Irvine startup Socialcast wants companies to do office meetings MySpace style.
The goal of Socialcast is get companies to adopt a social networking site to foster easier and freer communication among workers, especially in companies with several offices.
“Companies use it to connect all their employees together,” said Tim Young, 27, who started Socialcast with his own money in 2005. “It becomes the hub.”
The privately held company landed a $500,000 round of venture funding earlier this year.
Socialcast is profitable and doesn’t plan to raise more money, Young said.
The Business Journal estimates the company sees about $6 million a year in sales.
A Socialcast site includes a newsfeed page where workers can see what others are doing, as well as forums to ask questions and make suggestions.
“Socialcast enables the company to open up to their employees and create a better sense of belonging,” Young said.
Having a private, companywide social networking site that’s built specifically for use in the office helps managers because “you don’t have to let employees decide where the work/personal line will be drawn,” he said. “Facebook won’t do that.”
Socialcast, which has 14 workers here, does hosting and support for customers.
It’s first two workers were students at the University of California, Irvine,one from the Paul Merage School of Business and another from the Henry Samueli School of Engineering.
For big customers, such as Los Angeles-based Guitar Center Inc., Socialcast creates custom sites.
Other large clients include NASA, City of Industry-based Hot Topic Inc. and the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Labora-tory.
Another is UC Irvine’s business school,where Young has become a bit of a darling.
He gives frequent guest lectures to business students there.
Socialcast recently launched an easy-to-use version of its networking site for small- and midsize businesses.
“Within 10 minutes you can have a corporate internal social network set up, change the color scheme and logo and all your workers can start using right away,” Young said.
Socialcast operates on a subscription model. Small businesses can get it for about $5 a month per user.
Zeacom Buys Software
New Zealand’s Zeacom Group Ltd., a maker of call center software that has its U.S. headquarters in Irvine, bought some assets from another kiwi company.
Zeacom bought two product lines from Auckland-based Talking Computers Ltd. for undisclosed terms.
It nabbed two types of software used by companies to train workers at call centers. One does call monitoring and evaluation and the other records calls for listening to later.
“The manager can have a structured way of scoring the conversation so they can give feedback to agents,” said Ernie Wallerstein, president of Zeacom’s U.S. operations.
Most of its software offerings help manage different types of communication used by customer and tech support agents.
“It’s not just phones anymore,” Wallerstein said. “There are e-mails, faxes and Web requests coming in.”
Privately held Zeacom has about 20 local workers and sees about $20 million in yearly revenue.
The company targets customers that have up to 2,500 workers.
One local customer is Irvine’s Candela Corp., a distributor of lamps and electrical parts for light fixtures.
Epicor in Thailand
Irvine business software maker Epicor Software Corp. opened an outpost in Thailand.
The company has had “a direct presence in the Asia-Pacific region for more than 15 years,” Chief Executive Tom Kelly said.
The office is set to have a couple of sales and marketing workers and a few consultants to serve some 30 customers there, including the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok and the Bangkok office of St. Louis-based battery maker Energizer Holdings Inc.
Epicor sells software used by manufacturers, hotels, nonprofits and retailers in Thailand, the company said.
Its regional headquarters for Asia is in Singapore.
Microsemi Taps VP
Irvine-based Microsemi Corp., a maker of chips for industrial uses, hired an aerospace veteran to its operations team.
Bel Lazar is set to be Microsemi’s vice president of operations. He’ll report to Ralph Brandi, chief operating officer.
Lazar hails from El Segundo-based International Rectifier Corp., a maker of power management gear, where he was vice president of its aerospace and defense unity.
Microsemi makes what industry insiders call “high reliability” chips, which go into devices that need to perform under extreme conditions in which failures can be costly.
The hiring is part of the company’s bid to sell more chips used in military and aerospace applications.
Specifically, the company is beefing up a product of what’s called linear voltage regulators, which continuously adjust to maintain a constant output of electricity.
“These are some of the most profitable high-reliability markets and represent an entirely new growth opportunity for the company,” Brandi said.
In July, Microsemi bought local rival Semicoa Semiconductors Inc. of Costa Mesa for $25 million.
