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Moving forward in a 21st century economyArkansas Research Alliance’s Adams says knowledge, technology key to success

By rACHEL pArKEr DICKErSONSPECIAL TO THE LOG CABIN

Conway’s Jerry Adams, president and CEO of the Arkansas Re-search Alliance, said Conway

is in a good position to attract more high-paying, technology-based jobs. However, doing so will require a con-tinual striving for excellence, rather than resting on the successes of the past.

In 2008, leaders announced Hewlett-Packard would locate a cus-tomer service center in Conway, put-ting the city on the nation’s economic development map. The success was deemed the result of many past ef-forts, including the establishment of Conway’s three colleges, the diversifi-cation of its economy and the revital-

ization of downtown.The Arkansas Research Alliance is

a public-private partnership seeking to bring more economic opportuni-ties to the state through innovation

from university-based research. The ARA presented a report last year after compiling a list of areas in which uni-versity-based research combined with targeted funding and recruited talent could lead to job creation.

A retired executive from home-grown technology company Acxiom Corp. and a leader in Conway’s eco-nomic development efforts, Adams now spends his time working toward a

21st-century economy for Arkansas.Adams recently answered several

questions about knowledge- and tech-nology-based jobs. He indicated Con-way has many positives in terms of attracting new companies, and there

are things existing businesses can do to make themselves more relevant in a global economy.

Most importantly, however, he not-ed today’s students and workers must be lifelong learners if Conway and Ar-kansas are to be competitive. Reading, analytical and math skills are critical in a world where everything depends on technology, which changes con-stantly and becomes obsolete every 18 months, he said.

Adams also shared his thoughts on the challenges of attracting new com-panies and what Conway is already doing well.

Q. What is Conway doing right that could attract more knowledge-based jobs?

adams n 4

‘In a lot of ways, Conway is now Arkansas... We need to continue to market to those folks.’

—Jerry Adams

Arkansas research Alliance

� —Spring 2010 • CABN To subscribe call (501) 329-2927 • Log Cabin Democrat

A. We have a good workforce. As long as we are attentive to our educa-tional priorities — that’s attractive to knowledge-based companies. We have a young, progressive city council — a can-do attitude in the community. You kind of have to be prepared for any-thing. Success begets success.

Q. Could more collaborative efforts like the one that landed Hewlett-Pack-ard bring more companies to town?

A. It takes the government, it takes state agencies, it takes local agencies. None of this happens individually. It takes a village.

A lot of the professionals who rep-resent companies, who are trying to evaluate locations — they know Con-way. In a lot of ways, Conway is now Arkansas on their map. We need to continue to market to those folks.

Q. How will existing Conway businesses benefit from new knowl-edge- and technology-based jobs coming to town?

A. It’s a ripple effect. I don’t know the turnover of a dollar. They will set

up bank accounts, eat in restaurants, buy clothes. It’s a healthy turnover of the payroll dollar.

Q. What are the major challenges in convincing a business with high-paying jobs to locate in Conway or Ar-kansas?

A. The fact that HP has come to Con-way has helped mitigate a lot of con-cerns about Arkansas and allows more detailed discussions earlier. Conway has a lot of excellent factors — an edu-cated workforce, a strong downtown, good restaurants, a good place to raise a family. You get to a decision faster be-cause we have so many pluses.

Part of the challenges — we consid-er ourselves very fortunate in Conway, but we can’t relax, because it’s a race. We have to stay lean and mean and competitive or someone will compete better. We did a great job with HP, but that’s history.

Q. What do you think will be Con-way’s biggest selling point in attract-ing new industry?

A. It goes back to a collaborative ef-fort. A strong mayor, civic leadership, the chamber of commerce, CDC, sus-

tained relationships with government and state agencies. Being attentive to the metrics that these companies look at (in terms of) quality of life: a good downtown, a safe community, ameni-ties, options. I think we’ve got it here. We got it because of Conway Corp., Hendrix, CBC, UCA, CHDC, all those things that happened years ago that our current city fathers have to add to this continuum, or it will deteriorate.

Q. What do existing businesses have in place now that will support new knowledge- and technology-based employers?

A. I think there’s a quality of life — strong retail, strong education — a variety of services in Conway or in 30 to 40 miles that provide a pretty inclu-sive ecosystem. There’s a wide spec-trum of readily available support.

Q. What are the setbacks for local businesses if they go forward without altering their operations to meet the needs of a knowledge- and technology-driven economy?

A. No company can stay static, whether it’s plumbing supplies or a restaurant or city government or HP. They have to be leaning into making their business better. That pressure is nothing unique to Conway. Every business owner needs to stay current on how to contemporize. They have to have the ability to remain unique. Restaurants do so by differentiating

their menus; retailers do it by niche marketing. If they don’t stay current, there’s a chance they’ll be marginal-ized.

Q. What role does education (or continuing education) play in attract-ing new industry and sustaining ex-isting industry?

A. If you don’t have a skilled work-force, you have nothing to offer a knowledge-based company. We’re cre-ating world citizens. (We need to) see they get the best teaching, the best parental support so they can be suc-cessful wherever they go. Education is the key.

You need to keep learning. You need all these skills that come out of a good education. We’ve historically been an export state. We’ve exported our talent. We need to get them as educated as we can and create jobs to retain them. They need to be able to save money. You need to have people in your community with disposable in-come.

Q. How can existing business and industry in Conway provide the ser-vices needed for continued develop-ment in a 21st century economy?

A. Our key natural resource is the brains of our citizens. We need to tap into the best and brightest of our citi-zens’ brainpower. We’ve got to be using our brains at the maximum amount we can to be competitive.



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Jerry Adams serves as the president and CEO of the Arkansas Research Alliance. DORIS KRAIN PHOTO

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By BrOOKE TACKErLOG CABIN STAFF wRITER

In a day where time is money, and money is tight, the best benefit any industry can give is time saved.

This is true for the health industry, too.

The next big thing in health care, besides new legislation that will reform the nation’s health care industry, is robotic surgeries. Con-way Regional Health System has offered the da Vinci surgical sys-tem, a robotic platform designed to perform minimally invasive pro-cedures, since October 2008. The system has been used to perform 197 procedures so far at Conway Regional Medical Center.

“The thing to remember (about the system) is that it reduces the traditional things that people have to go through related to surgery, for instance, the recovery time, the

pain and the loss in time of work,” said John Patton, marketing coor-dinator for Conway Regional.

Other benefits experienced by patients include smaller incisions, less recovery time, less pain, less

blood loss and a shorter hospital stay, said Dr. Debra Lawrence, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Con-way Regional.

A quicker recovery time is time saved for patients. This translates into employers having less time in which they are short employees. In business, this time is valuable.

Kim Greer was the third patient to have a hysterectomy using the da Vinci at Conway Regional. She left the hospital the day after her procedure without prescription pain medication, and she went back to work as a loan assistant at

First Service Bank in Clinton the next week.

With a traditional hysterectomy, women usually stay in the hospi-tal for about a week, said Tiffany Arguello, a surgical technician at Conway Regional. They also have four weeks off work for recovery, Lawrence said. For patients hav-ing hysterectomies with the da Vinci system, Lawrence only sug-gests two weeks off work.

“The funniest thing is the nurs-es kept checking on me and asking

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Robotic surgeries changing medical traditions

Conway regional medical Center Surgical Technicians Tiffany Arguello, left, and Jessica Stelly, prepare the da Vinci Surgical System robot for a surgery wednesday morning. LIBERTY PARKS PHOTO

CRmC n 7

‘They are still getting used to taking care of

patients after this procedure. I never had any abdominal

pain’ —

Kim greer

Log Cabin Democrat • Find our online edition at www.cabinbusiness.net CABN • Spring 2010 — 7

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me if I needed any pain medicine,” Greer said. “They are still getting used to taking care of patients af-ter this procedure. I never had any abdominal pain. There were four little incisions, and they healed fast.”

The da Vinci surgical system is designed so that physicians use a set of robotic arms to perform pro-cedures. The physician sits at the console, which is about five feet from the patient, and views the patient through a high-definition view screen. The camera for the machine is attached to the center arm. The physician uses controls in the console to manipulate the camera and the arms of the robot.

In the case of a hysterectomy, four small ports, or incisions, are made and the robot’s three arms are attached to one of these ports. The remaining port is used for manual access by the nurses and surgical technicians in the operat-ing room.

“It’s really taken laparoscopy to a new level. It is much more pre-cise and visualization is much bet-ter, almost 3-D,” said Dr. Phillip Gullic, an obstetrician-gynecolo-gist at Conway Regional.

With conventional laparoscopy, surgeons use hand-held, long-shafted instruments, which have no wrists, and they must look away from the instruments, to a 2-D vid-eo monitor to see an image of the target anatomy. With the da Vinci system, however, surgeons have their eyes and hands in line with the instruments and move them by simply moving their hands.

Also with traditional laparos-copy, the surgeon’s assistant must move the camera manually, but with the da Vinci system, the sur-geon has control, Arguello said.

This system is offered for hys-terectomies, urological procedures like prostatectomies, and certain cardiovascular procedures like heart valve repairs and certain by-pass operations at Conway Region-al. The most common fields that use the da Vinci in surgery are urology and gynecology, said Jean-nette Varela, a registered nurse at Conway Regional.

Not all patients are candidates for this system, Lawrence said. The da Vinci is a situational option. More complex surgeries require a more traditional approach.

As far as the preparation for an operation using the da Vinci goes,

set up is a little more extensive. The robot and camera are covered with clear plastic for sterilization, and the equipment is checked to make sure it is communicating. There is one team at Conway Re-gional that does most of the da Vinci procedures, and they have a routine set, said Varela.

“The major benefit to remember about this (the da Vinci system) is for the patient in reduced bleeding and recovery time,” Varela said. “It’s much easier for the patient.”

From a physician’s point of view, using the da Vinci in surgery does take longer to set up and the pro-cedures usually take longer. A tra-ditional hysterectomy takes about an hour, and one with the da Vinci system takes about two hours and can be longer if there are compli-cations.

“It takes getting used to the loss of tactile sensation,” Lawrence said. “I can squeeze the controls as hard as I can, but I can’t feel how much pressure there is on the ac-tual tissue.”

However, the patient recovery benefits far outweigh the extras for the physicians, she said.

The future of the health care industry in general is uncertain right now, Patton said.

However, “I have noticed a trend where procedures have become less and less invasive,” he said.

Conway regional medical Center’s Dr. Debra Lawrence checks the da Vinci Surgical System controls before performing surgery wednesday morning. LIBERTY PARKS PHOTO

CrmC from �



Technology giant Hewlett-Pack-ard has taken up residence in Conway, and its goals over the

next few years involve making the most of its new facility and getting to know Faulkner County.

As a business leader, the company offered a couple of ideas for those who would emulate its strategies as well as some insight into its use of the lat-est technology.

Shannon Marnitz, director of the Central Arkansas Site and Consumer Support, HP Conway, said, “New fa-cilities often present the opportunity to streamline processes that could result in important improvements in customer service. We believe the local workforce and access to higher educa-tion has created a valuable resource for companies in the region.

“While we’re looking forward to

building deeper relationships within the community, we’ve already relied heavily on local vendors. Area restau-rants provide the meals in our café and local contractors and resources were used in the construction of the building.”

Ken Stauffer, owner of Stromboli’s in Conway, is one of the local restau-rants serving as a vendor to HP em-ployees. He serves lunch at the site two days a month.

“In that two-hour period, we’re do-ing what we would do in a full day at my restaurant,” he said. “It’s boosting my sales pretty good. People are get-ting aware of who we are. It’s helping get the word out for my little busi-ness.”

Marnitz continued, “We also expect to see deeper integration into the com-munity through employee volunteer-ism. HP employees in Conway will have four hours each month to serve in volunteer capacities. HP plans to

employ more than 1,200 in Conway in a phased approach over four years and will continue to be involved in the community through programs like Habitat for Humanity and Toad Suck Daze.”

Patricia Scott-Hoskins, executive director of Habitat for Humanity, said the nonprofit organization and HP are in the planning stages and have agreed to partner at whatever level the business wants.

“We have had a couple of meetings, and they are interested and excited about opportunities to partner with Habitat,” she said. “I do know that one of their strong suits is they want to positively impact communities they are in nationwide.”

The Conway HP facility is a state-of-the-art customer support center serving HP consumer and enterprise customers across the U.S.

“New technologies have enabled HP to better serve and support HP custom-ers and improve the customer experi-ence. With our network infrastructure and wireless capabilities, our employ-ees can work from anywhere within the building and virtually anywhere with a broadband connection,” Mar-nitz said. “For the HP Conway site, the ability to work from anywhere with a broadband connection has a direct im-pact on employees’ productivity and morale and gives them the flexibility

to work from home if needed, or when people are traveling. This is consis-tent with HP technologies and policies elsewhere in the company.”

Marnitz said she could not discuss future technologies but said regarding those that are becoming more wide-ly used, “Customer Contact Center agents in Conway are equipped with state-of-the-art tools to help custom-ers quickly and efficiently. The tech-nology infrastructure behind HP’s agents includes state-of-the-art order entry, quoting and interactive trou-bleshooting guide that helps agents quickly recommend business solutions and identify courses of action to solve customer problems.

“For our customer support agents, HP is broadening access to Instant Care, the company’s remote capabil-ity that lets agents take control of a customer’s desktop with his or her permission to solve technical problems remotely.”

T.J. Johnston, vice president of business development for the Conway Development Corporation, said he be-lieves the presence of HP will serve as a recruitment tool for Conway.

“I think from a recruitment stand-point, the fact that you have the world’s largest technology company in the center of your technology park speaks to our local workforce,” he said.

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First Orion, a Conway-based phone company, sees the future of tech-nology in one word — apps.

The group created an application, or app, for smart phones called PrivacyS-tar that can be used to block unwanted calls with one keystroke, according to CEO Jeff Stalnaker. The app also en-ables the owner of the phone to look up the name of the caller and file a com-plaint with the Federal Trade Commis-sion if the call is a telemarketer.

“We’re closing in on 100,000 people using the app and 15,000 caller look-ups per day,” Stalnaker said.

He said the motivation behind build-ing the app was to help people easily manage their privacy. PrivacyStar is available for the Blackberry, and will soon be rolled out for the Droid. It will be several months before it is available for the iPhone, he said.

Stalnaker said smart phones are becoming so popular that thousands of companies are sprouting that do noth-ing but build apps.

“It’s a whole economy being built around apps. It reminds me of the In-ternet in the ‘90s – everyone putting up Web sites, whole companies being built around it. Now there are companies that, all they do is build apps,” he said.

Smart phones make up almost 20 percent of the entire mobile subscrip-tion in the U.S., Stalnaker said.

“Very few people are buying the old flip phones,” he said. “I’d say (they make up) eight of 10 new phones purchased. The thing that’s driving this is clearly technology. The Droid and Eris (are) as powerful as your traditional laptop. The manufacturers are building them to replace the need for a laptop. They’re building these devices with technol-ogy to be extraordinarily fast and easy to use. I predict by the end of the year that the number of new smart phones sold will be more than laptops.”

Josh Smith, chief technology officer for First Orion, said, “The voice is just an app anymore.

Stalnaker agreed.“Minutes are going to go away. There

are apps you can use to make calls that don’t use minutes,” he said.

Stalnaker said the only thing hold-ing back the “perfect storm” of the next big technology boom is connectivity.

“Internet carriers have to grow to support that type of bandwidth,” said Smith.

Stalnaker continued, “The technol-

ogy is better, faster, cheaper. You can do almost anything on your phone be-cause there’s an app for everything. The power of that technology is go-ing to keep being pumped into these devices – easy to use combined with all the cool things you can do. I think about this economy that has been built. Two years ago you didn’t have thousands of companies that all they did was write apps for smart phones. It’s only going to continue if you look at the trends. You have price com-petition on these smart phones. For $49 you can get a pretty cool smart phone.”

However, Stalnaker was quick to point out that First Orion is not sim-ply in the app-building business. They are in the consumer telephone privacy business, and any future apps they build will be related to that.

On the horizon for First Orion now is getting the app ready for the Droid, which should happen in the next cou-ple of months. They hope in late sum-mer to provide an update for text mes-sages.

The company will also make Pri-vacy Star available to the VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) wholesaler that provides telephone service for Conway Corp and more than 100 municipali-ties in 14 states, Stalnaker said.

The company is also working on a “pure caller ID” for cellular phones, which would display every caller’s name rather than only those in the phone’s contact list.



First Orion focused on privacy with phone applicationsJosh Smith, left, and Jeff Stalnaker with First Orion cre-ated an application for smartphones called PrivacyStar that can be used to block unwanted calls. LIBERTY PARKS PHOTO

Making better healthcare a reality.

Our employer resources include:

-Workers’ compensation

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-On-site classes and programs

What if your local hospital

cared as much about your employees’ health

as you do?

At Conway Regional, we do. Employee health costs continue to

rise and employers are looking for ways to lower costs and increase

productivity. Many companies are beginning to focus on employee

wellness programs and Conway Regional can help. From basic

workers’ compensation to on-site classes and programs on the topics

your employees want to know about, we can assist you in providing

the resources they need to get healthy. Find out more online at

www.conwayregional.org/occupationalhealth. It’s just one more way

Conway Regional is working to make better healthcare a reality.

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