Wichita Eagle: CybertronPC moves, plans retail storefront
By Bill Wilson The Wichita Eagle
A 13-year-old Wichita computer company is growing, moving into a new 30,000-square-foot South City location as its custom PC business expands.
CybertronPC, a Wichita company since 1997, has moved to 4747 S. Emporia, just off 47th Street South near Braum’s, with an eye toward a larger market share, said Shadi Marcos, the company’s co-founder and president.
It opened the new 30,000-square-foot warehouse on March 1 and has plans to open a factory retail outlet store out of its lobby by April 15, Marcos said.
Its business selling custom-built personal computers and servers to worldwide business and personal markets outgrew the company’s old 13,000-square-foot headquarters at 1122 E. Osie, Marcos said.
“We really have done this in the opposite direction from most in our industry,” Marcos said. “Most start in the retail trade and work their way into mail order. We got really solid on the mail-order side of things and the manufacturing, so we figured, ‘Why not? Let’s go retail.’ ”
The retail lobby will be a factory outlet, including all the major components of a computer system or server, Marcos said. In addition, Cybertron techs will be available to talk to clients about custom-built systems.
“We have some pre-configured systems, but we don’t like to sell right off the shelf,” Marcos said. “We want to make sure the customer gets what they need — not more, and not less — and that we can give them some service after the sale.”
Cybertron is an entrepreneurial story that benefits entrepreneurs, said Don Hackett, an entrepreneurship professor at Wichita State University.
“It’s the classic niche market that the big boys overlook on purpose,” Hackett said. “Getting heavy into personalization and selling is an excellent business niche.”
A big part of the new Emporia location will be devoted to computer and server manufacturing.
One area of the warehouse handles custom-builds for individual orders. There, techs put the computers together, load them with software and test them for 24 hours, Marcos said.
“If the components are going to fail, we want them to fail here and not in the customer’s hands,” Marcos said.
The computers go to a wide range of industries, such as banking, digital marketing, real estate, health care, restaurants, hotels and education, Marcos said.
Another assembly line handles mass builds, such as large groups of desktops for school districts.
All that’s in addition to another company specialty — the personal gaming computer.
“We think the market here is totally underserved,” Marcos said. “There’s a big need, a big gap for somebody who provides a quality product, services it and takes care of the customer.
“And we feel like there’s also room to grow in consulting with the customers before the sale that may not be available in the Wichita market.
“Bottom line: We want our customers to know that what they’re buying will do exactly what it needs to do.”