While “Datamax” in Jonesboro, Arkansas, might not be a household name like Walmart (which was founded in nearby Bentonville), the story of this specific office technology and IT solutions provider is a classic Arkansas tale of local resilience, the death of the analog world, and a surprising pivot that saved dozens of jobs.
However, Datamax also hosted a small, forgotten server rack in the damp basement of their old building on Caraway Road. This server handled payroll and inventory for three local manufacturing plants (including a major rice mill).
For two years, former copier technicians—guys who knew how to fix gears and fusers—were taught how to configure firewalls, manage Microsoft 365 tenants, and stop ransomware. It was a brutal transition. One old-timer famously threw a network switch across the room yelling, “This doesn’t have any moving parts! How do I fix something with no moving parts?!”
When the power finally returned, the plants were the first in Jonesboro to reopen. The rice mill’s owner later told a story at the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce: “Datamax didn’t just sell us a service contract. They froze in a lake for us.” That ice storm changed Datamax forever. Mark (who was promptly promoted) convinced the owners that selling physical boxes—copiers and fax machines—was a dying industry. The future was managed IT services .