LAST EDITED ON Sep-08-02 AT 09:37 AM (EST)
 
This from an October l996 article, that talked about Access's growth and expansion on Pearl Street. The developer of the "former Pasta Jay's" location, did have an unfortunate event occur, when he was constructing a very large new house---it burnt down before it was completed....I don't think they ever found the cause:

DAILY CAMERA
ACCESS GRAPHICS SALES SOAR
DISTRIBUTOR OF HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE HAS GROWN NEARLY 2,000 PERCENT SINCE 1990.

Tuesday, October 8, 1996

Section: BPLUS
Edition: FIRST
Page: 6D
By Tom Locke Camera Business Writer

In Boulder high-tech circles, growth is nothing extraordinary, so it takes super expansion to really raise some eyebrows.

Access Graphics Inc. is a good candidate.

In 1990, Boulder-based Access posted $59 million in sales. In 1996, it expects revenues to be nearly 2,000 percent higher.
"This year we will do about $1.2 billion," said Laurie Wagner, Access vice president for worldwide business development.

Access Graphics, a subsidiary of Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp., is a distributor of mid-level computer hardware and software, emphasizing Unix operating systems. It acts as an intermediary between manufacturers and "resellers" that sell to end-user businesses.

Its success in that niche is translating into a need for more employees and more office space in Boulder.

Access' total employment grew from 120 in 1990 to 430 by December of last year. It is 550 now and is projected to be 680 by the end of next year.

The Boulder share of that employment was about 90 in 1990 and 295 by December of last year. It now stands at 380, and should be about 470 by the end of next year.

Those 90 or so new hires during the next 15 months will occur in a variety of areas such as sales and marketing and technical support, Wagner said. The growth has brought a need for more space, and Access has worked out a 10-year plan with real estate developer J. Midyette to eventually supply 48,000 square feet to supplement the 52,000 square feet the company already occupies in Boulder.

Midyette is adding a third floor of 6,000 square feet to the building at 1414 Pearl St., adjacent to the Access headquarters building at 1426 Pearl St. Access plans to move into that space in January or February.

In addition, Midyette is building a new 26,600-square-foot office building across the street at 1433 Pearl St., and Access will initially lease 22,000 square feet for occupancy in July.

What's driving the growth?

One key cause is the expansion of the Unix marketplace and the partners Access has picked. More than half of its business comes from sales of hardware made by Mountain View, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems Inc. Access is one of only two distributors in the country that Sun has authorized to sell to resellers. The other authorized distributor is Merisel Inc. of El Segundo, Calif.

Another element for growth is the company's geographic expansion, Wagner said. "That's the direction we're moving, toward being a global company."

Access entered the European market in 1994 and now has 100 field sales representatives there. It also operates in the Canadian market and entered the Latin American market in June with the opening of an office in Mexico City.

Key to Access' business is the support it provides to its 5,000 reseller customers in areas such as technical information, sales positioning, and service or maintenance contracts. For instance, a reseller that has bought equipment through Access and is having technical problems installing it can call Access for guidance.

"I think one of their biggest strengths is they meet our needs from A to Z," said Bruce Alexander, operations manager for Graftek Inc., a Boulder-based software developer and value-added reseller of Sun equipment.

For instance, he can gain up-to-the-minute reseller price and end-user list price information on equipment through the Access site on the World Wide Web.

Greg McKnight, vice president of sales and marketing for the Root Group, a Boulder-based reseller, said that Access has helped his company in understanding Sun Microsystems and has also helped it in developing opportunities in the marketplace.

He noted that a reseller can get a variety of hardware and software products from Access to integrate into a solution for an end-user. That's an appealing alternative to dealing with a number of different suppliers, particularly when delivery can be ensured within 24 hours.

To do that, Access needs to buy the necessary hardware and software, and warehouse it for a quick turnaround to resellers. That takes capital, and being a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin helps. "I think one of their biggest strengths is they're financially sound," said McKnight.

Would Access Graphics ever go public? Wagner acknowledged there have been rumors to that effect, but, she said, "We don't have any specific plans to go public at this time."

The relationship with Lockheed Martin has provided Access with the money it has needed to fund its growth, Wagner said. That relationship dates back to the formation of Access out of three companies in 1989. Lockheed subsidiary Calcomp, of Anaheim, Calif., bought a minority interest in Access when it was formed, and Lockheed bought the rest of Access in 1991.

On the supplier side, Access can take some of the load off manufacturers by helping estab lish a network of competent resellers and training them. In addition, it can lower the manufacturer's technical service costs. For instance, Access takes 7,500 calls a month relating to Sun Microsystems equipment and refers less than 1 percent to Sun.

Mountain View Calif.-based Silicon Graphics Inc. was dealing directly with resellers prior to deciding to use Access as a distributor in August 1995. Now, resellers get technical support involving Silicon Graphics hardware that involves a whole-solution approach. That reduces finger-pointing between hardware and software suppliers when a technical glitch arises.

Frank Hensley, a sales director for Exabyte Corp., a Boulder-based storage-systems provider, says the key to Access' growth has been its ability to focus on a specific market, Unix-based solutions, and its sophisticated technical expertise necessary for that market. Among the Access advantages he pointed to are its economies of scale in warehousing, technical expertise for entire solutions, and carrying reseller receivables that a manufacturer doesn't want to worry about.

"It lets manufacturers do what they're good at," Hensley said.

Distributors have been consolidating across the country to realize economies of scale, and Access is keeping pace. Said Hensley: "I haven't got a stronger distributor in the country."