Rock-Ola Expands its Brand in Europe December 18, 2009 – Torrance, CA – As its competition cuts back, Rock-Ola Jukebox Manufacturing Corporation recently announced sweeping changes to its European distribution network in an effort to leverage the momentum of increased brand awareness in the territory. In a recent interview, CEO Glenn Streeter stated, “We believe that the [...]

LiquidWick Pool Cues And Jeanette Lee “The Black Widow” To Be Featured On The TLC TV Show American Chopper LiquidWick Pool Cues announced today that it will be featured along with world billiard star Jeanette Lee “The Black Widow” on the TLC TV Show “American Chopper,” which features the custom motorcycle shop, Orange County Choppers. Earlier this [...]

Numonyx B.V., which bills itself as the world's third-largest supplier of memory technology and the No. 1 provider of memory chips for mobile phones, formally opened its new North American headquarters Thursday in Folsom.

Regional and state business leaders and public officials were on hand for ceremonies to open about 100,000 square feet of office and laboratory space at 2355 Iron Point Road.

Numonyx, headquartered in Switzerland, was formed in March 2008 when Intel Corp. and Swiss tech giant STMicroelectronics joined their flash memory businesses to create an independent company focused solely on memory technologies.

Previously, local Numonyx employees were housed at the nearby Intel campus in Folsom.

"We wanted to make sure that as we established the Numonyx North American headquarters, we would be set up for success, and we came right back to where we started," said Glen Hawk, Numonyx vice president and Folsom's executive manager. "We knew there is a tremendously talented and highly skilled work force in Folsom that will help us continue to innovate, design and deliver our future-generation memories around the globe."

Barbara Hayes, executive director of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization, said the company's decision to stay in Folsom was a welcome development amid the wobbly economy.

"The economic downturn of the last couple of years has affected our area like it has nearly everywhere else," she said. "Numonyx choosing to stay in our region is certainly welcomed news, which we hope will be the first of more to come in 2010."

With nearly 450 employees, Numonyx said it is the largest privately held, global technology company in the Sacramento region.

The company said most of its office employees are in the process of moving into the new headquarters. Others are scheduled to move in March once construction is completed on labs.

The Folsom site will house the company's business group, corporate technology office, product research and development, testing/validation labs and North American sales and marketing services.

Numonyx chips are fabricated in Israel and Singapore.

The company says that one out of every two mobile phones shipped around the world today contains Numonyx memory technology. Its memory products are also used in cars, televisions and other consumer electronics.

More information on Numonyx is available at www.numonyx.com.

emTrain, a Sacramento-based, online human resource compliance training company, is offering a free online course to help employers educate workers on the benefits and drawbacks of using social media tools in the workplace.

For more information, visit www.emtrain.com or call (866) 651-7474.

– Mark Glover

A massive computer upgrade at CalPERS has run millions of dollars over its original budget and missed its completion deadline – and is in danger of falling further behind schedule.

CalPERS officials' frustration over the delays exploded publicly Wednesday.

Furious board members scolded a representative from New York-based consulting firm Accenture, the lead contractor on the project, after hearing warnings of possible new setbacks to the project's timetable.

"You've put this board and this system's reputation at stake," CalPERS President Rob Feckner told Accenture's Tom Hartman during the pension fund's regular board meeting. "If our reputation is at risk, so is yours. … What we have now is totally unacceptable."

The computer overhaul, announced in late 2006, was supposed to cost the California Public Employees' Retirement System about $278 million. The budget has been increased to $361 million. Most of the cost increases are due to additional features sought by CalPERS after the contract was signed, said pension fund spokesman Brad Pacheco.

On Wednesday, fund officials were focused on project delays. Just last month, CalPERS agreed to push the completion date to next September, a five-month delay. Now that could be in peril.

Hartman, an Accenture managing director, told the board that Accenture has "experienced serious problems with system tests" in the past few weeks.

He said Accenture won't know until April, after some additional testing, if the September deadline is realistic. "It's very embarrassing," he said.

Pension fund officials seized on his statement. Priya Mathur, a CalPERS board member, told him, "I have no faith that you'll be able to deliver this in September."

Hartman told the board that 25 additional Accenture staffers have been put on the job in order to catch up. And, in an interview, he said Accenture's chief executive, William Green, has been alerted to the problems with the CalPERS job. "We are putting every effort in," he said.

Hartman referred additional questions to a corporate spokesman, Peter Soh. Soh issued a statement pledging Accenture's commitment to the project.

"This is a large, complex consolidation project and it is critical to complete extensive system testing before rolling it out to California public employees," Soh said. "CalPERS and Accenture are working together to make that happen."

The computer issue is the latest problem to hit CalPERS, which is wrestling with huge investment losses from last year and a possible influence-peddling scandal involving placement agents – middlemen hired by private-equity firms to secure investment dollars from public pension funds. One such agent, former CalPERS board member Alfred Villalobos, has earned more than $60 million from CalPERS deals in the past decade.

Other computer snafus have popped up elsewhere in state government recently. The Bee has reported that spending on an overhaul of the state's court system has grown from $260 million to $394 million – and could go much higher.

The tardiness of the CalPERS computer project has already created organizational problems for the fund, and a further delay would be even more harmful, said Teri Bennett, CalPERS' chief information officer. For instance, the project is causing some delays in open enrollment for health insurance, she said.

Bennett said she's "shocked" at the prospect of further delays in finishing the computer overhaul.

"We negotiated in good faith … to come to a new schedule, a new plan," she said.

She said CalPERS is insisting that Accenture get the job done by September.

"I think they have the wherewithal to fix it," she said.

The project is designed to enhance the pension fund's "My CalPERS" system, which lets members access their accounts via the Internet. It would consolidate dozens of outdated computer systems into one.

Accenture, as lead contractor, was originally to be paid $199 million. Its fee has now grown to $250.9 million, mainly to cover enhancements that weren't in the original contract but were subsequently requested by CalPERS, said pension fund spokesman Pacheco.

He said "they're not getting any more money" because of the delays.

Officials with Intel offices in Folsom said Wednesday that the Federal Trade Commission's legal action against Intel Corp. is unrelated to local operations.

"There's nothing about the FTC action that would impact Folsom at all," said Intel Folsom spokesman Mark Pettinger.

Intel Folsom employs about 5,800 engineers, technicians, sales and support staff at its research and design campus. The site is home to major platform groups (Mobility, Digital Health, Digital Enterprise, Digital Home), Intel's Americas Sales and Marketing operation, and the company's Information Technology organization.

Intel came to Folsom in 1984 and no bills itself as the largest private industry employer there.

The campus has seven buildings with 1.5 million square feet of office, testing and lab space.

Intel workers in Folsom create, test and validate next-generation chips and chip sets, including desktop, mobile and server-processor products.

Wilkie Makes Comeback to Win Predator Finale Predator 9-Ball Tour / West Hempstead, NY by Jerry Tarantola, NYCGrind The Predator 9-Ball Tour’s 2009 season came to a close the weekend of December 12-13, and their finale drew 92 of the Northeast’s strongest players. Danny Basavich, Marc Vidal, Jose Parica, George Sansouci, and Scott Tollefson came out to Raxx [...]

It's time to wrap up that online shopping if you're hoping your purchases arrive in time for Christmas.

Deadlines set by many online retailers are expiring this week and a sizable chunk have set Friday as your last shot, according to a survey of retailers for Shop.org.

Online holiday shopping this season got a nice bump from free shipping offers that extended almost industrywide, according to Shop.org.

At least one-third of holiday shoppers say they will spend more online this season because of the free shipping offers, the survey said.

Convenience is the biggest reason that shoppers turn to online. Being able to shop online at work was a plus to only 3 percent of shoppers, according to the survey.

Online sales, excluding travel, are expected to jump from $141 billion last year to $156 billion this year, which is 5 percent of all retail sales, according to Shop.org.

There's time for procrastinating online, however.

If you just haven't found, say, the right fruitcake to bestow on someone special, don't panic. Half of online retailers will still get your gift there overnight – for a price.