Nashville Technology Council

The Nashville Tech Story (9/30/2009)

In Monday’s blog, we covered Malware developers and spammers paying hackers to download bogus software onto Mac machines. Mac users have always looked down on those in the PC world telling users the Windows Operating System is unsafe and very vulnerable to bugs. Add one more point in the win column for Mac users everywhere.

Monday night, a notice landed in the online media stream indicating hackers had exploited a bug within the Windows Operating System. In response to the notice claim, Microsoft acted swiftly in order to avoid a worm outbreak. As of Tuesday morning, Microsoft claims they have patched the issue and Window users should not panic. 

This comes on the eve of Microsoft’s launch of their new free antivirus PC software called Microsoft Security Essentials. The goal of the software is to stay current with malicious software programs. Click here to learn more about Microsoft Security Essentials.

The Nashville Tech Story (9/28/2009)

There are many dedicated Mac users that criticize users running Microsoft Windows, based on Window’s being a target of multiple viral attacks.  Since Mac has experienced far less attacks, there are some in the Mac world that feel they are impervious. 

Malware writers and spammers have developed a new method to devise attacks that have created a shake up in the Mac world.  They are contracting hackers to infect computers with fraudulent video software, with Mac being the main target.  Furthermore, hackers are collecting as little as $0.43 per Mac machine that they infect from their malware and spammer partners.

Research company, Sophos, has their researchers performing an investigation into multiple web affiliates.  These affiliates collect millions of dollars from spam and malware programs and typically target Windows users with fake security software, or “scareware.”  Their mission is to uncover the affiliates that are targeting Mac computers and are dedicated to the sale and promotion of fake Mac software.

The Nashville Tech Story (9/25/2009)

The Nashville Entrepreneur Center (www.entrepreneurcenter.com) mission is to connect early-stage entrepreneurs with the people, businesses and resources they need to succeed, and to celebrate deals and entrepreneurial progress, in Middle Tennessee.

“Nashville has already proven to be fertile ground for entrepreneurs; 21.6 percent of our work force is made up of sole proprietors,” said Janet Miller, Chamber chief economic development and marketing officer. “The Nashville Entrepreneur Center will ensure that new generations of entrepreneurs have access to the tools they need to grow and prosper.”

“This is a community effort and we need to say thank you for helping to get the EC established” said NTC President Tod Fetherling. “We literally met with hundreds of entrepreneurs to get their input and have solicited feedback from business organizations, including Nashville Capital Network, SCORE, Nashville Business Incubation Center, Tennessee Technology Development Corporation and many more.”

The EC would not be in existence if were not for Joe Kustelski and our Owen Accelerator Interns. They worked tirelessly this summer to research and create a plan for the EC. The product and strategy is right on point.

“It’s rewarding to work on a project that will have such a profound impact on this city,” said Kustelski. “While Nashville is already home to a large number of self-employed, this resource is a strong starting point for us, as a community, to transform Nashville into one of the country’s most vital environments for entrepreneurs.”

“[The Nashville Entrepreneur Center] is the next logical step in moving Nashville to prominence on the national stage as a place to build the next great business. ‘You built that in Nashville’ should be the norm, not the exception,” said Task Force member Mark Montgomery, Founder of EchoMusic.

The creation of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center is a result of Partnership 2010’s Entrepreneurship Task Force, which was formed in late 2007 to identify opportunities to strengthen Middle Tennessee’s entrepreneurial community.

The 75-member Task Force met for nine months under the co-chairmanship of Robert A. Frist, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of HealthStream, and Michael Shmerling, chairman of Choice Food Group. The Task Force identified seven priority recommendations; first among these was the creation of a virtual entrepreneur resource center, an online community tailored for fundable, scalable, high-growth ventures.

“By assembling resources, brainpower and access to capital all in one place, Nashville is demonstrating to the rest of the country that we’re serious about fostering entrepreneurial activity in our community,” said Shmerling. “Nashville is full of smart, creative, independent people, and this resource center will help them achieve their goals as entrepreneurs.”

Next steps for the Nashville Entrepreneur Center include applying for 501(c)(3) status, hiring key positions and working toward the creation of a physical meeting and co-working space.

“This new resource is invaluable for an entrepreneurial business like mine,” said Joe Freedman, Partner of Music City Tents & Events, LLC. “Now, high-growth businesses in the region will be able to access resources developed specifically for their unique needs.”

CUMBERLAND CONSULTING GROUP NAMED 2009 “BEST SMALL FIRM
TO WORK FOR” BY CONSULTING MAGAZINE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW

Only Nashville Firm to Secure National Industry Recognition
NASHVILLE, TN (September 23, 2009) – In a national survey of
leading consulting firms, Nashville-based Cumberland Consulting Group, a
health care technology implementation provider, was named for the second
year in a row, as one of the industry’s best employers. Each year, Consulting
Magazine compiles rankings of the Best Small Firms to Work for based on
feedback from the consultants who work for those firms. The company, which
employs more than 50 consultants in 14 different states, placed tenth on
Consulting Magazine’s Best Small Firms to Work For 2009 list.
Cumberland was recognized for an exceptional work environment and
providing an outstanding work/life balance for its employees.

“We are grateful for this national industry recognition two years in a
row as it acknowledges the deliberate steps we have taken to build a healthy,
high performance work environment,” said James D. Lewis, CEO and
managing partner. “Fostering employee innovation and satisfaction is
fundamental to providing solutions to our clients.”

In developing the list, Consulting Magazine editors surveyed more
than 10,000 people across 236 consultancies—a record high for the survey.

“This year, in particular, the firms on our annual Best Firms to Work
For list truly represent the profession’s gold standard,” said Joe Kornik,
editor-in-chief of Consulting Magazine. “These firms not only offered
outstanding service to their clients, but they also kept their own employees
front and center in extremely challenging and even unprecedented economic
conditions. For that they should be celebrated.”

The full list of Best Firms to Work For and Best Small Firms to Work
For appears in the September issue of Consulting Magazine.

###

About Cumberland Consulting Group, LLC
Cumberland Consulting Group, LLC is a national technology implementation
and project management firm. The firm works with clients that provide health
care to patients across the spectrum of ambulatory, acute and post-acute care.
Helping clients to improve their quality of care and business performance
through the implementation of new technologies is fundamental to the firm.
Cumberland consultants deliver the kind of results expected from the world’s top
firms with the lower overhead and personal service that larger firms cannot
provide. For more information, visit www.cumberlandcg.com.

About Consulting Magazine
Consulting magazine is the only magazine to cover decision-makers at the
world’s most influential consulting firms. Published eight times a year by
Kennedy Information, the magazine is available online at
www.consultingmag.com. The magazine also sponsors a range of events
throughout the year, which are often based on the magazine’s exclusive data of
these firms.

SOURCE: Cumberland Consulting Group
Kelly Motley, 615.483.0365
kelly.motley@cumberlandcg.com

The Nashville Tech Story (9/24/2009)

Last week, the Nashville Technology Council and the Information Systems Security Association hosted the 8th annual InfoSec Nashville Security conference.  To complete the day, Dr. Dan Geer, CISO, In-Q-Tel, debated the issue of government taking control of the Internet. It was also presented that the President of the United States would acquire a “kill” switch, used in a terror situation that would completely shut down the Internet nationwide. The thought of the government taking over such a huge responsibility and complicating Internet protocols even more is not plausible.  Further, the Internet’s inherent modality would limit the government’s ability to close down nodes of the network without causing significant corporate and financial backlash.  Just seconds of downtime can cause millions, if not billions, of transactions to fail.  The market repercussions would be disastrous.

However, the Washington Post reported, on Tuesday, that the Federal Communications Commission is now endorsing network neutrality. Net neutrality disables restrictions on content, sites, or platforms as well as equipment that can be attached and the modes of communication allowed. 

Click here to read the article from the Washington Post.

Onora Group
Jason Childs, President

What brought you to Nashville?
The opportunity to start Onora Group with one of my best friends.  Onora Group is a technical recruiting organization that specializes in contract and contingency recruiting in the greater Nashville area.

What is your favorite venue to go to in Nashville?
I always wanted to attended a show at the Ryman Auditorium and I got to do that several months ago.  I really enjoyed the show and I found the history of the building to be very interesting.

What surprised you most about our city?
I was told Nashville was a really friendly place for business, and it is still exceeding my imagination.  People are very willing to help.

How does the Technology Community here compare to where you lived previously?
I feel like the Technology Community here in Nashville is much more progressive and that there is a real plan to not only sustain, but draw technology jobs to Nashville.  There are a lot of very strong Information Technology professionals in Nashville, and it’s exciting to think about how Information Technology will play a role in transforming the companies in the Nashville area.

Do you have any recommendations for other technologist who are new to the area?
Get out and get involved immediately in the Technology Community here in Nashville.  There are some great people in the technology community in Nashville, and there are unending opportunities to network.

SHI
Amber Ribble, Account Executive

How long have you been in business in Nashville?
15 years from an Enterprise (5k seats or more) perspective; less than a year for Corporate accounts (200 seats to 1250)

What does your company or organization do best?
Software licensing and services. SHI is best in class as it relates specifically to Microsoft licensing. SHI is the only 8 time winner of Microsoft’s Operational Excellence award, the last 6 consecutive years – a true differentiator that separates SHI from the rest of the pack!

What is one interesting fact about your company?
SHI is minority owned, privately held, we’ve grown from a $1 million regional reseller to an $3.5 billion global IT reseller via organic growth only and SHI manages more Microsoft Enterprise Agreements than any other LAR in the state of TN plus a 93% retention rate in the Enterprise space.

What new technology product or service are you the most excited about?
Certified for Packaged Services for Microsoft (Desktop Deployment Planning Services, SharePoint Deployment Planning Services, Exchange Deployment Planning Services, and Business Value Planning Services) and we facilitate staff augmentation very well.

Who is the most interesting person you have ever met?
Scott Gillis with Riverbed Technology – he’s truly unique, has great energy and very adventurous!

The Nashville Tech Story (9/23/2009)

The Nashville Technology Council today announced the finalists for the 2009 “Feel the Beat” Technology Awards.  The awards recognize those individuals and companies whose success has helped grow Nashville and the surrounding areas into a hub for technology.  The event will highlight outstanding achievements from the 2008-2009 year.

The winners for the awards will be announced at the “Feel the Beat” Technology Awards Gala on October 27th from 5:30pm – 8:00pm at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

The 2009 Finalists are:

Technology Organization of the Year – Sponsored by XO Communications
• HCA    
• MoonToast    
• EDS an HP Company
• Lipscomb University  
• Community Health Systems  
• Permanent General
• Fisk University  
• PureSafety    
• Nissan
• Belmont University  
• Metro Nashville Airport  
• NovaCopy
• Credence Healthcare  
• Women in Technology of TN  
• edo Interactive
• EMMA   
• Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz

CIO of the Year – Sponsored by KPMG
• Noel Williams, HCA
• Gary Seay, CHS
• Sameer Bhargava, PureSafety
• Vanessa Hickman, Metro Nashville Airport

Start-up Company of the Year – Sponsored by Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC
• MoonToast – Marcus Whitney
• Credence Healthcare – Justin Lanning

IT Student of the Year – Sponsored by EDS an HP Company
• David Sulpy, Lipscomb University
• Hank Carter, Belmont University
• J.A. Hayes – Ruffin, Fisk University

Volunteer of the Year – Sponsored by HCA
• Tracy Evers, Women in Technology of Tennessee
• Chris Beck, EDS
• Kent Fourman, Permanent General

The “Green” Award – Sponsored by HealthSpring
• Novacopy
• Nissan North America
• edo Interactive
• Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC
• MyEMMA

Innovator of the Year – Sponsored by LBMC
• Sal Novin, Linnaeus
• Cliff Duffey, Cybera
• Nicholas Holland, centresource
• Larry Wilson, Zycron
• Adam Solesby, StudioNow
• Clint Smith, MyEMMA

Social Media / Blogger of the Year
• Dave Delaney, Griffin Technology
• Kate O’Neill, meta marketer
• Rex Hammock, Hammock, Inc.

Lifetime Achievement – ComFrame Software Corporation
• David Condra, Dalcon Communications
• Jim Lackey, Passport Health
• Nicholas Holland, centresource

Software Programmer / Engineer of the Year
• Chip Hayner, centre{source}
• Thomas Holland, O’Charley’s

The cost to attend is $75 per person or a table of eight is $525.  Click here for registration information (http://www.technologycouncil.com/2009/08/17/october-27th-feel-the-beat-technology-awards-gala/)

The Nashville Tech Story (9/22/2009)

Today, the Nashville Technology Council is celebrating 10 years, in Nashville. Over the last 10 years many milestones have been accomplished, and below you’ll find what we think are 10 of our top achievements.

1.       September 1999 – Warren Ratliff founded the Tech Council.

2.       April 2000 – David Condra was hired as the first full time President of the Council.

3.       March 2001 – Technology Nashville, Nashville Technology Council’s Flagship event, was held.

4.       August 2002 – The first InfoSec Security Conference was held.

5.       June 2002 – Nashville CIO Council formed a partnership with the Tech Council.

6.       September 2003 – Nashville Capital Network spun out of the Nashville Technology Council.

7.       May 2008 – Turning the Tide of Technology (T3) was launched as an educational initiative.

8.       January 2009 – The Tech Council re-branded with new logo and mission, to help the Middle Tennessee technology community succeed.

9.       April 2009 – Techville.us was launched.

10.    August 2009 – Membership reached an all time high with over 380 member companies.

We would like to thank all the individuals and companies who helped us reach these milestones and look forward to continuing to work with each of you over the next 10 years.

If you would like to celebrate with us stop by Edgehill Studios Café from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. today for desserts, drinks, and networking.

J. TOD FETHERLING
President/Chief Executive Officer
Nashville Technology Council

J. Tod Fetherling is the President/CEO of the Nashville Technology Council.  He has lead the Technology Council through a growth phase that includes a re-branding of the 10 year old organization and increased membership by 16% in his first year to more than 385 companies connecting 23,000 tech workers in Middle Tennessee and over 2.1 million employees worldwide.  He brings his entrepreneurial background to help local tech companies succeed.

Formerly Mr. Fetherling was the Chief Product Officer of ConnectivHealth.  ConnectivHealth acquired Relegent, where Mr. Fetherling served as the Chief Executive Officer.  He oversaw product development for the company.  ConnectivHealth has four main business lines: Discovery Hospital, a partnership with Discovery Health Channel; HealthTeacher, the leading K-12 Health Curriculum in Internet and Print; Healthcare BrandPrint, a comprehensive branding package for small to medium sized hospitals and VerusMed, clinical briefing for physicians.

Formerly, Mr. Fetherling was Vice President of Business Development at First Consulting Group (FCG), a healthcare technology consulting practice specializing in health delivery, health plans and life sciences.   FCG purchased UCR Solutions in June 2002, where Mr. Fetherling served as a Board Member.

Before FCG, Mr. Fetherling served as Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy.com, LLC, the first searchable Internet directory.  Galaxy.com was sold to Logika Corporation (Chicago) in June 2001.  Launched in January 1994, Galaxy was created as part of the EINET division at the MCC Research Consortium at the University of Texas, Austin.  Mr. Fetherling served as Senior Vice President of The Health Network from 1998 to 2000, overseeing the Interactive operations of one of the largest Cable/Internet Health companies.  In May 1999, Fox/News Corporation became co-owner of Galaxy and AHN.

AHN.COM set a record for attracting the most visitors ever to a single live broadcast event on the Internet by broadcasting the birth of a child – a significant first. On June 18, 1998 more than 1.4 million people accessed this videostream at AHN.COM, which made it the most-visited health Internet site and increased traffic to the site ten-fold. For his work with The Health Network, Mr. Fetherling was named the Trevor A. Fisk 1999 Young Marketer of the Year, a prestigious honor that recognizes the contributions of outstanding healthcare marketing professionals.

Prior to joining The Health Network, Mr. Fetherling served as Senior Manager, Interactive Marketing, at Brown-Forman Beverages Worldwide where he redesigned the ever popular Jack Daniels website (http://www.jackdaniels.com).

Mr. Fetherling served as Director of Interactive Marketing at Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation, where he created the vision, strategy and implementation for www.columbia.net, one of the Internet’s first major health portals. Columbia’s site was profitable in 18 months and won numerous awards, including a Top Rating from Excite and recognition as a top healthcare site for Business-to-Business by AdAge.  U.S. News and World Report also selected the site as one of the best eight sites in 1995.  In addition to overseeing the Internet development at Columbia, Mr. Fetherling implemented an interactive kiosk network, placing kiosks offering access to www.columbia.net at hospitals and other public facilities nationwide. He also created the company’s Intranet (Koala) strategy.

Mr. Fetherling is the author of “Surveying Your Community” and “Columbia Internet Case Study,” published in the Journal of Healthcare Marketing, and contributed to 1997 Guide to Healthcare and the Internet and the book Net Income. He has been a featured speaker at Nebraska Hospital Association 2008; SHSMD 2007 in Washington DC; Push ‘97 in London; Wired World ’98 in Gauteng, South Africa; the University of Utah’s Interactive Marketing Course; Alliance for Healthcare Strategy and Marketing; NCTA Cable ‘98 and Knowledge Management ’97.

Board Positions:
•    Ex-Officio – Tennessee Biotechnology Association

•    Tennessee HIMSS

•    Catholic Business League of Nashville

•    Tennessee Respite Coalition

•    Petquarters (OTC-BB: PDEN) – a leading online and mail-order catalog company, featuring unique, user-friendly authoritative content, community and outstanding value in pet products.

•    Codigent Solutions Group, Inc. – a leading technology company that has assembled an extensive line of products and services for healthcare facilities and regional businesses.

•    Past President, Safe Haven Family Shelter – a local non-profit serving homeless families.

A native of Nashville, he is a member of Holy Family Catholic Church along with his wife, Mary and children Emma, Laura, Chase and Carolyn.  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from the University of Tennessee.