Thank you to Processor Magazine for featuring Kansas City data center 1102 GRAND as a “Company to Watch” in the Jan. 13 issue. Three reasons 1102 GRAND was chosen as a Company to Watch are:

• Location of the colocation facility
• Housing a large network of providers for customers
• One-on-one attention to customers without a middle man

All of us at 1102 GRAND truly appreciate the publicity Processor Magazine has given our company.

Read the article: Colocation on a Grand Scale

If location is a defining factor in selecting a colocation provider, 1102 Grand (www.1102grand.com) has a leg up on the competition. Located in Kansas City’s Financial District, the company’s building is a hub for numerous cross-country fiber routes passing through 1102 Grand’s carrier neutral Meet Me Room—a fact that makes 1102 Grand able to provide customers strategic advantages other colocation providers in the region cannot.

“The building serves as a major hub for voice and data traffic in the region by providing a facility with the necessary infrastructure for carriers, service providers, and commercial customers to conduct network-related business together reliably and cost-effectively,” says Greg Elliott, director of business development at 1102 Grand. 1102 Grand is situated directly on Kansas City’s major metropolitan fiber ring, leading top-light telecommunications companies (Level 3, Verizon Business, and AT&T included) and regional carriers, service providers, and enterprise customers to build and operate data centers, nodes, and/or POPs (Points of Presence) at 1102 Grand.

“These tenants then extend their desired connectivity media (fiber, coax, copper, etc.) into our carrier-neutral Meet Me Room to interconnect with one another and provide services to other entities,” Elliott says.

READ MORE

This past year was one filled with man-made and natural disasters that had the potential to knock out communications and operations in entire cities. From tsunamis to fires to earthquakes, the unexpected could wipe out your whole operation in seconds. Even if your company has a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place, you may want to check out what other industry leaders have covered in this article from DataCenterKnowledge.com.

Industry Perspectives 2011: Disaster Recovery

At 1102 GRAND, some of our customers use our Kansas City-based colocation facilities as a backup site in their business continuity plan, while others use 1102 GRAND as a production site or for use a hybrid approach. There are many possible approaches appropriate for various types of industries.

If you would like to schedule a tour and to discuss different options available for your business, just give me a call at 816-213-7731 or send me an email at Greg@1102GRAND.com.

Congratulations to Todd Applegate, who has been promoted to general manager of 1102 GRAND , the Midwest internet hub and colocation facility, as of December 1, 2011. Todd will be responsible for management of the 1102 Grand building and data center operations. Todd was promoted from director of operations and has worked with 1102 GRAND for 5 ½ years. Congratulations Todd, and thanks for all your hard work!

Congratulations from 1102 GRAND to UMKC on their No. 1 ranking for Innovation Research Management by the Journal of Product Innovation Management! At 1102 GRAND, we have seen serious evidence of entrepreneurial energy in the Kansas City Area that can definitely be attributed, in part, to the UMKC’s Bloch School of Management and the faculty.  Keep up the excellent work!  Here is the full story from the UMKC website.

UMKC RANKED No. 1 IN THE WORLD

Kansas City, MO., December 5, 2011 – The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) today announced that it has been ranked as the world’s No. 1 university in innovation management research by the Journal of Product Innovation Management.

A total of 625 universities were ranked – including MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan State and Texas A&M – on research topics and current trends in the field of innovation management. The ranking will be published in the March 2012 issue of the journal.

For example, Michael Song and Mark Parry have conducted a series of research projects examining new product development in China, Japan and the U.S. Their work has been recognized by the American Marketing Association for significantly influencing the direction of global marketing. Lisa Zhao’s work is focused on product pioneering, first product development and new venture survival.

“The research of top scholars, such as Song and Parry, is significant to our students, region and economy.” said Bloch School Dean Teng-Kee Tan. “The results of this research expedite the success rate of new ventures or innovation within existing companies. Having the best university in the world for innovation management research attracts talent to, and keeps talent in, the Kansas City region.”

The international rankings honor is the latest in a series of major announcements connected to the Bloch School of Management. In September, UMKC received a $32 million gift from Henry W. Bloch to fund a state-of-the-art building to house the Bloch School’s graduate and executive programs, which will accommodate additional students into these programs. Also, The Princeton Review recognized the Bloch School’s undergraduate and graduate programs among the top 25 entrepreneurship programs in the country — one of the 11 schools nationwide with both programs included in this ranking.

Click here to view pictures of this event.

The Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the UMKC Bloch School inspires and nurtures future generations of entrepreneurs, and delivers transformational entrepreneurship education and experiences university-wide.

The Henry W. Bloch School of Management develops purposeful, entrepreneurial and innovative leaders to meet changing global demands, and advances knowledge and practice through excellent teaching, scholarship, outreach and service.

I wanted to take a moment to thank Think Big Partners for all they do to strengthen the Kansas City area business fabric on a daily basis.  They host and sponsor numerous entrepreneurial events in the Kansas City region and around the nation.  In addition, they provide a spot (BizPerc) and a system for people to grow their ideas into viable businesses through a number of different methods. 

Their latest initiative, The Gigabit Challenge Finale, is going to include live pitches from the finalists vying for $100,000 in prize money as well as additional financing!  See Allison Way’s recent blog post for further details and how to register.   Thanks again and keep up the great work!

Experience Gigabit Speed: The Gigabit Challenge Finale Event

WRITTEN BY ALLISON WAY, SENIOR COPYWRITER & CHIEF EDITOR

With over 113 submissions, we knew we had to make The Gigabit Challenge Finale big. After all, we’re dealing with lightning-fast Internet speed, some of the most lucrative startup business plans and a panel of standout judges and advisory board members. So we’re opening the Gigabit Challenge Finale to the public this January at the Kansas City Public Library (Plaza Branch).

At the event, attendees will have the chance to watch live pitches from The Gigabit Challenge finalists, network with other entrepreneurs, investors and startup enthusiasts and sit in on the Awards Presentation. This all-day event will not only bring in The Gigabit Challenge finalists, but also many of TGC’s advisory board members and judging panel.

Join the team at Think Big Partners for The Gigabit Challenge Finale on January 18, 2012 from 8:00AM until 5:00PM (time subject to change) at the Kansas City Public Library Plaza Branch (4801 Main Street). The Gigabit Challenge Finale is FREE.

A huge thanks to the Kansas City Public Library for sponsoring The Gigabit Challenge Finale!

Register today and get your gig on!

How often do you hear: I wish there was more IT talent available? I hear it on a weekly basis when I am visiting with clients and contacts from all sizes of companies, both in the Kansas City region and across the country.

 I was talking with our friends at Centriq IT Training, and they mentioned they are having an IT Career Fair next Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. 

This is a great opportunity to meet 50-75 IT candidates face-to-face…and it’s FREE for employers! 

For more information and to register click here.

Good luck to both IT candidates and companies participating!

Last Thursday I had the privilege of participating in the KCnext Fall IT Networking Event at the College Basketball Experience.  What a great experience it was!  Where else could one be involved with conversations about mobile technology trends, good places to find venture capital, the challenges of starting your own business or where to find datacenter space?  The list goes on and on.

There were connections being made all over the place, with sponsor provided prizes being given away via drawings.  If all of this was too much to handle, people could slip away and participate in one of the many interactive games that the CBE has available. 

Thank you to everyone (attendees and sponsors) who made the KCnext Fall IT Networking Event a fantastic experience!  

Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing, with Travis Holt, principal of Brush Creek Partners, at the KC Next technology event last Thursday.

Go to www.kcnext.com to learn more about upcoming events with updates to come soon.

I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving!

There are many people and groups all working to make the region around Kansas City a better place to work, live and enjoy life.  I recently caught up with Aaron Sloup, co-founder of KC Hub, to get his take on what is happening in the Kansas City area and to share with us what KC Hub is all about.

Tell us a little about KC Hub’s background -

KC Hub started as a conversation between Ryan Weber and me about the fact that KC has a ton of resources like incubators, entrepreneur support (Kauffman, Pipeline, KCSourceLink, etc), major regional universities, bioscience research facilities and an active startup community, but our metro wasn’t really known as an innovation hub like North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Austin, TX or Silicon Valley.  We came together in July 2010 to officially form as a non-profit to take on the task of transforming KC into an “ecosystem for innovation.”  Our four founders are Ryan Weber, Matt Wilson, Matt Sawka and me.  Since that time our region has made some incredible strides toward that end.  KC is showing up on all kinds of national and worldwide rankings for entrepreneurial cities, Google Fiber selected us from well over 1000 cities to prove out its network, UMKC’s Bloch School is growing and accelerating their programs and making national lists as well, the KC Chamber’s Big 5 shows a lot of promise and that the folks in that organization are understanding and embracing a similar vision, not to mention KCNext…the list goes on and on.  At KC Hub, we’re just excited to get the word out on cool things like this and try to support and grow the community any way we can.

What goal did you hope to achieve by founding KC Hub? What is the group’s mission or core focus?

The goal is really to make innovation the standard for KC.  Whether it’s healthcare, transportation or IT, KC Hub wants Kansas City to be a place where the new breakthroughs take place.  Our stated mission is “to transform the Kansas City region into an ecosystem for innovation.”  Having said that, we don’t have illusions of grandeur thinking that we’re going to do this alone.  We know that it’s going to take our entire community to accomplish that feat, and we’d like to just play a role in moving our region in the right direction.

How can the community get involved in the cause?

Find something you’re passionate about, whether it’s cancer research, tech startups or renewable energy, and then find groups you can join, events you attend, classes you can take, etc.  Honestly, if you really want to make an impact, go start a company.  There are a ton of resources in KC, from Pipeline to KCSourceLink to bizperc to Kauffman Labs, all of which support startups.  With KC Hub, we built a website that allows anyone to create an account and post innovation news and events from across the region and around the world.  We just wanted to create a central place for people to share cool and innovative things that are happening now.  We’ve had a lot of people contact us just to find out how they can help.  Innovative Networks is a good example; they actually did all the custom Drupal development and hosting for our site. They’re also a KC-based tech company and wanted to contribute to the cause.

What would an ideal Business Ecosystem look like to you?

Ooo, ideal?  A supportive community of entrepreneurs/startups, unlimited capital, a wealth of excellent mentors, great and affordable legal advice, cheap office space, excellent research institutions – the thing is, Kansas City already has most of those aside from the unlimited capital part.  But our VP, Ryan Weber, had a passion for that and is now the KC director for Angel Capital Group, bringing much needed, early stage funding to our region.  KC may not have the big names that other regions do, but we have all the pieces in place and the community of innovators is getting bigger and stronger.  I guess on the big names thing, Zaarly’s getting up there.  And now that they have Meg Whitman on their board, I think more and more people will be following what they’re up to.  It’s a cool story for everyone involved and a great testament to some of the innovative thinking happening here in the metro.

What do you like best about being involved in the research/technology community in Kansas City?

Seeing how passionate people are here.  And it’s a different passion than what you might see on the coasts.  Here, it’s more about believing in a long term vision vs. just building something to sell off in a year.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I want to throw a plug out there for Startup Weekend.  It’s a really cool event, where you show up, form teams and basically build a company over a weekend.  They usually have two a year.  Even if you’re just curious about startups and want to learn, it’s a great event to learn by doing something vs. just reading about it.

How should interested people get in touch with you?

Jump on kchub.org, create an account and start posting interesting news/events about innovation in KC and throughout the world, or join us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.  We like social media and talking about innovation.  Come to a KCNext happy hour or Tech ESP event (when they start again in the spring) – we’re usually at those events.  Feel free to drop us a line via our site as well.

Thanks for sharing Aaron and it will be exciting to see what is next for the Kansas City area! 

The KCNext IT Networking Event takes place Thursday, November 17, 2011 from 5-8 p.m. Raffles will be from 6-7 p.m. The event will be held at the College Basketball Experience (see below for address). To register or sponsor Click Here. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

College Basketball Experience
1401 Grand Boulevard
Kansas City, MO 64106

I recently attended an ACCP (Association of Customer Contact Professionals) meeting where Michael Amigoni, COO of Dibon ARO BPO, gave a fascinating presentation on the virtual call center. Over 15 years ago, Michael had the vision to tap the power of the new “distributed workforce” operational model to increase his customers’ service quality and lower delivery cost. He co-authored a book, “Managing the Telecommuting Employee,” sharing best practices to help virtual call centers “maximize profit and productivity.” Michael shared with us excerpts from his book and interesting and sometimes funny real life examples of what to do and what not to do when running a virtual call center. Michael gave a comparison ROI between a regular bricks and mortar call center and the virtual call center. The total savings for the virtual call center was about $1,200,000 annually! He also shared with the group that two of the best things he ever did since getting involved in the contact center industry was moving their datacenter to 1102 GRAND and migrating to the inContact Software Platform. By moving their datacenter to 1102 GRAND and switching to inContact, it freed him and his team to focus on their core business, customer service. Now, on the datacenter side, they don’t have to worry about redundant cooling units, power feeds, battery backups, generator service, etc., they leave all that to us at 1102 GRAND. I was able to purchase Michael’s book at the event. To preview and purchase “Managing the Telecommuting Employee” go to http://bit.ly/rYZmNK. Great stuff, thanks Michael!

I encourage all who currently own or run a contact center, or are interested in the contact center industry, to come and check out an ACCP meeting. ACCP is a professional, non-profit association whose members represent customer contact organizations and the vendors who support them. The membership consists of organizations of all sizes and from a variety of industries. They have first and third-party focused members including telemarketing, call centers, collections, customer service facilities, help desks, client retention, etc. To learn more about ACCP and upcoming events go to http://associationccp.com/Home.aspx or give me a call at 816-213-7731.