Member News

EMILY C. DOOLEY TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Published: February 27, 2010

When the recession took hold nationwide and in the Richmond area, the technology industry was not immune.

Layoffs and hiring freezes hit the sector.

Many of those cuts had an impact on information-technology departments at large corporations and employers.

That drop in employment was a plus to one segment of the tech industry -- established IT staffing and consulting companies.

They benefited from cuts at companies that then needed to outsource, the ability to offer temporary staffing to firms nervous to hire and the chance to pick up talent put out on the streets.

"We had the equivalent of four Fortune 500 companies go under in the span of 45 days," said Ed Gooding, president of The Merge Computer Group, an IT staffing firm in Henrico County. "The good news is that when I needed candidates for my company, I had no problem filling positions with good candidates."

At the beginning of 2009, Merge had 24 employees. By Dec. 31, there were 44. Gooding had four former clients return to him after cutting IT positions.

"I feel blessed," Gooding said. "We had a very successful year and I feel very, very lucky. I've got some good long-term relationships."

Computer system design and related services, management consulting services, and other scientific and consulting services all saw increases in Virginia and the Richmond region between the second quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009.

In all cases, the increases were not as much as statewide numbers, but the change in employment was between 1.5 and 5.6 percent in a region hit with mass layoffs from Qimonda North America, Circuit City Stores Inc., LandAmerica Financial Group, Reynolds Packaging and others.

It's not unusual that temporary-staffing firms do better at the tail end of a downturn, said Christine Chmura, president and chief economist of Chmura Economics and Analytics.

"When the economy is starting to pick up but businesses aren't yet convinced that it will continue to accelerate, they prefer to hire temporary workers because they don't have a long-term commitment to them," she said.

While some companies lost contracts with big companies like Circuit City because of its bankruptcy, others picked up jobs after firms like Genworth and Altria laid off their IT workers and looked to outsource, Gooding said.

Richmond IT staffing and consulting firm CapTech, for instance, hired 50 people last year and has plans to hire 50 more. Health-care and financial services are two big focus areas for the firm, formerly known as CapTech Ventures.

One reason is the company is able to do the work of IT departments that were slashed during the recession. Another is that the firm is expanding an office in Washington.

"We were very focused last year on Washington," CEO Charles A. "Sandy" Williamson said. "We had to diversify out of Richmond."

Another reason for success? Companies are realizing the power of information.

"There is a lot of information to manage," Williamson said. "If you harness that info, there's a lot of ways to find success."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact Emily C. Dooley at (804) 649-6016 or edooley@timesdispatch.com

 

Herndon, Va. – The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) touted the achievements of its GAP Funds, which has helped create 36 early stage high-tech and biolife companies, as part of National Entrepreneurship Week established by Congress in 2006 “so that the people of the United States are reminded of the contributions of entrepreneurs.”

Pete Jobse, CIT President and CEO, said, “Innovation is the key to maintaining our standing in the global economy. Despite the current economic challenges, CIT is finding many entrepreneurial opportunities that will make Virginia the leader in the new innovation economy.”

An entrepreneur, Jobse said Virginia receives low scores in providing sufficient capital for seed stage company formation. Jobse’s last company, ArcSight, Inc (NASDAQ:ARST), was started in Sunnyvale, Calif., because of its access to capital and an innovation culture.  “I want entrepreneurs here to have the same positive experience we did in raising capital and starting the company, and I certainly don’t want to export to other states smart entrepreneurs and innovation grown in Virginia. So, we created the CIT GAP Funds to fill a developing market need,” Jobse said.

The CIT GAP Funds is a family of seed stage investment programs that leverage public and private investments to launch new high expectation companies. Its due diligence and investment process is overseen by an Investment Advisory Board, comprised of CIT officials, and experienced entrepreneurs and venture capital investors.  Since its launch, CIT GAP Funds has invested almost $3.5 million to create 36 companies that, in turn, were able to attract an additional $41 million in private equity. (For a list of portfolio companies, please go to http://www.citgapfunds.org/.)

Tom Weithman, Managing Director of the GAP Funds, said, “We have a proven model that offers superior economic returns for entrepreneurs and co-investors, while providing a significant economic development contribution to the Commonwealth.”

In addition to the GAP Funds, CIT helps entrepreneurs in other ways.  Its Federal Funding Assistance Program identifies and accelerates opportunities for small technology firms to obtain federal R&D awards – about $120 million in federal funds annually.

The CIT Connect and CIT R&D service lines work with entrepreneurs by linking them to large purchasers of innovation and technology and bringing them into teams of university and commercial partners to develop research projects that solve societal challenges in areas like homeland security, alternative energy exploration, e-learning and electronic health records.

Also, the CIT Broadband service line helps local and regional jurisdictions develop and find funding for broadband deployment, a key infrastructure requirement in Southside and Southwest Virginia, and the Eastern Shore that strengthens economic development for entrepreneurs and innovators in those areas. (For more details about CIT service lines, go to http://www.cit.org/about-us/annual-reports.)

Lastly, CIT is working with Virginia’s ten regional technology councils to develop the first Commonwealth Innovation Index, a strategic road map to the Innovation Economy that more carefully targets public and private investments in innovative and emerging technology clusters that will yield sustainable job growth.  (For a copy of the Phase I Report, go to http://www.cit.org/innovation-index.)

About the Center for Innovative Technology, www.cit.org
CIT is a nonprofit corporation that accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies. CIT creates new technology companies through capital formation, market development and revenue generation services. To facilitate national innovation leadership and accelerate the rate of technology adoption, CIT creates partnerships between innovative technology startup companies and advanced technology consumers. CIT is now listed on the GSA MOBIS Schedule, Special Item Numbers (SINs) SIN 874-1 for Consulting Services and SIN 894-2 for Facilitation Services.  Its CAGE Code is 1UP71. 

Richmond, VA—February 22, 2010 - Timmons Group, a leading provider of geospatial services, recently completed work with SNL Financial LC to develop a mapping component to their SNL online information service.  Timmons Group’s enterprise consulting included a design for SNL Financial using ESRI’s ArcGIS Server hosted Web Map Services (WMS) and OpenGIS Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD) profile to achieve ambitious cartography requirements needed by SNL subscribers. 

The mapping application for SNL Financial was built using ESRI’s ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight.  Silverlight is one of the industry’s most comprehensive and powerful solutions for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser.  Silverlight includes compatibility with a Microsoft.NET development environment which provides significant integration value for companies with .NET developers.  The mapping application, developed by Timmons Group, will provide clients of SNL Financial with a rich, interactive mapping experience integrated with the dynamic spatial analysis power of ArcGIS Server.   The functionality being built into the mapping application and provided to SNL Financial’s clients include multi-variate thematic mapping, service area creation, dynamic map styling, saving of map templates, rich print and export output options, and interactive map markup.

“The combination of a rich user experience provided by Silverlight and the unique server-side design we’ve done utilizing ArcGIS Server based WMS services and Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD) standards gives SNL Financial a powerful enterprise level platform for their clients,” says Chris Gerecke, Director of Enterprise Solutions for Timmons Group.

SNL Financial collects, standardizes and disseminates all relevant corporate, financial, market and M&A data — plus news and analysis — for industries including: banking, financial services, insurance, real estate, energy and media/communications.  SNL Financial is the single best source for financial information on business sectors critical to the global economy.  As a result, leading investment banks, investment managers, corporate executives, ratings agencies, government agencies, consulting firms, law firms and media such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Business Week, Forbes and Fortune rely on SNL Financial for the best possible information on the companies in their sectors. SNL Financial's reach is global with ten offices worldwide, employing a workforce of more than 1300 employees that's growing all the time. Corporate headquarters are in Charlottesville, Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and the University of Virginia. Other locations include New York, New Jersey, California, Colorado, the Washington DC area, Boston, India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

About Timmons Group
Timmons Group is a leading provider of geospatial, information architecture and engineering services focusing on ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Mobile and Enterprise solutions.  Timmons Group is a privately held ENR 500 company and maintains a strong business partner relationship with ESRI.  Timmons Group has been a recipient of both the ESRI Business Partner of the Year award and the ESRI Foundation Partner of the Year award. 

For more information about Timmons Group’s enterprise technology services, contact Chris Gerecke at chris.gerecke@timmons.com or visit http://www.timmonsgis.com.

Media contact:                                                             
Tim Asimos, CPSM
Corporate Marketing Manager
Timmons Group
804.200.6375
tim.asimos@timmons.com

Richmond, VA – February 17, 2010 – Timmons Group, a leader in enterprise geospatial products and services, announces an enhanced service that integrates Pictometry® image solutions into the Timmons Group LoGIStics suite of products. This offering includes Timmons Group’s Site LoGIStics solutions for Economic Development and Web LoGIStics for Assessment and Parcel Mapping, which, as a result of this enhancement, will now include modules for oblique visualization.  All web-based LoGIStics products are built on top of ESRI’s ArcGIS Server tools, leveraging the 9.3.1 Flex API from ESRI.

Pictometry International Corp., a leading provider of aerial, oblique imagery and measuring software, provides visualization solutions to assessment, GIS, public safety and planning and development professionals, as well as customers in B2B industries. The company’s comprehensive suite of data and analysis tools includes Pictometry Online™ (POL), LiDAR, Pictometry Critical 360™ and others based on the use of 3D-like oblique imagery for improved decision making, planning and enhanced visualization. 

“We work hard to understand the specific business needs of our clients and build robust solutions to meet those needs,” said Lowell Ballard, Director of Geospatial Solutions at Timmons Group. “Enhancing our LoGIStics suite of products with Pictometry’s advanced data is going to elevate our offering and build a superior tool for all users.”

About Pictometry
Pictometry International Corp. is a leading provider of geo-referenced, aerial image libraries and related software. Pictometry has captured over 130 million digital aerial images representing coverage in more than 80 percent of the United States population. Using its proprietary imaging process, Pictometry captures geo-referenced, high-resolution oblique (at an angle, producing a 3-D like view) and orthogonal (straight down) Intelligent Images®, within which structures and land features can be measured. For more information on Pictometry, visit www.pictometry.com.

About Timmons Group
Timmons Group is a leading provider of geospatial, information architecture and engineering services focusing on ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Mobile and Enterprise solutions.  Timmons Group develops solutions across multiple platforms, including Adobe Flex, Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and JavaScript.  Timmons Group is a privately held ENR 500 company and maintains a strong business partner relationship with ESRI.  Timmons Group has been a recipient of both the ESRI Business Partner of the Year award and the ESRI Foundation Partner of the Year award.  For more information about Timmons Group’s Geospatial products and services, contact Lowell Ballard at lowell.ballard@timmons.com or visit http://gis.timmons.com.

About Timmons Group
Timmons Group is a multi-disciplined engineering and technology firm recognized for nearly twenty years as one of Engineering News Record’s (ENR) Top 500 Design Firms in the country.  The firm provides civil engineering, environmental, GIS/geospatial technology, landscape architecture and surveying services to a diverse client base. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Timmons Group has regional offices throughout Virginia and North Carolina. For more information, visit www.timmons.com.

Media contact:                                                             
Tim Asimos, CPSM
Corporate Marketing Manager
Timmons Group
804.200.6375
tim.asimos@timmons.com

Lyn McDermid, senior vice president and chief information officer, has been named recipient of the Outstanding Woman Award in the Business category by the YWCA of Richmond.
The awards recognize and celebrate the outstanding women of Central Virginia. This year's winners were selected based on their impact in the community, leadership skills, level of personal and professional achievement, and commitment to the YWCA of Richmond's mission to eliminate racism, empower women and elevate children.
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the awards. Since 1980, the YWCA has presented awards in 10 categories, including arts, business, communications, government and politics, and volunteerism. Previous honorees from Dominion include Eva Teig Hardy, retired executive vice president-Public Policy & Environment, and Marjorie Grier, director-Corporate Philanthropy.

Our Cisco IT Advisory Board has continued to grow!  With the addition of eight new business partners this year, we now have business partners, instructors, and alumni on the board representing 18 different companies and organizations in the greater Richmond area!

Upcoming Events:

• The Senior Capstone RFP Project Kickoff will be on Feb. 26
• Our Fourth Annual Gaming Tournament Fundraiser, CTC-GT4, will be held on Friday evening, March 12.  Visit the website at www.CTCGT.com <http://www.CTCGT.com>  .  We are still seeking sponsorship and donations for this educational fundraising event.  Advisory Board members and business partners are invited to attend.
• Telephone Interview Day for 1st year students on March 3 and March 5
• Skills USA Technology & Leadership District Competitions on March 20

Career Trips:

• 2nd year students will visit Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) on March 4
• 1st year students will visit Cisco Customer Briefing Center in Herndon, VA on March 19
• 2nd year students will visit Cisco Worldwide TAC in RTP, NC on March 26
• We are working on rescheduling trips to Peak 10 - Richmond Data Center, that were cancelled due to "the blizzard of 2010".

Successes:

• The continued growth of our Advisory Board.
• The CTC Cisco Networking Academy has been nominated for RichTech's 2010 Educator Award.
• We have completed the process of applying to become recognized as a Governor's Academy for IT.
• We have established a presence on LinkedIn with our Cisco IT Advisory Board.
• Five students recently passed their CompTIA Net+ Certification.
• We are finalizing a plan for our students to be able to obtain a college certificate in IT before they even graduate high school through our partnership with John Tyler.
• We have had several business partners and alumni come in this year as guest speakers to share their expertise and motivate the students.

Thank you for your willingness to partner with us in our efforts to educate the students and promote the highest quality IT programs possible.  With your continued support, we are looking forward to many more successes this year!

Linda Lester, Maureen Noe, and Scott Steinruck Cisco Networking Academy Chesterfield Technical Center
10101 Courthouse Rd.
Chesterfield, VA 23832
(804) 768-6160 ext. 1236
scott_steinruck@ccpsnet.net

One year anniversary is February 8th
Job search feature has been added to the site
Extreme Career Makeover Contest launches to celebrate

Richmond, Va (February 8, 2010) - RichmondJobNet.com, a career resource tool of the Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc., is celebrating its one year anniversary by launching new web site features and the RichmondJobNet Extreme Career Makeover contest.  New site features and enhancements include a job search tool, a listing of career focused blogs, a career assessment tool, and links to help job seekers learn more about the region’s quality of life.  The contest winner will receive personal career counseling valued at more than $1500.

Gregory H. Wingfield, CEO and president of the Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc., said, “Despite the difficult economic times, metro Richmond is consistently rated as a good place for jobseekers.  As recent as January, Juju.com ranked metro Richmond as one the top 20 least difficult places to find a job”.  Wingfield added, “RichmondJobNet’s purpose is to continue to help build Greater Richmond’s reputation as a career destination.  The site’s tools make it easier for a talented workforce to find jobs in our region and help us support new and expanding businesses.” He continued, “With workforce one of our top selling features for businesses looking to expand or locate in our area, it’s imperative to nurture our talent pool.”

Sara Dunnigan, senior vice president at the Partnership and program manager for RichmondJobNet, said, “We recognized there are hundreds of online job boards which makes it difficult for jobseekers.  On the RichmondJobNet site, we list some great local job boards and now feature a simple job search function to make it even easier for job seekers to find opportunities in Greater Richmond.”  Dunnigan added, “The new search feature helps people find job listings faster. This gives them more time to research organizations they’re interested in, tailor resumes, pursue additional training and get out to network.  That’s really what it takes to position oneself for job opportunities.”

One year statistics:

• The website has had more than 33,100 unique visitors from every state in the U.S. and well as several foreign countries.
• Twitter also the Partnership to connect directly with jobseekers.  The Twitter account has more than 2,030 Followers and has posted 14,414 tweets of which 90% were Richmond region job leads.  There have been several individuals receiving interviews with companies they didn’t know were hiring except for the Tweet lead.  Several have landed jobs.

New site features:

• The new job search feature makes it quicker and easier for visitors to link directly to job postings within a 50 mile radius of Richmond, Virginia.
• A new directory of blogs dedicated to job searches and career development has been added as an additional resource to site visitors seeking to enhance their job search skills.
• RichmondJobNet Radio will host a series of interviews available as podcasts with regional and national experts and best-selling authors on career development, business and entrepreneurism.

Dunnigan stated, “We recognize people are still looking for jobs and we want to help.  The RichmondJobNet Extreme Career Makeover contest is our way recognizing the site’s one year anniversary and to help one lucky jobseeker receive professional career counseling to land their next job.” 

The contest runs from Monday, February 8, 2010 through Friday, February 26, 2010.  The winner will receive expert career counseling services valuing more than $1500 in total.  Contest details and entries can be found at www.richmondjobnet.com/contest.

The Greater Richmond Partnership was launched in 1994 as a pioneering regional public-private initiative to serve as the regional economic development group for the City of Richmond and counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico. The mission is to help grow the Greater Richmond economy through the attraction of high quality jobs and new capital investment, the retention of existing businesses, and the continued improvement of the region's business climate. For more information, please visit www.grpva.com.

###

Media Contact:
Sara Dunnigan
Senior Vice President
Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc.
O: (804) 343-6968
C: (804) 263-6393
sdunnigan@grpva.com

Pamela DiSalvo Lepley
VCU Communications and Public Relations
(804) 828-6057
pdlepley@vcu.edu

Ed Grier, who most recently served as president of Disneyland Resort, has been named the new dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business.

Grier’s appointment, which is effective March 8, results from a national search that attracted more than 70 applicants, including sitting deans. Grier spent 29 years at the $38 billion, Fortune 500 Walt Disney Company, gaining extensive experience in international operations, union negotiations, brand management, administration, finance and planning, marketing, audits, capital projects and government relations. Grier also will serve as a professor of business at VCU.

“We have worked hard to develop a collaborative atmosphere among our schools of Business, Engineering and Medicine, and Ed Grier instantly grasped the potential of those efforts,” said Stephen Gottfredson, provost and vice president for academic affairs at VCU.“ He has the strong support of the business community as well as the school’s faculty and staff.”

Michael Rao, president of VCU, added, “Ed Grier’s leadership and ability in resource development and strategy will advance the VCU School of Business to be one of the best in the nation."

Grier began his professional career with Ernst and Young as a member of the audit staff in Pittsburgh, Pa. He joined Disney in 1981 and rose through the company’s ranks gaining broad cross-functional experience in the finance, marketing and operations divisions. He served in several executive leadership positions with responsibility for multiple lines of business both in the United States and abroad. Highlights include managing marketing development at Disneyland Paris, serving as general manager for operations at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Fla., and time in Tokyo as vice president, representative director of Walt Disney Attractions Japan. He was named president of Disneyland Resort in 2006.

Grier is a frequent lecturer on business leadership and has served on the California Travel and Tourism Commission and the California Economic Recovery Task Force. He also served on the boards of the Children’s Hospital of Orange County in California, and Health Central Hospital in Florida. He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Duquesne University.

"Ed's rich professional background fits perfectly with the mission of the VCU School of Business to produce students that are 'business-ready,'” said Steven A. Markel, vice chairman of the Markel Corporation and chair of the VCU School of Business Foundation. “The entire board of the School of Business Foundation is excited to work with Ed to ensure that the school continues to offer an education that enables students to thrive after graduation."

David Urban, Ph.D., a professor of marketing who has served as interim dean since July 2009, has been named executive associate dean of the School of Business. Urban, who has been on the school’s faculty for 20 years, has served as chair of the Department of Marketing in the School of Business and as the director of both the Commonwealth Poll and the Survey Evaluation Research Lab in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. 

 

###

About VCU and the VCU Medical Center:  Virginia Commonwealth University is a major, urban public research university with national and international rankings in sponsored research. Located on two downtown campuses in Richmond, VCU enrolls more than 32,000 students in 211 certificate and degree programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-nine of the programs are unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU’s 13 schools and one college. MCV Hospitals and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University compose the VCU Medical Center, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers. For more, see www.vcu.edu.

 

OLYMPIA MEOLA AND JEFF E. SCHAPIRO TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS
Published: February 5, 2010

Virginia's new secretary of technology is taking command of negotiations with Northrop Grumman in the latest attempt to salvage relations with the company hired to run the state's computer network.

Jim Duffey is in talks with the defense contractor, attempting to forge an agreement that could mean more money for Northrop Grumman while improving services, which legislative investigators have derided as spotty, costly and behind schedule.

An informal agreement calls for the company to receive an additional $37.5 million annually in the final four years of the contract. The state would receive about $5 million in new services under that arrangement.

"I can tell you that the existence of a financial transaction between the two parties, how much and when, are precisely areas that have to be dealt with and agreed to," Duffey said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Duffey's hands-on role is widely viewed as a sign that the new Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, wants to quickly remedy the state's troubled deal with the politically muscular firm that pumped thousands of dollars into his campaign and inauguration.

Northrop Grumman, hired in 2005 under a 10-year, $2.3 billion contract to modernize the state's IT system, is a year late in refitting agencies with new equipment. The company also has battled with the state over services that Northrop Grumman says fall outside the contract and for which it wants more money.

For months, the company and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency have struggled to find common ground on possible modifications to the contract.

With legislators balking at paying Northrop Grumman more while the state faces a $4 billion budget shortfall, VITA's head, George Coulter, has estimated that dumping the company and creating an alternative to the Northrop Grumman-managed network could cost taxpayers as much as $600 million.

Meanwhile, the Virginia Senate is working on legislation that would give McDonnell direct control over the state's computer bureaucracy by assigning to the governor the power to hire and fire the state's computer boss.

A Senate subcommittee yesterday finished tweaking legislation by Sens. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax, Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico, and Ryan T. McDougle, R-Hanover, that mirrors a measure approved Wednesday by a House committee.

Both bills could be up for floor votes next week. Like the House bill, carried by Del. Kathy J. Byron, R-Campbell, the Senate measure includes a provision under which the changes take effect as soon as the governor signs the legislation.

Duffey, installed just three weeks ago by McDonnell, comes from the private sector and served on the board of the Northern Virginia Technology Council with Linda A. Mills, president of Northrop Grumman's Information Systems, which holds the Virginia contract.

Duffey said yesterday that in negotiating for the state, "my job is to ensure that we get value for every dollar we spend in information technology."

 

RichTech considers the following priorities paramount to the success of Virginia’s technology infrastructure and economic development.

Accordingly, RichTech calls upon Governor McDonnell and the General Assembly to:

• Ensure that the Commonwealth’s tax and regulatory environment supports the strategic growth and attraction of technology based industries, and provide incentives for entrepreneurial startups.
• Sustain the Commonwealth’s investment in Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology to include level funding for CIT services and $2.5M in additional funding for the GAP program to encourage technology-based entrepreneurism.
• Expand Virginia’s capacity for R&D and facilitate new partnerships between the private sector and Virginia’s research universities in conducting and commercializing basic research, applied research and development, and university-developed intellectual property.
• Fund the Commonwealth Technology Research Fund (CTRF) at $5M.
• Support initiatives to establish Virginia as a center for biotechnology and nanotechnology industries and research.
• Encourage use of technology and Commonwealth participation in National Healthcare initiatives for increasing quality and decreasing cost.
• Preserve funding for Virginia’s K-12 and  Higher Education Systems, furthermore:
• Develop programs that inform and encourage students to pursue higher education in areas critical to the continued growth of Virginia’s technology industry.  Provide financial and other incentives for students entering degree programs in math, science, and engineering, to include: continued funding for FIRST Robotics, student internships, and STEM Education.
• Develop programs that inform and encourage non-college bound students to earn technology related certifications in areas critical to the continued growth of Virginia’s technology industry.  Provide financial and other incentives for schools and technology companies to participate in these programs. 
• Support e-government initiatives that incorporate information technologies and enabling procedures that enhance the services provided to Virginia’s citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.
• Support the Council of Virginia’s Future as an effective vehicle for defining long-term objectives for the Commonwealth and championing a culture of performance measurement in state agencies.  With representation from the executive and legislative branches of state government, and recognized captains of business and industry, RichTech is uniquely positioned to blend the best of public and private sector organization and management.
• Support the establishment of the Information Technology Investment Council (ITIC) to replace the current Information Technology Investment Board (ITIB).  The ITIC should serve as a policy council under the Governor with the power and duty to advise the Chief Information Officer (CIO) on: (i) development of all major information technology projects; (ii) strategies and standards regarding state agency use of information technology; and (iii) the development of enterprise applications, application budgets, and infrastructure expenditures. The ITIC  should be composed of agency representatives from each Cabinet Secretary and citizens.
• Support reform in IT procurement, the centralization and streamlining of all procurement processes and functions to increase productivity, efficiency, reduce costs, increase competition and become more business friendly.