(INDIANAPOLIS) — A total of 70 Hoosier companies from throughout the state are being honored this year as a “Best Place to Work in Indiana” for their strong workplace environment that values employees. The program, now in its fifth edition, is managed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

Forty-seven of the 70 companies received the same designation last year.  For 21 companies that made the 2010 list, it was their first time taking part in the evaluation. 

The program honors the top companies in the state, as determined through employer reports and comprehensive employee surveys.  Winners were selected from two categories: small to medium-sized companies of between 25 and 249 employees (in Indiana or total nationally if there is a parent company) and large-sized companies consisting of 250 or more employees (in Indiana or total nationally if there is a parent company).  Out-of-state parent companies were eligible to participate if at least 25 full-time employees are in Indiana. 

The Best Companies Group, which handled the selection process, oversees similar programs in 19 other states.

“These 70 companies are among the state’s first-rate employers who take pride in creating an environment that allows workers to feel respected and be productive; they also recognize how this then helps the company be successful and reach its goals,” offers Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar. 

“Considering the tough economic times of the past year-plus, it was especially encouraging to see so many Hoosier companies fitting the criteria, as well as so many new companies taking part in the evaluation.  That confidential feedback from employees is invaluable and really the most important aspect of the process.”

The actual rankings of the top Hoosier companies will be announced at the Best Places to Work awards dinner on May 6 at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in downtown Indianapolis. Winners will also be recognized via a special section of the Indiana Chamber’s bimonthly BizVoice® magazine and through Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick – both of which reach statewide audiences.  The 2010 Best Places to Work in Indiana awards dinner is open to the public. Individual tickets and tables are available at www.indianachamber.com.

Additionally, earlier in the day, a session on what makes a company a Best Place to Work will be featured as part of the Indiana Chamber’s 46th Annual Human Resources Conference. To register to attend this HR session, visit www.indianachamber.com.

All companies that participated in the 2010 Best Places to Work program receive an in-depth evaluation identifying strengths and weaknesses according to their employees.  In turn, this report can be used in developing or enhancing employee retention and recruitment programs. 

For more information on the Indiana Chamber’s Best Places to Work program, go to www.bestplacestoworkIN.com.

The 2010 Best Places to Work in Indiana companies listed in alphabetical order, no ranking:

Large Companies (250 or more employees)
Company / Location                                                  �
AIT Laboratories / Indianapolis
American Structurepoint, Inc. / Indianapolis
Aprimo, Inc. / Indianapolis
Ash Brokerage Corporation / Fort Wayne
Blue & Co., LLC / Carmel
Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company / Fort Wayne
Centier Bank / Merrillville
Clark Memorial Hospital / Jeffersonville
Colliers Turley Martin Tucker / Indianapolis
Columbus Regional Hospital /  Columbus
Crowe Horwath LLP / Indianapolis
Draper, Inc. / Spiceland
Edward Jones /  Plainfield
ExactTarget / Indianapolis
Fort Wayne Metals Research Products Corp. / Fort Wayne
Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman PC / Indianapolis
Hancock Regional Hospital / Greenfield
Harrison College / Indianapolis
Hendricks Regional Health / Danville
Hilliard Lyons / Evansville
Hosparus Inc. / New Albany
Ice Miller LLP / Indianapolis
Interactive Intelligence, Inc. / Indianapolis
Katz, Sapper & Miller / Indianapolis
KPMG LLP / Indianapolis
M&I Bank / Indianapolis
Microsoft Corporation / Indianapolis
Ogletree Deakins Law Firm / Indianapolis
OneAmerica Financial Partners, Inc. / Indianapolis
Parkview Health / Fort Wayne
RCI / Carmel
RW Armstrong / Indianapolis
Schneck Medical Center /  Seymour
Shiel Sexton Company, Inc. / Indianapolis
St. Joseph Hospital / Kokomo
St. Vincent Health, Corporate Center / Indianapolis
Teachers Credit Union / South Bend
The Capital Group Companies, Inc / Indianapolis
Trilogy Health Services, LLC / Petersburg
Turner Construction Company of Indiana, LLC / Indianapolis
Union Hospital, Inc. / Terre Haute
WestPoint Financial Group / Indianapolis

Small to Medium-sized Companies (25-249 employees)
Company / Location
Allegient, LLC / Indianapolis
Bamberger, Foreman, Oswald and Hahn, LLP / Evansville
Benefit Associates Inc. / Indianapolis
Bernardin, Lochmueller and Associates, Inc. /  Evansville
Bingham McHale LLP / Indianapolis
Communications Products, Inc. / Indianapolis
Contact by Design / Bloomington
Design Collaborative, Inc. / Fort Wayne
Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union / Indianapolis
Employment Plus, Inc. / Bloomington
Energy Systems Group LLC / Newburgh
First Harrison Bank / Corydon
Fusion Alliance, Inc / Indianapolis
Gordon Marketing / Noblesville
Harding Poorman Group, Inc. / Indianapolis
Indesign / Indianapolis
Indiana Organ Procurement Organization / Indianapolis
International Medical Group, Inc. / Indianapolis
J.C. Hart Company, Inc. / Carmel
Krieg DeVault LLP/  Indianapolis
Matrix Integration, LLC / Jasper
Milestone Contractors, LP / Indianapolis
MJ Insurance, Inc / Indianapolis
Public Safety Medical / Indianapolis
Schmidt Associates / Indianapolis
Software Engineering Professionals / Carmel
Somerset CPAs / Indianapolis
United Consulting / Indianapolis

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SEP internships offer:
- Variety on every axis … tools, technologies, market sectors, methodologies
- Extremely reasonable work schedules
- Extensive opportunities to learn and extend yourself
- A community of friendly, talented, and effective peers
- Excellent facilities

If you are interested in an internship all resumes must be submitted by January 28, 2010 via the appropriate method listed below.  Please note: we will ask for an updated copy of your transcript during the interview.

Purdue:
Students should submit resume thru CCO.

Rose-Hulman:
Student should submit resume thru eRecruiting.

All Other Universities:
Student should submit resume via recruiting@sep.com

The video explores how Kanban teams at SEP matured through the lens of the Dreyfus Model for Skill Acquisition. Shinkle examines what this pattern has meant for institutionalization of Lean at SEP as well as a counter-intuitive technique for higher success and adoption rates of new methodologies.

Take a look: http://tiny.cc/sepagile09

The QCon Conferences are organized by the software community, for the software community. The result of these efforts is a high quality conference experience where a tremendous amount of attention and investment has gone into having the best content on the most important topics presented by the leaders in our community, staged in an intimate environment with the best food and comforts needed to support as much learning and networking as possible. The QCon conferences are taking place twice yearly, in London and San Francisco

Shinkle’s presentation at this conference gives attendees an overview of SEP’s experience adopting Agile practices. Below is the abstract from the program:

In 2004, SEP tried adopting Agile practices. However, Agile failed to have the desired lasting impact across the entire organization. Things changed in 2007, when SEP implemented Kanban for the first time. We will explore how Kanban teams at SEP matured through the lens of the Dreyfus Model for Skill Acquisition. We will examine what this pattern has meant for institutionalization of Lean in the organization. We will discuss a counterintuitive technique for higher success and adoption rates of new methodologies. Finally, we will review common pitfalls teams encountered adopting Kanban.

What we have to offer:

- Variety on every axis … tools, technologies, market sectors, methodologies
- Extremely reasonable work schedules
- Extensive opportunities to learn and extend yourself
- A community of friendly, talented, and effective peers
- The ability to truly make a difference with our clients and within SEP
- Opportunities to try out different roles with minimal risk
- Excellent facilities

Our ideal software engineer candidate has:

- A passion for engineering, software development, testing, and learning
- A craftsman mentality
- Professional experience with mainstream development technologies (.NET, Java, etc.)
- Excellent problem solving skills
- Effective communication skills
- Bachelors degree or higher (preferred)

Our ideal test engineer candidate has:

- A passion for engineering, testing and software
- Professional experience testing applications and systems
- Some combination of experience with automation tools, black and white box testing, ability to create test plans/scenarios/procedures
- Comfortable executing both manual and automated tests
- Experience testing safety critical systems is a plus
- Excellent problem solving skills
- Effective communication skills
- Bachelors degree or higher preferred

SEP does not offer visa sponsorship. SEP is an E.O.E/AA employer M/F/V/D.

For more information on these positions please contact recruiting@sep.com.

Milwaukee, WI, November 11, 2009 — The Certification Board of ASQ (American Society for Quality) is pleased to announce that Paul Pringle, Operations Manager and Jeff Lambert, Engineering Manager have both completed the requirements to be named an ASQ-Certified Software Quality Engineer (ASQ CSQE). As such, Paul Pringle and Jeff Lambert have reached a significant level of professional recognition, indicating a proficiency in and a comprehension of software quality engineering principles and practices. Individuals who earn this certification are allowed to use “ASQ CSQE” on their business cards and professional correspondence.

“ASQ provides certification as a way to provide formal recognition to professionals who have demonstrated an understanding of, and a commitment to, quality techniques and practices in their job and career,” explains Peter Andres, ASQ president. “This is a great accomplishment and, although not a formal registration or licensure, it represents a high level of peer recognition.”

A Certified Software Quality Engineer (CSQE) is a professional who understands the principles and applications of software quality engineering. CSQEs plan and implement software development and maintenance projects, oversee and deploy software quality audits, including functional and configuration audits, and use configuration management tools and techniques to ensure quality performance throughout the lifecycle of software products.

Since 1968, when the first ASQ certification examination was given, more than 163,000 individuals have taken the path to reaching their goal of becoming ASQ-Certified in their field or profession, including many of who have attained more than one designation. To learn more about ASQ’s Certified Software Quality Engineer program, visit http://www.asq.org/certification/software-quality-engineer/.

ASQ, www.asq.org, has been the world’s leading authority on quality for more than 60 years. With more than 85,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners and everyday consumers. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., ASQ is a founding sponsor of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
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SEP’s Development Manager, Chris Shinkle, will be speaking at the Agile Development Practices Conference in Orlando, FL on Thursday, November 12, 2009. The purpose of this week-long Conference is to help attendees investigate or implement agile development practices, processes, technologies, or leadership principles.

Shinkle’s presentation on Embracing Kanban: An Experience Report will be one of many presentation from the Agile community. Shinkle’s presentation will focus on SEP’s adoption of agile practices. He will share SEP’s lessons learned and explain how his team has grown through their implementation of Kanban. Shinkle will focus on the effect of expedited work items, the real cost of rework, and how to make quality a focus throughout your software process.

For more information on the conference, visit http://www.sqe.com/AgileDevPractices/.

Traditional testing does not add value to a project because it is typically done after coding is completed. Integrating TDD using Agile/ Lean practices into the software development process gives testing a new role. Testing is done to identify design flaws as well as to find bugs before they cause major problems. TDD using Agile/ Lean ensures robust requirements and less refactoring thus shortening the software development life cycle. Attendees will be exposed to testing tools and approaches used by several successful open source projects, long with an opportunity-cost analysis of the choice of tool and timing of tool introduction.

The Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference is the premier software development conference in West Michigan. Covering the diverse practices and technologies that make the best software what it is, from the web to embedded, from management to bit-twiddling, GLSEC is the place to learn about whatʼs happening in the industry today.

Indianapolis, IN. – Wolf Technical Services, Inc. announced that it has won a U.S. Navy contract for a new military project. The contract is valued at more than $12 million including all options.

The contract, issued by Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River, MD., is for Wolf to design and develop a restraint system to be used by the crew members of both fixed and rotary wing aircraft. Identified as Common Mobile Aircrew Restraint System (CMARS), it will allow air crew members freedom of movement within the aircraft while still being restrained to reduce injuries or personnel ejection from the aircraft.

Wolf’s President Michael Pepe said the development of CMARS continues the heritage of safety improvements fostered by Wolf during it’s more than 30 years in business.

“We look forward to working with the Navy to continue their important work in safety improvements for our military personnel” said Pepe. “The entire Wolf team is enthusiastic about furthering its work for the military through this Navy contract.”

CMARS will be designed to counteract the injury causing forces encountered by the aircrew during evasive maneuvers, combat damage, or aircraft crashes by sensing these forces and locking the members in place. Wolf’s design also incorporates several redundant safety features.

This contract is one of several U.S. military projects which have been awarded to Wolf within the last decade.

Wolf’s all Indiana team includes subcontractors Garrity Tool Company, Inc., SEP (Software Engineering Professionals), Diversified Systems Inc., and Butler America. As many as 20 high-tech jobs will be created at Wolf and within the subcontractor companies participating in this contract.

September 16, 2009 Purdue University (Industrial Round Table)
October 7, 2009 Rose-Hulman (Career Fair)

On Campus Interviews:
Purdue: October 1, 2009
Rose-Hulman: October 21, 2009

For more information on these events and SEP’s involvement contact us: recruiting@sep.com.