High Tech Haven: More Tech Funding
West Windsor, 08550; Montgomery, 085??
West Windsor: Country Squires? Demographic Dilemma
Corrections or additions?
These articles were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on August 18, 1999. All rights reserved.
Cracking Open The Knowledge Bank: Andy Zarolli
In a perfect world every employee would be given a manual
on the first day of work — a manual that contains answers to every
question they will ever have about their job. It could be found tucked
in the top drawer of the desk so that no one ever had to shout questions
across cubicles or spend a full day searching file cabinets and directories
for a report filed by a colleague. Customer service representatives,
technicians, human resources — just about everyone in the business
— would build off knowledge since the day the business opened
its doors and become more effective as a result.
What may sound like a Utopian reverie is in fact a worthy challenge
for today’s technology companies, which are working hard to develop
software that people do not merely use, but also “interact”
with. One of those companies, ServiceWare Inc., a producer of knowledge
management software headquartered in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, is developing
software used for corporations like Merrill Lynch, Lucent Technologies,
and Microsoft. “In many corporations, the single most valuable
item in the whole company is the knowledge in their employees’ heads,”
says Andy Zarroli, a spokesperson with the firm.
ServiceWare (https://www.serviceware.com) produces a line of
Knowledge-Pak items that includes electronic manuals for more than
45 computer applications, from Adobe Illustrator to Microsoft NT Server,
a suite that answers questions about the SAP/R3 business application,
and the proprietary software needed to create a customized, enterprise-wide
system for your business — the Knowledge-Pak Architect. The company
also recently acquired the Molloy Group in Parsippany, which sells
the patented Cognitive Processor — a software product that the
company claims is on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence.
On Thursday, August 19, at 8:30 a.m. a representative from ServiceWare’s
office in Jackson will give a free seminar and demonstration for anyone
interested in learning how knowledge software works at the Hyatt Regency
in Princeton. Call 732-363-0071.
Zarroli walked this reporter through a demo of the Knowledge-Pak Suite
over the Web. I enter a query into the Viewer frame as a question
“how do I…” and click on search. In lightening speed, a
list of answers with thumbnail descriptions returns. “Much like
the search engine on the Internet,” says Zarroli, “it brings
all that down to the grassroots level.”
Also like a search engine, it can be a roll of the dice. Zarroli and
I both came up with a different ranking of answers for an identical
query.
To buy the KP Suite ($28,000) you also have to buy the KP Viewer ($25,000),
which is essentially a search engine, so it may be too early for knowledge
management in many small businesses. But larger companies that already
feel they accomplish knowledge management through Lotus Notes, Zarroli
says, should at least try the new software. “Lotus Notes is not
knowledge management,” says Zarroli. “It’s not quick access
to dynamic info.”
The difference between “dynamic” and “static” might
be summed up in the comment of one Pfizer employee who uses ServiceWare’s
KP Architect product: it allowed an analyst working for only three
weeks to answer questions geared to someone who has worked in the
company more than three years.
— Melinda Sherwood
Top Of PageHigh Tech Haven: More Tech Funding
Last week U.S. 1 reported on the six winners of the
state’s R&D Excellence awards, three of which will directly benefit
researchers working in central New Jersey. Now comes news of 23 companies
receiving loan assistance from the state’s Technology Transfer and
Commercialization Program (TTCP), administered by the Commission on
Science & Technology.
The loans, totaling nearly $4.4 million and ranging from $80,000 to
$250,000 are made to high-technology start-ups that can match the
loan amount dollar for dollar and that can convince the state they
will be able to repay the loan within 10 years.
This is year’s 23 recipients include 10 companies in the U.S. 1 circulation
area. The companies, and their areas of technology, as described by
the Commission on Science & Technology:
EpiGenesis Pharmaceuticals, 2005 Eastpark Boulevard, Cranbury,pre-clinical manufacture and toxicology of a novel anti-asthma therapeutic;$250,000.Ocean Power Technologies, 1590 Reed Road, West Trenton,development of a 5 to 10-kilowatt wave power buoy; $250,000.PharmaSeq Inc., 11 Deer Park Drive, Monmouth Junction,light-powered micro-transponders in RFIDA applications; $250,000.Princeton Electronic Systems, 196 Princeton-HightstownRoad, opto-electronic oscillators for wireless communications; $242,365.Princeton University, commercialization of dense wave-lengthmultiplexed (DWDM) receiver technology; $150,000.Princeton University’s Center for Excellence in Photonics(POEM) , non-contact sheet resistivity tool for semiconductor metrology;$169,790.Sensors Unlimited LLC, 3490 Route 1, an enhanced infraredimaging system for ice detection on roadways and aircraft; $150,000.Therics Inc., 115 Campus Drive, University Square, anatomicallycorrect bone graft products made by three-dimensional fabrication;$189,198.Westar Photonics Inc., Princeton area, development ofa commercial maskless patterning system for semiconductor manufacture;$250,000.Worldwater Corporation, 55 Route 31 South, Pennington,off-grid drip irrigation system; $249,967.For information on the advanced technology transfer programcontact the Commission on Science & Technology at 28 West State Street,Trenton, 609-984-1671. Home page: https://www.state.nj.us/commerce/scitech.html.Top Of PageWest Windsor, 08550; Montgomery, 085??Zip codes in Central Jersey are more than just bar codesfor postal workers; they can mean status, or lack thereof, as well.For those who work or live in West Windsor Township, the zip codehas been the cause of an identity crisis. Until February of this year,most township mail was delivered under one of six different postalcodes corresponding to nearby towns: Princeton, Lawrenceville, Robbinsville,Hightstown, Cranbury or Trenton. Only one zip code — PrincetonJunction — truly belonged to West Windsor.Now that the U.S. Postal Service has agreed to consolidate addressesin the West Windsor area under one new zip code, 08550, all of WestWindsor’s mail is supposed to come through the new Princeton JunctionPost Office at 331 North Post Road (609-799-1054), and either PrincetonJunction or West Windsor can now be used as the mailing address.Meanwhile, West Windsor businesses that are there because of the Princeton08540 zip code (including the Carnegie Center, 600 Alexander Road,and — in the interests of full disclosure — the Roszel Roadaddress of this newspaper) have been allowed to retain that zip code.Now a very similar zip code drama is beginning to unfold in MontgomeryTownship, which accommodates five different area codes: Belle Mead08502, Blawenburg 08504, Rocky Hill 08553, Skillman 08558, and goodold Princeton 08540. The issue was raised at a Montgomery TownshipCommittee meeting last week. The reaction of the Township Committeewas positive, and the question of consolidating all the zip codesinto one Montgomery 085-Whatever will be placed on a Recreation Departmentquestionnaire being mailed to residents later in the year.If that feedback is still in favor of consolidation then it is possiblethat Montgomery might follow in the footsteps of West Windsor, beginningfirst with a formal request to the Postal Service, followed by a feasibilitystudy and another survey of residents, in which at least 85 percentmust respond and at least a simple majority of respondents must bein favor. All that takes a year or two.In West Windsor the question now is whether mail with the old zipcodes is still arriving, and if so is it arriving promptly? Yes, saysthe post office. Letters with the old codes are being sent from centralplant in Trenton to the outlying post offices (Lawrenceville, Robbinsville,etc.) where they are separated out. That very day they are sent toPrinceton Junction by special trucks, and these trucks are supposedto arrive by 11:30 a.m., in time for West Windsor’s mail carriersto add the miscoded mail to their daily load.These special deliveries won’t last forever and, in fact, will continueonly until February, 2000. After that, you will probably get yourmiscoded mail one day late, but you will still get it.”We’re in the delivery business. We will make every attempt todeliver the mail,” says George Flood, a USPS spokesperson.”It costs us more money to send it back, if you think about it.”Just to clarify:Princeton Junction businesses are allowed to keep the mailingaddress “Princeton Junction” but they use the same zip codeas West Windsor.Anybody west of the railroad tracks with a Princeton addressshould not be using the West Windsor zip code but should hold on tothe prized “08540.” Your mail comes from the Roszel Road “Princeton”post office.One year from last February is the last date for the sameday delivery. After that time, delivery will be delayed by a day.Bottom line: If your mail was changed to “West Windsor,”throw out your old business cards and order new stationery pronto.Top Of PageWest Windsor: Country Squires? Demographic DilemmaD>The zip code change described above may temporarilyconfuse the demographers — who assemble statistics for the directmarketers — and the direct marketers — who attempt to barragehomeowners with targeted offerings. Is the “new” West Windsorzip code more like Princeton? Or Hightstown? Or Cranbury?Suffering from this demographic disarray is Microsoft’s homefindingsite, https://www.homeadvisor.msn.com, perhaps because itmakes the broadest possible demographic conclusions by describing”neighborhood types.”One third of Princeton’s population, for instance, is supposed tobe “up-scale white-collar couples,” dubbed “ExecutiveSuites.” They play racquetball, watch “Seinfeld” and readRolling Stone and Fortune, but are merely “affluent,” comparedto the “elite exurban families” who comprise 16 percent ofthe 08540 population. These tennis-playing folks, termed “CountrySquires,” read Boating and the Ladies Home Journal, watch theLearning Channel, and qualify as “wealthy.” The Princetonmix also includes upscale executive families (17 percent) and youngupscale white-collar families (12 percent).You would think that a similar mix would characterize West Windsor.Lawrenceville, for instance, equals Princeton in its ratios of “ExecutiveSuites” and “Country Squires.” But no, Microsoft has declaredthe 08550 zip code to be 98 percent wealthy, 98 percent “CountrySquires.”Also subject to confusion are the actual listings in the online directories,suggests Jack Drake, a Weidel real estate broker (https://www.weidel.com). (Drake’s Weidelbranch at Southfield Shopping Center, by the way, is a good exampleof a zip code that has changed from a Cranbury mailing address toWest Windsor). The most successful online homefinding site, https://www.realtor.com,yields plenty of 08550 listings (when you search by zip code) andlots of Cranbury and Princeton Junction listings (when you searchby city). But type “West Windsor” into the city code, andyou get zero listings. The site has never heard of that location.Top Of PageFinancial Wizards?Who can you trust to manage your personal portfolios?For every stockbroker or financial planner who wins raves from a customerthere is at least one critic ready to take a pot shot: If your guy(or gal) is so great, then why do they still have to work?A more objective measure of financial advisors is Worth magazine’sannual survey of the 250 “most trustworthy” planners. Therewere more representatives from financial giants like Bank of Americaand American Express on the Worth list this year than in previousyears, but three of the “trustworthy” planners are close tohome:Constance Herrstromof Premier Financial Planning in MontgomeryCommons,Eleanore K. Szymanski of EKS Associates at 601 EwingStreet, andRam Kollurri of Global Value Investors in the CarnegieCenter.At Premier Financial Planning (609-924-2524), Herrstrom offers fee-onlyfinancial planning to clients whose average net worth is about $930,000.Her business ethics were presumably passed down from her father, aminister who moved around the country. Herrstrom grew up both in WestVirginia and upstate New York, where she received a BA in educationfrom Nyack College, Class of 1968. She worked for Kepner-Tregoe asa manager while receiving her MBA from Monmouth University.Eleanore Szymanksi, founder and principal of EKS (609-921-1016, E-Maileksassoc@erols.com), gives her financial advice in a weekly columnfor the Times of Trenton and at corporate seminars for firms suchas Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ford Motor Company. This is her fourthyear among Worth’s 250 best, and she was also selected by “MedicalEconomics” as one of the 120 “Best Financial Advisers forDoctors” in 1998. EKS is a fee-only firm with a “holistic,”or comprehensive approach to planning, and there is no minimum networth required to become a client.Szymanski is also a part-time do-gooder. Before starting EKS in 1983,Szymanski served on the United Way Board and volunteered her CFP skillsat the Consumer Credit Counseling Service. She is still a member ofthe Princeton Planned Giving Council.Ram Kolluri of Global Value Investors (609-452-2929, E-mail: rkolluri@globalvalue.com.)has taught at Mercer County Community College, writes a weekly columnin the Times of Trenton, and is one of 55 financial planners featuredin Mary Rowland’s Bloomberg Press book “Best Practices forFinancial Planners” ($40, 800-634-3966). His average client hasa net worth of $2 million.Born in southeastern India in Rajahmunbry, between Madras and Calcutta,his father was an attorney and his mother a traditional housewife.After getting his graduate degree at Pace University, he joined MerrillLynch in Manhattan, moved to Princeton in 1982, and left to starthis own firm at the end of that year.In a May 5, 1997, story in U.S. 1, Kolluri spoke about integrity andcharacter in the financial world: “Although I grew up in a fairlyaffluent and professional family I didn’t have a lot of money to throwaround. I developed a value and respect for money. People’s economicsecurity is very real to them. You can do damage to them, they aregiving you their trust and their faith. It is very important thatyou do your very best and hold yourself to high standards. The clients’savings are like the life to a doctor. If you take the patient’s life,there is nothing left.”Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
