CEO MEDIA

We’ve considered carefully the best options for Washington CEO in the current business climate and in the print media business, in particular. Our recent decision to sell it to Tiger Oaks Publications is as good an outcome for CEO as we could have imagined.  Tiger Oaks is a seasoned organization with many titles throughout the Western US.  Not only are Craig Bedinar (Publisher) and John Kueber (Associated Publisher) first rate professionals in a great system, the company itself enjoys a fundamental competitive advantage in the economies of scale by spreading their SG&A costs over multiple titles. Adding Washington CEO to this large collection of magazines is accretive for Tiger Oaks.

We will miss our friends at Washington CEO, but recognize that in the end, it’s all about value and performance. This transaction accomplishes both. Official Press Release

NEXT IT

Next IT designs software solutions that take online customer assistance to the next level. The solution is ActiveAgent, an intelligent customer experience technology that enhances communication between people and computers by using natural dialogue. The computer interprets the individual's requests, and responds with the desired action, information, and navigation. The proprietary core technology supporting ActiveAgent is the Context IQ Engine, which takes input from multiple sources (keystrokes, clipboard, file access, etc.) and uses its innate capabilities and subsequent training to determine how to respond to the user.

We know. . . it's a little beyond us, too. But the value to businesses who want to differentiate themselves with superb, fast, affordable customer service experience is absolutely clear. As an example of an organization with a message to promote, consider the Army's Sergeant STAR (STAR is an acronym for Strong, Trained, and Ready), an automated web agent (aka a softbot) created by Next IT to assist in educating US Army website visitors by handling common inquiries efficiently and allowing recruiters to focus on addressing complex subject matter. As a result of Sergeant STAR's virtual charisma, approximately 750 online respondents are conversing with him each day, and even better, they are staying online, chatting with the Sergeant an average of 16 minutes, which is 4 times longer than a normal visit without the ActiveAgent functionality. Its too early to say what the impact will be, but he is certainly getting and keeping visitor attention. Its not your Father's army!

THE PEOPLE BEHIND NEXT IT

Fred Brown is the CEO and founder of Next IT. Fred is an engineer and a successful serial entrepreneur. Prior to Next IT, he founded Spokane-based LineSoft Corporation. As President and CEO of LineSoft, Fred and his team developed an innovative software solution that allowed engineers to design transmission and distribution systems for utilities. He brought $26 million in venture funding to the project, at that time the largest-ever such funding in Spokane County. In addition, Fred is active in the educational and scientific communities, including service on the Gonzaga University Board of Trustees. He also founded WIN Partners LLC, a private investment fund for aspiring technology entrepreneurs in Spokane. www.nextit.com.

MORE INFORMATION

Sergeant Star Interview - PRI's The World
Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with The World's technology correspondent Jason Margolis about the army's new online recruiter.

Technology: The U.S. Army Bets on Bots - CIO Insight
Artificially intelligent avatar Sgt. Star is expected to help improve dwindling recruitment.

Mainstream for Avatars - Hurwitz and Associates
Next IT animates Information Delivery and a whole lot more

I Want You To Join The Army - Time Magazine
Army sergeants usually inspire fear. Not Sergeant Star. He's soft-spoken, approachable and, well, kinda cute. Oh, and he's not human.

digital.forest

Founded in 1994, digital.forest is a Seattle-based database- and application-hosting company serving small and medium-sized businesses and corporate workgroups. They are a high customer service web hosting business that differentiates itself by focusing on long term business relationships. With that shared vision, it is easy to see why we were drawn to them.

THE PEOPLE BEHIND digital.forest

In their search for data center space, we met digital .forest's CEO, Kris Bourne. We entered that lease and have watched Kris and her team grow the company intelligently and profitably. One of the favorable by-products of the real estate business is the opportunity to meet people like Kris and to invest with them. www.forest.net.