In a move to upgrade county networking services, Cuyahoga County announced today that it has awarded OneCommunity, a local nonprofit dedicated to fostering economic development by leveraging information technology, a five-year contract designed to enhance, expand and maintain the County's existing network services. According to estimates, the Cuyahoga County taxpayers should realize a savings exceeding $10 million over term of the next five years.

Cuyahoga County selected OneCommunity for its unique ability to bring together a diverse consortium of technology vendors to deliver best-in-class services, including Global Crossing (GLBC), Cisco (CSCO), ICI Networks, certified minority business enterprise Texcel, as well as the Communications Workers of America.

Leveraging each organization's strengths, Cuyahoga County and OneCommunity will deliver a network infrastructure that will allow county government the freedom to leverage today's converged network technology solutions. OneCommunity will ensure the County receives advanced services that include the development, management and optimization of a wide area network (WAN); Voice-over-IP (VoIP), and Internet and wireless services in various County buildings. OneCommunity and Cuyahoga County will also oversee the management of the County-owned private network, and the necessary security and hardware upgrades.

Network enhancements and upgrades will produce significant efficiencies and corresponding cost savings. Specifics include:

• Providing network connectivity to two proposed new county facilities expected to be built over the next few years. After the new Juvenile Justice Center and Detention Center is built and the Emergency Operations Center is completed, the converged networks will increase network speed, provide significant bandwidth to facilitate application sharing, and bring a higher level of security and redundancy.
• Creating and enabling secure video conferencing to geographical gaps, saving taxpayer dollars by enabling video arraignments and reducing transportation challenges in the justice system. Video conferencing will also enable employees in different locations to communicate face-to-face without the need for travel.
• Providing wireless access within the Justice Center and Courthouse and County Administration Building, thereby increasing the efficiencies of the County's courts and allowing both attorneys and visitors to the Justice Center to access the Internet from their laptops or provided kiosks.
• Providing mobile County staff with wireless Internet access to their business applications.

"This is a significant, proactive effort to ensure our county facilities are up-to-date with the latest technology," said Daniel Weaver, Director of Information Services for Cuyahoga County. "We're expanding our converged network, enabling more effective communications and connectivity throughout the county, which will translate into a significant cost savings for taxpayers."

The innovative approach and collaborative partnerships developed by OneCommunity via its initiatives in education, health care, and government ensures synergies to Cuyahoga County's efforts to advance Northeast Ohio as a community poised for leadership in the new economy.

"We are excited about the opportunity to work with our partners to deliver the County, its employees and citizens powerful, state-of-the-art technology services," said Mark Ansboury, SVP and CTO of OneCommunity. "This partnership is in line with OneCommunity's and Cuyahoga County's vision to enhance community services while advancing Northeast Ohio as one of the world's most technology-sophisticated regions."

Hyland Software, developer of the OnBase document and process management software solution, has been selected by Westlake, OH-based Antares Management Solutions as the new provider of enterprise document management for Antares' parent company Medical Mutual of Ohio (MMO).

Antares implemented OnBase in June 2007 initially in Medical Mutual?s Claims, Financial Payment, Recovery and Provider Contracting departments to streamline business processes. Additional installations in 2008 include Membership Enrollments and Provider Registration.

"Antares was searching for a comprehensive, enterprise solution that was cost effective and we have found it," said Antares? CEO, Ed Hartzell. "By implementing OnBase, Antares and the companies for which it administers services, such as Medical Mutual, will achieve a reduction in cost, increased quality and efficiency, as well as increased protection of content."

"In adopting OnBase, Antares and MMO have made available ever-increasing, industry-leading functionality to their users," Ed McQuiston, director of Healthcare and Insurance solutions for Hyland Software stated. "With the ability to configure their own workflow and BPM solutions with OnBase and the cost-effective nature of the solution, Antares and MMO can now leverage enterprise content management across the enterprise, achieving greater ROI and enhancing member satisfaction."

Antares provides best-in-class business processing and application hosting services for the life, health and accident insurance industries, and information technology services for small to mid-sized organizations throughout North America. Procurement, installation and on-going support of OnBase was executed and continues to be maintained by Antares.

Turning Technologies, LLC, a leader in audience response technology, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Responsive Innovations, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Turning Tech Holdings, LLC, patent number 7,330,716 titled, “Transmitter Controlled Communication Links."

This patent is for the communication method that Turning’s ResponseCard® input devices utilize. ResponseCards integrate with Turning’s flagship software audience response application, TurningPoint®. This innovation has provided the platform for many of Turning’s product advantages including communication speed, minimal battery usage with long battery life, as well as the ability to package devices as convenient, extremely durable and reliable ResponseCards. Turning expects this to be the first of a number of global patent applications approved for this innovation.

“Our unique technical approach to student and audience response has provided our products with clear competitive advantages and contributed to our emergence as the world leader in our industry,” said Mike Broderick, CEO of Turning Technologies, LLC. “To have the U.S. Patent Office recognize this invention and award this patent is great news for both our company and our customers.”

About Turning Technologies, LLC

Turning Technologies, LLC develops interactive response systems utilizing the latest software and hardware tools available and transforms them into state of the art applications for audience response. The company’s flagship product, TurningPoint® Software and Responsive Innovations ResponseCard® (Keypads), integrate with Microsoft’s PowerPoint® software, providing the most advanced combination of knowledge and technology currently available in the field of audience and student assessment. In May 2007, PC Magazine awarded the TurningPoint response technology the coveted PC Magazine 4 Stars Rating.