Trend Spotting
Judd Parker is the founder of Digital Legal (http://digitallegal.net) in Tampa. He previously did business development
with southeastern law firms as a regional manager for
IPRO Tech. Prior to that, he was a regional manager for CT
Summation, a player in litigation support software.
 We asked Parker his opinion on salient issues facing
the legal profession as it relates to tech.
Currently, says Parker, the use of technology has
become essential to the practice of law. As such, he says, attorneys
are scrambling to implement forensic data recovery tools, databases and
Web hosting solutions. They are also struggling to advise their clients
about document retention and litigation hold policies. Firms just don’t have
the manpower or time to do it alone, he says, especially as laws often
change with new technologies.
The high costs of electronic data discovery, or EDD (the collection,
preservation, processing, review and production of
electronic documents), have forced law firms to revise
traditional document review strategies. New amendments
to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure also now
regulate the field.
“Attorneys today are faced with a new world of
discoverable evidence – emails, word processing
documents, spreadsheets, databases and other
computer files,” Parker says. “Almost 90 percent
of all documents today are created electronically.”
He says that law firms need to manage evidence before litigation commences
and have well thought out records management practices. “Firms
need to spend resources on getting up to speed on what technologies best
suit those needs and meet federal laws. And they need to hire associates
familiar with those practices to remain on top of it.”
Magnetic Pull
 Tampa’s Magnetic recently grew from 12 to 18 employees, with more
hires pending. The Web development company, run by husband-andwife
team Jennifer and Ken Bakunas, is celebrating its 10th year in
business. CEO Ken started out in his apartment
gaining clientele while working full-time at IBM.
“There were a lot of people looking for gold
in those days and we provided the picks and
shovels. After outgrowing two other offices, we
now have our own building.”
Ken says the company (www.magnetic.com)
is a success because the team asks, ‘What kind
of company would I like to deal with if I was a
customer?’ “We try to be as responsive as possible,”
he says.
Jennifer, president, says that Magnetic has an
aggressive growth plan for 2007. “We want to
double our client base,” she says.
Teltronics Sees 20-20
Sarasota-based Teltronics has begun to integrate
its 20-20 telephone switch with Esna Technologies’ SIP (session
initiation protocol) unified messaging platform. Teltronics’ 20-20 communication
system includes digital telephony and VoIP (Voice over
Internet Protocol) capabilities.
What this means is that instead of using traditional (and more
expensive) analog cards for voice mail, Teltronics’ IP cards are still
full-featured while being cost-effective. “The unified messaging piece
of our 20-20 system is seamless, i.e., we wouldn’t sell the IP cards as a
stand-alone product. Rather, when you buy the 20-20 you need voice
mail and this is how we’re now able to have a SIP-based voice mail
system,” says president and CEO Ewen Cameron.
Unified messaging provides the ability to receive voice, fax and
email messages in any of the three formats. Customers of the 20-20
system are large enterprises with multiple sites,
Cameron adds. The bottom line, he says, is that
cost-competitive voice cards reduce the overall
cost of the system. And the SIP-based UM platform
is not offered by Teltronics’ competitors.
The company (www.teltronics.com) employs
approximately 230. Cameron says the company
keeps all manufacturing local. “This will
help maintain this growth. We also sold more
in the (recent) three months than in the previous
year.”
Flying Safely in O.R.
This quarter, Tampa’s Surgical Safety Institute
is beginning beta testing of its patent
pending software product at St. Anthony’s
Hospital in St. Petersburg. The company,
founded in 2004 by Dr. Richard Karl, uses aviation safety practices to
improve medical safety.
As an aviator and local surgeon, Karl saw that the FAA’s safety policies
could easily be applied to prevent operating room errors. It is estimated
that between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths are due to medical
mishaps in the U.S. each year. “We have created a training program
that utilizes aviation safety practices supported with our innovative
electronic checklists and display screen technologies,” says Stephen Demers, principal. The software allows for communication and information
exchange right at the surgery site for interdisciplinary teams.
The program provides tools and checks: Is it the right knee or the left
knee? “The team that communicates and works better together will have
higher patient outcomes and cost savings,” says Demers.
The company (www.surgicalsafetyinstitute.com) was recently honored
as the emerging technology company of the year by the Tampa Bay
Technology Forum.
Secret of Tech Success
OOPs! Kurt Long has done it again. The serial entrepreneur and
founder of EpicTide in St. Pete (www.epictide.com) won another award,
this time as entrepreneurial leader of the year by the Tampa Bay Technology
Forum (www.tbtf.org). At this point for many that’s old news. But we
thought other tech entrepreneurs might like to know his secret.
Says Long: “It’s super simple. The bottom line is to find a niche market
and solve some problem in an innovative way and have an intense focus
on that market. You have to drive innovation on how your business can
solve that customer’s problem – faster, cheaper and better than anyone
else in the world.
“You have to have a maniacal focus on the result,” Long adds. “That
is what many businesses lack, as well as extreme focus on the customer.
The challenge is recognizing that in today’s environment, customers are
evaluating from a set of global suppliers … if you can solve that challenge,
then all the other problems are very good problems to have.”
And what might those be? “How can I sell this unique solution faster?
How can I hire faster and get the right candidates … But you gotta’ get the
first part. Stay focused. It’s as simple as that, really.” Thanks, Kurt.
Tech FYI
Clearwater’s BlastGard International (www.blastgardintl.com) received
an initial contract of approximately $46,000 from Colt Rapid Mat LLC for
use by the U.S. Marine Corps’ 1st-MEF (Marine Expeditionary Force) for
blast mitigation products to be tested in Camp Fallujah, Iraq … Tampa’s
Quadrant Software (www.quadrantsoftware.com), specializing in paperless
process management solutions, has moved into its new world headquarters,
a 10,000-square-foot, $2-million facility in Telecom Park ... St.
Petersburg’s PowerLinx (www.power-linx.com), a manufacturer of power
line communication products, recently announced product upgrades and
new product launches ... London’s PacketExchange has joined Tampa’s
Switch and Data’s (www.switchanddata.com) PAIX peering platform in
Palo Alto to extend its services in the U.S. |
