Conexant in Terayon Modems; Capita Tech Answers Duty’s Call
I’m back.
A year ago, I wrote this column for a month until Ken Spencer Brown arrived at the Orange County Business Journal. He’s now at the San Jose Business Journal, where last reports were that he’s looking for affordable housing. Ha! Without further ado, here we go.
Fluor Names Unit Chief
A Fluor Corp. man is taking over the top role at TradeMC Inc., the new Irving, Texas-based joint venture of Aliso Viejo-based Fluor and IBM Corp.
John L. Hopkins, Fluor’s former president of global business development sales and marketing, who was instrumental in putting together the final IBM-Fluor venture, has been named president and chief executive officer of TradeMC. Hopkins had led Fluor Daniel’s largest operating area,chemicals, plastics and fibers,which has annual revenue of $5 billion.
TradeMC is an online procurement and supply-chain management company targeting telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and other industries.
Other top TradeMC executives include: Steven M. Kagan, the company’s chief operating officer and a former vice president overseeing new venture business at IBM Global Services; and James B. Poage, chief marketing officer and a former senior vice president of marketing for airline reservations company Sabre Holdings Corp., the parent company of Travelocity.com.
Terayon’s Conexant Connection
Terayon Communication Systems Inc, a Santa Clara-based supplier of broadband network systems, has picked Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc.’s single-chip programmable cable modem to create a full line of cable modems based on industry and international standards.
Cable Television Laboratories Inc., the Louisville, Colo.-based cable industry consortium known as CableLabs, certified Terayon’s TeraJet 310 cable modem, incorporating Conexant’s cable-modem chip, recently.
“We are excited about the capabilities we gain by working with Conexant, the only chip supplier with a programmable solution that gives us the flexibility to add our own unique software features, and support multiple worldwide standards with a common hardware platform,” said Shlomo Rakib, president and chief technology officer for Terayon.
Navy Salutes Capita
Irvine-based Capita Technologies Inc., a 500-employee electronic-business-services provider, is ship-shape in the eyes of the Navy.
The Navy gave Capita Technologies nine awards for allowing its employees to take time off to do their reserve duty and for the company’s development of an advanced intranet application enabling reserve officers to apply online for open duty assignments.
The application, called Project APPLYFY01, saved the Navy $300,000 by replacing a costly manual process.
Typically, the company would charge $21,000 for such a service but gave it to the Navy for a token $1,000. For their efforts in that project, two company employees, Charlotte Bustle, director of customer service, and Wayne Kim, systems administrator, were given Navy commendations. (The idea for the application was actually from Steve Schilling, a Capita employee who is a reservist. He got an award from the company as “Reservist Employee of the Millennium.”)
Presenting the awards were a team of Navy officials led by Rear Adm. Jack Hines.
The Navy gave “My Boss Is a Patriot” awards to Chief Executive Jeffrey Kvam, Gerald Ostrowsky, corporate director, marketing and business alliances, and Bustle. Receiving Seven Seals awards were Charles Granville, executive vice president, and Steven Billups, senior systems programmer.
Capita Technologies itself received the California State Chair Award, one of six given out annually. It’s now under consideration for the national Liberty Award, presented every two years on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
Microsoft Helping Arbol
Orange-based Arbol Media, a start-up company specializing in online and offline service applications for Hispanic consumers, has tapped Microsoft Corp. to develop its Internet services for the Hispanic market.
Arbol Media is creating products and services designed to bridge the gap that it said exists between the Hispanic consumer and technology. Arbol Media has chosen the Microsoft e-commerce platform using the .NET Enterprise Servers to power BusqueLoAqui.com (Spanish for “Find It Here”), a Web site providing online services, communication tools and targeted information content specifically designed for the Hispanic market.
In addition, Microsoft Consulting Services will assist in the development of the company’s Internet services. A launch date for BusqueLoAqui.com is expected to be announced shortly.
“The combination of Microsoft’s products and consulting services will be a tremendous asset in the technical development of Arbol Media’s online solution for the Hispanic market,” said Ben Rodriguez, president and co-founder of Arbol Media.
Say It With $113K
The U.S Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education gave a $113,000 grant to the University of California, Irvine, Division of Undergraduate Education to support the testing of a new online grammar program called Grammar From the Ground Up. Sue Cross of UCI’s Learning and Academic Resource Center designed the program, which provides students online access to writing specialists who correct and comment on their work.
