Silicon Valley startup moves to Oklahoma, partners with OSU

Friday, November 3, 2006

The Oklahoma State University Center for Innovation and Economic Development officials announced Friday that a Silicon Valley startup, Customer Innovation Excellence, will relocate to Oklahoma. The move solidifies a partnership between the company and OSU that seeks to establish the state as the world leader in customer relations education and training.

The company was incorporated in October as a developer of customer relationship management and supply chain management training curriculums and technologies. CIE will begin its operations in the Meridian Technology Center Business Incubator near the Oklahoma Technology and Research Park in Stillwater.

CIE will continually develop, write and publish customer service training curricula, certification testing devices, e-learning/distance learning solutions and other training materials that will be licensed and offered through higher learning education institutions and other authorized training centers.

The company’s founding executives, who include an MIT researcher and former employees of Oracle and AT&T Bell Labs, were drawn to the state by its burgeoning customer service and aerospace industry sectors. Their move follows months of discussions with Oklahoma industry representatives coordinated by OSU’s CIED.

“Many companies have relocated their call centers to Oklahoma, and their leadership recognizes that customer relationship management will be crucial to their success,” Customer Innovation Excellence CEO Robert Chognard said. “Simultaneously, supply chain management, the coordination of parts and raw materials inventories between manufacturers and their suppliers, is becoming increasingly vital in the aerospace industry.

“Companies must innovate to remain globally competitive and understand the key role of customer relations, but most today must train their employees on the job. We want to stimulate the development of the knowledge worker in Oklahoma and create additional opportunities in this high-growth sector of customer relations.”

The company’s founders and OSU CIED administrators envision Oklahoma becoming the global center in developing highly professional staff certified and educated in customer relations. In addition to obtaining an equity interest in Customer Innovation Excellence, OSU CIED has initiated talks between company executives and university faculty and researchers to explore collaborations on further development of its proprietary curriculums and products.

“While customer relationship and supply chain management are industry emphases, there are almost no opportunities for specialization or certification in them. We envision this collaboration as an academic pathway ultimately to a degree in customer relationship management,” said Tom Gray, vice president for Economic Development at OSU’s CIED. “University curriculum development takes some time, but the response from the deans and faculty with whom we’ve discussed immediate research and outreach collaborations has been extremely favorable.

“In terms of a new educational emphasis, the potential for research and support of economic development in the state of Oklahoma, all aspects of this partnership define our mission as a land-grant institution."