Since its formation in January of 2008, the SPC has completed two application cycles. In the spring of 2009, MRG Power Laboratories, LLC was chosen as our most recent collaboration. In our first round of applications (during the fall of 2008), two companies - Cruzstar and Express Dynamics - were selected as concurrent projects due to the complementary nature of the requirements for the projects.

The SPC is excited to announce our upcoming collaboration with MRG Power Laboratories, LLC, a local company with an exciting new product. This collaboration certainly demonstrates that not all products requiring software are strictly software products!

MRG Power Labs analyzes oil and grease samples from large pieces of machinery to evaluate whether the lubricant is properly functioning inside of the machine.  Grease analysis is a very new market in predictive maintenance and is often overlooked because it is expensive and difficult to get a sample from the machine.  MRG Power Labs has invented a grease sampling device, the Grease Thief™, that allows for a consistent and representative sample to be taken from the machine every time.  In conjunction with the sampler, they have also invented a Grease Thief™ Analyzer that is designed to measure the consistency of grease.

The SPC will be working with MRG Power Labratories to develop software to interact with the Grease Thief Analyzer and automate the performance of the necessary calculations and the generation of graphics and reporting to be provided to the customer, as well as collaborating on the current branding, marketing and business plans for the product. We are very excited about this project, and will be posting updates as they are available..

The SPC worked with Cruzstar to create the software for their new service, Cruzcourt. The software provides the employees of Cruzcourt's corporate clients with a secure, web-based ordering system through which they can order meals to be delivered to their offices. The SPC developed four primary panels for Cruzcourt, one for each type of user who will interact with the system: 1) the employees, 2) the corporate managers, 3) the kitchens and caterers providing the food, and 4) the Cruzcourt administrators who oversee the entire system operation. The graphic design students used a clean, simple design strategy to mask the more complex technologies behind the system, making ordering as easy and uncomplicated as possible for users. On October 15, 2009, the SPC and Cruzstar hosted a launch party to celebrate the results of this collaboration at the Murata Business Center in Carlisle - see pictures and more information from the launch here.

BACKGROUND:

Cruzstar
Launched in 2007, Cruzstar LLC. is an internet service company that provides online meal ordering and management for professionals. The service offers a web-based system that allows organizations to consolidate expense and payment info, as well as reduce administrative overhead in routine meal ordering for business functions. In addition, Cruzstar also provides sales lead generation for its over 25 restaurant and catering partners around the Harrisburg, PA area. Cruzstar is currently located in the Harrisburg Chamber and CREDC's business incubator, the Murata Business Center, in Carlisle, PA. The company moved into the facility shortly after winning the 2008 Murata Great Business Challenge in April.

Cruzcourt
Cruzstar will soon offer its new subsidiary service, Cruzcourt. Cruzcourt is an online cafeteria system for small to mid-size businesses (of 75 - 300 employees). Instead of venturing out of the office and wasting time looking for food, employees use the Cruzcourt system to order daily lunches from their desktop and have them delivered right to their office. In addition, corporations will have the ability to offer subsidized meals, meal plans, and a rewards program through Cruzcourt. The benefits of Cruzcourt are two-fold - organizations can offer convenient in-house meals for their employees, all while boosting workplace productivity and morale.

Adrian Fang (President)
Adrian first developed the concept of Cruzstar in 2006 shortly after listening to peers vent their frustration over managing food orders for sales meetings. Adrian immediately sought out to assemble a team and build a service technology that would help both professionals and vendors in the restaurant and catering industry. Prior to forming Cruzstar, Adrian was in charge of developing interactive, e-learning material for over 65,000 federal employees of the Social Security Administration. With an experience in IT, web design and video interactivity, Adrian was able to blend his working knowledge of technology and food to formulate Cruzstar.

Adrian holds a B.A. in English from Lafayette College and attended Johns Hopkins University for Information Security.

Aaron Fang (Vice President)
Aaron leads Cruzstar's marketing strategy, customer acquisition, and business development. Prior to joining Cruzstar, Aaron has held sales and marketing positions at Schering-Plough, where he grew revenue 150%, increasing sales revenue by $1.5 million. As an experienced entrepreneur, Aaron also spent three years developing First Advance Corporation which was later acquired in 2006. In addition, he was previously in charge of developing revenue management platforms for Johnson and Johnson's accounts receivable portfolio, which resulted in a cost savings of $1 million for the company.

Aaron holds a B.S. degree in Logistics and a M.B.A. with concentration in Marketing from Pennsylvania State University.

The Company
Express Dynamics is an innovative business management software solutions provider located in Central Pennsylvania since 2002. Its founders and senior management are veterans of the software industry who believe that there is a better way to deliver customized software solutions to businesses. That new custom software engine is called WorkXpress.

The Product
Express Dynamics' WorkXpress engine makes the development of custom business software easy, fast and affordable by eliminating the slow and expensive process of writing code and data modeling. Business users who are not software developers can build sophisticated custom applications that are able to grow and evolve with the business. Inspired by Henry Ford's model of automation, this software solutions platform combines the best characteristics of pre-built software with the flexibility of custom solutions. Through this innovative approach, solutions are deployed within weeks, and change requests are implemented within hours so that businesses can continuously increase revenues, decrease costs and increase customer satisfaction with business management software that fits their exact needs.

Treff LaPlante (CEO)
Treff LaPlante has been involved with technology for nearly 20 years. At Express Dynamics, LLC he passionately drives the vision of making customized enterprise software easy, fast and affordable.

Prior to joining Express Dynamics, Treff was Director of Operations for eBay's Homes Direct. While there he created strategic relationships with Fortune 500 companies and national broker networks and began his foray into the development of flexible workflow software technologies. He served on the management team that sold HomesDirect to eBay. During his time at Vivendi-Universal Interactive, Treff was Director of Strategy. In addition to M&A activities Treff broadly applied quantitative management principles to Sales, Marketing and Product line functions. Treff served as the point person for the management team that sold Cendant Software to Vivendi-Universal. Earlier positions include Product Management and National Sales Trainer for Energy Design Systems, an engineering software company. Treff began his professional career as a Metals Trader for Randall Trading Corp, a commodities firm that specialized in bartering and transporting various metals and coal from the then dissolving Soviet Union. Treff received his MBA from Pepperdine University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University.

Back row: Business students Ryan McElvaney, Mike Wass and Brett Herrmann with Treff LaPlante (CEO of Express Dynamics)
Front row: Chris Willet (Art/Design), Amy Duggan (Communication/PR), and Erin Kauffman (Art/Design)