information technology : Innovation + Job News

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is not a new idea; but a Dayton company, Acclimate Supply Chain Solutions, is staying ahead of the curve by creating new software that gives its customers more bang for their buck with this time tested process.

Rob Young, president of Acclimate, says the company is preparing to roll out several new software products that take data collection and transmission further and allow its customers to glean valuable information to help them do business.

"The thing that sets us apart is we want to do more with EDI," says Young. "We think there is a lot of harvestable data in these transactions."

The three new software products target specific business processes: supply chain analytics, manufacturing work flow and shipping details. Each of these new programs is expected to be released widely in the first quarter of next year, says Young.

These are in addition to the company's existing EDI software suite, SimplicIT.

"The power of this new technology is it allows people to stumble across things (data) they never would have thought to ask for," says Young.

In addition, the software is much more user friendly for non-techies than previous software of its type, he says.

Founded in 2004 by Christian Prince, Acclimate has seen year over year growth of 50 percent, says Young. He predicts this trend will continue and even accelerate as the company rolls out these new products to its national customer base that includes industries such as automotive, heavy equipment manufacturing, retail and steel.

Young says he expects to add as many as eight new employees to the company's existing 10 employees next year. The new jobs will be mainly in the areas of tech support and product implementation.

Source: Rob Young, Acclimate Supply Chain Solutions
Writer: Val Prevish

A middle school technology camp and an early PC put Andy Hughes on the road to his own digital development company. Today, Hughes runs the technology camp and his Franklin-based firm, Designing Digitally develops e-learning tools, virtual worlds and websites for clients nationwide.

Hughes, the company's president and founder, says a junior high technology camp run through the Putnam County Educational Service Center (ESC) helped him "learn early on a little bit about technology. And at the same time, my father had brought home a personal computer. And my father said one critical thing to me when I was very young, and he said 'play with it all you want. If you break it we'll figure out how to fix it.' '"

Hughes must have learned well. At 15, he helped build the infrastructure for his local telephone company's first Internet service, and later helped the ESC convert school records from microfilm to digital files.

He says that after earning a digital design degree at Bowling Green State University his freelance work became so robust that, in 2001, he formed his own company.

"We do a lot of e-learning, web-based training," he says. Building virtual worlds for a variety of applications has also been a growth area.

For example, executives at one client company use avatars and computer microphones to meet virtually with one another in place of conference calls or videoconferencing, he says. "They push a button and they're talking to each other and able to virtually meet and have a physical representation of themselves and have that avatar talk."

The company does business with a variety of customers including not-for-profits, corporate clients, educational institutions state and federal agencies -- including a project to develop a virtual world for the Air Force Academy.

The company has eight full-time employees, 16 contractors and consultants, and is hiring.

Source: Andy Hughes, Designing Digitally
Writer: Gene Monteith

Wireless technology already helps us with everyday tasks like changing TV channels, making phone calls and surfing the web. Before long, it will help people stay alive, too.

Endotronix Inc. is developing a system that enables doctors to monitor a patient's status remotely and therefore, be able to intervene quicker when life-saving action must be taken due to conditions such as hypertension, abdominal aortic aneurysms and congestive heart failure.

The system uses miniaturized wireless and implantable pressure sensors licensed from Cleveland's NASA Glenn Research Center in 2008.

The pressure sensors implanted in the patient's body collect valuable data that is sent to a hand-held or wearable device. That device wirelessly transmits the data to the doctor.

The company, which has facilities in Cleveland and Peoria, Ill., got $250,000 from JumpStart Ventures of Cleveland last month.

"We're excited about it," says Michael Lang, of JumpStart, citing the technology's ability to save time and money and extend life.

Endotronix also is a portfolio company of The Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise, a project of the Lorain County Commissioners, Lorain County Community College, and the Ohio Department of Development; and reportedly has gotten $400,000 from a group in Illinois, too.

Source: Michael Lang, JumpStart
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

John Steidley says the smart phone has come of age as a prime tool for just-in-time training. His company, Intelligent Mobile Support, is now trying to prove that vision.

Formed in June of 2009, the Solon-based, company launched its services this past August as a more efficient, less costly and more rapid way to channel information to sales personnel and other mobile workers.

"If you think about how training happened 25 years ago, we'd fly people in, give them a three-ring binder try to teach them everything we knew in three days," says Steidley, the company's CEO and founder. "Three days afterward, 90 percent of the information was gone, it had evaporated from their minds." 

After receiving an iTouch for Christmas a couple of years ago, "it occurred to me that the mobile smart phone was the perfect training device," Steidley says. "It was portable, it was just in time, you could go anywhere , you could catch a couple of minutes of training while you were waiting to go somewhere. And that was the turning point in my mind."

Intelligent Mobile Support, which hosts any type of web-based training material, alerts those in the field to product or software updates, market conditions or competitor data, he says. For example, someone on a sales trip can access new PowerPoint slides while waiting in the airport. The service is synced up in such a way that users can move from phone, to laptop, to PC all while keeping their place using tags, or bookmarks.

Besides mobile personnel such as sales people, Steidley says "we've got a particular focus on the healthcare sector," specifically an application directed at the physical therapy segment that shows patients how to do their exercises, all while tracking the workout for the care giver � and comparing the plan with the actual execution.

The company has three full-time employees, but partners with Youngstown-based Empyra, which has an equity stake in the company and provides software development and hosting services.

Source: John Steidley
Writer: Gene Monteith

Youngstown-based Via680 is taking health care, retail and sales to the next level. And the portfolio company of the Youngstown Business Incubator may soon be changing the way people -- everywhere -- communicate.

CEO Tony DeAscentis points to the company's staple product -- intelliSling -- which he believes will change how people send and receive information over the Web.

The software company that started out in 2007 as Bizveo, is now moving past its streaming-video-only roots.

"Imagine being able to leave a voicemail, with attachments, video and assessments or surveys -- that you can answer whenever you want," DeAscentis says. "We rebranded the company, the product and our marketing strategy. We are really doing more than pushing a message around. We're moving intelligence around rapidly -- almost slinging it around."

He says email does that also, but adds that emails are not as effective at engaging people, noting they can be "sort of a nuisance. We're really giving people a new tool set, so they can take engagement to a new level."

It's that sort of visionary approach that has helped Via680 become something of a media darling, with a recent feature broadcast by the BBC and ongoing national coverage.

DeAscentis says the health care industry is still the company's No. 1 client. There are about 400 customers using Via680's intelliSling, and 10 people employed with the company. But the with a sales team constantly hitting the pavement, business is only growing.

"We're building a national and international market," he says. "Our goal is not to just employ 25 people. Our objective is to become a technology force."

Source: Tony DeAscentis, Via680
Writer: Colin McEwen

It's uncertain how many Americans are playing console games for money. But with nearly 70 such games hooked to the Internet in North America, Beyond Gaming hopes to tap into at least 30,000 players within its first month.

The concept is simple: provide a site through which members can play console game tournaments for fun � no membership fee � or for stakes � $7.95.

Because the Toledo company takes no cut of the winnings, and because console games are considered games of skill, the service is legal, says President and CEO Tony Legeza.

Legeza and co-founder Justin Yamek, himself a competitive console gamer, came up with the idea after Yamek qualified for a west coast tournament last year but couldn't scrape together the funds to fly to LA.

Instead, they asked, why not build a Web-based service that allows gamers to connect with others, organize tournaments, and build relationships through a robust social media component?

The service was launched earlier this year as a closed beta site with 500 players, but quickly picked up an additional 500 after going public a little more than two weeks ago, Legeza says.

"When you go on the site you create a profile, you've got your friends and your wall that you can communicate with," Legeza says. "We've got different chat rooms and video chat rooms where you can share video and let other people watch you play in a competition. People have a space to come to where they can start communicating about something they're passionate about, share their experiences, provide content, upload photos, share video content."

The company had early help from Rocket Ventures, which invested an initial $100,000, and angel funding of more than $100,000. The company is in the midst of a $500,000 venture capital round as well.

Beyond Gaming currently has four employees.

Source: Tony Legeza, Beyond Gaming
Writer: Gene Monteith

Your fridge conked out and you need it fixed before the roast goes bad. Problem is, the repair company can't say exactly when a technician will be out. Does "sometime between 1 and 5 p.m." sound familiar?

TOA Technologies of Beachwood has tackled the problem by developing a system it says can schedule the repair technician, cable guy or TV installer in a one-hour slot with a 96 percent on-time rate.

On Tuesday, TOA released its 2010 Cost of Waiting Survey, which polled consumers in the U.S., Germany and the UK about their waiting experiences. TOA found that American adults wasted about 2.75 billion hours waiting in the past year � the equivalent of 1 million people being out of work for a year.

The cost to businesses is significant, says President and CEO Yuval Brisker, noting that 21 percent of respondents reported switching companies because of long waits. Nearly half called customer service to complain about their experiences � an additional cost to companies that contract with call centers.

TOA's approach rests on its ability to analyze individual employee performance to understand how long he or she will take for each assignment, Brisker says. Not only does TOA's solution generate employees' daily schedules, but it provides customer notification and tracking functionality, he says. All of which help service companies keep their customers.

Founded in 2003, TOA launched its services in 2004 and has raised $17 million in two rounds of venture capital, including assistance from two Ohio Capital Fund partners: Cleveland-based Early Stage Partners and Draper Triangle Ventures.

Brisker predicts current year revenues to rise 75 to 80 percent over last year. Meanwhile, TOA has grown from two employees in 2004 to 200 worldwide today � about 40 of which will staff the company's new headquarters building when it opens in Beachwood next month.

Source: Yuval Brisker, TOA Technologies
Writer: Gene Monteith

That timeshare in Myrtle Beach seemed like a good idea at the time. A week's beach vacation in your own place every year.

But last year, the kid came down with pneumonia just before your vacation in the sun. This year, a business trip got in the way. You tried to trade your weeks with other timeshare owners -- but it never worked out.

Bottom line: You didn't quite get what you paid for.

If VacationView has its way, that dilemma will be solved. The young company, which formed last year and launched its Resort Rentals By Owner (RRBO) service in June, has built a web environment that will let you rent out your timeshare when you can't use it.

Think of it as StubHub for timeshares, explains co-founder Bob Kington.

"We started down this path of building a trading platform where owners could find each other online and do a swap between themselves," Kington says. "As we got into it, we said there's a better solution, and that's rental. If you could just rent your unit out and get cash for that asset and then use that cash to go somewhere else on vacation or put it in your pocket or whatever, it's a much better solution."

Unlike similar services, which bring renters and owners together to hash out deals on their own, RRBO takes care of both the transaction and fulfillment, Kington says.

Formed by former CompuServe and AOL alumni -- including former ShareThis CEO Mike Blackwell -- RRBO has raised about $800,000, including $225,000 from TechColumbus, and is working on an additional $300,000 to $500,000 round. The additional funds will allow the company to make a full-fledged marketing push, Kington says.

RRBO has seven full-time and three part-time employees.

Source: Bob Kington, VacationView
Writer: Gene Monteith

Cyber spying is the stuff of blockbuster movies, but it is also a very real nightmare for businesses and government agencies trying to keep their information secure in the age of internet communication.

Northrop Grumman subsidiary Xetron, based in Cincinnati, is partnering with the University of Cincinnati School of Computing Sciences and Informatics to offer its employees and graduate students at UC, coursework designed specifically to address some of the skills needed to prevent cyber security breeches. Students completing the coursework can earn a master's degree in computer science with a focus on cyber informatics.

"(Cyber security) issues are one of the most serious threats we face nationally," says Pabir Bhattacharya, director of the School of Computing Sciences and Informatics. "The more we use the Internet, the more we need to make our transactions secure. With mobile communication like cell phones there is an increased risk."

The 29 employees of Xetron enrolled in the coursework and the roughly two dozen graduate students at the UC campus will learn about skills such as encryption, detecting intrusion, maintaining a secure network and preventing viruses, spyware and malware, says Bhattacharya.

Classes will be held at both the UC campus as well as Northrop Grumman's Xetron facility, with live video feeds connecting the two locations. Both UC professors and Northrop Grumman employees working as adjunct professors for the university will teach.

Skills that students learn through the program are critical in today's information climate, says Martin Simoni, site director for Northrop Grumman's Xetron business unit.

"Educating and developing home-grown talent is critical in today's highly competitive job market," says Simoni. Our cyber master's program will allow our technical experts to groom students on the job and in the classroom."

About 20 percent of Xetron's engineering staff are UC graduates, says Bill Martini, director of engineering and operations, Northrop Grumman Xetron facility. "We want to educate (engineering students) so they can be better prepared for the work force," says Martini.

Sources: Pabir Bhattacharya, University of Cincinnati;  Martin Simoni and Bill Martini, Xetron
Writer: Val Prevish

The events of September 11, 2001 spawned an Akron-based business that protects clients from disaster by warning large groups of people within minutes of a threat.

"Post-911, I saw the need for a robust form of emergency communication for the masses," says Scott Dettling, company president.

Established 2003 in Washington, D.C. and later moved to Ohio, Dettling's home state, Inspiron Logistics' original focus was telecom consulting. The system was designed for emergency notification of federal agencies and contractors.

Today, universities, fire and police departments, municipalities, and others rely on WENS (Wireless Emergency Notification System) from Inspiron Logistics to get critical information to those who need to know as quickly as possible

"From day one, our system had to be turnkey; it had to be simple to use. At the height of an emergency, complexity has no place. Alerts can be issued in two steps. Other systems may have four pages of options, and if you check the wrong box, the alert is never going out," Dettling explains.

Unlike 9-1-1, which is intended for individuals to report a problem to emergency services, WENS is a hosted Web site.

"We are an inversion of (9-1-1), designed for use by emergency services or a county emergency management director who needs to alert hundreds of thousands or even millions of people very quickly," Dettling says. Within minutes, WENS can notify huge numbers of people through voice calls, sirens, digital signage, or text messages, he says.

Inspiron's client base has consistently grown by 100 percent annually, says Dettling, while the company's renewal rate is an exceptional 96 percent. The company has 15 employees, including contractors, and plans to expand to more than 80 employees within the next two to three years.

Source: Scott Dettling, Inspiron Logistics
Writer: Patrick Mahoney

Nearly 5 million people in the last month have logged onto SparkPeople, a free, Cincinnati-based web site designed help people connect with like-minded folks pushing toward their life goals, from weight loss to stress management to fit pregnancy.

SparkPeople was founded in 2001 by University of Cincinnati graduate and former Procter & Gamble employee, Chris Downie, with central mission: to spark millions of people to reach their goals and lead healthier lives. The site does this in a myriad of ways: through nutrition, health and fitness tools, and maybe most importantly, through personal support with online message boards, blogs and social networking groups.

"You can look at just at the name and see how we are different. We try to tap into positive thinking and making a true lifestyle change. So it's not just about health. Using these same techniques, people have told us they got a promotion at job, or are being a better parent. They take small steps and get huge life breakthroughs," Downie said.

Downie started SparkPeople.com with the proceeds of Up4Sale.com, which he sold to Ebay in 1998. It was the online auction site's first acquisition. And though SparkPeople's thrust is health, fitness and weight loss, for some the site has affected their lives in other ways.
SparkPeople has 26 full-time and 6 part-time employees. The company plans to hire several more in the near future.

The site has a total of 8.5 million registered users. Many will use it for a short period of time, leave, then come back months or several years later when they need a refresher.

Within the last year the site has launched SparkAmerica.com, a national campaign to help people of all ages exercise more, eat better, make healthier choices and enjoy active, healthy lives. The company also has launched a section devoted to people with Type II Diabetes and now you can Spark on the go with free mobile apps.

Sources: Chris Downie and Tim Metzner, SparkPeople
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Those who run customer contact centers are constantly challenged with scheduling scores of agents to handle calls. While they may have a good idea of how many agents they'll need tomorrow, most can't predict with any accuracy how many they will need a week or two from now.

WorkFlex Solutions has developed software to do just that, says Larry Schwartz, Chairman and CEO of the Montgomery-based firm.
Schwartz formed the company last year with Mitesh Desai, two years after leaving Convergys to open a consulting firm.

The company's signature product, WorkFlex Manager, is based on the manufacturing industry's concept of real-time supply chain management. The turning point in forming the company was the convergence of Schwartz's idea with an application built earlier by Desai that was helping the hotel industry schedule rooms and rates. WorkFlex Manager is now in service with a major outsourcer, and a number of other clients are preparing to implement it, Schwartz says.

WorkFlex's potential has been recognized by the venture capital community, which has invested $1.5 million in the young company. CincyTech, which invested $250,000, led the round, making WorkFlex its 16th portfolio company.

The company currently employs two in North America, and another dozen in India. But as it grows, Schwartz says the company will add business development and marketing jobs, primarily in the Cincinnati area.

There also is the potential to leverage the company's workforce solution to create more call-center jobs here in Ohio and elsewhere in the United States, he says.

Source: Larry Schwartz, WorkFlex Solutions
Writer: Gene Monteith

Keeping tabs on company productivity and efficiency isn't just good business for the big guys. When every dollar counts, smaller companies can benefit from a system that tracks productivity and sales numbers too.

That's why Cincinnati entrepreneur Ben Moore created xRP, an online productivity tool for small- and medium-sized manufactures that quickly tracks a host of important numbers aimed at cutting the fat, managing resources and boosting sales.

Ben Moore, president of Agent Technologies, launched xRP in 2007 in West Chester as a tool to help save Ohio manufacturing jobs.

"The basic purpose of xRP is to help companies become more productive and profitable. Companies typically have to invest tens of thousands of dollars and months of time and effort with software before they start getting any benefit. My goal was to build software that worked over the Internet through an Internet browser that these companies could subscribe to and begin getting benefit from immediately," says Moore, an electrical engineer, and a former Procter & Gamble and U.S. Department of Defense contactor.

xRP can be integrated with popular financial management systems including QuickBooks. The system includes sales contact management, task management, knowledge management an Inventory, Production or eCommerce management among other systems.
"xRP is about saving and creating jobs in manufacturing. Manufacturing has slid to about 12 percent of Gross Domestic Product in the U.S., and manufacturing has traditionally been one of the biggest creators of a Middle Class in any country," Moore said.

Source: Ben Moore, Agent Technologies
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

In the world of Internet security, there's bravado . . . then there's Wiresoft's brand of bravado.

The Cincinnati-based network security provider, which markets its Firegate security platform as "the world's leading network security platform providing enterprise-level security at an affordable price," recently backed up those claims with a challenge.

Last December, the company made itself a target to hackers with its "Hack Us If You Can" dare, offering a $24,000 prize if anyone could break into their systems within a 24-hour period. If that wasn't gutsy enough, the company then kept the challenge going for 90 days.

In the end, no one � including former National Security Agency employees who tackled the challenge � was able to claim the prize money.

Wiresoft President and CEO Tom Schram says the contest proved Firegate was proven everything Wiresoft said it was � complete network protection at a price affordable enough for small- to mid-size companies.

"If you're not willing to put your money where your mouth is in this business, you should rethink what you're doing," Schram, a former Navy cryptologist, explains.

Launched in 2008 in the Cincinnati suburb of East Walnut Hills, Wiresoft is focused on network security and disaster recovery products. With prices that make the protection available to even small businesses, Wiresoft's client list is already into the "hundreds" according to Schram, with more signing on every day.

"What really sets us aside is that we a firewall that's never been broken. We've never had a virus get through, if its signature was known anywhere in the world. We offer a spam wall, content filtering and disaster recovery of information from an online archive. We've got 24-hour tech support doing constant updates," explains Schram. "Our competition can't say that. We can."

Source: Tom Schram, Wiresoft
Writer: Dave Malaska

Mitch McLeod established ARCOS as a custom software company in 1993 in the basement of his home. Little did he know that a one-off software request would eventually propel the Columbus-based firm into 23 states.

In 1997, Wisconsin-based Alliant Energy approached McLeod about building an application to help manage crews called out to repair lines during power outages. The problem: Dragging line crews out of bed in the middle of the night can be hit or miss without an organized way of doing it.

"In 1999, two more companies came to us and they said 'we want what Alliant Energy has,'" McLeod recalls. "So we built a little more general purpose version of the product."

Unprepared to market the product full-force, "I went to the Ohio Foundation for Entrepreneurial Education and rewrote the business plan," McLeod says.

The market research conducted as part of his plan revealed that most utility companies were using manual call-out processes using notebooks and spreadsheets, or home-grown systems that left a lot to be desired.

With four more utilities in the pipeline for his software, McLeod's company dove headlong into fully developing a marketable product. The resulting solution automates the process for identifying available line crews, contacts utility workers at home and allows them to electronically report into work. It then tracks their work so "we know that they have been called out, we know not to notify them again, and then when they're released from work we know not to call them again."

Today, the Columbus-based firm serves utilities all across the country. Company revenues have been growing at about 20 percent a year during the past two years, and McLeod is projecting 30 percent growth in 2010.

At the same time, the company has nearly doubled headcount in the last year, with 18 employees now compared to 10 in January 2009.

Source: Mitch McLeod, ARCOS
Writer: Gene Monteith