Technology Corridor Happenings

Not only was Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman featured in a great front page article in the JI this week, but she and Betty Jo Pakulis made an early morning visit to the business incubator at Nerac on Monday to meet with tech start ups OpenSky and Progeos. No stranger to business development discussions, this was the second visit to Nerac's incubator facility for the Lt. Governor this year.

OpenSky was recently recognized as the best small company to work for in Connecticut. In addition, they rank number one among Connecticut's technology companies according to the CTC Marcum Tech Top 40 with an annualized growth rate of 18,221%. True to form, in a discussion about future prospects for the company, Roger Lavasseur, the CEO, was asked by the Lt. Governor about his plans for employment growth in CT.  Roger's answer was similar to that offered by several other business leaders throughout the state - that his jobs go unfilled because CT applicants lack the necessary skills to meet the job requirements. 

It was clear from the discussion that followed that the transformation and education of Connecticut's workforce is a top priority. Quick to grasp the nature of OpenSky's core competencies, the Lt. Governor also inquired about their potential role in managing or reducing healthcare service provider costs. Roger was quick to point out the complexities involved, but acknowledged that there is much that can be done.

With time limited, and Betty Jo managing the agreed action items going forward,  the Lt. Governor then moved on to discussions with the start up team at Progeos.  Progeos was formed in late 2008 in Tolland to first help the University of Connecticut to put their vast library of mapping data (MAGIC) online for use by the State, towns and citizens.  Specific “Cloud” based services (Planning, Permitting, Code Enforcement, Road and Infrastructure maintenance, ...) were then developed to help municipal departments use this type of data to improve effectiveness and reduce costs. 

Progeos DPW related services are being used by several towns in Connecticut  and by Westchester County New York to manage activities and communicate with local residents. They have a concept of how to extend these services to coordinate the reporting and remediation activities of all affected parties in an outage event so that communications to stakeholders are improved and the time to resolution is reduced. With quick action, Progeos believes that first capabilities can be deployed in time for future winter storms. 

, better sharing of Geographical Information between Utilities, Towns and the State could greatly improve the communications to the public and the coordination among all stakeholders. Although some of the data the utilities have might be restricted, a great deal of information is public domain or easily inferred from public information (e.g. many power lines follow roadways).  The Lt. Governor was quick to point out that communication - accurate and transparent communication - was critical to all parties involved in managing resources and better serving the citizens of Connecticut.  Again, with action items for next steps secured by Betty Jo, the informational session ended.

It's clear to all that participated that we have leaders who "get it."  Stay tuned for further developments.