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From software to lasers, NEPA's high-tech firms boast impressive work [Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal](Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Many can improve their town. Some, their region. Few can better equip the world. We spoke with four of that few. Their common threads: Northeastern Pa. and Ben Franklin Technology Partners. e-Vendor Check In Hawley, Doug LaPasta is quietly improving the way the world finds, researches and keeps tabs on vendors. "Organisations throughout the world have become and will become more dependent on outsourced goods and services," said LaPasta, founder, senior vice president and chief innovation officer of eVendor Check. Complicating matters, however: slipping supplier stability. LaPasta says there has been a very high failure rate of suppliers over the last three years. This, coupled with the ever-rising risks in hiring new suppliers, means a "global problem. "It's a huge issue for every organization in the world." Companies, he said, need to be able to predict the performance and risk levels of suppliers. The old-fashioned ways of Dun & Bradstreet--where you look at past financial performance and things like that--are far from adequate in predicting future performance." The people who know what's really going in a supplier company, said LaPasta, are the current customers. "Making three reference-checking phone calls to check out a supplier is a lengthy and very inefficient process. And secondly, lest we forget," he said, "suppliers can always come up with three people who will say good things about them. What we do is send on behalf of our client confidential survey feedback over the Web. "So, for each client now, you may get feedback from as many as 30 actual customers who are users of the product. You now get a very clear picture of how well they're performing now, what their performance trends are, and what the risk levels are." In doing this, LaPasta says eVendor Check gets data that is impossible to get elsewhere. Where the typical approach queries three customers, eVendor Check gets insight from an unlimited number of customers. Where the typical lands one evaluator, eVendor gets an unlimited number. Where typical gives a manual, eVendor gives scientifically-valid surveys. Where typical is a one-off process, providing subjective and/or anecdotal input, eVendor Check is a repeatable process, returning objective and comprehensive insight. With their innovation, LaPasta and Co. say eVendor Check (and eVendorcheck.com) allows its users to quickly identify "at risk" suppliers, avoid supply chain disruptions, initiate proactive remediation activities, make more informed sourcing decisions and secure better contract terms and service level agreements. He says his firm built the system to do this. Now, he says his new project is to make this completely self-service. Using a partnership with the Institute for Supply Management, a company called Propurchaser, which assists purchasing professionals throughout the U.S., and a number of other professional organizations, eVendor Check will go out to approximately 50,000 purchasing managers and offer them its service. eVendor Check has and will be developing automated product features, establishing on-line tutorials, and creating mobile applications to enhance the user experience and increase sales. Starting in late 2008, LaPasta says his firm already has many customers. He says his firm did six months of research to confirm this venture was a viable option. He had also started a company called Skill Survey, which did a similar process for job applicants and became operational in 2004. As CEO, he was responsible for developing and selling the products and managing all aspects of the company's operations. He invented and patented Web-based reference checks, and built Skill Survey's client base to over 25 active clients including Citigroup, Quest Diagnostics and PSEG. eVendor's goal, he said, is employ about 25 workers in northeastern Pa and build a $100 million dollar business ... in five years. Ambitious? Maybe. But LaPasta has built a track record that says otherwise. The three companies he's started in northeastern Pennsylvania, rounded out by Stonehill Consultants, are all successful. He says eVendor's goal is to build its client base exponentially, planning to do $5 million in business in its first full year. Then, after receiving financing from venture capital investors, tripling that business in its second year. LaPasta, who has been working in the survey feedback field since the late 70s, says his firm is also working to partner with Pennsylvania companies like ICG Commerce, a company which does reference checks and scopes out suppliers. He says they are talking with companies that could, essentially, wholesale its product, white-labeling it. "We're doing something that nobody else does," said LaPasta. "For some reason, no one else has ever thought of it. "We're a case in point--if you have a good idea and work with the right organizations, you can create a product with global applications without having to raise tens of millions of dollars." Prova Systems LLC Case in point two: John Yaron and Franco DiRosa, founders of Prova Systems LLC, a small start-up in Carbondale focused on vehicle fleet management. While working for years in vehicle diagnostics, the two realized they could use vehicle diagnostics to create a more accurate and more cost-effective fleet management solution. "Our goal," said John Collins, Prova vice president of business development, "is to create a new technology option for fleet managers that is more affordable and which encourages those fleet managers who have avoided automated fleet management due to cost issues to move into this new generation of fleet management." Prova, says Collins, helps fleet managers and owners understand important facts about their fleets, providing utilization statistics and performance information. Prova tracks and analyzes fuel economy and can help fleet managers assess their employees' driving behaviors. Prova's system can also track trip data by car and by driver, total mileage driven and avenge speeds, relay error codes, diagnostics and other health and performance information, and show maintenance and inspection schedules. "All of this helps fleet managers manage these expensive assets more completely than they could without this data." And at a fraction of the cost of GPS systems. For a 100-vehicle fleet with $25/month per vehicle charges, Prova says its system can save more than $30,000/annum over the typical GPS fleet management solution. "Most companies in our space use GPS positioning systems to help fleet managers track their fleets and they derive useful things like mileage and speed from that information. We read actual data from the vehicle's diagnostic port using an OBD-2 (Onboard Diagnostics; a standard created by the EPA to monitor and control vehicle emissions) monitor we call a VHM (Vehicle Health Monitor) and forward that to our fleet management application called VHM Fleet Manager." GPS systems customers are usually working in a live-update environment and therefore have a cellular network connection in the vehicle which forwards position data to a monitoring application. Using a cellular connection, says Collins, is very expensive, and, carries monthly subscriptions--and data service fees. "Prova uses a local wireless system called Zigbee, which works in a similar way as WiFi but is designed for faster and smaller data uploads. With Prova's systems, we don't charge monthly fees." Collins says everyone at Prova has significant business experience and many have worked in larger multinational organizations building products for customers in both the in and outside the U.S. After spending several years to create the product and bring it to market, Prova and company are now looking to further grow the company in the region and expect to expand sales from its domestic focus to international over the next 18 months. Hydro4GE Over the last three years, Hydro4GE, Inc., a wholly-owned company of Software Engineering Associates, Inc. (SFA) of Archbald, has been hard at work in Scranton commercializing an online development environment software tool now known as Patio, software it created to assist in writing software. The platform allows programmers to generate and support whole database systems from high-level specifications. Traditional software construction practices are often repetitive and labor-intensive, and thus prone to error. Hydro4GE's software delivers substantial programmer productivity gains, rapid application prototyping, and dramatic ongoing support efficiencies. This significantly reduces programming time and increases the accuracy in attaining the desired software program functionality. While Pario's framework has been in place for a number of customers of SEA for 10 years, this commercial version is new to the marketplace. "Pario," said Tim Speicher, vice president of marketing, "will provide developers massive time savings in developers' projects. This in turn can help them to take on more projects or realize a higher margin on the projects they work on. "We're saving our customers time. And, of course, time is money." So just how much time? In some cases Pario can cut project time in half. Speicher said a NEPA county approached Hydro4GE to implement a online phone directory--a very simple application--peoples' names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. While simple, it would take two or three days to materialize. While doing the demo, Tim's brother Geoffrey Speicher, Hydro4GE's chief software architect, created the directory in 15 minutes--and it was up and running and production-ready. "Developers get what we're doing," said Tim. "They can realize the biggest times savings. Now we're trying to in-form everyone else just how this simple, inexpensive application can benefit their business in many ways, from saving data to tracking information. "Pario allows its users freedom because you're now no longer locked down to having a database on one computer. Now, multiple people can access it." Tim says Geoffrey created and developed Pario after realizing many similarities from project to project. "Like any profession, if you work it for a while you figure out ways to make your job easier on you. You find ways to work more efficiently." Now, Geoffrey and company have taken their efficiency and made it their customers'. Snake Creek Lasers Innovative thinking: 1; Grunt work: 0. In Hallstead, innovative thinking is benefiting many, including our armed forces. There, Dr. David C. Brown is pushing the envelope is laser technology. Brown, a well-known expert in solid-state laser technology, founded and leads Snake Creek Lasers LLC. Prior to incorporating as Snake Creek Lasers LLC in 2004, the company operated as Advanced Laser Systems and specialized in providing laser engineering, prototyping and manufacturing solutions for many industrial and government organizations. Now, Snake Creek, operating from its 17,500-square-foot modem laser manufacturing and research and development facility sat in the picturesque Endless Mountains, prides itself on being a premier supplier of miniature lasers, laser modules, and high-power cryogenic lasers for defense and commercial applications. "Yeah I think we've done a lot of interesting things," says Brown. Modest, considering his contributions. "Among other things we've developed very, very small solid-state lasers, especially little green lasers. And they're used for all kinds of things, from laser alignment tools and forklift trucks to Pico projectors and medical alignment systems. "Thus important because, compared to red light, the green light is much more visible. The eye is really drawn to it. And, green light is visible in daylight whereas red isn't." Brown says Snake Creek is also learning how to build very high-efficiency lasers, which has drawn much interest in the military. One of the firm's products is called a Laser Warning System. A high-powered device, this system is used at checkpoints and in protecting convoys. Snake Creek's cryogenic laser technology has also found many potential applications in the military world, as well as the civilian world. Brown's company was able to shrink the size of the laser from a tractor-trailer to a Humvee. "What's great about cryogenic laser technology we've developed is it produces an almost perfect beam." Brown says Snake Creek has, in part, built from a cryogenic laser contract he secured with what was then known as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Then, he looked at what would happen to laser crystals when they were cooled down to cryogenic temperatures. The result was hot. Cryogenic lasers are now the commodity. Just recently, Snake Creek landed two Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research programs, one of which is from the US Army for chem-bio detection, so, says Blown, we can "remotely detect nasty thing. "To do so effectively, you need to have a deep ultraviolet laser. Another growth area is really high-average power solid-state lasers--for both civilian and military applications. "The US used to dominate the high-powered laser field but the Germans seem to have taken over. We'd like to restore some balance in that equation." Snake Creek Lasers also conducts contract solid-state laser research and development in the areas of high power cryogenic solid-state lasers, alexandrite lasers, near and mid-infrared lasers, eye-safe lasers, ultrafast lasers, and in laser and optical materials. "We've been fortunate to have Ben Franklin Technology Partners involved. Personally, I'm very fortunate to still be a student. To know lasers you have to know optics, you have to know mechanical engineering, crystallography, optics materials and on and on. If I didn't continue learning throughout my life, I wouldn't have the background I have now." Brown hopes Snake Creek Lasers will give some younger people some ideas on future careers in NEPA. "In the process, we hope we can highlight the need for a stronger focus in mathematics and the sciences to we can help to start building up a photonics industry in this region." The companies: * e-Vendor Check Hawley firm collects, distributes data on vendor performance. "So, for each client now, you mw get feedback from as many as 30 actual customers who are users of the product. You now get a very clear picture of how well they're performing now, what their performance trends are, and what the risk levels are." * Prove Systems LLC Carbondale company focuses on vehicle fleet management. While working for years in vehicle diagnostics, the founders realized they could use vehicle diagnostics to create a more accurate and more cost-effective fleet management solution. "Most companies in our space use GPS positioning systems to help fleet managers track their fleets and they derive useful things like mileage and speed from that information. We read actual data from the vehicle's diagnostic port using an OBD'2 (Onboard Diagnostics; a standard created by the EPA to monitor and control vehicle emissions) monitor we call a VHM (Vehicle Health Monitor) and forward that to our fleet management application called VHM Fleet Manager." * Hydro4GE Scranton firm is commercializing its online development environment software tool known as Pario. The platform allows programmers to generate and support whole data-base systems from high-level specifications. Traditional software construction practices are often repetitive and labor-intensive, and thus prone to error. Hydro4GE's software delivers substantial programmer productivity gains, rapid application prototyping, and dramatic ongoing support efficiencies. "Pario will provide developers massive time savings in developers' projects. This in turn can help them to take on more projects or realize a higher margin on the projects they work on." * Snake Creek Lasers Hallstead company prides itself on being a premier supplier of miniature lasers, laser modules, and high-power cryogenic lasers for defense and commercial applications. "Among other things, we've developed very, very small solid-state lasers, especially little green lasers. And they're used for all kinds of things, from laser alignment tools and forklift trucks to Pico projectors and medical alignment systems. (c) 2011 Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal |