Vivian Keena and Donna Barnett, former executives of Irvine’s Epicor Software Corp., recently celebrated their first year in business as principles of Alternative Technology Partners Inc. in Aliso Viejo.
Alternative Technology is a sort of boutique group of engineers and consultants that help small and midsize businesses get the most out of software sold by Epicor, Salesfore.com Inc. and others.
They install software and train workers to use what’s called enterprise resource planning software, which helps companies manage all of the back-end processes of their operations and crunches data. Alternative Technology specializes in installing the software for manufacturers and distributors.
“After the initial buy, we go in and install the full application and help them get the most out of it,” said Keena, cofounder and chief executive. “A lot of companies will buy a $500,000 software application and maybe use 30% of it. We are trying to help them optimize it so they can get their full return on investment.”
Keena spent 11 years at Epicor as vice president of services for North America.
Barnett was a director of technology for North America and Latin America and reported to Keena for a decade.
Keena left Epicor last year to have a baby and found that many of her former customers continued calling her for help.
“I didn’t plan to start a company—it sort of grew naturally,” she said. “The customers were very much in touch with me and it grew out of their needs.”
Keena said she caters to customers who want “long-term relationships.”
“I saw a need out there,” she said.
Keena said she has “stayed on really good terms” with Epicor.
Alternative Technology is self-funded and has some 30 workers. About half of them have spent time working at Epicor and were recruited as Epicor shed jobs in 2009.
Epicor sees about $430 million in yearly sales and had a recent market value of $555 million.
Asia Pacific GM
Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp., a maker of electronics that speeds up the flow of data on storage networks, recently appointed a sales chief for China.
QLogic hired Stanley Liu as general manager of the greater China region. He’s set to report to Martin Darling, QLogic’s vice president of sales for Asia Pacific and Japan.
Liu has spent more than two decades on the sales side of the storage business. He’s held posts with IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.
Liu arrives on the heels of a big transition at QLogic. Simon Biddiscombe recently took the chief executive spot in a handover from longtime leader H.K. Desai, who remains executive chairman.
Deal on 3-D Chips
Irvine-based chip startup Quartics Inc. inked a licensing deal with Santa Monica-based DDD Group PLC earlier this month.
Quartics is set to pay royalties to use DDD’s algorithms that help convert regular video into 3-D format.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Quartics’ chips are designed to improve regular and high-definition video on the Web, handheld digital camcorders, cell phones, Blu-ray discs, computers and video game consoles.
The chips come into play when video needs to be upgraded from standard resolution to high-definition, or to 3D. The chips also convert video for one device, say a PC, to another, such as a digital TV.
The Business Journal estimates that Quartics has raised some $30 million in venture funding. It’s most recent $6 million round was done in January.
Backers include Palo Alto-based private equity firm Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc. and other undisclosed private investors.
Founder and former chief executive Safi Quereshey also is an investor. Quereshey was a cofounder of Irvine computer maker AST Research Inc., which no longer is in business.
Filter Servers Draw Backing
Orange-based M86 Security Inc., a maker of Web filtering servers and software for small businesses and schools, raised $3 million in funding, according to a report on technology news website Socaltech.com.
No other details about the funding or any of M86’s backers were disclosed.
M86 was formed when Orange’s 8e6 Technologies Inc. and Britain’s Marshal Ltd. combined in 2008.
Last year, M86 picked up two other software makers and folded them into its operations.
It bought Utah’s Avinti Inc., a small company that makes software to filter out viruses and other harmful software in e-mails, and Israel’s Finjan Ltd., a maker of secure Web gateway software, for undisclosed terms.
