GSA Technology Council

by Russ Davis

For some, Sales is an accidental vocation and they often enter it unprepared. There is no other position in the business world where people find themselves with so much responsibility and so little preparation. Often the IT professional, engineer, lawyer, accountant or business owner find themselves completely qualified to provide services or products but are at a loss when it comes to getting in front of prospects. This stands to reason. In school we are usually taught a skill, but were never told that we would have to sell it to someone before using it.

In what other field do we expect results from untrained and inexperienced people? I can’t think of one. The expectation seems to be that a salesperson has some natural instinct that allows him or her to close deals. Rarely is thought put into what makes a good salesperson. Like being good at anything, being a good sales person means refining a particular skill set through practice and dedication.

What makes a great salesperson? We start with the basics. They must have basic fundamental strengths. They must have the desire to succeed. They must have the commitment necessary to do whatever it takes to reach their goals. They must have the courage to fail. They have to accept the responsibility that business conditions, the economy, or other hurdles are not valid excuses to keep them from reaching their goals. We are looking for the budding Tiger Woods of sales. Tiger didn’t walk on to a golf course and hit the ball 300 plus yards. It was years of dedication and hard work that refined him into a great player. Sales is no different, we need dedicated people that will work hard at getting better. Natural charisma and tenacity can go a long way in sales, but if we want true greatness, there has to be a dedication to learn and refine the craft.

Natural ability is only step one. Steps two, three and four include working to make ourselves better at our jobs, developing confidence and self esteem, and providing the resources to grow our businesses. As business people we must hold ourselves accountable. As managers we must look for these qualities in people and help them refine their skills. Don’t throw someone into sales and see if they sink or swim. As long as they have strong arms and legs, help them develop into a great swimmer. If we leave sales as a sink or swim profession we’ll often find ourselves treading water but not reaching our potential.

Russ Davis is a business development and sales training coach whose clients include corporations as well as many small to medium sized private companies. He will be conducting our May 21st workshop on no pressure business development.

SCRA presented its Knowledge Economist Award to Dr. David J. Moody and Dr. Charles K. Watt for their contributions to knowledge-based economic development in South Carolina. The awards ceremony was conducted following SCRA’s Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, April 29.

The recognition comes as Dr. Moody steps down from his role as SCRA Board Chair in order to fulfill increased responsibilities at Milliken & Company, and as Dr. Watt steps down from his seat on the board of SCRA’s SC Launch affiliate in order to concentrate on his current posts on both SCRA’s Board of Trustees and the Advisory Board of SCRA’s Applied Research and Development Institute.

Dr. Moody is President of Milliken Research Corporation and is also senior executive for Milliken’s Apparel Division. Dr. Moody’s citation recorded his singular contribution to both SCRA and the state of South Carolina in his recent years as Chair of SCRA’s Board. Included among the many SCRA accomplishments during his tenure are:

• SCRA’s growth from $89M to $110M in total annual revenue


• SCRA’s recognition by the US Navy for market-leading delivery and management of its ManTech R&D Centers of Excellence


• The Company’s capture in December 2008 of a seven-year, $700M Ordnance R&D contract with the US military and industry, the largest contract in SCRA history


• Full execution of the Company’s mandates under the SC Innovation Centers Act of 2005 and Industry Partners Act of 2006, resulting in national recognition by the State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) of SCRA’s execution program, SC Launch, as leading innovation in technology-based economic development in the US in 2008


• As measured by a 2008 University of South Carolina Moore School of Business study, SCRA’s economic contribution to the state for the year 2007 exceeded $1.4B and confirmed more than 15,000 high tech jobs with annual per capita wages of between $55K and $77K.

Dr. Watt, retired Founder and Chair of Scientific Research Corporation, was also congratulated for his contribution to the SC Launch Inc. initiative, as he was an original member of the SC Launch Inc. affiliate Board. Dr. Watt participated in early benchmarking exercises for the SC Launch Inc. program, which evaluated knowledge-based economic development programs in other states, and helped SCRA derive relevant processes and measurements which contributed directly to SC Launch’s SSTI national award.

To backfill Dr. Moody’s seat, the Governor has appointed as SCRA Chair Mr. William Masters, a well-known upstate entrepreneur and inventor. Mr. Masters was the Founder and CEO of Perception Kayaks, a first-of-a kind provider of composite recreational vessels. Among many interests in support of SC-based entrepreneurial development, Mr. Masters is a mentor for the Liberty Fellowship program and an active member of the Upstate Carolina Angel Network. Mr. Masters was also an original member of SCRA’s SC Launch Inc. affiliate Board.

To replace Dr. Watt’s seat on the SC Launch Inc. affiliate Board, the SCRA Executive Committee has appointed Mr. Mike Gantt. Mr. Gantt is a retired senior executive of FiServ, a $4.5B information technology and services provider to the insurance industry, where he served as both group President and Chief Operating Officer. In addition to FiServ, Mr. Gantt has startup and early stage management experience with Epiphany and PMSC. Mr. Gantt now consults on strategy, technology, and outsourcing for major US corporations and asset management firms, and has served as an advisor to both the Midlands Technical College Enterprise Campus Authority, and the SC Launch Inc. Board.

via: SCRA

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a proposed settlement with Consolidated Multiple Listing Service Inc. (CMLS) that requires CMLS to change its rules to allow low-priced and innovative brokers to compete with traditional brokers in the Columbia, S.C., area. The Department said the rules caused consumers to pay more for residential real estate brokerage services in the Columbia area.

The Department’s Antitrust Division filed its proposed settlement in U.S. District Court in South Carolina. If approved by the court, the proposed settlement would resolve the Department’s antitrust concerns.

“Today’s settlement will remove unlawful impediments to competition for real estate brokerage services in the Columbia area and will lead to more choices and lower brokerage fees for South Carolina consumers,” said Christine A. Varney, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division. “For most Americans, purchasing a home is the most significant purchase of their life. This settlement demonstrates the Department of Justice’s continuing commitment to preserve competition in the real estate brokerage industry.”

A multiple listing service (MLS), like the one operated by CMLS, is a joint venture of real estate brokers that combines its members’ home listings information into an electronic database that is made available to all member real estate brokers. This database serves as a clearinghouse for the members to communicate important information among themselves, such as descriptions of the listed properties for sale and offers to compensate other members if they locate purchasers for those listings. In addition, the database allows member brokers who represent buyers to search for nearly all the listed properties in the area that match the buyer’s needs.

Because the MLS’s database is the primary source of home listings information on virtually every home listed for sale in a given area, access to the database – and therefore MLS membership – is critical for any real estate broker seeking to serve clients successfully in the MLS’s service area. Consequently, the rules adopted by the MLS governing who can be a member and how members must behave can have a significant impact on competition among real estate brokers in the area served by the MLS.

In May 2008, the Department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against CMLS in U.S. District Court in South Carolina, challenging policies and rules that restrained competition among brokers in Columbia in several ways. CMLS imposed burdensome prerequisites to membership that prevented some real estate brokers, such as those who would likely compete aggressively on price, from listing homes for sale in the MLS’s database, ensuring that those brokers could not compete in the Columbia area. CMLS required applicants for membership to discuss the nature of their businesses with a committee of incumbent members and reserved the power to deny membership to brokers who they feared would compete too aggressively. CMLS also stabilized the price of brokerage services by forcing its broker members to provide a full set of brokerage services regardless of whether a client wanted the required services. The Department said that those rules prevented consumers from receiving the full benefits of competition, discouraged discounting, and threatened to lock in outmoded business models.

The proposed settlement with CMLS requires it to change those rules and prohibits it from adopting new rules that exclude real estate brokers from membership based on their business models or price structures. CMLS must allow any broker holding the appropriate license under South Carolina law to become a member and cannot continue to exclude brokers based on their business models. It will repeal rules that denied Columbia-area home sellers the ability to hire a real estate broker to perform only the specific services the seller desired, at a lower cost than the seller would pay a traditional, full-service broker. CMLS also will repeal its requirement that its member brokers use only the single contract approved by CMLS, which blocked home sellers from alternative arrangements that allowed them to avoid paying any commission to their broker if the sellers found buyers for their homes.

The proposed settlement, along with the Department’s competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register, as required by the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act. Any person may submit written comments regarding the proposed final judgment within 60 days of its publication to John R. Read, Chief, Litigation III Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 5th Street, N.W., Suite 4000, Washington, D.C. 20530 (Tel: 202-307-0468). At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the court may enter the proposed final judgment upon a finding that it serves the public interest.

The Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina has once again been recognized as the top international MBA program at any public university in the nation, according to the latest rankings of “America’s Best Graduate Schools 2010″ in U.S. News & World Report.

It is the 20th consecutive year that the school has been ranked among the top two in the category — this year ranking #2 ahead of University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Ross), Columbia University, Duke University (Fuqua), New York University (Stern), Harvard Business School, University of Southern California (Marshall), and the University of California-Berkeley (Haas). The Moore School also moved into the Top 25 among the top business schools at the nation’s public universities — moving from 32 last year to 24 overall this year and from 59 to 53 among all business schools.

The latest ranking comes on the heels of the School announcing two new international business programs for the fall.

The Master of International Business (MIB) is a unique one-year interdisciplinary graduate program offered jointly by the University of South Carolina’s Moore School, College of Arts and Sciences (Political Science) and School of Law. The new program will provide students with an advanced understanding of the interaction between business, government and society. Courses are approached from an interdisciplinary view so that students gain practice in applying socio-cultural, political and economic perspectives to a rich variety of international management issues including overseas trade and investment and the operation and role of multinational firms in the global economy.

The second program, the International Business and Chinese Enterprise (IBCE), is a collaborative program with the Chinese University of Hong Kong for undergraduates that includes two years of study in Hong Kong, along with intensive language and cultural training.

“These new offerings are continuing evidence of the Moore School’s innovative leadership in international business education,” said Moore School Dean Hildy Teegen. “We are pleased that this leadership is further recognized by U.S. News and we look forward to building on this position with the development of new international programs in the future.”

via: Moore School of Business

Exopack, a proven leader in flexible packaging solutions, announces that the company has won five awards in The Flexographic Technical Association’s (FTA) 2009 Excellence in Flexography competition, including a Best of Show and a Gold award in the Wide Web Film-Process category for the packaging of Proctor & Gamble (P&G) Eukanuba® Naturally Wild™ Salmon and Rice Dog Food (9.5 lb. bag).

The prestigious awards were bestowed on Sunday evening, May 3, during the Foundation of FTA (FFTA) 2009 Annual Forum and INFO*FLEX Exhibition’s annual banquet and awards program, held in Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The aim of the competition is to recognize the outstanding graphic achievements of those who support and utilize the flexographic printing process. All entries must incorporate flexography as a major printing element in the packaging design.

In addition to its Best of Show and Gold award, Exopack was honored with a Gold award in the Wide Web Film-Screen category for P&G Eukanuba Pure Turkey and Multi-grain Dog Food (15-lb. bag), and Silver and Bronze awards in the Wide Web Film-Process category for its packaging of Continental Mills’ Krusteaz Holiday Cookie Mix and P&G Eukanuba Naturally Wild Turkey and Multi-grain Dog Food (30-lb.bag), respectively.

P&G Eukanuba Dog Food Bags

“Virtually the entire image on both the 9.5-lb. and 30-lb. Eukanuba Naturally Wild brand plastic bags was 4-color process from edge to edge on the web,” said Lani Craddock,vice president of corporate marketing and business development. “For the Eukanuba Pure brand dog food bag, the majority of the image was achieved with edge-to-edge screenwork. Whether screen or process, the brilliant color and sharp graphics were an excellent match with the comparative proofs.”

Continental Mills’ Krusteaz Holiday Sugar Cookie Mix Pouch

“Our challenge with Continental Mills was to produce a packaging solution that could be built for flexographic printing and still look very similar to the product’s existing folding carton,” Craddock said. “Our pouch accomplished both with its unique background color and sparkles, bright, crisp visuals, and a tight register on the three-around design.”

The annual FTA awards competition recognizes the best printing quality, graphic design, and product technology the flexographic industry has to offer. This year, it received more than 650 entries, representing the work of package printing/converting professionals in all segments of the industry.

“Exopack is honored to be recognized by the FTA for our innovations in flexible packaging solutions for flexographic printing,” added Marian Harrie, the Pre-press Graphics Supervisor at Exopack’s Tomah, Wisc. facility. “Our goal is to provide award-winning flexible packaging solutions that deliver the strength, convenience, shelf appeal, and overall value our customers need. We are delighted that our work has been acknowledged by such a prestigious and influential group.”

via: Exopack

Dell Computer Corporation has formed an Executive Steering Committee comprised of Presidents from their top 25 partner companies nation-wide who preview the Dell latest technology and give advice and feedback to Dell’s top executives. David Pence, President and CEO of Acumen I.T., LLC was chosen to participate in this group, which is currently meeting this week in Chicago, Illinois.

via: Acumen

The Relio R9 delivers RISC computing power in a compact, rugged package. Packed with a wealth of I/O features and using the latest embedded software environment, the system is based on the Atmel AT91SAM9263â„¢ processor boasting a 32-bit ARM instruction set for maximum performance. The Relio R9 is the perfect platform for embedded applications requiring small size, wide operating temperature range,
and flexible I/O connectivity.

Available with up to 256MB RAM and 256MB Flash memory, the unmatched I/O features of the Relio R9 extend the possible uses beyond traditional ARM applications. Standard I/O includes Ethernet, serial,
USB, CAN Bus, digital and analog interface. For local or remote I/O expansion, the Relio R9 connects to Sealevel SeaI/O modules via the dedicated RS-485 expansion port and communicates via RS-485 Modbus
RTU.

To provide the fastest time to market, the Windows CE 6.0 BSP binary and low-level drivers for system I/O are included. Additionally, the R9 software package is equipped with the Sealevel Talos I/O Framework,
which offers a high-level object-oriented .NET Compact Framework (CF) device interface. This interface provides an I/O point abstraction layer with built-in support for the specific needs of analog and
digital I/O such as gain control and debouncing.

The Relio R9 is housed in a rugged, small enclosure suitable for mounting almost anywhere and is rated for a full -40°C – +85°C operating temperature range. The Relio R9 is priced from $599.00, and a QuickStart Development Kit is available.  For applications with specialized hardware requirements, system designers can use the Relio R9 as a platform for application development while a customized target system is designed for specific application requirements.

via Sealevel

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today introduced Amazon Kindle DX, the new purpose-built reading device that offers Kindle’s revolutionary wireless delivery and massive selection of content with a large 9.7-inch electronic paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up to 3,500 books. More than 275,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store, including 107 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers. New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases are $9.99 unless marked otherwise. Top U.S. and international magazines and newspapers plus more than 1,500 blogs are also available. Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today for $489 at http://amazon.com/kindleDX and will ship this summer.

New Large Display

Kindle DX’s display has 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle’s 6-inch display. The larger electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich content such as professional and personal documents, newspapers and magazines, and textbooks. Kindle reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.

The New York Times Company and Washington Post Company are launching pilots with Kindle DX this summer. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post will offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price to readers who live in areas where home-delivery is not available and who sign up for a long-term subscription to the Kindle edition of the newspapers.

Kindle DX’s large display offers an enhanced reading experience with another category of graphic-rich content—textbooks. With complex images, tables, charts, graphs, and equations, textbooks look best on a large display. Leading textbook publishers Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, together representing more than 60 percent of the U.S. higher education textbook market, will begin offering textbooks through the Kindle Store beginning this summer. Textbooks under the following brands will be available: Addison-Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman & Prentice Hall (Pearson); Wadsworth, Brooks/Cole, Course Technology, Delmar, Heinle, Schirmer, South-Western (Cengage); and Wiley Higher Education.

Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia will launch trial programs to make Kindle DX devices available to students this fall. The schools will distribute hundreds of Kindle DX devices to students spread across a broad range of academic disciplines. In addition to reading on a considerably larger screen, students will be able to take advantage of popular Kindle features such as the ability to take notes and highlight, search across their library, look up words in a built-in dictionary, and carry all of their books in a lightweight device.

New Built-In PDF Reader

Kindle DX features a built-in PDF reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology for reading professional and personal documents. Like other types of documents on Kindle, customers simply email their PDF format documents to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. With a larger display and built-in PDF reader, Kindle DX customers can read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing, which destroys the original structure of the document. Everything from annual reports with graphs to flight manuals with maps to musical scores can be viewed on a single, crisp screen with Kindle DX.

New Auto-Rotation

Kindle DX’s display content auto-rotates so users can read in portrait or landscape mode, or flip the device to read with either hand. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables, images, and Web pages.

New 3.3 GB Memory Holds Up To 3,500 Books

With 3.3 GB of available memory, Kindle DX can hold up to 3,500 books, compared with 1,500 with Kindle. And because Amazon automatically backs up a copy of every Kindle book purchased, customers can wirelessly re-download titles from their library at any time.

Incredibly Thin

Kindle DX is just over a third of an inch thin, which is thinner than most magazines.

3G Wireless, No PC, No Hunting for Wi-Fi Hot Spots

Just like Kindle, Kindle DX customers automatically take advantage of Amazon Whispernet to wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download or receive new content in less than 60 seconds, and read from their library—all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Amazon still pays for the wireless connectivity on Kindle DX so books can be downloaded in less than 60 seconds—with no monthly fees, data plans, or service contracts.

Syncs With Kindle for iPhone and other Kindle Compatible Devices

Just like Kindle, Kindle DX uses Amazon Whispersync technology to automatically sync content across Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, and other devices in the future. With Whispersync, customers can easily move from device to device and never lose their place in their reading.

Massive Selection of Books—Plus Newspapers, Magazines, and Blogs

The Kindle Store currently offers more than 275,000 books, including popular books like New York Times Bestsellers, New Releases, and fiction and nonfiction released in the past several years. Dozens of newspapers and magazines are also available for subscription or single-edition purchase. BusinessWeek and The New England Journal of Medicine are available in the Kindle Store starting today, and The Economist will be available soon. Subscriptions are auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle overnight so that the latest edition is waiting for customers when they wake up. Over 1,500 blogs are available on Kindle and updated and downloaded wirelessly throughout the day.

The Clemson Renaissance Center’s Spring Global Issues Briefing is a panel discussion and workshop entitled “How to Export Your Business.” This 1-1/2 hour workshop is ideally suited for small and medium-sized companies, experienced and new-to-export alike who want to grow their business through exporting. The session will cover available trade resources and include a primer on the mechanics of exporting. Brief, one-on-one counseling will be available after the workshop.

The workshop led by the following panel:

Dorette Coetsee, Director, South Carolina U.S. Commercial Service. Coetsee coordinates and leads efforts to develop and executive strategic initiatives in the State. Coetsee focuses on developing new markets for small to medium sized companies (SME) and is also responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with statewide partner organizations. She also maintains direct relationship with congressional offices in the State.

Denis Csizmadia, Manager, Greenville U.S. Export Assistance Center, U.S. Commercial Service, U.S. Dept of Commerce. Csizmadia directs the U.S. Commercial Service’s Greenville U.S. Export Assistance Center where he collaborates with local and statewide partners to provide international marketing and export finance assistance in eleven counties throughout South Carolina’s ‘Upstate’.

Clarke Thompson, International Trade Specialist at the SC Dept. of Commerce, facilitates overseas export opportunities for South Carolina companies primarily through the use of international trade missions. These trade missions provide an opportunity for businesses, educational professionals, economic development professionals and governmental leaders to travel to foreign markets and collaborate with their peers and potential customers.

Fred Monk, President, ECI-Find New Markets. Monk has served as President of ECI since 1997. By working closely with ECI’s investors and board of directors, Fred maintains the strategic alliances that set the stage for the organization’s future success. Fred has actively promoted international business and relationships at the local, state and regional levels. He was instrumental in the creation of the Columbia World Affairs Council and currently serves as chairman.

The workshop will be held May 18, from noon until 1:30 pm. RSVP Pris Foster: 864-370-3038.

Customer Effective Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and value-added reseller of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, announces that Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. (TBW), a top 10 national wholesale mortgage lender, recently selected the company as its CRM software provider. The CRM system deployment involved data integration, business process streamlining and automation to sustain annual production volume of $35 Billion and support the lender’s $3 billion asset total.

At the request of Microsoft, Customer Effective embarked on the collaborative CRM project with TBW, building the CRM solution to meet the growing needs of the mortgage lender. Customer Effective worked as an extension of TBW’s IT department, providing consultant services during and after the implementation process. Encouraging user adoption of the CRM system throughout the organization was integral to the success of TBW’s process improvement strategy.

According to Cindy Janssen, project manager of TBW, “It was a collaborative process from the start, and we could not have completed such a successful CRM implementation without the expertise of Customer Effective. We have always approached technology deployments differently. Customer Effective rose to the occasion and promptly adapted to our atypical culture, displaying a high level of talent at every stage of the business relationship.”

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, TBW uses key functionality to pull information from a number of data sources and systems and aggregates that data to present a single view of the information to users. CRM reduces the number of required applications needed and serves as the company’s only record system for all customer data in client administration, client services and one group of insurance agents. To get a full view of the timeline during the approval process, representatives can also track all interactions by account. The CRM system’s Advanced Find feature allows users to obtain report information without the assistance of the IT department.

For mortgage lenders, CRM enhances various aspects of the lending process with holistic views of a customer file created by collecting all enterprise data in one central location. This is beneficial to lenders as they are able to implement intelligent up-selling and cross-selling tactics based on a clear understanding of customer data, increasing greater wallet share. Mortgage lending personnel also leverage CRM to manage and track sales goals and trends, enhancing the sales process with an efficient understanding of proven successful loan decisioning.

“Microsoft Dynamics CRM enabled TBW to upgrade their access to complete and accurate customer information, allowing the lender to offer uniquely targeted products and services,” said Scott Millwood, CEO of Customer Effective. “TBW clearly outlined their business process which made our approach to the CRM project much easier. We were able to integrate and convert their business data into a single, comprehensive source of information for all employees, giving them the tools necessary to remain a preeminent organization in the mortgage lending industry.”

via: Customer Effective