TECH TALK—Wiring L.A. Schools for Net Access Is Boon for Firm

0

Officials from Wareforce.com Inc. met with the Los Angeles Unified School District last week to get the ball rolling on a project in which Wareforce will wire 102 L.A. schools with high-speed Internet access.

Wareforce, an information services provider, is being paid as much $56 million for the LAUSD project, with the lion’s share of that money coming from federal grant program E-RATE and the rest coming from LAUSD.

The project promises to significantly boost Wareforce’s revenues. Last year, the company generated about $150 million in revenue, up from $90 million the year before, according to spokeswoman Marcia Mazria.

“It shows a lot of confidence,” she said. “(Federal grant and LAUSD officials) checked us out really carefully, and they saw a company that could deliver for them.”

The LAUSD is currently negotiating contracts with various private-sector companies vying to eventually install fiber-optic wiring in the rest of the 650 LAUSD schools.

Meanwhile, Wareforce is expected to begin wiring work on the first school during the first week of September.

Wareforce executives last week submitted work plans to LAUSD officials for 12 schools, along with plans for quality and safety control, and a projected schedule for the next 10 months, said Gabe Nativedad, director of infrastructure development for Wareforce. The company hopes to complete its work on all 102 schools by May 15.

“What’s being designed and engineered will give immediate Internet access to students who today don’t know what the Internet is,” Nativedad said. “It’s just such a great opportunity to see this getting connected up.”

Stamps.com, Quicken Team Up

Online postage provider Stamps.com has sealed a major deal with Intuit Inc., maker of the Quicken suite of financial software.

Under the deal, Stamps.com’s services will be integrated into various parts of Quicken 2001 Basic, Deluxe and Home & Business software products. For example, when employers print out checks to vendors, they can also print out envelopes with postage.

“We’re excited about the relationship, and it aligns us with one of the premier brands out there,” said Doug Walner, senior vice president and general manager of Stamps.com’s small-business unit. “We stand to gain from that.”

Intuit sells a couple million units of Quicken each year, Walner said, adding that Stamps.com would also benefit from co-promotion and marketing on Quicken.com. “Their customer base is in the double-digit millions,” he said.

Stamps.com will also offer some special promotions, including free postage for a limited time, to Quicken users.

Though Walner would not disclose detailed terms of the deal, he said, “They market our services, and we get customer acquisition and money.”

The two companies will also share in the money generated from postage sales through the partnership.

Smart Shirts

LifeShirt.com, a vital-signs monitoring company, recently secured a $7.5 round of funding from investors including Credit Suisse First Boston.

The L.A.-based company has already completed the “alpha” prototype of a comfortable shirt that keeps track of life signs, including heart rate and respiration. The funds will be used to continue product development.

“This will help us get all the way to a marketable product,” said Andrew Behar, chief operating officer and founder of LifeShirt.

CyberFund LLC and Hammer Capital Management Inc., both of Santa Barbara, and some angel investors also participated in the round.

Year-old LifeShirt has licensed patents for a system that is currently used in thousands of hospitals to monitor vital signs. That system monitors life signs with bands strapped across the chest and abdomen, connected to a box stationed under the bed. Engineers at LifeShirt have developed a miniaturized version of the technologies used in the box, and put it into a portable pager-sized device. They then designed a shirt with the monitoring bands sewn in and the pager-sized devices attached.

“We want to have a product by the end of January, ready for FDA submission,” Behar said.

Initially, the company’s customers will be pharmaceutical manufacturers.

“The goal is to help speed development and safety of new medicines, using the LifeShirt in clinical drug trials,” Behar said.

Doctors, patients, hospitals and managed care groups are all potential future clients for LifeShirt, he added.

Staff reporter Laura Dunphy can be reached at [email protected].

No posts to display