ARCHBOLD, OHIO –Northwest State Community College has received a $5 million grant from the United States Department of Labor to be used for workforce development training. The grant, awarded through the H-1B Technical Skills Training Grant Competition, will fund education, training and job placement assistance for the long-term unemployed. Northwest State will lead the grant in partnership with WSOS Community Action, the Center for Innovative Food Technology and Ruralogic.

“By providing training, education and skills for employment, we are making a big investment in northwest Ohio’s workforce. These are tools that will give the long-term unemployed more career options and better earning potential, which will help strengthen the local economy,” said Melissa Rupp, director of grant development and administration at NSCC. “While the main goal of this grant is employment, students who complete the program will have twenty-two credit hours that can be applied toward an associate degree if they want to continue their education.”

The purpose of the grant is to train the long-term unemployed with skills needed for job openings in information technology fields, such as database programming. The program that will provide the training is called iSTAR, or Innovative Strategic Training Achieving Results.

WSOS Community Action will help identify long-term unemployed, from the northwest Ohio region, who are good candidates for iSTAR. In addition to funding tuition, equipment and on-the-job training, the grant provides money for non-academic support systems like career coaching. WSOS Community Action will manage that portion of the grant, helping students overcome barriers and complete the program successfully.

Once prospective students have been identified, Northwest State will assess them, ensuring their skills and aptitudes align with the focus of the program. The iSTAR program begins with a 16-week training course, developed by Todd Hernandez, database application training coordinator at NSCC.

“Todd was integral in identifying industry-recognized credentials and certifications that students will earn throughout the course,” said Rupp. “As a result, students will meet industry standards as soon as they complete the training.”

After students complete the 16-week course, they will be placed on a training contract with a local employer. Students will receive eighteen weeks of on-the-job training, with the goal of continued employment. The Center for Innovative Food Technology will assist in placements for the food industry, and some students will be placed with Ruralogic. Northwest State will be seeking other local businesses for placement partnerships.

The U.S. Department of Labor awarded forty-three grants in twenty-eight states. The grants are funded through fees from the H-1B program, which requires employers to pay for authorization before bringing foreign workers into the United States. These grants are intended to raise the technical skill levels of American workers and help businesses reduce the need for foreign workers.

Bryan, OH based Ruralogic was one of the presenters at this event. Ruralogic’s goal is to repatriate off-shore Information Technology services through the use of a workforce originating in rural areas of the United States. Ruralogic obtains talent from the retraining of displaced workers or from local qualified talent whose career opportunity was not present before.

To hear a recording of this webinar click here.
For more information click here

Joe Burmester, CEO of Ruralogic, which is headquartered in Bryan, was a featured presenter during a webinar Dec. 14 about building businesses on investments in broadband in rural areas.

Ruralogic was featured due to its success of building a business on rural broadband investments, and Burmester explained how the company was born.

Burmester stated in 2009, which was when Ruralogic was formed, information technology outsourcing from the United States was at $85 billion annually and growing. He noted that information, coupled with frustration seen with international outsourcing and the high unemployment rate in the country at the time led to the opportunity for Ruralogic.

He noted Ruralogic’s goal is to repatriate off-shore information technology services, bringing the jobs back to the United States where they are needed. Burmester explained when looking at areas in which to locate the business, the criteria was for low-cost domestic outsourcing, as explained by Matthew Kazmierczak, senior vice president of Tech America.

Burmester said the company looked for low-cost areas with appropriate resources such as technological support, workforce availability, low-cost infrastructure and a supportive political environment. Once their location of Bryan was chosen, the company moved on to establish partnerships with local colleges and universities, such as Northwest State Community College, to retrain displaced workers.

“We are now at this point actively looking at our next area of expansion,” Burmester said. Ruralogic has since expanded into the city of Napoleon.

“The next approach is to grow into the areas of the Midwest,” he said, noting the emphasis has absolutely been on small, rural areas. “That’s where our cost advantages have been and where the people are.”

As evidenced by Ruralogic’s success in building on rural broadband investments, Kazmierczak explained low-cost domestic outsourcing, as an alternative to sending jobs overseas, has become more than a fad.

Kazmierczak explained the driving force behind low-cost domestic outsourcing includes companies’ dissatisfaction with offshoring as costs for wages and infrastructure continue to rise and problems with significant political issues with offshoring.

“Economic downturns lead to many companies being criticized for sending jobs overseas,” Kazmierczak said, noting it’s mostly called to the attention of the general public during times of economic distress when the unemployment rate is high.

According to Kazmierczak, today’s reasons companies turn to low-cost domestic outsourcing include a high unemployment rate, which is interpreted as a wide field of available workers, wage deflation and concern over fundamental shifts in American competitiveness.

Kazmierczak also noted the benefits of low-cost domestic outsourcing, which was touted by Burmester as reasons behind Ruralogic’s success. They include lower costs, more ease of doing business as travel time and communication between company headquarters and satellite sites, the speed to market and less risk.

For rural areas looking to market themselves to businesses looking to utilize low-cost domestic outsourcing, Kazmierczak explained there are four factors used as criteria for location selection – the cost of doing business, work force, the business and political environment, and the quality of life.

Kazmierczak noted the cost of doing business and the work force most likely make up 70 to 80 percent of the final decision, though all factors are typically considered.

Within the cost-of-doing-business criteria, Kazmierczak said businesses look at labor rates, real estate costs, infrastructure costs, state and local taxes, economic incentives, airport access, state debt and federal funding support.

Within the work force criteria, one of the key components looked at by businesses is access to nearby colleges and universities in order to retrain or train potential employees. In Ruralogic’s case, the company created a partnership with nearby Northwest State Community College for this purpose. Knowledge of the work force, net migration potential and the population/scale of the area are also reviewed.

Although Kazmierczak noted low-cost domestic outsourcing is not a fad, he said many companies do still need to assess if it is right for them in the context of global sourcing.

For Ruralogic, Burmester stated by bringing new jobs into local communities, the company helps re-energize and diversify the area.

“We provide career opportunities for the next generation to get trained and stay in the community or come back to the community,” Burmester said. “But it is critical that we have broadband because that’s the kind of things we can do with that platform.”

Dallas Tonsager, under secretary for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development, stated the importance of broadband in rural America cannot be overstated.

“Broadband investments are creating jobs now as networks are built in rural areas,” Tonsager said.

Tonsager noted that with the investments in rural broadband come infinite potential for rural economic development.

Despite the support of the Obama Administration to build broadband infrastructure in rural areas across the United States, Tonsager noted the country still faces a significant urban-rural divide. “It’s not enough for us to build out the networks,” Tonsager said. “We must also build businesses upon these investments.”

By LISA NICELY
nicely@crescent-news.com
Published: October 23, 2011 8:00AM

ARCHBOLD — There are an estimated 77,000 job openings in Ohio. With more than 77,000 people
currently unemployed, why aren’t the jobs being filled?

That was the topic discussed during the community breakfast at Northwest State Community College on
Friday.

“It seems the usual issues and problems we face are no longer usual anymore,” said John Trott, executive
director of the Area 7 Workforce Investment Board. The board covers 43 counties including Defiance,
Henry, Paulding, Fulton and Willliams.

Trott pointed out that of the estimated 77,000 jobs, the skills of the unemployed don’t match the needs of
the businesses.

“Job openings require more skills,” Trott said. “We are experiencing the worst economy since the Great
Depression. It’s bad. There’s a new employment situation like we’ve never seen before.”

Many challenges facing employees and employers today have no easy solutions. Funding for the
Workforce Investment Act, which involves One-Stop offices, is in question. People are overworked and
understaffed. Employers are hiring, but can’t find people to fill the positions.

“Skills gap is the new buzz word,” Trott said. “Everyone is trying to figure out what it is and what to do
with it. Businesses are hiring that have good paying positions with benefits and a bright future and they
can’t hire somebody. They are frustrated they can’t find the right person. In discussions we’re hearing there
is a knowledge and skills deficient.”

In addition, in some communities there is a work ethic deficiency. There is talk among businesses of
screening prospective applicants so those who are long-time unemployed are cut. Some people want to
make that practice illegal because they feel it is discrimination.

“Employers are saying in this economy, ‘when people are hiring why aren’t you working?’ There is an
aspect here that is troublesome and controversial,” Trott said. “Some of the skill gap issues aren’t so much
skills as other issues.”

He added some communities also have issues such as drugs usage by prospective employees.

The state is currently looking into what to do about these issues in the skills gap. They’ve already
determined what doesn’t work, such as training people in growth industries and hoping companies come to
the area and using traditional occupation and research. One thing that seems to be working is focusing on
positions that currently exist and are being created locally by having a direct line of sight for businesses

“What businesses in your community have needs and what are they?” he asked adding that once that is
known, “you can then drive programs in that business.”

Northwest Ohio is a great example of how this can work.
“It’s great to be here because you have a fantastic state model to look at,” Trott said highlighting the
relationship between Northwest State Community College (NSCC) and Ruralogic, which deals with
information technology. NSCC has a training program specific to Ruralogic’s skill set needs. “What’s
working is very local, very colloquial and very specific. We need to be quick, collaborative. These are
things you’ve heard for decades but they are needed.”

Trott said that the collaboration between NSCC and Ruralogic has caught the attention of the legislature.
He said he knows the collaboration took a lot of work from NSCC and from the local One Stops.

“What they came up with is a program where people learn database management — it’s a rigourous course
geared toward the business,” Trott said. “I know the One Stop is helping with cost and recruiting. Then
when those graduates pass, most of them get a job at Ruralogic.”

He added that collaborations like Ruralogic and NSCC are important for the state. They also show what
can really work and how One Stops can increase their return on investments for individuals.

Trott said the Area 7 Workforce Investment Board has been tracking data to find their return on
investments. They study how much money is spent on training as well as other aid such as unemployment
benefits and food stamps and then what happens to those individuals. They looked at everyone served in a
single quarter last year, which was approximately 400 individuals. A year later, there was a return shown.
“It wasn’t a great return on investment, but it was a return,” Trott said. “For every $1 invested in them –
everything including food stamps, benefits — they returned $1.20. We can do better and we have to do
better. For every dollar the public gives us, we want to double our investment or more. We’re trying to
make better and better decisions about our investments.”

However, funding for the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) is in jeopardy. While the program isn’t huge, it
is important. It receives about $125 million in federal funding to Ohio, which is overseen by the
Department of Labor. In the last decade there has been a 23 percent total decrease in funding and more
may be coming.

“Just last week the U.S. House proposed legislation that essentially guts the current employment and
training system,” Trott said. “We haven’t seen anything that drastic before.”

The proposal would cut $2.2 billion from the program, which usually sees around $3-4 billion in funding.

“We’d never recover from that,” Trott said, adding the senate proposed flat funding. “You can be anywhere
from flat to completely gutting the program. That is what are we experiencing.”

(Bryan, Ohio, November 18) Three months ago Ruralogic put the word out to the four-county area in northwest Ohio that any small business without a website was welcome to vie for one of four free websites designed by Ruralogic employees. A simple five-page, informational website without forms or a database was offered. Participants were required to provide photos, content, a rendering of their logo, and a brief summary of how the participant felt a new website would help them better serve the community. Entries were received from Henry and Williams counties.

The winners are Viking Trucking from Ridgeville Corners, owner Daniel Benecke, www.vikingtruckinginc.com JOY Music from Montpelier, owner Julie Ayers, www.jubilanceofyouthmusic.com C & N Tree Worx from Stryker, owners Chris Wityk and Noah Snyder, www.candntreeworx.com and Jagger Cone from Stryker, owner Sherry Jaggers, www.jaggercone.com.

Ruralogic is an American-based organization established to in-source business and technology positions. Ruralogic’s service approach delivers the anticipated benefits clients expect, while also providing substantial economic benefits to the communities. Using this philosophy the Ruralogic team has completed e-commerce sites for local community businesses. “This opportunity to ‘Do Well — Do Good’ is exciting to clients and business partners, to the employees of Ruralogic, and the surrounding communities in which we are located,”said Joe Burmester, CEO of Ruralogic.

Ruralogic is proud to announce the 2011 Northwest Ohio High School Technology Competition! The competition is open to all high schools in the Northwest Ohio Four County area (Defiance, Fulton, Henry and Williams). One team per school is eligible to participate. Each team will consist of 3 to 5 members, and will require a sponsor, which should be a faculty member.

The prizes are:

1st Place - $3,000
2nd Place - $1,500
3rd Place - $1,000
4th Place - $1,000
5th Place - $1,000

The theme for this year is mobile games. Each team will create a game on any of the following mobile platforms – Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile or Blackberry. The team will also create an accompanying web page for the game, where they can provide a description of the game, cheat codes, additional story line, etc.

Timeline:

Registration deadline – November 4th. At this time, the sponsor will only need to submit their team’s information and a description of the application.
Project work – November 7th through February 17th. This is when the team works on their project.
Submission deadline – February 17th. All teams must submit their project for review.
Evaluation period – February 20th to March 9th.
Awards ceremony – March 16th.

Click here to register

On April 1st 2011, Ruralogic was presented with keys to our 2nd location. The new offices are located at 303 E. Lugbill Rd., on the campus of Sauder Woodworking, in Archbold, Ohio.

The location has two floors, with the first floor consisting of cubicles and offices. The second level will initially be used as a training center for all employees.

Ruralogic would like to thank Mayor Jim Wyse, Village Manager Dennis Howell, and the Commissioners of Fulton County who were all instrumental in bringing Ruralogic to Archbold, OH. Garrett Tinsman, EVP at Sauder Woodworking, and his team were also very helpful in arranging our office space. We are excited to expand in Northwest Ohio as we continue to repatriate jobs to the United States. Ruralogic is actively pursuing our location in Napoleon, which we expect to announce in the near future. To support our continued growth, we will consider locations in other communities as well!

Many IT service providers are locating some operations in second-tier cities of their home markets.
AUGUST 2010 Ian Finnemore, Greta Kim, and Aditya Pande
Source: Business Technology Office

Despite the steady march of IT services to offshore centers from India to Russia over the past 15 years, many IT tasks aren’t easily moved. Financial regulations, for instance, often demand that data such as bank records be processed in home markets. Privacy rules impose similar restrictions on health care data, while security guidelines require defense contractors to handle data analysis within national markets. By one estimate, more than 15 percent of data center jobs must remain there for these reasons.1) Even with work that’s not bound by such regulations, it isn’t uncommon for up to 25 percent of all IT service tasks to remain in onshore or at least close-shore locations (close to the home market, though not necessarily in it), simply because that’s where skilled software technicians are found or can be quickly deployed. (For simplicity’s sake, from now on, we shall refer to locations in or near the home market as close-shore locations.)

But as companies review their IT needs going forward, there’s a growing problem with this picture. The onshore service facilities of many companies are located in areas where IT costs are among the highest in the world, often near headquarters operations in major European and North American urban centers. An increasing number of these organizations are now taking a close look at second-tier cities in close-shore locales as venues for future investments. Pools of high-level IT talent are available in such regions, wage levels are attractive, and generous government incentives are often available to spur local investment.

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Columbus, Ohio-  Ohio Governor Ted Strickland today issued an executive order that prohibits the expenditure of public funds for services provided offshore.

“Outsourcing jobs does not reflect Ohio values,” Strickland said. “Ohioans have been among the hardest hit by more than a decade of unfair trade agreements and the trickle-down economic policies that promoted offshoring jobs at the expense of Ohioans who work for a living. We must do everything within our power to prevent outsourcing jobs because it undermines our economic development objectives, slows our recovery and deprives Ohioans and other Americans of employment opportunities.”

“Ohio’s policy has been, and must continue to be, that public funds should not be spent on services provided offshore” Strickland says in the order. “Throughout my Administration, procurement procedures have been in place that restrict the purchase of offshore services. Despite these requirements, federal stimulus funds were recently used to purchase services from a domestic company which ultimately provided some of those services offshore. This incident was unacceptable and has caused me to redouble my commitment to ensure that public funds are not expended for offshore services.”

In March, the Department of Development contracted with Texas-based service provider Parago, Inc. to assist with the agency’s implementation of the federal stimulus-funded appliance rebate program. Despite state procurement requirements designed to restrict service providers from using public funds for offshore labor, in particular, a DAS directive that requires agencies to ask potential vendors to list all locations where the services will be performed, the contract was let with a company that ultimately used offshore labor.

Earlier this week, the governor asked Development Director Lisa Patt-McDaniel to further review the circumstances surrounding the award of the Parago contract including any potential legal recourse with the vendor.

Ohio’s appliance rebate program has stimulated manufacturing activity with Ohio companies such as Whirlpool, which has increased shifts and moved to a six day schedule to satisfy demand generated by the program. Nearly $10.5 of the $11 million in total program funding was awarded directly to Ohio consumers for the purchase of energy-efficient appliances. Parago was awarded $357,300, or 3.2 percent, of the total funding, for providing services.

“This program was successful in stimulating economic activity for Ohio appliance manufacturers and retailers” Strickland said. “But contracting with a domestic service provider that ultimately outsourced jobs could and should have been prevented. This order will ensure that this never happens again.”

In June 2008, Strickland signed an executive order (E.O. 2008-12S) that implemented Think Ohio First practices, which promotes economic development by maximizing the use of Ohio businesses when agencies conduct purchases. The order outlined procurement reform efforts and directed all state agencies to work together for cost savings and efficiencies when purchasing supplies and services. In addition, it directed the Department of Administrative Services to hire a chief procurement officer to oversee agency purchasing functions.

Full text of the governor’s executive order is pasted below:

Executive Order 2010-09S

Banning the Expenditure
of Public Funds for Offshore Services

1. Ohio’s Economic Vitality Necessitates Constant Vigilance in State Job Creation Efforts. State officials and employees must at all times remain passionately focused on initiatives that will create and retain jobs in the United States in general and in Ohio, in particular, and must do so especially during Ohio’s continuing efforts to recover from the recent global recession.

2. No Public Funds Should be Spent on Services Provided Offshore. Allowing public funds to pay for offshore services undermines economic development objectives and any such offshore services carry unacceptable quality and security risks.

a. The Purchase of Offshore Services with Public Funds Undermines Economic Development and Other Job Creation and Retention Objectives. The expenditure of public funds for services provided offshore deprives Ohioans and other Americans critical employment opportunities. It also undermines efforts to attract businesses to Ohio and retain them in Ohio, initiatives in which the State has invested heavily.

b. The Purchase of Offshore Services Has Unacceptable Business Consequences. The use of offshore service providers could pose unacceptable data security, and thus privacy and identity theft risks. There are pervasive service delivery problems with offshore providers, including dissatisfaction with the quality of their services and with the fact that services are being provided offshore. It is difficult and expensive to detect illegal activity and contract violations and to pursue legal recourse for poor performance or data security violations. The State’s use of offshore service providers ill-serves the people of Ohio who are the primary consumers of the services provided by the State.

3. Ohio’s Policy Has Been, and Must Continue To Be, That Public Funds Should Not Be Spent on Services Provided Offshore. Throughout my Administration, procurement procedures have been in place that restrict the purchase of offshore services. Despite these requirements, federal stimulus funds were recently used to purchase services from a domestic company which ultimately provided some of those services offshore. This incident was unacceptable and has caused me, through this Order, to redouble my commitment to ensure that public funds are not expended for offshore services.

4. Additional Steps Will Ensure that Public Funds Are Not Spent on Services Provided Offshore. In order to ensure that the State of Ohio makes no expenditures for services provided offshore, I hereby order the following:

a. No Cabinet Agency, Board or Commission (Executive Agency) shall enter into any contract which uses any funds within its control to purchase services which will be provided outside the United States. This Order applies to all funds in the custody of an Executive Agency, be they from state, federal, philanthropic or private sources. It applies to all purchases of service made directly by an Executive Agency and services provided by sub-contractors of those providing services purchased by an Executive Agency.

b. This Executive Order will be personally provided, by the Director, Chair or other chief executive official of each Executive Agency, to the Chief Procurement Officer or other individual at that entity responsible for contracts for services.

c. The Department of Administrative Services, through Ohio’s Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO), shall have in place, by August 31, 2010, procedures to ensure all of the following:

i. All agency procurement officers, or the person with equivalent duties at each Executive Agency (APOs), have standard language in all Executive Agency contracts which:

(a) Reflect this Order’s prohibition on the purchase of offshore services.

(b) Require service providers or prospective service providers to:

(i) Affirm that they understand and will abide by the requirements of this Order.

(ii) Disclose the location(s) where all services will be performed by any contractor or subcontractor.

(iii) Disclose the locations(s) where any state data associated with any of the services they are providing, or seek to provide, will be accessed, tested, maintained, backed-up or stored.

(iv) Disclose any shift in the location of any services being provided by the contractor or any subcontractor.

(v) Disclose the principal location of business for the contractor and all subcontractors who are supplying services to the state under the proposed contract.

ii. All APOs are ensuring that all quotations, statements of work, and other such proposals for services affirm this Order’s prohibition on the purchase of offshore services and include all of this Order’s disclosure requirements.

(a) Any such proposal for services lacking the affirmation and disclosure requirements of this Order will not be considered.

(b) Any such proposal where the performance of services is proposed to be provided at a location outside the United States by the contractor or any sub-contractor, will not be considered.
iii. All procurement manuals, directives, policies, and procedures reflect the requirements of this Order.

iv. All APOs have adequate training which addresses the terms of this Order.

5. Exceptions. Nothing in this Order is intended to contradict any state or federal law. In addition, this Order does not apply to:

a. Services necessary to support the efforts of the Department of Development Global Markets Division to attract jobs and business to the State of Ohio, including incidental services for the support of trade missions, payment of international staff, and services necessary for the operation of international offices.

b. Academic, instructional, educational, research or other services necessary to support the international missions of Ohio’s public colleges and universities.

6. I signed this Executive Order on August 6, 2010 in Columbus, Ohio and it will not expire unless rescinded.

__________________________________

Ted Strickland, Governor

ATTEST:

_________________________________________

Jennifer Brunner, Secretary of State

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BLADE STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

The Ohio Tax Credit Authority has approved job-creation tax credits for an expanding Perrysburg glass firm and a Cleveland firm seeking to open domestic information technology centers to repatriate formerly outsourced work.

Owens-Brockway Glass Container Inc. was awarded a seven-year, 50 percent job-creation tax credit valued at $2.4 million for a $14 million renovation that will create a new glass and materials-science laboratory. The project is expected to create 55 jobs and retain 802.

Ruralogic Inc. of Cleveland was awarded three identical eight-year, 60 percent job-creation tax credits for projects in Archbold, Napoleon, and Bryan. The company, which seeks to use information technology professionals in low-cost, rural communities to provide services that had been shipped overseas, would create as many as 121 jobs in each of the three communities, the Ohio Department of Development said.

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