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Waste Not
E-waste, as Galiatsatos calls it, can include just about any device with a battery or a power plug that’s no longer wanted, from computers and printers to televisions and monitors; from VCRs and DVD players to kitchen appliances and power tools. All have the potential to pollute the environment when tossed out, and all contain parts which, on their own, have value.
To create that value, Green Monster accepts dropoffs of electronic and computer equipment from residents free of charge, as well as partnering with businesses and municipalities to collect their outdated items. All electronics are torn down to their basic components, which are then sorted into batches of similar materials and sold to refiners, smelters, and other companies that can use them.
Joe Galiatsatos said the idea for Green Monster sprang from his realization that tons of electronics were being tossed into landfills daily, or else being exported in an unsafe manner. With the tide shifting in business toward more ‘green’ practices, he saw an opportunity in the recycling of such materials.
He was right; from its humble garage beginnings in 2007, the company has at least tripled its work volume in each subsequent year, serving Connecticut municipalities, transfer stations, businesses, and individuals.
Sam Galiatsatos — who learned a lot about electronics and avionics components while in the Air National Guard, stationed in Westfield — had been working in various types of energy consulting when Green Monster started to grow. When the opportunity arose to join the company full-time, he jumped at it, telling BusinessWest that he believes in the green economy and sustainable practices, and loves coming to work every day to live those ideals.
Sustainability comes in different forms, however, and Galiatsatos said he also strives to support the local economy by partnering with area companies in his recycling efforts. “I believe in Springfield,” he said. “And people have greeted me here with open arms.”
The timing for further growth seems right, as companies move toward cloud computing, or Internet-based computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to individual computers and other devices.
“That’s a growth opportunity for our business,” he said. “Where a company once needed a room to do its computing, now it can do all that from a terminal at a desk. We can take all their antiquated electronics, break them down, and offer them to different companies.”
Green Monster’s Springfield facility now employs three people, with plans to increase that to 12. Meanwhile, the brothers have their eyes on future expansion, possibly in the Easthampton and Pittsfield areas. But they’re not moving too aggressively, opting instead for what Sam Galiatsatos called “smart growth.”
“That’s our business model; I believe in organic growth,” he said, noting again that Hampden County has been a good fit so far. The firm is gradually adding business clients, including the city of Springfield, Manny’s TV & Appliances, Savers, and also MassMutual, which will be holding simultaneous electronic-waste drives at its Springfield and Enfield locations on Earth Day next month.
Change of Habit
Galiatsatos said Americans toss in the trash out all sorts of things they shouldn’t, from old phones to used batteries, because they’re not thinking of the long-term effects of what winds up in landfills. That’s why he and his brother are trying to educate the public, realizing that what’s good for their business is also simply good stewardship of the earth.
“Don’t just chuck your stuff,” he said, admitting that he, too, used to throw out such items without thought. “If that trash bag is biodegradable, it’s designed to break down in five years, which is great. But then the [electronic] components will break down in 15 years. And they’ll contaminate the environment for 150 years.”
Unless those dinosaurs — or at least their various parts — find new homes.
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
The correct response, or question, in Jeopardy! parlance, was, “what is Chicago?”
The category was U.S. Cities, and the answer (paraphrasing) was ‘this city’s two airports are named after a war hero and a World War II battle.’
Watson, the IBM-designed supercomputer that cost between $100 million and $2 billion to develop, depending on who is answering that question, ‘wrote’ “what is Toronto” in its Final Jeopardy space.
Hmmmmm.
“That just goes to show that computers can’t do some things as well as humans,” said James Allan, a computer scientist at UMass Amherst and co-director, along with Bruce Croft, of the university’s Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (CIIR). While not a real fan of the show, he watched every minute of the Jeopardy! episodes involving Watson and his routing of the show’s most accomplished human champions, because UMass — and specifically its CIIR — was one of eight universities collaborating with IBM on the question-answering, or QA, technology behind the company’s new computing system.
So how could Watson, the system named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, have made a mistake that most grade-school students wouldn’t have?
It’s fairly simple, said Allan, noting that the computer, in its sophisticated search of a host of databases for the answer, focused on the ‘two airports/war hero’ aspect of the query, and not as much (obviously) on the ‘U.S. Cities’ part. (For the record, the question refers to Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports, but one of Toronto’s airports is named after William “Billy” Bishop, a Canadian World War I fighter ace.)
“Toronto’s case is very similar, but not exactly the same as Chicago’s,” Allan explained, adding that the search, in this instance, went in a similar fashion to another of Watson’s few missteps.
The question (answer) from the category Alternate Meanings was ‘stylish elegance or students who all graduated together.’ Watson’s reply was ‘chic’ — other options it considered were ‘panache’ and ‘Vera Wang’ (more on how it could have arrived at such candidates later) — while the correct response was ‘class.’ “Here, ‘stylish elegance’ was obviously more important to Watson,” said Allan, adding that ‘chic’ clearly doesn’t have a definition approaching a ‘group of classmates.’
But while Watson had some wrong answers that led to some serious head-scratching, and even a snicker from Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, the focus should certainly be on how many questions it got right, said Allan, noting that the computer exceeded the expectations of all but the most optimistic of the individuals involved in the project. And the stunning performance, coupled with vast amounts of hype — television commercials on the Jeopardy! experience were still running weeks after the shows aired — has brought QA technology and its more practical uses to the forefront.
Some of the more obvious of these are in health care, said Allan, noting that IBM, in tandem with voice-recognition software maker Nuance, is already working to produce a medical version of the computer system. It will use speech recognition, super-fast processing, and massive databases to help doctors and nurses find answers to questions from and about patients.
The intelligence sector is another logical landing place for Watson-like technology, he said, adding that a such a system can and likely will be used in “any situation in which getting the answer quickly is an important step in the process.”
Meanwhile, Watson’s exploits have brought some attention — MIT received considerably more — to UMass and the CIIR. Launched in the late 1990s, the center’s work comes down to one word — search — and how to do it better, faster, and more efficiently.
“We look for ways to search for things, ways to organize materials, ways to help people build queries, ways to present what’s on there,” he said. “We’re very interested in issues that are new and interesting; more and more, people are using streaming media, stuff that comes at you all the time, like Twitter feeds and news feeds.
“We’re focusing on finding ways to use computers to help pull from that fire hose of information coming at you stuff that’s interesting to you and also different from what you’ve already seen,” he continued. “In other words, we want to answer the question, ‘how do you find new and interesting stuff in all the stuff that’s constantly arriving?”
For this issue and its focus on technology, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at the Watson technology and its vast potential, and also sheds some light on the ongoing work at the CIIR and how computer scientists at UMass continue to search for answers to the question of how to make computers search better and faster.
It’s Elementary
Allan admitted to BusinessWest that, deep down, he didn’t think Watson would beat his human opponents, and he never imagined the kind of drubbing the computer eventually administered.
This mindset had more to do with the quality of the computer’s opponents than any lack of confidence in the system he and his team helped create. In the end, though, he learned at least a few things — first, that Watson was indeed quite skillful in searching and then finding the right answer, and second, that he was really good at ‘buzzing in,’ as it’s called in Jeopardy!
Actually, some would say the computer had an unfair advantage in that regard, said Allan, noting that many Jeopardy! players don’t fare well on the show, not because they lack smarts, but because they lack good timing with that buzzer. Hitting it too early locks a contestant out for a costly fraction of a second, he explained, and hitting it too late isn’t good, either, obviously.
Watson, because it’s a machine, essentially had perfect timing with the buzzer, he said, adding that he, like all viewers, could see some frustration on the part of Watson’s opponents, and especially Ken Jennings, who knew many of the answers but simply couldn’t buzz in faster than the computer.
That skill — not to mention Watson’s odd ‘Daily Double’ wagers (those certainly weren’t round numbers) — came from some other contributors, said Allen, noting that the CIIR’s assistance came in the form of information retrieval, or text search. This capability of QA technology is the first step taken when looking for text that’s most likely to contain accurate answers. The system’s deep language-processing capabilities then analyze the returned information to find the actual answers within that text.
What IBM essentially borrowed from UMass and adopted for its own use is an open-source software product called Indri that effectively initiates and facilitates the computer’s search for the information that will ultimately lead to an answer, and preferably the right one.
“The question you have essentially becomes a search request,” he explained. “And a search engine, just like a Web-search engine, goes out and searches all the text, the unstructured free text we have available, to pull back portions of documents that seem likely to have an answer. The way that works in a question-answering system is that all those documents are then passed on to the next steps, which do a lot more deep processing to try to extract the specific answer.”
There were many components to Watson’s success, Allan continued, but the search software was critical.
“Search is a very important first step in the question-answering process. If we don’t find the answer, then the system can’t work,” he explained. “If the search step fails early on, all the rest of it doesn’t matter.”
The process of taking a question and arriving at an answer has several components, said Allan, all of them handled in about three seconds total. Specifically, the computer:
• Identifies plausable targets;
• Builds queries to find answers;
• Searches unstructured text for matching text;
• Extracts candidates from the text;
• Looks for evidence for each candidate;
• Scores the candidates; and
• Ranks them and decides if it’s confident enough to choose one.
Nowhere to Hyde
Using some fairly simple language, Allan explained how it all works, using a question from one of the Jeopardy! shows. From the category Literary Character APB (all points bulletin) came the question (answer) ‘Wanted for killing Sir Danvers Carew; appearance: pale & dwarfish; seems to have a split personality.’ Here’s how Watson arrived at the correct answer (question): ‘Hyde,’ as in Mr. Hyde, the alter ego of Dr. Jekyll.
First, it looked at possible targets for the answer (question), said Allan, meaning something or someone that can be wanted, has an appearance, is involved in a killing, and has a personality — more specifically, a split one. The computer then looks for strings that fill all of those, working on the premise that the target is probably a noun, possibly a person (though other animate objects fit), and the category’s key words are ‘literary,’ ‘character,’ and ‘ABP.’
The computer then builds a query from the question (answer), Allan continued, with some words and phrases becoming important: in this case, ‘killing,’ ‘Danvers Carew,’ ‘pale,’ ‘dwarfish,’ and ‘split personality.’ Then, using the CIIR’s Indri search engine, the computer searches text sources — encyclopedia articles, dictionaries, books, newspapers, movie scripts, and some added material needed for Jeopardy!, including the complete works of William Shakespeare.
Next, the computer extracts candidates from the text it searches, he continued, adding that, in this case, it would come across passages such as “Sir Danvers Carew: member of Parliament who is murdered by Hyde,” “Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish,” “Mr. Hyde-type split personality,” and “Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery surrounding Jekyll and Hyde.” It would then identify candidates such as:
• Sir Danvers Carew, member of Parliament;
• Murdered, Hyde;
• Sherlock Holmes, mystery; and
• Jekyll.
It would then look for evidence to support candidates, or not support them, as the case may be. ‘Parliament,’ for example, has no personality, and it’s also real, not a literary character; ‘mystery’ is not a character; ‘murdered’ is not a noun; but ‘Hyde’ is a person, has a connection to Jekyll, was the killer of Carew, was wanted, had a split personality, and is fictional.
Fast-forwarding, Allan said Watson eventually came up with three candidates — ‘Hyde,’ ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ and ‘Dracula’ (who indeed had a split personality), and ranked the three in terms of its confidence level — 71%, 15%, and 7%, respectively, and thus chose ‘Hyde.’
Creating a Buzz
That lengthy tutorial explains, sort of, how and why Watson kicked ass on Jeopardy!, said Allan, but it also shows the vast potential for this technology to help users answer questions when there is much more at stake than winning a game show.
Noting that the Watson system used for Jeopardy! is about the size of 10 full-size refrigerators, Allan said that model doesn’t have very many practical, or affordable, applications. But the basic technology (not the buzzing-in capability) does.
“You can get a lot of Watson’s power without all of Watson,” he explained, adding that IBM is already marketing the technology in a smaller, slightly slower package, especially to the health care community, where there is a great deal of potential.
“What is the recommended dose of ibuprofen for a 10-year-old child? — that’s the kind of question this technology can answer and answer quickly,” he explained, adding that there are myriad other examples of medically related questions that don’t involve cause and effect, or subjective thinking, that a computer can help with.
Intelligence analysis, from both business and national-security perspectives, is another potential landing spot, he said, stressing again that the technology is most relevant in realms where correct answers — and speed — are equally critical. “‘Name the people who were seen with Gadhafi in the last year?’ — that’s the kind of question that can be answered.”
As for the CIIR, meanwhile, the Jeopardy! project may be over, but the work to find new and better ways to extract information from a host of databases goes on.
“We have a large project going on now concerning why people want to search books and how we can do that better,” he said. “Some of the early work we’re doing is in collaboration with humanities scholars who want to look at old books, read them, analyze them, and understand what’s happening.”
Meanwhile, Allan said he is spending a good deal of his time involved with something called ‘information literacy.’
Elaborating, he said this genre, if it can be called that, involves helping someone looking at a Web page decide whether — and how much — to trust the material in question.
“We don’t want to tell them whether it’s right or wrong, necessarily,” he explained. “But we want to help them look at it and be literate about material and look at it critically.”
As an example, he cited a theoretical cancer-treatment page.
“There are a lot of bogus cancer treatments out there, but the Web sites look very good; they’re beautifully crafted and seem authoritative,” he explained. “We want to help people look at something like this and decide whether it is to be believed, or how to go about deciding.”
Coming up with answers to such questions will likely take years, not a few seconds, said Allan, adding quickly that, while IBM’s computer amazed those who watched it, the realm of information retrieval and analysis is still in its infancy, and the art of the search is still a work in progress.
Class Act
Watson’s ‘Toronto’ answer shows that QA technology, while it has witnessed significant advances over the years, still has some limitations, said Allan.
But the system’s performance — not the final scores in relation to its human opponents, necessarily, but the number of questions it answered correctly — shows that great strides have been made in enhancing a computer’s ability to understand language, take a question, and efficiently search for the answer.
Where this technology will wind up and when are questions no one can fully answer at this point, he continued, but the practical applications are many.
So, for this exercise, Watson went to the head of the class — and not the ‘chic’ — and showed a good deal of style in the process. n
George O’Brien can be reached
at [email protected]“That just goes to show that computers can’t do some things as well as humans,” said James Allan, a computer scientist at UMass Amherst and co-director, along with Bruce Croft, of the university’s Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (CIIR). While not a real fan of the show, he watched every minute of the Jeopardy! episodes involving Watson and his routing of the show’s most accomplished human champions, because UMass — and specifically its CIIR — was one of eight universities collaborating with IBM on the question-answering, or QA, technology behind the company’s new computing system.
So how could Watson, the system named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, have made a mistake that most grade-school students wouldn’t have?
It’s fairly simple, said Allan, noting that the computer, in its sophisticated search of a host of databases for the answer, focused on the ‘two airports/war hero’ aspect of the query, and not as much (obviously) on the ‘U.S. Cities’ part. (For the record, the question refers to Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports, but one of Toronto’s airports is named after William “Billy” Bishop, a Canadian World War I fighter ace.)
“Toronto’s case is very similar, but not exactly the same as Chicago’s,” Allan explained, adding that the search, in this instance, went in a similar fashion to another of Watson’s few missteps.
The question (answer) from the category Alternate Meanings was ‘stylish elegance or students who all graduated together.’ Watson’s reply was ‘chic’ — other options it considered were ‘panache’ and ‘Vera Wang’ (more on how it could have arrived at such candidates later) — while the correct response was ‘class.’ “Here, ‘stylish elegance’ was obviously more important to Watson,” said Allan, adding that ‘chic’ clearly doesn’t have a definition approaching a ‘group of classmates.’
But while Watson had some wrong answers that led to some serious head-scratching, and even a snicker from Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, the focus should certainly be on how many questions it got right, said Allan, noting that the computer exceeded the expectations of all but the most optimistic of the individuals involved in the project. And the stunning performance, coupled with vast amounts of hype — television commercials on the Jeopardy! experience were still running weeks after the shows aired — has brought QA technology and its more practical uses to the forefront.
Some of the more obvious of these are in health care, said Allan, noting that IBM, in tandem with voice-recognition software maker Nuance, is already working to produce a medical version of the computer system. It will use speech recognition, super-fast processing, and massive databases to help doctors and nurses find answers to questions from and about patients.
The intelligence sector is another logical landing place for Watson-like technology, he said, adding that a such a system can and likely will be used in “any situation in which getting the answer quickly is an important step in the process.”
Meanwhile, Watson’s exploits have brought some attention — MIT received considerably more — to UMass and the CIIR. Launched in the late 1990s, the center’s work comes down to one word — search — and how to do it better, faster, and more efficiently.
“We look for ways to search for things, ways to organize materials, ways to help people build queries, ways to present what’s on there,” he said. “We’re very interested in issues that are new and interesting; more and more, people are using streaming media, stuff that comes at you all the time, like Twitter feeds and news feeds.
“We’re focusing on finding ways to use computers to help pull from that fire hose of information coming at you stuff that’s interesting to you and also different from what you’ve already seen,” he continued. “In other words, we want to answer the question, ‘how do you find new and interesting stuff in all the stuff that’s constantly arriving?”
For this issue and its focus on technology, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at the Watson technology and its vast potential, and also sheds some light on the ongoing work at the CIIR and how computer scientists at UMass continue to search for answers to the question of how to make computers search better and faster.
It’s Elementary
Allan admitted to BusinessWest that, deep down, he didn’t think Watson would beat his human opponents, and he never imagined the kind of drubbing the computer eventually administered.
This mindset had more to do with the quality of the computer’s opponents than any lack of confidence in the system he and his team helped create. In the end, though, he learned at least a few things — first, that Watson was indeed quite skillful in searching and then finding the right answer, and second, that he was really good at ‘buzzing in,’ as it’s called in Jeopardy!
Actually, some would say the computer had an unfair advantage in that regard, said Allan, noting that many Jeopardy! players don’t fare well on the show, not because they lack smarts, but because they lack good timing with that buzzer. Hitting it too early locks a contestant out for a costly fraction of a second, he explained, and hitting it too late isn’t good, either, obviously.
Watson, because it’s a machine, essentially had perfect timing with the buzzer, he said, adding that he, like all viewers, could see some frustration on the part of Watson’s opponents, and especially Ken Jennings, who knew many of the answers but simply couldn’t buzz in faster than the computer.
That skill — not to mention Watson’s odd ‘Daily Double’ wagers (those certainly weren’t round numbers) — came from some other contributors, said Allen, noting that the CIIR’s assistance came in the form of information retrieval, or text search. This capability of QA technology is the first step taken when looking for text that’s most likely to contain accurate answers. The system’s deep language-processing capabilities then analyze the returned information to find the actual answers within that text.
What IBM essentially borrowed from UMass and adopted for its own use is an open-source software product called Indri that effectively initiates and facilitates the computer’s search for the information that will ultimately lead to an answer, and preferably the right one.
“The question you have essentially becomes a search request,” he explained. “And a search engine, just like a Web-search engine, goes out and searches all the text, the unstructured free text we have available, to pull back portions of documents that seem likely to have an answer. The way that works in a question-answering system is that all those documents are then passed on to the next steps, which do a lot more deep processing to try to extract the specific answer.”
There were many components to Watson’s success, Allan continued, but the search software was critical.
“Search is a very important first step in the question-answering process. If we don’t find the answer, then the system can’t work,” he explained. “If the search step fails early on, all the rest of it doesn’t matter.”
The process of taking a question and arriving at an answer has several components, said Allan, all of them handled in about three seconds total. Specifically, the computer:
• Identifies plausable targets;
• Builds queries to find answers;
• Searches unstructured text for matching text;
• Extracts candidates from the text;
• Looks for evidence for each candidate;
• Scores the candidates; and
• Ranks them and decides if it’s confident enough to choose one.
Nowhere to Hyde
Using some fairly simple language, Allan explained how it all works, using a question from one of the Jeopardy! shows. From the category Literary Character APB (all points bulletin) came the question (answer) ‘Wanted for killing Sir Danvers Carew; appearance: pale & dwarfish; seems to have a split personality.’ Here’s how Watson arrived at the correct answer (question): ‘Hyde,’ as in Mr. Hyde, the alter ego of Dr. Jekyll.
First, it looked at possible targets for the answer (question), said Allan, meaning something or someone that can be wanted, has an appearance, is involved in a killing, and has a personality — more specifically, a split one. The computer then looks for strings that fill all of those, working on the premise that the target is probably a noun, possibly a person (though other animate objects fit), and the category’s key words are ‘literary,’ ‘character,’ and ‘ABP.’
The computer then builds a query from the question (answer), Allan continued, with some words and phrases becoming important: in this case, ‘killing,’ ‘Danvers Carew,’ ‘pale,’ ‘dwarfish,’ and ‘split personality.’ Then, using the CIIR’s Indri search engine, the computer searches text sources — encyclopedia articles, dictionaries, books, newspapers, movie scripts, and some added material needed for Jeopardy!, including the complete works of William Shakespeare.
Next, the computer extracts candidates from the text it searches, he continued, adding that, in this case, it would come across passages such as “Sir Danvers Carew: member of Parliament who is murdered by Hyde,” “Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish,” “Mr. Hyde-type split personality,” and “Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery surrounding Jekyll and Hyde.” It would then identify candidates such as:
• Sir Danvers Carew, member of Parliament;
• Murdered, Hyde;
• Sherlock Holmes, mystery; and
• Jekyll.
It would then look for evidence to support candidates, or not support them, as the case may be. ‘Parliament,’ for example, has no personality, and it’s also real, not a literary character; ‘mystery’ is not a character; ‘murdered’ is not a noun; but ‘Hyde’ is a person, has a connection to Jekyll, was the killer of Carew, was wanted, had a split personality, and is fictional.
Fast-forwarding, Allan said Watson eventually came up with three candidates — ‘Hyde,’ ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ and ‘Dracula’ (who indeed had a split personality), and ranked the three in terms of its confidence level — 71%, 15%, and 7%, respectively, and thus chose ‘Hyde.’
Creating a Buzz
That lengthy tutorial explains, sort of, how and why Watson kicked ass on Jeopardy!, said Allan, but it also shows the vast potential for this technology to help users answer questions when there is much more at stake than winning a game show.
Noting that the Watson system used for Jeopardy! is about the size of 10 full-size refrigerators, Allan said that model doesn’t have very many practical, or affordable, applications. But the basic technology (not the buzzing-in capability) does.
“You can get a lot of Watson’s power without all of Watson,” he explained, adding that IBM is already marketing the technology in a smaller, slightly slower package, especially to the health care community, where there is a great deal of potential.
“What is the recommended dose of ibuprofen for a 10-year-old child? — that’s the kind of question this technology can answer and answer quickly,” he explained, adding that there are myriad other examples of medically related questions that don’t involve cause and effect, or subjective thinking, that a computer can help with.
Intelligence analysis, from both business and national-security perspectives, is another potential landing spot, he said, stressing again that the technology is most relevant in realms where correct answers — and speed — are equally critical. “‘Name the people who were seen with Gadhafi in the last year?’ — that’s the kind of question that can be answered.”
As for the CIIR, meanwhile, the Jeopardy! project may be over, but the work to find new and better ways to extract information from a host of databases goes on.
“We have a large project going on now concerning why people want to search books and how we can do that better,” he said. “Some of the early work we’re doing is in collaboration with humanities scholars who want to look at old books, read them, analyze them, and understand what’s happening.”
Meanwhile, Allan said he is spending a good deal of his time involved with something called ‘information literacy.’
Elaborating, he said this genre, if it can be called that, involves helping someone looking at a Web page decide whether — and how much — to trust the material in question.
“We don’t want to tell them whether it’s right or wrong, necessarily,” he explained. “But we want to help them look at it and be literate about material and look at it critically.”
As an example, he cited a theoretical cancer-treatment page.
“There are a lot of bogus cancer treatments out there, but the Web sites look very good; they’re beautifully crafted and seem authoritative,” he explained. “We want to help people look at something like this and decide whether it is to be believed, or how to go about deciding.”
Coming up with answers to such questions will likely take years, not a few seconds, said Allan, adding quickly that, while IBM’s computer amazed those who watched it, the realm of information retrieval and analysis is still in its infancy, and the art of the search is still a work in progress.
Class Act
Watson’s ‘Toronto’ answer shows that QA technology, while it has witnessed significant advances over the years, still has some limitations, said Allan.
But the system’s performance — not the final scores in relation to its human opponents, necessarily, but the number of questions it answered correctly — shows that great strides have been made in enhancing a computer’s ability to understand language, take a question, and efficiently search for the answer.
Where this technology will wind up and when are questions no one can fully answer at this point, he continued, but the practical applications are many.
So, for this exercise, Watson went to the head of the class — and not the ‘chic’ — and showed a good deal of style in the process.
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
Something to Chew On
Ming Tsai, chef and owner of Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley and occasional television personality, worked with state Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem to craft the language of the bill and then lobbied on its behalf. A national spokesman for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), Tsai said he wanted the law to mandate simple, inexpensive measures that would be not only effective but realistic for restaurants of all types to implement.
“I’m so proud that Massachusetts is the first state to pass such comprehensive legislation,” Tsai noted in a statement on his Web site after Gov. Patrick signed the bill. “I’ve always said that, if you are in the restaurant industry, it’s your duty to serve everyone safe food.”
FAAN estimates that more than 12 million Americans, 3 million of them children, have food allergies, and that food-related anaphylaxis results in about 150 deaths and more than 50,000 emergency-room visits each year.
Such allergies are also on the rise, though doctors have not determined exactly why. One theory Bayuk has cited, known as the ‘hygeine hypothesis,’ posits that the immune system, which is designed to fight the parasites, worms, and other organisms humans encounter, has less to do these days and has become a bit, well, bored. The idea is that Americans — with their fixation on cleaning products, hand sanitizers, and reluctance to let kids play outside as much as in the past — have created an aseptic environment, and in the absence of those pathogens, our bodies have become oversentitized to allergens, typically proteins, that should pose no threat to humans.
Recognizing this sharp rise in food allergies and how such conditions could threaten diners, the state’s new law requires, among other things:
• The placement in restaurant kitchens of a poster providing general information on food allergies as they relate to food preparation;
• Menus to include a statement that the customer should inform the waitstaff of any food-allergy issue;
• Standard food-service courses to include the viewing of an approved food-allergy video; and
• The state Department of Public Health to develop a voluntary program for restaurants to be designated as ‘food-allergy friendly’ and to maintain a listing of restaurants receiving that designation on its Web site. In order to receive such a designation, restaurants would be required to make available to the public a master list of all the ingredients used in the preparation of each item on the menu. Tsai said this aspect of the law was inspired by the ‘Food Bible’ he keeps at Blue Ginger, detailing all the ingredients used in each menu item.
The year before the Massachusetts law was passed, FAAN produced a 60-page guide for restaurants that includes case studies, best practices, up-to-date research, food-labeling information, and practical strategies for avoiding cross-contamination of food items, as well as suggested procedures for keeping guests safe and steps to prepare for an allergic emergency. Restaurants are able to download and use the guide as a basis for their food-allergy-management programs.
“Studies show that reactions in restaurants are often caused by lack of staff education about food allergy,” said Anne Muñoz-Furlong, founder and CEO of FAAN. “In a number of situations, the guests did not inform the staff of their allergy. Serving guests with food allergies requires staff education and clear communication between guests and staff. This training program helps staff achieve those goals so everyone can have an enjoyable and safe restaurant meal.”
Bayuk sees the law as a good step forward, particularly considering that restaurants tend to vary widely in their treatment of the food-allergy issue.
“Most restaurants, I would say, are open to talking about it, but don’t want to give you any guarantees,” he said, adding that some national chains, like Chili’s, are diligent about posting all their ingredient information online, but other eateries have been slower to educate the public. “It depends on the server in back and the manager; it’s confusing if they don’t understand how foods can cross-react. Parents [of food-allergic children] are used to this, and if they don’t get the answers they want, they’ll just leave.”
Safe Havens
But they don’t always have to leave. LaRochelle, for one, wants every patron at Perigee to feel welcome and safe, regardless of allergy or other dietary restriction.
She told HCN that she got into cooking when she was 15. She had decided to become a vegetarian, but her mother didn’t want to cook separate meals for her, so she learned how to cook for herself. As it turned out, her family liked her food so much that her mother and sister eventually turned vegetarian as well.
LaRochelle, who has since gone back to eating meat, remembers vividly what it was like to go to restaurants as a vegetarian. “My only option was was either pasta primavera — which might have chicken stock in it — or extras of the side vegetables everyone else was getting with their main course. Or I can have X, but without the Y,” she said. “No matter what I did, I always felt like a second-class citizen, like the dinners being prepared for me weren’t as good as everyone else’s.”
So she made a point of producing a menu at Perigee that offers numerous items — clearly marked on the menu as such — that are appropriate in their unaltered form for kosher, vegetarian, and gluten-allergic customers. She’s also willing to alter dishes for diners with other food allergies — her staff is allergy-trained — and the menu, based on what’s in season in the Berkshires, changes regularly, so customers can return again and again without having to repeat the same meal.
“As a patron of the restaurant, you want to feel comfortable. You can grill my servers about anything; I want you taken care of,” LaRochelle said. “I’m in hospitality because I want to be hospitable. At the end of the day, no matter how great the food is, one week later, people aren’t going to remember what they ate or drank, but they will remember how they felt at your restaurant, and if your response to their allergy made the meal something special.”
The Federal’s Santaniello said servers will direct customers to allergen-free options — including a ‘you be the chef’ section where diners can craft their own combination of entrée, sauce, and sides — and said the menu is extensive enough that chefs don’t have to alter many dishes. “We don’t want to take too many things from the entrée, because if we take too much away, you won’t enjoy it,” he said.
Still, “we’re a little different than some restaurants because we’re fine dining, and we make almost everything from scratch,” Santaniello said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t still some sauces and bases made at a different time, with ingredients in them you can’t take out, but we can tailor entrees to what a person’s needs are. If it’s a gluten allergy, we can make an entrée without gluten. Nut allergy is another big one. The key is to make sure that guests, at the end of the day, have as good an experience as they can despite their allergy to gluten or any kind of food.”
Bayuk is gratified that many restaurants do go out of their way to provide options and reassurance to food-allergic patrons. But the dining-out experience, he said, can still be a minefield.
“I haven’t heard an overwhelming sigh of relief from parents,” he said of the restaurant law. “Every day, I see parents of kids with food allergies, and they still struggle with this. There’s so much more awareness at many places regardless of the state law, so I’m optimistic. But you still need to be careful.”
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
Picture of Health
Alter-Muri said that, before the work of one woman in the late 1980s, art therapy for AD was still a blank canvas.
Focusing more generally on the needs of the elderly, Elizabeth Layton and her art therapist, Robert Ault, made significant improvements in her treatment, and took the results to Washington. In 1990, after Layton spoke before Congress, art therapy became recognized as a beneficial treatment for the elderly and was appended to the Older Americans Act of 1965, meaning that facilities receiving federal funding could now budget art therapists in their staff.
“That’s when it became more widely known as a treatment for AD and dementia,” Alter-Muri said, “but people have been using art therapy in various ways for ages. It’s a non-verbal communication, and when dealing with AD, there are so many different stages. When you are holding a lot of yourself in and not able to express yourself, you need some kind of expression, and art can be that language.”
Improved communication is one example of art therapy’s contribution to a person with Alzheimer’s, she explained, and Creasia said that better dialogue can help not only the residents with whom she works, but also their family members.
“One resident’s son used to be an artist, but had stopped painting,” she said. “His mother is a resident here, and was in my class. She didn’t really paint all that much, but she started to. Her son has now come in, and he’s back into painting because his mother does. They have that link now that they didn’t before.”
Some of the projects that Creasia works on in her classes help in dealing with the residents’ memories, a fragile aspect of the mind suffering from AD.
One project she described involved a black-and-white photograph of her students’ hands, holding an object that held some value to them. In painting and coloring over the black-and-white image, the residents concentrated on an image that was close to their own history. An important aspect of art therapy, this allows the person to emphasize the abilities that they do have, and to help improve their concentration.
But working with elements of memory loss can be fraught with complications for those with Alzheimer’s, because there are so many levels of an individual’s own degenerative affliction. In art therapy, one way to further emphasize those abilities that do remain, rather than focusing on those that have been lost, is the simple act of allowing freedom of expression.
“In assisted living there is diminished personal decision-making,” said Alter-Muri. “But if you’re doing an art project, those little choices like an option between using red or blue … this empowers people. That one small choice becomes something very important. In times of immense turmoil, there is the possibility for such a small role to have much-greater repercussions.”
At Wingate, Creasia described a project that she had recently finished called “A Room With a View.”
“The residents painted on watercolor paper a scene that they would like to see out a window — could be a seascape, a landscape, that kind of thing,” she described. “Then we attached that to a backing material that looked like wallpaper, and from there they collaged furniture, flooring, things that they want to put in the room.
“It gave them choices,” she continued, “but it promoted socialization among the residents. On that and many other projects, they work with each other, interact, and provide positive feedback. It’s a really nice situation.”
Memories Are Made of This
While the work created by her students has helped to brighten the walls at Wingate, Creasia said that the Hampden Arts Guild also recognized the efforts she and her students have been making.
“They contacted us and wanted to display some of the work that we do here,” she said. “We had an opening reception for the residents, and that made it really special. Then we brought that exhibit back here and put it up in the foyer. It gave my students recognition and really made them feel good, especially when they saw their work matted, framed, and hung on the wall.”
Memories in the Making is the name of a creative-arts program started by the California chapter of the National Alzheimer’s Assoc. Both Creasia and Alter-Muri said that an exhibition at Springfield College last summer was this area’s first foray under the auspices of that organization. There was work on display from students and faculty of the college, as well as nine assisted-living facilities from the Greater Springfield area.
Memories in the Making supports the work of patients with AD, and then organizes similar exhibits in fine-art settings. Currently, the West Coast chapter prints an annual calendar showcasing the work of its artists.
In the studios at Springfield College, Alter-Muri said the field is rapidly becoming more successful among students, making this treatment an increasingly indelible mark for both patients and caregivers.
“The Alzheimer’s Assoc. is reaching out to our students,” she said. “And at this year’s American Art Therapy Assoc. meeting, one of the major speakers talked about the Memories in the Making program.
“I think you will see art therapy becoming more widely known,” she continued. “It’s an important field in that it can help so many different people in so many different ways.”
And those are words to live by.
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Advertising&MarketingFirms 2.11b
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Commercial Real Estate BW2.11b
Bill Trudeau was pointing to the spots where the treadmills, elliptical machines, and spinning bikes would go, and conjecturing on what the room would look and feel like when fully ready for occupancy.
“It’s not going to be the Y … it’s not going to be LA Fitness,” he said of the workout room still taking shape at the new headquarters for Insurance Center of New England. “But it’s going to be really nice, a big step up for us.”
Those same words would be appropriate for just about every aspect of ICNE’s new home — from the spacious conference room, decorated with modern art and equipped for videoconferencing, to the locker rooms across the hall from the gym, to the inviting front lobby — that was creatively carved out of the former Oaks banquet facility on Suffield Street in Agawam, with some 5,000 square feet left over to lease out to prospective tenants.
The company moved in last month, completing a project that had been in the works for some time, but that moved forward in earnest when the Oaks property quietly, and unofficially, went on the market early in 2010.
As Trudeau, the company’s president, explained, ICNE had been fairly content in its now-former home at 246 Park St. in West Springfield, where it had leased up to 12,000 square feet since 1987. But the company’s principals had essentially decided a few years ago that they would much rather own their space than lease.
After efforts to acquire the Park Street property were unsuccessful, the company started looking at a host of other options, said CEO Dean Florian. These actually included other leasing alternatives — space in some downtown Springfield office towers was looked at — but mostly focused on new building or renovation possibilities.
And there were not many viable options, he continued, adding that the company did consider a building lot at the end of Route 57 in Agawam. But the search essentially ended when Trudeau, Florian, and his brother, Dave, the company’s executive vice president and CFO, toured the Oaks property in early 2010 and started considering the myriad possibilities it presented.
“This building offered us a lot of flexibility,” said Dave Florian. “We had what amounted to a blank canvas we could fill in as we wanted. And working on that canvas has been a lot of fun.”
Space Exploration
Creating this broad work of art — meaning reuse of the building and adjoining five acres, including parking for several hundred cars — has been a nine-month project that has allowed ICNE executives, working in collaboration with Springfield-based Corporate Designs, architect Roy Brown, and office furniture firm the Lexington Group, to stretch their collective imaginations.
“There were literally hundreds of decisions to be made,” said Trudeau, “about where people were going to sit, which offices would go where, what colors would be used on the walls, the tiling in the bathrooms. Our designers always gave us plenty of options, and we always worked with the goal of providing an attractive environment for employees and customers.”
Outside, the company has removed the Oaks’ Greek-inspired look — complete with columns and decorative concrete lions — and put in a new entrance and new signage. Meanwhile, large stretches of asphalt have been torn up and replaced with green spaces, including a vegetable garden to be tended by employees now given one more reason to eagerly await the arrival of spring.
Inside, everything in the former kitchen area has been removed, and that section is now part of the space that will be leased out. Meanwhile, the spacious former banquet area, capable of sitting some 400 people, has been apportioned and outfitted to maximize efficiency and customer service, said Trudeau, while also providing a comfortable work area that addresses current trends in the modern workplace.
This includes everything from ergonomics and ‘green’ design elements to the colors on the walls (earth tones chosen to enhance livability and productivity) to the gym, which is in keeping with a company-wide focus on improving employee health and well-being.
Indeed, when BusinessWest last visited ICNE’s Park Street facility, it was to hear about a comprehensive initiative — now part of the culture at the company — that involved everything from smoking-cessation efforts to an organized walking program to an ever-present bowl of fruit in the company’s kitchen.
The fruit is still available in what is now a larger kitchen, the smoking-cessation program continues to draw results, and the walks still happen, except now along a more-rural stretch with fewer traffic issues. But soon, the employees will have a workout area that Trudeau says is part of a larger campaign for ICNE to essentially practice what it preaches to its clients — that good employee health promotes greater productivity and also lowers the cost of insuring a workforce.
The gym is still a work in progress, with pieces of equipment still arriving, but it is expected to be fully ready for use in a few weeks, said Trudeau, who counts himself among those who will be regular users.
And while getting into the business of operating a gym, sort of, ICNE is venturing into the real-estate sector as well, and is already marketing, in a quiet way, its available square footage.
Trudeau told BusinessWest that there are positives and negatives to being a landlord with space available at this time. The economy, while improved, is still in a recovery mode, he explained, adding that many business owners and managers are still being cautious about undertaking moves and expansions.
At the same time, though, many businesses that have been hunkering down for a years while the recession played itself out are now in a growth mode, and there is some pent-up demand for quality space. There is abundant supply for that demand, Trudeau acknowledged, adding quickly that ICNE believes it has the right product in the right place at the right time.
“There is a lot of office-space inventory on the market right now,” he acknowledged. “But this is a good location and attractive space; there are some good opportunities here.”
Room for Improvement
ICNE has slated an open house to showcase its new home on March 31.
By then, the large snowbanks now partially obscuring the view from Suffield Street will be gone or much lower in stature (one can only hope), and the gym will be fully outfitted.
There won’t be anything growing in the garden at that time, but the company didn’t want to wait until summer to show what it had done with its blank canvas, said Dave Florian, who is obviously proud of the way it’s been filled in.
“It took some imagination,” he said, looking at the building from the parking lot, “but we had plenty of that to work with.”
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
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Insurance Agencies 2.11b
Tough Sledding
After a January peppered with snowstorms — with very little of the accumulation having melted — February dawned in the Pioneer Valley with a one-two punch: another foot of snow, followed by ice. It was too much for some roofs, many of which collapsed throughout the region.
A standard homeowner’s policy pays for roof repairs or replacement if the structure caves in due to the weight of the snow and ice, and also covers the loss of any items inside the house damaged or destroyed by the collapse, said Kevin Ross, vice president of Ross Insurance Agency in Holyoke. The exception would be expensive fine arts or collectibles, which are typically covered under their own policy anyway.
But roof damage, while potentially severe when it happens, has not been the region’s top weather threat this year.
“The foremost problem this winter is the ice-dam situation,” Ross said. “That’s where ice builds up in the gutters, and as water melts on the roof, it comes down but has nowhere to go, so it leeches up into the shingles of the house.” That can cause mild to severe damage inside the home, he added, but insurance typically covers it.
Timm Marini, president of FieldEddy Insurance in East Longmeadow, said coverage trends have shifted over time; for example, interior water seepage due to an ice dam was not usually covered 15 years ago, but now it’s standard. And although insurance companies will sometimes alter their coverage patterns for financial reasons (after taking large or concentrated losses), he doesn’t expect any change in the current protection against ice dams.
“Now everyone’s worried that next year we’ll have a drastic change in policies” because of a spike in ice-dam-related claims in 2011, he noted. “I’m saying no. This is a catastrophic event for our area, and there’s going to be some relief available through the federal government. But, though policyholders might see an increase in the cost of their premiums over time, the availability of that type of coverage will not go away unless we have multiple years of this stuff.”
If a home loses power during a storm event and is rendered unlivable for any significant time, Ross said, any loss of income from a home business or rental income would be covered by a typical policy as well.
According to the PCI, the various impacts of storm-related power outages are handled in different ways. For example, loss of refrigerated food caused by a power failure that originates away from the residence is generally not covered. However, the homeowner’s policy may reimburse an individual for additional living expenses — such as temporary housing, restaurant meals, overnight parking, and laundry services — when the property is determined to be uninhabitable due to damage or loss of power.
Out of Luck
So, what’s not covered when it comes to weather damage?
For one thing, the PCI reports, damage to trees, shrubbery, and other plants during a storm is not covered under a standard policy. If a tree or branch falls but doesn’t damage any structure, there’s usually no coverage for removing the tree or branch.
More serious is the potential for thickly accumulated snow to thaw quickly and seep into the basement. The agency executives we spoke to agreed this is not covered — even if the homeowner has purchased separate flood insurance, which applies to a widespread event, not a single home.
“A flood is defined as, you’re underwater, and your neighborhood is underwater; it’s not just water that runs into your basement,” Ross said.
And when it comes to wind and rain damage, a little common sense comes into play, too, Grinnell said. “If a windstorm comes and strips the shingles off, what comes in the house is covered. On the other hand, if a storm comes blowing through an open window, that damage would not be covered.”
And as the spring thaw turns into summer, Ross said, homeowners would be well-advised to take the lessons of the past two months and inspect their homes for any needed repairs before the next harsh winter.
“I strongly encourage everyone to make sure their gutters are working properly and directing water away from the foundations,” he said. “It’s a very small fix, but it can save you a lot of heartache.”
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
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In today’s tough economy, every dollar counts. But many businesses lose out on thousands of dollars in tax savings every year by failing to claim tax credits to which they’re entitled.
For 2010 and 2011, two credits are available for employers who hire eligible employees. The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act of March 2010 offers payroll tax breaks for employers that hire unemployed workers, plus additional credits for qualified workers they retain for at least 52 consecutive weeks. This article looks at the HIRE credit and examines whether this benefit is more advantageous than the often-overlooked Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC).
Back in March, health care reform grabbed most of the headlines, but it wasn’t the only legislation enacted that month. About a week earlier, President Obama signed the HIRE Act. An employee qualifies for payroll-tax breaks if he or she:
• Starts work after Feb. 3, 2010, and before Jan. 1, 2011;
• Wasn’t employed for more than 40 hours during the 60-day period before the start date (and signs an affidavit to that effect);
• Doesn’t replace an existing employee (except one who quits voluntarily or is fired for cause); and
• Isn’t related to the employer or to an individual who owns more than 50% of the business.
Qualified employees include previously laid-off workers that you rehire, provided they meet the above requirements. Employment can be full-time or part-time, but the more hours a qualified employee works, the greater the benefits.
If you hire qualified employees, you’re exempt from the 6.2% Social Security portion of Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes on wages you pay them for work performed after the HIRE act was enacted (March 18, 2010) through the end of 2010. Based on the current Social Security taxable wage base of $106,800, the maximum tax benefit is $6,622 per qualified employee.
For each employee qualifying for the payroll tax break whom you keep on the payroll for at least 52 consecutive weeks, you’re entitled to a tax credit of up to $1,000 on your 2011 income-tax return. To qualify for the credit, an employee’s wages for the second half of the 52-week period must be at least 80% of his or her wages for the first half of the period. Even if a new hire leaves voluntarily before 52 consecutive weeks are up, no retention credit is received for that hire.
To prevent employers from claiming the full $1,000 credit for employees who do minimal part-time work, the amount of the credit is the lesser of $1,000 or 6.2% of a qualified employee’s wages during the 52-week period. Put another way, new hires who earn more than $16,129 during that period qualify for the full $1,000 credit.
Now let’s look at the rules for the WOTC, which is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in federal tax liability — ranging from $1,200 to $9,000 per new hire — for companies that hire people from disadvantaged groups, including certain youth, public-assistance recipients, and veterans.
The credit’s requirements are detailed and specific. Generally, new hires who belong to one of these groups qualify:
• Short- and long-term recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits;
• Veterans who are disabled or unemployed, or receive food stamps;
• Ex-felons hired within one year after conviction or release from prison;
• Individuals age 18 to 39 who live in empowerment zones, enterprise communities, or renewal communities (‘designated communities’);
• Disabled individuals referred after completion of a qualified vocational rehabilitation program;
• Summer youth employees age 16 or 17 who live in designated communities and work at least 90 days between May 1 and Sept. 15;
• Individuals age 18 to 39 who receive food stamps;
• Individuals receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits; and
• ‘Disconnected youths’ ages 16 to 24 who aren’t in school, employed, or readily employable due to a lack of basic skills.
Each target group is subject to specific requirements, so it’s important to do your homework to see whether any of your new hires qualify.
Generally, the credit reduces the employer’s wage deduction dollar-for-dollar. The reduction is required even if you can’t take the full amount of the credit in the current year and must carry it back or forward.
For long-term TANF recipients, the maximum credit is 40% of first-year wages up to $10,000 (a $4,000 credit), plus 50% of second-year wages up to $10,000 (a $5,000 credit, so there’s a maximum credit of $9,000 over a two-year period). Formerly known as the welfare-to-work credit, this credit was combined with the WOTC a few years ago.
The maximum WOTC is available for employees who work 400 hours or more during their first year of employment. A partial credit equal to 25% of qualifying wages is available for those who work between 120 and 399 hours.
To obtain the WOTC, you first need to complete and file various federal forms when hiring a qualifying employee. Once the employee has worked the required number of hours, you can claim the credit on your company’s next income-tax return. You also may be eligible for state credits or other incentives. Your tax advisor can help guide you through the process. Although it’s complicated, the tax savings can be well worth the effort.
Wages you pay to a worker who qualifies for the HIRE Act’s payroll-tax exemption don’t qualify for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit unless you elect not to claim the payroll-tax exemption. So it’s important to select the tax break that provides the greater benefit.
For some new employees, the WOTC will provide a greater benefit than the HIRE act’s payroll-tax exemption. Suppose, for example, that you hire a new employee on July 1, 2010, at an annual salary of $50,000, and the employee qualifies for both tax breaks. The payroll tax exemption would provide tax savings of $25,000 × 6.2%, or $1,550. In this case, you’d be better off opting out and claiming the $2,400 WOTC.
Kristina Drzal-Houghton, CPA MST is the partner in charge of Taxation at Holyoke-based Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.: (413) 536-8510.
College used to be a time to prepare for the work world. These days, the lines between the two have been blurred, with work experience becoming a more prominent part of one’s education.
And those who graduate without that experience are finding themselves at risk to a greater degree than ever before.
“It’s become more competitive,” said Deborah Pace, director for Employer Relations at Western New England College, “and if an employer looks at a student with a business background who interned for a semester or two, and then one who didn’t, and they both interview well and present themselves well, more than likely they’re going to hire the student who did the internship.”
Internships are nothing new, but they’re an especially hot topic today, as a still-tight job market has allowed employers to be choosier with applicants, and they’re increasingly focusing on the volume and quality of work experience a college student has amassed before donning that cap and gown.
“Multiple internships are becoming very important now,” said Nicholas Wegman, executive director of the Chase Career Center at UMass Amherst. “It used to be that having an internship would get you an edge; now, it’s almost assumed that business students will have an internship, and the buzzword is multiple internships.
“There are lots of opportunities for experiential learning — doing a project for a small business or going out to a manufacturing site or a distribution center, or doing Web-based projects, interactive marketing, or social-media marketing,” he added. “These are things you can reference on your résumé and that give you something positive to say in an interview.”
Most observers of the employment landscape say things are looking up for the class of 2011, at least compared to the past two years. But progress in the marketplace has been gradual, and the recession has in some ways forged a new reality: yes, jobs might be available for new graduates, but the days of taking them for granted are, at least for now, a thing of the past.
First, the good news: even amid the persistent stagnancy of the job market, this year’s college graduates seem to have more options than last spring’s crop. According to the Job Outlook 2011 survey conducted by the National Assoc. of Colleges and Employers (NACE) last fall, companies anticipate hiring 13.5% more new college graduates from the class of 2011 than they hired from the class of 2010.
However, the improved expectations are not across the board; in fact, only 48% of responding employers expect to increase hiring at all. Meanwhile, 40% plan to maintain last year’s pace of hiring new graduates, and 12% anticipate reducing hiring among this age group. The odds of landing a job vary by region of the U.S., too; according to NACE, Pace pointed out, the Midwest promises to be more fertile ground than the Northeast when it comes to hiring graduates.
Looking Up
The Chase Career Center, as a department of the Eisenberg School of Management at UMass, serves about 3,400 undergraduate students in various business fields, from accounting and finance to management and marketing, so Wegman has the pulse of a variety of fields — and he likes what he hears.
“The indications I have are that the market is going to be a little better than it was last year, and certainly much better than it was the year before that,” he told BusinessWest. But there’s a caveat, one that can be frustrating for students anxious to line up jobs for the spring.
“I think the market is developing a little later,” he said, explaining that, in the past, recruiters would descend upon campus early each school year, in the fall, because competition for top students was high, and they wanted to get offers out as soon as possible. Now, companies are waiting until the spring, in many cases, because they don’t want to commit to new staff seven or eight months out, with their own balance sheets in flux due to an uncertain economy.
“When so many offers were made in the fall,” Wegman continued, “there was an expectation — even a little subtle pressure — for those students to commit. Their parents liked it, and the companies liked it. Now, they’re cycling back and making job offers more closely aligned to their market situation. They’re not as anxious to make offers in the fall.”
Pace — who regularly tracks information from NACE, and has also been involved in many job fairs, including last fall’s regional College 2 Career Expo — sees a mixed picture for graduates.
“We had about 50 employers [at the expo], and they were looking for students with all backgrounds — arts and sciences, business and engineering majors. And jobs are still available. But in the Knowledge Corridor, we’ve seen some decreases.”
She pointed to population growth in Massachusetts that has trailed behind other states, and anecdotal evidence, such as fewer companies participating in local chamber of commerce breakfasts, as signs that graduates may have to set their sights on other regions of the country where business is expanding more rapidly. But some fields remain strong in Massachusetts. She told of an accounting student who began doing projects for a local firm before graduation, and recently received an attractive job offer.
“They weren’t going to let him get away,” Pace said. “If you have an accounting or financial background, a good GPA, and excellent interviewing skills, they’re going to scoop you right up. Those graduates are still in high demand.”
Test Drive
But in that case and so many others, gaining real-world experience is key — moreso, perhaps, than ever before, White said, as employers seek to test-drive potential employees before making a commitment. Of course, internships also benefit companies in the short term.
“Many have some projects that need to be completed,” she noted, “but they don’t have funds in the budget to hire someone, so they’re seeking out college students to help fill that gap.
“I’ve seen a real increase in students seeking out internship opportunities,” she added. “More and more employers have been requesting interns than in the past. Given our population [at a two-year college], the majority of students are either working or need to work, and they’re receptive to the idea. I’ve had more and more students coming through who want to find internships, just to have that competitive edge, something on the résumé. They clearly understand the level of competition right now, and they’re doing what it takes to get experience.”
Pace agreed that internships have become more prominent over the past three years or so. “Definitely, employers would like to see internships on students’ résumés, and then be able to talk about that experience,” she told BusinessWest.
And for most students, she noted, getting that sort of experience shouldn’t be too difficult. “There are more than enough employers in the region for students to do internships.”
Given the opportunities available, Wegman says today’s business students are encouraged to start building a portfolio of these work-related experiences, transferable skills, and leadership roles starting freshman year — and they’re arriving on campus willing to do just that.
“We are finding that students are more invested, more interested” in their long-term outlook, he said, and parental encouragement to set career goals early and work hard to reach them seems to be a factor.
“They’re thinking about internships earlier, understanding some of the language of corporate America earlier, interacting with recruiters and companies earlier,” Wegman added. “They know they have to do that; it’s not such a big surprise to them anymore. And we’re trying to get our students involved with corporate recruiters and business representatives, and into internships, from their freshman and sophomore years.”
Attitude Adjustment
Considering the challenges they’re facing in a somewhat reordered economy, Pace was frank about the fact that many Millennials, the generation that includes the class of 2011, need an attitude adjustment before entering the work world, having grown up hearing stories of Silicon Valley employees kicking back at work in pajamas and slippers.
“Most industries aren’t like that,” she laughed. “Companies expect you to show up on time, fully clothed with a nice suit, with a service-minded attitude.”
What does that have to do with graduates’ employment outlook? Simply put, perceptions of this generation as entitled and transitory — earned or not — could be suppressing the number of entry-level jobs available to them.
“Some companies are hiring older people because they know they come to work on time and respect the workplace,” Pace said. “They know younger people take a job for a year and leave — they job-hop; they don’t want the onus of staying on a job for at least five years. That creates problems for employers, who need to spend money recruiting and then retrain and acclimate a new employee to the company.”
That presents opportunities for applicants who are able to project the right combination of maturity and experience, regardless of their age, and often community-college students fit that mold, STCC’s White said.
“We think our students are really qualified and able to compete for a lot of opportunities with people at four-year colleges,” she argued. “Employers know that these students are just as able to compete one-on-one with other students at four-year schools.”
For graduates with an adventurous streak, Pace said, the world of entrepreneurship holds promise, although their path carries more risk. Western Mass. has long boasted a strong tradition of business startups, and uncertainty in the employment market may be persuading some to create their own jobs.
“Here at Western New England College, that’s built into the curriculum — doing a business plan,” she said. “A lot of students say they want to get a business degree, then start their own business after they graduate, especially if the startup costs are low.”
But that general feeling of uncertainty in the job market may be lifting just a bit. Wegman has noticed a little more restlessness in his school’s graduate students after a few years in which workers not satisfied with their careers have often been unwilling to make a move and sacrifice their current job security.
“My sense now is that, after several years of being static, people are re-energized about making a change of company, or retool and move up, as opposed to the sense that, ‘this is a good job; I should stay focused on this.’”
And so the employment cycle continues — upward, by most accounts. But just in case, it wouldn’t hurt to pad that résumé a little more.
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
Bruce M. Fogel is a partner with Bacon Wilson, P.C./Morse & Sacks in Northampton. He is a member of the firm’s estate-planning, elder, real-estate, and business departments. He has extensive experience in matters relating to income, gift, and estate taxes, and he focuses on the tax implications of all legal transactions. He can also be heard on the radio show Taxes and Assets; (413) 584-1287; [email protected]
Amy B. Royal, Esq. and Benjamin A. Bristol, Esq. specialize exclusively in management-side labor and employment law at Royal LLP, a woman-owned, boutique, management-side labor- and employment-law firm; (413) 586-2288; [email protected]
Attorney Carol Cioe Klyman is a shareholder with Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., Springfield, Northampton, and Albany, N.Y. Her practice concentrates in the areas of elder law, estate and special-needs planning, estate administration, and trusts and estates litigation. She is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estates Counsel and immediate past president of the Hampden County Estate Planning Council; (413) 737-1131.
Melissa R. Gillis, Esq. is an associate with Bacon Wilson, P.C. in the special-education, family, and real-estate departments; (413) 781-0560; [email protected]. Dennis G. Egan Jr. is an associate with Bacon Wilson, P.C, concentrating in special-education, business, and corporate law; (413) 781-0560; [email protected]
Sean Wandrei is manager of the Tax Department at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. His technical concentrations are in multi-state taxation as well as real-estate entities; (413) 536-8510.
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Steeling for Change
Indeed, many materials costs are beginning to rise — a good sign for the industry in the long term, but one that could pinch already-stressed builders right now, as bid prices remain flat for the time being (see related story, page 26).
Specifically, November saw significant jumps in prices for diesel fuel and copper — two key resources in construction — while weak demand for construction forced them to hold down bid prices despite the cost increases, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.
These price jumps “could be the last straw for some hard-pressed contractors,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist, in his monthly report. “With unemployment in construction running at 18.8% — double the all-industry average — any more business failures will only add to the industry’s misery.”
Then in December, prices for materials used in construction jumped 0.9% (and 5.4% for all of 2010), while price indexes for finished buildings remained flat over both time periods. Construction costs also outstripped the producer price index for finished goods, which rose 0.6% in December and 4% in 2010.
Simonson noted that prices soared at double-digit rates over the year for four key construction materials. Diesel fuel prices climbed 2.3% in December and 28% in 2010; steel-mill product prices rose 0.5% and 12.5%, respectively; copper and brass mill shape prices were up 1.3% and 12%; and prices for aluminum mill shapes rose 12% over the year, despite a 0.2% dip in December.
“Structural steel is a big-time barometer of what’s going on, and it has started to creep up in the last month,” Fontaine said. “It’s an indicator that manufacturers and suppliers can only provide a product for so long at costs that don’t make any sense. It’s changing direction, and it has to; we’ve had two years of people just giving things away. And when steel starts to climb, a lot of things follow it.”
For contractors, there is worse news to come, said Simonson, noting that, since the latest data was compiled, suppliers have announced further price increases for copper, steel, and diesel fuel. “With contractors unable to pass along the increases in the price of finished buildings, many firms could be pushed out of business,” he said.
Even as material prices rise, weak demand for construction, combined with intense competition for work, is forcing contractors to hold the line on bid prices, Simonson observed. The producer price index for new office construction actually dropped 0.8% for the year. The index for new industrial buildings was up 0.4% in 2010; for new warehouses, it rose 0.4%; and for new schools, it was up 1.3% for the year.
Other items that contributed to the December climb in material costs included lumber and plywood, architectural coatings, paint, brick and structural clay tile, and gypsum products. Prices have remained fairly stable nationally for asphalt paving mixtures and blocks, concrete products, and insulation materials, according to the association.
“Contractors have been unable to recoup these costs in what they charge,” Simonson added. “Indexes for new office, school, warehouse, and industrial buildings were virtually unchanged … over 12 months. Prices charged by concrete, roofing, electrical, and plumbing contractors showed very small movements in either direction.”
Contractors are likely to be squeezed by rising material costs and flat prices for completed projects for the foreseeable future, Simonson predicted. He forecasted that contractors would experience periods of simultaneous price spikes in multiple materials in 2011 as the U.S. and foreign economies pick up speed.
“Unfortunately,” Simonson said, “demand for construction will be erratic for months to come, worsening the price pinch that has already devastated too many firms and their workers.”
Doing What’s Necessary
In the meantime, builders and subcontractors alike continue to bear the squeeze in order to keep working, and low winning bids remain the order of the day, continuing a period of opportunities for businesses willing to invest in additions and renovations.
“The subcontractors seem to be extremely hungry, as far as doing what’s necessary to keep surviving in this market,” Wood said. “Many are more than willing to travel outside their comfort zone — from Eastern Mass., Connecticut, and the Albany area, they’re coming to the Valley.
“Contractors in the private sector have the ability to pick and choose their subcontractors, but you still want to pick the most reliable as well as the most cost-effective ones,” he continued. “We do our best to see the local subcontractors working instead of just taking the lowest bid — and the locals are giving us competitive bids, so they’re not getting shut out of the marketplace.”
Yet, with costs on the rise, the squeeze continues. The question is, when will more companies take advantage?
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
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When asked to describe the current state of the construction sector, Five Star Construction owner Kevin Perrier said simply, “it stinks.”
Although he went on to assess the industry in more specific terms, Perrier’s two-word assessment of this state of affairs is something everyone agrees upon. The recession has taken its toll on many industries, but with so much of the construction sector dependent on better economic footings, 2010 wasn’t a year for a solid rebound. And while Wall Street and Main Street both are feeling some measure of progressive economic activity, that doesn’t yet translate to a rosy outlook for builders in 2011.
The latest reports from industry analysts at Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) don’t offer much in the way of better news than what contractors can see for themselves — that private construction slipped even further in the last months of 2010. The ABC’s chief economist, Anirban Basu, put a finer point on the bad news by compiling a list of no less than 10 “headwinds” he predicts will further impact the sector’s economy for the current year, including industry unemployment, increased commodities pricing, and the end of stimulus funds conspiring to bring about what he ominously called “phase two of the economic downturn.”
But while the outlook isn’t good, the builders who spoke to BusinessWest offered some hope that the techniques that have kept hammers ringing, even if the phones aren’t, will continue to be sound strategies to keep their businesses above water in 2011.
MaryBeth Bergeron, owner of Charista Construction in East Longmeadow, said that, having weathered other recessions, she has a good grip on imminent changes in the industry. “When this recession started, you intuitively knew business was slowing down and softening,” she said. “I’ve been in business 25 years, and after that much time, you recognize it.”
For some, 2010 meant a continuation of the operating strategy that they had begun using in 2009 — tightening the labor rolls to get lean and mean, and trimming as much as they could from the margins to be competitive while still keeping their trucks on site.
Hammer Time
At Triple S Construction in Wilbra-ham, Tom Silva — one of those three S’s with his brother and father — said that his company opened shop in the midst of a recession in 1987. “We were just coming of age then,” he said. “It didn’t hit us as hard as this one.”
A residential remodeling and construction firm, Silva said that this facet of the industry has not recovered from the burst bubble of the recent past.
“Last year started out better than it ended,” he said. “I think homeowners were feeling a little bit better about the economy. But then things didn’t get better, in many people’s eyes. In November and December the phone stopped ringing. Right about now people are usually calling to get ready for springtime, to get estimates. But we’re not seeing that. I was at a homebuilders’ meeting last night, and I heard the same things.”
For third-generation Springfield builder John Vadnais, owner of the construction company that bears his name, the residential construction sector has basically turned away altogether from new building toward remodeling, making that already-competitive sector even tighter. He pronounced this era “a distressed state of affairs in an inflationary environment.”
Kitchen and bath rebuilds are the new norm, he added, as customers look for the most impact on the shortest price tag. People are still spending money, he said, “But there is a micromanagement to see the project thoroughly.
“This is one of the deepest recessions I’ve seen, or that I can remember as a kid,” he continued. “Today, it is so deep that people are having a hard time getting out of the negativity.”
Perrier echoed that sentiment, and added that, in order for him to stay competitive last year, margins became increasingly tighter.
“In 2010 it became apparent quickly that, if you wanted to be a player in getting projects, and to get a decent workload, you were going to be bidding at a much lower percentage,” he said.
The danger there, he continued, isn’t just in that one job, for that one builder. He called it the “snowball effect.”
“Because if you’re not low on the first job, the next time, you’re going to go a little lower, and then the person behind you goes a little lower,” he explained. “That trend continues, and by the end of last year you were seeing that in order to pick up jobs, your bid was incredibly competitive.
“It’s going to take a while to get away from that, also,” he added. “You’re not going to see people putting healthy margins on their bids for a while now. It slowly has to creep back up.”
Perrier said that his firm kept enough projects on the books to make sure that his employees were busy, and that trend will continue into this year. “Yes, it is good news that we have a good book of work,” he said, “but unfortunately we’re having to meet our budget by volume. And that’s tough on everyone. The staff is working twice as hard.”
Steve Killian, executive vice president for the Springfield branch office of construction management firm Barr & Barr, said 2010 was “not a pretty year.”
The firm handles multi-million-dollar construction for higher education, health care, and other industries with the pockets to finance $30 million projects. But budget shortfalls and low returns on stock portfolios caused many of those clients to back off or postpone significant capital improvements.
However, he tempered those dim reflections with a more positive outlook. “I believe that some of these capital projects are going to have to be built — either for life-cycle concerns of buildings, or for institutions to stay competitive,” he said. “They just have to pull the trigger.”
With pre-construction times in his echelon of the industry taking anywhere from three months to upwards of a year, he hopes that an uptick in business in the third quarter of 2010 bodes well for large projects in the months to come.
But even with the forecast of high-value and overdue projects, the construction sector faces some challenges from increased materials costs (see related story, page 30). And when construction management projects need to be estimated over a period of several months of volatile pricing, that can get tricky.
“Copper costs are rising,” said Killian, “and that will affect prices in the near future. Anything starting in the next three to six months will reflect the rise in that price.” With copper for electrical and plumbing needs — two services typically responsible for 30% to 40% of a project’s cost — that will significantly impact the price of building.
Labor rates have been flat for the construction sector, he said, adding, “normally, labor is the greater portion of costs, so it is a bit of an equalizer, but in this industry, people need to be able to hold their pricing for more than one year because of your bid. When you’ve tied into a project 18 to 24 months down the road, you pray that your suppliers hold to their numbers for that duration.”
In order to get this industry moving again, he said, a holistic approach to the economy is necessary and vital to plan on better times for construction. “The housing crisis still hurts us, significantly,” he said.
“There has to be more confidence there,” he continued. “And we need to see increased commercial lending for developers. Investors are looking far more critically at all projects to see if there will be a profit. And that’s something that has held them back. They’ve said they are hanging back, waiting for the promise of a good return. Private investment, people with that volume of money to lend, they just aren’t pulling the trigger.”
Planning Department
Killian said that there are no secret techniques, really, in how a firm like Barr & Barr gets through an economy like this. “A lot of it is keeping your overhead costs low,” he explained, “and watching the bottom line. The margins are tighter, so there’s no excess anywhere — from the office to the field.”
For some, though, the recession has led to internal reassessment of their core strengths. Bergeron said that, when she saw the economy taking a turn for the worst, she asked herself, “where do I want my company to be during those times?
“With some work,” she continued, “I knew we could position ourselves to be where business is best. And so, over the last couple of years, what we have been doing is government-funded work, meaning housing-allowance programs — like Springfield neighborhood housing services, West Springfield community development, and a number of other nonprofit developers of real estate.
“Sure, just as before, we hustle, and we really go after the work,” she continued. “We try to be where the business is. If you don’t have your eyes open as a business owner, you’re not prepared.”
There is a strong market for a builder to take advantage of the changing demographics of building projects, she added, saying, “I do think there is a lot of opportunity right now with Baby Boomers retiring. ADA compliance, ramps, grab bars, all of those things are important.”
Dietz sees this recession redefining his operation through a series of techniques to trim excess off his costs, but also as a means to streamline his operation for the future. He said that Dietz Construction owns its own gravel pit, a number of specialized pieces of machinery, and various other core investments, all to keep his bid low in a highly competitive marketplace.
“For companies that don’t have as big a foundation as we do,” he said, “I don’t see how they can be competitive.”
But rather than continued investment in the latest big-ticket construction equipment, Dietz said, “We have learned to subcontract things more cost-effectively than it might be to do it ourselves. For instance, maybe getting someone who specializes in setting curbs, getting them for the handful of days that we would need them, and not worry about a workforce trained for it. There are times when it is more beneficial to outsource.”
Such tactics not only help him get through the current economy, but are a way to increase profitability in the future.
For Perrier, that future he sees is now. He said he’s confident in his crew to have projects for the year ahead, but he isn’t one to sit back idly. “We made some changes in being more aggressive in finding work.
“Where a lot people are laying off, we hired a director of project management,” he said. “His sole job is to go out and network, market our company, and meet with architects to get our name out there. So far, that’s been working out very well.
“We took a gamble and tried to take advantage of the downturn,” he continued. “It’s a roll of the dice, but while everyone is quieting down, we said ‘let’s get out there, tell people who we are and what we can do.’”
In an unforgiving economy, and for an industry, he said, where one is always just a job away from being out of work, it’s more important than ever for builders to have the right tools for the job.
Many developers have a vision of what they want to build on a piece of property. But bringing that dream to reality, be it residential housing, a school, a park, retail space, or a bank, is a complex undertaking.
It all begins with the land and what it can accommodate. And that’s one of the reasons Berkshire Design Group, or BDG, as it’s known, stands out in a field of competitors. The group, which has an impressive and diverse portfolio of award-winning projects, was founded by landscape architects Peter Wells and Richard Klein. They have done many feasibility studies to insure that tracts are suitable for proposed projects.
It’s a step that some developers skip, which can prove costly in the end.
“We analyze sites to make sure they can accommodate what the developer wants to do on them, and isn’t always possible,” Wells said.
He explained that, if a bank is proposed for a site, the property should be evaluated for zoning and traffic requirements. If the client wants a drive-through, it triggers additional concerns, including where it will exit to the street. There are also requirements that must be met to accommodate the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition, wetlands and rare species as well as topographical constraints play a role in determining the cost and feasibility of a project.
“Our training is in landscape architecture, and we strive to protect the land while still allowing development to continue,” said Wells. “We work with the topography, not against it. For example, if a site has varied topography, the road that runs along it will be built to blend in with the landscape.”
The firm’s portfolio is filled with a number of diverse projects. “One of the things that makes us different is that we don’t specialize in any one type of development. We have done everything you can imagine, from master planning for schools and campuses to state parks, shopping centers, malls, and all types of housing developments,” said Klein. “It is unusual for a firm to have experience with so many different types of projects.”
Another benefit, which has helped make BDG the largest and most well-known firm of its type in Western Mass., is that it offers one-stop shopping. Its services include landscape architecture, civil engineering, surveying, zoning and permitting, bidding, and overseeing construction. One of the partners handles every project from start to finish.
The firm opened 27 years ago with Wells and Klein, but since then Mark Darnold and Mark Lindhult have joined them, adding to their ability to oversee large projects. And although the principals could have grown the venture by taking on more project managers, thus relinquishing direct control of some projects, Wells and Klein decided to maintain a hands-on approach and have kept that promise.
“It means that our clients get someone with more than 30 years of experience who is a professional and can see things that a younger staff person may not see,” Klein said.
Ground Level
BDG has been feted with a continual stream of awards over the years, including several for the Rocky Hill Cohousing project in Northampton.
“This was a very sustainable and green project with regards to the site development and stormwater management,” said Wells. “Plus, we created a tremendous amount of open space.”
The company’s most recent award came from AIA New York for two dormitories at Amherst College. “The buildings were done using sustainable practices with an eye toward the traditional classic architecture that is the hallmark of Amherst College,” said Klein. “The design was aesthetically pleasing and functionally exceptional in every facet of the building; we have always strived to be as green as possible even when green wasn’t in fashion.”
The firm cares deeply about its clients’ success, he continued, because the principals believe it reflects back on them. And that has a lot to do with how each building, as well as the overall property, looks when it is finished.
“We want to build projects that people like, will use, and that meet the goals for sustainability,” Klein said, adding that the company has completed many LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects. At present, BDG is engaged in a Living Building Challenge as it plans for the construction of an environment classroom at Smith College.
The concept of Living Building Challenges is based on making decisions by addressing environmental, social, and economic problems that can arise, such as habitat loss and the lack of community distinctiveness.
Wells said the principals’ concern for the land goes back to their identity.
“We use sustainable principles in all of our projects,” he explained. “We have evolved over the years, as we started out as landscape architects and added other disciplines. We look at land differently than other professionals, which allows us to guide our clients more holistically and efficiently; if a building looks good and is in character with its surroundings instead of looking like it was forced on the land, it is usually more profitable.”
Decades of experience gives BDG a decided advantage over its competitors. “We can look at and envision opportunities and constraints on a piece of property as well as the permitting hurdles,” Klein explained. “There may be traffic issues, poor soil, or a site may be too steep for various types of development.”
BDG recently conducted a study on a tract of land for a proposed school. “We found it had topographical constraints. It sloped too much to develop any playing fields. If they had used it for that purpose, their budget would have had to increase, and it could have become quite costly,” Klein said, as he sat in the company’s Northampton office in a room covered with mockup boards in all stages of completion. “Because of our depth of knowledge, we are able to inform clients quickly about additional costs during construction.”
Klein said the company’s A-to-Z approach is one of the keys to its success.
“We are able to take a blank piece of land and do a feasibility study on it to see what it can carry in terms of capacity,” he explained. “After that is determined, we do a preliminary design and get all of the permitting approved, then do the construction documents. We bid the project for developers, and we oversee the construction.” BDG can also illustrate a design proposal before ground is broken by employing computer-generated models and animation.
Step by Step
The permitting process is typically complex and takes many months to complete. “We know the regulations. We also have good working relationships with many board members in the surrounding cities and towns in the Commonwealth,” Wells said.
Right now, the company is in the process of developing several of the largest projects in Western Mass., including the $42 million master plan for Three County Fairgrounds in Northampton and the Colvest Group’s $25 million Chicopee Crossing, which is under construction and will include a hotel, retail shops, and restaurants.
Other projects include the new Easthampton High School and two housing developments in that community — an apartment complex with 50 units in an old mill building on Cottage Street, and Parsons Village, a 38-unit affordable-housing development on four and a half acres. Construction on the village is expected to begin in 2012.
BDG also conducted all of the site work and design for the housing at the former Northampton State Hospital, which includes townhouses, single-family, and multi-family rental units. In addition, BDG is on the team working to redevelop the Indian Motorcyle Apartments at Mason Square in Springfield.
“And we are in the permitting process for Northampton’s newest park, which will be built on 30 acres in Florence,” said Wells. Recent work also includes completion of the new $40 million pharmacy building at Western New England College.
Their company’s client list contains a substantial number of repeat customers who like the fact that they don’t have to hire a number of consultants to get the job done.
“Our process is cost-effective and streamlined so there is less chance of scheduling conflicts or mistakes,” Wells explained. “For instance, a developer could go to four firms who would have to coordinate to complete a project. But we can do it all under one roof. And because we are in Western Mass., our focus is here in the Pioneer Valley.
“We know the area, know the local contractors, and know the local bidding processes, as we do a lot of it and have strong relationships with general contractors,” he continued, adding that he and Klein visit their sites often, which insures that things move along smoothly.
Their expertise and reputation has allowed them to develop a broad customer base which reaches to distant shores, including Taiwan, Puerto Rico, New York, Los Angeles, and Atlantic City.
But their real focus is the Pioneer Valley, where they approach projects in a way that shows respect for the environment. And that respect for the land bodes well for the future — both for BDG and for its clients.
If your business is in financial trouble, it may be tempting to consider filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. There may be many potential benefits: it puts at least a temporary stop to creditor collection efforts, it provides a venue in which to reduce a company’s debts, and it may create the vehicle from which to emerge from bankruptcy as a leaner, stronger company.
Attorney Steven Weiss is a partner with Springfield-based Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin. He concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial and consumer bankruptcy, reorganization, and litigation. Weiss supervises the firm’s bankruptcy, reorganization, and workout practice; represents creditors, debtors, and others in both commercial and consumer bankruptcy cases throughout Massachusetts; and has been a member of the private panel of Chapter 7 Trustees for the District of Massachusetts since 1987, and also serves as a Chapter 11 trustee; (413) 737-1131.
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the 2010 Tax Relief Act) was signed into law Dec. 17, 2010, avoiding what would have been one of the largest tax increases in history if Congress and the president had not compromised.
Individual Income Tax Rates
The sunsetting of the tax cuts would have resulted in tax rates of 15%, 28%, 31%, 36%, and 39.6%. Under the 2010 Tax Relief Act, individual income-tax rates will remain at the current levels for 2010 and 2011: 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, and 35%.
Capital Gains/Qualified Dividends
The maximum rate of 15% for long-term capital gains and qualified dividends have also been extended through 2012. Taxpayers in the 10% and 15% tax brackets continue to pay 0% on this income. Had this provision been permitted to expire, the maximum rate of tax would have been 20% on long-term capital gains, 39.6% on qualified dividends.
Itemized Deduction and
Personal Exemption Limitations
Higher-income individuals would again have found their itemized deductions and personal exemptions reduced. Under the 2010 Tax Relief Act, higher-income taxpayers will receive benefit of the full deduction through 2012.
Marriage Penalty Relief
This refers only to the tax penalty. The expiring tax provisions provided that the standard deduction and the 15% tax bracket for married couples filing jointly were double that of a single filer. This is extended through 2012.
Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
The 2010 Tax Relief Act includes an AMT patch for 2010 and 2011. The patch provides increased exemption amounts to avoid impacting many middle-class taxpayers.
Charitable Incentives
The Tax Relief Act extends several charitable incentives, including tax-free distributions from IRAs to charitable organizations.
Individual Tax Credits
The act extends various credits through 2012, including the $1,000 child tax credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit for higher education expenses.
Individual Tax Extenders
Expiring at the end of 2009, the following were extended for 2010 and 2011: state and local sales-tax deduction, higher-education tuition deduction, and teacher’s classroom-expense deduction.
Payroll Tax Cut
For 2011 only, the employee portion of the Social Security tax is reduced from 6.2% to 4.2%. The self-employment tax rate is also reduced by 2%. In 2009 and 2010, the Making Work Pay credit provided a $400 credit to single filers and $800 to taxpayers filing jointly, subject to phaseout for higher-income taxpayers. This new payroll tax ‘holiday’ has no income limitation. Therefore, jointly filing taxpayers who make more than $40,000 will receive more under the new holiday, while those public employees who do not pay into Social Security will not receive any benefit.
Section 179 Expensing
Under Section 179, a business meeting certain limits can currently expense the cost of asset purchases. The 2010 Small Business Jobs Act increased the expense limit to $500,000 for businesses with maximum investment for the year of $2 million for 2010 and 2011. The 2010 Tax Relief Act provides for a 2012 limit of $125,000 for businesses with a maximum investment of $500,000, indexed for inflation. Setting the 2012 limit now may permit businesses to budget capital improvements.
Bonus Depreciation
Under the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act, businesses could claim 50% bonus depreciation on qualified assets. Under the Tax Relief Act, bonus depreciation is increased to 100% for qualifying assets placed in service between Sept. 9, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2011. For assets placed in service during 2012, 50% bonus depreciation will apply. While 100% bonus depreciation sounds like Section 179 expensing, bonus depreciation is not subject to limitations for businesses that make large capital-asset purchases and is not subject to the Section 179 income limitations. Unlike Section 179 expensing, bonus depreciation can create or increase a net operating loss. On the other hand, many states do not allow bonus depreciation, but do allow Section 179 if claimed on the federal return.
Tax Credits
Several credits were extended, including the research credit that had expired at the end of 2009, as well as various energy credits.
Estate and GST Taxes
The 2001 tax cut phased out the estate and generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes so that they were fully repealed in 2010. In 2009, there was a $3.5 million estate/GST tax exemption and a 45% estate-tax rate. In 2010, in lieu of estate taxes, a modified carryover basis would apply to assets owned by a decedent. In 2011, the estate/GST tax was scheduled to return with a $1 million exemption and estate tax rates up to 60%.
The 2010 Tax Relief Act reinstates the estate tax for decedents dying after Dec. 31, 2009, but with a $5 million exemption and a 35% estate tax rate. Estates of decedents dying in 2010 have the option to elect either the new estate tax or the modified carryover basis. There are also significant opportunities for GST tax planning, but those changes are too technical for this article. Suffice it to say that many wealthy taxpayers should be funding new GST trusts by the end of 2010. The new estate-tax regime is once again temporary and scheduled to sunset at the end of 2012.
Conclusion
The 2010 Tax Relief Act also included temporary extension of unemployment insurance, with the total cost estimated at about $858 billion by the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The new law allows taxpayers to plan through 2012, a presidential election year. One of the bigger battles this year concerned extending the tax cuts for higher-income taxpayers, not just those making less than $200,000 if single ($250,000 if filing jointly) as proposed by the Obama administration. It’s reasonable to expect that debate to resurface in 2012. n
Terri Judycki, CPA, MST, is senior tax manager with the certified public accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C., based in Holyoke; (413) 536-8510.
Paul Valickus calls it “the Christmas-tree analogy.”
“Christmas tree sales over this past Thanksgiving weekend were up 12% year over year,” he said — and then wove that fact into his stock-market outlook for 2011. “That may sound a little silly, but it tells me that people were more confident and wanted to start celebrating a little earlier, to spend a little more money. It was an indicator of hope, if you will.”
Changing of the Guard
Valickus, however, believes the upward movement is far from over, and he traces that belief back to the midterm elections two months ago, arguing that businesses spent the past two years in limbo in terms of their expectations about taxes, regulations, and other issues affected by the goings-on in Washington.
“Where I differ from a lot of people is, I think the economy will do a lot better than people expect, and I think the biggest catalyst is the November elections; people have a little more confidence in the business outlook now that Democrats lost their majority in the House.
“There’s a lot of pent-up demand out there,” Valickus added. “People were just afraid to do anything with certainty; they’re most comfortable having a Republican Congress going forward. Whether the Republicans are successful or not, there is that hope out there that maybe we’ll see a little more discipline in Washington. What the market abhors is uncertainty, and things now look a little more certain. Nothing is written in stone, but people are a little more comfortable.”
Writing in Barron’s, Kopin Tan sums up the view of the analysts who spoke with the magazine, noting that their modest projections about market performance bely a much more positive long-term outlook on the economy.
“A majority see 2011 as the year when a sustainable economic recovery takes root, winning over skeptics and persuading both companies and consumers to relax their stranglehold on squirreled-away cash,” Tan writes. “Improving confidence and low interest rates bode well for corporate profits. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve remains hell-bent on propping up asset prices, and wages and prices of goods aren’t rising enough to sound an inflation alarm that would lead the central bank to alter its course of aggressive benevolence.”
Specifically, the strategists projected stock-market gains ranging from 7% to 17%. And while progress could be set back by global flareups such as trade tensions and conflicts in places like Iran and the Korean peninsula, Tan notes, “the market has started to flinch less at each flare-up of risk.”
Mixed Signals
At a time when rising interest rates are expected to weaken the bond market in 2 011, stocks are justifiably generating enthusiasm, but Keady pointed out that the picture is not rosy across the board.
For instance, he explained, while technology and consumer staples remain strong, health care and energy are charting a flatter course, and more than 30% of the companies in the S&P 500 overall were actually down in 2010.
Analysts note that prolonged cost-cutting and increasing consumer confidence, among other factors, point to long-term economic growth, but Keady said these market fundamentals still have to catch up with equity prices.
But in the short term, much of the market’s performance will depend on increasing confidence, and how long it can be maintained.
“What most people don’t understand is that the market can go up without the economy doing anything,” Valickus said. “People say, ‘wait, unemployment is 10%; how could the market go up?’ But it’s not what happened today; it’s what will happen tomorrow. That’s where a lot of people get confused.”
Still, judging by those Christmas trees in November — as well as plenty of other positive signs — confusion is giving way to confidence, and investors are putting more stock in the market.
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
There’s a good reason why many nonprofits and other local causes approach banks for funding, said Tom Brown.
“That’s where the money is.”
But, more important, banks have also long established themselves as reliable, go-to donors for a host of community endeavors. Most banks have established foundations for that purpose and are required by law to donate at least 5% of those assets annually.
“The commitment of all the community banks in the Valley is important,” said Brown, senior vice president of retail banking at Easthampton Savings Bank (ESB). “In so many local projects, you’ll see that some bank is a lead sponsor. All community banks take that as our corporate responsibility.”
And the need, according to administrators at several area banks, has never been greater.
“This is a subject near and dear to my heart,” said Rick DeBonis, senior vice president of marketing at Hampden Bank. “We do a lot in the community with respect to supporting in terms of money and in terms of sweat and rolling up our sleeves. We’re very involved.
“We get requests on a daily basis, coming to me or someone else in the organization,” he continued, noting that banks must develop strategies to sort through what is often a sea of pitches. “We have certain guidelines we use, the first of which is the relevance to the bank’s mission statement and our overall objectives as a community bank.”
That means supporting causes that have a direct impact on the greatest number of area residents, said DeBonis, noting a few examples, including schools, youth athletic programs, and, increasingly, cultural events. “We’re looking for not just nonprofits, but things that bring the community together and could have a psychological benefit as well as a financial benefit, in many cases. It’s a broad spectrum of organizations and activities, and we are happy to be a part of it.”
Dena Hall, vice president of marketing and community relations at United Bank, said her institution focuses on specific areas of interest when sorting through grant requests, specifically education, health and human services, youth programs, and cultural programs.
“We will entertain proposals and review the proposals as a group and make decisions whether to fund it,” she said of United, which operates a foundation worth $5.5 million at last count — meaning a minimum annual disbursement of $275,000 to qualified nonprofits — and also a community-sponsorship budget that makes smaller donations to area causes and events.
In either case, “the organization has to operate in the communities we serve, and there are certain things we will not fund” — salaried positions, for example, seeing that the typical United grant of $5,000 to $10,000 wouldn’t cover a significant amount of a paycheck.
However, there have been larger contributions, including recent support of Baystate Medical Center’s ‘Hospital of the Future’ expansion project. “We felt the scope of that project was wide,” Hall said, and it covers a lot of the same areas where our customers live, and we felt it would benefit our customers in the region we serve, so we participated in this great campaign to give our region a wonderful new hospital.”
Doug Burr, senior vice president and director of marketing at Florence Savings Bank, said his bank’s giving is reflective of the communities it serves, so it contributes to 501(c)3 groups that do business in its market.
“We feel we should take on community needs,” he said. “We can’t take on national and international needs; we can’t make a difference there, but we certainly can make a significant impact here in the local community — with a local hospital, a local library, a local school. And we feel good about that.”
For this issue, BusinessWest visits several local banks to discover how they decide how to distribute a finite amount of money to deserving organizations — and why they consider it a crucial part of their community mission.
Getting the Vote Out
“Because of who we are and the fact that we’re a mutual bank, here since 1873,” Burr said, “one of our core principles really is community giving and taking care of our customers. We’ve always said that, being a mutual savings bank, we pay our dividends back to the community because we don’t have stockholders.”
With that reputation, he told BusinessWest, Florence Savings Bank is typically one of the first doors to get knocked on by organizations looking to boost capital campaigns or fund drives.
“Because we’re a local, community bank, we don’t have a really formal process for our giving program,” he said. “People who have a need sit down and talk to me, the guy that makes the actual decisions. That face-to-face can’t always be done in larger organizations, and it’s a real benefit.”
Nine years ago, FSB took that informal approach a step further, launching a program called Customers’ Choice Community Grants. That effort allows the bank’s customers to vote a share of $50,000 to their favorite local organizations, agencies, and schools. The money is allocated by percentage of votes; every organization that gets 1% of the vote gets a percentage of the money.
That often results in some good-natured lobbying among agency leaders, school principals, and others to persuade FSB customers to throw them a few votes — which, of course, serves as free advertising for the bank.
Burr said he and President John Heaps developed the idea as a way to determine if the bank’s giving patterns matched community priorities. For the most part, that has proven to be the case.
“It validated a lot of the giving we did in the past,” Burr said. “When I look at the top 100 vote-getters, they’re all organizations we’re familiar with and have helped. At first, I was amazed how many nonprofits are in our area — about 300 each got a vote — and it kind of answered our question, are we doing what customers would want us to do?”
The bank uses that data to shape the direction of its larger donations, he added, but it has also drawn new retail customers who appreciate the way the bank connects with its market communities through the voting program.
“It’s a powerful thing,” Burr said. “In one sense, it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also powerful from a business-development perspective. And our employees feel good about the bank supporting these organizations; this is their home, and we’re helping our friends and neighbors as well as our customers.”
Narrowing the Field
All banks have to develop strategies for distributing philanthropic dollars, and many, like United and Hampden, narrow their focus to a few areas of interest.
“One of the biggest questions is, what has the potential to positively impact the community in the broadest way; what affects the most people?” DeBonis said, noting that his bank gets input not only from the organizations themselves, but in many cases from employees who sit on their boards.
“Mix all these together, and we make decisions as to what makes the most sense. Like I’ve said, the need has never been greater, and we have found that we cannot say yes to everybody; there have to be some particular guidelines with respect to how we allocate those funds.”
Brown, at ESB, agrees.
“It begins with requests, which come in from a lot of different sources,” Brown said. “We try to focus on local organizations, and for us, the three predominant areas of our contributions would be education, human services, and arts programs. But the focal point is local; we’re not usually contributing to large, national organizations, but instead local, grassroots, homegrown entities within our market.”
The other priority is an organization that will benefit a large group of people, he added. That opens the door to some national agencies, like the United Way, that support a wide range of local constituencies, but still leaves room for annual support of efforts like sports teams and school yearbooks, as well as one-time community events.
“When the town of Hadley had its 350th, we were major sponsors of that,” Brown said. “When Easthampton has its bear festival, we’re major sponsors of that. If a community is building a new playground, we may decide to sponsor that. We’ve always looked at this as our community dividend. It’s our responsibility, as a community bank, to give back.
“And it’s not always just about money,” he was quick to add. “Most of our 170 employees are involved in some way with some organization in the community, with a wide range of activities, from raking and shoveling on cleanup day to serving as a board chair or board member. Many organizations have told us that’s as important as writing a check. If you look at the employees of the bank, from the president to the tellers, you’ll find them active in the communities in which we operate.”
Stretching the Dollars
Hall said she and other decision-makers want to be sure that United Bank’s charitable efforts benefit the largest group of constituents and that the projects it funds are viable. “We’re never the only funder, but we’re looking for organizations with multiple funders and track records of success.”
Although United has funded and will fund smaller organizations with smaller grants, she said, it focuses mainly on organizations that can make a long-term impact on its communities — for example, funding a new emergency-rescue vehicle for the Red Cross, afterschool programs at the YMCA, or textbooks for Ludlow schools’ ‘literacy closet.’
Like many banks, Hall makes a point of sharing news of such grants in United’s publication, Yankee Connections, which only leads to further requests. “When it comes out, I get calls from organizations asking, ‘can I get your guidelines?’” She has also moved to communicating giving news on the bank’s Facebook page. “I feel like we’re talking to a whole new group of nonprofit organizations by publishing there.”
Which, of course, only leads to more decisions to make. While Hampden Bank was recently honored by the Western Mass. Assoc. of Fundraising Professionals with its 200 Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation award — for its support of Mercy Medical Center’s ICU and surgical center projects, among other efforts — DeBonis lamented that more worthy causes exist than the bank can support, even just in its market communities.
“There are some things out there that we’d love to fund and sponsor, but we have to look realistically at the cost of participation in relation to the overall dollars available,” he said.
He and others who spoke with BusinessWest understand all-too-clearly that the sluggish economy, just now emerging slowly from a crippling recession, has put the squeeze on nonprofits and other charitable causes, and the size of the average request has grown.
“It’s important for everyone to realize that every bank has a limit on what they can give away,” Brown said. “We try to meet these needs, but we’re trying to spread around a finite number of dollars. It’s not a bottomless pit of money, and we’re trying to be as equitable as we can and fair to everyone.”
These days, that’s just part of what it means to be a community bank.
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
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Dave DelVecchio says that the speed at which information technology advances can leave business owners confused, buffeted by buzzwords, and unsure of the value of an IT partner.
Innovative Business Systems Inc. has successfully built such partnerships for two decades, but DelVecchio, the company’s president, and his staff recently began to ask whether its customers and, perhaps more important, prospective clients really understand the need for its services.
“So many IT companies are so fixated on the ‘how’ that they can’t communicate the ‘why,’” he told BusinessWest. “We’re focused on helping businesses determine the why.”
Last year marked a 20th anniversary of sorts for this Easthampton-based IT sales and support firm (which launched in 1987 but didn’t officially incorporate until three years later). “And, as major milestones tend to be, that became a time for reflection,” DelVecchio said.
He explained that IT changes so much in a few years — “for some people, that’s a blink of an eye, but in our industry, it’s a lifetime” — that questions arose regarding how well IBS was delivering its message to the public.
“We weren’t sure we were doing an effective job communicating with prospects, clients, and the general public exactly what we do,” he explained. “Sometimes, we’re too close to it to communicate it ourselves.”
So the company launched a rebranding campaign, looking for a succinct way to communicate its range of services, and at the same time refreshing its logo. It enlisted an outside consultant for these tasks, and launched a new Web site earlier this month, presenting itself with the new tagline, “smarter technology for better business.”
“A lot of people historically have thought of companies like ours as computer repairmen, like they think of appliance repairmen or auto mechanics,” DelVecchio said. “That’s not what we do, or, it’s a very small subset of what we do.”
Rather, he said, “we help folks cut through the clutter of ever-changing technology, to find out what’s the right fit for a business, what’s applicable and what’s not, what fads stick and what’s a flash in the pan. We want to have conversations with them from a business perspective, not just a technology perspective. And we felt this tagline best encapsulates that.”
Gang of Five
Bill Tremblay began Innovative Business Systems in 1987 as a software-development outfit (more on that later), then sold the firm in 2003 to five employees — DelVecchio, Brian Scanlon, Scott Seifel, Ben Scoble, and Sean Benoit — who continue to run it today.
IBS handles PC sales, data analysis, networking, hardware and software support, repair, and maintenance services for businesses of all sizes. It built much of its business in the financial-services arena, working with banks and credit unions — both those with their own existing IT departments and those without — on issues including data access, information security, and disaster-recovery planning.
The rest of the IBS client list is comprised largely of small-to-medium-sized, privately owned businesses in a wide range of sectors, from health care to manufacturing, many of which are not large enough to have their own IT departments but view the need for constantly updated technology as a growing necessity.
“For many years, our niche was supporting banks and credit unions,” DelVecchio said. “But we’ve got multiple 10-employee companies running technology rivaling what the banks are running — remote offices, mobility suites, document imaging, hosting their own Web-based data applications, some of them being publicly accessible, and some in industries with strict security requirements.”
He said he gets annoyed when people assume that the need for the services IBS provides are always related to the size of the client. Instead, “the more technology-driven a business is, the better fit they are for us, regardless of size.”
One of the biggest issues IBS has dealt with in recent years has been access to data from various computers, company locations, or remotely. A related, and often equally important, consideration is data recovery, because it can be disastrous for a business to store information in one office only.
DelVecchio is especially excited about the company’s new data center in Marlborough, which will serve as a remote office, but, more importantly, as a disaster-recovery suite. In case of some event that renders a customer’s place of business unusable, IBS can transfer the contents of the client’s entire network to the Marlborough office, which is equipped with four workstations, in effect providing a location for that customer to continue to operate.
“From a solutions standpoint, this is huge,” he said. “In case of a localized disaster, like a fire, a flood, a sprinkler goes off at midnight and leaves the office knee-deep in water, this location is, in most cases, within an hour’s drive, so you have a place to function.”
Why Marlborough? Its distance is an asset, DelVecchio said, explaining that disaster-recovery suites should be close enough that the commute isn’t too onerous, yet far enough away to be clear of a regional disaster; 45 to 60 minutes away is ideal.
And while most businesses might never need the use of such a facility, many will, especially those in multi-tenant buildings, and should appreciate paying around $3,500 annually for a “a business continuity plan in a box,” he said.
“For tenants in a mixed-use, multi-tenant building, the odds of a localized disaster go up by a factor of 10. When you have a lot of tenants, all it takes is the tenant next door to plug up the drainpipe with grass and knock out the sprinklerhead, or put a candle too close to a curtain, to cause an issue. In multi-tenant buildings, we see this as an incredibly underused but much-needed solution.”
Down to Earth
Putting this sort of real-life face on often-complex technology is key to IBS’ new focus on communicating the big picture to clients, DelVecchio said.
He noted that Microsoft has been promoting ‘cloud computing’ — a term synonymous with Internet-based computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to individual computers and other devices — “but if you ask 100 people what the cloud is, you get 100 different answers. The cloud can be a lot of things.”
He compared it to 15 years ago, when the commercial use of Internet technology was just exploding, and “cyber” became the hot buzzword, even though it wasn’t always used correctly. “We’ve developed our own cloud strategy to cut through that clutter.”
What businesses need to understand, he said, is what those buzzwords mean, and how the technology behind them can benefit their operations. He said some have predicted that 80% of all IT services will be cloud-based within five years, but feels that number may be a bit aggressive; he sees many firms using a hybrid approach. “Businesses might be running things like E-mail in the cloud and applications on premises, or vice versa. Determining the right mix for business is the foundation of what we do.”
No IT firm can be everything to all its clients, so IBS touts a number of ‘partners’ on its Web site — not formal partnerships, but related companies with whom IBS shares clients — that do a good job at what they do, and can benefit Innovative’s customers. “Building a strong partner network is something we take a lot of pride in; it takes a village to maintain an IT infrastructure, but we can be the hub that facilitates getting it done.”
Like companies of all sizes and in all sectors, IBS has endured a sluggish economy for the past few years, but felt it mainly in product sales, not consulting.
“In 2007 and 2008, most companies were investing in their business, with technologies like remote access and document-management solutions,” DelVecchio said. “When the economy slowed down, everyone went into a wait-and-see, maintenance mode; our revenue remained constant in 2009, but our material sales dropped 20%. People kept what they had; they weren’t upgrading. Over the course of 2010, though, we saw a consistent increase in projects.”
All the more reason to launch a rebranding effort — and make some hard decisions about the direction of the company.
“Every business has been forced to look at their balance sheet and take a look at expenses and figure out where they were getting value,” he said. “And if you’re not delivering value, should you be doing it?” In answering that question, last year, IBS phased out of the software-development business, which was the work on which the company was founded.
“Running a software-development business is a completely different model than running an IT service and consulting business,” said DelVecchio, noting that IBS’ full-time developer left the firm on amicable terms and continues to support all the clients for whom IBS had developed applications. “That allowed us to focus on our core business moving forward. After that decision, we focused creating branding for what our core business will be like in 2011 and beyond.”
Bottom Line
By all indications, that core looks healthy, he said, noting that, as clients started to order upgrades they had deferred during the recession, IBS saw a strong second half to 2010.
“Clients are back in the game,” DelVecchio said. “From a business outlook, I’m very positive about 2011. It appears that people have come out of their bunkers, and they’re ready to do business again.”
Whether in their offices, or in the cloud.
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
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Imagine that long-term care insurance meets Medicaid, and you will begin to have some idea about the new CLASS Act. CLASS is a program established by the new health care reform law, and it stands for Community Living Assistance Services and Supports.
At a time when long-term care costs are expensive and only becoming more so, the program represents the first major attempt of the federal government to provide long-term care benefits. The program went into effect on Jan. 1, 2011, but it is unlikely that you’ll be able to enroll before 2012 because a number of details still need to be ironed out.
Who Can Enroll?
Any working adult can participate. You must be over 18 years old and actively employed. The details of what constitutes actively employed will be determined by the HHS, but will include part-time employees who earn enough to pay Social Security taxes, or about $1,120 per year. It will also include self-employed people. Retirees, unless they continue to work part-time, will not be eligible. Patients in nursing homes and other institutions, as well as incarcerated people, will be eligible to enroll. The most attractive part of CLASS is that you are not ineligible if you already have health issues.
One major drawback of private long-term care insurance is that you are often disqualified for pre-existing conditions. The CLASS legislation prohibits this kind of underwriting. As long as you can pay the premiums for five years and continue to work at least part-time during three of those years, you can enroll, and you won’t be excluded from receiving benefits. You can either become enrolled through your employer, or you can enroll on your own if your employer decides not to participate. The method for enrolling on your own hasn’t yet been determined, but it will be up to HHS to institute that. If your employer signs up, then all employees will be automatically included. Nevertheless, you can always choose to opt out of the system.
How Much Will It Cost?
Payments for the cost of the premiums will be deducted directly from your paycheck if you enroll through your employer. When the Congressional Budget Office analyzed the legislation, it estimated that monthly premiums would average around $120. This means that, if you get paid weekly, about $30 will come out of each paycheck to pay the premiums for your coverage. Your employer will have the option of deciding whether it wants to cover any of the cost of the premiums. If you’re lucky, your employer may decide to do so as an additional part of the benefits package it offers to employees.
Under the law, premiums can be lower for younger people and higher for older participants. Generally, this makes sense because younger people will usually be paying the premiums for a longer period of time. Additionally, there are some very attractive provisions: premiums are intended to remain the same throughout a person’s lifetime, and people with health issues cannot be charged higher premiums. For people below the federal poverty line and for working students, there will be a special low premium that may be as little as $5 per month. All the premium information has to be determined by HHS by October 2012. Until then, no one knows for sure how much CLASS will cost.
How Do I Get Benefits?
The CLASS Act has various vesting requirements that you must meet before you can become eligible for benefits. First of all, you must pay the premiums for at least five years before you are eligible for benefits. Second, you must have been actively working at least three of those five years. Special rules will apply if you drop out of the program and then subsequently reapply. If you re-enroll within 90 days, your premiums will not change. After 90 days, however, the premium may be adjusted based on your current age. So if you join the program when you are 22, drop out for more than three months when you are 40, then re-enroll a year later, your new premium will be based on your current age of 40, and it is sure to be higher than the premium you had at age 22.
In addition to meeting the vesting requirements, you must have a qualifying level of disability to begin receiving benefits. The benefits granted by the program will depend on the level of physical and/or cognitive disability. The qualifying level of disability is defined as being unable to perform at least two or three of the Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), which include eating, bathing, and dressing yourself. Alternatively, the qualifying level of disability can be met if you require substantial supervision due to cognitive impairment. The disability must occur for at least 90 days consecutively to qualify. But as long as a qualifying level of disability exists, you can continue to receive benefits.
How Large Are the Benefits?
CLASS will pay a cash benefit of no less than $50 per day on average. This means that some people will receive more than $50 and some will receive less, but the average amount paid out cannot be less than $50. The benefit will depend on the level of disability and will increase annually to keep up with inflation. The beauty of CLASS is that there is no lifetime limit on benefits. If you’re eligible for benefits under CLASS and you get into a car accident at age 40 resulting in the need for care for the rest of your life, you’ll get a payment from the government every month, adjusted for inflation, as long as you live.
One criticism of the program is that CLASS could never cover the entire cost of long-term care in a nursing home. Although that is likely to be true, even $50 a day will help finance extra help at home, or take care of part of the cost of assisted living or adult day care. With the cost of a private room in a nursing home averaging over $9,700 per month in Massachusetts in 2010, every little bit helps.
CLASS can provide assistance to people who have pre-existing conditions and would never be able to obtain long-term care insurance. It can also provide benefits to those who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to pay the premiums on private insurance. The bottom line is that CLASS is likely to be a winner because it will cost less than long-term care insurance, while providing benefits to more people.
Julie R. Lackner, Esq. is an associate attorney with the Springfield-based law firm Bacon Wilson, P.C. She handles all aspects of estate planning and elder law; (413) 781-0560; baconwilson.com; bwlaw.blogs.com
A listing of the region’s retirement communities
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Attorney Hyman G. Darling is chairman of Bacon Wilson, P.C.’s Estate Planning and Elder Law departments. His areas of expertise include all areas of estate planning, probate, and elder law. Darling is accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to prepare, present, and prosecute claims for veterans before the VA. He hosts a popular estate-planning blog at bwlaw.blogs.com; (413) 781-0560; baconwilson.com
Nominations Sought for the Class of 2011
Since BusinessWest launched 40 Under Forty in 2007, it has recognized 160 young professionals who have made their mark across Western Mass. — not only for their career success, but their commitment to their communities. Now in year five, the 40 Under Forty program — which includes a must-read issue profiling the winners and an always-well-attended gala in the spring — has become one of the most anticipated events in the region’s business community, one that has nominees constantly setting the bar higher.
By JOSEPH BEDNAR
Jeff Fialky understands what it takes to succeed in business today.
An attorney with Bacon & Wilson, P.C., Fialky was chosen one of BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty in 2008, in recognition of his career success and community involvement. He’s one of 160 young professionals throughout Western Mass. who have been honored in this way since the program’s inception in 2007.
But as president of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield, he’s got a clearer perspective than most on the dedication it takes to succeed at a young age, because he sees it every day in fellow YPS members.
“In this economy, there are a lot of start-up entrepreneurs, a lot of young professionals working maybe twice as hard as they’d have to work in a better economy,” Fialky said. “It’s great that we can promote some of these individuals who have distinguished themselves from their peers.”
Now entering its fifth year with a call for nominations, BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty has captured the respect of the region’s business community and continues to demonstrate that Western Mass. is home to a creative, motivated, and successful group of young business leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators — people who are redefining what it means to build successful businesses and serve their communities with whatever spare time they have left over.
“Clearly, YPS and 40 Under Forty have walked a parallel path,” said Fialky, noting that both came into being around the same time. “In that time period, YPS participants — meaning both the membership and officers and directors — have looked at 40 Under Forty with extremely high regard, as a competitive process, a reward, and a distinction in the community that is heavily sought after.”
Kate Campiti, BusinessWest’s associate publisher, is gratified to hear that 40 Under Forty has reached that kind of status in the local business community.
“It makes me proud that it’s something that people aspire to, and it does put them on the map,” she said. “It’s something they can use as a résumé builder, as a symbol of excellence.”
As the nomination process opens for the class of 2011, BusinessWest expects another flood of nominees from a broad range of careers; the 160 previous honorees have emerged from law, education, retail, health care, social services, finance, and many, many other fields. In all cases, they have been successful in business and active in civic volunteerism, the latter being a critical consideration when judging applicants.
As in the past four installments of 40 Under Forty, this year’s winners — chosen by a panel of judges comprised of area business leaders and previous honorees — will be profiled in an upcoming issue of BusinessWest (always a must-read issue) and toasted at a gala reception in the spring.
Meghan Lynch, managing partner for Six-Point Creative Works and one of last year’s honorees, said she was impressed with the wide variety of industries and positions represented by the class of 2010.
In addition, “I was happy with the amount of community support at the event,” she said. “That was a fantastic networking event, and when I left I was proud to have been a part of it. I made quite a few contacts at the event, and the winners have been really good about reaching out to one another, making time to reconnect and get to know each other afterward. I was definitely impressed with a lot of other folks, and it was certainly a very good representation of the talent in the Valley.”
The nomination form can be found on page 35 of this issue. It will be reprinted in upcoming issues as well, and may also be printed from businesswest.com. The deadline for entry is Feb. 18.
Fialky says members of YPS take the nomination process seriously, as evidenced by the healthy number of society members chosen for recognition during the past four years. The same goes for Northampton Area Young Professionals, another group that’s typically well-represented in each class.
“I personally congratulate members of YPS who are 40 Under Forty honorees every year — I send out handwritten cards — and that number has increased exponentially over the past few years,” Fialky said. “It’s terrific that both the Young Professional Society and the 40 Under Forty have walked down these same paths.”
Campiti said the ever-increasing profile of the recognition program is cultivating a healthy sense of competition among area professionals.
“I think it’s making them more competitive with each other, and it is making the young up-and-comers think about their future and plan strategically how they will position themselves. That only makes the group stronger. To win, they really have to stand out.”
Fialky also embraces the competitive aspect of the event, saying that being chosen one of the 40 Under Forty is an honor worth striving for.
“The competition raises the bar for everyone,” he said. “Some folks have submitted nomination forms for a couple of years and haven’t been elected, and that only makes them think they need to work harder in the community and from a personal-branding standpoint. I think that’s great.”
Class of 2007
William Bither III, Atalasoft
Kimberlynn Cartelli, Fathers & Sons
Amy Caruso, MassMutual Financial Group
Denise Cogman, Springfield School Volunteers
Richard Corder, Cooley Dickinson Hospital
Katherine Pacella Costello, Egan, Flanagan & Cohen, P.C.
A. Rima Dael, Berkshire Bank Foundation of Pioneer Valley
Nino Del Padre, Del Padre Visual Productions
Antonio Dos Santos, Robinson Donovan, P.C.
Jake Giessman, Academy Hill School
Jillian Gould, Eastfield Mall
Michael Gove, Lyon & Fitzpatrick, LLP
Dena Hall, United Bank
James Harrington, Our Town Variety & Liquors
Christy Hedgpeth, Spalding Sports
Francis Hoey III, Tighe & Bond
Amy Jamrog, The Jamrog Group, Northwestern Mutual
Cinda Jones, Cowls Land & Lumber Co.
Paul Kozub, V-1 Vodka
Bob Lowry, Bueno y Sano
G.E. Patrick Leary, Moriarty & Primack, P.C.
Todd Lever, Noble Hospital
Audrey Manring, The Women’s Times
Daniel Morrill, Wolf & Company
Joseph Pacella, Egan, Flanagan & Cohen, P.C.
Arlene Rodriquez, Springfield Technical Community College
Craig Swimm, WMAS 94.7
Sarah Tanner, United Way of Pioneer Valley
Mark Tanner, Bacon Wilson, P.C.
Michelle Theroux, Child & Family Services of Pioneer Valley Inc.
Tad Tokarz, Western MA Sports Journal
Dan Touhey, Spalding Sports
Sarah Leete Tsitso, Fred Astaire Dance
Michael Vann, The Vann Group
Ryan Voiland, Red Fire Farm
Erica Walch, Speak Easy Accent Modification
Catherine West, Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.
Michael Zaskey, Zasco Productions, LLC
Edward Zemba, Robert Charles Photography
Carin Zinter, The Princeton Review
Class of 2008
Michelle Abdow, Market Mentors
Matthew Andrews, Best Buddies of Western Mass.
Rob Anthony, WMAS
Shane Bajnoci, Cowls Land & Lumber Co.
Steve Bandarra, Atlas TC
Dr. Jonathan Bayuk, Hampden County Physician Associates
Delcie Bean IV, Valley Computer Works
Brendan Ciecko, Ten Minute Media
Todd Cieplinski, Universal Mind Inc.
William Collins, Spoleto Restaurant Group
Michael Corduff, Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House
Amy Davis, New City Scenic & Display
Dave DelVecchio, Innovative Business Systems Inc.
Tyler Fairbank, EOS Ventures
Timothy Farrell, F.W. Farrell Insurance
Jeffrey Fialky, Bacon Wilson, P.C.
Dennis Francis, America’s Box Choice
Kelly Galanis, Westfield State College
Jennifer Glockner, Winstanley Associates
Andrea Hill-Cataldo, Johnson & Hill Staffing Services
Steven Huntley, Valley Opportunity Council
Alexander Jarrett, Pedal People Cooperative
Kevin Jourdain, City of Holyoke
Craig Kaylor, Hampden Bank / Hampden Bancorp Inc.
Stanley Kowalski III, FloDesign Inc.
Marco Liquori, NetLogix Inc.
Azell Murphy Cavaan, City of Springfield
Michael Presnal, The Federal Restaurant
Melissa Shea, Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn
Sheryl Shinn, Hampden Bank
Ja’Net Smith, Center for Human Development
Diana Sorrentini-Velez, Cooley, Shrair, P.C.
Meghan Sullivan, Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn
Michael Sweet, Doherty Wallace Pillsbury & Murphy
Heidi Thomson, Girls Inc.
Hector Toledo, Hampden Bank
William Trudeau Jr., Insurance Center of New England
David Vermette, MassMutual Financial Services
Lauren Way, Bay Path College
Paul Yacovone, Brain Powered Concepts
Class of 2009
Marco Alvan, Team Link Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Gina Barry, Bacon Wilson, P.C.
Maggie Bergin, The Art of Politics
Daniel Bessette, Get Set Marketing
Brandon Braxton, NewAlliance Bank
Dena Calvanese, Gray House
Edward Cassell, Park Square Realty
Karen Chadwell, Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury and Murphy, P.C.
Kate Ciriello, MassMutual Financial Group
Kamari Collins, Springfield Technical Community College
Mychal Connolly Sr., Stinky Cakes
Todd Demers, Family Wireless
Kate Glynn, A Child’s Garden and Impish
Andrew Jensen, Jx2 Productions, LLC
Kathy LeMay, Raising Change
Ned Leutz, Webber & Grinnell Insurance Agency
Scott MacKenzie, MacKenzie Vault Inc.
Tony Maroulis, Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce
Seth Mias, Seth Mias Catering
Marjory Moore, Chicopee Public Schools
Corey Murphy, First American Insurance Agency Inc.
Mark Hugo Nasjleti, Go Voice for Choice
Joshua Pendrick, Royal Touch Painting
Christopher Prouty, Studio99Creative
Adam Quenneville, Adam Quenneville Roofing
Michael Ravosa, Morgan Stanley
Kristi Reale, Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.
Amy Royal, Royal & Klimczuk, LLC
Michelle Sade, United Personnel
Scott Sadowsky, Williams Distributing Corp.
Gregory Schmidt, Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy, P.C.
Gretchen Siegchrist, Media Shower Productions
Erik Skar, MassMutual Financial Services
Paul Stallman, Alias Solutions
Renee Stolar, J. Stolar Insurance Co.
Tara Tetreault, Jackson and Connor
Chris Thompson, Springfield Falcons Hockey Team
Karl Tur, Ink & Toner Solutions, LLC
Michael Weber, Minuteman Press
Brenda Wishart, Aspen Square Management
Class of 2010
Nancy Bazanchuk, Disability Resource Program,
, , Center for Human Development
Raymond Berry, United Way of Pioneer Valley
David Beturne, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County
Maegan Brooks, The Law Office of Maegan Brooks
Karen Buell, PeoplesBank
Shanna Burke, Nonotuck Resource Associates
Damon Cartelli, Fathers & Sons
Brady Chianciola, PeoplesBank
Natasha Clark, Springfield School Volunteers
Julie Cowan, TD Bank
Karen Curran, Thomson Financial Management Inc.
Adam Epstein, Dielectrics Inc.
Mary Fallon, Garvey Communication Associates
Daniel Finn, Pioneer Valley Local First
Owen Freeman-Daniels, Foley-Connelly Financial Partners and
, , Foley Insurance Group
Lorenzo Gaines, ACCESS Springfield Promise Program
Thomas Galanis, Westfield State College
Anthony Gleason II, Roger Sitterly & Son, Inc. and
, , Gleason Landscaping
Allen Harris, Berkshire Money Management Inc.
Meghan Hibner, Westfield Bank
Amanda Huston, Junior Achievement of Western Mass. Inc.
Kimberly Klimczuk, Royal, LLP
James Krupienski, Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.
David Kutcher, Confluent Forms, LLC
James Leahy, City of Holyoke and Alcon Laboratories
Kristin Leutz, Community Foundation of Western Mass.
Meghan Lynch, Six-Point Creative Works
Susan Mielnikowski, Cooley, Shrair, P.C.
Jill Monson, Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding Inc.
, , and Inspired Marketing & Promotions
Kevin Perrier, Five Star Building Corp.
Lindsay Porter, Big Y Foods
Brandon Reed, Fitness Together
Boris Revsin, CampusLIVE Inc.
Aaron Vega, Vega Yoga & Movement Arts
Ian Vukovich, Florence Savings Bank
Thomas Walsh, City of Springfield
Sean Wandrei, Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.
Byron White, Pazzo Ristorante
Chester Wojcik, Design Construction Group
Peter Zurlino, Atlantico Designs and Springfield Public Schools
Joseph Bednar can be reached
at [email protected]