Editor’s note: Cal Chang Yocum’s RTP Beat will be a new, regular feature on Thursdays.Yup, she did it again. Shelia Hale Ogle has co-founded her third company.
Cary-based Integrated Clinical Trial Services will offer contract research organizations and clinical trial sponsors alternative options for recruiting patients. The self-funded company offers a wide range of patient recruitment services, including advertising, media services, education programs, concept design and trial branding. Ogle, who’s also director of corporate partnerships for the Women’s Enterprise Business Council, founded Media Research Planning and Placement (MRPP) and The Matthews House, an events facility in Cary.
Women in business
Speaking of women entrepreneurs, a good not-so-ol’ girls club…called the Women’s Business Enterprise Council…was in full swing Tuesday, as the group gathered for its first Southeast Carolinas Forum. More than 50 women gathered to learn how they can capitalize on their certification as a women-owned business.
Numerous large companies, such as Progress Energy, SAS, AT&T, and Volvo, have diversity procurement departments that dedicate million of dollars to find nationally certified women-owned vendors. Women-owned businesses currently represent nearly 40 percent of all small businesses in the United States and employ one out of four U.S. workers. However, they still receive only 2.5 percent of all federal procurements directed at small business and fare only slightly better with large corporations.
Adrienne Lumpkin, founder and president of AlternateAccess, a computer telephony integration firm, and Louise Collis, founder and president of WillowTec, an IT consulting firm providing real-time energy management services, attended the quarterly luncheon meeting sponsored by Progress Energy.
CryptoStick’s new ‘weapon’
Move over, double-ended lightsaber. Research Triangle Software is launching the CryptoStick 100, a portable encryption and storage device. It may not be the weapon of choice for Obi Wan Kenobi, but the startup is hoping the sleek pocket-sized tool that compresses, encrypts and stores files will win the hearts of businesses.
At less than 3 inches in length, it’s smaller than the first CryptoStick and stores data for up to 10 years. It’s pre-loaded with a software program that allows for private Internet browsing, mobile e-mail and file synchronization, and it retains all the security features of the first CryptoStick. The stick, which will initially be available with 32 MB of storage capacity, plugs into the USB port of any computer running Microsoft Windows. And at $49.95, it’s probably less expensive than a lightsaber.
Spitzer angers some accountants
Some of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s comments about fraud crackdown at Venture 2003 left a few Triangle accountants seething. Spitzer said the excessive use of footnotes in financial statements in recent years should have raised eyebrows early on, since folks tend to hide bad news in fine print. Local accountants, however, countered that footnotes are meant to elaborate not mislead. Spitzer also had a few words of advice for those still afflicted with high-tech hubris: “Arrogance is terminal.” Amen.
A Webby winner?
Art.com, an online retailer of prints, posters and custom framing, is celebrating its first nomination for best commerce Website by the seventh annual Webby Awards, which is presented by the International Academy of Arts and Sciences and awards the world’s best Websites. Time magazine calls it the Oscars for the online world. The other four nominees for best commerce Website are Amazon.com, FreshDirect.com, RedEnvelope.com and TireRack.com. The Webby Awards recognizes Websites in 30 categories, including activism, education, music, news, politics radio and youth. Winners will be unveiled on June 5.
