Somerset County Visits Its Smart Future

By Rich Reitman

The Somerset County Business Partnershiup outlinesd Somerset County’s Smart Future at a confenece held at the AT&T Labs Research facility in Bedminster, New Jersey. The theme of the conference was “How Technology Being Developed in Somerset County Will Help People Live, Work, and Play Smarter.”

Presented in cooperation with AT&T, Sita Corp., North Highland, and Juniper Networks presenters acknowledged that Somerset County has long been a hub for innovation technologies in the communication and pharmaceutical fields. Building on that rich history of originality and modernization, the conference showcased Somerset County’s ongoing commitment to ensuring a smart and productive future.

Keynote speaker was Stephen Burger, Area Vice President, AT&T Mobility/Emerging Devices. Additional presenters included Rom Reddy, President and CEO of SITA Corp., Darryl Ramsey, Senior Business Development Strategist at Juniper Networks, and Matt Julian, Principal at North Highland.

Business Partnership President/CEO Mike Kerwin opened the conference by thanking representatives at AT&T for first proposing the idea of having a conference devoted to explaining the technological innovation taking place in Somerset County. With the business community’s commitment to “playing offense,” the Smart Future Conference represented how Somerset County will continue to attract the top multi-national corporations and the most creative innovators in the world to its borders.

Charlene Brown, Regional Vice-president of External Affairs for AT&T, noted how the world has historically been reshaped by people from New Jersey through the efforts of innovators in the pharmaceutical and telecommunications industries, with AT&T leading the way in the development of products that will change the future.

Steve Burger noted that AT&T innovators apply for an average of 10 patents per day with the Emerging Devices Group leading the way. Focus of Emerging Devices is to connect with anything beyond the smartphone, accelerating new business with applications in the automobile, health, and communications industries. Estimates are that there will be 25 billion connected devices in 2015, including automobiles with imbedded connectivity.

He detailed the workings of the AT&T Drive Studio where employees are working on safety, security, convenience, and speech recognition issues including automobiles with Wi-fi hot spots, apps, and fully integrated car technologies.

Additional consumer products under development are Amber Alert tracking devices and 2-way voice products with tracking to allow parents to monitor the location of children. Another strong and growing market in the consumer electronics field are wearables, specifically fitness devices that monitor health and activity. Issues in this area that are being addressed are battery life and simplification of data input.

In the MHealth (medical) field, AT&T is working on retail devices, mobile devices, connectivity, disposables, wearables, and patient monitoring to facilitate independent living through remote monitoring, medication adherence, and wellness. EverThere is a person emergency response system that provides mobile two-way voice, 24/7 monitoring, GPS, hands free communication, and fall detection.

Development of a consolidated health platform is the next trend being addressed at AT&T. The goal is to allow people to manage their own health data while accepting input from multiple devices with the ability to pull health records from outside sources through a simple application.

Rom Reddy of Sita Corp. described the system that his firm is developing, designed to consolidate and share data on a myriad of mobile apps. The goal of the program is to have all information delivered in one view on any device that can be held in the palm of the hand. The application, named Sojourner, is a data integration mobile application that is simple, secure, flexible, and scalable, and will integrate with any system.

Sita Corp. is also developing customized applications for inventory control, sales monitoring, and cloud-based communication that can monitor 1,000,000 emails sent, delivering data on how many were opened and read. In addition, the program will provide for instant delivery to a wide variety of targeted populations to facilitate online shopping and emergency management applications.

Darryl Ramsey discussed how the power of the connected word has the capability of empowering all populations. His firm, Juniper Networks, provides the engineering for global delivery of information through a cloud-based system.

A market that his firm is currently addressing is the Baby Boomer generation who are now retiring from their careers and requiring a new level of connectivity. To satisfy this need, Juniper is building high IQ networks that have feature-rich applications to appeal to this new leisure-time generation.

Somerset County’s reputation as a center for innovation resulted in the company setting up its “Open Lab” think tank in Bridgewater. The facility is the center for innovation for the company, offering programming application sessions, product briefings, Beta test hosting, technology and platform sessions, and academia specific sessions.

Matt Julian of North Highland addressed the marketing aspect of technological development, discussing the need for effective branding to build successful innovation. He explained that branding addresses the heart and the mind and too often, these emotional drivers are omitted from technological thinking.

Technological innovation should focus on people, process, and technology with the concept of user adoption relating to the acceptance of new technology by targeted markets. For these products to be successful, brand development must accompany technological development with the brand platform providing the foundation of the brand strategy. The brands should include consideration of values, promise, vision, and mission with company employees serving as stewards of the brand during both development and marketing.

Freeholder Director Patrick Scaglione summed up the session noting that success does not happen by mistake and that Somerset County’s success has been well orchestrated by effective private sector entrepreneurs and political leaders.

Congressman Leonard Lance offered closing remarks, commenting “A major portion of my Congressional District is Somerset County, New Jersey’s center of technology where some of the Nation’s best minds and state-of-the-art facilities are delivering consumers an experience that is mobile, high-speed, wireless and cutting-edge. The Business Partnership continues to provide the leadership and vision that helps to facilitate growth and assure that the workforce is prepared to meet the needs of the future.”

Congress has a responsibility to maintain pace with technology and innovation. The Congressman serves on the House Energy & Commerce Committee and its Communications and Technology Subcommittee, allowing him the opportunity to address the needs of the telecommunications industry. In addition, the Congressman serves on the Health Subcommittee which involves another important part of his constituency, the pharmaceutical industry in Somerset County.

Photo caption: Stephen Burger, Area Vice President, AT&T Mobility/Emerging Devices offers the keynote address at the Somerset County Business Partnership Smart Future Conference