Blackburn urges transparency in health care

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Thursday, August 6, 2009
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U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn told members of the technology and health are industry on Thursday that she wants to microtarget areas of health care that need reform like information technology and dealing with those who have pre-exisitng conditions.

Speaking at a Nashville Technology Council workshop on transparency and eHealth called “The Naked Hospital,” Blackburn said she supports transparency and new health care technologies for consumers, who need clearer information.

Blackburn said echnologies that allow consumers to see exactly what a procedure costs are critical, and she is pushing for consumers to be able to carry their medical records with them.

She asked business leaders to stay informed on the many different health care reform bills being debated in Washington, and asked for feedback on them.

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IBM Ranked #1 Worldwide IT Consulting Provider For Second Consecutive Year

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ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM today announced that industry analyst firm IDC has ranked it the worldwide leader in Information Technology (IT) Consulting.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

According to the report, which ranks the top 10 worldwide and U.S. IT consulting vendors according to IT consulting revenue, IBM continues to own the top position worldwide for 2008. This is the second consecutive year that IBM has ranked first in this category, increasing market share year-over-year.

"In this economic environment where there is a relentless focus on ROI, enhancing our clients' competitiveness and creating new sources of economic value from technology is critical," said Adam Klaber, general manager, global consulting services, IBM. "This ranking confirms IBM's proven capabilities in delivering high-value consulting services to our clients and our ability to enhance our skills and offerings to meet the new economic realities."

In addition to the traditional IT consulting offerings such as IT performance analysis, governance and SOA, IBM offers a variety of more non-traditional IT solutions in emerging areas such as Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud computing. With IBM's recent addition of its Business Analytics Optimization service line to its Global Business Services consulting organization portfolio, the company's IT consultants are also providing clients with value-added business analytics solutions that use technology to collect, analyze and use business insights to make strategic decisions in real-time. The transformation of IBM's services business to a higher-value, higher-margin orientation is fueling investments in emerging areas like analytics and smarter planet solutions.

IDC defines the IT Consulting market segment as IT strategy, assessment and planning and design and architecture services.

The IDC report titled "Worldwide and U.S. IT Consulting 2008 Vendor Shares: IDC's Top 10 Vendors for 2008" (Doc # 219272) was authored by Ali Zaidi.

About IBM

For more information visit www.ibm.com 

    Media Contact:
   Linda Hanson Hunt
   914-766-2015
   lindah@us.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM

Website: http://www.ibm.com

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Beyond tourism

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As population slumps, Cape Cod ponders diversifying its economy

Megan Baroni, a waitress, greeted customers Tanya Johnson (left) and Chelsea Costa last week at Columbo’s Cafe in downtown Hyannis. How to preserve Cape Cod’s character while building a more dynamic economy is a big issue in the Cape’s 15 towns. Megan Baroni, a waitress, greeted customers Tanya Johnson (left) and Chelsea Costa last week at Columbo’s Cafe in downtown Hyannis. How to preserve Cape Cod’s character while building a more dynamic economy is a big issue in the Cape’s 15 towns. (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)
By Katie Johnston Chase Globe Staff / August 7, 2009

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When Teresa Martin tried to start an online game company in Mashpee, right in the middle of the Upper Cape, she found the town’s Internet service was inadequate for the massive game files she needed to send and receive. So she took her budding enterprise - which she thought would create 40 or so jobs - to Providence.

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That was five years ago, and in the end, the business never got off the ground. But now Martin has another venture: developing social-networking software for middle schools.

Again, she’d like to locate the business near her home, which is in Eastham, and this time she’s working with the nonprofit OpenCape Corporation, which is trying to improve Internet access on Cape Cod, to make sure she can get the bandwidth she needs.

OpenCape is one of several endeavors to pave the way for a more robust economy on Cape Cod by creating jobs and attracting more people to live there year-round, a chicken-and-egg challenge. Efforts are being made to relax the stringent building limits that were imposed in past years to preserve the quaint nature of the Cape’s villages, encourage the growth of a green technology industry, and build new companies from scientific discoveries made by the Cape’s oceanographic laboratories.

Resistance to such progress has long been ingrained on Cape Cod, but even residents who treasure the character of this summertime haven realize there is a growing need to light a fire under the economy.

“If we aren’t doing something to keep younger people on the Cape, all these beautiful things we like are going to wither on the vine,’’ said Elizabeth Gawron, another Eastham resident and executive director of the nonprofit Cape Cod Foundation. “I think this is a very important time for the Cape.’’

Although it is renowned as a desirable place to visit, the Cape can be a hard place to make a living. There is little affordable housing, prices are high, and the main industry - tourism, which the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce said provides as many as two-thirds of the region’s jobs - doesn’t pay well, isn’t growing, and thrives for only three months a year.

“People on the Cape are like little squirrels gathering their nuts during the summer to get through the winter,’’ said Bill Waldron, owner of the Orleans coffee shop Cape Cup.

Lately, there have been fewer squirrels to do the work. Between 2000 and 2006, the Cape lost 11 percent of its residents ages 35 to 44, according to a Northeastern University study. The population as a whole has been slowly shrinking, from 228,000 in 2003 to 221,000 in 2008, and the people who are staying are getting older. The population of Barnstable County, which covers all 15 towns on the Cape, has the oldest median age in New England, with twice the percentage of people over 65 as in the average US county, according to demographic forecaster Peter Francese of the nonprofit research group New England Economic Partnership, in Walpole. “As the workforce shrinks, economic malaise sets in,’’ he said.

Where The Jobs Are: Information Technology Professional

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Even in an economic crisis, companies need skilled workers to run their computer systems.


As the worldwide economic crisis grinds on, companies continue to hire information technology professionals.

"Now more than ever, companies have to focus on efficiency," says Yazad Dalal, vice president of North American sales at the New York-based job search Web site Vault.com. "The primary way to do that today is through technology." Vault predicts that the number of IT jobs will increase by 50% over the next six years. "You don't need to be a technology company to need world-class IT professionals on your staff," Dalal adds.

Jobs can range from desktop support to network systems and data communications manager or analyst. The minimum requirement: a bachelor's degree in computer science. IT pros with 10 or more years of experience under their belts command the most elevated positions, which can pay as much as $100 an hour.

In Pictures: Where The IT Jobs Are

The biggest cluster of IT jobs is in New York City, says Dalal. Even though the financial sector has been battered by the recession, banks and investment houses like Goldman Sachs ( GS - news - people ) and JPMorgan Chase ( JPM - news - people ) are actively hiring in their IT departments. "We're hiring in this area globally," says Andrea Rachman, a Goldman spokeswoman.

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At the same time, New York is home to so-called Silicon Alley, an area stretching between Midtown and Wall Street where a number of new-media and technology companies live. Tech companies are also in hiring mode, says Dalal. Those businesses, which include the New York offices of large Internet concerns like Yahoo! ( YHOO - news - people ) and Google ( GOOG - news - people ), are willing to pay high Manhattan rents in exchange for proximity to their clients and for the "little bit of spark," in Dalal's words, that comes with a SoHo or Bryant Park address.

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Another hot town for IT jobs: Washington, D.C. The plethora of government contractors there explains this phenomenon. Lockheed Martin ( LMT - news - people ) and Booz Allen Hamilton, for instance, have offices in D.C., and they need good IT folk running their systems.

Texas is an IT hot spot thanks to the plethora of banks in the state. Matthew Ripaldi, senior vice president for Ajilon Consulting, in Houston, which handles IT staffing and strategy, agrees with Dalal that IT jobs nationwide should grow by at least 50% over the next half-dozen years.

From Ripaldi's perspective as a staffing consultant, companies are increasingly hiring IT employees on contract, either for a fixed length of time, like six months, or for the duration of a project. Pay for contract work can range from $20 to $100 an hour.

For full-timers, entry-level salaries start in the $36,000 to $48,000 range, says Dalal. Those jobs go to college grads who've majored in computer science. For an IT pro with experience, pay can rise as high as $122,000.

Although IT is more robust than other hiring areas, it's still suffering a hit from the downturn. According to Edward Koc, director of research for the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which links employer recruiters with college career centers, computer science is the college major with the second strongest hiring record this year, behind accounting. Even so, less than half of computer science grads--48.7%--landed jobs in 2009 (and only 53.1% of accounting majors did).

Ripaldi points out that IT job applicants must not only be computer whizzes; they need to be able to communicate well with human beings too. It's also very helpful, he says, to know the latest computing frameworks, like Microsoft's ( MSFT - news - people ) .NET Framework. "There are some skill sets with IT that have zero unemployment," he observes. Being up-to-date in .NET is one of them.

On the ground at a school, Manny Contomanolis, who runs the Rochester Institute of Technology's career services office, says computer science majors there did well this year. His office is still compiling its final 2009 tally, but he estimates three-quarters of the students found jobs this year. A strong showing, but not as impressive as pre-crisis 2008, when Contomanolis says 98% of Rochester computer science grads landed employment.

In Pictures: Where The IT Jobs Are

Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

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Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. (HTGC)

Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

August 6, 2009 5:00 pm ET

Executives

DeDe Sheel – IR, FD Ashton Partners

Manuel Henriquez – Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO

David Lund – CFO

Analysts

John Hecht – JMP Securities

Troy Ward – Stifel Nicolaus

Jason Deleeuw – Piper Jaffray

Jon Arfstrom – RBC Capital Markets

Douglas Harter – Credit Suisse

Vernon Plack – BB&T Capital Markets

Presentation

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Hercules Technology Growth Capital Q2 2009 Conference. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions I would like to turn the call over to Ms. DeDe Sheel. Please go ahead.

DeDe Sheel

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon everyone. On the call today are Manuel Henriquez, Hercules Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO; and David Lund, CFO.

Our second quarter 2009 financial results were released just after today's market close. They can be accessed from the Company's web site at www.herculestech.com or htgc.com. We have arranged for a tape replay of today's call, which will be available through our web site or by using the telephone numbers and pass code provided in today's earnings release.

I would like to call your attention to the Safe Harbor disclosure in our earnings release regarding forward-looking information. Today's conference call may include forward-looking statements and projections. We ask that you refer to our most recent filings with the SEC for important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these projections. We do not take any obligations to update our forward-looking statements unless required by law. To obtain copies of our latest SEC filings, please visit sec.gov or visit our web site.

I would now like to turn the call over to Manuel Henriquez, Hercules Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO. Manuel?

Manuel Henriquez

Thank you, DeDe, and good afternoon and thank you everybody for joining us today. As you most realize after the market close we released our Q2 2009 earnings release and financial performance for the second quarter of 2009.

I'm proud to say that once again we, Hercules, produced another strong quarter in otherwise difficult and challenging credit environment as most of you are fully aware of as listening to the many earnings calls over the last few weeks.

I like to start off by giving you a quick overview of the quarter, then some specific on the venture capital industry, some specifics on the balance sheet and outlook that we have for the second half of 2009, and then have David Lund, our CFO provide you more detailed internal overview of the financial performance in the quarter and of course, finish off with a question and answer session for our investors to ask questions and get better oriented in our performance.

In terms of the quarter we once again produced record net investment income of $11.8 million and producing earnings on a NII basis that are $0.04 above street consensus of $0.30. We reported $0.34 in net investment income earnings for the quarter.

On top of that we also reported record net interest margin of 14.35%. We also experienced a 3.4% income growth year-over-year as compared to the same period of 2008. We also improved and dramatically increased our liquidity position and further solidifying our cash position in our balance sheet by delevering our balance sheet further and increasing the cash position which David will elaborate further. This is part of our ongoing strategy of maintaining high liquidity position as we position Hercules for the fourth quarter and beyond for new originations.

During the quarter we also saw the beginning and improvement of the venture capital industry by seeing an increased investment activities compared to Q1 but I like to caution everybody although the data is certainly encouraging one quarter does not make a trend yet. And I will stand upon that as I go through more details of the venture capital industry.

Another important achievement during the quarter was our ability to secure a $20 million credit facility by Union Bank, California that was expected to close in the third quarter, providing us even more liquidity to continue make investments in the fourth quarter and beyond.

As to the asset quality, as many of you have seen today, we experienced a $4.2 million realized loss for the quarter, primarily attributed to two investments. However, I remain optimistic in keeping with Hercules credit position that I expect to see over the proceeding few quarters some recovery of those realized losses that we experience as we look to monetize or liquidate some of the fixed assets, intangible assets we may have received as part of the liquidation of those companies. We have opted to take a more controlled sale of the intellectual properties, and look to monetize some portion of those, some recovery on that $4.2 million realized loss in the quarter.

A testimony to Hercules continued credit performance is that our investment professionals. Hercules credit performance would not have been and would not sustain itself without the incredible dedication and hard work of our employees as a company. To that end we may extremely vigilant, tenacious, and aggressive, and ensuring that we attack and address the first signs of credit concern in our portfolio.

During the quarter we have also experienced a $20.7 million of unrealized depreciation and in keeping with Hercules historical credit performance in underwriting and fair value standards, a significant portion of that is attributed to the companies that either in the process of closing the next round financing or expect to close round of financing in the near-term. And to that end we have fair value of the investments in the event of those companies do not successfully secure our next round of equity capital.

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Fortis Plastics Partners with Strategic Information Group for ERP Roll Out in Six Plants

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Fortis Plastics a leading plastics manufacturer and supplier to GE, Whirlpool and CAT chooses Strategic Information Group for rapid QAD ERP implementation.

Cardiff-By-The-Sea, CA (PRWEB) August 6, 2009 -- Strategic Information Group (Strategic), a full service provider of enterprise technology, quality and regulatory management solutions, announces that Fortis Plastics, LLC, a diversified custom molding supplier for the appliance, furniture, building products, industrial, automotive and medical device industries, has gone live on QAD's Enterprise Applications in six of the company's eight plants in the United States. The full systems implementation lasted five months and was on time and budget.

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We wanted an alliance with a consulting partner that shared and demonstrated our company values and standards of excellence.
Strategic was integral to our highly successful QAD project. With their level of ERP expertise, subject matter gurus, and operational proficiency, Fortis was able to leverage the experience and philosophy of Strategic in accomplishing an extremely rapid roll out by any standards, subsequently we expect our ROI to be significant.
With any successful implementation, it is critical to focus on business value and to ensure IT is aligned with overall strategic business goals.
The Fortis Plastics team executed against an integration model and plan that maximized their efficiencies, reduced risked, and minimized costs by focusing only on what was truly value add. It was a pleasure working with a company that understands the priorities of their business so well.
Fortis Plastics is a leading plastics manufacturer specializing in molding, compounding, and tooling, they are committed to operational excellence with an agile business model that reacts quickly to market trends. After recent mergers and acquisitions created a network of six disparate sites to stay true to these company goals a decision was made to implement QAD's Enterprise Applications at six key facilities to provide complete integration and visibility to all the newly acquired company locations.

"We wanted an alliance with a consulting partner that shared and demonstrated our company values and standards of excellence." said Jack Nestell, Vice President of Information Technology at Fortis. "Strategic was integral to our highly successful QAD project. With their level of ERP expertise, subject matter gurus, and operational proficiency, Fortis was able to leverage the experience and philosophy of Strategic in accomplishing an extremely rapid roll out by any standards, subsequently we expect our ROI to be significant."

Many benefits were derived from the rapid QAD ERP implementation including establishing company wide standardization, streamlining procurement and improving scheduling accuracy. Having a fully integrated and easy-to-use system has improved visibility enterprise wide and reporting now takes minutes instead of days to compile and deliver. The decision to implement QAD complements Fortis' ongoing lean manufacturing initiatives.

"With any successful implementation, it is critical to focus on business value and to ensure IT is aligned with overall strategic business goals." commented John Graham, Director of Consulting Services at Strategic. "The Fortis Plastics team executed against an integration model and plan that maximized their efficiencies, reduced risked, and minimized costs by focusing only on what was truly value add. It was a pleasure working with a company that understands the priorities of their business so well."

About Strategic Information Group
Strategic Information Group helps companies achieve their corporate goals with the application of enterprise technology. We specialize in providing proven solutions for a full range of enterprise applications including ERP, CRM, Regulatory Management and Corporate Performance. Strategic Information Group works with start-ups, multinationals and market leaders to implement their systems on time and on budget, helping them maximize the value of their enterprise technology. For more information visit http://www.strategic.com

About Fortis Plastics, LLC
A Monomoy Capital Partners portfolio company, Fortis Plastics, LLC was formed in
2008 and is based on South Bend, IN and Henderson, KY. Fortis is a diversified custom molding supplier for the appliance, furniture, building products and medical device industries with facilities in South Bend and Elkhart, Indiana; Ft. Smith, Arkansas; Henderson, Kentucky; Jackson, Tennessee; Carlyle, Illinois; Popular Bluff, Missouri; Booneville, Mississippi; Brownsville, Texas; and Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. For more information visit http://www.fortisplasticsgroup.com.

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Register now for the Financial Executive's Perspective on Managing Information Technology Costs Web seminar

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InfoTech Update | 08/06/2009

This Web seminar will introduce participants to critical information technology governance concerns that will facilitate their efforts in properly managing the function and related costs. Joel Lanz and John Nerenberg will discuss how CPAs can leverage their core skills in asking the right questions and evaluating responses as they assume responsibility for information technology. Register now.

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