Tom D'Isepo, Director of Information Systems for FDOT District IV, knows a thing or two about critical missions and the technology to make those missions successful.

One of the first things a visitor to Mr. D'Isepo's office notices is an impressive brass etching on the wall depicting one of his patents. The plaque portrays an unclassified patent, one he received while at Lockheed-Martin, for a complex friend/foe identification system utilizing "remote" polarimetric radar signals. He developed this invention for the most critical mission of all....saving lives.

These days Tom regards his mission at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) as no less critical. "We have about 1000 engineers, traffic analysts, bridge architects, GIS/CADD specialists, support personnel and busy administrators. It's my job to keep them all connected with an integrated computer network. I love the challenge and am always looking for optimal

hardware and software solutions to help make it happen." When Tom first heard about Axon Computers, he was impressed with its community-minded purpose of recycling tax dollars to provide quality jobs for Florida's disabled, but he was not about to trust FDOT's mission critical computer network on anything less than the best hardware available.

"I was intrigued with Axon's mission of vocational rehabilitation enough to conduct due diligence." With his strong manufacturing, quality engineering and ISO 9000 background, D'Isepo decided that the best way to gauge the quality of Axon Computers was to visit the factory. Dick Barnard, Chief Operating Officer of Abilities, Axon's parent organization and Vice President Fritz Smickle accompanied Mr. D'Isepo on his three-hour inspection of the Axon facility. Smickle said, "We were impressed how knowledgeable Tom is regarding the computer manufacturing process. He asked a lot of very probing questions and, in fact, as a result of an excellent suggestion he made, the next week we upgraded our electrostatic protection at work stations involved in a critical phase of the manufacturing process."

Mr. D'Isepo was also impressed. "I half expected to show up and find a "mom and pop" garage operation. Instead, I was very pleasantly surprised to find a modern, spacious production facility with a yearly production of about 5,000 quality PC's using factory fresh Intel components. I am impressed with Axon's procedures and like the fact that they take extra steps like testing components in a 24-hour electrical and thermal QA burn-in before production as well as a 24- hour QC test after assembly." As a result of the inspection, Mr. D'Isepo took due diligence a step further and talked to Axon client-references to confirm that Axon service is responsive. "There are some definite pluses in using a sleek in-state manufacturer. I learned that Axon provides clients with little custom "extras" such as building PC's with each clien's specialized image casts of software apps as well as shipping with client unique decals for our inventory and tracking purposes."

The last step in due diligence was the procurement of an Axon PC and hooking it up to the FDOT District IV network. "The Axon machine seems to adopt nicely to our hybrid Novell/NT network, in fact we were a bit surprised that it took less time than usual to get it up and running." Tom D'Isepo, the guy who knows a thing or two about due diligence and mission critical, concluded, "Axon makes good sense. Governor Bush's letter encourages public servants like me to consider buying products that help Florida's disabled.... but as for me, I have become a fan because I am convinced that the quality of the Axon PC's will help me execute the FDOT mission."

Every Axon client has a story. We have a two page list of Axon clients who have offered to share their personal experiences regarding Axon Computers with you. Call 800/251-8828 ext. 318 or contact the Axon sales office nearest you.

If you are an Axon client and want your story told here, please contact your Axon sales rep or click here