October 2017
How information technology is driving innovation in the Columbus Region
LocaL tec worLh d P In partnership with Columbus 2020
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YOU’RE A SITE
SELECTOR. WE’RE A SELECT SITE. PERFECT.
EVERY THING GROWS HERE.
DUB L IN OHIO U S A .GOV
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from analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
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David White CIO, Battelle
Joelle Brock CEO, Leading EDJE
06 Letter from Columbus 2020 CEO Kenny McDonald
07 IT IN THE REGION Map of 11 counties
08 Columbus 2020 Board and Team
10 I T AS A DRIVER How tech powers jobs and growth in the Columbus Region
PROfILES By Mary yost Editor Chloe teasley Editorial Assistant tC BroWn, Mike Mahoney and evan Weese freelance Writers DESIGN By yoGesh ChaUDhary PHOTOS By roB harDin
Produced by Columbus CEO magazine in cooperation with Columbus 2020
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PARTNER PROfILES A look at some tech businesses and non-tech companies that use IT to drive innovation in the Columbus Region. 12 signet Accel
26 leading EDJE
Data aggregator aids medical researchers as well as patients.
Geek-powered company goes deep with custom software solutions.
14 T-CETRA
28 ICC
Company helps wireless phone providers with back office services.
Consulting company helps business clients adopt digital efficiencies.
16 Pillar Technology
30 Ibm
Company innovates software solutions with marketing strategies.
Columbus Region feeds technology giant’s appetite for talent.
18 oRIs Intelligence
32 Cardinal Health
Price-checking tech protects brands and sellers from unscrupulous sales.
IT underscores all functions at global health products distributor.
20 NCT Ventures
34 Columbus Collaboratory
Venture capital firm invests in Columbus Region tech talent.
Corporate leaders share concerns and strategies to grow talent, know-how.
22 Nationwide Children’s Hospital
36 battelle
Technology role grows in all facets of medical care for children.
Tech leader adds to and benefits from the region’s knowledge base.
24 Wiretap
38 Auditgraph
Tech firm helps clients track digital footprints and avoid missteps.
Local med label company grows global with network connections.
ColumbusCEO l Columbus 2020
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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE
?
Individually we’re successful. Together we’re unstoppable. That’s why so many forward-thinking organizations excel as One of US. Will you be next? Learn more at columbusregion.com/OneofUS
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
Columbus Region is Home to extraordinary expertise in IT The Columbus Region is earning its way to the top of the list of locations to launch or accelerate a career in information technology. The area includes mid-to largesized companies with an insatiable appetite for tech talent, a growing list of startups, a powerhouse of research and development in The Ohio State University, and an emphasis on government technology that will enable Central Ohio to lead the smart cities revolution. Talent is drawn to great challenges and diverse, progressive companies and communities. The Columbus Region has a multitude of opportunities
across industries and is chock-full of ambitious communities that want to cater to the growing needs of the technology workforce. As you will see in the following profiles and interviews, it is a strategic priority to attract and retain great talent from all over the world to meet the greatest challenges we face, be they in healthcare, government, academia or business. We are fortunate to have IT leaders within the Columbus Region who are working on various challenges, while contributing to the future of the area by giving their time and energy to growing the IT community. This glimpse into the extraordinary expertise that lies within our region
should inspire us to strive even higher in this important field of work. Sincerely,
Kenny McDonald President and CEO
The Columbus 2020 Regional Growth Strategy is an aggressive, decade-long plan to ensure economic vitality in the Columbus Region. Columbus 2020’s mission is to generate opportunity and build capacity for economic growth across the 11-county Columbus Region.
Make the mark.
Robert Shenton 614-222-9064
plantemoran.com
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ColumbusCEO l Columbus 2020
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The ColuMbus RegIon Major Columbus Region headquarters have spawned an entire ecosystem of ITrelated operations. The large IT workforces at Fortune 500 companies have been joined by a whole host of tech companies designed to serve retail, healthcare, finance, education, transportation, utilities, cross-industry and defense-related IT needs. Download the full list at columbusregion.com/tech.
Rev1
#1 VC
GREAT LAKES REGION PitchBook 2015 - 2017
COLUMBUS
COLUMBUS
SMART
#1
CITY
U.S. Department of Transportation 2016
SCALING
STARTUPS Kauffman Foundation 2016
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
board of direCtors Pablo A. Vegas, Chairman Executive Vice President, Gas Segment and Chief Customer Officer, Columbia Gas Group
ADMInISTRATIOn Kenny McDonald, CEcD
Eric Phillips, Secretary
President and Chief Economic Officer
Executive Director Union County Economic Development Partnership
Mallory Donaldson
Gregory R. Overmyer, Treasurer
Kelly Winzenread
Chief Executive Officer Overmyer Hall Associates
Marilyn Brown, County Commissioner Franklin County Board of Commissioners
Corrine Burger Chief Control Officer, Consumer and Community Banking JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Executive Assistant to the CEO Executive Coordinator
Sean Grant Chief Financial Officer
Jennifer Randall Senior Staff Accountant
Alex R. Fischer, President and Chief Executive Officer
BuSInESS DEVELOPMEnT AnD PROJECT MAnAGEMEnT
The Columbus Partnership
Patty Huddle
Andrew J. Ginther, Mayor
Senior Vice President, Economic Development
City of Columbus
Matt McCollister
Michael Keller
Senior Vice President, Economic Development
Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer Nationwide
Matt McQuade
Michael W. Louge
Deborah Scherer
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer OhioHealth
Robert H. Schottenstein Chief Executive Officer and President M/I Homes
Tom Shoupe Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Honda of America Mfg., Inc.
Managing Director, Business Development Managing Director, Global Trade and Investment
Justin Bickle, Director, Project Management Chris Strayer Senior Project Manager
Archit Dhir Project Manager, Global Trade and Investment
Tom Stipkovich, Project Manager
Julie Sloat, President and Chief Operating Officer
Stephanie Bosco, Economic Development Coordinator
AEP Ohio, American Electric Power
Tegan Lehman
Mark Smolik, Vice President, General Counsel and
Economic Development Coordinator
Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer DHL Supply Chain
Tim Harman
Kristi Tanner, Senior Managing Director
Director, Customized Workforce Recruitment and Training
JobsOhio
InVESTOR RELATIOnS
David Williams, Ph.D., Sc.D., Executive Dean College of Engineering, The Ohio State University
Chip Holcombe
Sue Zazon, President and Executive Vice President, Central
MARKETInG AnD COMMunICATIOnS
Ohio Region, The Huntington National Bank
Managing Director, Investor Relations
Irene Alvarez
EX-OFFICIO
Managing Director, Marketing and Communications
Patrick Cornelius, Partner Squire Patton Boggs
nick Reshan, Marketing Specialist
Kenny McDonald, CEcD President and Chief Economic Officer Columbus 2020
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Columbus 2020 team
RESEARCH Jung Kim Managing Director, Research and Business Intelligence
Sean Grant, Chief Financial Officer
Laura Hess, Research Manager
Columbus 2020
Jay Knox, Research Manager
ColumbusCEO l Columbus 2020
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
Columbus Region boasts a Robust IT ecosystem Columbus is appearing on lists of the nation’s top cities for tech jobs. By MARy yoST Columbus has ranked No. 1 on CBRE Research’s third annual ranking of top tech talent in small markets and No. 5 on SmartAsset’s list of Top 10 Cities for Tech Workers. Then look at it in terms of where information technology has opportunity for immediate application in a wide variety of local and global industries, and the Columbus Region offers distinct advantages that can’t be matched even in Silicon Valley, industry observers contend. “When we talk to tech companies out west or some of the other hubs around the US or even abroad, if they’re in a market that’s heavily associated around tech, like the Silicon Valley area in particular, then they really don’t have a local testing ground and customer face for the technology,” says Jung Kim, managing director, research
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and business intelligence for Columbus 2020. Having an auto company lab nearby is “still not the same as being here and you have the mothership of Honda for North America and Transportation Research Center and some of these other functions that could really apply what a tech company is doing on the ground,” Kim notes. Having that demand side available locally is a strength that the Columbus Region boasts in spades with its rich concentration of industry giants such as Alliance Data Retail Services, Battelle, Cardinal Health, JP Morgan Chase, L Brands, Nationwide Insurance, oCLC and others in addition to the automotive verticals. Columbus 2020 has mapped the robust IT ecosystem in the Columbus Region to help tell the story of just how substantial the tech workforce and infrastructure is in the 11-county area. “We knew about the financial sector for a while and how important that was in the tech world. Some of the other categories, like education and publishing, that might have been a bit of a surprise to realize between what we have with oSU, oCLC, McGraw Hill and Highlights for Children, there is something here happening with digital publishing. There may be elements of this that maybe people knew about in bits and pieces but to have it all together in one graphic really highlights the fact that there is a concentration of companies, activity and talent,” Kim says.
Further supporting the IT ecosystem is strong local investment in fiber infrastructure, including Columbus FiberNet, several suburban networks and oARnet, part of the ohio Department of Higher Education’s ohio Technology Consortium. Plentiful sources of venture capital and angel funds for IT enterprises are also a critical component, including NCT Ventures and ohio TechAngels Fund. Cross-industry collaboration is another Columbus Region strength that powers the technology ecosystem. “In other parts of the country, you do see things happening around healthcare technology or fintech involving various companies, but to see companies like AEP and L Brands and Cardinal Health coming from very different directions and realizing that they have common issues, in terms of things like analytics and cybersecurity, and then to create (the Columbus) Collaboratory to help deal with the issues, that appears pretty unique to me. I haven’t heard of other examples quite like that,” Kim says. The relatively smaller size of the Columbus Region is an advantage, says Columbus 2020 President and CEo Kenny McDonald. “The fact that this cluster is a little tighter knit because the population is not that of Los Angeles, you’re going to meet and run into people a lot more. you’re going to have opportunities to serve on boards together, so some of the leaders get to know each other a
Jung Kim
Kenny McDonald
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Photo courtesy of Columbus 2020
Super Six Six major sectors in the Columbus Region are identified by Columbus 2020 as having significant IT activity.
Education, Information & Publishing Finance Health Military/Defense Retail & Consumer Transportation & Utilities little bit better,” McDonald says. “Business relationships are enhanced and accelerated by all that. Anytime one of these intense clusters is in a smaller place, you see it grow and become even tighter and become even stronger over time because of that size, not the lack thereof.” McDonald adds the Region is “full of interesting people doing very, very interesting work and that alone attracts others, both talented people and the companies they work for.” The Columbus Region’s growing IT ecosystem is important because it shows “you have these world class players that are investing and creating jobs here, and it provides great testimony for a lot of other things that we try to recruit or keep in the area. We want to continue to see it grow but we also know that it has value well beyond the boundaries of IT and other industry verticals,” McDonald says. “It’s good evidence the area can support nearly anything.” McDonald adds. Even with all its strengths, the IT ecosystem of the Columbus Region still needs constant attention to keep growing. “We can’t work hard enough on the issue of talent and workforce,” McDonald says. “We couldn’t possibility do enough to help our existing companies as well as to attract new companies to the market and to fuel their needs with the people they need. It’s a national, and to some degree, an international issue.”
Dynamit staff at work
Columbus Region Ranks Well for Tech Work The Columbus Region compares well for tech jobs and opportunities with the rest of the nation. Here are a few of the high marks the area can boast. Columbus ranked No. 1 for best American cities to work in tech in 2017, according to SmartAsset in August. The website also says Columbus is “one of the best cities for new college grads.” Also in August, global commercial real estate and investment firm CBRE placed Columbus at No. 7 for top markets for change in momentum of tech talent labor pools, with a 11.9 percent change in momentum. In 2016, CBRE ranked Columbus No. 1 for top tech talent in small markets. Young IT professionals will find Columbus No. 8 on the 2017 list of best cities for them, according to Verizon’s website Right Click in May. Job-search site ZipRecruiter in June found 83 percent year-over-year growth in tech jobs in Columbus, rank-
ing it No. 14 for fastest growing tech towns. The Center for Digital Government praised Ohio as one of just five states to earn the top A grade in its 2016 Digital States Survey. Ohio was also second for transportation and fourth for adaptive leadership. Thomson Reuters’ CIO placed Columbus No. 10 on its 2016 list of Top 10 metro areas for STEM jobs, noting Kauffman Index research predicted 274,000 Ohio STEM jobs by 2018. Intelligent Community Forum ranked Columbus as its 2015 Intelligent Community of the Year, following three years of reaching being in the top seven. Also for 2015, Columbus was ranked No. 5 for “real” programmer analyst pay and No. 8 for “real” systems administrator pay by salary watchdog Glassdoor, which compared cities with the highest tech salaries when adjusted for costof-living. —Mary Yost
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
signet Accel 585 S. Front St., Suite 50 Columbus 43215 signetaccel.com
In a sea of IT-focused companies within the Columbus Region, Signet Accel offers a unique product, not just here, but worldwide.
With the product known as Avec, two-year-old Signet Accel has the technology to gather healthcare data from dissimilar resources and aggregate that information, bringing it into one resource field for easy examination and comparison by researchers and physicians. Known as a federated database system, it allows medical personnel to quickly find information and connect data from any computerized location in order to query diverse healthcare information, identify disease patterns with different patients and investigate potential cures. CEO John Raden says the technology is solving some major problems in healthcare. “There’s a lot of data in healthcare from different sources and there was an inability to aggregate it or see it in one single view because of all the unique languages of databases,” Raden says. “This opened up the ability to see all that data for a specific disease or even for particular patients.” The technology was a long time coming. The Bioinformatics Group at The Ohio State University worked on it for more than a dozen years before introducing it to Signet’s parent company, Signet LLC, which then created the subsidiary company run by Raden. The new company, which started with six associates, is growing quickly.
It’s not just software engineers found here, there’s a real focus on quality from managers to C-suite executives.” JOhn RAdEn CEO, Signet Accel
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Signet Accel now employs 37 people, including 16 engineers, Raden says. They apply the technology which helps pull out the bits and bytes of healthcare information that can get lost in database software, and that ability to find disparate but important data helps improve the quality of lives, he says. “For instance, we service clients with hairy cell leukemia, which is a very ugly disease that hits a very small portion of the population,” he says. “So finding cohorts to do research can be problematic, but the ability for oncology centers to look at specific cancers like this worldwide is a big deal.” One of the “pleasant surprises” for Raden when he came on board as CEO in August 2015 was finding the IT talent pool that resides in Central Ohio. “With all the surrounding universities and major healthcare networks and systems in Columbus, we have been able to recruit quality people with unique backgrounds,” he says. “And we see venture capital people paying a lot of attention to this area, and that says a lot about the values of the businesses here and the quality of the products they produce.” Much of Signet Accel’s work involves collaboration with both regional and national organizations, which provides a unique perspective into IT networks, particularly in this Region. The IT ecosystem and its connecting networks here is solid and thriving, he says. “And it’s not just software engineers found here, there’s a real focus on quality from managers to C-suite executives because of all the rich organizations doing the things they do here in central Ohio,” Raden says. “Successful companies need these kinds of resources and talented associates.” For now, Signet offers a unique product, but Raden says he thinks it is only a matter of time before competition ensues. “We know there will be others entering the market, so gaining the market share early is really what the focus is for our sales efforts,” he says. “It’s a great race right now to grab that market share.” —TC Brown
ColumbusCEO l Columbus 2020
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
T-CETRA 6500 Emerald Parkway Suite 310 • Dublin 43016 TCETRA.co
More people than ever, especially millennials, can be classified as “underbanked” because they limit their use of more traditional financial services, a trend that is not lost on Columbus Region technology company T-CETRA.
get signed up at brick-and-mortar or kiosk locations,” Akel says. “We help them get SIM cards activated, and we manage all the money movements for them.” Calling the Columbus Region home when you operate a company whose major focus is IT is a distinct advantage for T-CETRA, which employs 88 people here with at least half involved in the tech-side operations of the company. In fact, the origins of the company
are linked to The Ohio State University, where Akel was a student before dropping out to start the company. He credits Professor Rajiv Ramnath of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering with encouraging the venture. The university also provided $5,000 and two graduate students to get the new company up and running, which Akel says was a critical step. “Ohio State is just one of the great
The new financial world revolves around digital, instead of traditional services like charging purchases on credit cards and having checking accounts. Tech company T-CETRA meets the new need by specializing in the prepaid wireless industry. The company, founded in 2007, deals primarily with merchants and their distributors, providing payment processing and development of custom software to create solutions for these businesses. The new trend is a popular one. TCETRA CEO Abdul Akel says 50 million people across the country could be called under-banked. “These are documented US citizens who choose not to go to the bank,” he says. “They want to do everything online and they have the right tools at their fingertips. They don’t want to be in contracts and they want options.” Enter T-CETRA, which helps more than 200 national wireless service providers recruit consumers while providing the software for these phone companies to manage their customers. The company’s work includes payment processing, prepaid wireless activation and mobile and web app development. “We provide tech solutions and distribution services so customers can
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many resources we have here for IT companies,” Akel says. “With Franklin University, Columbus State (Community College) and all of the other schools in the area, it is a talent-rich town.” Many of T-CETRA’s employees have come from Ohio State. “The majority of our interns were from OSU,” Akel says. “It is a very personal relationship to me and has been instrumental to our success having access to Ohio State and the other schools.” The company is expected to do more than $600 million in business this year, he says. “This area is rich in resources for IT companies with many vendors and plenty of networking,” Akel says. “If you are starting an IT company in Columbus and looking for certified vendors for help, you don’t have to fly two hours away.” Akel points to other examples of why the Region has a vibrant IT ecosystem: Columbus won the Smart City Challenge in 2016, beating out 77 other communities for a $40 million grant from the US Department of Transportation and $10 million from Vulcan, Inc., focused on intelligent transportation. A $15 million investment by the state of Ohio equips a 35-mile stretch of US Route 33 with high-capacity fiber optic cable to instantaneously link researchers and traffic monitors with data from embedded and wireless sensors along the roadway. “Typical cities the size of Columbus do not have these kinds of projects,” Akel says. “That is why we are ahead of the curve, and you have to give a lot of credit to the area. It makes tech companies’ life easier and better.” —TC Brown
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The majority of our interns were from osu. It ... has been instrumental to our success having access to ohio state.” AbDUl AkEl CEO, T-CETRA Columbus 2020 l ColumbusCEO
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus region.
Pillar Technology 580 N. 4th St., Suite 190 Columbus 43215 pillartechnology.com
In the end, all technologies could be linked, with humans as the living connecting focal point.
Linked technologies is a theory favored by Kimberly Clavin, a “strategic ninjaneer” for Pillar Technology, which combines business-marketing and testing strategies with the embedded software it builds for its clients. “The world is becoming more and more connected,” Clavin says. “We are all about reducing the friction in human lives. It’s what we are passionate about.” Clavin, a mechanical engineer by trade, adopted her unique job title as a way to describe her work as an engineer versed in strategic planning, marketing and creating solutions. Pillar Technology, with its Forge innovation think-tank network, focuses on solving complex business problems with its custom software development for clients across a spectrum of industry, including transportation, healthcare, energy, retail and finances. But creating business strategies connected to these developments is equally important, including its speed-to-value proposition, Clavin says. Many clients come to Pillar with very open-ended ideas about how they want to engage with customers, but beyond that general notion, they have little else to offer, she says. “The real differentiation for us is the fusion aspect,” Clavin says. “We fuse together all of these disciplines. We create ideas and then roll it into execution if technology is associated with it.”
We love the vision of Columbus and the community. It’s an easy community to embrace.” KIMBerLY CLAvIN Strategic Ninjaneer, Pillar Technology
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Working hand-in-hand with clients is a critical piece of the work puzzle for Pillar Technology, which collaborates with its customers through its Forge innovation center. “We work alongside the client to teach them how to kick out a good code quickly, for instance,” Clavin says. “You just can’t say I need three developers. We stand up with the entire team and work with them through the process.” When the company noticed a lack of products for constantly testing the multiple sensors within an organization’s communications networks, it developed a successful technology known as Loop. “We made the system multiple times for clients and then decided to do it as our own product because there was such a demand,” Clavin says. While the 20-year-old company employs more than 300 here, in Ann Arbor, Mich., Des Moines, Iowa, and Palo Alto, Calif., Clavin says the company’s founders have a real passion for this area. “We positioned ourselves here because of client relations and all the different businesses,” she says. “We love the vision of Columbus and the community. It’s an easy community to embrace with its collaborative nature and with so many people here who want to partner and collaborate.” After five years, the company is poised to move early next year from its first-floor space at the historic Smith Bros. Hardware Co. building to a 25,000-square-foot space at the new 711 Building in the Short North. Pillar Technology aims to become a destination employer in the Midwest to attract brilliant programmers and developers and keep them from migrating to the coasts. The company’s expectations are very high. “We are the type of people who do not look at things as challenges,” Clavin says. “We employ no-constraint thinking and look at opportunities that are coming about. We think big and work backwards from there.” —TC Brown
ColumbusCEO l Columbus 2020
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
oRIs Intelligence 330 W Spring St., Suite 300 Columbus 43215 orisintel.com
ORIS Intelligence has become indispensable for e-commerce competitors: an online cop who can quickly identify who’s trying to undercut your prices and brand.
For some of the most popular products in the world, the internet has become a downward spiral of price-cutting, but ORIS (Online Retail Intelligence Solutions) is always on guard. Most frequently on weekends, after business hours and during the holiday rush, some sellers and re-sellers can’t resist lowering prices to capture more business. That undercuts the minimized advertised price, or MAP, of nearly every manufacturer selling on the net. “We work with large world-class brands selling online who hire us to patrol to make sure not only that authorized sellers are selling at the right price, but also that unauthorized sellers aren’t clogging the authorized online sellers,” says Pamela Springer, ORIS Intelligence president and CEO. ORIS employs 20 now and will expand to 25 by year’s end.
ORIS’s online PROWL service crawls the e-commerce web, providing proof of MAP violations and a web-based platform for brands to write warning notices to online violators—even threatening a yearlong cutoff in the case of repeated violations. PROWL checks every seller, every product, every three hours, seven days a week. “We capture the information on who moves first, and we monitor so much that we can see the domino effect of who moves prices first, second, third and fourth—both the instigator and then who followed suit,” she says. MAP policies have become crucial to protecting the brand reputation of ORIS customers like Continental Tire, bicycle retailer Finish Line, Great Day aluminum motorsports parts and InFocus, a computer projector maker that saw a 68-percent drop in MAP violations after subscribing.
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ColumbusCEO l Columbus 2020
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It’s ... helping good sellers, preserving the market they’re counting on.” PAMeLA SPRINgeR President and CEO, ORIS Intelligence
Manufacturers and retailers can’t collude with each other to fix prices, but a single brand can establish networks of authorized retailers who pledge to observe a minimum advertised price. That’s why the Sony PlayStation 4 always comes up as $449.99, whether it’s sold at Best Buy, B&H Photo, Sam’s Club or the online retailer, Newegg. “Increasingly, the good retailers won’t sell a brand unless the brand is protecting its prices,” Springer says.
Amazon, smaller online marketplaces and even eBay resellers have come under fire for cutting prices below MAP. But it’s not always Amazon’s fault, Springer says. Often a smaller online seller will try to grow by cutting prices, and Amazon follows suit to guarantee it matches the lowest price. PROWL helps manufacturers respond to price infractions on a timely basis through a vendor correspondence function in PROWL’s dashboardbased web app. Brands have to be thorough and consistent, catching not only infractions they notice at one online platform, but all of them, or legal claims of preferential treatment ensue. The kernel of the ORIS price-checks began at Spinlife, a Columbus-based wheelchair and medical transport manufacturer with its own need for price protection. Spinlife spun off its price-checking function in 2013, and the ORIS services went commercial two years later, when Springer signed on. Springer, a veteran of startups and IPOs, believes it’s an exciting time for technical firms in the Columbus Region, with new talent and ideas all the time. —Mike Mahoney
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
NCT Ventures 274 Marconi Blvd., Suite 400 Columbus 43215 nctventures.com
Rich Langdale, his partners and other investors pooled their resources to found NCT Ventures 20 years ago, naming the firm after their quest for the Next Cool Thing—the technology everyone would be talking about tomorrow.
The NCT Ventures team initially focused on software, advanced network, data storage and computer supplies in firms like Digital Storage Inc. and at least seven other startups. As a venture capital firm, NCT offered funding as well as hands-on advice on business strategy and technical problem solving. NCT managers still maintain technical chops, but the firm excels in training, providing intensive coaching in entrepreneurial technology processes. Langdale, managing partner at NCT, has become a key advocate for entrepreneurs and a driving benefactor for their training. In 2001, he provided advocacy, fund-raising and technical guidance to help found the OSU Fisher College’s Center for Entrepreneurship, which in 2013 was renamed the Langdale Academy for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization. NCT has become an enthusiastic backer of young technologists, sponsoring student organizations and hackathons in which dozens of contestants work to provide software solutions for interesting technical problems in a daylong competition. Today, the Smart Columbus project seems central to Langdale’s sense of excitement and optimism, and he is working to recruit and train entrepreneurs for the initiative. Smart Columbus technologies include everything from advanced mapping, traffic, logistics and autonomous vehicles to the need
We partnered with singularity university and American Electric Power to fund a smart City Accelerator.” RICh LANgDALE Managing Partner, NCT
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for training and transportation in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Langdale predicts Smart Columbus problem solving will push collaboration boundaries further. NCT hopes to draw in entrepreneurs with the skills and drive for that transformation. “We partnered with Singularity University and American Electric Power to fund a Smart City Accelerator,” Langdale says, describing a 10-week boot-camp training program launched in September. About a dozen participants were chosen from some 360 applicants. They are getting to know the city and major Smart Columbus players while tackling technology issues. One NCT Ventures investment, Agile Networks, wants to work on the “canopy” of Wi-Fi nodes and networks needed to handle Smart Columbus’s massive internet of things: roads, autonomous vehicles, traffic patterns and bus routes. The canopy can also provide accessible networks for residents of urban communities like Linden and along Parsons Avenue, Langdale says. Agile already provides the secure network for the state’s interconnected first response system. NCT provides mentoring for another company that hopes to provide workforce development. “We’re proposing a solution with the mayor’s office and Smart City team to start building these canopies of networks around the city. We have wonderful training and community outreach centers in Linden and the Reeb Center near Parsons Avenue. But the problem is you go two blocks away and people don’t know resources are there,” Langdale says. “We’re calling this solution the Superapp. The entry for the Wi-Fi network is an access page that gives people what’s going on in their center, including workforce training, childcare, access to smart food, all the things the Smart City grant is seeking to create for these neighborhoods.” Community and corporate participants can share the Wi-Fi canopy, Langdale adds. “It can be a beautiful circle of prosperity if we build it out.” —Mike Mahoney
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CoverMyMeds has helped more than 67 million patients get the medication they need to live healthy lives with the brightest minds in healthcare IT and in Ohio. Discover why we’re one of the top 50 companies to work for in the nation. covermymeds.com/careers
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Nationwide Children’s Hospital 700 Childrens Drive Columbus 43205 nationwidechildrens.org
Denise Zabawski, chief information officer for Nationwide Children’s Hospital, leads a staff of nearly 300 IT professionals, serving more than 16,000 users, many of them involved in patient care and research.
A third of Nationwide Children’s Hospital staff focuses on electronic health records, from doctors’ orders, diagnoses and prescriptions to cost recovery. Tens of thousands more users are involved through telemedicine as parents of patients call in with problems and remote pediatricians upload descriptions of symptoms, X-rays and CAT scans. “One of the companies we’re working with is focusing on artificial intelligence that helps you contact patients on a regular basis, applications where you can do call-ahead waiting for urgent care, and other things that make providing patient care better for the patient and family. How do you make it easier for them to work at the healthcare system? We’re not live on that yet, but we’re in conversation with some of those vendors,” Denise Zabawski says. “It’s about moving components of healthcare to the digital arena, where it makes sense. If you just have a question for your doctor, you should be able to interact with that doctor without coming in for a visit,” she adds. “When a family has to travel a really long distance for a 15-minute appointment, are there ways to do that digitally, whether it’s telemedicine or some other solution? That’s how we’ll move the non-critical, non-emergent things to more of a digital environment, which is also what the newer generations are looking for. How can I do it on my phone? Can I do it by internet and
It’s about moving components of healthcare to the digital arena, where it makes sense.” DeNISe ZABAWSkI Chief Information Officer Nationwide Children’s Hospital
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not have to make a visit? If I am going to make a visit, we need to make sure I can make it as efficient as possible.” That transformation of medicine provides avenues for wider geographic service. But it’s not the only challenge for healthcare technology support in a field where every nurse, doctor, pharmacist, technician and office support staffer is linked by computers, laptops, tablets and smart phones. In a hospital that has driven most processes online since 2006, the massive amount of data put a premium on the need for specialists in both data analytics and cyber security for the network perimeter, both hot fields where recruitment takes more time, Zabawski says. Still, she’s optimistic about the availability of IT talent in the Columbus Region. “It’s definitely a robust flow of people coming into the Region or graduating from local universities, and the big employers (are) working with the local universities to make sure the grads come out with skill sets that match the hot jobs right now,” she says. Beyond matching skill sets with jobs, biomedical, pharmaceutical and surgical technologies continue to develop, such as computerized drug compounding machines and new heart monitors. “There’s a lot of focus in developing entrepreneurs locally and all that they’re trying to do to develop the new technology that’s coming out of our region. It’s all new, a lot of it, but there’s some tremendous potential in some of these small service companies,” Zabawski says. In Central Ohio’s IT ecosystem, the technology operations of Nationwide Children’s are both significant and complex. Unlike OhioHealth, OSU hospitals and Mount Carmel Health with their networks of affiliate offices, many referring pediatricians are not employed by the hospital itself. “Our ultimate goal is to make sure there are thriving pediatricians in all the regions, and we really want to keep the private pediatricians alive and well and have healthy practices,” she says. —Mike Mahoney
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Proud to help build technologically vibrant communities. Since our beginnings in 1926, Nationwide has been proud to support the communities where our members and associates live and work. Today, we’re still focused on making a difference in Columbus, and proud to be part of a city at the forefront of technology and innovation. Our IT associates are a team of professionals who share this same passion. It’s part of why Nationwide has been selected for the 5th consecutive year as one of Computerworld’s Best Places to Work in IT.
Nationwide and the Nationwide N and Eagle are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2017 Nationwide CPO-1071AO (09/17)
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Wiretap 111 Liberty St., Suite 102 Columbus 43215 wiretap.com
If Wiretap is rolling the dice by choosing to be located in the Columbus Region, its principals are confident their lucky numbers will continue to appear.
including identifying patterns of messaging that could later spell trouble for a company. The technology includes a “predictive intelligence” element that Schumann likens to the 2002 sciencefiction thriller Minority Report. “We take all of the analog interactions and create a digital footprint that can identify risks and provide behavioral insight back to the company,” he
says. “We can make sure a CEO doesn’t end up on the cover of the Wall Street Journal for not handling HR problems.” That footprint might tell of an insider threat, it can recognize top talent, identify potential human resource issues or point out ways a company might improve its bottom line. “It’s powerful, but employees see value in it, too,” Schumann says. “It helps them communicate better than they
The cyber security firm Wiretap began its emerging technology platform here in 2015 as a startup and it is growing quickly, with 25 employees currently and expectations that it will double in size each year, says CEO Jeff Schumann. “We made a big bet on where this city is going,” Schumann says. “Columbus is becoming a hotbed for technology, with capital investors and the right leaders and mentorships all readily available.” Location is also critical. “We have access to our customers better than anywhere in the US,” he says. “Just look at the amount of enterprises within 500 miles of this region that you can reach within a day’s drive.” Wiretap is all about strengthening the security of organizations, especially those with hundreds and thousands of employees. “We have a few hundred enterprises running on our technology, and many of these are major enterprises with 200,000 employees,” Schumann says. “Their immediate need is often better security, but they get equally excited about what they can learn when they adopt these technologies.” A primary function of Wiretap’s technology is to secure data blasted out across varieties of an organization’s digital channels and platforms, but the company does a whole lot more,
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did before, and it can save them time by showing them how to accomplish tasks in a better and different fashion.” Wiretap works with all sorts of industries, and because Central Ohio has positive livability factors, the company is able to tap more than just digital platforms. “In the beginning we were told it would be hard to grow in Columbus and attract the right talent,” Schumann says. “We’ve proven the naysayers wrong and have brought in the best talent from all over the world who want to come here and build this technology.” The vibrant IT ecosystem that exists in the Region has also been a boon, allowing Wiretap to draw on expertise in areas related to its work, Schumann says. “To be successful you have to move fast, and we don’t have all the resources that come with a mega enterprise,” he says. “So we have partnerships to offset our knowledge gaps, and Columbus has everything you need across all disciplines.” Moving forward, Wiretap must continue to look at the existing bigger picture while creating new visions for building on its business, Schumann says. “One of the most important things to survive and thrive is the ability to outinnovate the bigger players, so we have to move very, very fast and use the ecosystem of Columbus to our advantage,” he says. “We have to think about and engineer things that have never been done before. It’s incredibly stressful, but when you get a bunch of smart people in a room, you can do it, and we are well underway,” Schumann says. —TC Brown
We have to move very, very fast and use the ecosystem of Columbus to our advantage.” jeff SChuMann
Electricity revolutionized the way we connect with the world. WHAT WILL IT DO NEXT?
To learn more about the cooperative difference, visit ohioec.org.
Electricity. Every day it brings us something new. Something to empower or simplify our lives. Clean. Efficient. Stable. You might call it the essential energy. Now, and for the future. Electricity. A world of possibilities.
CEO, Wiretap Columbus 2020 l ColumbusCEO
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leading EDJE 5555 Perimeter Drive, Suite 101 Dublin 43017 leadingedje.com
When you name your Midwestern company Leading EDJE during a high-tech revolution, better remember two things: First, bring the goods. Second, bring an attitude to match.
For Leading EDJE CEO Joelle Brock, the company name means a serious commitment to custom solutions, staff learning and—surprisingly—laughing at least once every hour. Invite the staff and family to a picnic at the Columbus Zoo, and 91 people attend. Need a babysitter for your junior geek? EDJE colleagues are there to help. Where does the EDJE come from? The acronym stands for Erica Dave Joelle Enterprises, using the first names of founders Erica Krumlauf, chief operating officer; Dave Michels, chief technology officer, and Joelle herself, but the edginess reflects strategy, culture and committed listening. Founded 10 years ago, Leading EDJE expects to employ 50 fulltime by the end of this year, and it uses no contract or part-time staff. It provides custom software development, project management and embedded developers onsite to help clients like Safelite, Donatos and Crown Search Services. Columbus 2020, JobsOhio and other groups have helped connect Leading EDJE to emerging enterprises here, where software breakthroughs may be essential to job growth, Brock says. Geeky aspirations own the company’s culture. “REAL. FUN. GEEKS.” is the brand slogan—both for customers and potential employees. Brock wants to attract aggressive problem-solvers with just as much passion for fun and work-life balance. That has kept Lead-
Everything we do is on a custom basis, so it’s not as if we’re dropping in-a-box solutions.” JOELLE BROCK CEO, Leading EDJE
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ing EDJE on Inc. Magazine’s list of 5,000 fastest-growing companies. “We’re super-excited about being the geekiest of the geeks. When we mix our clients into our culture, that’s a release of energy for them,” Brock says. The quest for clients may include a lot of retail, but Brock and Wendy Ivany, chief growth officer (translation: sales and recruiting), say that doesn’t reflect targeting. “When we’re looking to engage with a new client or an existing client, we’re looking for that mutual respect, a mutual bond and that loyalty to one another. So we’re not trying to find as many clients as we can. We’re out to find the next client that wants to go as deep in our relationship as we have with our other clients,” Ivany says. The key question for potential customers is how far they want to lean forward. “Everything we do is on a custom basis, so it’s not as if we’re dropping ina-box solutions,” Brock says. “We truly get to the root of our clients’ problems, and we do that through custom technology development.” Leading EDJE offers NIMBLE (New Ideas Made By Leading EDJE), where a client’s subject matter experts join Leading EDJE staff in their expanding Dublin creative space to think of ways to approach their business and disrupt it with technology. EDJErs, the website claims, are “the smartest, most capable geeks in town,” but Brock wants to make sure they’re the happiest, too. Time off, flextime and comprehensive benefits play a part. If people pass the company’s core values test, they’ll benefit from internal investment in their ongoing training and education. “People come to work for Leading EDJE because they know they’re going to get a lot of investment from the company,” Brock says. “The people we bring on the team are the best problem solvers there are. They come up against a problem and they get excited about it because it’s something new. They know they’re going to solve it. The chase to the solve is what’s fun for them,” Brock says. —Mike Mahoney
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Grounded in history, focused on the future. From our headquarters in one of Columbus’ most cherished historic buildings, Bricker & Eckler honors the past. But thanks to Columbus 2020, we know that the greatest days of the Columbus region lie ahead. Congratulations to Columbus 2020 for once again making Central Ohio great in 2017 with: • Columbus being recognized as the best city in the country to work in tech (SmartAsset, August 2017) start a career (USA Today, May 2017) Niche, April 2017)
(SmartAsset, July 2017) Contact Contact Chris Chris Schmenk Schmenk at at 614.227.2323 614.227.2323 or or cschmenk@bricker.com cschmenk@bricker.com to to learn learn more more about about how how our our economic development development team team can can help help your your business business or or community community succeed. succeed. economic
www.bricker.com www.bricker.com Twitter: Twitter: @DevelopOhio @DevelopOhio Blog: Blog: www.DevelopOhio.com www.DevelopOhio.com
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ICC 2500 Corporate Exchange Drive Columbus 43231 icctechnology.com
As the business world becomes increasingly digital, one Columbus consulting company is leveraging the Region’s labor pool to help organizations solve their IT challenges.
ICC Technology, Ohio’s largest privately held IT services provider, specializes in strategy and design for user experience, and provides services for technology integration and business analytics. “What you see in the world today is a movement towards what is generally called the digital transformation,” CEO Steven Glaser says. The transition to mobile technology is especially relevant, and visible to consumers and businesses alike. “Now it has become critical to every business, the more that millennials do business on their phones,” says Glaser, who has led the organization since 1995. “We’re all headed in this ‘Amazonian,’ Uber world, everything someday is going to come through that phone, and everybody is working to be prepared to do that.”
ICC, from its state-of-the-art development center in Columbus, has helped shape the IT strategy of many well-known firms in the Region, across a variety of industries. Its portfolio of clients include government agencies and national and global companies such as Nationwide, L Brands and Cardinal Health. In one local project, ICC helped Bob Evans to streamline processes, optimize inventory and share information in real-time across store, channel and system boundaries. More than 500 restaurants were integrated into an enterprise backbone to measure transaction flow to forecast labor needs at each location. “We’ve invested a lot in the Columbus market and the people around Columbus,” Glaser says. “Columbus allows for growth, and it’s a great place for our company to have grown up.”
We’re serious tech experts who solve serious business problems, without taking ourselves too seriously in the process. In other words, we’re
REAL. FUN. GEEKS
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We compete at a high level across lots of different verticals.” STeven GlaSer, CEO, ICC
Being located in Columbus provides not only a roster of reputable clients but a coping mechanism in facing one of the industry’s difficult tests. “I think that the challenges in the marketplace today are labor—it’s a high-employment market,” Glaser says. “The skillset demands are great, (and) there are less people out there with the skills that you need. These are relatively new techniques that are popping up every day—how do we deal with that?”
For one, access to talent coming out of The Ohio State University and other nearby institutions. “The fortunate part is we’ve located ourselves in a great region. There are numerous colleges and a great labor pool for us to draw from,” Glaser says. “We see a lot of people coming out with computer science degrees. We love the course of the last 10 years.” ICC hires many local graduates and then trains them for the ever-changing needs of clients. “We’ve been fortunate to have a great group of people we develop in this marketplace,” he says. “The only way that you can do that is by developing a culture that allows these people.” Glaser says Columbus has a bit of a small-town atmosphere in many ways. “You have a plethora of people with strong Midwestern values that want to work hard,” he says. “The challenge you always face is competition,” he adds. “We compete at a high level across lots of different verticals. It’s not as easy as it looks. The biggest thing that differentiates us is we invest in clients and our people.” —Evan Weese
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Ibm 4600 Lakehurst Court Dublin 43016 ibm.com
It’s no accident IBM bases its North America Cognitive Innovation Center in the Columbus Region.
From offices in Columbus, IBM’s Cognitive Innovation Center provides clients with services in the realm of Internet of Things, cognitive and data science and services supporting the digital transformation cycle. “When IBM had selected Columbus as the location there were certain criteria,” says Teresa Hamid, vice president and chief technology officer overseeing the North America Cognitive Innovation Center. “Columbus was selected because of its location and proximity to colleges and universities. We knew analytics is a growth area, and talent is a must—we must have access to that talent.” The IBM division works with clients in government and a variety of industries including financial services, distribution, retail and manufacturing. It serves businesses at various levels of maturity, some just beginning to explore the importance of analytics to their business. Data is more than just a buzzword, as it brings about an element of change for organizations across industries. IBM allows clients to analyze data that is “unstructured,” or raw. The services can be applied to a variety of business processes. “It could be around a contact center, where we could create a chatbot of sorts—create messaging,” Hamid says. “It is definitely an area of growth. But it’s also an area of challenge for all of our clients.”
Columbus was selected because of its location and proximity to colleges and universities ... talent is a must.” TeReSA HAMID, VP & Chief Technology Officer, Innovation Center
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In providing the services, IBM is agnostic to technology, Hamid says. But, of course, the division also has access to IBM tools such as Watson, the famed artificial intelligence application. The North America Cognitive Innovation Center has worked with hundreds of clients, both nationally and globally. “The clients that are really going after this, and exploring and failing fast, will be the greater competitors in this space,” Hamid says. “Depending on the industry, we’re still in some areas of early adoption and in some areas of maturity.” Access to talent is one of industry’s greatest challenges. “Analysts are in a level of shortage. They continue to be a critical element to any growing organization,” Hamid says. “Analytics or cognitive, be it machine learning, these are the roles that are critical and we need.” Hamid says IBM is working closely with high schools and universities to ensure educators are grooming students to have the right sets of skills. “We have a great relationship with OSU; we work with their school of engineering, statistics, identifying that these are the types of courses that are needed,” Hamid says. IBM also is able to collaborate with businesses—be it in insurance, automotive, retail or pharmaceutical—that are facing the same challenge. “It’s really a community effort and beneficial for all of us,” Hamid says. “There has been great collaboration across the local companies in various aspects, and it doesn’t always have to be in the analytics and cognitive domain.” The issues are important because they have far-reaching impacts across IBM’s footprint. “While we are local, we also are a part of the broader global team that reaches out to hundreds of data scientists, analytics architects,” Hamid says. “We’re part of a larger ecosystem. The advantage of having a co-located team here in Columbus is it’s a local area for clients to come.” —Evan Weese
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Cardinal Health 7000 Cardinal Place Dublin 43017 cardinalhealth.com
Cardinal Health touches just about every aspect of healthcare. The Fortune 15 company offers wholesale distribution for pharmaceutical products in more than 70 countries; supply distribution; Cardinal-branded product sourcing and manufacturing; nuclear pharmacy and new postacute services.
Cardinal Health has a lot of work to keep track of. That’s why its IT system, Enterprise Information Technology, is so vital. “The technology supports the operations of the company from supply chain distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, all the way to commercial technology, which we actually sell to our customers directly, so we have technology implemented at the customer. It’s a very mission-critical part of what we do here at Cardinal,” says Patty Morrison, executive vice president of customer support services and chief information officer. “We have a very big set of business models here that are servicing across those multiple customers. So IT here is at the base and fundamental capability of every single thing,” she adds. Morrison credits the Columbus Region with Cardinal Health’s thriving IT operations. “I’ve worked in a lot of different cities, and one of the things I absolutely love about Columbus is that it has a great collaborative nature to it.” As a member of the board at Columbus Collaboratory, Morrison works closely with six other members who are chief information/technology officers at their respective companies. “We’re able to collaborate on topics like cyber security, data and analytics, IT talent development in the Region,” she says. “We also do a lot of innovation together so we can learn across
IT here is at the base and fundamental capability of every single thing.” PATTy MoRRISon, Executive Vice President of Customer Support Services and Chief Information Officer Cardinal Health
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industries. I think this is really unique to Columbus and part of what the business leaders and the city leaders work very hard at—creating that collaborative environment.” “The other thing that’s really great about Columbus is just the access to really good talent. We have fantastic universities and schools in the Region that give us access to great talent,” she says. Cyber security is one area in particular on the minds of the Collaboratory board members, and on the minds of every company in the Region, says Morrison. “We work together on sharing best practices, where appropriate sharing threat intelligence. It’s interesting because we’re only as strong as our weakest link.” For example, AEP runs energy to Cardinal’s data center in Dublin, and as such the two companies share details that may affect each other. “It’s important that we understand what they’re doing to protect themselves (and) the impact it has on us— even if we weren’t affected we’ve found there are supply-chain effects that happen—so I think that collaboration is very powerful,” she says. It seems as if there is no end to IT innovation, and the Columbus Region’s IT ecosystem will continue to explore new technological territories such as machine learning and cognitive computing as they apply to anything from financial services and healthcare, to retail and insurance, says Morrison. “Another challenge is helping an IT organization evolve to using new ways of building applications through cloudbased services; building architectures that allow us to move faster—taking monolithic, more legacy applications and moving them to contemporary architectures that will enable the company to have options and move with speed. That’s a big challenge because, in our business, it’s very important that we constantly evolve to create new value for our customer base, so we have to have that flexibility.” —Chloe Teasley
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When Facebook searched for the right mix of technology infrastructure and can-do attitude, they found it at the New Albany International Business Park.
A world-class data center. An accelerated timeline. A solution powered by New Albany. Welcome to New Albany, Facebook. We’re thrilled to have you join an expanding list of leading corporations who are choosing to locate their businesses in a place that’s wired for success. Like so many others, Facebook saw the strength of the business park’s technological infrastructure. Including one of the nation’s most robust and affordable fiber optic networks, triple electric feeds and the power of tremendous bandwidth.
The data center will be one of the world’s most advanced and will feature Facebook’s latest Open Compute Project hardware designs. In fact, power was at the heart of the decision. Because when Facebook wanted the opportunity to power its new data center with 100 percent renewable energy, New Albany developed a plan to make it happen. It’s the latest in a long line of New Albany success stories. Will yours be next?
The New Albany International Business Park welcomes Facebook to its Information and Technology Cluster, where it joins other mission critical facilities for Nationwide Insurance, Discover Financial Solutions, Amazon, the AEP Transmission Operations Center and the TJX Technology Center. We invite you to learn more about the opportunities that exist in New Albany.
NEW ALBANY F OU N DE D 18 37
newalbanycompany.com | newalbanybusiness.org
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Columbus Collaboratory 1375 Perry St. Columbus 43201 columbuscollaboratory.com
When seven leading Columbus businesses and organizations came together in early 2014 to create the Columbus Collaboratory, they wisely envisioned its work would be as important as it has quickly become.
ments, outputs from the engagements themselves where the member companies are deriving internal benefits from using them, a core set of services that the company itself now has and an emerging set of products that are now under development that have directly resulted from those collaboration efforts.” The Columbus Region, already collaborative in nature, is ideally suited to the work of the Collaboratory, Wald says. “These CIOs of these seven com-
panies that sit on my board, they have really big jobs, very important jobs. They’re very, very busy people and yet they are very, very collaborative and they are willing to compromise for the good of the whole. … They understand the bigger picture here and how by collaborating together they’re creating something greater than themselves while still benefitting from it.” As cybersecurity threats have grown, the Collaboratory has been able to help its members address mutual concerns
The founders—American Electric Power, Battelle, Cardinal Health, Huntington Bank, L Brands, Nationwide and OhioHealth—launched a company that has gained significance as it has added value to the IT operations of each of their own ventures and the Columbus Region as a whole. As its name suggests, the Collaboratory is a place where chief information officers of the seven founders come together to tackle IT issues that are common challenges despite their diverse business interests. Advanced analytics and cybersecurity have been the initial focus, says Matt Wald, CEO of the unique company headquartered at Battelle. Because none of the founders compete with each other, they share IT concerns to create innovative solutions that can benefit all of them. Now the Collaboratory is moving into the next phase as it commercializes its work and is positioned to continue as a self-sustaining enterprise. Wald says the Collaboratory worked in parallel its first two years on project engagements with members as well as product development efforts. “What has emerged from that now is a library of (intellectual property) that has resulted from those engage-
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better than they might have been able to do alone. For example, when the global WannaCry ransomware attack emerged in May, Collaboratory members quickly organized a Saturday conference call where they were able to learn strategies from each other for handling the threat, Wald says. “Imagine trying to do that if we hadn’t existed.” Another major value of the Collaboratory is its cyber rotation program in which new college IT graduates cycle through the IT departments of each founding member, giving each of them exposure to the differing company cultures while giving the companies an opportunity to get to know them as they ramp up their IT skills. “The hypothesis was we can compress the time it takes to make new entrants to the cyber workforce eligible for hire from what used to be five years down to something shorter, like two.” In fact, two of the first seven new grads in that program have been hired by member companies and a new class of eight is now rotating through the seven companies plus the Collaboratory itself. “And the class of eight, we’ve attracted more kids from out of state than the original class of seven,” Wald reports. That helps spread the word nationally that there is a lot of opportunity in IT in the Columbus Region, he adds. “Our founding CEOs and founding CIOs took a risk; like all things in business you have to take a risk in order to hit a benefit. That was because some folks had some real vision and courage, and I think it’s paying off,” Wald says. “It is really creating a future opportunity for them that just didn’t exist a couple of years ago.” —Mary Yost
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They understand ... they’re creating something greater than themselves while still benefitting from it.” MATT WAld CEO, Columbus Collaboratory Columbus 2020 l ColumbusCEO
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
battelle 505 King Ave. Columbus 43201 battelle.org
Battelle is seen as a leader in Central Ohio’s IT community, and even globally, but perhaps lesser known is how the research giant gets its own boost from the Region.
“The fact that we have some pretty major companies here in town is definitely beneficial,” Battelle CIO David White says. “That allows us to attract a good degree of very skilled people. Columbus is a really good place to work if you’re in IT.” Battelle was implementing a new human resources system, for example, and was able to find experienced personnel who had worked on similar projects for Nationwide Insurance and L Brands, among other reputable local employers. “Collaboration here is kind of off the charts,” says White, who earned degrees from Columbus State Community College and Franklin University before previous career stops in the Region. Battelle is a founding member of the Columbus Collaboratory, a cohort of businesses across seven industries that share best practices related to cyber security and analytics. “That has actually opened a lot of doors for us,” White said. “I have contacts with all other CIOs, (to say) ‘Hey, I’m thinking about this, can you put me in contact with the right person? Because your organization has already done it.’” In many other cities, he says, that willingness to collaborate is not as prevalent. The collaborative spirit in Columbus actually goes beyond IT executives. “It starts at the top, with CEOs,”
Columbus is uniquely positioned because we can actually point to the cloud in Columbus.” DAvID WHITE Chief Information Officer, Battelle
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White says. He says that while Columbus indeed has a strong pool from which to draw IT talent, recruiting will be an emphasis for the industry, which is aging. Battelle’s IT department in just the past few years saw 29 staff members retire with a combined 700 years of experience, White says. Fortunately, the Columbus Region is blessed to have a pipeline of talent flowing from a number of local schools including The Ohio State University. Still, one of the challenges in an always-changing industry is making sure those graduates are equipped with the most up-to-date skills. “Where’s that next crop coming from and are we really training them for the future?” White asks. For instance, Columbus is shaping into a hub of activity for cloud technology as data is stored at facilities run by Amazon Web Services. “Columbus is uniquely positioned because we can actually point to the cloud in Columbus,” White says. Automation, and its impact on workforces, are other areas White and his team are watching. “I quite frankly think that automation is going to be a big challenge for us, in IT, moving forward,” he says. “It’s changing the entire stack.” Battelle’s Columbus operations will continue to be important to the organization as a whole. From Columbus, there is connectivity to each of Battelle’s 53 satellite offices, for IT security and other functions. In a natural disaster or catastrophic situation, the Columbus IT operations must bring systems back online within four hours, White says. “That’s pretty aggressive,” he says. “We also have to support the physical security and the infrastructure across the institute.” Battelle has researchers around the world running experiments, and they can’t afford to lose years worth of important work. “It’s a pretty important function within the organization,” he says. —Evan Weese
ColumbusCEO l Columbus 2020
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OUR WORK CHANGES THE WORLD, BUT OUR HEART BELONGS TO COLUMBUS. At CAS, we enable groundbreaking research that improves people’s lives every day. We’re proud to call Columbus home and to inspire innovation in our great city as a supporter of .
LEARN MORE AT CAS.ORG
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I T
H A p p e n s
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From analytics to cloud and in all sectors, information technology drives innovation in the Columbus Region.
Auditgraph 220 Market St., Suite 202 New Albany 43054 auditgraph.com
How can a company that specializes in drug labeling gain insights from a financial-services or manufacturing company?
It may seem unlikely, but the special sauce of the Columbus Region’s IT community allows for unexpected collaborations. New Albany-based Auditgraph, which drives global patient safety by ensuring drug labels are updated in a timely and accurate manner, has partnered with a wide variety of area organizations: Columbus 2020, Rev1 Ventures, The Ohio State University, Innovate New Albany, Cardinal Health Fuse, Otterbein University, Ohio Northern University, TechOhio and the Lachey Company. “The advantage is a network of IT collaborations which help us grow our product focus,” CEO Mauricha Marcussen says. “Columbus is a community where people are willing to share ideas and information about IT operations.” That local network has allowed Auditgraph to grow its business to a global scale. The company’s local team supports operations in four locations in North America and two in Europe. Beyond simply the ability to collaborate, the Columbus Region offers best-in-class financial and mentoring resources for quickly growing companies. Auditgraph, for example, scaled at a business incubator in New Albany, Inc@8000. The drug labeling company provides expertise for managing all aspects of a company’s labeling program, for pre-
Columbus is a community where people are willing to share ideas and information about IT operations.” MAURICHA MARCUSSEN CEO, Auditgraph
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scription drugs, generic drugs, medical devices, consumer products and related patient information. Various countries and regions of the world have different templates and requirements for local and corporate labeling. “While US regulations currently require the labeling on generic medicines to be identical to their brand-name equivalents, in reality the vast majority of generic drugs carry labels that differ from the branded products,” Auditgraph notes on its website. “There are critical safety concerns of disparate labeling between the branded and generic labels.” Labeling is important because it describes proper use of the product and describes safety and efficacy to humans, ultimately improving global patient safety. Drugmakers have to make sure they are up to speed on the latest emerging regulations. If labeling isn’t globally compliant, it will be hamstrung. “Our experts will provide key considerations for developing a strategic approach to implementing the Company Core Data Sheet safety changes into country-specific labeling submissions,” Auditgraph says on its website. Auditgraph uses its proprietary ComplianceView software to handle global product labeling compliance. The platform efficiently assesses, reports and tracks critical safety differences between the Company Core Data Sheet—essentially a drugmaker’s own product description—and thousands of local country labels. It identifies labeling deviations quickly to both improve internal efficiency and to meet stringent government requirements. Marcussen says the privately held Auditgraph, founded in 2003, will have to leverage new technologies to assist clients in the future. “Our challenge going forward is to determine how machine learning and artificial intelligence can be incorporated into our ComplianceView technology to further drive our goal to improve global patient safety,” Marcussen says. —Evan Weese
ColumbusCEO l Columbus 2020
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THE POWER OF PLACE
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Connect with the Economic Development Division at columbus.gov/econdev or 614.645.8616.
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