Tech Tacks

Location: 1923 Trade Center Way,?Suite 1, Naples

In Naples since: 2001

Employees: 13 in Naples; 16 total

Web site: www.FoodInno.com

Gartner Inc.

Anyone who reads much about the business of technology is bound to have come across quotes and statistics from Gartner, Inc., a corporation that provides research, analysis and consulting on the global information technology industry. It serves more than 10,000 clients in corporations and governmental agencies worldwide, helping them make decisions about their technology needs and use. Publicly held and traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., and has 75 locations in countries from Asia and Australia to England and Brazil. In North America, its second largest office is in Fort Myers, where it provides sales and finance functions, and supports operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and South America.

CEO: Gene Hall

Fort Myers-based executive: Catherine Baker, group vice president, financial operations

Location: 12600 Gateway Blvd., Fort Myers

In Fort Myers since: 1997

Employees: 300 in Fort Myers;?about 3,500 total

Web site: www.Gartner.com

Guardian Technology Solutions

For all the benefits technology brings, it opens the door to many threats. They might be as simple as employees whiling away work hours on eBay or e-mailing friends. Or it could be as disastrous as an underhanded executive stealing files-or a hurricane wiping out a server. That's why Naples-based InfiNetwork and Testament Digital Forensics are thriving. Subsidiaries of Guardian Technology Solutions, they specialize in computing security and risk-management issues related to IT management, from properly setting up a company's computer network and protecting it from viruses to tracking criminal or fraudulent activities through its digital forensics capabilities. Managing partner Stephen Myers, who started InfiNetwork in 1987, is one of only about 150 civilians certified by the Southeast Cybercrime Institute as a Computer Forensic Examiner. Guardian can monitor a network continuously and respond to an alert before a crisis ensues. It's also "vendor-neutral," working with Linux and Novell as well as Microsoft systems. Clients include government agencies and corporations around the country.

President and CEO: Stephen Myers

Location: 3401 Tamiami Trail N.,

Suite 210, Naples

In Naples since: 1987

Employees: 11

Web site: www.infinetwork.com

GuestClick

GuestClick's software powers a variety of tools to market destinations while helping people get to them. Founded in 1999 in Bonita Springs by Aaron Shepherd, the private company designs custom software for clients in the travel industry. If you spot a package deal on Best Western's Web site and click on it, you're using GuestClick software. Its products get hotel ads onto travel agents' computer screens and measure the effectiveness of the hotel's marketing efforts. The company also is responsible for Mobil Travel Guide's Web database, which supplies information to its well-known publications. Through GuestClick, visitors to Mobil's site can plan itineraries that include places to stay, dine and visit along the way. The private company's most recent addition is VacationClick, used on convention and visitor bureaus Web sites to let people book hotels directly. Already in use at www.visit-naples.com, VacationClick's offerings are broadening to include thousands of vacation rentals in Southwest Florida and across the country.

President and CEO: Aaron Shepherd

Location: 3301 Bonita Beach Road,

Bonita Springs

In Bonita Springs since: 1999

Employees: 10

Web site: www.GuestClick.com

MediaBrains, Inc.

If you've called an 800 number you found in an ad on the Golf Digest Web site, or filled out a reader service card in Condé Nast Traveler, it's probably been noted by MediaBrains, Inc. The company, founded and based in Naples, tracks response to advertising in consumer and trade publications. The information it compiles is useful not only to publishers, but also to businesses considering advertising in a certain publication. In addition, MediaBrains produces and sells ads in industry-specific supplier directories-a directory that lists all suppliers who cater to the insurance industry, for instance. Other clients of the private company include such well-known names as Time Inc., American Express Publishing and the National Geographic Society.

CEO: Joe Buckheit

Location: 999 Vanderbilt Beach?Road, Naples

In Naples since: 1998

Employees: about 60

Web site: www.MediaBrains.com

MICROS Systems

Maryland-based MICROS Systems is a global conglomerate that provides information-technology services and software for the retail and hospitality industries in shops such as the Gap and Sharper Image and in hotels around the world. When a server takes an order in a restaurant or a clerk checks-in a guest at a hotel, chances are they're logging the data into a system by MICROS or its subsidiary, Fidelio Technologies Inc. (In 1995, Fidelio acquired a small Collier County company called Executive Technologies that also produced hotel systems.) In 1998, MICROS closed its development division in Munich and moved it to Naples. It is the company's central development office for hotel software. MICROS, traded on NASDAQ, has more than 100 locations with more than 3,000 employees throughout the world. The primary product from Naples is OPERA, a system designed to handle hotel operations from reservations and property management to sales and catering.

Chairman, president and CEO:

Tom Giannopoulos

Naples location: 2640 Golden Gate Parkway, Suite 211, Naples

Collier company acquired in: 1995

Employees: 84

Web site: www.micros.com

Neighborhood America

Remember the television commercial showing cowboys herding hundreds of housecats high-tailing it across the plains? That could have been made for this Naples-based company, which brings together disparate people to work toward a common goal. Using Web-based communications, Neighborhood America has?created a new approach to the town hall meeting concept, providing a forum for stakeholders to exchange input and information on a given project. Most of its "communications management" projects are based in the United States, but people from anywhere in the world can participate 24/7. The company was launched in 1999 by Kim Patrick Kobza, chief executive officer, and David Bankston, chief technical officer. Its clients and projects stretch from the World Trade Center site memorial and the Statue of Liberty in New York to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to Ave Maria University in Collier County. And with a new IBM partnership and additional offices opening in Washington, D.C., and Boston, the Neighborhood is moving up.

President and CEO: Kim Patrick Kobza

Location: 2210 Vanderbilt Beach?Road, Naples

In Naples since: 1999

Employees: About 50

Web site: www.neighborhoodamerica.com

NeoGenomics, Inc.

Information produced by this Fort Myers company often is a matter of life and death. Founded in Naples in 2001 by Dr. Michael Dent, an obstetrician/gynecologist who continues to serve as chairman of the public company, NeoGenomics is a genetics laboratory that specializes in cancers. Doc-tors and hospitals send specimens to the lab, which uses advanced technological equipment and processes with names like Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) for cytogenetic and molecular testing. Scientists there can determine what type of cancer is present, and the company helps oncologists monitor the effectiveness of treatments by seeing if the disease is in remission or continuing to progress. NeoGenomics also conducts amniocentesis testing to detect birth defects, and can identify a person's genetic disposition for certain diseases such as preeclampsia and ovarian cancer. NeoGenomics has formed a partnership with Florida Gulf Coast University, and its infant biotechnology program and moved closer to the university in 2003.

President and Chief Science Officer:

Robert P. Gasparini

Location: 12701 Commonwealth Drive, Suite 9, Fort Myers

In Fort Myers since: 2003

Employees: 12

Web site: www.NeoGenomics.org

New Vision Consulting, Inc.

It doesn't take much for a company's computer network to be invaded. One visit to the wrong Web site and spyware can start transmitting information without anyone the wiser. Next thing you know, you're dealing with identity theft. But many companies don't have the know-how to deal with technological enemies. New Vision Consulting is filling that niche. Launched in Bonita Springs in 1992, it later moved to Naples and has been under the current ownership for the past five years. Serving Southwest Florida companies ranging in size from roughly 25 to 200 employees as well as law enforcement agencies, it offers network and data security consulting and services. New Vision provides network installation and support, "patch management" for upgrades, intrusion detection and prevention systems, secure content Web filtering, and IT-asset management. With partners such as Computer Associates and Check Point, which develop security software, it focuses on protecting a network inside and out, making sure security systems work in concert.

CEO: Jeff Krueger

Location: 851 Fifth Ave. N., Naples

In Naples since: 2000

Employees: six

Web site: www.newvision-inc.com

Robotic Workspace Technologies

Robotic Workspace Technologies, Inc., seems to be better known in the rest of the world than in its Southwest Florida home. The small company near Fort Myers Beach writes software that runs PC-control systems for robotics. Customers include Lockheed Martin Corp., Martin Marietta, General Dynamics, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Ford Motor Company and Johnson Controls. RWT makes the software that powers robotics used to build cars, load pallets from assembly lines, and perform laser-cutting and welding functions. The company took a hit in the wake of 9/11, closing several offices, but it is growing again. Last year it acquired Innova Holdings, of which RWT is now a wholly owned subsidiary. Corporate headquarters for both companies are in Fort Myers, where software development takes place. Integrating the software with robotics is done by contract workers in a Detroit office. Company founder Walter Weisel recently launched another Innova subsidiary called Service Robots Incorporated, which will focus on such personal services as elder care. Robots that move around and have voice input and output capabilities will provide certain assisted-living functions. The new company also will develop robotics with military applications, such as searching crash sites, or suspicious cars for bombs.