ITFlorida - 2006 Awards Recipients

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Earns "IT Leader Of The Year" Award At Statewide Gala and Tech Forum

Annual Event Recognizes Florida's Outstanding IT Leaders And Achievements

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., December 14, 2006 — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) earned the prestigious "IT Leader Of The Year" award at ITFlorida's annual awards gala and tech forum held earlier this month at the Walt Disney World Contemporary Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The annual two-day event provides the state's leading IT professionals with an opportunity to recognize the achievements of their peers, discuss current IT-related trends and issues, and report on the latest IT developments around the state.

This year's event attracted numerous State and Federal elected officials, key technology leaders, and several hundred IT C-Level executives and professionals.

FDLE was selected for its technological implementation of the Jessica Lunsford Act. To meet the requirements of the act, FDLE developed the Web interface and programming to automate the electronic capture of sex offender re-registration information, which includes submission of a current photo, and the signature of the re-registering predator and the reporting officer. FDLE provided and installed the necessary equipment as well as delivered training to each of Florida's county sheriffs' offices.

"As always, this was an exceptional event with tremendous participation from our IT business community and political leaders," said Jim Albert, co-chair of ITFlorida. "It's remarkable the level of IT talent that resides right here in Florida, and it's an honor to be able to recognize the outstanding achievements of the state's most progressive organizations."

Melbourne-based AuthenTec was recognized as the "High Growth Company of the Year," and Tallahassee-based eLayaway earned recognition as "Small Business of the Year."

Other award winners included:

Miami-Dade County 311 (Miami) — Government Technology Leadership/Public Sector
The Presidio Corporation (Tallahassee) — Government Technology Leadership/Private Sector
Business Development Board of Palm Beach County (West Palm Beach) — New Business Recruitment
University of Miami Clinical Enterprise Technologies (Miami) — Excellence in IT Leadership in South Florida
Creative Recycling Systems (Tampa) — Excellence in IT Leadership in Central Florida
Availity (Jacksonville) — Excellence in IT Leadership in Northeast Florida
Citynet Wireless (Panama City) — Excellence in IT Leadership in Northwest Florida

(Please note — additional information on the winners can be found at the end of the release.)

In addition to the awards gala, the two-day event also featured a much-anticipated technology forum highlighted by a panel session addressing Florida's tech sector opportunities for the 2007-2010 timeframe. Much of the discussion from well-known speakers Sundar Subramaniam, CEO of Cambridge Technologies in Boston, Nicholas Tsinoremas, senior director of Informatics at Scripps Florida, and Ed Martinez, CIO of Moffitt Cancer Center, related to venture capital challenges and opportunities for the state.

The tech forum also was highlighted by a keynote address from the Honorable Jose Maria Figueres, former President of Costa Rica, and a founding member of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force. President Figueres highlighted the opportunities for organizations to strategically invest in Latin America's education sy stem and technology sector. The endnote was provided by Representative David Mealor, who discussed the key legislative issues related to the tech sector and the important role organizations such as ITFlorida play in helping to influence and shape the future of the state's tech industry.

ITFlorida Gala Award Winners
IT Leader of the Year
The IT Leader of the Year Award recognizes the individual who has made significant achievements within the Florida IT industry. This individual will have distinguished him or herself as a leader in the IT or related industry. Through their efforts there will have been a direct impact on the growth and viability of the Florida IT sector.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (Tallahassee)
For a collaborative project with the Florida Department of Corrections and the Supreme Court Office of State Court Administrators that resulted in the first statewide implementation of ra pid identification capabilities in the nation. This project, the Jessica Lunsford Act Implementation, used technologies new to criminal justice including electronic capture and retention of signatures and the identification of individuals using two-finger livescan fingerprint capture devices.

The High Growth Company/Operation of the Year
The High Growth Company/Operation of the Year Award recognizes a company or operation that has successfully seized the opportunity to capture a greater share of its product or service market. The award recognizes a company or operation that has demonstrated a strategic and successful market focus, that has driven or responded to the market, and that has developed its production, delivery and servicing capabilities to fully leverage its market position and achieve exceptional growth.

AuthenTec (Melbourne)
For being a world leader in fingerprint sensor security, innovation, and sales in the PC, wireless, and access control markets -- with millions of sensors already in use in more than 150 different products worldwide.

Small Business of the Year
The Small Business of the Year Award recognizes a small IT or IT-enabled business, including a minority or female-owned enterprise, that is achieving success through business excellence. Factors that contribute to a company's eligibility are high growth, introduction of new products, and/or industry recognition.

eLayaway (Tallahassee)
For a business that both enables and drives IT to a new level, enabling IT by providing an innovative model of commerce that brings a layaway payment management system to online shoppers through a simple and convenient interface. eLayaway takes advantage of best IT practices and resources in every step of its process. eLayaway's rapid growth necessitated a growth of over 200% in staffing in a single quarter.

Excellence in New Business Recruitment
The Excellence in New Business Recruitment Award recognizes a company, government agency, or economic development organization that has demonstrated success in recruiting IT or IT-enabled businesses to the state of Florida. Nominees should demonstrate innovative programs for bringing new technology business into Florida and/or effective methods for retaining existing business.

Business Development Board of Palm Beach County (West Palm Beach)
For its work with DayJet Corporation, a new, per-seat, on-demand jet travel that developed its own modeling & logistical system; and with Project Checkmate, a joint project by IBM and The Scripps Research Institute that models structural interactions using IBM's BlueGene, the world's fastest supercomputer.

Excellence in IT Leadership
The Excellence in IT Leadership award recognizes an outstanding business or initiative for exceptional leadership in furthering the use of IT to successfully advance economic, social, or technological development in the state of Florida.

NE Florida Winner
Availity (Jacksonville)
For optimizing information between multiple health care stakeholders through a single, secure exchange and strengthening these direct relationships by delivering seamless administrative, financial, and clinical information to enable a more collaborative approach to health care operation and delivery.

NW Florida Winner
Citynet Wireless (Panama City)
For providing industry leadership in building a redundant wired and wireless infrastructure for communications that will provide high bandwidth for current and developing technologies, thereby providing consumer choice for an array of voice, data, and video services.

Central Florida Winner
Creative Recycling Systems, Inc. (Tampa)
For providing the private and public sector with electronics recycling solutions that represent a viable, economical alternative to environmental contamination. For ensuring that, of the thousands of tons of equipment that enter their system, less than 1% enters the waste stream, and of that 1%, keeping all of it contaminant free.

South Florida Winner
University of Miami Clinical Enterprise Technologies (Miami)
For creating the Hybrid Healthcare Record, whereby a view of a patients health history is electronically accessible from any point of care to facilitate patient care; providing supporting documentation for the reimbursement of services provided to the patient; and thereby improving patient safety, quality of care, and productivity.

Government Technology Leadership
The Government Technology Leadership Award recognizes an innovative IT initiative or solution for its contributions to a state or local government agency's mission accomplishment, service t o the public, and cost effectiveness. The award recognizes those initiatives or solutions that: improve the delivery of services to citizens and enterprises; break down barriers between offices, agencies, and departments or between federal, state, and local governments; or significantly reduce the cost of governance.

Private Sector Winner
The Presidio Corporation (Tallahassee)
For serving to state and local government Enterprise Solutions as a trusted intermediary--delivering design, deployment, and remote management of converged networks for complex information technology environments.

Public Sector Winner
Miami-Dade County 311 (Miami)
For creating the nation's first multi-jurisdictional 311 call center in the nation. With a citizen-centric focus, access to government services and programs is readily available from any location through a partnership between Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami. The centralized call center is accessible from land lines or cell phones anywhere in the County. The Answer Center is now operational seven days a week, providing services in English, Spanish and Creole.

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ITFlorida is an umbrella, not-for-profit, membership organization that represents Florida's diverse information technology communities on a statewide basis. For more information visit www.itflorida.com.

Contact:
Ken Zeszutko, Director of Public Relations, ITFlorida
800-748-1120, kzeszutko@itflorida.com