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White Paper Source Information:
The Columbus Dispatch
The Dayton Daily News
Dayton Business Journal
Business First, Columbus
Milkin Inistitute
InterNet Research
Information Technology Foundation
for the 21st Century
Miami Valley Coalition
State Science Technology Institute

Greater Springfield Technology Initiative

Greater Springfield must be in the technology game. Information Technology (IT) is the future. Business and industry are changing significantly. New technological developments impact, transform, alter how products are produced, delivered, and serviced. There can be no doubt technology is the driving force in business today and will be in the future. Cities aggressively compete for the new emerging technology driven enterprises. The prerequisite for cities to be in this "high tech race" is to demonstrate the ability to provide the framework, the high-speed access platform -- the infrastructure critical to attracting IT related business. High-speed access to the Internet is not an option; it is essential.

A recent issue of Business First, a Columbus, Ohio, business publication, refers to the first statewide study of the information technology industry. "The IT payroll in Central Ohio is $3 Billion - 3 times what it was 10 years ago" a statement made by Frank Henson, president of the Industry & Technology Council of Central Ohio. In one decade IT-related employment has grown 80%, in fact, Columbus represents the second largest IT employment increase in the state. Right behind Columbus was Cincinnati, growing at a 40% rate. Moreover, Columbus has a greater concentration of IT workers per population than the national average. The study also notes that Columbus employs 47,205 workers (31% of the states IT
workforce) - with the average salary of nearly $60,000, twice the states average for all other industries combined. Henson says, "The biggest growth areas have been computer programming and computer-related services."

Information Technology is so important to Ohio that Governor Taft has created a statewide IT Alliance. Ohio's IT Alliance is comprised of six regional groups that represent the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, and Athens areas. The Ohio IT Alliance operates on an annual budget of $1.8 billion, and is totally funded by the state. However, Springfield is more closely aligned with the Dayton IT Alliance, a key member of the Miami Valley Coalition.

In the February 13, 2001 Milkin Institute Knowledge report - Value Cities in the Digital Age assessing the revitalization of America's urban centers and emerging technology areas in the country, the Dayton, Ohio region was ranked in the top ten of tier 2 Technology centers in the US. The Dayton region has received significant assistance from the federal government in support of IT growth in the area. In 1999, the Senate Finance Committee voted, 11-0 in favor of a two year, $22.5 billion operating budget that provides more money to link high technology with economic development in the Miami Valley. The report went on to state "a key objective is to enhance and accelerate IT growth through support of IT development in neighboring communities." Initiatives to encourage high-tech growth in its west-central Ohio urban centers include the Information Technology Alliance, and, as a member of The Miami Valley Coalition, it is a key component of a strategic plan that unites business, government, academic, and defense leaders around a single exciting vision - to develop the Miami Valley into one of the most livable regions in the Midwest. The plan includes building an environment for success retaining high value jobs, attracting new business development, and enhancing the region's core competencies in aerospace, automotive, information technology, entrepreneur business development and machining and tooling. The region supports IT companies such as NCR, Reynolds & Reynolds, Standard Register, newly formed Relizon, Cohesia, and Lexis Nexis. Springfield and Clark County are considered part of the Miami Valley.

In addition to being centrally located between Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati - Springfield sits next door to one of the biggest IT developers in the Midwest - Wright Patterson Air Force Base. "WPAFB claims the highest per capita PhD community in the country. Couple that with annual revenues of $12 billion and Wright Patterson is a significant IT player in the region.

IT Regional Development in Central-Southwest Ohio

The Central-South Region of Ohio represents a significant developing IT Region in the nation. Industry reports indicate that the Dayton area ranks in the Top 10, of Tier 2 Technology Centers in U.S.

Diagram 1.1 The Framed area Represents Approximately 70% of IT Growth and Development Within Past 10 Years and over 100,000 IT Jobs in the State.

Source: Business First

* Data from: Business First, Columbus Business Journal Publication, Article Published: November 2001
** Milkin Institute Report, Published: February 13, 2001

Dr. Vince Russo, Executive Director of Aeronautical Systems Center, stated that WPAFB has a tremendous amount of R&D technology that leaves the area - "we give it away, and much of the technology we develop goes to different parts of the country." Russo adds, "Why can't we keep it here (in the Miami Valley)? WPAFB will work with anyone that's interested, area businesses need to exploit the new technology that we develop."

Dayton (Miami Valley Coalition) has also established The Wright Brothers Institute. The Institute is to be the R&D arm (similar to The Rand Corporation) for the aerospace industry. Dayton used to be the aerospace leader in the entire country; these types of initiatives will help the region reclaim that leadership role.

In summary, IT business development and infrastructure is essential to greater Springfield's economic development. The Milkin Institute report states, "Lower cost, emerging-technology cities are most often bested suited to take advantage of the infrastructural and blue-collar functions associated with the digital economy. And the old industrial cities, depending upon their characteristics, may be able to pick up business in both, particularly as costs rise in both first-tier cities and nerdistans." We cannot afford to wait any longer to "get in the game." The question before us, then, is "What do we need to do to become a regional technology player and to be in the game?"

PROPOSAL

The central, to west central, to south-central Ohio (example 1.1) regions indicate strong growth in IT businesses and employment. Significant IT industry businesses already exist and are positioned to grow in the future. As this growth continues, Springfield is in an excellent location to support IT development in this region. However, we need to act now in order to become a valued IT partner in the region. Critical areas for development for our community are; (1) creating the necessary IT infrastructure, (2) establishing key IT relationships and alliances, (3) developing a base of IT knowledge and business skill-set, and (4) establishing collaborative community partnerships with the political willpower and leadership to drive the initiative toward success.

1. Creating the IT Infrastructure

Springfield/Clark County is in the midst of a profound change in its approach to the use of Information Technology for the public, private, business, and academic community. This community's ability to use new high-speed network services to provide better service to its stakeholders will enhance its economic competitiveness. To this end, it is proposed that a Springfield Infrastructure Initiative (SII) be established. The purpose of this initiative is to develop and implement an ambitious community-wide program of information system modernization. An IT-focused community coalition would undertake this project.

Advances in information technology and the pace of technological changes are transforming personal, business, educational, governmental and administrative needs and expectations. The centrality of information technology in all aspects of our community's environment demands an aggressive and progressive philosophy to adopt and support the numerous technologies that can further the economic development of Springfield/Clark County. The diversity and quality of information available to support the use of technology will affect the rate at which advances are made in the areas of Advanced Manufacturing, R&D, Biotechnology, Education, and IT business development.

SII represents an ambitious approach to improve technology infrastructure, facilities, and IT support while remaining flexible enough to adapt to the rapidly changing technology industry. A balance of centralized and decentralized responsibilities must be defined and appropriate funds allocated to achieve this objective. The focus of responsibility for technology decisions must reside within an SII development task force and must be made with full knowledge of the requirements of the various stakeholders. This community-wide planning process must be initiated in order to create the necessary environment to attract and support IT businesses - one in which technology development and implementation can progress to keep pace with business and community information needs. Each stakeholder will be challenged to fully incorporate technology implementation into its planning process.
The significance of information technology in Springfield requires the installation of a seamless, reliable, high-speed access to the Internet, community network, and academic resources from a myriad of locations (within the business community and both on and off academic campuses). The network must fit the distributed nature of the public, private, business, and academic communities and must support distance learning and continuous enhancement of skills as well as traditional academic instruction.

The vision is to implement near cutting-edge technology for networking systems and to provide the public, private, business, and academic communities access to information technology regardless of location or economic status.

- Provide a state of the art, reliable, high speed, easy-to-use, and scalable IT technology network.

- Provide the network access and infrastructure to meet the needs of the greater Springfield.

- Provide access in a cost-effective manner, making use of economies of scale, centrality, and best practice implementation.

- Provide a full range of services including voice, data, and multimedia options.

The widespread adoption of technology by departments and individual users has changed the nature of support. Options must be tailored to the needs of both novice and sophisticated users. The identification and implementation of new support technologies will ensure that appropriate resources can be made available to community programs and business disciplines that require them. The greater Springfield community should accelerate planning for a converged telecommunications infrastructure to guarantee appropriate awareness, funding, and implementation for telecommunications services and IT infrastructure. Specific attention must be given to (1) improving the state of the intra-community networks, (2) planning for and deployment of adequate commodity Internet connectivity, (3) a community-wide base level of IT and telecommunications connectivity, (4) advanced networking infrastructure and applications, wireless networks and support for multimedia and streaming media.

SII must provide the information technology tools, infrastructure and support services so that all citizens may effectively engage in accessing information, learning, and research, appropriate to their various public, private, business, and academic disciplines and areas of endeavors. IT support for shareholders should include technology support centers and a computing environment that is seamless across boundaries of businesses, homes, campuses, residence halls, and the community.

2. Build IT Relationships and Alliances

The Miami Valley Coalition leads and supports an economic and a regional development strategy embracing 12 counties and 1.2 million people in the Miami Valley. By creating a plan that unifies business, government, academic and defense leadership around a shared vision, the Coalition is helping to develop the Miami Valley into one of the most livable regions in the Midwest. The Coalition is working to achieve that goal by building an environment that will retain high value jobs for a broad geographic area and attract new IT business development.

Over the last five years, the Coalition has worked with its partners to build a dynamic support network for the IT industry. A set of integrated services and organizations were established to develop the special environment needed to attract, create and nurture IT businesses and professionals. i-Zone, a consortium of public and private partners, was established as the first step for IT entrepreneurs who need to know how to access the network of business support and services. Incubators like The Entrepreneurs' Center, a not-for-profit support organization, have been created to nurture young IT businesses through the early stages of development. IT-Wings, a privately funded incubator, also acts as an early stage investor and helps accelerate the growth of IT businesses. Greater Dayton IT Alliance has developed and implemented programs to meet the needs of information technology employers and support the retention, growth and economic development of the IT industry. Ohio's IT Alliance, Ohio's newest Edison Center, has located its headquarters in Dayton. The Information Technology Research Institute at Wright State University has become Ohio's leading IT research organization. The Miami Valley Venture Fund and Angel Network also play a key role in venture capital support for IT businesses.

Ohio's IT Alliance is an innovative statewide network of organizations dedicated to the growth of the Information Technology (IT) industry throughout Ohio. The network is organized and managed through Ohio's IT Alliance headquarters in Dayton and is developing programs in every region of the state. Through the collaborative effort of state, community, and private partners, the non-profit organization was established January 5, 2000. Since then, Ohio's IT Alliance has created a statewide network of regional organizations by leveraging existing groups and creating new IT industry trade associations. These six regional partner organizations, located in Dayton, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo and Athens, serve as rallying points for their region's IT industry, and create the structure for defining and developing programming that provides the most effective support for the region's IT industry. Through the sponsorship of Ohio's IT Alliance, these partners are accelerating the growth of IT in Ohio.

The Greater Dayton IT Alliance is the region's lead organization dedicated to supporting the retention, growth, and economic development of the Miami Valley's Information Technology (IT) industry. The Greater Dayton IT Alliance is also a member of Ohio's IT Alliance. Under the Greater Dayton IT Alliance, industry, education, and government leaders have formed a collaborative effort to develop and implement programs in the Miami Valley area to meet the needs of its information technology employers.

The Center for Entrepreneurial Education, founded by Coalition Board Member Clay Mathile, provides customized education and training opportunities in management development and strategic planning for local and regional business owners and managers. Limited to a small number of participants, the Center's workshops are highly interactive and offer follow-up consultation as part of the registration package. As the cornerstone of the Coalition's strategy to grow the next generation of high value businesses, The Center works closely with IT industry organizations and other service providers to help entrepreneurs identify their business needs and find available resources.

3. Develop IT Knowledge Base

There is a science to the management and mining of information, and data warehousing is the heart of this enterprise. The nexus of the next IT revolution will not be based on Web technology alone, it will be based on tools that integrate intelligent knowledge acquisition systems with the ingenuity of the individual requirements of business leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, or scientists who have access to a well catalogued and distributed regional digital library. In this process there will develop a new role for the academic, researcher, business leader, and librarian as information agent and information broker. Working across many traditional boundaries of organizations and disciplines, customized services will be provided to all by connecting them with the information resources they need for collaboration and continued growth.

Recent Studies by the Corporation for Enterprise Development conclude that investments in skill development are far more effective than traditional economic development incentives.

Our true strength is our people. "Human capital," our collection of skills and training, is as important as our financial or infrastructure capital. In a knowledge-based economy, cultivating the skills and energies of our human capital is key to greater Springfield's competitive advantage. Our community needs to attract the innovators, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in the region. We must have leadership that understands IT and demand/business-driven initiatives providing guidance on how to manage our resources to build a sustainable competitive advantage. However, many business leaders and government officials in our community still lack the basic understanding, experience, and skills that will be required to be IT competitive in the future. At the same time, many regional businesses have difficulty finding qualified workers.

As the developer of human capital, education is an engine for economic development, IT industry acquisition and growth, and social development. It assists business and industry in achieving their goals. It is the means by which people can take advantage of economic opportunities, enabling them to increase their income, self-sufficiency and social development. Education, IT skills development, and training are key to the community's competitive advantage.

Our public education system needs to be upgraded and strongly supported. We know that high school completion is the foundation for a lifetime of learning; therefore, we need to initiate programs (e.g., intervention with at risk students) that strengthen this foundation. Ensuring that our population is literate and ready for the labor market is critical to economic growth and prosperity. We need to work to ensure that our young people have the necessary literacy skills to make successful transitions from school to work.

Our post-secondary systems are strong and growing. Working to meet the needs of regional business, both Clark State Community College and Wittenberg University are establishing innovative skills development and enhancement programs that will ensure our competitive advantage. In addition to teaching, many professors conduct applied research in numerous fields. It is important, therefore, to support these post-secondary schools strongly if we are to prosper as a knowledge-based economy.

In fact, greater collaboration among the Springfield public school system, community college, and university could assure Springfield area citizens of a continuous improvement and learning system. The advances made through a collaborative learning community will ensure that greater Springfield has access to a first-class education. A strategy to support learning across the lifespan should be developed to foster continuous learning and skill development in formal and informal settings. For example, forums will address ways to meet existing and future skills requirements. Other methodologies could include large-scale development initiatives, apprenticeships, distance learning, and training as part of a business recruitment package. Participant could work with "learning partners" to ensure development of innovative leaders and a highly skilled workforce. We must remember, however, that economic development through IT industry growth requires both education and opportunities. Education without opportunities will only accelerate the brain drain.

4. Community Commitment

Springfield must build a solid foundation of IT infrastructure, first, to enable the community to effectively participate in the new economy, and more specifically leverage opportunities created by the IT revolution. Second, our community needs to be perceived as a value-adding member with its regional Alliance partners, and, third, continue to provide responsible fiscal planning to assure the maintenance of this infrastructure at state-of-the-art levels in the future.

Given the key role of information technology in research, business, administration, and service, it is no longer responsible to address IT economic development in an ad hoc manner and to fund it on a crisis basis. Planning for the full cost of technology, including on-going replacement and support, must be built into the thinking of all shareholders in the community.

Nonetheless, information technology, though critical, remains just a tool. Its effective use relies on the commitment of technology-savvy people, whether they use these tools on a daily basis, instruct others how to use them, create or design new applications in healthcare, business,aerospace, and research, or ensure these tools are maintained in good repair. And equally important is the need to upgrade IT tools and acquire new, more effective ones that save time, money and effort, all the while being mindful of the need to continually retrain people in the use of information technology and to re-conceptualize how best IT can be utilized.

Summary

IT and the development of the intellectual capital in our community must become a top priority. It is our most lucrative and viable business opportunity for long-term economic growth. Given the recent downturn in the technology industry sector, this could be our most cost-effective window of opportunity. In the January 14, 2002 edition of The Wall Street Journal, an article entitled "IT Spending Is Expected to Rebound in 2003" projected IT spending to increase 3% from 2001. And, in 2003, Merrill Lynch projects; IT budgets should grow 8% to 9%. Jay Sidhu, president and CEO of Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. in Philadelphia noted, "now is a good time to invest in productivity enhancing technology because prices have dropped.” However, action needs to be taken swiftly and a solid community-wide commitment needs to be made. The SII development task force is necessary because the Springfield Infrastructure Initiative must be launched as soon as possible. Now more than ever before - we need to get in the IT game!