12 replies to this topic

[mcheiss]

KonaWare Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif., is seeking a mission to create NWA as the Silicon Valley of the Midwest. Two principals at the company teamed up with Tim McFarland of Accelerate Arkansas and wrote a paper titled Logistics Technology Center of Excellence: Why Northwest Arkansas is Uniquely Positioned to Become a World-Class Focal Point for Logistics Technologies.

But KonaWare, an information technology and software company focused on logistics and freight tracking, has done more than that. In August, principals opened an office in Harrison, and they’ve hired Jeff Amerine as vice president of transportation. Amerine was previously the managing director of information technology for Fed Ex Freight East in Harrison.

Considering ring the significance of the major players in the region and the demand they alone generate for logistics technology solutions, one could reasonably project doubling the logistics focused technologists headcount over the next 5 years to over 15,000!!!!

They point to the relatively low cost of living in the area, and the concentration of retail and foodservice industries, both of which require transportation.

Overall, this is certainly good news, and hopefully what lies ahead for NWA.

[Aporkalypse]

Sounds like a company targeting the trucking industry, which is a good idea with Wal-Mart, JB Hunt, and a couple of other trucking cos around.

[mcheiss]

Yeah, hopefully this could be a spark for something great. I think NWA is situated as a great location for Information Technology.

[Mith242]

I've been waiting for some news like this.  Not only are these the type of jobs I'd like to see come into the area and help diversify our economy.  We'll actually have more options for some of the graduates from the U of A.  So many of the graduates in the computer/tech field have to leave because there's simply not many jobs for them.  It would be great to be able to keep more of the top graduates in this field and others in this area.

[mcheiss]

I didn't think about that, but this could actually get a good IT Program started at the UofA.

[masons_dad1]

I know a lot of IT people that move here from bigger IT areas like Dallas end up moving back because there aren't enough IT jobs here. Hopefully something like this would bring in highly skilled IT people to NWA... as long as they don't end up taking my job!

[Arkansawyer]

mcheiss, on Jan 2 2006, 01:21 PM, said:

KonaWare Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif., is seeking a mission to create NWA as the Silicon Valley of the Midwest. Two principals at the company teamed up with Tim McFarland of Accelerate Arkansas and wrote a paper titled Logistics Technology Center of Excellence: Why Northwest Arkansas is Uniquely Positioned to Become a World-Class Focal Point for Logistics Technologies.

But KonaWare, an information technology and software company focused on logistics and freight tracking, has done more than that. In August, principals opened an office in Harrison, and they’ve hired Jeff Amerine as vice president of transportation. Amerine was previously the managing director of information technology for Fed Ex Freight East in Harrison.

Considering ring the significance of the major players in the region and the demand they alone generate for logistics technology solutions, one could reasonably project doubling the logistics focused technologists headcount over the next 5 years to over 15,000!!!!

They point to the relatively low cost of living in the area, and the concentration of retail and foodservice industries, both of which require transportation.

Overall, this is certainly good news, and hopefully what lies ahead for NWA.

How could they physically transplant NWA to the Midwest?

Here's the article from Arkansas Business. Hopefully it's alright that I'm just going ahead and posting the thing because the links go away pretty quickly.

Quote

KonaWare Seeks Arkansas IT Cluster
By Worth Sparkman
Northwest Arkansas Business Journal - 1/2/06

Arkansas economy and technology advocates talk about drawing knowledge-based jobs to the state and keeping them here. One way to do that, those advocates say, is through “clustering” various industry-related companies with similar technologies in one area, much like the “Silicon Valley” in California.

KonaWare Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif., is on board with that philosophy. Two principals at the company teamed up with Tim McFarland of Accelerate Arkansas (one of the advocates) and wrote a paper titled “Logistics Technology Center of Excellence: Why Northwest Arkansas is Uniquely Positioned to Become a World-Class Focal Point for Logistics Technologies.”

But KonaWare, an information technology and software company focused on logistics and freight tracking, has done more than that. In August, principals opened an office in Harrison, and they’ve hired Jeff Amerine as vice president of transportation. Amerine was previously the managing director of information technology for Fed Ex Freight East in Harrison.

Accelerate Arkansas is a group of volunteers working under the Capital Resource Corporation, a non-profit organization and member of the Arkansas Capital Corporation Group.

Amerine, and his chairman and CEO, Jim DiSanto, who offices in Menlo Park, believe they are on the tip of a wave of a logistics and transportation cluster in Northwest Arkansas. But the cluster, they say, will be more than trucks and drivers; it will involve information technology.

“Considering the significance of the major players in the region and the demand they alone generate for logistics technology solutions, one could reasonably project doubling the logistics focused technologists headcount over the next five years to over 15,000,” they wrote.

They point to the relatively low cost of living in the area, and the concentration of retail and foodservice industries, both of which require transportation.

“Such an environment creates competition amongst employers vying for top talent, and it pushes the talent to maintain honed skills and entrepreneurial attitudes that ultimately create the fire and desire to start new ventures,” they wrote.

Of course, DiSanto’s aim is also to gain all the business he can from companies in Arkansas — he’d love to make a pitch to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for instance — but he believes helping grow a technology-related cluster can help everyone.

KonaWare develops supply-chain tracking software for wireless hardware used in the transportation industry.

Amerine compared it to wireless tracking software that Fed Ex or United Parcel Service might use, but for companies that are too small to develop it on their own. KonaWare will customize its suites to support its clients’ existing hardware.

The company’s engineers are developing new applications for personal digital assistants and cell phones that support hours of service compliance, RFID technology, and other productivity tools.

DiSanto said KonaWare is on track to make between $3 million and $4 million in revenue in 2006, but he’s still raising venture capital, which is part of the reason for the cluster paper.

On Dec. 14, the company closed on an acquisition of BITS Inc. of Lewiston, Mo. BITS is an IT consultancy firm.

In February, the company entered into an agreement with IntelliMark Inc. of Little Rock “to pursue the use of handheld RFID interrogators for supply chain applications.”

[Mith242]

Arkansawyer, on Jan 3 2006, 12:22 AM, said:

How could they physically transplant NWA to the Midwest?

Yeah but NWA is very close to the Midwest.  I think we're close to the edge of the 'south'.

[johnnydr87]

True.

[mcheiss]

Mith242, on Jan 3 2006, 05:24 AM, said:

Yeah but NWA is very close to the Midwest.  I think we're close to the edge of the 'south'.

I think NWA is more in the Mid-West, while the rest of Arkansas is in the Mid-South.

[masons_dad1]

mcheiss, on Jan 3 2006, 11:02 AM, said:

I think NWA is more in the Mid-West, while the rest of Arkansas is in the Mid-South.

Careful Matt, I think that's the attitude that sperated West Virginia from Virginia. Image Northwest Arkansas being a state seperate from Arkansas. Which side would have the most to lose I wonder?

[Arkansawyer]

mcheiss, on Jan 3 2006, 11:02 AM, said:

I think NWA is more in the Mid-West, while the rest of Arkansas is in the Mid-South.

That's just inaccurate. In the same way, a lot of people now choose to say that Virginia is Northeastern. Many Northeasterners have moved there and classify it this way despite its Southern heritage. As I've mentioned before, NWA now consists of more non-natives to the areas than natives, and so its culture has rapidly changed. Just look around the area for signs of the region's past. There's the Confederate Cemetary in Fayetteville, the Confederate statue in the Bentonville Square, Dixieland Road in Rogers. Those aren't things you'll see in a Midwestern city. Generally, I think the term Midwestern is misunderstood. First and foremost, it is a northern region. It's major cities include Chicago and Detroit. The term is used so incorrectly that I've recently seen someone call Texas Midwestern. In addition, Arkansas is often classified as a Deep South state, even though the Ozarks are of the distinct Southern mountain culture. The farthest one could stretch and be close to accurate is to say that NWA is where South meets Southwest, although that's really more in East/Central Oklahoma and West Texas.

masons_dad1, on Jan 4 2006, 01:15 AM, said:

Careful Matt, I think that's the attitude that sperated West Virginia from Virginia. Image Northwest Arkansas being a state seperate from Arkansas. Which side would have the most to lose I wonder?

The part that fractured from the main state isn't doing very well, and Virginia is booming. Y'all better watch out.  

[Mith242]

I think the midwest term can mean different things.  I consider midwest to now also mean Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.  There were times in the past when it even applied to areas like Ohio and such.  But I have also heard about the upper midwest as you mentioned as well.