NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release Contacts: Charlie Trapp

7-30-04 (601)555-4576

Dr. Ansel Druid (601)555-4109

Dr. Sulley Clewiston (601)555-2475

 NEW PROCESS INNOVATION VENTURE DEVELOPED

BETWEEN BUSINESS COMMUNITY AND CBED

HATTIESBURG - Another technology and process-related enterprise partnership between USM and the private sector will be launched this Fall. "A number of process paradigm interested faculty in the CBED got together last Spring at a week-long retreat in the Himalayas just to ‘kick around’ some ideas we had about the failings of many of the current business models and other entrepreneurship paradigms, especially in the area of information technologies and innovations partnership models. Most of these failings are exacerbated when globalization contra-tendencies are brought into the mix. Amazingly, what came out of this retreat some six months later is a partnership between USM’s College of Business and Economic Development and the private sector that is beyond what any of us ever imagined," said Dr. Amtek Perera, Associate Professor of Marketing at USM.

What has now been finalized is a partnership between a USM-affiliated entity Perera and three partners have founded, known as Byzmetrica, and the University of Southern Mississippi. Other ByzMetrika partners include Dr. Sulley Clewiston (Professor of MIS), Dr. Isaac Roberts (Assistant Professor of Marketing), and Dr. Porter Brossier (Professor of Management). Byzmetrika will work through USM’s Offices of Process Technology and Investment and Business Ventures. According to Perera, the group will work with private sector firms through exclusive territory licensing arrangements wherein companies receive assistance with paradigm diffusions in the areas of expertise held by the partners of ByzMetrika. "We are looking at branching out, in fact we’re already in discussions with the people at Noetic about some n-way transfers, especially targeting the polymers and related area," Brossier explained.

According to Clewiston, the USM faces absolutely no risk. "We are protecting ourselves and the University with restrictive covenants and, later, we hope to support those with some resale price maintenance designs. These will become absolutely essential if others come on board, like Noetic." According to arrangements between ByzMetrika and USM, the University will receive 27% of all licensing fees and receipts earned by Byzmetrika. Over time, this arrangement will "phase-down" from a 73-27 partnership to an 80-20 arrangement, Perera pointed out. "We hope this new venture will benefit the Pine Belt and Mississippi in general," Clewiston said. "It should put USM further on the map."