Posts Tagged ‘GA’
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
 By 2013, the smart phone applications market is expected to surpass $15 billion, up from $1.94 billion in 2009, according to research2guidance. The surge will be attributed to the dramatic increase in the amount of smart phone users, which should top 1 billion in 2013.
Plenty of companies are benefiting from this increase in attention, like Glu Mobile makers of original games like Beat It! And Brain Genius toNetSuite who gears its applications towards financial and customer management needs.
The smartphone/tablet app market is easier to break into for startups and provides a quicker route to revenue than many other tech opportunities. We reported on the Atlanta startup, Khush, which has a smartphone app that adds music to your voice when you sing a tune.
Khush CEO Prerna Gupta is among 120 top digital gurus presenting at the upcoming Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC, Nov. 15-16.
There are also niche markets emerging, Vringo, Inc (NYSE Amex: VRNG) recently unveiled its Facetones application via Verizon V CAST Apps. This application creates an automated video slideshow using friends’ photos from social media websites and photo sites and then plays this video slideshow as the phone rings.
Applications are making their way into traditional areas of business as well, The Allstate Corp., which operates in most facets of insurance allows users of their applications to do everything from get policy and claim information to pay their bill and receive accident support.
According to a semi-annual survey, CTIA found that there are 327.6 million wireless subscriber connections, an increase of 9 percent from mid-year 2010, when that number was at 292.8 million. Of that number, 95.8 million are smart phones and wireless enabled PDAs. For the first time, the number of wireless subscriber connections has surpassed the U.S. population.
Tags: Atlanta, CTIA, GA, Khush, NC, Raleigh, research2guidance, Smartphone app market to hit $15B, The Allstate Corp., Verizon, Vringo
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
By Mike Williams,
Employer Services Director at The Clean Air Campaign
 ATLANTA – Demand on roads in American cities has never been higher, and in many parts of the country, the supply is struggling to keep up. According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, traffic on the nation’s interstate highways grew by 150 percent from 1980 to 2006, but interstate capacity grew by just 15 percent.
With tax revenues decreasing and government budgets shrinking, the state of Georgia is focusing on a strategy that reduces traffic demands while benefitting local employers: telework.
This week Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and The Clean Air Campaign are calling on all Georgia employers and commuters to support the second annual Georgia Telework Week, Sept. 12-16.
Despite a decline in telework on a national level—as we saw in the most recent World at Work survey—Georgia is actually seeing an increase in both the number of teleworkers and the frequency with which they telework.
Number of teleworkers growing
The 2010 Metro Atlanta Regional Commuter Survey, commissioned by the Georgia Department of Transportation, revealed that the number of teleworkers grew 20 percent between 2007 and 2010, meaning more than 600,000 metro Atlantans currently telework on at least an occasional basis. That equates to 21 million miles of vehicle travel eliminated from our roads each year if everyone among this group teleworked just once.
The Clean Air Campaign works with hundreds of employers throughout the state, starting or expanding telework programs at their worksites. These employers are leading the way because they understand that telework is a smart business strategy: improving recruitment and retention, boosting productivity and morale. Many also benefit from lower real estate costs, reduced absenteeism, and the ability to remain productive when Mother Nature interferes with the ability to get to work.
Although there is strong support for telework, there is still tremendous opportunity for growth. Currently, 245,000 employees in the Atlanta region who do not have permission from their employer to telework but believe their job functions would allow them to do so. That is nearly 430 million vehicles miles that we could eliminate from our highways annually if everyone in this group teleworked once a week, not to mention all the money these commuters and businesses could be saving.
We invite commuters and employers to log on to www.cleanaircampaign.org/teleworkto show their support for telework. Last year, close to 150 employers across the state—including half of Georgia’s Fortune 500 companies—pledged their support during the inaugural Georgia Telework Week. On September 15, we will also be hosting our first Telework Summit which will to provide real-world strategies for telework success.
I’ll leave you with this. Right now in metro Atlanta, the typical solo commuter is spending $4,000 a year on commute costs alone, which equates to roughly $16 per day. That means a typical drive-alone commuter has to work about an hour each day just to pay off that day’s round-trip commute costs. For the year, it would take a full month of workdays just to pay for their annual commute costs. Think about how much money you could save if you were working from home.
The Clean Air Campaign is a Georgia-based non-profit working with the Georgia Department of Transportation and other partners to assist more than 1,600 employers and thousands of commuters with clean commuting options – such as carpooling, transit and telework – that lead to less traffic congestion and cleaner air.
Tags: Atlanta, clean air campaign, GA, Mike Williams, telework
Posted in best practices, Business advice, Georgia | 1 Comment »
Friday, September 9th, 2011
 ATLANTA – The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Adminstration is providing a $100,000 grant to the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) of Atlanta, Ga., to help expand an Economic Gardening Pilot Program that provides technical assistance to growth-oriented entrepreneurs.
“Creating local jobs is President Obama’s top priority and he has taken significant steps to support entrepreneurs and small businesses, which are the backbone of our economy and the cornerstone of our communities,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez. “This EDA grant will help to create new jobs by providing critical technical support to the region’s budding entrepreneurs.”
“Economic Gardening will enhance and accelerate the maturity of early-stage tech and tech-enabled companies by leveraging existing regional strengths along with new, innovative business support services,” said Melanie Brandt, Chief Operating Officer, of Technology Association of Georgia of Atlanta. “Georgia is the national leader in entrepreneurial activity, so it is natural and imperative that, as a state, we support the companies and people driving Georgia’s—and the nation’s—economic recovery.”
The project will allow TAG’s Economic Gardening program to expand its service delivery area beyond the 11-county area it currently serves. TAG’s economic gardening program supports small, emerging technology-based firms, specifically companies in Stage I and Stage II of the business cycle, with research and marketing assistance.
U.S. Economic Development Administration
Tags: Atlanta, Economic Gardening Pilot Porgram, GA, grant supports Georgia entrepreneurs, John Fernandez, President Obama's jobs priority, U.S. Commerce Department Economic Development Administration
Posted in Economic Development, Money | Comments Off
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
 Milton L. Petersen By Milton L. Petersen
Customers or users of outsourcing and cloud computing services are often, and justifiably, concerned about the risks associated their service providers, especially security-related risks. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has recently established a structure of Service Organization Control (SOC) reports to replace SAS 70 reports (i.e., reports produced pursuant to Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70 issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)), which have been used for years, often for purposes beyond their intended focus on financial reporting and controls.
The type of SOC reports that could be particularly useful in assessing security risks in outsourcing or cloud computing relationships are known as SOC 2 reports. SOC 2 reports can provide detailed information on a service provider’s controls that affect the security, availability, and processing integrity of the service provider’s systems, as well as the confidentiality and privacy of the customer’s information that is processed by those systems.
These five attributes (i.e., security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy) are referred to as the “trust services principles,” and SOC 2 reports may be required to address any or all of them. Obtaining information and assurances regarding the trust services principles can be especially important in heavily regulated industries such as health care and financial services, where stringent requirements to maintain the confidentiality and security of personal information apply
As with SAS 70 reports, SOC 2 reports may be either Type 1 or Type 2. Type 1 reports describe the controls used by the service provider, while Type 2 reports also involve a test of the design and effectiveness of those controls and describe the associated test results.
Thus, SOC 2 Type 2 reports can provide much more (and more useful) information to a customer and are generally the type of SOC reports that should be required in outsourcing or cloud computing contracts. SOC 2 reports are produced under the AICPA’s attestation standards, specifically, AT Section 101, Attest Engagements.
SOC 2 reports are generally “restricted use” reports that not only describe and test the service provider’s relevant controls, but also address how the service provider’s controls interface or interact with complimentary controls and procedures of the customer’s organization. SOC 2 reports may therefore help a customer understand or assess whether there are gaps or weaknesses at the boundaries where its systems and the service provider’s interact.
The service provider’s controls that are evaluated in creating a SOC 2 report are those relating to the service provider’s systems and the service that it provides to the customer. These controls address system components like the service provider’s infrastructure (facilities, equipment, networks), software (systems, applications, and utilities), people (developers, operators, users, managers), procedures (automated and manual), and data (files, databases, data flows). Thus, a SOC 2 Type 2 report can be very comprehensive and provide the customer with a wealth of information to help assess the associated risks.
Contracting norms have not yet emerged
SOC reports are very new and contracting norms with respect to them have not yet emerged. While a customer’s initial negotiating position should probably be to require the service provider to pay the costs of periodically producing SOC 2 Type 2 reports, it may be fair for the customer to bear some portion of the costs, to the extent the reports are specifically tailored to the customer’s organization.
It will probably take some time for the new Service Organization Control reports to become better understood and accepted. However, they certainly offer the potential to be very useful in understanding the risks associated with cloud computing and outsourcing relationships
Milton L. Petersenis an attorney whose practice focuses exclusively on information technology-related transactions and issues. He is a partner in the Information Technology Practice Group at the law firm of with HunterMaclean in Savannah, Georgia and may be reached at 912-238-2629 or mpetersen@huntermaclean.com.
Tags: cloud computing security, GA, Hunter Maclean, Milton L. Petersen, Savannah, SOC 2 reports, understanding cloud security risk
Posted in best practices, Business advice, Cloud, IT, Viewpoint | Comments Off
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
 SAN FRANCISCO – JustAnswer, a paid Q&A website, has listed its Top Five Most Curious Cities in the U.S. While New York, NY – the nation’s most populous city with over nine million residents – ranked number one in total questions asked, it isn’t anywhere near the top. That distinction goes to Naples, FL, whose total number of questions asked represented 12.01% of the city’s total population of 21,653, making it nearly 38 times more curious than The Big Apple, which came in at .32%.*
Rounding out the Top Five Most Curious Cities (based on percentage of population) in the U.S.:
2. Littleton, CO: 8.41%
3. Spring, TX: 6.68%
4. Sarasota, FL: 5.31%
5. Marietta, GA: 4.62%
“Since the Experts on JustAnswer began answering questions in 2003, we’ve always been intrigued by where the pockets of curiosity are around the country. While we’re not surprised to discover that the nation’s largest urban cities asked the most total questions, we’re very intrigued by the online engagement of smaller cities, such as Littleton, CO and Spring, TX,” said Andy Kurtzig, Founder and CEO of JustAnswer.
How Major U.S. Cities Stack Up in the Curiosity Department
Among U.S. cities with populations of over 400,000, Atlanta, GA topped the rankings with questions asked representing 2.44% of its population, followed by:
2. Miami, FL: 2.16%
3. Minneapolis, MN: 1.87%
4. Las Vegas, NV: 1.55%
5. Denver, CO: 1.44%
A Tale of Two Cities: What’s In a Name?
When it comes to asking questions, two cities can share a name, but not necessarily their curiosity quotient. While Naples, FL topped the JustAnswer ranking of most curious cities, Naples, NC accounted for only two questions.
Similarly, Portland, OR (47th), Philadelphia, PA, (96th) and Memphis, TN (97th) far outdistanced their namesakes, Portland, MO, Philadelphia, MO and Memphis, IN, which combined for a total of just four questions asked.
*Rankings are based on an estimate of user location according to the IP address of the computer used to visit the JustAnswer website between June 2010 and June 2011. Population figures are from the United States Census Bureau. JustAnswer does not identify or record actual locations or addresses of its users.
Tags: CO, FL, GA, Just Answer, Littleton, Marietta, Memphis, Naples, NY., OR, Philadelphia, Portland, Spring, top five curious cities, TX
Posted in Florida, Georgia, Internet/New Media, Studies, surveys, reports | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
 MARIETTA, GA – Metago, creator of ASTRO, a file management application with over 12 million users worldwide, has closed $550,000 in Series A financing from Kii Capital, a Silicon Valley-based venture fund. The capital will support the expansion of the ASTRO product line including a new cloud-based product, enhancements to ASTRO File Manager and continued investment in their OEM channel.
“ASTRO File Manager is recognized as a leading app in the Android ecosystem with millions of loyal users worldwide, and we are excited about the new opportunities this funding will support,” said Kevin Payne, founder and chief executive officer of Metago. “We are using this capital to drive exciting features and new products which will be available shortly. We are confident this will accelerate the growth of our user base and help create a raving fan base of customers.”
ASTRO allows users to manage files easily, similar to Windows Explorer on a PC. Users perform tasks like cut, copy, paste and can backup files or apps to an SD card.
ASTRO not only manages your pictures, music, documents, videos and more, it also has several other built-in tools like a task killer where users can manage processes that eat up devices processing power or battery life, SD card usage monitor and more. ASTRO combines these core functions so users do not need multiple apps.
Christof Wittig, managing director of Kii Capital said, “The ASTRO brand is well-known, well-reputed and powerful, because its products solve a real problem that real users have daily — managing content. We have evaluated many alternatives and it was ASTRO which convinced us, based on over 12 million downloads and its top 10 ranking in the Android Marketplace, that it is in a position to be a real and sustainable market leader in smart phone utility apps.”
ASTRO File Manager has received dozens of awards including Best Tool App by Android Awards, a 5-star rating from CNET and Best All-Purpose Utility Android App by PC Magazine. ASTRO has a free ad-supported version as well as a Pro Version which is currently $3.99. www.metago.net.
Tags: Android app, Astro, Christof Wittig, file management app, funding, GA, Kevin Payne, Kii Capital, Marietta, Metago, mobile apps, Silicon Valley
Posted in Georgia, Internet/New Media, Mobile, Money | Comments Off
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
 NEW YORK – PAETEC Holding Corp. (NASDAQ GS: PAET), a nationwide provider of comprehensive communications solutions, today announced the launch of an expanded portfolio of cloud-based products and the planned deployment of new data centers coast-to-coast. The move comes on the heels of a national study that says the majority of U.S. data centers are running out of space.
As part of its overall cloud and data center strategy and leveraging its breadth and depth of experience in the cloud and data center space, PAETEC plans to add 13 data centers coast-to-coast by the end of 2012 to its current set of seven centers which will result in the company operating 20 centers nationwide.
“With the advent of high-speed networks and continued migration of network intelligence into the cloud, the need for these network-based services has increased dramatically and we see that trend continuing into the future,” said Arunas Chesonis, chairman and CEO of PAETEC.
ETEC currently has data centers in Andover, Mass., Bethlehem and Conshohocken, Pa., Richmond, Va., Milwaukee, Wis., Houston, Tex., and Phoenix, Ariz.
In 2011, the company has plans to expand to McLean, Va., Tampa, Fla., Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, Mich., and Charlotte, N.C. In 2012, data centers are also planned for Dallas, Tex., Chicago, Ill., Northern California, Rochester, N.Y., Pittsburgh, Pa., Denver, Co., Atlanta, Ga. and a location in the Pacific Northwest.
Tags: Atlanta, Charlotte, FL, GA, McLean, NC, new data centers planned, PAETEC, Tampa, VA
Posted in Carolinas, Economic Development, Florida, Georgia, Hardware, IT, North Carolina, Potomac, Virginia | Comments Off
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
 For the seventh year in a row, CEOs rate Texas as the #1 state in which to do business and California as the worst. North Carolina maintained its #2 rank, while Florida rose three positions to the #3 spot. Tennessee fell one slot from last year to #4 while Georgia climbed two positions to claim the #5 rank.
Chief Executive magazine’s annual “Best & Worst States” survey takes the pulse of CEOs on business conditions around the nation. For the 2011 survey, 550 CEOs from across the country evaluated the states on a broad range of issues, including regulations, tax policies, workforce quality, education resources, quality of living and infrastructure.
“A handful of states have made business-friendly policies a priority,” says J.P. Donlon, Editor-in-Chief ofChief Executive magazine and ChiefExecutive.net. “These forward-thinking states are the exception rather than the rule and include Utah, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma.”
CEOs voted California as the worst state in 2011, with New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Michiganrounding out the bottom five.
“ABC — Anywhere But California,” said T.J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, a $668 million chip maker headquartered in San Jose, California, and with plants in 10 countries. “It’s expensive, it’s hostile to business, and environmental regulations are more of a drag on business than protecting the environment.” Cypress Semiconductor’s headcount in California peaked at 1,500. It’s now down to about 600.
With finances in shambles due to the weak economy, many states have been increasing tax rates.
“Today’s ‘soak the rich’ mentality hits business leaders especially hard,” says Marshall Cooper, CEO ofChief Executive magazine and ChiefExecutive.net. “CEOs and entrepreneurs vote with their feet — and also pack up jobs and investment with them when they leave.”
It’s interesting that North Carolina, which has one of the highest tax rates in the Southeast, maintains its number two position, largely due to the talent available through its eduction system and its quality of life. It’s education system is about to take a huge cut as the state wrestles with the same type of budget deficit that plagues other states.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Georgia’s rise is also interesting. Another recent report noted that Georgia is right at the top when it comes to startup activitity, with more than 500 businesses a month launching.
Tags: Best States for Business, Chief Executive Magazine, FL, GA, NC, states ranked, Texas, TN
Posted in Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Other SE, Tennessee | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
 KENNESAW, GA - MBlast, an applications provider helping marketing professionals better understand and influence their markets, has raised $12.91 million of a targeted $20.4 million offering, according to a regulatory filing.
The company sells a web-based tool named mPACT, which it says finds and scores influence and offers comprehensive media monitoring, competitive tracking, and opportunity monitoring via an interactive, user-friendly dashboard and robust, graphical reports.
The cloud-based application helps marketers identify and interact with influencers importan to their markets.
The company says that mPACT is built on the idea that influence does not equal popularity. Justin Bieber may have more than 6 million followers on Twitter, but his voice offers little authoritative weight in the automobile or hi-tech markets.
Likewise, a particular blogger may have an impressive generic ‘influence score’ through some other influencer measuring packages in the market, but may also have the wrong focus to ever influence the market a marketing professional cares about (i.e. Automotive Engines instead of the iPhone market).
According to the company, mPACT bases influence scoring first and foremost on topical relevancy. Upon signing up, users enter a set of keywords or areas of interest.
For example, an iPhone app developer could enter their company name, product name(s), competitor names, “iPhone”, “application”, “Apple”, or any other relevant phrases. mPACT then mines terabytes of web-based data in real-time — including blogs, social sites, online publications, and journals — to identify who’s writing about that specific topic.
mPACT applies an advanced, influence algorithm which considers what an Influencer has written across online media (articles, blogs and social media), how frequently they’ve been sourced, how often they are quoted, the number of followers/readers they have, and much more.
mPACT users can see the top Influencers for any given market with granular nuance for a particular product or area of interest.
Built-in competitive intelligence tracks competitors across online publications and the social web in real-time, so marketing professionals can see which Influencers are talking about competing products, what they’re saying, and how often.
The application continually searches for opportunities that can enhance a company’s marketing efforts, including awards, editorial opportunities, buyer’s guides and directories. For example, mPACT users are alerted whenever a competitor appears in a buyer’s guide or a relevant topic pops up in a publication’s editorial calendar.
Per-user pricing ranges from $495/year to $2,995/year, based on the number of companies and markets tracked.
For a chance to meet and interact personally with influencers in the digital media space, including top executives, innovative entrepreneurs, domain experts, venture capitalists and others, check out TechMedia’s Digital Summit May 16-17 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: cloud-based, financing, GA, influencer management, Kennesaw, Marketing, mBlast, mPACT, web-based tool
Posted in Georgia, Internet/New Media, IT, Marketing, Money, social media | Comments Off
Thursday, April 7th, 2011
 ATLANTA – EnerTech Environmental Inc. has raised $523,227 a $2.25 million equity offering, according to a regulatory filing. The company develops and commercializes clean energy technologies for biosolids such as sewage sludge and otehr organic waste materials.
EnerTech’s says its patented Slurry Carb process cleanly and economically converts high-moisture wastes into a high-grade renewable fuel, with significant cost savings over alternative options. The company currently holds multiple U.S. and international patents for a number of combustion and high pressure technologies.
Kevin Bolin founded the company in 1992.
Directors cited in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing the raise include Alex O’Cinnaide, of hte Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company; Bolin; CEO Jay Troger; COO and General Counsel Clifford Gould; and Howard Sanders.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Alex O'Cinnaide, Atlanta, biosolids, Clifford Gould, EnerTech Environmental, financing, GA, Jay Troger, Kevin Bolin
Posted in Energy, Georgia, Money | Comments Off
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