Hamco and Arkansas.net Top Tech Lists

Companies Shuffle Ranks in a Year of Many Mergers

As technology continues to find its place in local business, many of the names that appeared on the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s 2000 list of area Internet service providers and computer dealers disappeared from the updated 2001 version.

Acquisitions did away with some companies. Computer dealers Custom MicroSystems and Inacom Information Systems were taken out of the competition when Clearpointe Technology Group and Avow Technology Solutions acquired them respectively.

Several other technology businesses, including Computer Renaissance in Fayetteville and Good Earth Computer Ltd. in Rogers offered only a tinny recorded voice explaining that the phone number had been disconnected.

Merges melded two namesakes into one when Millennium Communications and Spectrum Enterprises Inc. of Rogers converged to become Mc2k Spectrum.

However, the newly formed company didn’t respond to the Journal’s inquiries before the publication deadline. Several other ventures from last year’s list, such as Internet Partners of America in Fort Smith, Radio Shack and The Net Connection of Fayetteville, failed to respond.

Arkansas.net made another appearance on the list of top Internet service providers. Serving 25,000 dial-up customers, an increase of 25 percent over 2000’s figure, Arkansas.net maintained the same points of presence. However, the company added 1,000 dial-up modems to its setup.

Hamco Business Solutions of Springdale surpassed Dixieland Computers to top the Journal’s list of area computer dealers. Sixteen full-time computer department employees work at Hamco to sell Hewlett Packard, Compaq and IBM systems.

PC Turnkey might have risen from the bottom of the ISP list, but the company’s policy prohibits employees from releasing information about the business’ service.