INDIANAPOLIS (April 20, 2013) — TechPoint President and CEO Mike Langellier served as master of ceremonies for the 14th annual Mira Awards recognizing and celebrating tech excellence and innovation in Indiana.

Interactive Intelligence, Indigo BioSystems, BidPal and Smarter Remarketer Among Top Honorees

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (April 20, 2013) — TechPoint, Indiana’s technology growth initiative, honored Indiana’s best companies, entrepreneurs and educators for their technology excellence and innovation at the 14th annual Mira Awards gala presented by BKD CPAs & Advisors at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis. Among those taking home top honors were Interactive Intelligence (Tech Company of the Year), Indigo BioSystems (Innovation of the Year), BidPal, Inc. (Emerging Technology Company of the Year), Smarter Remarketer (Tech Startup of the Year) and Dr. Donald Brown, chairman, president and CEO, Interactive Intelligence (Trailblazer in Technology).

“We had the largest class of Mira Awards finalists ever this year.  It’s a sign of the increasing activity and growth in the tech and entrepreneurial communities,” said TechPoint CEO Michael Langellier. The Mira Awards had a record 91 finalists this year chosen by an expert panel of 39 judges.”

TechPoint’s Mira Awards is a celebration and a prime opportunity to raise the visibility for new innovations and to help grow Indiana companies.

“The awards also generate real revenue results for these companies.  Slingshot SEO, which drives web search traffic as its core business, noted that the highest traffic day in the history of their company was the day after they won a Mira Award; higher than the day after they ranked 58th fastest-growing, private company in the country on the Inc. 500,” said Langellier.

VIDEO: Mira Awards production partner Granola Video produced the opening video to the awards ceremony that tells the story of why TechPoint puts so much effort into the Mira Awards, what it means to the tech community, and the significant impact the awards has had on past participants.

Full List of the 2013 TechPoint Mira Award winners:  
(Detailed descriptions on why the companies or individuals were chosen are below)

  • Tech Company of the Year: Interactive Intelligence
  • Innovation of the Year: Indigo BioSystems
  • Emerging Technology Company of the Year: BidPal, Inc.
  • Tech Startup of the Year: Smarter Remarketer
    • Honorable Mentions:
      • BlueBridge Digital
      • Emerging Threats Pro
  • Trailblazer in Technology Award: Dr. Donald Brown, chairman, president, CEO, Interactive Intelligence
  • Mobile Technology Excellence & Innovation Award: BidPal, Inc.
  • Marketing Technology Excellence & Innovation Award: Angie’s List
  • Corporate IT Excellence & Innovation: Hill-Rom
  • Health Information Technology Excellence & Innovation Award: Hc1.com
  • IT/Tech Service Excellence & Innovation Award: LeadJen
  • Technology in Education Excellence & Innovation Award:
    • CurriculumLoft – Elementary and Secondary
    • Indiana University Client Virtualization Team: IUanyWare – Post Secondary
  • Technology Educator of the Year Award: Marvin Bailey
  • TechPoint Young Professional of the Year Award: Santiago Jaramillo, founder and CEO, BlueBridge Digital
  • TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder Award: DREAM Alive

Learn more about each 2013 Mira Award winner below …

PHOTO GALLERY: Click on the thumbnail to see larger photo and learn more about each winner.

      

      

      

      

More about Mira Awards Winners

Tech Company of the Year (Interactive Intelligence): Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ) is a global provider of contact center, unified communications and business process automation software and services. The Indianapolis-based company is being honored for its innovative technologies and services that help business lower costs, increase productivity and improve customer service. In some cases, Interactive Intelligence customers are realizing up to $1 million in cost savings and the company is orchestrating unified global telephony and communications infrastructures that have significant impact on the company culture and bottom line.

Innovation of the Year (Indigo BioSystems): Indianapolis-basedIndigo BioSystems provides automated data analysis solutions for big data problems. They deliver cloud-based tools that eliminate the need for human inspection of laboratory data in a variety of industries. The company is being honored for ASCENT, its first commercialized product, which is also the first algorithm for determining chromatographic baselines and estimating area under the curve that doesn’t require human intervention.

Emerging Technology Company of the Year (BidPal, Inc.): Indianapolis-basedBidPal, Inc. improves charitable fundraising by helping nonprofits use technology to more efficiently run their charitable events. BidPal’s event management solutions, mobile auctions, payment processing, ticketing, online fundraising and consulting services, help make charitable events more fun and more profitable. BidPal was chosen because of the results it delivers to its clients – often charities – helping them significantly increase fundraising and ultimately “cause” outcomes. The judges also believe BidPal has a very sound growth strategy that is bearing positive results.

Tech Startup of the Year (Smarter Remarketer): Smarter Remarketer provides a Software-as-a-Service email marketing automation and segmentation tool that provides retailers critical information needed to monetize the discrete experience of their website visitors. The Indianapolis-based company was chosen for its dedication to innovation through the rapid development and deployment of four critical product innovations in 2012 alone. The two-year-old, Indianapolis-based company helps retail giants like Finish Line and SkyMall learn from people who don’t buy after shopping online, and then shows them how to recapture the sales.

Honorable Mentions:

BlueBridge Digital: The Indianapolis-based company was created to provide an easier, smarter way for businesses to harness the power of the mobile revolution. Founded by Santiago Jaramillo in his dorm room, BlueBridge Digital is a pioneer in the field of Mobile Apps as a Service. They create customized, affordable, full-featured mobile apps that help organizations like universities, convention and visitors bureaus, churches and more connect with their customers on a daily basis. The judges felt strongly that first-time founder Santiago Jaramillo and his team deserved to be recognized for their significant accomplishments in such a short time.

Emerging Threats Pro: The Lafayette-based company is a world-leading provider of open source and commercial threat and malware intelligence. The company’s suite of threat intelligence products are platform agnostic for easy integration with network intrusion protection and detection systems. Originally founded as a cyber-security research community, Emerging Threats caught the judges’ attention due to their global reputation as the de facto standard in network-based malware threat detection.

Trailblazer in Technology Award (Dr. Donald Brown, chairman, president, CEO, Interactive Intelligence): The awardrecognizes individuals whose vision and efforts in advancing technology have made a lasting and significant impact on Indiana. Dr. Donald Brown, chairman, president and CEO of Interactive Intelligence, is a graduate of North Central High School in Indianapolis and holds an undergraduate degree, a medical degree and a master’s in computer science from Indiana University. After founding tech company Software Artistry and selling it to IBM and creating several other companies, he founded software company Interactive Intelligence (Nasdaq: ININ). The company went public in 1999 and today employs 1,500 workers around the world.

Mobile Technology Excellence & Innovation Award (BidPal, Inc.): Indianapolis-basedBidPal, Inc. improves charitable fundraising by helping nonprofits use technology to more efficiently run their charitable events. The company was chosen for its ability to create high-density area networks that handle the massive amounts of congestion that can happen when, for example, 1,000 people are using mobile devices to vote at the same time. BidPal has not only improved the very laborious process of producing charitable auctions, but they have “gamified” it using mobile technology and doubled the financial impact for their customers.

Marketing Technology Excellence & Innovation Award (Angie’s List): Indianapolis-based Angie’s List, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANGI) was founded as a call center of one – Angie – in 1995 and has grown into an online behemoth of trusted reviews on more than 500 local services. Today, more than 1.7 million households check Angie’s List before they hire. The Indianapolis-based company was chosen because it has proven the value of content marketing as is evidenced by performance improvements such as a double-digit page load speed increase, 10 million more page views, a triple-digit increase in organic rankings and a triple-digit sales increase.

Corporate IT Excellence & Innovation (Hill-Rom): Batesville-based Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc.(NYSE:HRC) is a leading worldwide manufacturer and provider of medical technologies and related services for the health care industry. Hill-Rom was chosen for its successful completion of a major ERP migration that allowed the business to continue to operate according to its strict healthcare industry regulations. The project leaves the company in a position to operate in China and other territories where the double-byte languages are required, and firmly establishes an ERP and information technology platform to enable Hill-Rom’s growth in the future.

Health Information Technology Excellence & Innovation Award (Hc1.com): The hc1.com customer relationship management (CRM) solution is transforming the way healthcare entities optimize their patient relationships across the continuum of care. The Indianapolis-based company was chosen for its successful model of utilizing sophisticated intelligence and analytical tools to convert massive amounts of healthcare and business data into an easy-to-understand picture of the patient. The judges also recognize hc1.com’s great potential for improving healthcare and tracking outbreaks in real time by leveraging the clinical results data.

IT/Tech Service Excellence & Innovation Award (LeadJen): Jenny Vance is one of the leading women entrepreneurs in lead generation. She is the founder of LeadJen, a lead generation and appointment setting company, which she has grown to nearly 100 employees serving hundreds of companies globally ranging from startups to Fortune 500. Indianapolis-based LeadJen was chosen for using scientific principles and technology to transform lead generation from a rudimentary function used solely to uncover sales leads into a predictable sales pipeline, which generates actionable market intelligence that directly contributes to customers’ profitability.

Technology in Education Excellence & Innovation Award:

CurriculumLoft – Elementary and Secondary: Indianapolis-basedCurriculumLoft is a mobile learning solution providing curriculum management, student device management and automated assessment delivery for one-to-one programs. The company was chosen for its role as a key player and innovator in educational software and hardware.

Indiana University Client Virtualization Team: IUanyWare – Post Secondary: IUanyWare is an enterprise cloud-based service that provides the Indiana University community with on-demand access to over 200 software apps. With IUanyWare, IU enables its more than 130,000 students, faculty and staff to connect to critical software, cloud storage and printing tools, anytime, anywhere and on any device. IUanyWare represents the first virtualization initiative to succeed at an institution of Indiana University’s size and scope across all eight campuses, and the judges were particularly impressed by the broad impact of this “bring your own device,” user community-centric approach.

Technology Educator of the Year Award (Marvin Bailey): Marvin Bailey has impacted hundreds of thousands of K-12 students in Indiana and throughout the nation with his dedication to excellence and innovation in the use of technology for educational achievement. His accomplishments include launching the nation’s first one-on-one computer project, helping to develop the e-rate system that provides up to 90% discounts for telecommunications providers, and helping to raise millions of dollars to purchase technology and training for educational purposes through the programs and initiatives he has championed. Bailey was chosen for his continuing leadership and tireless quest to bring technology into the classroom, including his efforts to fund educational technology like lobbying the Indiana General Assembly and ultimately securing more than a quarter of a billion dollars over eight years.

TechPoint Young Professional of the Year Award (Santiago Jaramillo, founder and CEO of BlueBridge Digital):  Santiago Jaramillo is a true entrepreneur. From his earliest business venture, where he delivered fresh water to his neighbors in South America, through his graduation from Indiana Wesleyan University as class valedictorian with a perfect GPA, to the founding of an industry-leading customized mobile apps development firm, Santiago embodies the relentless spirit of a true Hoosier technological innovator. As the founder of three businesses before ever graduating from college, while simultaneously holding a demanding internship at ExactTarget, Santiago impressed the judges with his accomplishments as well as his vision for the future of his fast-growing, profitable business, BlueBridge Digital.

TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder Award (DREAM Alive): On April 16, the TechPoint Foundation for Youth announced that former Indianapolis Colts Pro-Bowl offensive tackle Tarik Glenn and his wife Maya, have won the Bridge Builder award. The Glenn’s were chosen for their significant and lasting contributions in transforming the lives of underserved Indiana students through their DREAM Alive organization. DREAM Alive provides after-school programs for youth in grades 7-12 that focuses on community service, leadership development and academic success.

About TechPoint
TechPoint is Indiana’s statewide technology initiative focused on growing Indiana’s tech sector by promoting the successes of technology companies and professionals; supporting the formation of capital, expansion and attraction of technology companies; and advocating appropriate public policy. For more information, please visit techpoint.org.

About BKD
BKD, LLP is a national CPA and advisory firm that delivers its experience and service with a deep understanding of your business, your needs and what it takes to improve your business performance.  BKD’s approximately 2,000 personnel, including approximately 250 partners, serve clients in all 50 states and internationally. To learn more, visit bkd.com. Praxity, AISBL, a global alliance of independent firms, enhances BKD’s ability to serve the dynamic needs of multinational clients. Praxity™ provides the gateway to tax, assurance and consulting services delivered by alliance firms committed to the highest standards required in international business.