November 19, 2010 by Steve Brewer
Omaha (Left: Financial Transmission Network Inc. CEO Kurt Matis. Photo by Marlon Wright.) Merchants offer customers many ways to pay, including checks, credit cards and online transactions. This creates customer convenience, according to Kurt Matis, but it also leads to back-office complexity for merchants and higher costs for everyone. “If a business wants to scan checks, they usually need one piece of equipment,” Matis says. “If they want ACH… read more
November 18, 2010 by Danny Schreiber
Lincoln (Left: Christian Binek of University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Photo by Marlon Wright.) Size does matter when it comes to electronics. Consumers seem to prefer ever-smaller devices, but making things too small could lead to major technological problems in roughly 10 years. Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are working on both aspects of the size issue. The decreasing size of devices such as cell phones, mp3 players and computers… read more
November 17, 2010 by Sean McCarthy
Omaha (Left: Deb Bass of the Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NeHII). Photo by Marlon Wright.) Despite repeated calls for a digital healthcare records system, paper usually runs the show. You fill out the insurance form multiple times. Your critical records might be at another location across town. If you experience a health crisis, emergency room doctors might lack access to anything about your history. Deb Bass wants to eliminate… read more
November 16, 2010 by Steve Brewer
Omaha (Left: UNeMed president Michael Dixon. Photo by Marlon Wright.) Billions of dollars go into medical research, and billions can eventually be made from the resulting products. Unfortunately, there is often a large gap between an idea and its profits. This is called the “valley of death” in the health care field, and it’s UneMed’s job to bring local ideas through that valley to the other side. UNeMed is a division of the University of Nebraska Medical Center… read more
November 15, 2010 by Jasmine Maharisi
Omaha If you underwent triple bypass heart surgery, you wouldn’t want your doctor’s hands to cramp, or lose his grip of an instrument. During an average surgery lasting two to four hours, surgeons not only suffer the consequences of standing in one place for an extended time, but also the occasional slippery scalpel handle. Guru Instruments was created to solve this problem through ergonomic medical devices. Company founder Dr. Sam Bhatia said the idea for ergonomic instruments was a no-brainer. Born in Omaha, Bhatia studied medicine at the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital in India. read more
November 15, 2010 by Danny Schreiber
Omaha Over these next few days, we'll be publishing five stories from the latest special section that ran in The Reader, an Omaha weekly alternative newspaper. This special section, titled disRUPT (left: cover, courtesy of The Reader, photo by Marlon Wright), is a partnership between The Reader, Scott Technology Center and us, Silicon Prairie News. Here's the introduction to the series, also published in The Reader's November 4-10, 2010 issue: Disruptive Technology: A term coined by Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen to describe a new technology that unexpectedly displaces… read more
July 15, 2010 by Danny Schreiber
Omaha In addition to putting his leadership skills to work inside of TD AMERITRADE, Joe Moglia, the company's current chairman and former CEO, has been sharing them at conferences, fundraisers, and universities over the past decade. Friends of mine that have seen him speak say he's one of the most inspirational speakers they have heard. Although I didn't get to… read more
July 14, 2010 by Danny Schreiber
Omaha When Joe Moglia, former CEO and current chairman of TD AMERITRADE, sat down with The Reader's Kyle Tonniges for the first issue of disRUPT, he spoke candidly about subjects ranging from his childhood in Manhattan to his quest to land a career as a Division I head football coach. Most of all, he reflected on his tenure at AMERITRADE and the impact… read more
June 10, 2010 by Kyle Tonniges
Omaha The following article is part of a special insert in the June 3-9 issue of The Reader, a weekly newspaper focusing on the area's culture. | Innovation, determination and the courage to change the way business is done — the boldness to disrupt traditional thinking — is often prized in hindsight. Success, as they say, has a thousand fathers. But the courage to take that first step is a rare quality. In the rarified world of CEOs, TD AMERITRADE’s Joe Moglia is something of an anomaly. One of five children who grew up sharing a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, he’s truly a man who has made his own way in the world. After high school, he enrolled in Fordham University, hoping… read more
June 9, 2010 by Jill Bruckner
Omaha The following article is part of a special insert in the June 3-9 issue of The Reader, a weekly newspaper focusing on the area's culture. | Storm watching takes a new twist with WeatherFix. The geo-location weather technology app by the Omaha-based firm Êelios (a subsidiary of 21st Century Systems, Inc.) offers users precision forecasts with “pin-drop” accuracy. “The whole idea of WeatherFix is to provide a level of personalization relative to weather and your daily life,” said Dave Andersen, co-founder and CEO of Êelios. read more
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