VIZIONefx expects more growth after adding new clients

BALDWINSVILLE — VIZIONefx LLC, a provider of interactive kiosks based in Baldwinsville, has about 35 clients and expects to grow to between 75 and 100 clients by the end of 2013, says J.C. Whipple, chief operating officer.

The three-year old company showed signs of growth in late October by adding two new clients.

VIZIONefx announced Oct. 26 that it had installed a 42-inch touch-screen kiosk at Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) in DeWitt, which students, parents, and visitors can use to access school news, event schedules, video content, and web links. CBA students have quickly embraced the new system, school officials say.

“Our students have gravitated to the kiosk quicker and more often than we could’ve expected,” says John Wleklinski, athletic director at CBA. “[Students] are using [the kiosk] to keep up with news and event schedules pertinent to our daily curriculum and activities.”

Days earlier, VIZIONefx announced it had added the Syracuse University Athletics Department as a client. On Oct. 22, VIZIONefx said it had installed the CAMPUSefx Information Channel at the Stevenson Educational Center in Manley Field House, which offers student-athletes a computer lab, tutor rooms, career-development suite, and conference/meeting room. CAMPUSefx is a broadcast channel designed to distribute media content, tailored to SU, to television displays. Software embedded in a computer streams content via the Internet into screens at the Stevenson Educational Center.

The distributed content is provided by SU Athletics and managed by VIZIONefx, Whipple says. The company takes SU Athletics’ content via an online file-sharing system and distributes it according to SU’s instructions.

“We schedule out [the content] for when [SU Athletics] wants it to play, how long they want it to play for, [and] we change it out as often as they want,” Whipple says.

SU Athletics wants to distribute information from around campus, the city of Syracuse, and the rest of the country more efficiently and creatively to its athletes, says Kevin Wall, director of student-athlete support services.

“[Student-athletes] are not in tune with email,” Wall says. “There are a lot of events and activities on campus and our students get inundated with emails, and that’s not the most effective way of letting them know about upcoming events.”

CAMPUSefx provides SU Athletics the ability to distribute information with greater interactivity, Wall says.

“We’re hoping that students will stop [at the screens] and maybe, while watching a video, something on the right side of the screen will flash and they’ll pay attention to [a campus announcement, for example],” Wall says.

The Stevenson Center has two screens featuring CAMPUSefx’s channel — one inside the main room and one in the center’s computer lab, Wall says.

VIZIONefx provides similar services to Le Moyne College and Hobart & William Smith Colleges.

Company background

Matt Oswalt, president, and Scott Getty, chief technology officer, founded VIZIONefx in 2009, Whipple says. Oswalt, Getty, and Whipple are equal owners and VIZIONefx’s only employees. They each work virtually from home or on-site at clients’ locations.

“We all worked for companies that used technology in some degree,” Whipple says of the partners’ business backgrounds before VIZIONefx.

Whipple says he was the sales and operations manager at De-Tec, Inc., of Baldwinsville, before VIZIONefx opened for business.

Oswalt and Getty worked together at Baldwinsville–based Patient Portal Technologies, Inc., (OTC BB: PPRG) as director of sales and marketing and CIO respectively, Whipple says.

VIZIONefx is looking to add about five new employees total in the next 12 months in the areas of sales, graphic design, and content management, Whipple says. He declined to disclose the company’s revenue information.

The firm started working with SU in 2011 after installing its digital-signage menu boards at the Carrier Dome’s concession stands. The boards display beverage, snacks, food, beer, and various information over five screens. VIZIONefx also installed digital signage above the ticket windows at the Carrier Dome box office, showcasing ticket information, current and upcoming events, prices, gate information, and various other event information.

VIZIONefx uses software from X2O Media, a company based in Montreal, and other undisclosed companies, Whipple says.

VIZIONefx deploys the software on its platforms, but is also responsible for managing the content, putting it together, and also selling the hardware, Whipple says.

“In our industry we’re called an integrator,” he says. “We take [X2O Media’s] software and we utilize it to deploy our platforms.”

VIZIONefx offers two other similar services — MESSAGEefx and HEALTHefx, geared towards other types of clients, Whipple says.

HEALTHefx is designed specifically for hospitals, senior living residences, surgery centers, and any kind of acute care facility, Whipple says.

MESSAGEefx is geared toward banks, fitness centers, grocery stores, and health clubs, Whipple says. Customers include YMCA branches in Rome, Oneida, and New Hartford, according to the company’s site.

The three products are similar, but vary depending on the organization and how it uses them, Whipple says.

Contact Imbert at news@cnybj.com