Smart Site links Cache Valley globally
Amid celebration of the Olympic torch coming to Logan, the residents of Cache Valley have one more reason to feel connected to the global community.
The Utah State University Innovation Campus, located in North Logan, is the home of the brand new Cache County Smart Site, which officially opened with a reception and ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday.
“The goal of the Utah Smart Sites initiative is to bring new economy jobs to rural communities,” said Wes Curtis, executive director of the governor’s rural partnership. “You do that by combining facilities, trained workers, bandwidth and equipment in a way that can compete globally in a global marketplace.”
Mary-Ann Muffoletto, public relations specialist at Utah State University, said Cache County was one of seven initial Smart Site locations designated by Gov. Mike Leavitt last year.
“Equipped with high-speed Internet connection, the Smart Sites will allow businesses demanding tech-savvy workers to tap Utah talent, without relocating Utahns out of state,” she said.
Steve Larson, vice president of sales and business for Information Alliance and Information Connections, said the idea of the Smart Site was to develop businesses throughout the state in rural communities.
Information Alliance and Information Connections are two entities which will help with the process.
“What Information Connections does is work with Utah State University to do conversion of [corporate] training programs from a hard copy environment to DVD,” Larson said.
He also said Information Alliance gathers important information from consumers around the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Larson said high-tech companies can use the information gathered by his company.
Larson said one of the reasons the governor started the Smart Site initiative is to have high-tech work come into Utah, so students don’t just earn their degrees here and leave the state because they can’t find a job in their field.
Teresa McKnight, manager of the USU Innovation Campus, said the Cache Smart Site is the largest of the seven originally proposed. While the Cache Smart Site has not officially been designated as the hub of the statewide Smart Site network, it is definitely one of their goals.
According to McKnight, the new Cache Smart Site is involved in a direct partnership with Utah State University.
“A lot of great technologies are coming out of Utah State University, and we felt like this was an opportunity for Utah State to show to the state some of those technologies,” McKnight said.
President Kermit L. Hall said in a presentation given at the Smart Site reception, Utah State is delighted to participate in the Smart Site concept.
According to McKnight, although the Smart Site is a state program, it is not funded by tax dollars. Private investors and private companies, in partnership with the state of Utah and USU have teamed up to fund the site.
President Hall said, “[The Cache Smart Site] will provide great advantages to the university as well as the state of Utah, [including] assistantships and internships for Utah State graduate and undergraduate students.”
Muffoletto said one of the targets of Smart Site is to create “family sustaining wages,” or wages that are high enough to keep workers here and prevent “brain drain.”
David Rogers, a retired extension specialist with USU, said, “The concept is that this site or other sites will contract to do outsourcing for major high-tech companies eventually. Very often there are things a high-tech company doesn’t want to do themselves, so they will outsource to another operation. The idea is that this site and others will be in a position to contract them.”
Muffoletto said, “The idea is that you create an infrastructure both of technology and personnel who will attract Silicon-Valley-type companies to Utah.
“Companies anywhere in the world can contract with a Smart Site for such services as software testing, research and technical support call centers, database management, data entry and Web site development,” Muffoletto said.
According to McKnight, the opening of Smart Site represents great employment and internship opportunities for students of USU.
“We feel it is our obligation to provide opportunities for students,” she said.
Larson and McKnight said the concept for Smart Site has been on the drawing board for about two years. Larson said they hope rural communities such as Logan will be seen as the leader in certain types of technology.
“The benefit is that it offers an opportunity to be involved in something that is high-tech and something that can put Logan on the map,” Larson said.
He said he hopes when companies need a certain technology, the place they think about is Logan.
“We want Utah State University and Logan to be the leader in some kind of technology. DVD technology seems to be that technology.”
According to Larson, while there are seven Smart Sites currently in operation around the state of Utah, and more will open as needed, the Smart Site in Logan is unique, because currently it is the only Smart Site affiliated directly with a university.
McKnight said, “The opening of the Cache Smart Site represents an exciting new partnership between USU, the state of Utah and the people of Cache Valley and beyond.”