
How Springfield woes
may trim tech sector
June 14,
2004
BY MICHAEL
KRAUSS
The state budget
deadlock is placing technology initiatives and future Illinois
jobs at risk.
Jack Lavin,
director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity,
says the $200 million Illinois Opportunity Fund is a potential
victim of a zero-growth budget. The program was proposed by A.T.
Kearney to stimulate funding of entrepreneurial businesses. Funds
totaling $11.2 million for Argonne National Lab and $4 million
for the Illinois Institute of Technology are also at risk.
The Argonne
projects include the Advanced Protein Crystallization facility
($1.5 million), the Rare Isotope Accelerator Science Center ($3
million) and the Ricketts Regional Biocontainment lab ($6.7 million).
IIT's Biomedical Research Center ($4 million) might also be axed.
Lavin is concerned
the failure to fund the Argonne and IIT projects will cost the
state "significant federal dollars, which leads to new jobs
and new growth in Illinois. That's what's at risk here."
Homeland security threatened
Failure to fund
the Ricketts Regional Biocontainment lab and the Biomedical Research
Center could also affect homeland security.
The Ricketts
lab will provide a secure site to assess biohazards. The Biomedical
Research center will keep IIT on the cutting edge of food safety.
"If there
is a terrorist event and the food companies can't respond, we
could have an economic disaster in Illinois," Lavin says.
"These
are capital investments Gov. Blagojevich prioritized," Lavin
adds. "He understands they are key for the Illinois economy."
Let's hope the
Legislature agrees.
KnowledgeAdvisors inks deal
Chicago-based
KnowledgeAdvisors will join PeopleSoft's Partner Connection Program
this week.
The deal opens
the door for adoption of KnowledgeAdvisors' "Metrics That
Matter," an analytical tool for PeopleSoft customers.
KnowledgeAdvisors
is a little-known Chicago technology company with a powerful customer
base and a potent product offering.
Located at the
corner of La Salle and Madison, KnowledgeAdvisors is becoming
the standard to evaluate corporate training effectiveness. According
to IDC, the Massachusetts-based researcher, the worldwide market
for IT education services is $19.9 billion.
Companies make
big investments teaching their personnel technology skills.
KnowledgeAdvisors
offers products that measure training effectiveness. This allows
companies to improve their programs to assure training investments
aren't wasted.
KnowledgeAdvisors'
big break came in early 2001 when Microsoft called. "[Microsoft
CEO Steve] Ballmer came down with an edict saying he needed customer
satisfaction data on all of his lines of business," says
CEO Kent Barnett. KnowledgeAdvisors developed technology to monitor
Microsoft's global customer education programs. That victory created
a domino effect that won contracts with a who's who of the technology
world, including Cisco, Citrix, Dell, H-P, Nextel, Nokia. SAP
and PeopleSoft.
"KnowledgeAdvisors
brought us a way to measure the value of training," says
Tom Cooper, director of education strategy for Peoplesoft Global
Services. In a pilot program, KnowledgeAdvisors demonstrated PeopleSoft's
training improved customer productivity by 20 percent.
"That's
a day a week," adds Cooper, who expects to sell a lot more
training, thanks to KnowledgeAdvisors.
Nasdaq CEO here
Nasdaq CEO Robert
Greifeld discusses an expected strong showing in second-quarter
earnings, an improving IPO pipeline and the upside of Sarbanes-Oxley
when he visits here tomorrow to keynote the Executives' Club technology
program.
Greifeld sees
Nasdaq as a uniquely U.S. institution that "gets entrepreneurial
dreams connected with investment capital. The IPOs coming to market
represent a big jobs benefit," Greifeld says. "When
you look at job creation in this country, it's because of small
companies getting larger," he adds.
Greifeld believes
regional economic success emerges from great academic ideas, investment
capital and entrepreneurial spirit. He sees all three in Chicago:
"You've got great universities and an educated work force.
It's a little cold in the winter."
Memo to Bob:
No need for snow boots tomorrow.
Michael Krauss is a Chicago-based tech writer and consultant.
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