June 15, 2009
Tech developments from FISC, mCaddie and Pricefalls.com
Maine has served as fertile ground for a few technology developments in recent weeks, from innovative gadgets to startup websites. Here’s a roundup:
- FISC Solutions in Lewiston, a payment-processing center that handles 700,000 payments a month for FairPoint’s northern New England customers, recently installed an OPEX 150, high-speed mail extractor. The $500,000 piece of equipment gives FISC the ability to process 8,000 pieces of mail per hour, says Carol Sabasteanski, president and CEO.“The equipment is not new news, but you have to have a lot of volume to justify it,” she says. The machine opens mail, straightens and separates the statement from the check, takes pictures of both and forwards them for more processing. Sabasteanski said it replaces about eight to 10 work stations where the mail was sorted manually.
- The developers of technology that allows golfers to track and analyze statistics through mobile devices are a little closer to bringing their product to market. The Maine Technology Institute has awarded $235,540 to startup mCaddie for development, and the company now seeks to raise another $200,000 in private capital to match the award, according to an mCaddie newsletter. Golfers can use the GPS technology in their cell phones to track their progress toward each hole, analyze their shots and even get club suggestions. The product won the Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition in Kingston, Ontario, in late January, and the company was chosen to present this month at WebInno21, a Boston Internet and mobile innovation group, the newsletter states.
- A Bates College junior is making a bid to give eBay a run for its money. Economics major Elliot Moskow, 21, in January launched Pricefalls.com, an auction website where jewelry, comics and other items get cheaper by the minute, the Sun Journal reported. On eBay, goods start at an opening bid and rise in price as bidders compete to purchase them. Pricefalls.com uses a “Dutch auction” approach, in which items start high and get cheaper every 15 seconds toward a pre-determined minimum. Bidders wait to buy at a good price, but not so good that other buyers snap the item up first, the paper reported. Moskow estimates start-up costs at $50,000 and said he’s planning a national marketing campaign. His father, Las Vegas physician Eric Moskow, is the venture’s chief backer.
Jackie Farwell and Carol Coultas
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