[October 28, 2009] Paetec opens 20,000-square-foot Hiawatha site [The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa] Tweet (Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 28--HIAWATHA -- When a piece of equipment at 122 Paetec Holding Corp. central offices nationwide needs replacing, Hiawatha gets the call. Paetec, which acquired McLeodUSA in February 2008, on Tuesday marked the opening of a 20,000square-foot warehouse at 1719 Hawkeye Dr. The facility, built to Paetec's specifications, is owned by Hawkeye Electric and leased to the Rochester, N.Y.-based telecommunications provider. Bob Harrison, Paetec distribution center manager, said the state-of-theart facility centralizes inventory control for all of Paetec's operations. "We basically store two types of material -- outside and inside," Harrison said. "Outside plant material includes things like large spools of fiber-optic cable. It also includes inside material like computer cards about the size of a sheet of office paper that sell for upward of $80,000. "When we decommission an installation, we try to recover and reuse as much equipment as possible." The Hiawatha distribution center includes some inventory and personnel formerly housed in Houston, Texas. Dan Reinbold, president of Paetec's central region, said the facility will improve the company's operating efficiency and make it easier to respond to service outages. "As we continue to grow and expand nationwide, it's facilities like this that will be the keys to our continued success," Reinbold said. "We need the efficiencies to keep our customers happy, keep more customers coming in and service them as best we can." Harrison said the distribution center employs seven and he is planning to hire an eighth technician. Although the facility is staffed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Paetec employees are on call around the clock to handle emergencies. Some equipment is shipped directly from suppliers to Paetec switching centers, but the digital "paperwork" is routed through the Hiawatha distribution center. Harrison said the secure warehouse is con sidered the "depot of last resort" for spare parts and equipment required to keep Paetec's central offices operating. "When we get the call, we find what they need and ship it to them overnight," he said. "Paetec chose Hiawatha for this facility because it's centrally located, we're close to Interstate 380, and we have good access to FedEx and UPS." -- Contact the writer: (319) 3988366 or [email protected] To see more of The Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.gazetteonline.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]