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MAKING HEADLINES
The St. Louis
region and its companies often make national news—below are a few
highlights.
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Option Technology
and Sonacom’s “Chocolate Tracking” Solution Featured in Newsweek
Japan
Readers of Newsweek
in Japan were treated to some news about two St. Louis technology
firms last fall. In an October 31, 2001, article on wireless inventory
tracking, a recent project for a midwestern warehouse and distribution
company was in the spotlight.
When Steve Lanter, president and COO, and his colleagues at Lanter
Co. of Madison, Ill., wanted to provide state-of-the-art inventory
tracking for the 30,000 tons of chocolate for Hershey’s, the company
turned to two St. Louis firms for technology solutions. Sonacom
IT Partners and Option Technologies Inc. designed and implemented
a wireless local area network that provides inventory control and
product management.
Now, every time a forklift picks up a product, a bar code reader
scans the pallets and sends data directly to a central network via
radio frequency. For Hershey, Lanter can now assure product freshness
of chocolate distributed to seven states. Lanter concentrates on
products that require a protected environment such as humidity and
temperature, providing more than five million square feet of warehouse
space and more than 400 refrigerated trucks for it customers, which
include familiar food products such as Hershey’s, Nabisco and Hormel.
The Newsweek Japan story highlighted how companies are using
wireless inventory control technology to save time and increase
efficiency. Sonacom’s project for Lanter and Hershey was one of
three highlighted in the article.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Innovation Earns CIO Magazine Award
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
is on the winners list for the 2002 CIO Magazine Enterprise Value
Award. The award recognizes Enterprise’s innovative Automated
Rental Management System (ARMS), a Web-based application that has
improved the three-way business communications between insurance
companies, repair shops and Enterprise branch locations. Launched
in 1987, CIO Magazine serves chief information officers (CIOs)
other C-level executives and corporate officers who use technology
to thrive and prosper in this new era of business.
In its profile of Enterprise, CIO explained how “ARMS streamlined
operations for car insurers that pay for rentals to replace owners’
vehicles damaged in collisions.” This innovation enables insurance
companies to book, extend and pay for replacement rentals online,
transforming a process that was once “cumbersome and paper-laden.”
CIO judges liked ARMS for its combination of customer service and
strategic business sense in an application that produces savings
in both time and money.
Although this is the first time Enterprise has been honored with
the CIO Magazine Enterprise Value Award, the company has
been recognized as a CIO-100 Award company for the past two years,
including being named one of the “100 Companies Most Likely To Succeed
in the Next Millennium.”
“This year’s CIO Magazine Enterprise Value Award winners
truly know how to create value using IT,” says Abbie Lundberg, editor
in chief, CIO Magazine. “Winning systems have reinvented
how these companies approach the use of technology, improving enterprise
goals and objectives across the board while streamlining communication
and producing return on investment.”
Other 2002 CIO Magazine Enterprise Value Award winners
include Dow Chemical, Michigan Department of Transportation, Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection, and SBC Communications.
According to the judges, there was no limit on the number of possible
winners, but only five organizations were found to be deserving
of the 2002 CIO Magazine Enterprise Value Award. Profiles
of the winning companies were featured in the February 1, 2002 issue
of the magazine and at www.cio.com.
CIO Magazine Enterprise Value Award winners are judged on
a number of criteria including their systems’ strategic value, customer
impact, financial return, operational efficiency and social impact.
Food Network Visits Missouri History Museum Restaurant
The Best of…Museum Restaurants,” a March 2002 episode on The Food
Network featured a stop at Meriwether’s, the Missouri History Museum
restaurant. Other museum restaurants included in this television
program were the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the
Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., the Frick Museum
in Pittsburgh and the Morikami Museum in Florida.
Jill Cordes, co-host of “The Best Of” program visited St. Louis
last year and spent a day at Meriwether’s. She interviewed chefs
and sampled food, such as Plainsman’s Chili, a Meriwether’s signature
dish.
Meriwether’s is situated on the top floor of the Emerson Center,
with a view of Forest Park through a wall of curved glass. Emerson
Center is the recent addition to the south of the Jefferson Memorial
Building of the Missouri History Museum. Named for Meriwether Lewis,
co-leader of the historic Lewis and Clark expedition, Meriwether
is part of Patty Long Catering Inc., which also caters private parties
and special events at the Missouri History Museum.
The Christian Science Monitor Takes a Look at a St. Louis Counseling
Service for Easing One Aspect of Family Divorce Tension
A cover story
in the October 31, 2001, issue of The Christian Science Monitor
featured St. Louis-based Provident Counseling’s Heritage House program
as “one of the more comprehensive efforts in the nation” when it
comes to child custody exchange centers. Heritage House is a joint
program of Provident and the 22nd Judicial Court of Missouri, St.
Louis Family Court.
Reporter Craig Savoye explained that custody exchange between divorced
or separated parents is not a new issue, but the arguments that
erupt during these times indicate a need for centers to supervise
the exchange. The distress on the children and the threat of abuse
during the time of custody exchange is the concern that causes family
courts to look for places where parents can exchange their children
without ever seeing each other. Savoye interviewed Barbara Floyd,
Heritage House project coordinator, who described this program as
offering a place where children can look forward to seeing a parent
on neutral and safe terms.
The article also discussed a study from Heritage House participants,
recently published in the Family Court Review. The report
indicates that, in cases of twice-monthly court-ordered visitations,
parents were completing visits only once a month. When parents participate
in Provident’s Heritage House program, the report shows missed visits
almost eliminated. |
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