News release

Compaq ProLiant Servers Keep Family Business Above Water

For more than 30 years, the Berman family has worked hard to make Box King Products, a leading manufacturer of corrugated packaging, a standard of excellence in the box and shipping supply industry. "We are a small company with about 25 employees and we attribute much of our success to being a leader in integrating computer technology in the packaging industry," said Gary Berman, co-owner of Box King Products. "Compaq's ProLiant™ servers are a strategic part of our business that help us to quickly process customer orders, manage inventory, and run our QuickBooks^®accounting software. Additionally, we maintain a historical archive with 10 years worth of transactions and electronic files of customer artwork and package designs. The ProLiant servers ensure we meet the needs and exceed the expectations of more than 10,000 commercial accounts."

Recently, the family-owned business was threatened by a fire that required six fire-fighting units working nearly nine hours to put the blaze out. Fortunately there were no injuries to civilians or fire personnel. Although published reports from The Phoenixville News said the fire caused minimal external damage to the 30,000-square-foot building, water from the sprinkling system did extensive damage internally: "Water damage destroyed most of our office equipment. Our ProLiant 1600 servers remained online throughout the fire and subsequent soaking from the sprinkler system. I did not actually power the server down until I met with firemen to disable the alarm system in our office," said Berman.

According to Berman, the back-up tapes and computer disks were dripping wet. "I sprayed the computer components with a cleaning solution and let the system dry for about 24 hours. When I turned the system on, two of the three hard drives fired up right away and are still operating. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of our data was intact. The system is so reliable that we are able to serve our customers while we await the arrival of our new ProLiant ML370 system." The ProLiant ML370 series is the next generation ProLiant 1600 server series.

"Compaq's reputation for product excellence in industry standard solutions is based on best-in-class engineering and continued innovation leading to greater value for our customers," said Kevin Dunwoody, vice president of Compaq's Northeast Region. "Although we cannot guarantee that all ProLiant servers will function as well after a fire, these state-of-the-art systems are designed for high performance and maximum availability."

"The ProLiant's performance during the recent fire has reinforced my confidence in Compaq's products because they helped my family's business when we needed it most," said Berman.

About Box King Products

Box King Products, a privately owned manufacturer of corrugated packaging, has one of the largest customer bases in the packaging industry and the largest inventory of stock boxes in the Delaware Valley. The company uses computer aided design, high-end graphics and state-of-the-art equipment in its manufacturing processes and is a recognized leader in using computer technology in the packaging industry. Information about Box King and its products and services is available at http://www.boxking.com.