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 They say it takes a strong man to be with a strong woman. Well I don't know if I qualify by association, but I do know that Delores Holley has been a storing influence on GNEMSDC and the CMSDC for almost two decades. This December will mark the end of a long and illustrious career Delores,or as we affectionately call her, Dee, will retire from her position as Vice President of the GNEMSDC, where she has served with distinction since 2001. Delores started with the Council in the 1990s and served as the CMSDC Chairperson while she was at Northeast Utilities. During the transition from my predecessor, Elaine William, Delores served as Interim President of the CMSDC. Over her long tenure with the Council, Dee was a stalwart for MBE development and having fun while working hard. We will miss her in so many ways and I am sure you will as well. Our hope is that we maintain her commitment to excellence and a good time. I hope that you all can come to the December 3 Holiday Business Card Exchange at the Farmington Marriott to tell Dee; thank you. | |
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 On Monday, December 13 at Darryl's Corner Bar and Kitchen at 604 Columbus Avenue (one block off MA Avenue). The event will go from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. This historic bar is part of the African American Boston tradition of great Southern Cuisine. Please RSVP by calling the office or sending Tatiana an email, tparedes@gnemsdc.org. We are also proud to have as co-sponsors for this Holiday Business Card Exchange, the Massachusetts Black Business Alliance and BostonKorea. These are two organizations we have partnered with this year in activities in the Greater Boston area and bringing them together with our organization is quite an honor. Imagine, a little kim chi with your black eyed peas and corn bread! GNEMSDC Quarterly Meeting At UTC December 3 The GNEMSDC Quarterly Meeting is coming up on Friday December 3 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM at United Technologies Corporation in Farmington, CT at Four Farm Springs Road. The agenda for this Quarterly will include showcases by three MBEs, a presentation on exporting goods and services to the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), and a presentation by the UTC supplier development team. The export presentation will replace the seminar scheduled on November 9. Here is a message from UTC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Louis R. Chênevert: "United Technologies Corporation seeks the most innovative and competitive suppliers in order to maintain our competitive advantage. We spent the 1990s working on internal efficiencies and cost with great success. In the last several years we have worked aggressively with our supply base as real partners to eliminate inefficiencies, enable lower cost and deliver the highest quality to our customers. Diverse suppliers have been essential to our performance and will be for decades to come. We also require of our top suppliers and integrators the same supplier diversity commitments we expect from ourselves. Please browse this supplier diversity website where you'll learn how diverse suppliers are a priority for UTC and what your opportunities with our company may be." Following the Quarterly Meeting, we will have the annual CT Holiday Business Card Exchange at the Hartford Marriott, right around the corner from the meeting The HBC Exchange will start promptly at 5:30 and conclude at 7:30 PM. Please feel free to invite and bring a friend. This is a great way to end the year. This is another free event for certified MBEs, corporate members and their guests. Agenda for GNEMSDC Quarterly Meeting Dec, 3, 2010 at UTC
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 Last Tuesday we had another excellent and informative seminar designed to take your business to another level. This time the focus was on using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Google to market your business. Currently there are over 15 billion searches per month. The question for you is how many times does your business show up when customers and potential customers are looking for what you sell? Arun Sinha (pictured above) of Access Consulting was the subject matter expert who presented on Tuesday. He was nice enough to share his presentation with all of you who did not or could not attend. Thank you Arun. To view the presentation click on the link below. | |
| Using SEO and Google to Market Your Business | |
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 This week we focus on newly certified Advans IT of Westborough, MA. We welcome Advans and their founder Peo Nathan to the GNEMSDC. Advans IT Services, Inc. (www.AdvansIT.com) is a Solution Provider and IT consulting firm with comprehensive services for all areas of IT infrastructure. From architecture to implementation to upgrade, our IT professionals consistently deliver customized, high performance IT solutions that drive your business towards your goals. With our unique Service Delivery Model, Advans deploys cutting edge technology with fixed prices, so you can better manage your budget. The delivery model was developed to boost the ROI and business value of our client's IT investments. Offering a full range of staffing solutions, Advans provides temporary, temp-to-perm and direct hire resources. In addition to staff augmentation, our Hybrid Staffing Model cost effectively manages onsite and offshore personnel. Advans develops software and deploys proprietary Grid and Cloud Computing architectures for our clients and for powering the Advans Cloud. Oracle has published a case study white paper detailing an Advans Grid Computing deployment where the architecture was adapted to, consolidate servers, deliver high performance applications reliably, and provide for a disaster recovery solution. This white paper is public information and is available on the Oracle Technology Network, at: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/availability/shire-casestudy-085573.html. Designed for high performance and data security in shared environments, the Advans Cloud hosts proprietary, industry specific CRM applications and datacenter monitoring solutions. In Q3 of 2010, Advans released the first application in its CRM suite, the Advans DRM ("Donor Relationship Management") for nonprofit organizations. This affordably priced, hosted solution integrates management tools, donor interaction tracking and fund raising in an intuitive interface. Users need only an Internet connection to use this Software-as-a-Service application (see, www.AdvansDRM.com). The Small Business Commerce Association selected Advans for the 2009 Best of Business Award in the Managed IT Service Provider category. Advans has Managed Services covering the entire IT infrastructure, including Green IT services for reducing carbon footprints and costs. Learn how to make a datacenter greener with Grid Computing at www.GridisGreen.com. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Westborough Massachusetts, Advans has two offices in India. The application development staff is located in Hyderabad, while both offices conduct IT infrastructure support. The Hyderabad software development team creates web, mobile, and document management applications for healthcare as well as the CRM suite. For more information, please email contact@AdvansIT.com. | |
| Advans IT | |
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The Business Consortium Fund ("BCF") has initiated a new accounts receivable financing program for NMSDC certified MBEs. The new BCF program can provide access to account receivable (factoring) loans to MBEs financing a minimum of $10,000 in receivables. The BCF has formed an alliance with Riviera Finance ("Riviera") to bring this financing source to MBEs. While receivables financing is available from many sources, a unique aspect of the new BCF program is that it seeks to leverage some of the BCF's capital and participate in the loans under certain circumstances. In many cases, the BCF participation in the loan will result in a lower overall cost to the MBEs. There is no application fee or set-up fee in connection with this program and the MBE is not required to make a long term commitment to or finance all of its receivables through the program. Riviera is an experienced receivables lender that has worked with a number of businesses in diverse industries. MBEs must be NMSDC certified and doing businessTo find out more about the program or to request an application for potential funding, please contact the BCF at 212-243-7360 or at info@bcfcapital.com. You may also go to the BCF website at www.bcfcapital.com. | |
| The Business Consortium Fund | |
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I apologize for not including the Matlet Group as an Offical MBE Sponsor in last week's enewsletter. We are asking all corporate members and certified MBEs to consider becoming a 2011 Annual Sponsor. Your sponsorship assists the GNEMSDC accomplish its mission. Your sponsorship allows MBEs to better market their business to potential corporate clients. Your sponsorship provides tools and resources for corporate supplier diversity and procurement teams to efficiently source with certified MBEs. Your sponsorship dollars allow you to purchase participation in our major events at discount. Please visit our website for details on 2011 Annual Sponsorships. | |
| The Matlet Group | |
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Please Mark Your Calendars for the following events, seminars and activities. I hope you can join us for these events that are designed to move your companies forward.
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 In the article I wrote for the Boston Banner, "What Can Corporations do for Minority Business Development", I make the case that the future of minority business development rests with closer relationships between minority entrepreneurs and corporate America. All corporations, whether Fortune 100 companies or the corner store, sit in chain of value from raw material to some product or service a consumer eats, drinks, wears, plugs into or someway or another interacts with. There are literally thousands of businesses in the business eco-system that in the process of being kicked out of one company's supply chain and added to others. The competition among suppliers is fierce, whether minority or non-minority. No company willingly gives a competitor a market they have struggled for. In this environment, entrepreneurs need to look at the desired results and consider all of the alternative ways of getting those results. If you believe you are a great entrepreneur, then it means that you believe that you can create more value with the same resources and constraints as others either through your managerial expertise, your creativity, or both. Great MBE entrepreneurs look for ways to take the resources corporations are already committed to and generate greater returns for them and for yourself. This is the mind-set that will bring you success in our world of minority business development; the creation of sustainable value. Corporate members know that some of what they do does not create the value that they demand. Where this is the case, those corporate members should be willing to sell or otherwise transfer those resources to someone who can extract the value. Minority entrepreneurs need to step up into these opportunities and show that they are better at creating value. I know that there are creative minority entrepreneurs out there. I know that there are under-performing operations within our corporate membership. Our challenge is to bring these two together for the benefit of each and in the process, we create wealth in minority communities. In your service Dr. Fred | |
