Debuted last month, Scottsdale-based CRE Index is a national commercial real estate listing service that allows brokers to list properties for lease or sale, for any size asset. The service offers listings that are free to discover and search. Founded by local entrepreneur Stephen H. Brennen III, the new site features the key information needed for commercial real estate … [More]
Interactive Video Quizzing
Adoption of video as a primary tool for instructional content is increasing fast. Reflecting the growing need for richer interactions inside of videos and tighter integration of the video experience with feedback and assessment, Kaltura recently integrated an Interactive Video Quizzing tool into its platform. This allows content creators with educational institutions, … [More]
Professional Tech Certification
Tempe-based University of Advancing Technology now offers the option to earn a professional certificate in technology-centric disciplines. These certificate options — derived from the reality that local business is starved of technology talent and as such find themselves having a difficult time scaling for growth — afford business owners and executives the ability to grow their … [More]
Automating Asset Verification
Early Warning, Scottsdale-based leader in payments, fraud prevention and risk management, recently introduced its Asset Search and Verification Service for Home Loans. Digitizing the verification of bank account details in seconds replaces an otherwise manual process that took sometimes weeks to complete and was highly susceptible to fraud. Rather than depending on the borrower … [More]
3-D Printing Is Rocking Manufacturing
Most products are made of many parts. They result from many manufacturing steps performed by different machines, each with its own operator. 3-D printing replaces these steps with fundamentally different machines that make finished products, with all their parts, fully assembled. Revolutionizing Product Design Products have always been slaves to how they can be made. If a … [More]
RAADR: Using Technology Against Cyber Threats
Bullying and stalking in the cyber world is not only easy to accomplish, it’s easy to hide. Jacob DiMartino took the expertise he’d gained in helping businesses engage effectively in social media, and developed RAADR as a platform to, he says, “arm parents with a snapshot of what’s going on with their kids.” His concern, he explains, is “kids don’t know how exposed they make … [More]
Phoenix Synergy Attracts DoubleDutch
DoubleDutch has seen record growth as a company that builds mobile apps for conferences, events and tradeshows. Its platform enables “live engagement marketing,” which CEO Lawrence Coburn explains is a new kind of product that tries to “engage attendees on their smartphones.” A paper guide can’t keep up with changes, he points out, but the mobile platform offers additional … [More]
Computers ‘Good as New’
Establishing a company that takes slightly used computers and makes them “good as new,” brother and sister Ken and Linda Chan founded Ironman Refurbished Business Computers in Chandler in 2010 and recently launched a mobile-accessible e-commerce site to expand sales nationwide. IRBC specializes in the reconditioning of top-consumer-rated, business-grade Dell, Lenovo and HP … [More]
Technology as Equalizer
Mega-retailers maintain websites with information on their extensive inventory, and keep that information up to date with new products and changes in product pricing and availability. It’s a data base that smaller retailers, even with a more limited or niche-focused inventory, do not generally have the manpower to create and maintain. Brother and sister entrepreneurs James Kane … [More]
Technology Isn’t License
Technology has transformed many aspects of our lives, and we’ve come to take for granted that we can implement it. However, technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum; there are use repercussions. The common practice of screening movies in waiting rooms is one widely misunderstood example. Purchase of a DVD bestows ownership rights that allow it to be played in small groups in … [More]
Accelerating the Ad Experience
“Most people aren’t willing to sit through nine to ten ads before they can watch the programming. They will stop using a site instead,” says aspiring filmmaker Stan Wong. “That will hurt a lot of artists and other content creators.” His epiphany — online advertising needs to be more efficient — led to his interest in developing VAAC Army, the first voice-activated ad … [More]
Benefits and Challenges of BYOD
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has been gathering momentum among businesses and their employees alike. BYOD is a model of business technology deployment whereby employees, rather than companies, provide and maintain their own personal technology devices — such as computers and phones — for business use. While there are many potential benefits to adopting a BYOD model, businesses … [More]
Model Behavior: 3-D Printing Is Building
“In construction, we’re bidding the concept of what we can deliver,” says Jeff Perelman, senior vice president and chief growth and strategy officer of Sundt Construction, Inc., explaining the advantage of 3-D over 2-D is “it’s hard to go from a two-dimensional piece of paper to give people a sense of scale of what you’re building.” Building a model rather than simply producing … [More]
Thwart Internet Hackers with Employee Firewall
There has been a lot of investment in corporate IT security, especially infrastructure, observes Felix Odigie, CEO of Inspired eLearning, and it has paid off — networks are more secure. But with hackers finding it more difficult to hack the network, they have turned their attention to the weakest link: humans. “It’s easier to hack users of the network — employees, vendors, … [More]
Distracted Driving Is an Employer Issue
Distracted driving is a potential minefield for employers, due to a liability issue that many misunderstand. “A common mistake is to think, ‘If it’s the driver’s equipment, we don’t have any responsibility.’ That is not so,” says David Lewis, CEO of HR company OperationsInc, noting, “The courts have emphatically said that if a person is performing work for your firm, and at the … [More]
A Digital Approach to Employee Training
Training a new employee is a lengthy process. Recognizing that this can be especially burdensome for small businesses, local entrepreneur Chris Ronzio recently launched Trainual, a Web-based software geared toward small businesses to make the training process easier. Because the software is Web-based, it affords convenient access from any location at any time. “Building the … [More]
A New, More Secure Payment Method
“It’s been something that’s been in the works for quite some time now,” says Scott Shedd, referring to the upcoming switch from traditional credit and debit cards to EMV cards. Shedd is the information security consulting manager for WGM, an IT company located in Scottsdale that analyzes technology risks and compliance. The noticeable difference between a traditional card … [More]
Pay-in-Advance Meals
Restaurants are starting to use technology to cut their losses from reservation no-shows through a ticketing system similar to that for theater performances, pioneered in 2011 by Nick Kokonas; diners will not be able to change reservations or get refunds, but can give their reservation to someone else. Kokonas’s “Tock” also provides restaurants with other commercial business … [More]
