Business contest winner MicroGen plans for growth

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ITHACA — MicroGen Systems, Inc. expects hiring this year in the wake of winning the $200,000 grand prize in the Creative Core Emerging Business Competition. The company, based in Ithaca, plans to add four to five new employees this year to its current staff of five. MicroGen had been a finalist in the Creative Core […]

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ITHACA — MicroGen Systems, Inc. expects hiring this year in the wake of winning the $200,000 grand prize in the Creative Core Emerging Business Competition.

The company, based in Ithaca, plans to add four to five new employees this year to its current staff of five. MicroGen had been a finalist in the Creative Core competition for the past two years.

The money will go toward hiring and supporting the work of the company’s scientists. Each of the past two years, company leaders felt like they had won the contest, says Michael Perrotta, MicroGen CFO, chief operating officer, and interim CEO.

“I think one of the reasons is that just because we had made much more progress,” Perrotta says of the win this year. “We’re moving things along.”

The firm also expects to close a $1.6 million round of financing in the coming months, Perrotta says. The company has raised almost $400,000 of that total so far.

MicroGen is commercializing a chip-sized power generator that can transform subtle vibrations into energy. The product will be used initially in commercial and industrial monitoring.

The firm had been expecting its first sales this year, but Perrotta now says its first major sales will come in 2013. The firm’s fundraising push has moved slower than hoped, he adds.

“It’s a difficult market right now,” he says.

The amount of money MicroGen is seeking is bigger than what most angel groups would contribute, Perrotta says. So the company has been talking lately with companies interested in using MicroGen’s technology in their products.

The hope is to bring one or more of those firms on board as strategic investors, Perrotta says. MicroGen has been hitting expected milestones in developing its technology, which is helping those conversations move forward, he adds.

Perrotta doesn’t expect any pressure to relocate, even though the investors probably won’t all be local. Companies interested in investing in MicroGen will be doing so to use the firm’s product, not to buy it out.

Forcing a relocation could mean losing the scientific talent the company already has on board, Perrotta notes.

“They’re not going to move us because they don’t want to upset the apple cart,” he says.

Future investment is also one reason Perrotta is serving as “interim” CEO, he says. Investors will likely want a say in who leads the company in the future.

That’s a standard facet of life with startups, Perrotta notes. MicroGen’s previous CEO, David Hessler, departed amicably after bringing the business to a certain point in its development.

Perrotta expects to do the same. MicroGen’s founder, Robert Andosca, is still with the company as president and chief technology officer.

MicroGen’s product could be used to power wireless sensor networks that monitor manufacturing processes, the health of roads and bridges, and even tire pressure in cars, Perrotta says.

Work done in the past year has also made the company more confident that its generator can work with vibrations of lower frequency, Perrotta adds. At some point, that would allow a consumer to charge a cell phone simply by walking.

Andosca first began developing the MicroGen device while in graduate school at the University of Vermont.

MicroGen is funded by a combination of angel investment and grants from sources like the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Consumer confidence spikes in Syracuse area in 1st quarter

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Quarterly confidence gains in all New York regions Consumers’ willingness to spend rose sharply in the Syracuse metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the first quarter of 2012, keeping pace with New York State’s other cities, where consumers also became more likely to crack open their wallets. The Syracuse MSA’s overall Quarterly Consumer Confidence

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Quarterly confidence gains in all New York regions

Consumers’ willingness to spend rose sharply in the Syracuse metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the first quarter of 2012, keeping pace with New York State’s other cities, where consumers also became more likely to crack open their wallets.

The Syracuse MSA’s overall Quarterly Consumer Confidence Index jumped 10.7 points to 71.3, according to a survey conducted by the Siena (College) Research Institute (SRI). Consumer confidence increased in each of New York’s nine MSAs in the year’s first quarter.

The quarterly results, issued on April 11, came a week after SRI’s monthly Consumer Confidence Index showed that confidence fell in upstate New York during the month of March. The two indexes can show confidence levels heading in opposite directions because they come from different sets of consumers, according to Douglas Lonnstrom, professor of statistics and finance at Siena College and SRI founding director.

“The monthly index takes into account what’s happening all over the state,” he says. “The quarterly index takes into account just what’s happening in the nine major urban areas. Generally speaking, confidence is higher in the urban areas than it is in the rural areas.”

It is also important to remember that the quarterly survey covers a three-month span, according to Lonnstrom. So one month of sliding confidence — March — does not necessarily send the quarterly indexes into a tailspin.

“The first quarter, if we look at it, was pretty good,” Lonnstrom says. “The stock market had a great first quarter. The job market looked better. Psychologically, there was less negative news.”

Syracuse’s overall first-quarter consumer confidence of 71.3 slotted below the SRI index’s break–even point of 76.01. Index results above 76.01 indicate more consumers are optimistic than pessimistic, while results below 76.01 mean more consumers are pessimistic.

Two MSAs, New York City and Rochester, moved above the quarterly index’s break-even point. In New York City, consumer confidence jumped 15.4 points to 81.5. In Rochester, it climbed 6.9 points to 77.6.

The Utica MSA posted a confidence boost of 12.1 points in the first quarter, giving it an overall index of 68.3. In Binghamton, confidence swelled 9.1 points to 65.9.

Confidence in Albany rose 12.6 points to 75.3, and confidence on Long Island climbed 10.3 points to 73.1. The Mid-Hudson MSA’s confidence ticked up 8.5 points to 68.8, and the Buffalo region’s confidence ascended 6.2 points to 70.8.

SRI made random telephone calls to adults over the age of 18 to conduct the quarterly survey. Each MSA index is based on more than 400 respondents, except for New York City and Long Island. SRI averages results from its monthly consumer-confidence surveys to develop quarterly indexes for New York City and Long Island.

Current and future confidence

Syracuse’s increased first-quarter confidence came as the region’s current and future confidence also rose. SRI gauges overall confidence by combining current and future-confidence measurements.

Current confidence in Syracuse spiked 11 points to 76.6. Future confidence ballooned 10.5 points to 67.9.

In Utica, current confidence jumped 11.3 points to 73.9. Future confidence in the area rose 12.6 points to 64.7.

And in Binghamton, current confidence gained 6.5 points to 69.4. Future confidence rose 10.9 points to 63.7.

Buying plans

SRI also asked consumers in each of the state’s nine MSAs whether they plan to buy a car or truck, a computer, furniture, a home, or a major home improvement in the next six months.

The portion of survey respondents planning to make a purchase increased in 34 of the 45 possible categories across the state. It fell in the remaining 11 categories.

Buying plans typically rise as consumer confidence climbs, Lonnstrom says.

“It’s a cycle,” he says. “If people become more confident, they tend to spend more.”

In the Syracuse MSA, consumers increased their plans to purchase cars and trucks, furniture, and major home improvements.
They cut back on plans to buy computers and homes. SRI found that 13.9 percent of consumers plan to buy a car or truck in the next six months, an increase of 3.7 points from survey readings in the fourth quarter of 2011. That is also above the survey’s historical average, which shows 12.8 percent of consumers typically plan to buy cars or trucks.

And 15.1 percent of Syracuse consumers expect to buy furniture, up 4.4 points from the previous quarter and above the survey’s historical average of 14.9 percent. For major home improvements, 15.5 percent of Syracuse consumers plan a purchase, up 1.9 points from the previous quarterly survey but below the historical average of 19.6 percent.

Just 2.8 percent of Syracuse consumers plan home purchases, SRI found. That’s a dip of 0.1 points from the last quarterly survey and below the historical average of 3.6 percent.

Finally, 11.8 percent of consumers plan to buy computers, down 1.8 points from last month. However, that’s still above the survey’s historical average of 10.6 percent.

“Even the buying plans that were down weren’t down much,” Lonnstrom says. “It certainly [was] a very positive quarter.”

MACNY announces 2012 Wall of Fame inductees

Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — The Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY) has announced three inductees to its 2012 Manufacturers Wall of Fame. James Malvaso of the Raymond Corporation, Brian O’Shaughnessy of Revere Copper Products, Inc., and Robert Barbero of ESCO will accept their awards at MACNY’s 99th Annual Dinner on May 10 at the Syracuse Oncenter.

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Advanced Business Systems opens Syracuse branch

Insurance & Financial Services, Small Business, Subscriber Only

EAST SYRACUSE — The office-technology company Advanced Business Systems, Inc. is opening its first branch office in an East Syracuse building it purchased in March. Advanced Business Systems acquired the 5,300-square-foot former United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 624 building at 714 W. Manlius St. in a deal that closed March 27. It is the company’s

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EAST SYRACUSE — The office-technology company Advanced Business Systems, Inc. is opening its first branch office in an East Syracuse building it purchased in March.

Advanced Business Systems acquired the 5,300-square-foot former United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 624 building at 714 W. Manlius St. in a deal that closed March 27. It is the company’s first branch office outside of its headquarters at 22811 Murrock Circle in the town of Pamelia in Jefferson County, north of Watertown.

“We’ve grown enough that we need to have a physical presence in Syracuse,” says Edward Jones, owner and CEO of Advanced Business Systems, which provides businesses with technology ranging from printers and copiers to computers, network installation, and network management. The company served clients in Onondaga County before it decided to open an office in the Syracuse area, he says.

“To be honest with you, our market share [in Watertown] is so significant that we can’t expect to grow anymore up here,” Jones says. “Syracuse was a logical reach for us.”

Three Advanced Business Systems employees started working from the East Syracuse branch at the beginning of April, according to Jones. He wants to add two more employees in East Syracuse by the end of the year.

The branch office is currently being renovated with new flooring and energy-efficient lighting. Crews are also tearing out a wall to expand a showroom planned for the back of the facility.

“The back half of the building is a meeting hall, so it’s just a big open room with tile floors,” Jones says. “But the front half was offices and hadn’t seen any renovations in many, many years.”

Salina–based DeMascole Inc. is the general contractor for the renovations, which carry a price tag of just under $30,000, Jones says. The contractor also handled design work, so Advanced Business Systems did not hire a separate architect.

The office-technology company paid $150,000 for the former UAW hall, which it purchased directly from the union without a broker. Advanced Business Systems learned the building was for sale because UAW Local 624 was one of its clients, according to Jones.

Advanced Business Systems financed the building acquisition through Watertown Savings Bank. It hired a new vice president of the Syracuse region, Nick Mallaro, to manage operations at the new office, Jones says.

The new branch will not have a grand opening or open house for about two months, according to Ryan Jones, who is Advanced Business Systems’ sales and marketing manager and is Ed Jones’ son. Renovations are not scheduled to wrap up for another three to four weeks, and Syracuse employees are currently using the facility as a space to base their field operations, he says.

“They’re really using it as a place to go and leave some paperwork right now,” Ryan Jones says.

Advanced Business Systems is still working with local zoning officials to gain approval to mount its own sign on the building. Currently, UAW Local 624’s sign still hangs on the structure, Ryan Jones says.

Company background

Advanced Business Systems started in 1991 as a copy-machine dealer, Ed Jones says. Over the years the company widened its offerings to include other devices such as computers and servers as well as information-technology services like consulting, network installation, and network management.

The company is headquartered in a 9,000-square-foot building it owns in Pamelia. It employs a total of 29 people.

Ed Jones would like to hire five or six more employees by the end of the year, he says. About 75 percent of the company’s employees work on the road, visiting clients, he estimates.

Advanced Business Systems generated $3.98 million in revenue in 2011, up 12 percent since 2009, according to Ed Jones. He is targeting 20 percent revenue growth in 2012.

About 80 percent of the company’s revenue currently comes from St. Lawrence, Lewis, and Jefferson counties, Ed Jones says. He thinks the new Syracuse office will help the firm grow its operations to the south.

“We now have a brick-and-mortar presence,” he says. “We’re here to stay.”

The company has a special place in the market because it is locally owned, Ed Jones says. Most office-technology companies operating in upstate New York, like Toshiba or Xerox, are owned by large corporations, he says. He adds that he is only aware of one locally owned competitor for Advanced Business Systems in the Syracuse area — Syracuse–based Usherwood Office

Technology.

Advanced Business Systems works with clients of a variety of sizes, Ed Jones says.

“I can tell you that we do business with local governments and municipalities, we do business with the largest hospital in the [Watertown] area, we do 11 of the 13 school districts in Jefferson County,” he says. “But we also do little veterinary clinics and little dentists’ offices.”

CNY Mobile Billboards takes advertising to the streets

Small Business, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — You could say that Derek Zehr traffics in advertisements. Zehr is the operating partner of CNY Mobile Billboards, a Syracuse–based firm that rents out space on billboards mounted on the back of trucks. The billboards can reach territory not covered by other advertisements, Zehr says. “You can’t throw us away and you can’t

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SYRACUSE — You could say that Derek Zehr traffics in advertisements.

Zehr is the operating partner of CNY Mobile Billboards, a Syracuse–based firm that rents out space on billboards mounted on the back of trucks. The billboards can reach territory not covered by other advertisements, Zehr says.

“You can’t throw us away and you can’t turn us off,” he says. “You can’t stop us unless there’s a roadblock.”

Advertisers often turn to CNY Mobile Billboards to promote events such as Syracuse University football games and the New York State Fair, according to Zehr. The company has also advertised for large restaurant chains such as Quaker Steak and Lube as well as political campaigns — its first client was the 2010 congressional campaign of Ann Marie Buerkle, Zehr says.

Zehr launched CNY Mobile Billboards in October 2010, along with four other partners. He declined to name his partners, saying they prefer to remain in the background and act as a board of directors while he manages the day-to-day business affairs.

The firm started with two trucks that each carry a pair of 10-foot by 20-foot billboards. Then at the end of the summer of 2011, it added a box truck that can display three smaller advertisements: two 6-foot by 10-foot ads on the sides and a 6-foot by 6-foot panel on the back.

The box truck has a slightly different role than the two other trucks, which are typically deployed driving up and down streets, according to Zehr. Instead, the box truck is designed to be parked at an event. CNY Mobile Billboards will then rotate the advertisements the truck displays at the event.

The company houses its trucks in 2,500 square feet of leased space at 706 N. Clinton St. in Syracuse. Its headquarters is a 500-square-foot office it leases at 1112 E. Fayette St. in the city.

CNY Mobile Billboards typically has six full-time employees and six to eight part-time workers, depending on the number of ad campaigns it is taking part in at one time, Zehr says. About seven or eight of those employees are part-time drivers, while the remaining employees make up the company’s sales, marketing, and design team.

For some advertisers, the company also organizes “street teams” to hand out flyers that match ads on its mobile billboard trucks. Street-team size varies depending on an advertiser’s wishes, but the teams are typically temporary workers, Zehr says.

Zehr would like to expand the company, but he does not have any hiring targets. CNY Mobile Billboards will add new drivers if it purchases another truck, he says.

And the company eventually wants to expand its fleet of trucks, according to Zehr. Each truck costs between $30,000 and $40,000, and CNY Mobile Billboards’ timeline for adding trucks will be determined by its revenue growth, he says.

He declined to share the company’s revenue total for 2011. Zehr has a goal to double revenue this year. He says he isn’t aware of any other mobile billboard companies based in the Syracuse area, so his firm only faces indirect competition from stationary billboards and other forms of media like radio or newspapers.

“I think we complement other types of advertising,” Zehr says. “For example, Dunkin’ Donuts is a huge customer. If you’re listening to the radio and you hear a Dunkin’ Donuts ad, and 10 seconds later you see a billboard truck driving by, and 30 seconds later you’re driving on [Interstate] 690 and you see the same stationary billboard, it’s building brand recognition.”

CNY Mobile Billboards has been successful winning business from national advertisers and large chains, according to Zehr. It now wants to reach out to smaller, local companies, he says.

The mobile-advertising firm often travels outside of the Central New York market for advertising campaigns, Zehr says. It has driven to New York City, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, as well as Rochester and Albany, he says. In addition to its trucks, the company also offers advertisers the option of parking a fixed-position, 6-foot by 12-foot trailer in lots for special events.

Zehr acknowledges that mobile-billboard campaigns can be controversial — drivers sometimes have to deal with rude comments or gestures from people when a truck carries a political billboard, he says. The company’s drivers are instructed to be professional if anyone ever approaches them to complain about an ad campaign, and Zehr says he tries to avoid carrying extremely contentious advertisements.

“We don’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt people’s feelings,” he says.

Brothers band together to start music store in Syracuse

Small Business, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — Two brothers are trying to amp up retail outlets for musicians in Central New York with a new store located off Erie Boulevard East in Syracuse. The brothers, Ryan Gorham and Brad Gorham, opened Gorham Brothers Music at 118 Seeley Road in December. The Gorhams, members of the rock band Engineer — Ryan

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SYRACUSE — Two brothers are trying to amp up retail outlets for musicians in Central New York with a new store located off Erie Boulevard East in Syracuse.

The brothers, Ryan Gorham and Brad Gorham, opened Gorham Brothers Music at 118 Seeley Road in December. The Gorhams, members of the rock band Engineer — Ryan Gorham plays guitar and Brad Gorham plays bass — decided to start their store after one of their favorite music outlets in the area closed.

“Growing up, we would travel around looking for deals on used equipment,” says Ryan Gorham. “One of the biggest reasons we opened at the time we did and why we felt like we would be successful is the chain Daddy’s Junky Music closed about three months before we opened our doors.”

Daddy’s Junky Music had a location in Salina, and it was one of the Gorhams’ favorite chains, Ryan Gorham says. So he and his brother decided to try to tune their new store to fill the void left by the shuttered store.

Gorham Brothers Music focuses on used, vintage, and boutique equipment, including guitars, amplifiers, and guitar pedals. It also stocks some new equipment and will perform maintenance work and tuning, Ryan Gorham says.

“We like to have as much as possible so people can spend the time to dig through our equipment and sit down and play what they’d like,” he says. “We want anyone to be able to come in here and for us to be able to help them. It’s a musicians’ type of store and a player’s store.”

When starting the store, the Gorham brothers purchased a variety of instruments on the Internet marketplace eBay to set the tone for the type of used equipment they want to stock, Ryan Gorham says. They now buy used equipment from customers.

“We buy equipment from people walking in just about every day,” Ryan Gorham says. “You never know what someone’s going to bring through the door.”

Starting the store required an initial investment of about $30,000, according to the Gorhams. The brothers used their own savings and a loan from Solvay Bank to finance the cost.

Ryan Gorham projects the store will generate $200,000 in revenue in its first year of operation. After that, he wants to increase revenue by 10 percent every year.

The brothers knew what to expect when starting their store, Ryan Gorham says. They asked music-store owners in other areas how their stores performed.

“We talked to other stores of similar sizes in different cities,” Ryan Gorham says. “We were able to formulate some numbers based on their experience.”

Ryan Gorham also has experience working in retail. He was previously a manager at the Syracuse Real Food Co-op for six years, he says. Brad Gorham worked as a sound engineer at local venues, and this is the brothers’ first time owning a business, Ryan Gorham says.

Gorham Brothers Music takes up 1,200 square feet of leased space at 118 Seeley Road. The brothers liked the location just off Erie Boulevard, as well as its available parking, according to Ryan Gorham.

The space was renovated with new flooring, a new heater, and a new wall that was carved out of a larger storefront, Ryan Gorham says. The building’s owner, Advance Cyclery, coordinated the work and built costs into Gorham Brothers’ lease, he says.

Brad and Ryan Gorham are the music store’s only workers and have no immediate plans to hire additional employees. They eventually want to bring a third brother, Bobby Gorham, into the business as a third partner and may add one other employee in the future, Ryan Gorham says. But those expansions aren’t on the table in the near future.

“Every day is still a struggle to make it,” Ryan Gorham says. “We’re just trying to come up with new ideas to market ourselves and get the word out.”

So far, the shop has had luck attracting families buying children’s first guitars, according to Ryan Gorham. It is also orchestrating searches for musicians who are looking for hard-to-find equipment, he says.

In the future, the brothers want to reach out to Syracuse’s college communities such as Syracuse University to try to drum up business from students. And they want to host local bands in the store, says Brad Gorham.

“I want it to be a place for local musicians to come and try out stuff,” he says. “That will definitely establish us as more of a hangout.”

Couple brings mobile drug-testing franchise to CNY

Health Care, Small Business, Subscriber Only

SKANEATELES — A franchise in Central New York will hit the road to make drug testing quick and easy. “We keep the equipment in our cars,” says Jackie Parker, president and co-owner of USA Mobile Drug Testing of Upstate New York. “It’s all there, ready to go.” Parker launched the upstate USA Mobile Drug Testing

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SKANEATELES — A franchise in Central New York will hit the road to make drug testing quick and easy.

“We keep the equipment in our cars,” says Jackie Parker, president and co-owner of USA Mobile Drug Testing of Upstate New York. “It’s all there, ready to go.”

Parker launched the upstate USA Mobile Drug Testing franchise along with her husband, Brian Parker, in September 2011 in Skaneateles. Their company performs a range of drug and alcohol tests for businesses, including pre-employment testing, random testing, and testing after accidents.

The upstate franchise typically visits its clients and performs tests at their facilities. That can save clients time and money, according to Brian Parker, who is the company’s vice president.

“We just tested for a construction company,” he says. “In the past, they would send employees to a walk-in center, and they would be there for three to four hours by the time they were done. They pay these guys $25 to $45 an hour. We went in, and in about a half hour did all 24 guys. So there was significant savings.”

Testing onsite also eliminates some of the problems inherent to offsite testing, Brian Parker says. Employees don’t have the chance to pick up masking agents or cleansing agents on the way to the test site or “disappear” on their way to the test, he says.

USA Mobile Drug Testing of Upstate New York handles tests for a variety of drugs, depending on the company for which it is working. Employees typically collect samples to be sent to a laboratory certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for analysis.

The drug-testing company also does some onsite testing, but only uses onsite tests to declare an employee free of drugs, Jackie Parker says. Any time an employee tests positive in an onsite test, the company takes a sample and forwards it to a SAMHSA lab, she says. That’s to avoid an employee questioning a positive result that wasn’t certified by a laboratory, she says.

In addition to drug testing, USA Mobile Drug Testing of Upstate New York offers consulting services to help companies develop drug and alcohol policies. And it provides supervisor training, employee education, and support services to help companies implement their policies.

“We probably spend as much time or more time working on policy, collaboration, and consulting than the actual collections,” Brian Parker says.

“It’s important to the companies because of liability,” he says. “If an employee creates an accident and they’re under the influence, some of the liability for that accident now shifts solely from the company onto the employee. That’s significant, especially for a small or medium-sized company.”

USA Mobile Drug Testing of Upstate New York also performs pre-employment background checks and DNA testing for family relations.

“It’s not necessarily, ‘Am I a father?’ ” Brian Parker says. “We get a lot of calls from older people asking, ‘Is this really my brother or sister?’ ”

The Parkers footed startup costs of about $100,000 to begin their USA Mobile Drug Testing franchise. They used their own savings to finance the costs, which included certifications, training, testing equipment, and marketing, Jackie Parker says.

Those costs are typical for a USA Mobile Drug Testing franchise, according to data from Entrepreneur.com. Tampa, Fla.–based USA Mobile Drug Testing charges a franchise fee between $49,900 and $99,900 and an ongoing royalty fee of 9 percent for a 20-year franchise agreement, according to the website.

The Parkers’ franchise has a mailing address of Suite 125 at 27 Fennell St. in Skaneateles. That’s a postage box at a UPS Store, according to Brian Parker, who says the Parkers perform their work on the road and also have about 200 square feet of their home in Marcellus set aside as office space.

The franchise covers a geographic area ranging from Watertown to Ithaca and from Albany to Rochester, although it will sometimes travel farther within New York State.

Three contract employees work for the company, in addition to Jackie Parker and Brian Parker. The Parkers would like to hire three full-time sales managers within three years — one in the Albany area, one in the Utica area, and one in the Ithaca area. The rate of hiring will be determined by the growth of the business, Jackie Parker says.

The Parkers declined to share revenue totals for the franchise. But Jackie Parker says they want to double revenue every year for three years.

She hopes to achieve that growth by networking with company leaders. And, she wants to establish testing areas in doctors’ offices across the state to satisfy demand from some businesses who want to send their employees for physicals and drug testing in one trip. USA Mobile Drug Testing of Upstate New York has already set up one such outpost with Dr. David Dinello at 119 North St. in Auburn.

Excellus pays $995,000 state fine

Health Care, Insurance & Financial Services, Law, Accounting & Taxes

Excellus Health Plan, Inc. has paid a $995,000 fine levied by the state Department of Financial Services (DFS) for incorrectly denying emergency room claims and

Inficon profit up 3 percent in first quarter

Manufacturing & Engineering, Technology

DeWITT — Inficon (SIX Swiss Exchange: IFCN) earned $10.3 million in the first quarter, up slightly from $10 million a year earlier. Earnings per share

Southern Tier Dermatology plans move to larger location

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Health Care, Regional News, Small Business

VESTAL — After expanding late last year with a new location in Big Flats, Vestal–based Southern Tier Dermatology & Aesthetics will continue growing with a

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