GSA Technology Council

Durham, NC — Jud Bowman, co-founder of Motricity, announced today the creation of his new venture, PocketGear, and the acquisition of the smartphone applications business from Motricity. The company also announced today that it has received investment from leading venture capital firms Noro-Moseley Partners and Wakefield Group.

PocketGear provides a platform connecting millions of people around the world with smartphone applications from a network of more than 30,000 developers. PocketGear powers smartphone application distribution for direct channels including PocketGear.com, SymbianGear.com, PalmGear.com, Smartphone.net, and Mobile2Day.de and for more than 15 partners including Palm, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, T-Online, and AOL. Since its inception, PocketGear has powered more than 100 million downloads to smartphones and mobile devices from a catalog of more than 50,000 applications.

“Mobile phones are increasingly smartphones that run advanced operating systems such as Palm OS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian OS or Linux, and Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android are helping accelerate smartphone adoption,” said Jud Bowman, President and CEO of PocketGear. “The smartphone application market is poised for significant growth, and PocketGear is a platform that connects more than 30,000 developers of smartphone applications with millions of smartphone users around the world.”

The new company will be headquartered in Durham, North Carolina with offices in Munich, Germany.

“While it’s difficult to leave Motricity, I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to lead PocketGear and build a great company based in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina,” said Bowman.

PocketGear also announced that Mike Elliott, General Partner at Noro-Moseley Partners, and Steve Nelson, Managing Director of Wakefield Group, have joined PocketGear’s board of directors.

“Noro-Moseley backs great entrepreneurs and we couldn’t be more excited to invest in Jud Bowman and PocketGear,” said Mike Elliott, General Partner at Noro-Moseley Partners. “We believe the market for smartphone content and applications is set for exponential growth and that PocketGear’s technology, customers, and developer community are perfectly positioned to capture this opportunity.”

“I’ve had the chance to know and work closely with Jud Bowman for the past eight years in helping build Motricity,” said Steve Nelson, Managing Director of Wakefield Group. “I couldn’t be more excited about the chance to do it again and help build PocketGear into one of the largest providers of content and applications for smartphones.”

via PocketGear

Greenville, SC and Charlotte, NC — Located on Fairview Road in the SouthPark section of town, the new office will allow VantagePoint to better serve clients in Charlotte and across North Carolina. VantagePoint’s growth has continued into 2008 and in the first quarter alone, key accomplishments include signing six new clients, expansion into several new business sectors, and a growing presence in Charleston, Columbia, Greensboro, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

“Our decision to expand operations into the Charlotte market was based on our desire to continue to provide excellent service for our existing clients and also take advantage of the growth the area continues to experience,” states VantagePoint CEO, Craig O’Neal. “Charlotte continues to demonstrate a strong economy and with our growing client base here, we recognized the importance of expanding our operations.”

VantagePoint was recently named one of BtoB Magazine’s Top Agencies for the second year in a row. This annual list recognizes top business-to-business advertising and marketing firms for outstanding growth performance in business/revenue, new clients and campaigns. The firm was also recently named the “2007 Agency of the Year” by the Business Marketing Association (BMA) of the Carolinas, based in Charlotte, NC but representing both North and South Carolina.

via VantagePoint

Charlotte, NC — “Duke Energy must play a key leadership role in reinventing the electric utility industry in 2008,” the company’s chairman, president and CEO said today.

“Utilities must produce electricity that is clean, reliable and affordable — three critical but sometimes conflicting priorities that require a delicate balancing act,” Jim Rogers told about 200 shareholders at the company’s annual meeting.

“We face tough realities and difficult choices, but Duke Energy will be a leader in our industry and in our nation’s energy future,” he said.

While serious action on global warming is needed, the utility industry also must ensure that proposed federal climate change legislation does not bring unintended consequences or make electricity generation costs soar, resulting in rate shock for customers already facing skyrocketing food and gasoline prices, Rogers said.

Duke Energy and its fellow utilities must pivot toward a low-carbon future where energy efficiency, wind, solar, natural gas, nuclear and carbon-capture technology for coal plants take center stage, he said.

“The one thing everyone agrees on in the climate change debate is that we must fund an array of new energy technologies so we can fix this problem,” Rogers said. “A quick and meaningful way to do this is to place a small fee on every kilowatt-hour of electricity sold in the U.S.”

He called it “unacceptable” that both Europe and China annually outspend the U.S. on renewable energy research and development. “Our country is asleep when it comes to investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Our nation needs a sense of urgency.”

A three-tenths of a cent ‘technology fee’ on every kilowatt-hour of electricity sold in the U.S. would raise $11 billion annually for research and development, increasing the average residential customers’ power bill by about $3 a month, Rogers told reporters after the meeting. “If we put this in place now, it would raise $70 billion by 2015.”

Energy efficiency is critical to the nation’s future, requiring massive utility industry investment that dwarfs previous efficiency spending, he said, citing Duke Energy’s large-scale save-a-watt efficiency proposal currently awaiting action by state utility commissions in North Carolina, South Carolina and Indiana. “We want to make the communities we serve the most energy efficient in the world.”

via Duke Energy

Wilmington, NC — Global Laser Enrichment, a subsidiary of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy , has announced it has selected GEH’s Wilmington headquarters site for a potential commercial uranium enrichment facility. The planned GEH plant would result in the creation of hundreds of new technical, operational and support jobs at the site between now and 2012.

“This is a key milestone in GLE’s development process,” said Tammy Orr, President and CEO of Global Laser Enrichment. “With the selection of the Wilmington site for a potential commercial facility, we can now move forward with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) licensing process.”

GEH has exclusive rights to develop, commercialize and launch this third-generation uranium enrichment technology on a global basis, under a 2006 agreement with the original developer, the Australian company Silex Systems Ltd.

Before moving ahead with full-scale production plans, GLE will first evaluate the results of a demonstration test loop, which is currently under construction, and obtain an NRC license to build and operate the commercial plant. Commercial licensing activities are currently underway to support a projected start-up date of 2012.

The commercial GLE facility would have a target capacity of between 3.5 and six million separative work units (SWUs). GEH intends to make a final decision on the construction of the facility as early as the beginning of 2009.

The cutting-edge laser enrichment isotope separation technology allows GEH to become further integrated in the nuclear fuel cycle; already, Wilmington–based Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas (GNF-A), a joint venture of GE, Hitachi and Toshiba, is involved in the fuel cycle. GNF’s site currently receives low enriched uranium, which is then used to fabricate fuel bundles for commercial nuclear power plants. The commercial GLE enrichment facility could potentially become a supplier of low enriched uranium to the Wilmington GNF fabrication facility.

No new types of hazardous materials will be added to the GEH plant site. Should GEH choose to build the commercial facility, the GLE plant will take up approximately 200 acres of the approximately 1,600-acre site.

via GE

Durham, NC — Motricity, a leading provider of mobile content infrastructure services, today outlined the company’s strategic operating plan following the acquisition of InfoSpace Mobile.“Historically, Motricity has been involved in several areas of mobile content,” said Ryan Wuerch, chairman and CEO. “The InfoSpace acquisition gave us the opportunity to refine the focus of our organization on areas where we have the strongest market position and are seeing the fastest growth today. Moving forward, our strategy will be aligned with our core business of providing mobile content infrastructure services – enabling consumers to discover content inside and outside the walled garden. These services include powering portals, storefronts, managed web and search for mobile operators along with messaging gateway services for all customers needing a mobile solution.”

As part of this, Motricity will discontinue non-profitable and non-core businesses including the planned divestiture of its direct to consumer property, Pocketgear.com. In December, Motricity announced the sale of another direct to consumer property, eReader.com, to Fictionwise. The company will also be divesting certain business relationships in the media and entertainment arena.

In an effort to maximize the company’s focus on the needs of customers and drive efficiency through the organization, Motricity is optimizing its technology, processes and product set and will migrate customers from the Fuel platform to the mCore platform for Portal, Storefront, Search, Messaging and Managed Web products. Key elements from Fuel will be integrated into mCore to ensure that customers receive the best of both products. The Gateway business will remain the same. In addition, the company is consolidating office locations, moving the corporate headquarters location from Durham, NC, to Bellevue, WA, which is in close proximity to some of Motricity’s largest customers.

The company expects to reduce the workforce by approximately 250 positions over the next nine months. All affected employees will be offered severance packages and outplacement services.

Wuerch added, “The steps we’re taking to quickly integrate the two companies will position us very well for accelerated growth, while offering greater discipline and a more focused approach for our customers. While these decisions are always tough, we’re doing what is necessary to position Motricity for long-term and profitable growth.”

via Motricity

Duke Energy has received confirmation from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that its combined construction and operating license (COL) application for the proposed William States Lee III Nuclear Station has been approved and docketed for the next stage of review.”Our nuclear development project team spent more than 21 months working on this application to ensure quality information was provided for both the safety and environmental aspects of the project,” said Bryan Dolan, Duke Energy vice president of nuclear plant development. “The NRC’s acceptance of our license application confirms that, based on an initial review, it is technically sufficient for the NRC’s more comprehensive review,” Dolan added.

Duke Energy submitted the 8,000-page COL application for the Cherokee County, S.C., site in December 2007. It uses generic portions of TVA’s Bellefonte COL application, the Westinghouse AP1000 reference application, developed by TVA and NuStart Energy Development of which Duke Energy is a member.

The Lee Nuclear COL application will now enter the detailed NRC review process, which includes requests for additional information, visits to the proposed plant site and opportunities for public input as the NRC prepares an environmental impact statement and safety evaluation report. The NRC will publish its review schedule within 30 days.

In addition to its work on the proposed Lee Nuclear Station, Duke Energy is moving forward in North Carolina with construction of an advanced 800- megawatt coal unit at Cliffside Steam Station and licensing and permitting new gas-fired combined-cycle peaking units at its Buck and Dan River steam stations. Duke is also constructing an integrated combined cycle (IGCC) plant that transforms coal into a synthetic gas to produce electricity in Indiana. The utility continues to pursue additional energy efficiency and conservation measures and is evaluating renewable generation options to meet customers’ future electricity needs.

Duke Energy’s Carolinas’ operations include nuclear, coal-fired, natural gas and hydroelectric generation. That diverse fuel mix provides nearly 21,000 megawatts of safe, reliable and competitively priced electricity to more than 2.3 million electric customers in a 24,000-square-mile service area of North Carolina and South Carolina.

via Duke Energy

Cary, NC and Clemson University — SciQuest, Inc., the global leader in helping academic and research-centric organizations realize the potential of strategic procurement, today announced that Clemson University has selected SciQuest’s full suite of eprocurement solutions as the foundation for its entire source-to-settle procurement process. More than 4,800 users across the University will utilize the new eprocurement system.

“Clemson is redefining the term ‘top-tier research university’ by combining the best of two models: the scientific and technological horsepower of a major research university and the highly engaged academic and social environment of a small college,” said Brett Dalton, chief financial officer of Clemson University. “We searched for an eprocurement solution with a proven track record generating savings and greater efficiencies through a strategic and user-friendly approach to procurement. SciQuest emerged as the best choice to provide that service for us.”

Researchers’ procurement needs are unique in that they make unforeseen, ad hoc purchases of disparate materials and chemicals as experiments evolve. Scientific protocols demand uniformity, consistency and a fast response-all factors that challenge one-size-fits-all eprocurement systems and traditional, paper-based processes.

Functionality and features within the SciQuest solution as well as its extensive online catalog of scientific suppliers address these unique aspects of the research environment. With an all-inclusive eprocurement system in place, researchers can spend more time finding cures and uncovering new discoveries, and less time searching for and ordering the specialty supplies they need to complete their work.

With SciQuest eprocurement, all users, including researchers, will simply login to the application, browse the extensive electronic marketplace of suppliers, and compare and select the items and services they want to buy-all in an intuitive, Web-based shopping environment that brings campus-wide purchasing together in one system. The solution suite will also automate and streamline purchase order placement, tracking and management, allowing Clemson to securely distribute orders electronically to its suppliers through a single integration point.

Through eprocurement, Clemson can harness the full value of pre-negotiated contracts and volume discounts as well as negotiate additional strategic contracts where needed. SciQuest makes it possible to more effectively steer purchasing towards contracted specialty suppliers, such as small and minority- owned businesses and suppliers that satisfy environmental and sustainability goals. The University’s financial departments will also attain real-time visibility into institution-wide spending, ensuring that purchasing decisions are strategic in nature and help to advance the University’s mission.

An added benefit of implementing the SciQuest system is that it will now be easier for suppliers from across the state of South Carolina to vie for business with Clemson University. Suppliers will be able register at a single access point in the SciQuest system-ensuring that all can easily compete in the competitive bidding process.

“We are pleased that Clemson University selected our eprocurement solution suite as one of the pillars to reach its goal of becoming a top-tier research institution,” said Stephen Wiehe, president and CEO of SciQuest. “The signing of Clemson University is further validation of our market leadership in the research-centric and higher education markets. We strive to provide customers with the solution they need to deploy eprocurement within the context of their changing business and resource requirements. We look forward to helping Clemson reach its goals by freeing the campus community to focus on their mission, not the administrative tasks required to attain the goods and services they need.”

More than 60 of the best known colleges and universities, including 14 of the top 20 in U.S. News and World Report’s 2007 ranking, use SciQuest’s eprocurement solutions. Additional customers include nine of the 15 largest pharmaceutical companies and other research-centric organizations, such as research centers, research hospitals and specialty surgery centers.

via SciQuest

RadarFind’s Real Time Location System (RTLS) allows hospitals to deploy the indoor tracking system as part of their overall infection control efforts.

RadarFind’s unique asset tag provides status information in two ways. First, when a staff member moves a simple slider switch to indicate that a medical device (such as an infusion pump) is available, in-use or needs cleaning, the tag communicates this information to the RadarFind server, which displays that piece of equipment as green (available), yellow (in use with a patient) or red (needs cleaning) on RadarFind’s locator maps and reports. Second, because the tags themselves include a color-coded bar, staff have a visual cue on each tagged device to quickly determine that equipment is disinfected and available for patient use.

“The ability of our system to provide real-time status information about medical equipment sets it apart from other systems and allows RadarFind to play an instrumental role in hospital infection control efforts,” said Terry Kane, M.D., chief executive officer for RadarFind.

RadarFind was developed after two years of intensive, physician-guided research and development focused specifically on the needs of hospitals. RadarFind offers clear advantages over other systems in the marketplace in terms of superior technology, accuracy, ease of installation and affordability.

Designed to seamlessly integrate with existing hospital infrastructure and operations, the system requires no new wiring and operates independently of a hospital’s critical IT network. RadarFind’s readers (locators) plug into existing hospital-grade electrical outlets, with the outlets still available for other electrical devices. These readers communicate with advanced ID tags affixed to equipment and the intuitive tracking software simply displays information on hospital staff’s screens.

via: RadarFind

Scientists around the world are using JMP Genomics from SAS to explore the very foundations of life, applying its powerful analysis and visualization capabilities to vast data sets common to genomics research. In 2007, its first full year on the market, this comprehensive desktop genomics software gained new customers, established important commercial partnerships and introduced a new release that includes capabilities for advanced DNA analysis.

HOW IT’S USED: JMP Genomics enables researchers to uncover meaningful patterns in their genetics, microarray and proteomics research data:

* North Carolina State University graduate student Youssef Idaghdour used JMP Genomics to show that lifestyle affects human gene expression – and thus disease patterns. Idaghdour’s team collected RNA samples from Bedouin nomads, isolated farmers and city dwellers in his native Morocco.
* Researchers working with a sweeping FDA-sponsored study of DNA microarray technology are using JMP Genomics in their quest to advance personalized medicine. SAS hosted more than 100 members of the MicroArray Quality Consortium for a two-day meeting last May.
* A University of Texas researcher is studying plant genomes to learn why some plants tolerate drought better than others. JMP Genomics’ microarray capabilities let Tom Juenger, PhD, analyze huge SAS data sets and examine “23,000 genes at once instead of one or two at a time.”

SIGNIFICANT ENHANCEMENTS: In June, JMP Genomics introduced version 3.0, adding capabilities for predictive modeling and whole-genome SNP analysis, as well as 3-D graphics and the ability to distill vital findings from huge data sets. In November, release of JMP Genomics 3.1 introduced copy-number analysis capabilities – the ability to examine the number of copies of a particular gene in an individual’s DNA – with import engines for copy number data from Affymetrix and Illumina, leading microarray manufacturers.

NEW PARTNERSHIPS, LICENSING PLANS: Through JMP Genomics, SAS has partnerships with Affymetrix, Illumina and life sciences solution vendor Ingenuity Systems. New academic pricing and licensing options make JMP Genomics more affordable for classroom use. Campuswide and department licenses were offered for the first time in 2007. Under a campuswide license, JMP Genomics is at work in three NCSU colleges: agriculture and life sciences, natural resources, and veterinary medicine.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: “It’s the most flexible and powerful software available, in my opinion, for this type of analysis,” says Susan Dorsey, PhD, University of Maryland, whose research is aimed at finding treatments for chronic pain. “I can upload raw data from a variety of Affymetrix platforms, including gene-level data from microarrays, exon-level data from exon arrays and SNP data from a 500K array.”

via: JMP
WHAT’S NEXT: JMP Genomics 3.2 will be released this spring.

Hosted Solutions announced today the addition of its second Enterprise Data Center in the Charlotte market to support the company’s continued growth. The new facility will add an additional 7,600 square feet of raised floor space, increasing Hosted Solutions’ data center capabilities to serve clients and provide a world class hosting environment.

The new uptown facility will provide a full range of secure colocation, managed hosting, performance monitoring and management, data backup and storage, security, and disaster recovery solutions to customers located in Charlotte, South Carolina, and nationwide.

“We are very excited to announce the opening of our second Charlotte data center,” said Rich Lee, founder and CEO of Hosted Solutions. “The Charlotte team has worked tirelessly to position Hosted Solutions as a leader in this marketplace, and we are proud of our continued success. The opening of Charlotte’s second data center is a testament of Hosted Solutions commitment to grow strategically in our current markets while giving our customers the personal relationship of a small company and the resources of an enterprise organization. Hosted Solutions is dedicated to delivering the highest standard of infrastructure, security, and performance to small, medium, and large businesses throughout the United States.”

The new Charlotte data center was acquired to meet the growing demand for top-tier hosting facilities, and to allow Hosted Solutions’ customers future scalability to grow their business on reliable infrastructure. The enterprise Charlotte data center uptown facility features robust and redundant electrical systems and HVAC infrastructure, multi-provider network access, advanced physical security, and next-generation building automation systems. The new facility sets new standards for security, reliability, and service, and was specifically chosen to expand Hosted Solutions’ ability to deliver innovative and custom data center and managed services solutions.

Hosted Solutions’ new Charlotte data center features true carrier neutrality enabling the company to meet its 100% network availability guarantee and ensure business continuity for its customers’ mission critical data and applications. The company’s high standards for security and redundancy provides customers with a robust and resilient hosting platform that will help grow their business, reduce cost, and achieve regulatory compliance.

via: Hosted Solutions