Omniture Charts Record 2004 Growth

For Omniture, the country’s largest provider of Web analytics, 2004 was a year of record growth and achievement. The Orem-based company saw more than 140 percent revenue growth over the preceding year, and added hundreds of new customers and several thousands brands to a roster that already included many of the Web’s largest and most heavily-trafficked sites.

Much of the company’s growth came from its flagship product SiteCatalyst. The Web analytics software is used by three of the top five Fortune companies, more Fortune 200 companies than all other ASP analytics companies combined, and more top 300 retailers than any other analytics provider. The firm’s customer base includes industry giants like eBay, AOL, WalMart, Gannett, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Overstock.com, GM, Countrywide and Hewlett-Packard.

Since its inception in 1996, Omniture has been a pioneer in Web analytics, offering customers real-time and historical, in-depth analysis and reporting, advanced visitor segmentation tools, campaign management solutions, automated dashboards and more.

“It’s enterprise-grade software, developed for use in very complex environments. It’s bullet proof, yet easy to use,” says John Mellor, Omniture VP of Marketing.

You don’t have to be an online behemoth to benefit from SiteCatalyst. Small companies like Wine.com, eDiets, Teleflora and Orem-based LogoWorks find it advantageous as well. “Anyone who has a Web presence needs it,” Mellor says. “SiteCatalyst helps you understand online traffic and makes you smarter about how you run your Website.”

For more information visit www.omniture.com.

Local Piano Family Strikes a Deep Technological Chord

The Alpine-based quintet of Juilliard-educated siblings — the Five Browns — (the5browns.com) recently entered the recording arena in a big way, and the world of cutting-edge technology in an even bigger one. Their self-titled debut, released February 8 on RCA Red Seal/BMG Music, was one of the first releases in the new “dual-disk” CD/DVD format that includes both audio and video on the same disk — a technology developed by BMG’s partner company Sony. The sound quality is an astounding 5.1 Sensurround.

Upon release, the Five Browns’ album zoomed to No. one on the Billboard classical charts, and after eight weeks was bumped  down to second by cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s own dual-disk effort. “It’s good company, so we don’t mind,” joked the quintet’s manager/mother Lisa Brown. Other releases in the “dual-disk” format by pop music stars Avril Lavigne, Jennifer Lopez and Usher have also shot up the charts, all packed with interviews, music videos and live performances.

The album’s accompanying tour brought the Five Browns to Kingsbury Hall April 23, and they have also performed on  “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Good Morning America” and “60 Minutes.” Brown explains that the group was a natural choice for BMG Classics chief Gilbert Heatherwick, since the advanced sound quality of the new format helps accentuate the nuances of five pianos simultaneously playing transcriptions of well-loved orchestral works. But she believes that even more than promoting the technology, her children’s music might help promote the genre. “We’re trying to bring classical music into the twenty-first century,” she says.

University Students Venture Into Real Life Fund Experience

The University Venture Fund (www.uventurefund.com) is a college experience that climbs down the ivory tower of theory to provide real-world commercial experience. The Fund’s board of directors, consisting of nationally recognized venture capitalists, proven entrepreneurs and administrators from the David Eccles School of Business, began working on the initiative in the fall of 2000. Students from as far away as Stanford, Yale and the University of Michigan participate, though the University of Utah’s student-run fund has the lion’s share of investments.

Students gain experience working in all facets of the venture capital world — from raising funds to performing research and due diligence on their investments. The program’s partner firms get a different, younger point of view, one that is aware of different markets, according to Associate Allan Young. “The students apply what they learn, and with a $5 million fund, their decisions have real impact,” he says.

The criteria for students to participate are wide open; students from technology and other fields are just as welcome as those who study business. The fund also holds the University Private Equity Summit every January as an opportunity for students to meet private equity professionals and learn from them.

Cogito, Ergo Sums It Up For Provo Computing Firm

Cogito Inc. (www.cogitoinc.com), a pioneer in knowledge-centered computing, recently closed the first part of an $11.7 million Series B round of fund raising. vSpring Capital and UV Partners led the round, which also included existing investors Canopy Group and Wasatch Venture. The money will be used to push Cogito’s technology and services to the government and enterprise markets.

“Cogito is very pleased to have closed a round of funding with all the major venture capital investors in Utah, pointing to their belief that Cogito may be the next industry changing company to emerge from this technology-rich region,” says Dallas Noyes, chairman and founder of Cogito. “Cogito’s Knowledge Center provides a powerful, scaleable and flexible framework that integrates heterogeneous data sources in order to present a unified and dynamic picture of an enterprise’s collective data.”

Knowledge-centered computing benefits firms by providing greater access to structured and unstructured data, and greater ability to analyze that data — all at a dramatically lower cost. Cogito technology is the foundation for new families of data visualization and analytics systems with performance up to three orders of magnitude better than current relational object-oriented database management tools.

Refined Global Solutions Proves Its Mettle at Idaho National Lab Tests

Refined Global Solutions (rgsoilrig.com) of Bluffdale is only two years old, but has already made a big ripple in the oil filtration market. So much so that earlier this year the Idaho National Laboratory included them as one of only two companies to test their products. The Lab, operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, tested RGS products on its buses and SUV fleet, and by mid-April the test had reached its million-mile mark.

Tests found that, through RGS products like “The Original OilRig,” a bypass oil filtration processor that cleans and re-circulates used motor oil, fleets could achieve up to 80 percent lower oil damage levels, letting vehicles operate for tens of thousands of miles more between oil changes. The potential savings are environmental as well as financial, possibly preventing thousands of quarts of spent oil from being dumped into repositories.

According to Dr. Ralph Thomson, RGS executive vice president, “RGS expects to see considerable applications of our systems. The DOE is tasked by the Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency to develop 21st century new fuels.” Not only governmental, but also private enterprises are reaching for their solutions. “Last year, we achieved relationships with some of the nation’s biggest fleets,” he says. Clients include Flying J, Central Refrigeration, Smithfield Farms, and more than thirty other fleets.

LANDesk Security Suite Protects Businesses from Cyber Threats

LANDesk Software of West Jordon has launched LANDesk Security Suite, the industry’s first centralized corporateremedy for spyware. It allows customersto manage and defend against a varietyof threats including malicious attacks, adware, system intrusion and spyware.

“The LANDesk Management Suite 8 is one of the strongest offerings on the market; it integrates all core client management functions, including patch management, into a single suite,” according to David Friedlander, senior analyst, in a November 2004 report for Forrester Research, Inc. “The products intuitive management interface and unified architecture are its key strengths.”

Together, LANDesk Security Suite and LANDesk Management Suite 8.5 also allow administrators to automatically inventory systems; identify vulnerabilities, test and deploy fixes, and remove and block spyware and malware — all within a single application. 

“As hackers and malware become increasingly sophisticated, we must become more efficient in order to respond to the threat,” says Joseph Perry, office of information technology manager for Tufts University. “LANDesk Security Suite will enable us to assess our IT environment and immediately remedy security violations, remove instances of spyware and adware and devise rules to help fight attacks before they hit.”

Visit www.landesk.com to learn more about these and other products.  

Who’s On Third? 1World Has All the Bases Covered.

For businesses looking to meet their customers’ needs without investing in voluminous warehouse space or distribution networks, third party logistics is the wave of the future. 1World Logistics, headquartered in Lehi, has opened an operation in Spanish Fork to meet customers’ needs of both local and national companies.

The enterprise is currently operating out of 105,000 square feet of warehouse space, with another 200,000 square feet available to them for future growth and development. With an accessible location at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon, 1World Logistics is poised to service clients not only from Utah, but from anywhere in the world.

1World Logistics was launched by Eli Naulu and Greg Bertola, both of whom have experience in just about every aspect of logistics management, domestically and internationally. Naulu said that 1World has “the professional experience and know-how to assist expanding businesses with their warehousing, transportation, logistics and order fulfillment needs.”

Lehi-based XanGo LLC, a company that offers a patented dietary supplement, XanGo Juice™, is an investor in the operation and is one of 1World’s first clients. According to Naulu, XanGo currently has operations in the U.S. and 14 international markets, and all of the company’s logistical needs are being handled by 1World. “This is an example of the volume we are able to handle for clients,” he said.  www.1worldlogistics.net

Utah Serial Entrepreneur Appointed Chairman of Promising Massachusetts Pharmaceutical Company

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of pioneering treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer, announced in April 2005 that it has elected Gary L. Crocker as chairman of its board of directors. 

Crocker comes to his new role at Merrimack with more than 25 years successful experience funding, growing and leading companies in the biotechnology and medical device industries, especially in Utah. He was president of Research Medical, a publicly traded manufacturer of surgery devices that was acquired in 1997 by one of the world’s largest device companies, Baxter International, and was a founding director and original investor in TheraTech, a drug delivery company purchased by Watson Pharmaceutical in 1999. Crocker currently serves as CEO and chairman of AnzenBio, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based developer of field-deployable, electrochemical pathogen detection systems for biologicals, toxins and nucleic acids, as well as nucleic acid isolation and amplification devices.

“This is a fascinating company that is capable of making fundamental contributions in the therapeutic arenas of autoimmune disease treatment and cancer treatment,” said Crocker. On April 20, the company completed a $37 million Series D financing round, and the company recently initiated Phase II clinical development trials for its lead compound, MM-093, for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

MM-093 uses alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), a naturally occurring complex protein produced by the human fetus during development. Prior attempts to develop AFP commercially have been thwarted by an inability to manufacture sufficient quantities of the complex protein for clinical trials. Merrimack has addressed this problem with the production of human AFP in transgenic goats and is advancing MM-093 through human clinical trials for the treatment of several autoimmune diseases.

www.merrimackpharma.com

eHarmony for Entrepreneurs and Investors?

Perhaps given the emphasis many Utahns place on marriage and family, few observers would be surprised to learn that a new Web-based matching service was launched in the state on April 26. But rather than helping people find potential dating or marriage partners, FundingUtah.com focuses on helping generate another kind of love — between entrepreneurs and investors.

“In my work with scores of great entrepreneurs, it became clear that virtually every new business struggles to find financial backers,” says UtahFunding.com founder Paul Allen, who also founded MyFamily.com and Infobases. “At the same time, there are thousands of wealthy Utahns who might become angel investors if they knew about some of the exciting ideas and teams that are being created here. FundingUtah.com enables and accelerates these relationships. The vision is for this to be something of an eHarmony for investors and entrepreneurs.”

Both entrepreneurs and investors can register free of charge at FundingUtah.com. Registered entrepreneurs can post multiple business plans on the site, and registered investors can read through the business plans posted. The names of registered investors will not be provided to entrepreneurs or other parties.

FundingUtah.com has also instituted a rating system for business plans to “help investors find quality business plans, and entrepreneurs to plan and build their businesses accordingly,” says Allen. The system allocates points based on the plans’ preparation and investment readiness, such as number of customers and employees, revenues and profitability. Entrepreneurs can view their plans’ ratings when they sign in, and only plans with a minimum number of points will show up on the plans investors actually see. 

Thus far, the site seems to have made a strong start. As of May 3, 300 entrepreneurs and 79 investors had registered on FundingUtah.com.

www.fundingutah.com

UITA Appoints Jack Sunderlage New Chair

Jack Sunderlage, CEO of ContentWatch, was named the Utah Information Technology Association'’s new chairman at UITA’s Annual Members Meeting in April. Sunderlage will succeed Altiris CEO Greg Butterfield, serving as the 2003-04 association’s chair.  Butterfield will remain on the UITA board.

UITA president Richard Nelson expressed praise and gratitude for both Butterfield and Sunderlage at the Member’s Meeting. “Greg’s efforts, and the progress UITA has made during his role as chairman, have been nothing short of spectacular,” he says. “We are also extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Jack Sunderlage as UITA’s new chairman. In addition to his role as the CEO of a strong and progressive Utah company, Sunderlage has played and will continue to play an integral role in the advancement of critical high tech and community legislation in our state.”

At the members meeting, UITA ratified the appointment of six new trustees, including: Ron Beck, AT&T; Jack Brittain, University of Utah Technology Venture Development; Jeff Edwards, EDCU; Scott Hinton, Utah State University, College of Engineering; Mike Levinthal, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners; and Chris Roybal, Governor Huntsman’s Senior Advisor for Economic Development.

“All of these outstanding leaders will improve UITA’s ability to fulfill our mission of helping our member companies form closer relationships with industry and community leaders, develop superior management talent, sharpen professional skills and gain greater access to capital.

www.uita.org