AVCO techs are always busy. “Yesterday, we spent time at State Civil Defense installing a product that enables you to do room-to-room and room-to-desktop [video conferencing],” Mahikoa explains. “Tomorrow afternoon we’re going to the Hawaii Medical Service Association [HMSA] to install a unit for them to use for their business. The next morning we’re going to the Department of Health to install a unit for them.”

And, what’s next on the technology horizon for AVCO? “The biggest thing we’re seeing right now is the change from desktop to mobility. Mobility used to be a laptop, but now the youth are text messaging, they‘re using phones, Blackberrys. It’s become the mobile device. You’re not tied to a desktop at a desk or even a laptop any more.”

While technology is an integral part of staying ahead of the game, Mahikoa says teamwork is what gives AVCO the edge. Lee chooses his employees carefully. Even his brother Patrick, who’s Vice President of Sales, had to prove himself.

Lee says his brother is a good salesman “next to me,” he laughs. “Sales, yeah? You have to have a lot of knowledge in this field,” Lee says. “Because I started this 30 years ago, I learned from the very bottom. And, in order to make a big sale, you have to have a lot of knowledge and confidence in what you say. So, if you have knowledge of the equipment and how it works, then it’s very easy to be confident to sell.”

And, Lee says his brother’s confidence level is “pretty high.” But, that’s because he has the company backing him. When a salesman promises something, everyone works to deliver it. “He knows that when we tell the customer that we’re going to give them this 100-percent service, that whenever something goes wrong you can count on our service department taking care,” Lee says.

Lee believes service is the cornerstone of AVCO’s success. “I make service my number one priority,” he says. “I’ve found by taking good care of customers, they automatically keep buying from me. So that’s my number one priority, is making sure the customer is serviced.”

And systems integration isn’t just promising a good product. It’s everything that goes with it, from installation to maintenance and service. That’s where AVCO shines. Mary Kay De Jesus, Account Manager for Polycom, gives the best recommendation. California-based Polycom is a market leader for video conferencing systems, among other things. De Jesus calls AVCO Polycom’s “go-to re-seller in the islands because of their expertise. Sometimes, when people buy something, they want more than we can give, like being able to hide the technology in a credenza or maybe they want to remove all the wires on the table or they want specialized furniture or really big rooms, and AVCO is excellent at that,” she explains.

Lee points to the John A. Burns School of Medicine project as a complete success story. AVCO outfitted the classrooms with the typical auditorium audio-visual equipment. But in the clinical skills area, which includes 12 exam rooms for students to practice their medical skills, there was a lot more integration.

Each room had two cameras, a microphone and the interaction between the doctors (medical students) and patients (volunteer medical students) is all recorded onto a computer.