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Web sites drive business 24/7:

Define your objectives Before investing in a design, decide what you want to accomplish. For example, you may be trying to: Let people know about your company. Your Web site establishes credibility by providing customers and prospects an introduction to your firm. Develop a research tool. Online surveys help gather information regarding customer preferences, interests and market trends. Operate a retail shop. Some sites offer customers the opportunity to collect information, view pricing and shop online. Extend your customer-service department….

SPORTS: Byproducts abundant at basketball’s big event

Our big basketball week is upon us. With it, I have some hopes. For starters, I hope we don’t take the event and all that comes with it for granted. The NCAA’s Men’s Final Four is one of the few moveable mega-feasts in sports. That local visionaries dreamed big dreams and put in place the venues, forged the relationships, and formed the partnerships to make Indianapolis the only city to be part of the Final Four’s permanent rotation is an…

Indiana to alter Web site: Small IT firms aren’t thrilled with contract requirements

For the first time in more than a decade, Indiana is shopping for a Web portal manager. Indiana Office of Technology CIO Karl Browning is attempting to make the state’s award-winning Internet gateway even better. The hunt will also test Gov. Mitch Daniels’ “Buy Indiana” initiative, which aims to give local companies a leg up in competition for state contracts. The larger players in Indiana’s IT community say they’re pleased with the new process. But some smaller firms complain it’s…

Audits give high marks to drug-testing programs: Labor organization says results show effort is working

Owners of building projects in central Indiana need not worry about laborers from certain organizations showing up for jobs with bloodshot eyes or slurred speech. Audits conducted on drug- and alcoholabuse testing programs operated by some of the state’s labor groups confirm what most in the industry say they already knew-that the system is working. The inspections were done at the urging of the Metro Indianapolis Coalition for Construction Safety, a local voluntary program of construction contractors, subcontractors and the…

Master planner: Veteran event organizer Smith helps city land major events

Maribeth Smith never talks about herself. Despite engineering some of the biggest events in the city’s history-everything from Final Fours to the Jazz Fest to last year’s meeting of the American Association of Museums-she’s loathe to use the word “I.” She prefers “we.” As in “we” the city. Or “we” Maribeth Smith & Associates, her 14-year-old event planning firm. But as reticent as the 62-yearold Smith might be to take credit for her accomplishments, convention organizers and city officials say…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Green building trend should be here to stay

Trends come and go all the time in the architecture and construction fields. But one movement that is proving to be steadfast and is gaining momentum is called “green architecture.” Simply stated, it is the effort to minimize the effect of new and refurbished buildings on their environment. The green approach to building design is often seen by many as merely focusing on the recycling of building materials, but in fact addresses multiple aspects of the construction process. Green design…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: A revolution in health care: Consumers will call shots

I once had a doctor who shared with me a little joke about medicine. It comes to mind every year as I get older and more susceptible to life’s ailments. Doctors, he said, don’t really cure anything. They just let you trade in one malady for another. I know he was talking about the side effects of medicines and treatments we take for our weak hearts and faltering knees. But I keep thinking it applies equally to the situation of…

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Short but historic session produces election plot lines

You can go home now (unless you live in Perry Township) and rest somewhat assured that the governor and state lawmakers won’t do anything untoward to you until, at the soonest, November. Yes, the 2006 short session of the Indiana General Assembly has run its course, and left the state with some key policy and economic legacies. Not the least of them, as we have discussed at length in this column, and has been covered elsewhere in these pages, are…

New Rose-Hulman chief a contrast to predecessor: Arizona academic takes reins after Midgley ouster

If higher education were a business, graduates would be its core product. Economic development would be a promising second line. New Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology President Gerald Jakubowski wants to make sure he’s delivering exactly what the market demands. “At Rose-Hulman, we need to make sure we’re meeting the needs of business and industry,” Jakubowski said. “For a seamless transition into the work force, students must learn by doing.” Jakubowski, 56, could be describing his own path to the president’s…

HMOs report steady profits, falling membership: Indiana insurers performed well overall in 2005

Most of Indiana’s largest HMOs managed to turn profits in 2005, even as other kinds of health insurance gained market share, sucking away 6 percent to 15 percent of their customers. Technology improvements and more efficient operations helped counter those losses, health maintenance organization executives said. However, annual reports filed with the state Department of Insurance show that profit for some of these managed care options slipped compared to 2004. Industry insiders say many companies are reluctant to offer HMOs…

Stadium project missing diversity goals: Building authority might look beyond city to meet mandates for contracting with minority-, women-owned firms

The director of the entity in charge of the Colts stadium project conceded it will need to reach beyond central Indiana to fulfill aggressive minority-contracting goals attached to the structure’s construction. The General Assembly passed legislation last year directing the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority to grant 15 percent of contracts to minoritybusiness enterprises and 5 percent to women-business enterprises. With one-quarter of the contracts awarded, the ISCBA is close to achieving its minority goals, but is only about…

IDEM pollution fines fall: Violators assessed lowest amount since ’99, but Daniels administration speeds up process

Under Republican control for the first time in 16 years, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in 2005 handed out $2.03 million in fines for pollution violations, the lowest annual assessment since at least 1999. The 2005 penalties were down nearly $600,000 from a year earlier, when the department was under the administration of Gov. Joe Kernan. But IDEM records show Gov. Mitch Daniels’ team had comparatively little patience for unresolved cases, in which the commission and alleged violators couldn’t…

EYE ON THE PIE: Legislature wastes another session

The 150 men and women who make up the Indiana General Assembly have finished their annual freak show, folded their tents, and departed from Indianapolis. In their wake, they left some truly terrible legislation and another record of neglect for the interests of Indiana’s too-long-suffering population. What was wrong with this session of the General Assembly? Your local editor will not grant me the space to be either sufficiently complete or detailed. Let’s start with the governor’s Major Moves program….

NOTIONS: A kid, a shave, a health care dilemma

For the second time in his young life, 9-year-old Joey Chamness had his head shaved last week. This time, the skinhead look is voluntary. Last time, it was chemotherapy. On a Thursday afternoon in January 2005, Joey was playing soccer when he felt pain in his left leg. He’d experienced this before, but not this bad. So Joey’s parents called the family pediatrician to schedule an appointment. The following Monday, the doctor took a look and said it was probably…

Health care developers eye their next frontier: Northeast Hamilton County offers a lucrative market

Chris Hamm’s phone started buzzing with calls from health care developers once plans for an extension of 146th Street east to Interstate 69 crystallized a couple years ago. The Noblesville economic development director said several organizations have shown “significant interest” in planting health care businesses along 146th Street, which will see a big boost in traffic once workers complete the interstate connection in the fall of 2007. At least three health-care-related deals are in the works, he added, declining to…

Art Institute students face changing world of design: Businesses should keep interior designers in demand

Facing an expanding world of corporate rebranding, homier hospital rooms and high-tech theaters in every suburb, students entering the field of interior design know they’ll be doing more than redecorating high-end homes. What once was considered predominantly a luxury service for wealthy homeowners wanting to expand their drawing rooms, interior design became a necessity in business years ago. Today, a majority of interior designers handle both residential and commercial work. And a growing number of firms that specialize in commercial…

INVESTING: Consumer staples aren’t flashy, but they are safe

The stock market did a great job in January of getting investors to focus on the energy sector when they should have been looking at the good, old-fashioned Dow Jones industrial average. In the last two months, energy stocks have become serious dogs, and the Dow has posted a series of five-year highs. They don’t ring a bell, folks. This stuff just kind of creeps up on you. The market prefers subtlety. It rewards hard work, patience and the willingness…

Steel Dynamics seeks part of former Olin site: Metal recycling operation would serve expanding Hendricks County mill

The site of the former Olin Brass factory on the near-west side might soon roar to life again if a plan to erect a metal recycling operation there comes through. A joint venture between Fort Waynebased Steel Dynamics Inc., Chicagobased Metal Management Inc. and local hauler Ray’s Trash is seeking city approval to install a metal shredder and recycling operation on about 40 acres at Holt Road and Airport Expressway. The venture, called Metal Dynamics LLC, would accept scrap metal…

Ad firm’s new HQ shows imagination: Former school gets makeover for Young & Laramore

The Indianapolis-based advertising firm’s former building, at 409 Massachusetts Ave., featured an interior atrium, open work spaces and a large fish sculpture in the window that caught the eye of passersby on the busy commercial corridor. For its new building, a former school tucked into Lockerbie Square a few blocks away, the firm had to decide how to creatively use a choppedup floor plan, complete with a gymnasium in the middle. Young & Laramore enlisted Eric Rowland and Sarah Schwarzkopf…

Schneider Corp. has designs on big growth in Lawrence: Long-time engineering firm gets boost from state as it plans to make $4.4 million investment, add 140 workers

The voluminous building the Schneider Corp. occupies on the former Fort Benjamin Harrison property was built as a barracks for enlisted men and later converted to a dormitory. So it’s fitting that the locally based engineering firm has a vision to create a university-type setting on its nearly fouracre campus where employees can receive training without stepping foot off the property. “We’ve worked on a strategic plan for the last couple of years, and Schneider University is part of that…