Tech Exporters Provide Much-needed Economic Diversification, Job Opportunities: Alaska's high-tech companies find success overseas.

• Author: Wolf, Greg
• Position: Internationar Trade

While Alaska's international trade economy is fueled primarily by the export of its vast store of natural resources--including seafood, minerals, and metals--there is a small (but growing) high technology sector that is increasingly finding markets overseas for their products and services. While their numbers are small at present, these tech exporters are providing much needed economic diversification and job opportunities tied to knowledge-intensive businesses. In doing so, they are helping put Alaska on the map as an attractive location to start and operate tech-based enterprises. In many cases, these companies have developed cutting-edge technologies, proven them in Alaska, and are now finding customers around the world. Most did not initially contemplate exporting but, either through necessity or opportunity, found their way to overseas markets.

Tech Forward Alaska

At World Trade Center Anchorage's recent Tech Forward Alaska Luncheon, several high-tech exporters were featured. One of those was Dowland-Bach, a local manufacturer of oil field control systems and fabricated stainless steel products. The company, founded in 1975 by Ed Clinton and Lynn Johnson, has a 20,000-square-foot shop located in South Anchorage and employs nearly thirty workers. The company originally gained its expertise and reputation by designing and manufacturing products for North Slope oil producers and service companies. Later, when those firms did work elsewhere in the world, they called upon Dowland-Bach to manufacture control systems and other products for those projects.

In 2013, the company was the recipient of the Governor's North Star Award for Excellence in Exporting. The award was in recognition of its successful exports to the United Arab Emirates and Columbia. The company has also exported to the United Kingdom and to Brunei.

Another firm highlighted at the event was DAT/EM Systems International, an Anchorage-based company specializing in digital mapping and photogrammetric software and hardware. Founded in 1987, the firm licenses its software to companies, government, and private-sector organizations worldwide. Their first overseas customer was a Japanese company. Currently, DAT/EM has customers in more than seventy countries. Typical customers are engineering companies and national mapping agencies that benefit from the 3D imaging capabilities offered by the company. DAT/EM utilizes a network of resellers to help market their products and services...