News release

SBA Winners Credit Compaq Technology for Growth, Profitability During National Small Business Week

Compaq Leverages Partnerships and Best-in-Class Technology to Deliver the Power of an IT Department Without the Overhead

This week, the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) honors several of the nation's leading entrepreneurs during National Small Business Week, May 5-11. Award winners representing California, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas credit technology solutions from Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) for helping their small businesses achieve growth and profitability.

"Compaq is creating a climate of success for small businesses by making it easier than ever for them to have access to advanced, yet affordable technology that can help their businesses to grow," said Jim Milton, senior vice president and general manager for Compaq North America. "We're providing small business with innovative products and services tailored to meet their needs, from the award-winning iPAQ Pocket PC and advanced mobility solutions, to the most reliable industry-standard servers available—all designed to help small business better serve their customers.

"Our business model to drive support for SMB customers provides them the freedom to choose how they want to do business with Compaq. This diverse approach to working with businesses enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of our SMB sales and marketing programs at the same time it provides better customer service," says Milton.

According to a statistical profile of the 2002 state small business week winners prepared by the Small Business Association and available at http://smallbusinesssuccess.sba.gov/2002/2002StatisticalProfile.doc, 100 percent of the National Small Business Week winners use the Internet, personal computers, and word processing. Ninety-seven percent of the small business winners use e-mail and use their computers for payroll and accounting.

Small Business Leaders Across the U.S.

GC Micro Corporation (www.gcmicro.com), the 2002 business week award winner representing California, is a leading supplier of computing equipment and services to government agencies, the aerospace industry, and Fortune 1000 companies. The 31-employee company has been in business since 1986 and is an authorized technology dealer partner with leading companies such as Compaq and Hewlett-Packard.

"For GC Micro to meet the needs of our customers, we must have a quality technology platform," said Belinda Guadarrama, president and CEO for GC Micro Corporation. "We not only sell and service Compaq products but we are a Compaq customer. We have deployed industry-standard ProLiant servers and other Compaq products throughout our growing organization."

According to Guadarrama, a 100 percent minority- and woman-owned small business with 8(a) certification, GC Micro achieved $35 million in sales last year.

Fine Print of Grand Forks, Inc. is a family-owned business representing North Dakota as the 2002 small business week winner. Fine Print provides complete, high-quality printing services to their customers and has the only two four-color presses and high-resolution color scanner in the Grand Forks area. Fine Print employs approximately 20 employees, but anticipates growth as they continue to bring new equipment and printing technologies to their business.

According to Don Kuntz, co-owner of Fine Print of Grand Forks with his wife, Joann, technology is a key differentiator leading to their success in the Grand Forks printing market. Their son Kevin serves as their manager of information systems. He uses both Compaq laptop and desktop systems running Microsoft Windows XP. The laptop serves as a remote desktop when making customer calls and assisting employees at the company's second office.

Fine Print uses an industry-standard Compaq ProLiant ML330 server to handle e-mail and manage the company's customer database. "Basically, Compaq's highly reliable technology and support services have enabled us to automate many of our manual processes to operate our business more efficiently," said Don Kuntz.

"This has allowed us to reinvest our profits into premium printing supplies and software so that we have effectively pulled away from our competition to become the leading commercial printing service in Grand Forks. Our competition even refers customers with complex or large volume printing jobs to us because they aren't equipped to handle them."

Northwest Software, Inc. (NSI) is a leading professional services firm based in Beaverton, Oregon and is the 2002 small business week awards winner for the state. Northwest Software provides IT staffing and consulting services to Fortune 1000 companies and public agencies throughout the United States. NSI has invested more than 30 person-years to develop an innovative solution that reduces the customer's total contractor staffing costs, while increasing quality and responsiveness.

Northwest Software, a 100 percent woman-owned, minority 8(a) certified business enterprise, was founded in 1988 in response to the growing needs of the client/server technology development market (www.nwsi.com). The firm recently purchased several Compaq desktops and deployed them for developing Web-based applications.

"In addition to innovation and a sound business plan, technology is the most important consideration in helping small business operate efficiently," said Sonal C. Shaw, president of Northwest Software, Inc. "Compaq offers products that are reliable and have enhanced our ability to operate more efficiently and better serve our customers."

On March 7, 1971, with $500, a rented storeroom and a few pieces of used equipment rescued from the snow and ice of a Pittsburgh scrap yard, Jim Fox, president of Fox's Pizza Den, Inc. fulfilled his lifelong dream of opening a pizza shop in his hometown of Pitcairn, Pennsylvania.

Today, Fox—the 2002 business week winner representing Pennsylvania—manages more than 220 franchises operating in 19 states with annual sales topping $70 million. Fox's Pizza Distribution, formed in 1986, provides the franchises with consistent high-quality product and reliable distribution enabling Fox's franchisees to sell over 60,000 pizzas and 30,000 sandwiches weekly.

"As a pizza and sandwich franchise, our primary focus is on helping entrepreneurial-minded people reach their goals in the pizza industry," said Ken Crosby, director of operations at Fox's Pizza Den, Inc. (www.foxspizza.com). "We currently use a Compaq desktop loaded with Microsoft Windows and accounting software to handle typical office applications including e-mail and our franchise management contacts. Because of the durability and reliability of Compaq, I've been able to focus on delivering value to our franchisers, distributors, and customers and not spend time worrying about my IT needs."

Ian Levitt, Tennessee Small Business Person of the Year 2002, is president and owner of QualCast, LLC, an engine parts distributor headquartered in Nashville with 17 distribution sites throughout the United States and Canada. Technology is key to their ability to manage disparate operations spread across North America.

"We use Compaq technology solutions throughout our business including Compaq Presario desktops, industry-standard ProLiant servers and an iPAQ Pocket PC," said Adrian Long, manager of information systems at QualCast (www.qualcast.com). "Compaq products have a solid reputation and we've experienced responsive support after the sale. Compaq's representatives are really helpful whenever we have encountered any repair issues and they make sure the parts you need are available."

Long also partners with LBMC Technologies, a value-added solution provider based in Tennessee. According to Long, LBMC Technologies was instrumental in recommending Compaq hardware and Solomon IV accounting information systems created by Microsoft Great Plains for efficient order management, purchasing, and inventory controls.

The small and medium size business market is the largest and fastest growing segment of the IT market—and Compaq, with its partners, is committed to delivering customer value and enabling success for SMB customers.

"We are building on the momentum of our recently announced SMB market share growth in North America, delivering technology solutions to meet the diverse needs and budgets of small and growing businesses," said Milton. "Customers are at the center of Compaq's SMB strategy to ensure that we make decisions based on their preferred method of procurement, fulfillment, integration, and ongoing support."

For more information about Compaq's SMB offers and promotions, visit http://www.smb.compaq.com/.

Company Background

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation is a leading global provider of information technology products, services and solutions for enterprise customers. Compaq designs, develops, manufactures and markets information technology equipment, software, services and solutions, including industry-leading enterprise storage and computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, communication products, personal desktop and notebook computers, and personal entertainment and Internet access devices that are sold in more than 200 countries directly and through a network of authorized Compaq marketing partners. Information on Compaq and its products and services is available at http://www.compaq.com.