Vangard Lands $3M Deal with Mobile Device Maker

Orange County Business Journal, Sep 29-Oct 5, 2008 by Tolkoff, Sarah

Canadian Consultants Sets Up Shop in Costa Mesa; Jazz's CEO to Detail Plan at Conference

TECHNOLOGY

Rancho Santa Margarita-based Vangard Voice Systems Inc., a maker of speech recognition software, landed a $3 million contract with North Carolina-based Wavelength Corp.

Wavelength is the biggest maker of mobile devices that can capture voice commands for inputting data, including barcode scanners, smart phones, tablet PCs and radio frequency identification readers.

Wavelengths has some 80% of the market for such devices, which are used by Fortune 500 companies to track deliveries, warehouse inventory and shipments at docks and to inspect equipment out in the field, Vangard Chief Executive Bob Bova said.

"Our software adds voice-directed capabilities so you can input stuff hands-free," Bova said. "You can scan and then speak so you can use your hands to do your work."

Workers can talk to the devices, but the devices can also talk to the workers in order to confirm commands or information.

A big customer for Wavelength is the government, which sends thousands of workers out every day to inspect things such as storm drains, bridges and electrical boxes at intersectionswhere bringing a computer for observations would be difficult.

A worker would have to make notes by hand and input them later or invest in very rugged laptops.

The new system allows a worker to speak out the observations via a Wi-Fi enabled headset, which connects to a laptop or other mobile device.

With the software, the inspection time can be reduced to an average of four minutes, down from 18 minutes.

Vangard raised about $3 million in a first round of funding a few years ago. The privately held company has about 10 workers here.

The company is expecting to announce a handful of new customers in the next few months, according to Bova.

"We are starting to be understood for what it is we actually do," he said. "We are finding very wide acceptance but it just took us a while to find the right message."

Canadian Import

A Canadian business and technology consulting firm set up an outpost in Costa Mesa.

Online Business Systems, a unit of Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Online Enterprises Inc., is looking to have about 25 workers here to better serve some of its big Southern California customers, which include car makers, utility companies and citywide emergency services agencies.

The company is looking to grow its business helping corporations gather and analyze data from their everyday operations.

For example, it helps some of its marketing customers figure out what mediums are generating the most leads-TV spots, radio commercials or Web hits.

"We are pulling back end data from all kinds of different systems and making it useful," said Gordon McGrath, vice president of Online Business' customer interaction services unit and the top guy at its new office.

The company also does consulting work that helps businesses better manage and improve their interactions with customers.

Call centers are a big part of its business, McGrath said.

"These are all large companies with thousands of workers and millions of customers with a lot of customer interaction," he said.

Online Business also has an office in Portland, Ore., where it does a lot of work for cities in the Pacific Northwest.

"We integrate the communications of-emergency dispatchers in different jurisdictions, so if a dispatch is required those groups send the right people from the right area," McGrath said. "It connects all the technology systems of government agencies so they can track people quickly."

Online Business, which sees about $40 million in yearly sales, has done such work for the municipal governments of Salt Lake City, Seattle and Portland.

Jazz's New CEO Speaks

Call it his big debut.

Russell Ellwanger, who's set to be the chief executive of Jazz Semiconductor Inc., plans to outline his vision for the company next month at Jazz's annual technology conference.

Ellwanger hails from Jazz's new parent Tower Semiconductor Ltd., which got the green light a few weeks ago to buy the Newport Beach-based chipmaker for about $ 170 million.

The conference, Jazz's third, is set to be held at its local offices on Oct. 22-23.

Ellwanger plans to travel between Newport Beach and Tower's headquarters in Israel. It's unclear what role Jazz's Gil Amelio, who ran the company and its parent, Jazz Technologies Inc., will have there.

The conference is set to feature presentations by academics and chip industry executives talking about what industry insiders call an "AIMS" technology-analog chips that pack in several functions onto the same piece of silicon.

Jazz's fabrication plant, or "fab," chums out silicon wafers imprinted with hundreds-and sometimes thousands-of chips. The highly automated manufacturing process can take as many as 600 individual steps to make each wafer, which looks like a flat metal disk.

The company ships the wafers to its customers, who cut them into chips and assemble them onto circuit boards for makers of cell phones and computers.