Links 10/5: Payoneer raises $180 million with help from Susquehanna Growth: Moxe Health raises $5.5 million led by Safeguard Scientifics



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Dreamforce '16: The Philly Connection


Tom Paine



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Over the next few days, I'll be tweeting and posting about Dreamforce '16, with an emphasis on Philly connections. Let me know if you've got any items to add.





















































"Industry verticals would be very, very nice. I know they’ve dabbled, but truly for a health and life sciences business, having an industry vertical you can use of the box would be very, very welcome. Very often we have to take what is given to us and then augment it with our own development, or with app cloud vendors and so on, in order to give us that solution. Personally I’d like to see more of that."

-Sanjay Singh, IT Director at Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices.


"Other real-world products that use the Xively IoT platform, also on display at DreamForce, include:
--Wireless lighting by industry pioneer Lutron, the company that invented the light dimmer two generations ago. Lutron light control products range from individual dimmers to total light management systems that control entire building complexes. Some of the larger Lutron light control systems in the United States include the 52-story New York Times Builngek.com/innovation/numerous-iot-related-products-services-debut-at-dreamforce.html


Most Innovative Solution: Accenture with Merck Animal Health (using Veeva CRM)
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/05/salesforce-marketing-cloud-innovation-winners.html














































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Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals Plans Cognitive Hospital Rooms powered by IBM Watson Internet of Things (Press Release)


Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals Plans Cognitive Hospital Rooms powered by IBM Watson Internet of Things


ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals Inc., three facilities with more than 900 acute care beds and part of Jefferson Health in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is working with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to launch cognitive hospital rooms powered by IBM Watson Internet of Things (IoT) designed to enhance the patient experience and help bring deeper levels of personalized, agile and responsive care to its patients. Jefferson is currently planning to deploy speakers in some hospital rooms, providing patients in those rooms with access to basic information, as well as more control over their surroundings to help make their stay more comfortable.

According to The Physician's Foundation, 81 percent of physicians describe themselves as either over-extended or at full capacity, while only 19 percent indicate they have time to see more patients. Moreover, physicians spend 20 percent of their time on non-clinical paperwork. Now, with the ability to interact with in-room speakers that are connected to the IBM Watson IoT Platform, patients can take control over their hospital stay and the overall experience -- operating lights, window blinds, asking questions about hospital facilities or even getting background information on their physician.

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital: smart hospital rooms improve quality of patient care

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital: smart hospital rooms improve quality of patient care
"Being in a hospital can often be a hectic, anxiety-ridden, or even intimidating experience for patients and their loved ones. If we can minimize that discomfort, even a little, we are doing a lot to increase the well-being and care of our patients," said Neil Gomes, Vice President for Technology Innovation and Consumer Experience at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health. "Thanks to our visionary President and CEO, Dr. Stephen Klasko, we are able to invest in new innovations like the Watson IoT-powered speakers to give our patients the ability to interact in natural language to get basic, but important, information about their hospital visit without having to buzz in for a nurse."

The in-room speakers will be connected to the IBM Watson IoT Platform that taps IBM Watson cognitive computing and natural language capabilities, as well as provides the ability to easily access hospital data that is relevant and important for patients and the types of questions they typically may have about their hospital stay.

For example, patients can request information (i.e.: "When can my brother visit me on Tuesday?" or "Tell me about my doctor"), request specific actions (i.e.: "Play waterfall music," or "Make the room warmer or cooler"), trigger actions (i.e.: "Remind me to get up and walk every four hours"), and have an interactive dialogue with the speaker (i.e.: "Conduct a survey and record the responses for my nurse"), which can help make a patient's hospital stay more comfortable, relaxed and enjoyable.

About Jefferson:

Jefferson, through its academic and clinical entities of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, is reimagining health care for the greater Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey. Since its mergers with Abington Health and Aria Health, Jefferson now has 23,000 people dedicated to providing the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients, educating the health professionals of tomorrow, and discovering new treatments and therapies to define the future of care. With a university and hospital that date to 1824, today Jefferson is comprised of six colleges, nine hospitals, 32 outpatient and urgent care locations, and a multitude of physician practices throughout the region, serving more than 96,000 inpatients, 363,000 emergency patients and 1.9 million outpatient visits annually.

About IBM Watson Internet of Things:

For more information about IBM Watson IoT, visit: www.ibm.com/iot




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Links 10/4: Verizon's PA landline problems; Thomas Jefferson University Hospital partners with IBM on IoT



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Links 10/3: Salesforce is buying Krux for $340M in cash and stock; Qlik introduces web-based data visualization tool Qlik Playground for developers



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Catching up with Paul Boyer, Managing Partner of Mount Laurel-based Communications Solutions Provider Ancero



Marc Weinstein
NJTechWeekly.com


                                         Paul Boyer of Ancero | Marc Weinstein


Last New Year’s Eve, Paul Boyer had more to celebrate than the ushering in of another year. Boyer, managing partner at Ancero, a Mount Laurel-based communications solutions provider, received word that evening that his company had won one of its biggest accounts: a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) contract with a large Midwestern company.

Boyer noted that Ancero’s contract with that company, based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, involves the largest VoIP deployment in the Northeast that Ancero has undertaken with its national provider partner. The deal involves about 17,000 VoIP connections to the company’s subsidiaries’ offices, bringing nearly $300,000 a month in revenue for Ancero.

With this piece of business added to an expanding client roster, Ancero is reaping the benefits of an evolving tech environment.

The 18-year-old company began as a traditional integrated systems provider, but later switched to a managed-service-provider model. However, an analyst at the technology research firm Gartner (Stamford, Conn.) convinced Ancero to get into the VoIP business.

The analyst said that managed services companies should start offering VoIP services as a competitive advantage in the ever-changing technology services industry, Boyer recalled.

The analyst’s recommendation turned out to be right: VoIP became “an enormous piece of business for us,” Boyer said.

Along with its VoIP business, Ancero offers managed and cloud services and networking solutions to its clients, who are located across the country. But it’s VoIP that Ancero is betting its fortunes on these days. “VoIP is the number-one activity generator over and above anything else,” he noted.

Industry statistics support Ancero’s decision to go headlong into VoIP and make it the company’s key revenue driver. According to a report by Infonetics Research (Campbell, Calif.), the combined residential and business VoIP industries were estimated to be worth nearly $75 billion at the end of 2015. The report also said that VoIP subscriptions had been growing approximately 14 percent year-over-year since 2009.

Ancero largely focuses on small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) for its client base. The company has about 1,100 clients, of which Boyer estimates that more than half are very active.

The company’s top industry verticals are healthcare, financial, legal and other professional service companies — businesses that typically fall within the SMB category and are most likely to be receptive to Ancero’s services.

Ancero views the healthcare sector as its biggest industry vertical because it includes physician group practices and other medical treatment facilities, which tend to have multiple locations and prefer to outsource their technology needs rather than handle them in-house.  

Cost savings appear to be the biggest selling point for businesses considering switching from their current phone systems to a cloud-based system. According to Boyer, businesses can save between 20 to 30 percent with VoIP systems, compared with other phone systems.

Another benefit of using a VoiP phone system is its disaster recovery feature. “If you lost power in your building, the outside world wouldn’t know because your voicemail is working in the cloud, which would give you the ability to transfer everything to your cell phone,” Boyer explained.

With the increasing potential for security breaches in business data, Ancero has taken the extra step of partnering with companies specializing in cybersecurity technology. While Ancero can lock down networks with traditional computer-security techniques, the company realized that cybersecurity experts are the best equipped to battle the highly sophisticated hackers trying to break into the databases of companies.

Ancero’s big bet on the VoIP model seems to be paying off, as the company is posting an annual growth rate between 8 to 12 percent. Boyer said that this is a manageable rate of growth for the company, which at one point was 30 percent a year.

Demand for VoIP systems and for Ancero’s other services are expected to produce around $100 million a year in revenue within the next five years. “We’re well-positioned in the right area. VoIP is the hottest area in the industry,” said Boyer.

Ancero, however, requires a highly skilled workforce to meet that demand, and the company — like other New Jersey technology companies — is having trouble finding the seasoned talent it needs to accommodate its growth. The company currently has more than 60 employees in New Jersey and Philadelphia, with most of them at the Mount Laurel location.

“There is a lack of senior talent in this area of the country,” Boyer explained. “A lot of the technology talent leaves New Jersey to go to California or elsewhere in the country. Finding the right people is a challenge.”

Ancero could have moved its headquarters elsewhere, but decided that Mount Laurel was a perfect location because of its proximity to a major highway. The town is also home to a growing number of technology companies in southern New Jersey.


Boyer knows that Ancero doesn’t have the same stature as those companies that are disrupting the status quo with game-changing technologies. But he doesn’t mind if it’s labeled a “technology plumber.” That’s because Boyer believes the company is quite good at what it does, and that there will always be a need for its services. “We’re excited about the future,” he said.




Marc Weinstein is contributor to  NJTechWeekly. This article
originally appeared in NJTechWeekly, and is republished here with its permission.    




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Philly Tech People News 10/2/2016: TE Connectivity President Curtin will succeed CEO Lynch in 2017; CDI, CardConnect, ERT, Rodale





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Ekistic Ventures launches $15M fund to ‘solve critical urban problems’ (GovFresh)
Advisors include former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Chicago-based firm launches with $15 million fund.

TE Connectivity President Terrence Curtin will succeed CEO Tom Lynch, Effective March 9, 2017 (PR Newswire)

CEO of engineering staffing company CDI resigns (Philly.com)


CardConnect Appoints Jason Williams as Senior Vice President of Business Development (CardConnect)

ERT Further Enhances its Market-Leading Delivery Expertise (ERT)
David Elario joins executive team as head of operations delivery.







After 18 years, Alan Kraus steps down from Ben Franklin Technology Partners (Technical.ly Philly)

Peter Stern Resurfaces at Apple (Multichannel News)
Formerly of Time Warner Cable.



Jason Livingood is now Vice President - Technology Policy & Standards at Comcast, according to his LinkedIn profile. Previously, he was Vice President - Internet Services, for Comcast Cable.




Lincoln Financial Group Names Kristen Phillips Head of Corporate Marketing and Enterprise Communications (Lincoln Financial Group )
Unusual for a position such as that to report to the chief human resources officer.


Don Norbeck, whom I believe calls Philadelphia home base though in fact he's spread out all over the place, has a new role at the new Dell EMC, Senior Director Customer Experience Engineering, Architecture and Product Management. According to his LinkedIn profile, he continues to serve as Chief Architect, VCE, the Converged Platforms Division of Dell EMC.

Beth Buehler / Rodale
Rodale names Beth Buehler, previously Senior VP, Digital, its first Chief Operating Officer (Talking New Media)
Rodale is based in Emmaus, Pennsylvania (near Allentown) and New York.










Social Business Practice Expands: Trellist® Marketing and Technology Offers Enhanced Social Solutions for Clients, Announces New Leader and Staff (Trellist)





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Sunday highlights: Revitalized Philly Stock Exchange is relocating again; Could this be the end of Tronc?



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Saturday highlights; Amazon’s Alexa group on a massive hiring spree; ASUG Briefing: SAP’s $2.2 Billion IoT Push Includes Investment, M&A, Products, Labs



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Philly may be the next startup hub (Video: Nightly Business Report)




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TierPoint completes TekPark data center expansion


Tom Paine



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Ribbon cutting ceremony at TekPark last week with Jerry Kent, Chairman and CEO and Bob Hicks, Sr. Vice President-Operations, both holding the scissors /
Courtesy TierPoint


Data Center operator TierPoint this week announced the completion of its planned expansion of its TekPark data center near Allentown, Pennsylvania. The $12 million expansion adds nearly 14,000 sq. ft. of high-density data center space to the facility, bringing the total to nearly 43,000 sq. ft. The project additionally establishes baseline infrastructure to support the next phase of expansion, according to TierPoint.

TierPoint says it presold approximately 30 percent of the expansion to a northeast New Jersey financial services firm.

TierPoint operates six data centers in southeastern Pennsylvania. I profiled TierPoint and its national and regional expansion strategies earlier this year. Bob Hicks, TierPoint Senior Vice President of Operations, is responsible for its Pennsylvania operations. Last year, TierPoint completed an expansion of its Valley Forge data center that increased usable space by 150%.







St. Louis-based TierPoint now has 39 data centers in 20 markets with approximately 600,000 total square feet of raised floor space. It's headed by Jerry Kent, former CEO of cable firms Charter Communications and SuddenLink, and is backed by a powerful group of investors.

Previous Post: TierPoint: Local presence important part of national data center strategy




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