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Columbia hires firm to steer tech program

Submitted by: John Warner on May 22, 2003 at 5:00 am Tagged with: General Archives Source:

Columbia hires firm to steer tech program
By C. GRANT JACKSON
Business Editor
The State

Sagacious Partners, headed by local technology veteran Neil McLean, will
implement a plan designed to reshape the Columbia region into a hub for
high-paying technology jobs.
Columbia City Council voted unanimously Wednesday morning to hire McLean's firm
to bring the Regional Technology Development Plan to life.
Columbia Mayor Bob Coble unveiled the ambitious plan at the city's Annual
Technology Summit in February. The plan was developed by the Mayor's Taskforce
on Technology.
The city will pay Sagacious $90,000 over the next year.
While Columbia has appropriated $100,000 for technology, the City Council
doesn't expect to foot the bill alone.
Coble said he has a tentative commitment from Richland County Council for
$25,000. The city also will try to raise a minimum of $20,000 from the
technology community.
Lexington County, which has been supportive of the plan, was asked to
contribute, Coble said, but could not do so under its current budget.
Coble remained adamant that the city must be a leader in the project. It must
"sign the contract," or the technology plan will never become a reality, he
said.
Coble got solid backing from a majority of council. "The public sector must
take the lead role on technology infrastructure," council member Ann Sinclair
said. "I see this as an opportunity for our city."
The five-year plan depends heavily on cooperation among area governments, the
business community and the University of South Carolina.
McLean said the city, USC and technology and business leaders would hold a news
conference Friday to kick off work on the initiative.
The first order of business will be to form the leadership team for the
Technology Leadership Council, McLean said. Coble has said the council is the
key ingredient of the plan. The council would be responsible for refining and
implementing the plan with the help of Sagacious Partners in the first year.
McLean said he wants to get the group together by the third week of June. He
wants the council functioning in 45 days.
Once that is done, Sagacious will work on a business plan, including a budget
for the council. The plan would be used to solicit government, business and
education communities for financial support, McLean said.
Sagacious Partners was one of four responders to the city's request for
proposals to develop the technology plan.
Three of the responses came from companies in South Carolina, including two
from Columbia and one from an individual in Indiana, according to Jim Gambrell,
city economic development director.
The proposals were reviewed by a committee that included Coble; Sinclair;
council member Sam Davis; Tony Boccanfuso, USC Research Foundation managing
director; Ike McLeese, president of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce;
and Cathy Lanier, president of Technology Solutions Inc. and chairwoman of the
Mayor's Technology Task Force.
A veteran of the local technology community, McLean formed Sagacious Partners
in May 2001 to provide outsourced chief information officer and project
management services.
Before forming Sagacious, McLean was vice president and chief operating officer
of Syneractive, a Columbia Web services firm. He spent about 10 years in the
telecommunications industry.
McLean said he feels like the stars are aligning for Columbia and the Midlands
to make something happen in technology.
"More and more companies and business leaders in the Midlands are understanding
that technology is not all about high-tech start-ups," he said. "It is about
every business, and it is about schools."