THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609140214
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: 73 lines
Anytime Wil Riner Jr. rolls up in his 35-foot motor home, he can't help but notice gaping bystanders mouthing the word.
``Cheetah.''
And no wonder. A big image of the leaping cat emblazons both sides of the vehicle. It's Network Connection Inc.'s logo and the first sign that this is no ordinary motor home.
The ``Cheetah Mobile,'' as it's known, may be the most elaborate sales tool employed by any company in Virginia. From top to bottom, end to end, it's crammed with computers and other high-tech gadgetry - all for the purpose of introducing potential customers of Network Connection to the company's cutting-edge machines.
Network Connection makes devices known as servers that are used by universities, military installations and businesses to store and distribute vast data and video files.
These servers cost anywhere from $27,000 to $250,000 - and they're not easy to set up for a demonstration.
That presented a problem for Network Connection that led to a very creative solution. Why not put the demo on wheels? Riner asked.
Thus: the Cheetah Mobile.
It has racked up 16,000 miles since Riner, who manages the Alpharetta, Ga.-based Network Connection's Newport News field office, took the keys in May. And it's one reason why Riner said he and his Newport News colleague, Tim Pitcher, have chalked up more than $2 million of sales since then.
``You don't know how many guys who are salesman have walked in here and said, `Man, I wish I had this,' '' Riner said during a break at the Expotech '96 showcase earlier this week at Hampton Coliseum.
Riner used to be one of those guys who lumbered into town for a sales demo, lugging boxes and crates of equipment into the potential customer's office. Hopefully, he'd get a big enough room. Hopefully, he'd have adequate power supplies.
Now, he said, ``I pull in and push one button and the side of the Cheetah Mobile extends out, and I push another button and the generator switches on, and in 10 minutes I'm ready to go.''
Customers walk into the motor home's plush interior, plop down in one of its swivel seats and let Riner demonstrate. With a half-dozen personal computers and laptops plugged in, Riner releases multiple streams of digitized video and CD-quality sounds from the server he's trying to sell.
His customers have largely been in academia and include George Washington University, Georgetown University and Virginia Tech. But Riner said he has a number of promising leads in business and the military. He said several highly placed military officers are even considering outfitting their own Cheetah Mobile-like vehicles to take training sessions to soldiers and sailors at their stations.
It cost $200,000 to buy and outfit the Cheetah Mobile, which is actually a Fleetwood Southwind. Operating costs: about $1,000 a month. There's only one disadvantage, Riner said, ``the time it takes to go from one location to another.''
``I wish,'' he said, ``it had wings.''
But all in all, it's worth the cost and the trouble, Riner said.
The Cheetah Mobile draws people - sometimes too well.
Like last month at a private party for Smithsonian Institution employees on the The Mall in Washington.
A curious pedestrian wormed through the museum's security and dashed inside the Cheetah Mobile.
``She looked around everywhere,'' Riner said, ``and then finally she blurts out, `Where's the cheetah?' ''
``We get noticed,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
RICHARD L. DUNSTON
The Virginian-Pilot
The "Cheetah Mobile" is an elaborate sales tool. It is crammed with
computers and other high-tech gadgetry to demonstrate to potential
customers of Network Conncetion. by CNB