Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox was prepared for the April 30, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
On the Move: PC Help Desk
Arsen Areyan and Allison Charles have opened a telephone-based
help desk to solve software and hardware problems for home and business
users. For $99 per year ($79 for home users) businesses can get expert
technical support for any hardware or software that attaches to a
PC.
Those who choose to use per-incident pricing will pay $7.95 for an
E-mail question and will be guaranteed a response in four hours for
business users, 12 hours for home users. A phone-based call will be
$14.95 for an unlimited time, with no charge per minute. The service
is available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“We thought support should be affordable to everyone, not just
to business users,” says Areyan, when asked to comment on the
unusually low price. “We offer expert technical support for most
major software titles, operating systems, business applications, hardware
components, PC systems, laptops, scanners, PDAs, printers, dial up
and networking applications — anything attached to a computer.
And we will make recommendations on equipment.”
Areyan, an immigrant from Russia, graduated with honors in 1996 from
Brooklyn College, having majored in psychology and minored in computers.
He studied psychology at the graduate level at New York University,
“but computers interested me more.” Then, working for IBM
in PCs and networking, he did desktop support for the 3,200 Lucent
end-users at Murray Hill.
Allison Charles, the marketing director, went to College of Staten
Island, Class of 1978, and has an MBA from New York University. Allison
is an unusual name for a man, he admits “I’m big enough that no
one bothered me,” says Charles, “but people often switch my
first and last names.” His father worked in hospital support services,
and his career in health care management for hospitals involved supporting
PC-based laboratory information systems. He met his business partner
through a hospital contact — Areyan’s mother, a DNA researcher
who manages an oncology department.
Areyan says his firm wants to eliminate hold times. “We will structure
end user calls differently from the way that corporations do.”
Most product-based help desks require users to jump many hurdles on
the first tier of questions. “People end up spending a considerable
amount of time explaining their problem, then they have to explain
it again on tier 2. But we will have only two tiers, tier 2 (advanced)
and tier 3. We will ask 1 or 2 questions and proceed to the diagnosis,
not wait for a tier 2 engineer to call back.”
“In our opinion, the cost is very affordable,” says Areyan.
“Business users can have up to 50 people on an account. Users
can take advantage of our incentives — members get 10 percent
off the following year, and a member who refers a client get 15 percent
off the next year.”
The company’s business model is based on three employees who work
virtually. “To talk you through setting up something — this
kind of stuff is my passion,” says Areyan. “I live it. People
are always going to get stuck and they would rather talk to someone
on the phone than get their problem solved by E-mail.”
Areyan Technologies LLC, Box 411, Plainsboro 08536.Arsen Areyan, partner. 609-799-7997; fax, 609-799-4576. Www.fastpcsupport.comTop Of PageProperty SoldPeter Blicher has sold Pennington Point, a 30,000 squarefoot office center, for $5.25 million. The two two-story buildingswere constructed five and seven years ago and are fully leased.The new owners are Sheri and Robert Costantini, principals in MBHKProperties LLC, and the company name represents the initials of theirchildren — four children under six years of age. The Costantinisbegan their real estate endeavors by buying and renovating a housein Trenton seven years ago. Robert Costantini has a Quakertown-basedconstruction company, Sycamore Construction.Al Toto, of Commercial Property Network, brokered the deal for bothseller and buyer.Pennington Companies, 23 Route 31 North, SuiteA-20, Pennington 08534. Peter Blicher, president. 609-737-8383; fax,609-737-0051. Home page: www.penprop.comTop Of PageUnder ContractMedarex Inc. (MEDX), 707 State Road, Princeton08540. Donald L. Drakeman, president and CEO. 609-430-2880; fax, 609-430-2850.E-mail: information@medarex.com. Home page: www.medarex.comMedarex announced an April 25 agreement with the University of Massachusettsto co-develop antibodies for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).Medarex will supply its UltiMAb mouse to develop the fully human antibodies.The contract calls for Medarex and the university to share developmentcosts and future revenue.Top Of PageJobs CommissionPrinceton University President Shirley M. Tilghman willco-chair the new Commission on Jobs, Growth and Economic Development,which will have its first meeting on Thursday, May 1.The commission was created by the James McGreevey administration tobolster the state’s economy and create jobs. “The commission willset forth a blueprint to enable New Jersey to not simply compete inthe new economy, but to thrive and prosper in the coming decade,”McGreevey said. “We have the ability to make New Jersey the premierstate for research, development and innovation — and to encouragecompanies to build facilities here and create high-paying jobs forskilled workers.”Tilghman’s two co-chairs are the governor and Roy Vagelos, retiredchairman of Merck & Co.Top Of PageNew in TownUnited Teletech Federal Credit Union, 2201 Route1 South, North Brunswick 08902. Peggy Walters, branch manager. 732-530-8100;fax, 732-530-2027. E-mail: pwalters@utcu.org. Www.teletechfcu.orgUnited Teletech, a not-for-profit financial cooperative charteredin 1967 to serve Bell Labs employees has a new shopping center officein North Brunswick. Based in Tinton Falls, it now has more than 220member companies and 27,000 members.Membership qualifications can include having an immediate family memberas an employee of AT&T, Lucent Technologies, or Telcordia Technologiesin Monmouth County or Piscataway. Or a family member can works fora firm that provides contract services to one of those companies.Or you can be a retiree from, or have a deceased spouse who workedfor, one of the companies.Another membership category are those who work for, or have an immediatefamily member that is employed by, one of the more than 100 employeegroups listed on the website, everything from a lawn service to aday camp.Top Of PageIn the NewsPrinceton Longevity Center, 50 Vreeland Drive,Montgomery Professional Center, Princeton 08558. David Fein MD,director. 609-430-0752; fax, 609-430-8470.Princeton Longevity Institute electronic beam tomography scanner wasfeatured in the April 22 Wall Street Journal in a full page essayby Kevin Helliker, chief of the WSJ’s Chicago bureau.Helliker visited the Institute as a journalist to experience the batteryof exams that would reveal his biological age, versus his chronologicalage, but the scan showed that he had an aortic aneurysm that couldrequire eight-hour aortic replacement surgery.Top Of PageStock NewsDataram Corp. (DRAM), 186 Princeton-HightstownRoad, Windsor Business Park, Building 2-A, Box 7528, Princeton 08543-7528.Robert V. Tarantino, president and CEO. 609-799-0071; fax, 609-936-1369.Www.dataram.comDataram will close its manufacturing facility in Aarhus, Denmark,reducing its workforce by 28 percent, but no jobs will be lost inthe United States, says Robert Tarantino, president and CEO. “Inlight of the general economic uncertainty and with no indication ofa dramatic upturn in corporate IT spending, we can no longer justifymaintaining two production facilities with the associated overheads,”says Tarantino. “Our production capacity in the U.S. is more thansufficient to meet current levels of demand.”Dataram offers gigabyte-class memory for high-end workstations andservers and specialized memory products for OEM customers. To consolidateall manufacturing into a Bucks County facility, which has 50 employees,is expected to save $7 million annually, says Tarantino. The Princeton-HightstownRoad headquarters has 62 employees. The firm will maintain sales officesin Denmark, France, Germany and the U.K.Top Of PageExpansionsCheckspert Inc., 125 Village Boulevard, Suite 280,Princeton 08540. Koushik Roy, vice president. 609-520-0564; fax, 609-520-8849.E-mail: sales@checkspert.com. Www.checkspert.comCheckspert moved a four-person office from 650 College Road acrossthe highway to Forrestal Village, where it has enough room, 1,900square feet, to expand its staff to 15 people. Thomas March of ColliersHouston represented the tenant and Greg Lezynski represented the landlord.The company is an online verifiable certification provider, and ithas a product that will monitor students taking online tests (U.S.1, February 26).edivise.inc, 145 Witherspoon Street, Princeton08542-. Derek Smith, president. 609-921-1188. Home page: www.edivise.comDerek Smith moved his consulting company from a home office on FarberRoad to 145 Witherspoon Street and has a new phone number. He consultsin three areas: software, and solutions. “Strategy — identifyingand planning for the best use of technology in order to achieve businessgoals. Software — providing software tools and enhancements thatallow employees to be more effective with their time, and solutions— assisting companies with the implementation of technology intotheir business.”A computer science major at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington,Class of 1997, Smith had been an IT manager in Atlanta, for the InjoyGroup. He moved to Princeton with his wife, a student at PrincetonTheological Seminary.Top Of PageDeathsAndrew Dingwall, 75, on February 24. A materials and circuitryexpert with more than 100 patents, he was retired from the SarnoffCorporation.John Keaney, 40, on April 21. He was a classics professorat Princeton University.Michael J. Haraburda, 55, on April 22. He and his wifeowned DC’s Gallery in the Southfield Shopping Center.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
