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IND Partners with URS Corporation to Demonstrate How NJ Companies Can Use Technology to Gain Competitive Advantage
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| From left to right: Douglas Rahn, President & CEO, IND; Scot Bini, Vice President, Education Services, URS; Eric Speidel, Vice President & Director of Web Services, IND; Scott Wittig, Senior Account Manager, IND; Dr. John Whiting, Director of E-Business Services, IND. |
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Parsippany, NJ (February 16, 2004) -- The race
is on! Experts agree that the success of all businesses
will inevitably be based on the effective use of technology.
Forrester Research states that one of the Top Trends
for 2004 is, “ongoing pressure to achieve
IT/business alignment.” This pressure
is created by the knowledge that those companies that
can gain early success in achieving the integration
of technology into their strategic business plans,
and align the power of technology with business processes,
will have a significant competitive advantage, achieve
dramatic cost savings leading to higher profits and
advantage over those companies that lag behind. New
Jersey companies can elect to either take a leadership
position and gain the advantages that can come from
being a leader, or can be a follower and allow other
states to achieve the business advantages.
Two New Jersey companies, URS Corporation and IND, have recognized this opportunity and are taking action
to capitalize on it. According to Hoover 's Online,
URS ranks as the world's leading design firm (construction
giant Bechtel is #2). IND is a 14 year old Parsippany, New Jersey based e-business enablement, network and
Web services firm recently recognized by NJBiz Magazine
as “One of New Jersey's Finest Companies.”
For nearly a year, URS and IND have been partnering
to create the technology based strategy to deliver
the construction and engineering services offered by
URS to such customers as the New Jersey Economic Development
Authority (NJEDA), New Jersey Schools Construction
Corporation (NJSCC) and over a dozen school districts
engaged in multi-million dollar school construction
projects in New Jersey. The goal of the URS/IND partnership
is to provide more cost effective, efficient and quality
service by applying IND's IT/business alignment and
e-business enablement methodology to the delivery of
URS services. The New Jersey URS schools construction
services project, up until recently was under the leadership
of Scot Bini, a Middletown, New Jersey resident. He
has recently been promoted to head the URS National
Education Markets business unit.
Dr. John T. Whiting, IND's Director of E-Business
Services and author of the IND E-Business
Enablement Methodology™ says “When Scot Bini was honored
by NJBiz Magazine as one of New Jersey's top 40 business
executives under 40 years of age, I knew I had to talk
to him about how technology could improve his company's
performance. It was immediately clear that Scot
had an awareness that technology was going to be a
critical part of his growing business, and that he
could gain great benefit from taking early and aggressive
action to capitalize on its power,” Dr. Whiting
recalls.
“Scot was quick to act. He was aware that investing
in technology without having a clear plan as to how
it could support his Education Services Marketing Plan
and be integrated into the URS strategic business plan
no longer made sense,” Dr. Whiting remembers.
Scot Bini said, “When IND introduced me to
their IND E-Business Enablement Methodology, which
is based on strategic business planning and budgeting, processes and management by objectives (MBO), and
return on investment (ROI) criteria, I said that
is exactly what I need – a plan that will allow me
to make technology decisions with the knowledge that
there is low risk and can deliver significant value
to our business, the NJEDA, the SCC, our business partners, and our customers.”
Following his reassignment to direct the Regional
Education Construction Services Division (CSD), Bini
teamed up with fellow URS executive, Rich Kruter, the
head of the General Engineering Division (GED) to launch
a marketing plan to promote both URS Divisions. This
innovative internal partnership, supported by IND,
targets the delivery of more timely, cost effective
and specifically responsive information to its school
district clients, and more rapid, accurate and responsive
service to business partners and customers. This collaboration
by the URS CSD and GED Divisions in partnership with
IND will make it possible for URS to gain twice the “bang
from their buck” while integrating the power of technology
into the URS Education Marketing Plan, and will deliver
business process support via web Web based portal technology
that can achieve URS goals at less cost while delivering
a much higher quality of service to constituents.
Dr. Whiting notes that “The URS/IND partnership
is a ‘win win' for all concerned. URS will achieve
a significant reduction in both marketing and project
management expenses; will be able to respond and share
information in real time to customers as well as those
engaged in critical day-to-day operations. Customers
will be able to access the information they desire
60/24/7. Information related to ongoing specific
projects will be available to all involved with the
projects via a Web portal 60/24/7. This
will minimize costly project delays, miscommunications,
scheduling and other project problems while improving
project management efficiency. New Jersey funding
organizations, such as the NJEDA and SCC, will be provided
with immediate and moment to moment access to URS project
status information via the URS Web portal. This
has the potential to achieve cost reductions for both
URS and SCC while improving SCC's ability to monitor
the status of projects and ensure they are in compliance
with SCC requirements. The power of the URS/IND partnership
will result in cost savings to URS, the school district
projects, the cost of NJEDA and SCC monitoring operations
and eventually, to the taxpayers of New Jersey.”
Dr. Whiting also believes that New Jersey is positioned
to become a leader in the use of technology to gain
competitive advantage and increased profitability for
those companies that can follow the lead of URS.
“Just think of the value that could come to all New
Jersey residents if companies followed the URS example
and were able to achieve the early integration of technology
into their strategic business plans, reduce operating
costs and achieve higher profits. The benefit to New
Jersey,” states Dr. Whiting, “would be gains in taxable
income, leading to significant improvement to the economy,
early elimination of the budget deficit, and the ability
to provide residents with critical services without
the need for new taxes. The potential is also there
to reduce the cost of government operations yielding
millions of dollars in savings.”
Dr. Whiting indicates that a proposal has been made
by IND to help New Jersey companies gain early advantage
from the power of technology to New Jersey Governor
James McGreevey and many of the State's business organizations. “If
our leaders got behind a plan to support all New Jersey
companies in the effective use of technology, it could
have a significant impact on the state's economy and
the quality of life for residents,” Dr. Whiting believes.
It is prophetic that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon predicted at the 2004 World Economic Summit, “The
problems of the world, ‘will be solved not by politicians
but by technology'." However, Dr. Whiting
believes that New Jersey political leaders have a significant
opportunity to provide the leadership and facilitate
the information exchange that can expedite the progress
of New Jersey businesses in achieving early IT/business
alignment and e-business enablement. “The benefits
will be significant for all New Jersey residents,” predicts
Dr. Whiting.
About IND
Since 1990, IND has provided the complete range of E-Business, Network and Web Services required to become fully E-Business enabled. IND is the recognized leader in providing a strategy to guide the integration of technology into the strategic business plan via the IND E-Business Enablement Methodology™, a road map for businesses to gain control and manage their e-business assets. As a direct result of our corporate governance and employee's dedication to uncompromising quality, IND was awarded 2003 New Jersey's Finest by NJBiz Magazine.
For more information about IND, visit http://www.indcorp.com, e-mail sales@indcorp.com or call 973-227-5020.
About URS
The URS National Education Division is a division
of URS Corporation, the world's leading design
firm employing approximately 26,000 employees. URS
provides planning, design, program and construction
management, and operations and maintenance services
to local, state, and federal governments, as well as
to private and international clients in the chemical,
manufacturing, pharmaceutical, forest products, mining,
oil and gas and utilities industries. The URS National
Education Division provides the full range of construction
related services to the education market nationally.
URS also ranks among the top designers for the transportation
industry (air and surface transportation, mass transit,
and rail) and provides a broad range of engineering
and architectural services to several other sectors
serving client needs from 300 offices in more than
20 countries.
To learn more about URS National Education Services
contact URS via e-mail at scot_bini@urscorp.com or
by telephone at 732-275-1673.
Press Contact:
Eric Speidel
Tel: 973-227-5020 ext. 130
E-Mail: customercare@indcorp.com
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