Columbus Chamber Blog: Information about economic development, economic and business trends, Columbus workforce, programs, events and the Chamber of Commerce in and around Columbus, OH

We want YOU to be a Columbus ambassador!

By Robbie Banks, Young Professionals Manager, Columbus Chamber

As the Young Professionals Manager at the Columbus Chamber, my role is to serve as the go-to gal for anything related to attracting and retaining young professionals (YPs) in the Columbus Region. I discover ways to connect and engage folks so that you stay here for the long haul, ensuring that employers will have the best and brightest minds available in the labor pool. More or less, it’s my job to be an ambassador for Columbus. How cool is that?

I’d like to deputize each of YOU as a Columbus ambassador, too. But first, I have two homework assignments for you.

Your first assignment is to be informed and aware of super cool things that are going on in Columbus. How?

Sign up for my weekly email called Activities and Events for Young Professionals. If you’re not already receiving this email, sign up here. Also, pick up Columbus Alive each Thursday and The Columbus Dispatch Weekender. Check out ColumbusUnderground.com. Browse outlook:columbus each month. Scan the local radio, TV and community calendars, too. It’s your job to know what’s going on.

Second, play in your own backyard.

Experience Columbus Days offer a perfect opportunity to enjoy our community. On these days, you’ll receive exclusive discounts at the city’s best attractions and independently-owned restaurants. Mark your calendars for October 8-11 this year. Experience Columbus is also a tremendous resource for anyone that’s seeking information on local hotels, attractions, dining, events and activities in Columbus.

For the college students, you have an awesome online resource called EasyColumbus.com, “the everything off-campus guide.” In fact, Easy Columbus just published a list of “100 things to do in Columbus before you graduate.” I encourage everyone, whether you’re in college or not, to see how many items you can check off the list.

Columbus needs your fresh ideas, enthusiasm and brains to continue to elevate our status as one of the top-tier talent magnet cities. Think of Columbus as your blank canvas. You can create any lifestyle that you want here and make your mark. I can’t think of another city where I can live a balanced life and live well. This is YOUR city. YOU are our future leaders, and quite frankly, our local employers and organizations need you.

I ask you to hold your head up high when you tell people that you live in Columbus. Like Mayor Coleman has said, we should walk with a swagger. Columbus is an exceptional place for young professionals to live, work and play.

This blog post is derived from Robbie's address to the attendees of the recent Columbus 2010 Young Professionals Career & Professional Development Conference.

Member Spotlight: iActionHR

iActionHR is a SaaS (software as a service) technology company that delivers  Human Resource Management software to its clients using secure "cloud-based" technology. Its clients are typically small to mid-market (50-2,500 employees), although it has one customer in Australia with over 20,000 employees. Its clients represent all industry sectors, however it has a number of clients in the high technology, business services, healthcare, construction  and retail/hospitality industries. What it uniquely provides its clients is the ability to manage their workforce with the same or better levels of efficiency as larger corporations that have spent millions on developing in-house HR software/Human capital management systems. Its services allow employers to improve efficiency, increase compliance and reduce costs. As its service is delivered via "the cloud," its clients do not need any investment in computer hardware, software or IT Specialists to use the system – all they need is a browser where they can access the system anywhere/anytime. "We provide HR management software your company can afford."

Why We’re Chamber Members:
iActionHR is a Chamber member because the company is based in Franklin County and its target audiences are the small to mid-sized businesses that are also members of the Chamber.

Fun Facts about iActionHR:
The company has 25 employees (and growing) in the company scattered in the United States, Australia, Japan and China, with employees from eight different countries including, the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Japan, China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam. It is a small but global company. Its product reflects global thinking, it operates multi-currency and multi-lingual (English – US, English – Australian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish – US).

Featured Products/Services:
The product enables companies to move their employee demographic data to 100 percent electronic records eliminating paper records and manual processes. Using an industrial strength database and built-in automated workflow capabilities it can reduce the time and cost to manage many of the labor intensive and time consuming HR processes (vacation requests, time reporting, performance tracking, employee status changes, etc). This enables companies to ‘do more with less’ and keep records of every employee related transaction in one place to provide reporting, compliance and business analytics. The system increases the productivity of employees, management, executives and enables HR professionals to focus on strategic HR issues instead of administrative tasks.

In the language or Human Resource professionals what it provides its clients and their workforce is:

• Time Management
• Absence Management
• Applicant Tracking
• Performance/Appraisal Management
• Workforce Scheduling
• Job Description/Position Management
• Competency and Skill tracking/Management
• Employee Development
• Employee Self Service
• Manager Self Service
• Open Enrollment
• Employee Asset Tracking
• Workforce Planning
• Automated Alerting & more

For more informtaion: www.iactionhr.com

The Columbus Chamber member spotlights put the focus on our member organizations. To submit your member organization for a spotlight contact Michelle Bretscher.

Member Spotlight: Rank By Search

Rank By Search is a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) with a unique Search Engine Optimization technology.  We were recently awarded funding by TechColumbus to develop our company and product. We have created a proprietary SEO application that gives organic search rankings based on key terms from actual user searches. Our user generated SEO, the AutoSEO Engine, is the first of its kind in the marketplace.

Why We're Chamber Members:
We joined the Chamber because it is a great organization with a huge community presence.  We love the opportunity to meet other members and participate in all the wonderful events that the Chamber organizes.

Fun Facts About Rank By Search:

• Our technology leader (CTO) Suresh Pillai is from India and previously owned a software development company.
• Our business plan was written by a real estate consultant and a certified financial planner, who are married and knew absolutely nothing about search engine marketing before they started. They worked on it together for months – and yes, they are still married.
• Our CMO lives in California and loves to ask us how the weather is here in Ohio.

Featured Products/Services:
The Rank By Search Technology. There are thousands of keywords and search terms relevant to any website, but how do you optimize all of them? Do you manually guess all of the possible terms including variations such as spelling errors and linguistic derivatives, and then pay per click for all of them with an unlimited budget? Most companies optimize the most common and obvious key terms, but how do you optimize what customers are actually searching for? Our Auto SEO Engine learns from your website users by optimizing every unique keyword that a user searches for within your site in real time, while also bringing in relevant content. User searches within your site are the most effective to optimize because they are specific and relevant to your products and services. The Engine finds out what your users want to buy, how they search for it, and then optimizes your site based on that behavior. This not only increases the amount of your site traffic but the quality of your site traffic. The terms are relevant buying terms, and the conversion rates of these terms will be significantly higher. The content building and optimization is done automatically in real time, so your website keeps up with changing market conditions and products.

For more information: www.RankBySearch.com

The Columbus Chamber member spotlights put the focus on our member organizations. To submit your member organization for a spotlight contact Michelle Bretscher.

Member Spotlight: Premiere Commercial Group

Premiere Commercial Group is a financial services firm that is a private money lender and mortgage banker providing loans for traditional and non-traditional real estate. Premiere is a service-oriented firm staffed with associates that are highly skilled in the underwriting and closing of commercial loans for our clients.

Why We’re Chamber Members:
I am a chamber member to meet new business owners like myself, promote my business and to have the in-depth resources that the chamber has to offer at my fingertips.

For more informtaion: www.premierecommercialgroup.com

The Columbus Chamber member spotlights put the focus on our member organizations. To submit your member organization for a spotlight contact Michelle Bretscher.

Member Spotlight: US Signal

US Signal is the premier telecommunications infrastructure provider of network services, IP transport and colocation facilities in the Midwest.

History:
US Signal’s fiber network was built between 1998 and 2000, when the company’s management owned US Xchange, a facilities-based competitive local exchange carrier headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Prior to that date, the owners of US Signal also successfully launched and operated Teledial Inc. and City Signal, Inc. Both companies were facilities-based fiber optic networks operating in the South, West and Midwest regions of the United States.
US Signal Company was established in 2000 with the vision of becoming a full-service, fiber optic provider offering carrier class service to carrier, wholesale and retail customers. US Signal has continued to grow its network by adding over 2,000 miles of fiber, access to over 100 on/off ramps, and tripling its metro market presence.

Featured Products/Services:
US Signal is a Data Service Provider that offers the following services:

• Dedicated Internet Access
• Private Line
• MPLS
• Virtual Ethernet
• Optical Wave
• Collocation

We provide our data networking solutions to enterprise and wholesale customers via our independent business partner/agent network. 

Network:
The US Signal debt-free, fiber optic network is one of the largest, fully-deployed networks in the Midwest, covering Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. With nearly 6,000 miles of lit fiber and metro rings in 21 strategic tier-one, tier-two and tier-three markets, the US Signal optical backbone features Cisco Systems Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology and is designed with a SONET, redundant architecture. All of US Signal’s services are delivered over this protected network to ensure resiliency, flexibility and scalability. Our around-the-clock surveillance also provides additional security and confidence. US Signal’s performance guarantee ensures quality service and dependable issue resolution to protect your profitability and vital customer relationships.

The US Signal team is committed to providing our customers with flexible, efficient and cost-effective solutions to meet their connectivity needs.

For more information: www.ussignalcom.com

The Columbus Chamber member spotlights put the focus on our member organizations. To submit your member organization for a spotlight contact Michelle Bretscher.