Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox was prepared for the October 2, 2002 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
CyLogix Bought
CyLogix, the fourth largest computer company in Princeton,
has been acquired by Keane (Amex: KEA), a global software applications
company with headquarters in Boston. With offices at 36 Washington
Road, CyLogix has a niche in custom software development and systems
integration for financial institutions and brokerage houses.
The company was founded in 1996 by Andy Phillips, who serves as its
president and CEO, and by Matt Figurski, vice president.
Keane spokesperson Margo Nison says her company intends to maintain
CyLogix in its facilities. In addition to the headquarters, CyLogix
also has facilities in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Boston. In addition,
she says, the principals and “as much of the staff as possible”
will remain. About 200 people work on Washington Road.
CyLogix was attractive to her company, Nison says, because financial
services is a “a big vertical for Keane.” Financial details
of the acquisition have not been released.
“We do a lot of acquisitions,” says Nison, “this is a
relatively small acquisition.” Neither Phillips nor Figurski were
available for comment.
Keane (formerly CyLogix Inc.) (KEA), 36 WashingtonRoad, Princeton Junction 08550. 609-275-8998; fax, 609-275-0285. E-mail:info@cylogix.comHome page: www.cylogix.comTop Of PageFidelia’s NetVigilA two-year-old software firm, Fidelia, has set up a15-person enclave at 300 Alexander Park and released the NT versionof a real-time performance management and monitoring suite calledNetVigil.Though the product is new, some of Fidelia’s customers have been usingthe founder’s products for more than a decade. Vikas Aggarwal, presidentand chief technology officer, used to work at JvNC.net, the Internetservice hosted by Princeton University in the 1980s. Back then, hedevised such freeware packages as Nocol, an early network managementtool.”The number of people using Nocol grew to 4,000 or 5,000,”Aggarwal says. “Because I had this product out, and was helpingpeople and maintaining it in my spare time, people were willing tolisten to us. It definitely helped us in our marketing, but it wasa tough upgrade — there is a big difference between free and paid.Some people thought we were taking freeware and trying to bundle it.”Among the clients for his freeware who have signed up for his paidproduct are Sony Online (the videogame company) and Yale University.The departmental version of NetVigil starts at $10,000 and the enterpriseversion, which scales to support tens of thousands of devices, startsat $30,000.Fidelia’s other potential clients are mid-market firms, smaller thanFortune 500 companies, those with 40 or 50 servers, particularly thosethat need 24/7 transaction reliability and that span multiple domains,departments, or geographic locations. Because NetVigil works on Linuxand Solaris and NT platforms, it is appropriate for those who wantto change their operating systems.NetVigil has scalable, distributed architecture with fully decentralizeddata collection, report processing, and archiving. Each departmentcan monitor its own work without clouding the overall picture forcompany officers. Unlike other products on the market, the softwarecan do two operations simultaneously: look for fault (where the systemwent wrong) and manage performance (make predictions about what willgo wrong).”Most products focus on either finding the fault or performancemonitoring,” says Aggarwal. “We designed it from the beginningto do both. We can take data, store it long term, and do trend analysisand be proactive about what will go down.”Aggarwal says NetVigil can be compared to how an MRI surveys yourbody in an organic way, as opposed to having X-rays taken of differentbody parts. “Most other products are composed of five networkmanagement tools, but our product looks at your system end to end,”he says. “With IT staffing at lean levels in today’s economy,having multiple products for fault and performance management is nolonger a viable option.”Founded in Denver, Fidelia is funded by JT Ventures, Windspeed Ventures,and Freedom Hill. Thomas Thekkethala, one of the investors, is thetemporary CEO. The firm has partnerships with HP OpenView and BMCSoftware, and its major competitors are HP OpenView and Concord.Aggarwal grew up near Delhi, India, and earned his mechanical engineeringdegree from a regional college, He has a master’s in computer sciencefrom Stevens Institute, and joined JvNCnet along with another Stevensgraduate, Sergio Heker. Heker morphed JvNCnet into a private company,Global Enterprise Services, and sold it to Verio, a Colorado-basedInternet Service Provider that has its Princeton office at 4390 Route1. Aggarwal stayed at Verio and had moved to Denver to be former vicepresident of overlay engineering when he met a potential investorin his NetVigil idea at a private party.The investor persuaded him to quit Verio and start his own companyin Denver. When the Denver economy soured, he moved back to West Windsorwith his wife and two preschool children.Aggarwal, who started the company in December, 2000, when the marketwas going down hill, has few illusions about going public. “Wenever expected the recession to last so long,” he says. “Publicis a tough word right now. If the company grows, we would expect itto get sold.”— Barbara FoxFidelia Inc., 300 Alexander Park, Suite 205, Princeton08543. 609-452-2225; fax, 609-452-2662. Home page: www.fidelia.comTop Of PageExpansions:ClinPhoneClinPhone Inc., 9 Roszel Road, Princeton 08540.Howard Goldberg, vice president. 609-524-4100; fax, 609-520-0633.Home page: www.clinphone.comClinphone has quadrupled its space with a move in July from LenoxDrive to 25,500 square feet on the first floor of 9 Roszel Road, asublease from Merrill Lynch.Based in the United Kingdom, the company offers electronic trial managementservices to support pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Thefirm has 300 employees worldwide and has offices in the United Kingdom(the headquarters), Belgium, and Germany, Of its 75 U.S. employees,50 are here and the remainder are in Chicago and San Francisco.This office, the United States headquarters, is headed by Howard Goldberg,a 1977 graduate of SUNY Stony Brook who has a PharmD from the Universityof the Pacific (U.S, June 23, 1999). “We have enhanced our servicesand integrated them with other technologies,” says Goldberg. Clientscan choose whether to report information by calling an 800 numberor by using the Internet.Ray Sohmer and Matthew Saker of Insignia/ESG represented Merrill Lynch,and Joe Boiseau of GVA Williams represented ClinPhone. SJP Propertiesis the landlord at this three-story building.Top Of PageStart-Ups:NetworkingSecure Network Solutions, 42 Essex Drive, MonmouthJunction 08852. Christopher D’Souza, president. 732-329-6154; fax,732-329-6140. E-mail: sales@snsinc.comHome page: www.snsinc.comToo much bureaucracy,” is Christopher D’Souza’sanswer to why he decided to start his own business. He aims to supplycomputers and networking for small to medium-sized companies, andamong his first clients are a physician and a private school. He istaking some courses in entrepreneurship at Middlesex County Collegeand has joined the chamber of commerce.A native of Bombay, D’Souza grew up in United Arab Emirates, wherehis father was a purchasing manager for a French company. In 1985he came to the United States to earn his bachelor’s degree at theNew York Institute of Technology, Class of 1990. He worked at Tiffany’s,CitiCorp, Cole Systems, and Charter Financial, which was bought byWells Fargo. Most recently he was vice president of IT for Wells FargoEquipment Finance in New York City, in charge of northeast and Canada.One of the reason he is concentrating on networking is because itis difficult to find good people in that field, he says. “Manypeople that I interviewed got certified because they couldn’t do anythingelse.”In spite of the uncertainties in starting a business, D’Souza sayshis wife has supported this venture: “She knew I have been wantingto do this for the longest time. And I avoid the 2 1/2 hour commute.”Top Of PageHotel Moves:Marriott to WestinWestin Princeton at Forrestal Village, 201 VillageBoulevard, Princeton Forrestal Village, Princeton 08540. John Crouch,general manager. 609-452-7900; fax, 609-452-1223. Home page: www.westin.comStarwood Hotels and Resorts has reflagged its propertyat Forrestal Village, changing it from a Marriott to a Westin. Thehotel has 294 rooms, an indoor pool, and three restaurants. Amongthe current amenities are two-line speakerphones with a data port,high-speed Internet access, cordless bedside telephones, and velourbathrobes.One of the former Marriott’s restaurants, named Mikado, will be renamedBimi but will retain its Japanese cuisine. Polly Esther’s will continueto be the name of the nightclub.The new general manager, John Crouch, has been general manager ofa Sheraton hotel in Annapolis, Maryland, and of the Wyndham BristolHotel in Washington, D.C. He has nearly 20 years experience with theHyatt chain, most recently at the Hyatt Regency Washington, D.C.,and director of operations at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda.James DeCinque, the new director of sales and marketing, has beensales director at the Princeton Residence Inn by Marriott, the SheratonLong Island, and most recently at the Sheraton Edison.Westin Hotels and Resorts has more than 120 hotels and resorts in26 countries and is owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.Radisson Hotel Princeton, 4355 Route 1 South atRidge Road, Princeton 08540. Louis Jamison, general manager. 609-452-2400;fax, 609-452-2494. Home page: www.radisson.comLouis Jamison is the new manager of the recently refurbished Radisson.Jamison has nearly 20 years experience with Hyatt and Starwood hotelsand resorts.The 240-room full service hotel has a restaurant (Gallagher’s SteakHouse), indoor pool, fitness center, lounge, and 10,000 square feetof meeting space for from 300 to 500 people. It is owned by the Dallas-basedRemington Hotel Corp.Top Of PageTech Who’s WhoThe Nielsen-Wurster Group Inc., 345 Wall Street,Princeton 08540. Patricia D. Galloway, CEO. 609-497-7300; fax, 609-497-3412.Www.nielsen-wurster.comPatricia D. Galloway, CEO of the Nielsen-Wurster Group,is slated to be the first woman engineer to serve as president ofthe 150-year-old American Society of Civil Engineers. She will beinstalled as president elect next month.Galloway succeeded Kris Nielsen as CEO of the 26-year-old firm, whichdoes consulting in engineering, management, and construction. It has20 employees at its Research Park headquarters, plus offices in Virginia,Florida, California, Washington, Singapore, and London.Galloway was a civil engineer at Purdue, has an MBA from New YorkInstitute of Technology, and is licensed as a professional engineer.”Women have long been breaking barriers and making astoundingcontributions to the engineering profession,” she says, “soit seems implausible that only in the 150th year of ASCE’s foundinga woman has been named president elect. Yet I don’t view my electionas a milestone but instead a validation on how far we have come inaccepting people for their abilities and skills, strengthening ourprofession.”Top Of PageDeathsRobert J. Witonsky, 67, on September 29. He founded MedicalIndicators on Reed Road in Pennington, a manufacturer of disposableoral thermometers.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
