Can Cavalier win big again?: MapInfo chairman also heads Auxilia, which works on programs to permit easier collaboration via the Internet.(Company overview)

Byline: Larry Rulison

Mar. 31--NORTH GREENBUSH -- MapInfo Corp. isn't the only company making waves these days at One Global View in Rensselaer Technology Park.

Inside the building that houses MapInfo's headquarters is a company called Auxilia Inc., which until now has been best known for its work on unmanned vehicle technology used in disasters and emergencies.

John Cavalier, who as chairman of MapInfo helped broker a $408 million deal to sell the mapping software company to Pitney Bowes Inc. earlier this month, is also chairman of Auxilia, which was founded in late 2004. Auxilia is seeking to tap the billion-dollar market for video conferencing and online collaboration with a new product, c2hub. The company is targeting business and government customers. "We're ready to really ramp things up," said Michael Grosso, Auxilia's corporate vice president in charge of information systems. "The potential is absolutely enormous." C2hub is actually a group of five software products that can be sold separately or together. The main product focuses on online video conferencing, which Auxilia calls "video collaboration" because of the number of features it has -- including instant messaging and a "white board" that allows people to mark up documents and pictures on-screen. There also is a visual e-mail product that allows people to send promotional e-mails that use voice and video. Another product is called mobile mail, which allows people to have their e-mail read to them over the phone and send voice e-mails to others. So how does a company that is involved with unmanned systems used by the military and emergency first responders translate that into commercial uses?

Auxilia President Paul Somersall, a former IBM Corp. executive who also served in the military, said the company saw that products developed initially so people could communicate during disasters and rescue missions could have a use in the business world. "There are a lot of commercial applications," he said. "We saw the need."

Auxilia, which employs 20, has been quietly building a distribution network for the c2hub products, and last year hired Brett Johnson as director of sales. Johnson previously worked for Cisco Systems, Gateway Computers, MapInfo and others. Johnson uses c2hub as he pitches potential customers and seeks to expand his distribution network for the company. And he believes video collaboration and video and voice e-mail will soon replace traditional text e-mail in business settings because it's more personal. It can also cut down on business travel and improve efficiency. "It's a more effective way for people to communicate," he said. Video conferencing and online collaboration technology are a hot business right now. On March 15, Cisco announced plans to acquire a Web conferencing firm based in Santa Clara, Calif., WebEx Communications, for $3.2 billion. "We agree that a large untapped market exists," Morningstar analysts Patrick Elgrably said the day the deal was announced. Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.

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