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 HelloReturn to index of stories... |
Hello. I'm Allison McNair. Welcome to NH Outlook. |
| Preshow #1 Return to index of stories... |
The economy. New indicators. a forecast for slow but steady growth. We'll look at where the jobs are in the Granite State. |
| Preshow #2 Return to index of stories... |
Plus, meet the man behind one of New Hampshire's fastest growing technology companies. We'll hear why the CEO of Ecora has chosen Portsmouth to grow his business. |
| Intro Budget Return to index of stories... |
But first. the fight is still on over whose version of the state budget the citizens of New Hampshire will end up with. The Governor presented his version in February, which provided a starting point for the House and the Senate to write their own version. Producer Richard Ager tells us where things stand now. |
| State Budget Return to index of stories... |
Bite: Senate/House budget tape 1 10:08:17 This is part of a process that chairman Green and I agreed on and we've been implementing since the beginning of the session, working on the budget in a much closer and collegial manner than we have in the past. Bite: Senate/House budget tape 1 10:10:07 It's like old home week where all of us started this process. Track: The two finance chairmen exchanged pleasantries as the final part of the budget process got underway. Senator Green began by briefing the House Finance committee on the Senate's version of the budget. Bite: Senate/House budget tape 1 10:10:55 And as you'll find as we go through this, the senate had additional information on revenues, on actions of the federal govt. that you did not have available to you so it certainly lent itself to our decision-making. Track: The biggest piece of additional information was an $83 million windfall - NH's share of the recent federal tax cut. The extra money meant fewer cuts by the Senate. Bite: Senate debate tape 1 11:51:12 We took a look at people in this budget. And we said what can we do for people within the confines of the dollars that we have available to us. The tobacco cessation money was restored. The alcohol money was restored. The university of NH system, which is the pride of our public education at the post-secondary level, was given dollars that were taken away. Bite: Senate debate tape 2 12:06:12 If we'd had more money, could we have spent it? Absolutely, but we only had so much, and I think the budget you have before you serves the people who need it the most first, and it trickles all the way down. Graphic: The Senate allocated more funds to Healthy Kids, Adult Day Care, Peer Support, Community Mental Health Services, Health Provider payments, and the state police. Overall, the Senate budget is about $108 million higher than the House version, mostly thanks to the federal windfall. Track: Sen. Green reminded House Finance committee members that most of the restored services were part of the so-called "B" budget that they had recommended during House debate, along with a higher cigarette tax. soundup: TAPE OL86 01:25:38 This budget helps all our constituents. The young, the elderly, the ill, the disabled, students, folks at the university, judicial personnel, state employees - are all covered in the B budget. It is funded and it is right. Bite: TAPE OL86 01:26:07 Some would argue that this is only a cigarette tax and not all of us smoke. So why not? Is this really the way we want to approach taxation policy in the future? Target the addicted and exploiting their weakness so that Concord will have more money to spend. Track: That debate turned on what the governor had promised in his budget message in February. Bite: OL86 00:30:14 No income tax, no sales tax, no new taxes, no higher taxes. No way. Track: And that is exactly what Sen. Green says the Senate did. Bite: Senate/House budget tape 1 10:12:35 No new taxes. No tax increases. Hold the line on spending but preserve fundamental services. Track: But the governor is threatening the veto the Senate version of the budget if it reaches him, stating it relies too much on one-time revenues. So now it's up to the Senate/House committee of conference to reach a budget the governor will sign, and avoid a long, hot summer at the statehouse. For NH Outlook, I'm Richard Ager. |
| Tag State Budget Return to index of stories... |
The Governor says he wants lawmakers to cut $100-million dollars from the budget to avoid his veto. He's also said he's preparing for the possibility of a continuing resolution to keep the government operating past June 30 if there's a budget deadlock. |
| Intro Discussion Return to index of stories... |
New Hampshire isn't the only state facing financial challenges. All of New England is struggling to survive in these tough economic times. A new report from the New England Economic Project looks at who is taking the hardest hits. Joining us two of NEEP's forecasters, Ross Gittell of UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics and Economist Dennis Delay. Thank you both for joining us. |
| Discussion Return to index of stories... |
Can't talk about economy without talking jobs. It seems everyone knows someone out of a job these days.new national unemployment numbers recently released - what's happening here in NH Where have we lost the jobs? Why? How does that compare to the region and the nation? There's been a reclassification of jobs - that might affect numbers explain. What's the forecast for jobs in NH? region nation? How can you make that prediction what are the numbers based on? You looked at the aging work force in NH - what's the impact - won't people retiring making way for younger folks looking work? Re-hires going for lower paying jobs? The times were facing now compared to the late 80s early 90s - what's different When will New England and New Hampshire rebound? What factors come into play? Why will New England lag behind rest of the country? New Hampshire will bounce back before other New England stataes - why? |
| Intro Ecora Return to index of stories... |
Even though the high tech sector has taken a major hit in this slow economy,there's one New Hampshire business that's bucking that trend. Ecora is a Portsmouth software company that's actually grown over the past several years. We had a chance to sit down with company's founder and CEO Alex Bakman. We |
| Ecora Return to index of stories... |
Ecora Interview This first sot follows 1:01:02 DAWN MAYBE START HERE WITH HIS RESPONSE E: Over the last lets say 20 or 30 years, many organizations have built up a very huge infrastructure of networking equip., databases, servers, workstations, and managing infrastructure, managing these computers has become a very manual process and therefore a very expensive process. So, software…think of them as tools just the same way as a craftsman would have a set of tools to do a job faster, better, cheaper companies are investing in tools to help their operate their infrastructure faster, better and cheaper. Ally:01:02:07 Now you also do work with security issues? E: 01:02:10 Yes. Security is one aspect of what are tools help people with. I mean today, really since 9 -11, security has become even more of an issue for organizations. So one of the things which we help organizations do is what we called automated patch management. Which is to patch systems more frequently without a lot of manual processes and therefore by patching systems more frequently organizations can stay more secure. Ally: 01:02:42 Does that mean it doesn't allow someone to come into the site and hack? E: Well what it does is according to an FBI study, 90% of security breaches could have been prevented if organizations are good about loading the latest and greatest patches. Patches close security holes. So if an organization can do a good job keeping up with patch management its security its vulnerability is greatly reduced. If the system is secure, the theory goes that hackers can come in, can look at the systems, but they can't get through. Ally: 01:03:22 So the patch is almost like a lock on the door? E: That is exactly right. -- BUTT TO THIS SOT E: 01:12:33 TAKE IT HERE Other things that we do: we, uh, help people automatically document systems. Instead of doing this process manually, we automate the process. We help organizations track changes in their systems, which is not a trivial task. When, when you're dealing with 500 servers, 200 network devices, you know, 40 databases, something as simple as change tracking, change management, is a very complicated, time consuming process. So, we help organizations control their environment by understanding what changes are taking place in their network. Ally: 01:13:30 So, is it done in a more automated fashion? E: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Instead looking at the environment and figuring out what changed, our software looks at the environment and manually compiles a report that shows exactly what has changed. Ally: 01:13:49 Are you putting IT workers out of business? I mean I know a lot of people have been laid off in that sector, and I'm imagining a lot of them do just that, and not that we want to put blame on you, but would your product make the need of an IT person, less of a need? E: I view it slightly differently. I view it as freeing up people for tasks that are cerebral instead of manual activity. I mean clearly automation has been the story of computers since the beginning, right? The idea is to automate manual and mundane tasks that are done by people and free up people to do things that computers can't do. There are certainly no shortages of those tasks. A typical IT manager today is struggling to do more with less. IT budgets are down, IT budgets are stagnant. But the company wants to do more with technology. So the only way to achieve those goals is through automation. Automation enables a small staff to do more work. And that's really how we position our software. Ally: 01:15:03 So heads of IT departments are probably your fans or fans of your company? E: Absolutely. As well as administrators. System administrators, people doing the day-to-day management. You know, the life of a system administrator, is not uh, sort of easy pickings, um, most system administrators work late nights, work weekends, and they still can't get their work done. So system administrators view our tools as a way to help them create more hours in the day. I mean everyone wants to go home and spend some time with the kids. That's the idea, through automation that becomes possible. -- BUTT BITE: after 01:03:22 Ally: How many employees do you have here? E:We are around 64 full-time employees in Portsmouth, with part-time around 70 employees here. -- BUTT BITE Ally: 01:03:59 When you compare the number people working for you compared to a year ago, or two years ago. How much have you grown? E: 01:04:07 We have grown fairly steadily. I mean I'm a big believer in,um, a grow with your sales type of a model not the last, uh, four or five years of, um, grow based on how much money you raise. I don't think that's a healthy business model. I'm more of a believer in a conservative, you know you grow your infrastructure, you grow your organizations based on sales. And when your sales grow that is when you add people to the organization. So, we've grown, we haven't grown,um, significantly in terms of people. Where we have done most of our work is in growing our sales revenue which is really important. Ally: Is that an unusual business approach these days, that model? E: I think this model is getting a lot more traction now that we have been through this internet bubble and ya know, money is not readily available to technology companies. Um, it's becoming more of the norm. Ya know, if you were to ask me the same question circa '99 when I started the company, technology executives were employing a very different business model, which basically focused on how much money can I raise, how quickly can I hire people, and sales and profits were sort of secondary. -- BUTT BITE Ally: 01:08:56 Do you find that New Hampshire has the labor that you need with the skills that you need, or do you go down, as you mentioned, to Massachusetts and recruit people up here? E: 01:09:05 We do both. But I definitely think that New Hampshire has a plentiful technology workforce. Um, certainly from a technical perspective, we find the skills that we need, where I think that we need more, um, there is some area for improvement, but we need more qualified personnel, is in technology sales and technology sales management. Ally: 01:09:32 How do you get someone that good in technology sales, or technology sales management? Do you have to train them, is it something they are born with as far as sales? -- BUTT BITE -DON't Know if this makes sense here E: No. It's a lot of experience, it's a lot of hard work, it's a lot of, uh, track record, quite frankly. An entrepreneur like myself does not want to take a chance on a sales executive that hasn't done it, who hasn't been successful. So, I look for proven sales talent and it is hard to find in New Hampshire. Ally: 01:10:03 Is there somewhere elsewhere in the country where there might be a concentration of people like that? E: 01:10:08 Yeah, just south of the border, down in Massachusetts. Ally: But, you can get them to come up here then? E: 01:10:13 It's, uh, sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. It's,uh, something I've been working closely with some of the efforts that the governor is making in this area. And one of my suggestions to them, is that we need to, we New Hampshire need to do a far more active job at recruiting in Massachusetts. Ally: 01:10:36 Really? So are you actively doing that then? E: I'm-I'm only suggesting what we, as a state, could be doing better. In our own company efforts of looking at individuals, yes. I mean we don't stop just at New Hampshire. -- BUTT BITE Ally: 01:05:43 Do you find that Portsmouth, or New Hampshire is a good place to have a business? And why are you here? E: Sure. Portsmouth is a great area to have a technology business for a number of reasons: First, is the proximity to Boston, with all of the great universities down the street, um, we certainly get a lot of graduates and a lot of applicants from the area; uh, secondly is quality of life. Having the ocean, having the mountains, have the reasonable cost of living as compared to major metropolitan areas is a huge attraction. Ya know, not just for our employees, but I think for anyone who lives on the Seacoast, the quality of life is significant. Um, I also, uh, the reason I started the company here, and moved my family to this area is because of the favorable taxation situation that we have here. Uh, I think that having no sales tax and no income tax, frankly puts money into employees pockets. And I use it as a competitive advantage when I'm recruiting somebody from Massachusetts. Because when you can say to someone, listen when you move across the border you essentially between sales tax, and income tax savings get to keep about 10% additional, um, of your pay check. That makes a difference for people. Ally: 01:07:23 So do you get extremely concerned when you hear the whole issue of an income tax coming up to help fund education or to help New Hampshire's budget or when you hear discussions about a sales tax? E: I absolutely do. I absolutely do. I hope our legislature realizes just how important New Hampshire tax advantage is to businesses that are located here. I think that that is a very important issue and that we, ya know, one that should not be taken lightly. Ally: 01:07:56 Do you feel somewhat hard in saying that in that now we are hearing with budgetary issues that people aren't getting services that they need. Like, elder care or ya know, a person who is able to work full-time to put their parent in a daycare situation who had alzheimers. Maybe they won't be able to do that. Does that maybe make you step back for a second and say, well, maybe we do need to tax? E: 01:08:21 I think that before we can come to that conclusion there is a lot more work that needs to be done improving efficiency in this state. Ya know, I think that,uh, ya know, I don't have intimitate knowledge of various aspects of the New Hampshire government work, but from my understanding in the information technology side of the business they have efficiency that needs to be gained. So, I'm a big believer in let's take a look at how we're spending the money we're already spending today and let's see what we can do to spend it wiser. -- |
| Tomorrow Return to index of stories... |
On the next New Hampshire Outlook - It's that time of year again when an unwanted visitor is finding it's way it to many granite state back yards. We'll find out why and what you can do about it. |
| Goodnight Return to index of stories... |
That's it for this edition of our program. I'm Ally McNair. Thanks for joining us. |
| founders Return to index of stories... |
Thanks to our founding sponsors who have provided major funding for the production of New Hampshire Outlook: New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Public Service of New Hampshire Stratford Foundation |
| Tonight 10:00 Return to index of stories... |
Tonight on New Hampshire Outlook. It's that time of year again when an unwanted visitor is finding it's way it to many granite state back yards. We'll find out why and what you can do about it. Tonight at 10:00. |
| key: State Politics / Government Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 6/11/03 22:00 HOST: Allison McNair Length: 5:00 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, in this program, The economy. New indicators. a forecast for slow but steady growth. We'll look at where the jobs are in the Granite State. Plus, meet the man behind one of New Hampshire's fastest growing technology companies. We'll hear why the CEO of Ecora has chosen Portsmouth to grow his business. But first. the fight is still on over whose version of the state budget the citizens of New Hampshire will end up with. The Governor presented his version in February, which provided a starting point for the House and the Senate to write their own version. Producer Richard Ager tells us where things stand now. PRODUCER/REPORTER:Richard Ager NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Rep. Neal Kurk\Chair, House Finance Committee, Sen. Richard Green\Chair, Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Lou D'Allesandro\D - District 20, Sen. Robert Clegg\Senate Majority Leader, Rep. Larry Emerton\R - Goffstown, Rep. Rogers Johnson\House Majority Whip |
| key: Economy / Business Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 6/11/03 22:00 HOST: Allison McNair Length: 5:00 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, in this program, The economy. New indicators. a forecast for slow but steady growth. We'll look at where the jobs are in the Granite State. Plus, meet the man behind one of New Hampshire's fastest growing technology companies. We'll hear why the CEO of Ecora has chosen Portsmouth to grow his business. But first. the fight is still on over whose version of the state budget the citizens of New Hampshire will end up with. The Governor presented his version in February, which provided a starting point for the House and the Senate to write their own version. Producer Richard Ager tells us where things stand now. PRODUCER/REPORTER:Richard Ager NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Rep. Neal Kurk\Chair, House Finance Committee, Sen. Richard Green\Chair, Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Lou D'Allesandro\D - District 20, Sen. Robert Clegg\Senate Majority Leader, Rep. Larry Emerton\R - Goffstown, Rep. Rogers Johnson\House Majority Whip |
| key: Economy / Business Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 6/11/03 22:00 HOST: Allison McNair Length: 8:00 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, in this program, The economy. New indicators. a forecast for slow but steady growth. We'll look at where the jobs are in the Granite State. Plus, meet the man behind one of New Hampshire's fastest growing technology companies. We'll hear why the CEO of Ecora has chosen Portsmouth to grow his business. New Hampshire isn't the only state facing financial challenges. All of New England is struggling to survive in these tough economic times. A new report from the New England Economic Project looks at who is taking the hardest hits. Joining us instudio two of NEEP's forecasters, Ross Gittell of UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics and Economist Dennis Delay. PRODUCER/REPORTER: Allison McNair, Jennifer Ellis NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Dennis Delay\NH Economist, Ross Gittell\UNH Prof of Management |
| key: Economy / Business Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 6/11/03 22:00 HOST: Allison McNair Length: 12:00 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, in this program, The economy. New indicators. a forecast for slow but steady growth. We'll look at where the jobs are in the Granite State. Plus, meet the man behind one of New Hampshire's fastest growing technology companies. We'll hear why the CEO of Ecora has chosen Portsmouth to grow his business. Even though the high tech sector has taken a major hit in this slow economy,there's one New Hampshire business that's bucking that trend. Ecora is a Portsmouth software company that's actually grown over the past several years. We had a chance to sit down with company's founder and CEO Alex Bakman. PRODUCER/REPORTER: Allison McNair NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Alex Bakman\Founder, CEO, Director of Ecora |
| key: Education Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 6/11/03 22:00 HOST: Allison McNair Length: 12:00 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, in this program, The economy. New indicators. a forecast for slow but steady growth. We'll look at where the jobs are in the Granite State. Plus, meet the man behind one of New Hampshire's fastest growing technology companies. We'll hear why the CEO of Ecora has chosen Portsmouth to grow his business. Even though the high tech sector has taken a major hit in this slow economy,there's one New Hampshire business that's bucking that trend. Ecora is a Portsmouth software company that's actually grown over the past several years. We had a chance to sit down with company's founder and CEO Alex Bakman. PRODUCER/REPORTER: Allison McNair NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Alex Bakman\Founder, CEO, Director of Ecora |
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