Tech Digest: what’s moving in the Midwest (11/3/04)

• UW grads get new job-finding site
• IT chief becomes marketer
• Rockwell reports dividend
• Employment expectations rise
• WARF to put on patent-strategy conference
• RoleFlow Software Targets Human Resources Efficiency

UW grads get new job-finding site

The Wisconsin Alumni Association has created a Web site to help University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates find jobs, called Badger Access. The site uses MonsterTrak, a service of Monster Jobs aimed at colleges. It is free for job-seekers and charges employers to post openings. UW-Madison's Job Center also makes a site available for students as well as alumni.

IT chief becomes marketer at Schneider National

Schneider National Inc., a Green Bay transportation and logistics company, has appointed CIO Steve Matheys to be chief marketing officer. The company said its customers more frequently need a combination of services, and that a stronger centralized marketing effort would help coordinate its brands and sales channels.

Rockwell reports dividend

The Rockwell Automation Corporation of Milwaukee, providing custom automation for industry, reported a quarterly dividend of 16.5 cents per share on its common stock, payable December 6, 2004 to shareowners at the close of business November 15, 2004. The company employs about 20,000.

Employment expectations rise

The Hudson Employment Index rebounded 1.6 points in October as hiring expectations among U.S. workers strengthened and job-loss fears declined to the lowest level of the year. According to Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development, jobs in the IT industry are expected to grow by 7.8 percent between 2003 and 2005 and jobs in the professional, scientific and technical category will increase by 1.4 percent in the same time period.

WARF to put on patent-strategy conference

A free conference hosted by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation will help entrepreneurs master the process of obtaining foreign patents on November 15 at 6:15 p.m. at the Fluno Center, 610 University Avenue, Madison. “Developing Your Company's Foreign Patent Strategy” will be moderated by Michael Falk, WARF’s director of patents.

RoleFlow software targets human resources efficiency

RoleFlow, a Madison company that makes role-based workflow planning software, is offering a promotional package to early adopters in an effort to gain traction in the industry. RoleFlow software uses role activity diagramming to help CEOs track and analyze work function of employees. For example, the software can point to activities that can be automated, such as document routing.