STOC and S3IP name region’s technology leaders

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BINGHAMTON — The New York State Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging (S3IP) at Binghamton University and the Southern Tier Opportunity Coalition (STOC) recently honored five individuals for their efforts in promoting economic development in the Southern Tier. William Murphy, retired senior engineer and fellow at Lockheed Martin, was recognized as […]

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CenterState CEO unveils new structure of Grants for Growth

Nonprofits

SYRACUSE — The new structure of CenterState CEO’s Grants for Growth program should help the initiative become more sustainable and broaden its reach, organizers say.

Chuck Stormon launches his sixth startup

Small Business, Subscriber Only, Technology

CAZENOVIA — Chuck Stormon, the CEO of Attend LLC has his head in the cloud. On Nov. 8, at the Cloud Computing West event in Santa Monica, Calif., Stormon announced the launch of a new software product — MediaCloud.cc. Targeted to video producers, MediaCloud negates the need to ship disks, tapes, or memory packs and

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CAZENOVIA — Chuck Stormon, the CEO of Attend LLC has his head in the cloud.

On Nov. 8, at the Cloud Computing West event in Santa Monica, Calif., Stormon announced the launch of a new software product — MediaCloud.cc. Targeted to video producers, MediaCloud negates the need to ship disks, tapes, or memory packs and bypasses current file-transfer providers who require an expensive licensing process, he contends.

“MediaCloud is the best way to share big files … It’s fast, simple, and secure,” says Stormon. “Unlike online video platforms, MediaCloud is designed to … upload to the cloud and deliver large video files from anywhere to anywhere efficiently.” Besides offering accelerated uploads and downloads, the new Attend product transfers an “unlimited file size … with users receiving shared files free of charge.” Another benefit touted by Stormon is that “MediaCloud does not attempt to replace traditional production tools running on workstations, laptops, or SANs.”

Stormon has developed a membership model which starts at $20 per month and includes 50 gigabytes of storage. There is no band-width limit. Those choosing an annual fee pay $200. For those exceeding the 50 gigabyte limit, there are additional charges. Stormon is currently offering a 30-day free trial simply by going to his website and entering an email address and password.

Stormon says he is “riding a digital revolution that is now 20 years old.” Documentary producers have finally accepted a digital format over film because of its quality, flexibility, and lower cost. Consequently, “I’m targeting ‘prosumers,’ an acronym for professional and consumer users,” he says. Stormon notes that “… Apple and Adobe together already have 4.3 million licensed users of editing suite software, and … there are 12 million regular users and 85 million viewers of VIMEO, a professional version of YouTube.” If you think those numbers are impressive, Stormon sees “every smart phone as a video-capture device, with 315 million current users and usage growing by 60 million annually.”

How does Attend plan to market MediaCloud? Stormon cites the usual options of trade shows, public relations, and advertising, but he thinks the product will go viral through user referrals. “I plan to place a button on the screen, so that users can spread the word to each other,” he says.

Stormon is the sole stockholder of Attend and works with contractors, partners, and advisers. His storage node is currently in the Big Apple with plans for other nodes in Los Angeles and London. He also anticipates setting up other global sites to accelerate file transmission. Stormon is currently in a seed round of fundraising with a goal of $500,000, which he hopes to secure from local and regional venture capitalists. This early funding should take the company to profitability, and if needed, go on to an A-round ($1.5 million to $7 million) of venture capital. If funded properly, “MediaCloud should generate $1 million of revenue in two years and $18 million in four … [At that point,] I project the [company] value at $40 [million] to $60 million,” Stormon says.

Serial entrepreneur

Chuck Stormon is not a newcomer to startups. This writer first interviewed him in 1987 when he and two partners launched a high-tech venture called Coherent Research. Stormon sold the company (then called Coherent Network) in 2000 to Osmose Corp. for $20 million in cash and immediately co-founded Steleus with a French company. Stormon served two years as the CEO and chairman of Steleus India, before moving on to become the corporation’s executive vice president of marketing and business development. In 2004, Steleus, was bought by Tekelec, which was traded on the NASDAQ.

Stormon left the company in 2007 and joined PacketExchange, Ltd., headquartered in London. He served as the chief marketing officer for three years, strategizing to find customers for the company’s private Ethernet pipes. While Stormon focused on the digital-media industry, the new acquirers of the firm had no interest in this area. That’s when Stormon decided to pursue the marketing opportunity himself. He left Packet in February 2011 and that fall initiated MediaCloud in Attend, an LLC he had set up in 2008.

In 2011, Stormon, along with Nasir Ali, also launched StartFast, a Syracuse–based venture accelerator modeled on the TechStars model. The three-month program focuses on helping startups develop and validate a prototype product and on helping to secure funding.

“MediaCloud is my sixth rodeo,” says Stormon. My goal after MediaCloud is “… to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem [in Central New York]. Rather than launch another venture, I prefer to work with and invest in some of the exciting companies in our region. There’s no reason to do another one on my own; I prefer to be an investor, mentor, and cheerleader.”

Stormon first came to Syracuse in 1979, when he attended Syracuse University and received a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer engineering. He and his wife reside in Cazenovia.

Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@cnybj.com

Onondaga County Medical Society names new president

Health Care

The Onondaga County Medical Society has installed its 185th president. The society’s new president is Dr. Ramsay S. Farah of Farah Dermatology and Cosmetics, which

VIZIONefx expects more growth after adding new clients

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Small Business, Subscriber Only, Technology

BALDWINSVILLE — VIZIONefx LLC, a provider of interactive kiosks based in Baldwinsville, has about 35 clients and expects to grow to between 75 and 100 clients by the end of 2013, says J.C. Whipple, chief operating officer. The three-year old company showed signs of growth in late October by adding two new clients. VIZIONefx announced

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The three-year old company showed signs of growth in late October by adding two new clients.

VIZIONefx announced Oct. 26 that it had installed a 42-inch touch-screen kiosk at Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) in DeWitt, which students, parents, and visitors can use to access school news, event schedules, video content, and web links. CBA students have quickly embraced the new system, school officials say.

“Our students have gravitated to the kiosk quicker and more often than we could’ve expected,” says John Wleklinski, athletic director at CBA. “[Students] are using [the kiosk] to keep up with news and event schedules pertinent to our daily curriculum and activities.”

Days earlier, VIZIONefx announced it had added the Syracuse University Athletics Department as a client. On Oct. 22, VIZIONefx said it had installed the CAMPUSefx Information Channel at the Stevenson Educational Center in Manley Field House, which offers student-athletes a computer lab, tutor rooms, career-development suite, and conference/meeting room. CAMPUSefx is a broadcast channel designed to distribute media content, tailored to SU, to television displays. Software embedded in a computer streams content via the Internet into screens at the Stevenson Educational Center.

The distributed content is provided by SU Athletics and managed by VIZIONefx, Whipple says. The company takes SU Athletics’ content via an online file-sharing system and distributes it according to SU’s instructions.

“We schedule out [the content] for when [SU Athletics] wants it to play, how long they want it to play for, [and] we change it out as often as they want,” Whipple says.

SU Athletics wants to distribute information from around campus, the city of Syracuse, and the rest of the country more efficiently and creatively to its athletes, says Kevin Wall, director of student-athlete support services.

“[Student-athletes] are not in tune with email,” Wall says. “There are a lot of events and activities on campus and our students get inundated with emails, and that’s not the most effective way of letting them know about upcoming events.”

CAMPUSefx provides SU Athletics the ability to distribute information with greater interactivity, Wall says.

“We’re hoping that students will stop [at the screens] and maybe, while watching a video, something on the right side of the screen will flash and they’ll pay attention to [a campus announcement, for example],” Wall says.

The Stevenson Center has two screens featuring CAMPUSefx’s channel — one inside the main room and one in the center’s computer lab, Wall says.

VIZIONefx provides similar services to Le Moyne College and Hobart & William Smith Colleges.

Company background

Matt Oswalt, president, and Scott Getty, chief technology officer, founded VIZIONefx in 2009, Whipple says. Oswalt, Getty, and Whipple are equal owners and VIZIONefx’s only employees. They each work virtually from home or on-site at clients’ locations.

“We all worked for companies that used technology in some degree,” Whipple says of the partners’ business backgrounds before VIZIONefx.

Whipple says he was the sales and operations manager at De-Tec, Inc., of Baldwinsville, before VIZIONefx opened for business.

Oswalt and Getty worked together at Baldwinsville–based Patient Portal Technologies, Inc., (OTC BB: PPRG) as director of sales and marketing and CIO respectively, Whipple says.

VIZIONefx is looking to add about five new employees total in the next 12 months in the areas of sales, graphic design, and content management, Whipple says. He declined to disclose the company’s revenue information.

The firm started working with SU in 2011 after installing its digital-signage menu boards at the Carrier Dome’s concession stands. The boards display beverage, snacks, food, beer, and various information over five screens. VIZIONefx also installed digital signage above the ticket windows at the Carrier Dome box office, showcasing ticket information, current and upcoming events, prices, gate information, and various other event information.

VIZIONefx uses software from X2O Media, a company based in Montreal, and other undisclosed companies, Whipple says.

VIZIONefx deploys the software on its platforms, but is also responsible for managing the content, putting it together, and also selling the hardware, Whipple says.

“In our industry we’re called an integrator,” he says. “We take [X2O Media’s] software and we utilize it to deploy our platforms.”

VIZIONefx offers two other similar services — MESSAGEefx and HEALTHefx, geared towards other types of clients, Whipple says.

HEALTHefx is designed specifically for hospitals, senior living residences, surgery centers, and any kind of acute care facility, Whipple says.

MESSAGEefx is geared toward banks, fitness centers, grocery stores, and health clubs, Whipple says. Customers include YMCA branches in Rome, Oneida, and New Hartford, according to the company’s site.

The three products are similar, but vary depending on the organization and how it uses them, Whipple says.

Contact Imbert at news@cnybj.com

Rural/Metro spends $300,000 on technology upgrades

Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only, Technology

SYRACUSE — Rural/Metro Medical Services of Central New York is loading up on new technology in an attempt to boost efficiency and improve patient care, according to its division general manager, Michael Addario. The ambulance company spent about $300,000 to upgrade its computer hardware, software, computer-aided dispatch system, and vehicle-locator system. Money also went to

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The ambulance company spent about $300,000 to upgrade its computer hardware, software, computer-aided dispatch system, and vehicle-locator system. Money also went to replacing Rural/Metro’s radio system.

“We did it all at once because everything’s so integrated,” Addario says. “We wanted to make sure we did it the right way rather than piecemeal it.”

Radio-system replacements will likely be completed in two to three weeks, Addario says. The other upgrades were largely performed over a two-week period starting Oct. 17.

Rural/Metro funded the technological work using its own cash. About 85 percent of the upgrades went to operations based at its Syracuse headquarters, a 26,000-square-foot building at 488 W. Onondaga St. that it leases from the property owner, Martin Yenawine.

The radio work will replace a setup that was essentially two radio systems, Addario says. Rural/Metro operates two dispatch centers — one at its Syracuse headquarters and one in Canajoharie in Montgomery County — and they were not able to talk to vehicles across the ambulance company’s six-county service area. The new system will allow the centers to communicate with any ambulance in that service area, from Cayuga County in the west to Montgomery County in the east.

It could also allow Rural/Metro to consolidate weekday dispatch operations in Syracuse, according to Addario. The ambulance company hasn’t made a final decision in that matter, and the Canajoharie center would still handle dispatching on the weekends, he adds.

Addario doesn’t anticipate the potential dispatch consolidation resulting in any employee layoffs. Rural/Metro employs nearly 300 people, about 260 in Syracuse.

Improvements to Rural/Metro’s computer-aided dispatching system and vehicle-locator system made up another major part of its technological investment.

“We upgraded our computer-aided dispatching system with new hardware, new software,” Addario says. “We were working on trying to interface with Onondaga County’s 911 Center.”

The upgrades enable the 911 center to see all Rural/Metro vehicles through the computer-aided dispatch system. And improvements helped Rural/Metro share information between its paperless patient-care reporting system, computer-aided dispatch system, and billing system.

That will increase efficiency while aiding research into patient outcomes and field protocols, Addario says.

“It allows us to have some really robust clinical reporting capabilities,” he says. “It gives us a huge database of information to be able to look at for research projects.”

Other technology purchases include 41 computers that ride with ambulances for use on calls, replacing older equipment. Rural/Metro also moved to a new virtual server environment, storing information offsite to protect it in the event of a disaster that knocks out power and prevents the ambulance company from running its own backup generator.

In addition to the $300,000 in technology capital improvements, Rural/Metro is replacing a quarter of its ambulance fleet this year. It has already replaced six vehicles and plans to roll out three more replacements by the end of the year.

Each ambulance costs around $100,000, Addario says. Again, Rural/Metro is using its own cash to pay for the investment. The company has 27 ambulances in Syracuse and nine that typically serve Herkimer, Montgomery, and Schoharie counties.

Rural/Metro Medical Services of Central New York operates in Onondaga, Cayuga, Madison, Herkimer, Montgomery, and Schoharie counties. It responds to more than 60,000 calls annually.

The ambulance company does not disclose local revenue totals. Its parent firm, Scottsdale, Ariz.–based Rural/Metro Corp., was acquired in June 2011 by the global private-equity firm Warburg Pincus.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com

C&S construction business gets new head

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Manufacturing & Engineering

SALINA — C&S Design Build, the construction and program management business at the C&S Cos., has a new vice president and general manager. Shibel Jabaji

Binghamton University says its economic impact nears $1 billion

Health Care, Regional News, Subscriber Only

BINGHAMTON — Between salaries, student spending, and all the other dollars Binghamton University spends to keep campus running, it added up to nearly $1 billion in economic impact on Broome and Tioga counties and more than $1 billion across the state in fiscal year 2011. Those findings come from a study report issued by the

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Those findings come from a study report issued by the university, which said that for every $1 the state SUNY system contributes to Binghamton University, it generates more than $8 in economic impact for the state.

According to the report, Binghamton University students spent $96 million to help bolster the local economy last year and visitors to the school spent another $7 million, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The university itself spent $120 million on capital costs and construction, $123 million on goods and services, and $275 million in wages and salaries. When you factor in student and visitor spending, that adds up to a combined direct and indirect spending total of $622 million in fiscal year 2011, university President Harvey Stenger says.

The report, compiled by the University’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, uses standard formulas to assess the impact of the university’s economic output and also looks at the impact it has on jobs, human capital, and return on investment.

The report, based on fiscal year 2011 which is the most recent year available, shows that Binghamton University accounts for an estimated 12 percent of the gross domestic product of Broome and Tioga counties through its direct and indirect expenditures. When applied to the Binghamton Metropolitan Area regional multiplier, that figure grows to $965 million in total annual economic impact for the region.

Stenger, who pointed out that the report covers a year when SUNY budget cuts were in effect for the university, says he expects the report for fiscal year 2012 to surpass the $1 billion mark for the region.

While that number is impressive, there is more to the university’s impact than just those figures, Stenger contends.

“My favorite part of the report is that we measure how many students volunteer in the community,” he says. During the 2010-2011 school year, 6,578 students volunteered 280,000 hours to area organizations. “It’s huge,” Stenger says. “And nobody told them they had to do that, and nobody paid them to do that.”

Other university impacts on the regional economy that are highlighted in the report include business and industry partnerships the university has around the region, such as the Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging; the Center for Microelectronics Manufacturing in partnership with Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Inc., Cornell University, and the Flex Tech Alliance; and the proposed Southern Tier High Technology Incubator the university hopes to open in 2015, Stenger says. The hope is that the incubator will house 10 start-up companies when it opens in 2015, and that those companies will go on to grow and generate their own economic benefits for the region, he says.

Binghamton University will continue to generate other economic benefits as well, he says. “One of the things we’re going to see grow over the short term are more companies, more technologies, and more patent licenses coming out of Binghamton University,” he says. The university’s faculty currently generates about 15 to 20 patents each year, and only goes after patents that are most likely to spawn a company or provide license revenue, he says. Last year, the university received about $750,000 in license revenue, he says.

And none of those figures factor in the impact the university’s SUNY NY 2020 plan will generate, Stenger notes. Under that plan, approved earlier this year, the university will grow its student population, add new faculty and staff, and construct a $70 million Smart Energy Center.

The economic-impact report also tallied the number of Binghamton University alumni residing in New York and continuing to contribute to the state’s economy. About 57 percent of all alumni are still in New York, and more than 12,600 of them are still in the Southern Tier.

Binghamton University employs nearly 5,000 faculty, staff, and student workers, and supports an additional 5,500 full- and part-time jobs in the two-county region, and 225 full- and part-time jobs beyond the region.

Contact DeLore at tdelore@tgbbj.com

Upstate consumer confidence rises in pre-election, pre-Sandy polling

Subscriber Only

Upstate consumers turned out to be elevating their willingness to spend in the month leading up to the presidential election, according to new polling the Siena (College) Research Institute (SRI) released Nov. 9. The institute’s index of overall consumer confidence for upstate New York sprung up 4.6 points to 75.6 in October. It essentially moved

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The institute’s index of overall consumer confidence for upstate New York sprung up 4.6 points to 75.6 in October. It essentially moved to its break-even point of about 76, meaning an equal number of Upstate residents voiced optimism and pessimism during the month.

Consumers in the region expressed a better outlook for the future than they did for the present. Upstate’s future consumer confidence index swelled 6.3 points to 76.6, while its current confidence index ticked up 1.9 points to 73.9.

Those gains were roughly in line with rising national consumer confidence measured by the University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment. That overall index recorded a 4.3 point jump to 82.6 in October. The nation’s future confidence leapt 5.5 points to 79, while its current confidence moved up 2.4 points to 88.1.

Heightening willingness to spend may have hinted at President Barack Obama’s re-election, according to Douglas Lonnstrom, professor of statistics and finance at Siena College and SRI founding director. But that same re-election will have a major influence on confidence readings in the future, he says. So will another event that was not reflected in October’s confidence indexes — Superstorm Sandy battering New York City, New Jersey, and other parts of the East Coast.

“November is going to be fascinating, I think,” Lonnstrom says. “These October numbers are pre-hurricane, pre-election, and I’m sure some of them are going to change dramatically.”

SRI’s readings show New York City lost confidence in October, even before the storm. Its overall confidence slipped 1.9 points to 80.6. Future confidence slid 2.9 points to 83.4, and current confidence edged down 0.4 points to 76.2.

A measurement of confidence in all of New York state was nearly unchanged during the month. Overall confidence edged up 0.5 points to 78.7. Current confidence increased 0.4 points to 75.4, while future confidence picked up 0.5 points to 80.8.

Gas and food prices

Consumers felt a major pinch from rising food prices in October, according to SRI’s survey. That overshadowed a plateau in worries about the cost of gasoline.

More than three-quarters of upstate consumers, 77 percent, said food prices posed a somewhat serious or very serious problem, up from 66 percent the previous month. And 62 percent said both gas and food prices were a problem, up from 57 percent.

The portion of upstate consumers singling out gasoline prices as a problem was 71 percent. That’s about equal with last month’s reading of 70 percent.

Upstate’s concerns echoed throughout the state as a whole, where 70 percent of consumers expressed worries about food prices, up from 65 percent in September. Both gas and food prices presented a problem for 53 percent of residents, up from 49 percent. Gasoline prices were a problem for 60 percent of residents, down from 61 percent.

“I was absolutely amazed to see a 5-point swing in concern about food prices,” Lonnstrom says. “That was a big figure.”

New York buying plans

A drop in home-buying plans headlined SRI’s monthly statewide reading of intentions to make major purchases. Just 2.6 percent of consumers said in October that they planned to buy homes, a drop of 0.9 points from the previous month.

“It’s not a big point drop, because you’re never going to have 20 percent of people saying, ‘I’m going to buy a house in the next six months,’ ” Lonnstrom says. “But percentage-wise, it’s a huge drop, about 25 percent. If this holds, that’s a very negative figure.”

Buying plans also fell for cars and trucks, slipping by 0.7 points to 12.4 percent. And they dropped for furniture by 1.9 points to 20.9 percent.

The portion of consumers planning computer purchases rose, however. It increased 1.6 points to 17.6 percent. Plans to make major home improvements increased as well, ticking up 1 point to 15 percent.

Superstorm Sandy’s impact on New York City at the beginning of November will likely affect buying plans in the future, according to Lonnstrom.

“That’s going to have a big effect on Christmas buying plans, I think,” he says. “I think home improvements might do well, but I think it may have a negative impact on the Christmas buying season.”

SRI made random telephone calls to 807 New York state residents over the age of 18 in October to develop the consumer-confidence results. They do not have a margin of error because they are developed from statistical calculations. Buying plans have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 points.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com

Upstate Cancer Center is on track for opening in 2013

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Health Care

SYRACUSE — The Upstate Cancer Center at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University is on track to open in December 2013. The

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