Symposium touts emerging technology
BUTLER TWP — The second Emerging Technology Symposium showcased how to integrate new ideas into organizational operation and how to more effectively teach math and science.
About 60 people gathered Thursday morning in Founders Hall at Butler County Community College for the return of the event, which was presented by the Tri-County Technology Consortium, the Butler County Chamber of Commerce and BC3.
John and Kelly Giles, owners of Future POS, a software company and primary sponsor of the event, shared how they grew a successful global technology business in Butler County and why the area is ripe for other entrepreneurs.
John Giles founded the company in 1998, working in his grandmother’s basement to write point-of-sale software for the hospitality industry.
Over the years, the business won many awards and gained traction in the industry for its innovative and customizable interface.
Today, the company employs about 40 people and produces software solutions for restaurants, hotels and many other types of businesses across the world from its office in Center Township.
“Coming from this area, you realize that the two main exports in Butler are steel and smart kids,” John Giles said.
“You can’t keep sending away your best and brightest generation after generation, so I’m very passionate about the IT field because it’s something you can do from anywhere,” he said of his decision to stay in Butler County.
“The cost of living is cheap. If you’re trying to start a software company in Manhattan, you’re immediately at an economic disadvantage.”
Alex Giocondo, director of operations for Future POS, followed by discussing customer relationship management, or CRM, and how it can become an important tool in business.
Often, he said, CRM systems are only used to track sales or customer service at a company. However, a properly implemented CRM system incorporates all areas of a business’s operation that can cut down on what can become a massive buildup of paper and electronic records.
“We need to look at technology as a way to bring down this barrier and marry these important business segments in our operations to gain more efficiency and to strengthen our business and to reach our end goal, which is growth.”
Giocondo said Future POS has spent the past two years to develop its own CRM system. However, he said there are many solutions on the market that can fit the needs of many organizations.
“A good CRM application for your business is going to move that customer from sales into service and into support where we want to upsell and retain those customers,” he said.
“We work hard to win that sale. We want to be able to keep them.”
He said that is done by using a CRM to track customers and set tangible performance indicators for the business.
Tom Hillman of Verizon Wireless presented many examples of how mobile technology can keep businesses connected on the go while solving other problems.
The company has a lab for customers in its Warrendale headquarters that showcases a wide range of mobile devices, and Hillman manages a team of engineers that can help design custom solutions.
He provided many everyday examples of where machines use cellular networks to communicate, such as from ATMs and video rental machines to service in the health care and energy industries.
Darren Fisher, a special agent with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Criminal Investigations, spoke about the alarming increase of identity theft and how social media websites, combined with the ease of tracking down personal data on the Internet, is fueling that increase.
