Information in Place, Inc. (IIPI) was founded in 1999 and is a software and services spinout of Indiana University. Located in Bloomington’s Certified Technology Park, IIPI offers products and services that enhance operational performance through the intersection of human performance technology, advanced instructional theory and innovative computer technology. On the leading-edge of the company’s computer technology, IIPI has developed mixed and augmented reality offerings that combine virtual information with the real world. The company is productizing its core capabilities, developed through bootstrapped growth, to serve its target markets and is now launching its latest offerings: Viyant, Vicarus, PickIT, IIPI Nexus, and serious games solutions.

IIPI was the first recipient of the Fuse Business Innovation Bloomington Innovative Business of the Year award, has been listed as one of Indiana’s most innovative companies by the Kelley School of Business, is frequently selected as a member of the Military Training Technology Top 100, and has been published by Wired Magazine as a top innovator. The company serves as the anchor tenant for the state-sponsored Bloomington Certified Technology Park.

Jonathan Schalliol, IIPI’s VP, Business Development & CFO, has been part of the technology sector for 14 years and most recently worked for the Merrill Lynch Technology Investment Banking unit in Palo Alto, helping to secure funding and mergers and acquisitions for North America’s largest technology companies. He has additionally worked for Apple Computer, Ernst & Young, Eli Lilly, and a small company he co-founded in the early ‘90s to provide I.T. consulting. He received a B.S. from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University where he was Chancellor’s Scholar and specialized in Computer Information Systems. Among other affiliations he currently is an officer of the Automotive Training Managers Council and a member of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation’s Retention & Expansion Committee.

Q: How did you first get involved with Information in Place?
A: A friend introduced me to the laboratory that ultimately was spun into IIPI when I was a student at IU in the late ‘90s, and I was enthralled with what I envisioned would come from the technologies studied. That School of Education lab, called the WorldBoard Lab, explored the geospatial contextualization of the world. A basic version of this concept that you might be acquainted with is Google Maps’ placement of businesses on its maps. As part of this effort, we took middle school students with handheld computers, laptops, cellular modems, and GPS receivers out to nearby wetlands to capture data with probes. The data was then stored on an Internet-enabled map, and when others would walk to that location with GPS-enabled devices, they would be informed that this data was available. This implementation of technology was far ahead what was available at the time, and I don’t think that this solution is available even today. That was just the tip of the iceberg, and the business applications of this and more complex technology ignited my interest in developing solutions to meet a variety of needs.

Q: To what do you attribute the success of your business?
A: While there are many factors that contribute to the success of our business, I’ll touch on a few. The most important factor is certainly the employees. IIPI has had a talented and committed team since inception, and employees’ passion for what they personally are attempting to achieve and what the company attempts to achieve moves us forward. When a company is innovating, it is important for all employees to envision the ultimate goals of their efforts and put the right steps in place to reach those goals.

Capital is certainly an important factor for all businesses, and we’re no different. While we didn’t have a large base of capital to start the company, we were able to grow the company through profit as we went along. However the biggest capital push came from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s 21st Century Research & Technology Fund, which matched early-stage contracts from the Department of Defense and grants from the National Institutes of Health. These matches helped us reach Phase II on these contracts and pull assets together within the company. Last year the fund awarded IIPI a fairly large grant to support our commercialization, after a very thorough review process.

A third important success factor is the network of contacts and partners that we have built over the years. These people and organizations throughout the Bloomington community and the across the country compliment the company’s capabilities and knowledge. This network allows us to leverage expertise that we cannot support completely in-house, as well as brings our attention to opportunities that we would not otherwise find. It does take a village to raise a company, and I hope that we can raise the level of networking within Bloomington through publications such as this.

Q: How do continual advancements in technology affect your business?
A: IIPI’s strategy connects it tightly with advancements in both information technology hardware and software and state of the art understanding of application of that technology. For this reason, it is important for the company to have leading minds on staff in both areas. With respect to information technology, our ability to support solutions using mixed reality and mobile technology benefits greatly from increases in hardware capabilities and quality, as well as reduction of hardware cost and size. Such advancements are tightly coupled with the ability for solutions to show significant return on investment. With respect to understanding applications of this technology, it is crucial that the company is well versed in the optimal methods and techniques for each offering to ensure that solutions yield the desired results.

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