INX Acquires Select, A Professional Networking Services Co

9/4/2007
By The Wallstreet Journal
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

INX Inc. (INXI) acquired Select Inc., a Boston-based professional networking services company, for $6.25 million cash and $2.25 million in INX shares.

Houston-based INX said in a statement Tuesday it expects the transaction to be accretive to per-share earnings for the 12-month period following the transaction.

Select is a Boston-based Cisco-centric systems provider focused on delivering IP telephony, IP storage and network infrastructure systems throughout New England with about $40 million in annual revenue.

INX, a network infrastructure professional services firm, expects the deal to expand its market prescence into the Northeast.

Securing the IT Infrastructure

1/12/2004
By Robert C. Norton
Founder, Executive Vice President and COO
Healthcare Informatics

Protection can be solid and ongoing, even on a conservative budget.

With today's world events and cyber-terrorist activities, healthcare organizations are realizing that their best IT defenses may not be good enough. Increasingly, clinical functions rely on network availability. Clinicians would be paralyzed without it, and patients' lives depend on it. But obtaining funds to protect their institution often seems impossible to executives in the current do-more-with-less environment. They are having to put their IT infrastructure at risk due to budgetary constraints, especially considering the impact of HIPAA and the costs of compliance, and are having to choose between staying up, staying secure and complying.

Holistic protection

IT security should be an ongoing process and an integrated component of a holistic IT environment where all elements affect the system's health. Stand-alone security may not benefit from the required IT planning to match overall institutional goals. Many IT managers have shifted their priority to compliance and relegated security to a one-time event. It is not.

Systems can be secure, if you're willing to pay the price

12/1/2003
By Sidney Hill, Jr.
Executive Editor
MSI IT for Manufacturing Executives

The technology is available for corporations to protect themselves from viruses, hackers, and other threats to their IT networks. The problem is most companies don’t have—or won’t commit—the resources necessary to put the proper technology in place.

That’s the opinion of Robert Norton, executive VP and COO of StrategIT, a Westwood, Mass.-based IT consulting firm. “We know that corporations have been cutting IT budgets,” Norton says. “And it’s difficult to implement the types of defenses that are required to make you bulletproof in that environment.”

Security for the Budget Conscious

11/12/2003
By Robert C. Norton
Founder, Executive Vice President and COO
TechDecisions for Insurance

Tight resources should not mean loose security. Make protection of the infrastructure an ongoing part of the process.

As world events unfold and cyber-terrorism threats move to the forefront, we increasingly are aware our best IT defenses may not suffice. The statement “Our best IT defenses may not be good enough” should be taken very seriously. It is not a writer’s hyperbole but a serious warning.

Recent reports have verified viruses are coming at much faster rates and are far more complex. A recent Wall Street Journal story discusses “Day Zero” attacks as becoming more probable. If you are not sure what a Day Zero attack is, then you potentially are ill equipped to deal with one (see “The Best Offense…,” below). That is not acceptable to your boss and your shareholders.

Dana Zahka Selects the Strategic Path to Profit on Any Economy

9/1/2003
By Helen Graves
Boston Women's Business

Dana Zahka thrives on change, working it no matter what the economic climate. Co-founding Select Inc. in 1987 to capitalize on the emergence of the personal computer, the president and CEO soon led the refocus from PC to enterprise system in response to infringing catalog sales. Then, as too many system brands came into play, Select again restructured, this time in the mid-1990's, to become a tightly focused reseller, dramatically driving growth and reputation - to $75 millon with clients the likes of John Hancock, FirstFed and Analog Devices.

Most recently, Zahka has spearheaded the launch of StrategIT, a second company that offers consulting services separate from, though oftentimes in support of, product oriented Select. The result? Twenty-eight percent growth over the course of a year that had others struggling simply to maintain status quo.

Save your IT infrastructure from becoming the economy's latest victim

8/26/2003
By Robert C. Norton
Founder, Executive Vice President and COO
TechRepublic

As cyberterrorism threats move to the forefront, we're becoming increasingly aware that our best IT defenses may not be good enough. Yet doing more to prevent cyberterrorism during a slow economy seems impossible to many IT executives whose budgets are frozen or reduced. Many corporate IT infrastructures are becoming increasingly compromised and more vulnerable to cyberattacks. They're choosing between staying up and staying secure. The result is the same as driving without an insurance policy—an increased chance of enormous loss.

IT security should be an ongoing process instead of a one-off event. It should be part of a holistic IT environment in which all components (including security technologies) affect the health of the system. But today, many CIOs have shifted their priority to uptime percentages and believe security is a one-time event.

Bob Norton's `connected` to Heritage Harbor Museum

7/24/2003
By Paul R. Dubois
Valley Breeze Staff Writer
The Valley Breeze

CUMBERLAND - It'll be like walking from a local carnival into Disney World when museum enthusiasts get their initial look at the Heritage Harbor Museum.

That's the prediction of Bob Norton of Cumberland and he should know, because his company, StrategIT, has been selected to design the technology infrastructure for the museum, slated to open in December 2005.

Short Timeline Doesn't Daunt LTC Partners

7/15/2003
By Greg MacSweeney
Insurance & Technology Online

When the US Office of Personnel Management, sponsors of the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program, selected Boston-based John Hancock Financial Services ($121.2 billion in assets) and New York-based MetLife ($290.1 billion in assets) as the insurers for the program on December 18, 2001, the two insurance companies formed Long Term Care Partners LLC (Portsmouth, NH), a jointly owned company exclusively dedicated to serving the long-term care insurance needs for roughly 20 million federal employees.

However, as a start-up, LTC Partners faced a formidable challenge-it had to build everything from the ground up in a compressed timeframe, according to Sharon Wall, chief technology officer for LTC Partners. "We had a very short timeframe," she says. "The contract was due to be awarded in October 2001, but it was delayed because of 9/11 and it wasn't awarded until December of 2001. We had to be partially operational by May 1, 2002."