0166. E-mail:lecamera@bellatlantic.net.Top Of PageDigital ServicesDigital Photography Services Inc., 9A PrincessRoad, Lawrenceville 08648. Paul Ettlinger. 609-844-9596; fax,609-844-0565.Spurred by the growth in the digital photographybusinessPaul Ettlinger and Philip Cutrone have expanded after starting upless than two years ago. They have moved from an office on FranklinCorner Road into 3,700 feet, including a fully equipped studio, onPrincess Road. Now clients can choose whether to rent a camera attheir home site or bring their work to the Princess Road studio.DPS rents and sells digital camera systems for such purposes ascatalogs,Internet web pages, Sunday newspaper inserts, and newspaper photos.The partners also do consulting and training in such digitalphotographyareas as research and development, manufacturing, and image databases.Ettlinger went to Rider, Class of ’82, and Cutrone is an electricalengineer from DeVry Technical Institute, Class of 1988 (U.S. 1,October9, 1996).Digital cameras are connected to a computer. With each click of theshutter a high resolution image is downloaded to the screen. Someof the benefits of digital photography include immediate proofing,cost savings on film & scanning, reduced production time, and theelimination of hazardous waste (the heavy metals in film processing).These are not the consumer-style digital cameras that Phat Le sellsat Le Camera (see previous story). This $30,000 camera price tag doesnot include the camera’s computer peripherals. To rent the cameraand studio costs $450 a day, $1,350 for the week. To rent the cameraat your site is $695 for a day or $1,995 for a week, but that alsoincludes the computer system and an operator that stays for the firstday to train you or your photographer.”It’s getting to a point where the cameras are out three daysa week, and we have weekly rentals,” says Ralph Scharinger, asales representative. “It’s a great market and things are pickingup for us.”Top Of PageSoftech’s Hard SellWhen Princeton Softech was young, it celebrated bigwins with pizza picnics outside its office on Business Park Drive.Last weekend Joe Allegra took 60 employees and their spouses to theBahamas — three nights and four days at Club Med — to thankeveryone for a good 1997.It was a very good year. Last week, as everyone was packing for theall-expense-paid trip, the announcement came that the nine-year-oldfirm had been bought by Mountain Lake-based Computer Horizons for$43 million in stock. The privately held company will now be a whollyowned subsidiary, and Allegra will remain as president. “We’reenthusiastic about being part of a such a forward-lookingorganization,”stated Allegra in a press release.Now located at 1060 State Road, Princeton Softech’s sales grew 538percent from 1991 to 1995 — from $602,000 to $3,840,000 and asa consequence it was making the “fastest growing” lists. By1994 it had grown to 37 employees. It now has 75 workers, and nearlyall were able to take advantage of the trip with their spouses orpartners. They left in shifts, some on Thursday, others Friday, stillothers flew down Saturday, and all convened for a dinner on Saturdaynight.Allegra went to parochial school in Bergen, majored in economics atRutgers (Class of 1975) and earned an MBA at New York University.He and his wife Bobbie have a daughter, 11, and a son, 15. He workedat Applied Data Research from 1977 until the firm was bought byComputerAssociates in 1988. Eight other people left with him in 1989 to buildhigh quality programming tools for large application systems.Meanwhilehe became president of the Software Association of New Jersey, laterto become the software track of the New Jersey Technology Council.The firm now has core competencies in relational databases, datasynchronization,and intelligent data migration and management. “We compete againstvery large companies and win 8 out of 10 times because our softwarereally works. Our model is that we won’t send out products beforethey’re done; we get support calls an order of magnitude less thananybody else,” Allegra said in an earlier interview.Now that the company has been bought out, will Allegra have theindependenceto throw an offshore company party? “I expect they will continuerunning the company the way they have,” says Faye Gregory-Yuppa,vice president of Computer Horizons.John J. Cassese, CEO of the $335 million Computer Horizons, went toRutgers, Class of 1968. He founded the firm in 1969; it went publicon the Nasdaq (CHRZ) soon after that(https://www.computerhorizons.com).Though Computer Horizons began as a staffing augmentation firm forIT services, in the early 1990s it created a solutions division, whichhas grown to be worth nearly $100 million. “For one of our Year2000 solutions we needed to use a Princeton Softech product, and ithas been a business partner of ours,” says Gregory Yuppa. Herfirm had had a good success record as a service company that broughttools with the Year 2000 services and it hoped to broaden thatapproachto apply to data management. “We had raised $80 million foradditionalacquisitions to position us beyond the Year 2000,” she says.”Almostall of the solutions we offer involve data management and migration,and we realized Princeton Softech’s real strength was in datamanagementtools.”Allegra has also developed a global distribution channel with clientsin 20 countries. In the early ’90s Princeton Softech was just oneof three software firms that were drawing national attention on theInc. Magazine “fastest growing company” lists. But unlikeVoxware and LogicWorks, which have gone public, the smaller PrincetonSoftech chose the “be bought out” alternative over the IPO.”We thought about going the IPO route ourselves,” Allegrahas said, “but we’re a little too small and we thought it wasa little too early.” Maybe that’s just as well. The founding CEOsof Voxware and LogicWorks have both left their top positions.Is that one of the reasons why Allegra chose an alliance rather thanan IPO? Allegra could not be reached for comment before press time.He was still in the Bahamas.– Barbara FoxTop Of PageA Basia Start-UpWhen nursing mothers get breast infections and takeantibiotics, they pass along the drug to their babies — anunfortunatebut tolerable use of the drug. But when cows get udder infections(mastitis) and are treated with antibiotics, the contaminated milkmust be poured on the ground, literally or figuratively, until theantibiotics have passed through their systems. Mastitis — verycommon and very infectious — is a drain on dairy farmers’ profits.An emerging biotechnology company funded by Barbara Piasecki Johnsonhopes to clean up this milk infection problem. Nika Health ProductsLimited has licensed its technology to Pharmacia & Upjohn for”dimerizedlysozyme” for various animal health indications, including bovinemastitis.”Animal health represents a large potential market opportunityfor our technology,” says Wojciech Piasecki, president of thefirm and the nephew of the heiress to the Seward Johnson estate.”Weare pleased to be partnering with a proven leader in the field.”Thomas S. Gifford of Century Capital Associates assisted Nika in thistransaction.Nika is engaged in discovery and R&D of proprietary platformtechnologiesinvolving the treatment of infectious diseases. But the process ofdrug approval is slow, even for animals. It could take four to sixyears to get FDA approval for the drug for veterinary use.This company does not have a financing problem. Because of thePiaseckiJohnson backing, Nika’s executives have time to develop strategicpartnerships to increase market share, reduce development time,increasemanufacturing capability, and streamline product distribution.”It is an interesting business model,” says Ricky S.Stachowicz,chief counsel. “We would take pride in being a virtualcompany.”The company is located within the office of BPJ Holdings, PiaseckiJohnson’s firm on Lenox Drive. Research is taking place inSwitzerland.”This product is also in active research and development for humanuse as well,” says Stachowicz, who notes that it seems to functionlike standard antibiotics. “We are running clinical Phase I trialsin Poland.” Other potential products are a chemically modifiedenzyme that has shown uses for the treatment of herpes in humans.Stachowicz majored in biology at Rutgers (Class of 1984) and wentto Hofstra Law School. Piasecki went to Rider, Class of 1984, andhas master’s degrees from Georgetown University, Claremont GraduateSchool, and the University of Wroclaw in Poland.”There is a tremendous interest in developing high qualityproductsfor human and animal health,” says Stachowicz. “It is notuncommon to be able to introduce a medicine in veterinary field andthen use it in the human field as well.”We want to get good results in clinicals and examine themcarefully,”says Stachowicz. “When we are confident with what we have, wewill move forward.”– Barbara FoxNika Health Products Ltd., c/o BPJ HoldingCorporation,1009 Lenox Drive, Suite 115, Lawrenceville 08648. Wojciech Piasecki,director. 609-921-0089; fax, 609-219-9295.Top Of PageNew in TownNaif Systems, 707 Alexander Road, Suite 208,Princeton08540. Dan Naif. 609-419-4407; fax, 732-367-0097. Home page:https://www.naifsystems.com.This firm does multimedia training — sites, web pages, CD-ROMs,Internet — and provides turnkey systems and tools. “I workwith training departments and graphics departments to builddevelopmentsystems and sell tools and train on the use of the systems,” saysNaif.He founded the firm eight years ago and usually telecommutes fromJackson but is also a client of the Daily Plan-It. His clients includeBristol-Myers Squibb, CNA Insurance, a major financial firmheadquarteredin Princeton, and Fleet Bank — for which he does customer servicetraining and sales skills training.Naif grew up in South Jersey where his father was a consultant tothe division of gaming enforcement. After Stockton State he workedfor Bell Atlantic as a systems analyst training consultant anddeveloperof custom applications. Then he went to Continental to run themultimediadevelopment group and do systems applications training. A member ofthe ASTD trainers’ association, Naif has trained thousands of peoplein software programs and computer literacy. “I am good at it,”says Naif. “That’s why I went into multimedia. I have analyticaltechnical skills but I understand adult learning principles.”Top Of PageNew in TownImperial Technology, 707 Alexander Road, DailyPlan It, Princeton 08540. Al Lanza, eastern regional manager.609-720-0040;fax, 609-720-0042. Home page: https://www.imperialtech.com.If you are running a relational database with millionsof entries, and your search slows for even a nanosecond, you couldbe losing money fast. Al Lanza has opened the eastern regional officeof Imperial Technology, a firm that pioneered in solid state diskand disk cache systems for input/output operation performanceenhancement.”Our access time to data is 300 times faster than regular disk,which can do 75 input/output transactions per second. When you have1000 customers lined up it makes a difference,” says Lanza.”Solid state disk and solid state cache devices are a hardwaresolution to computer performance problems,” says Lanza.”Oracleor Sybase will allow you to run a test to determine a bottleneck andwill allow you to take the hot files and put them off to a separatedevice, a SCSI (Small Computers Systems Information) rotating magneticmechanical disk, which does 50 input outputs per second.” Thiscompany is one of the few makers of nonrotating solid state SCSIdisks,which is computer memory. “Our solid state disk looks to thecomputeras if it is another rotating disk, but it actually is computer memory.Instead of 50 input/outputs it does thousands.”Lanza went to the University of Pennsylvania, Class of ’69, and hasworked for IBM, Bull, and Pioneer Standard. Imperial is a nichecompanythat does have a couple of competitors, including Quantem Corporation.The hardware is manufactured at headquarters in El Segundo, California(310-536-0018) and the firm has more than 40 employees in four officesand distributors worldwide.Only a few firms that need very expensive but very fast dataapplications– telemarketers, catalog firms, Wall Street firms, power stations,and airlines — can profit from super speed at almost any cost.Other potential clients have batch jobs that run at night but arefinishing late, after the start of the business day — or userson a slow system with a response time of more than three seconds.When users start colliding, the efficiency of each person goes down.”One big catalog company told me that every second they can reducethe time it takes to handle a customer call can save them $10,000a year,” says John Jory, the president. “Ninety-nine percentare buying it for speed, and another 90 percent are buying it fordatabase applications,” says Jory.Top Of PageStart-UpsMaselli, Warren & Lanciano PC, 600 Alexander Road,1st floor, Princeton 08540. Paul Maselli, managing partner.609-452-8411;fax, 609-452-8422.When attorneys leave big firms to start little firms,certain things usually happen: they usually take some clients withthem, they usually promise more personal, less-departmentalizedattentionto their clients, and they usually work longer hours. What’s not soobvious is the fact that they usually get better software.Now that Paul Maselli, Perry Warren, and Guy Lanciano have left Stark& Stark and opened a new practice at 600 Alexander Road, they shouldhave a shorter wait to get Windows 98 when Microsoft delivers it.When Windows 95 came out, Maselli recalls, Stark & Stark was”reticent”to implement it because the 60-attorney firm would have needed toget it for hundreds of machines. “On the other hand,” saysMaselli, “we just opened our office, we have Windows 95. Whenthe new Windows comes out it’s going to cost us a few hundreddollars.”On a more philosophical level, this kind of efficiency allows asmallerfirms to develop the art of “leveraging technology, not leveragingpeople,” says Maselli. “Firms that are more responsive toclient needs are firms closer to the leading edge of technology.”This new firm will specialize in small and medium-sized businessinterestssuch as bankruptcy, commercial litigation, and securities arbitration.The managing partner is Maselli, 38, who got his JD at RutgersUniversityLaw School in Camden in 1986 and spent nine years at Stark & Stark,where he was a partner.Warren, 34, graduated with honors from the University of NorthCarolinaLaw School in Chapel Hill (Class of 1993) before becoming an associateat Stark & Stark. Lanciano has a law degree from Widener (Class of1992) and advanced degree in taxation from New York University.Another advantage to opening a smaller firm is that the attorneyswill encounter less conflicts of interest between clients. “You’renot representing the big institutions,” says Maselli. Anot-uncommonoccurrence at Stark & Stark was having to turn down a prospectivebankruptcy client because the firm was already representing the bank,he adds.– Peter J. MladineoTop Of PageTechno MovesDanAshe and Company, 33 State Road, Suite A1,Princeton08540. Peter Corcoran, president. 609-683-5600; fax, 609-683-3758.Some reports have stated that only 10 percent of thehigh tech jobs in the country are filled. With this statistic, youmight think that a high tech headhunter like Peter Corcoran wouldbe having a field day, right? Bad assumption, reports Corcoran,presidentof DanAshe and Company, which just took 400 square feet at 33 StateRoad.”People might think headhunting is really going great rightnow,”he says. “When there are too many mobs or not enough applicationsor vice versa it really throws it out of sync. You really want tohave things in balance. It’s nice to have a lot of jobs but you needthe people to fill them in order to make the money.” DanAshe(namedafter Corcoran’s daughters, Danielle and Ashley), specializes insupplyingsalespersons to the software industry.Corcoran, a 40-something with a degree from Villanova University,started off as auditor for Peat Marwick and Mitchell. He startedDanAshein 1987. The problems arise when candidates become too mobile –this can make them hard to place, even in an industry that desperatelyneeds workers. “It’s a very volatile industry,” says Corcoran.”There isn’t a lot of stability in terms of people being ableto stay with one company at one time, except maybe with the big boys.For medium and smaller companies, the average is three years andyou’reoff, looking for another opportunity.”Still, if you’re in high tech sales, you might have a suitor inCorcoran”as long as your track record doesn’t get too choppy,” hesays. “The good side of it is allows you to have movement, andthat creates opportunities, but if an applicant moves too much thenhe becomes very tough to place. So you like to have a guy who canhang in there for two, three, or four years. Then if he moves it kindof works for everybody involved.”VComm, 8 Cedar Brook Drive, Cranbury 08512. DominicVillecco, president. 609-655-1200; fax, 609-409-1927. Home page:https://www.vcomm-eng.com.Moving into 8,000 square feet at 8 Cedar Grove Lane, Cranbury, isVComm, a “telecommunications engineering” firm. “We assistpeople who are building or who already have wireless systems tooptimizethem to run better,” says Ken Baranowski, director of businessdevelopment. “We supply the engineering talent.”This office has 18 employees, and the firm has another office inWarminster,with an additional 24 employees. The president, Dominic Villeco, andother principals are located in Cranbury.Baranowski explains that the company utilizes an in-house system ofassisting clients to meet objectives. “We like to talk to theclient, get an idea of what the particular aspect of the job is sothat there are quantifiable, demonstratable results by a certaintime.”Top Of PageDeathsChristine Huntley, 36, on January 27. She was humanresourcesmanager at Sadat Associates.Peter Silvestro, 40, on February 2. He owned and operatedJoe’s Tomato Pie restaurant in Trenton.William Bowie III, 32, on February 3. He owned PrincetonPacking Company.nCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
