Dakota Supply Group - Index

Dakota Supply Group - dakotaoctober - Index

Going For The Green
In golf, it’s important to maintain a steady hand
and to play with the next stroke in mind. For
Doug Kilber, his work oftentimes shares the same
fundamentals as his favorite sport. When he’s not
playing on the links, Kilber works for the innovative
communications company, DELL-COMM.
Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
DELL-COMM was founded by Del
Freichels, who took the
company from a oneman,
basic computer
and telephone wiring
shop, based out of his
garage, to a five-location
c o m m u n i c a t i o n s
company that today
works on such high-
profile projects as
the 2008 Republican
National Convention
and even holds the
contract for the state
of Minnesota. Freichels
eventually retired from
the everyday operations
of the company, and
Karen Aho is now CEO.
With Aho as the
head of the company,
DELL-COMM became a
woman-owned company
and is now officially
recognized by the state
of Minnesota as such.
This unique distinction
provides the credentials
and resources to help
DELL-COMM customers
The tugger purchased by DELL-COMM from
DSG has occasionally allowed the
communications company to use only
two technicians on a project rather than four.
(Left to Right) Darin Rusch, Doug Kilber and
Dwayne Egli
meet Targeted Group or Economically
Disadvantaged (TG/ED) participation requirements.
Today, DELL-COMM has offices in Minneapolis
and Duluth, MN, as well as three branches in
Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks, ND. Its Bismarck
office, which opened in 1994 with just three
employees, was where Kilber made a name for
himself at DELL-COMM.
Kilber originally worked at the Fargo branch as a
cable splicer and was quickly moved to manager of
the Bismarck office. Due to his significant success
in Bismarck, he is now the manager of all three
North Dakota branches and their 16 employees.
In Kilber’s neck of the woods, DELL-COMM has
worked on jobs all over North Dakota, as well as
in some neighboring states, such as South Dakota
and Montana. To facilitate its projects, DELL-
COMM counts on DSG to come through with
supplies. “DSG supplies 100 percent of our cable
and jacks and about 90 percent of everything else
we use,” says Kilber. “It’s who I call first.”
Currently, DELL-
COMM is replacing
copper cable on the
campus of United Tribes
Technical College in
Bismarck with an all-new
conduit and cable fiber
system that will last the
college 20 years. It’s a
customer that is always
looking to innovate, and
DELL-COMM has been
working with them for
the past six years. “They
started with a telephone
system of 200 phones
in 2002,” says Kilber.
“They’ve doubled that
since then.”
This year, the staff
at DELL-COMM is also
taking on the Medcenter
One Mandan Care
Center in Mandan,
ND, and installing a
computer networking
system with fiber optics.
In 2008, it also rebuilt
the cable system at
the Midwest Coca-Cola
Bottling Company. For both of these projects, it
was important that DELL-COMM didn’t interrupt
the normal working system. “Our customers need
to be able to do their jobs while we’re doing ours,”
smiles Kilber. In other words, you wouldn’t close
down the golf course because the greens are
getting groomed.
With its job list, DELL-COMM often finds itself
in need of hard-to-stock products. DSG’s Darin
Rusch, outside sales, and Dwayne Egli, inside
sales, work closely with Kilber to get him what he
needs in the time that he needs it. “We require
continued on page 6
COMMUNICATIONS
Fall 2008 CONNECTIONS 5