The Pedi Center in Bakersfield, California is an urgent care facility for children. The doctors and nurses at the facility see over 15,000 patients per year. In 2005, Carrie Champness, Facility Director, decided to install video cameras to better manage the facility and her employees. When the cameras were installed, she found that she was able to manage her employees and the operations of the facility. From ensuring that her facility was appropriately staffed to monitoring cash transactions, the cameras helped her monitor operations even when she wasn’t at the facility.

“I could easily check to see the number of patients in the waiting area to determine if we were overstaffed or understaffed and then quickly make adjustments so that our patients were better served,” said Champness. Additionally, she found she was able to better manage cash operations by placing cameras near the check out stations.

Make it Mobile

In 2010, the need arose to provide the video on a mobile platform as Carrie was traveling in the area and was not able to physically be in the facility as regularly. With C3, she found that she was able to manage her facility just as well if she was there or watching behind her computer. “C3 allowed me to make my job mobile,” said Champness. She accesses her video cameras with her iPad or iPhone.

Result

With the addition of the mobile viewing capability with C3, Champness now is able to manage the business no matter where she is. The operational capability of the video now allows her to better manage her facility and save money at the same time.

Participants included:

• Alex Bratton – CEO, Lextech Labs and Lextech Global Services for their innovation with the iRa C3 intuitive video command center.
• Rhon Daguro – Co-Founder and CEO, Touch Taste Technologies, People’s Choice Award winner for their innovation with TouchLife Interactive Tables.
• Mike Samson – Co-Founder, crowdSpring for their innovation with an online crowd-sourcing marketplace.
• John Vasilj – Chief Technology Officer, Chicago Transit Authority for their innovation with CTA’s Bus Tracker.

Discussions for the evening were centered around innovation, what characteristics a leader needs to have to direct and inspire innovation in their organization, how to recruit and retain talented IT staff in the Chicago region and what benefits companies see who win the Chicago Innovation Award.  When asked how innovation helps or affects an organization, John Vasilji, from CTA, said innovation can assist in motivating personnel in a depressed economy.  ”When employees are looking at furlough days, innovation can be a rallying factor.”  Alex Bratton said that a leader needs to be a catalyst for innovation in an organization when asked what characteristics a leader needs to have.  ”Sometimes, you need to be the catalyst and then just get out of the way.  We also need to be OK with failure so that we can learn from our mistakes.”

An audience member then asked the panel to speak to the talent pool in the Chicago area for IT personnel and managers.  Alex Bratton offered that Lextech Labs and the sister company Lextech Global Services were looking at ways to recruit talent to Chicago by using creative telecommuting methods.  Crowdspring, Co-Founder, Mike Samson, pointed out that through technology you can connect talent to a direct need from around the world.

In the last question of the night, the panel was asked to talk about how winning the Chicago Innovation Awards has helped their company grow.  Lextech Labs CEO, Alex Bratton, said that the company has received interest from multiple government agencies by being able to show the Sun Times Article on the Innovation Award.   Rhon Daguro then shared his story how the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas sought Touch Taste Technologies out after seeing the announcement on their award win.  And the product and service is now being installed in the Hard Rock Hotel.

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“When Alex was probably 10 or so, we bought an Apple II computer..and he was writing little games on it,” said Ray Bratton, Alex’s father. “[He] made these little stick men that would fall off a cliff” with his little brother

That was just the beginning. By age 14, Alex had formed his first software development company to write programs for his high school. Eight more companies and a computer engineering degree later, Bratton’s passion is his Lisle, Ill.-based Lextech Labs, which makes the iRa C3 mobile video surveillance app.

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The company’s product C3™ distributes realtime video to the people that need it the most, like first responders, law enforcement and government agencies.  It is the preferred mobility viewing and control solution for security and crisis response teams throughout the world. C3 provides realtime situational awareness to facilitate communication and time-sensitive decision making.  Recent upgrades include the ability to view recorded view and live video in a split screen format.

“Since 2001, the United States government, businesses and citizens have spent millions of dollars on video equipment to combat crime and terrorism.  Our mobile viewing platform, C3, unlocks the video from a monitor and places directly in front of the people that need it the most.  Receiving this grant allows to continue on our mission to provide critical video, anytime, anywhere.” said Alex Bratton, CEO and Founder of Lextech Labs.

“Putting tools in the hands of responders and security professionals who have boots on the ground can save lives and prevent destruction,” said Bret Johnson, director of HSIEC.  “LexTech supports HSIEC’s mission to protect our nation, its people, and its critical infrastructure.”

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