TechBirmingham thrives through its immensely talented and diverse group of member companies. Meet our Member Companies is an ongoing Q&A series highlighting this group of movers, shakers and makers in B’ham’s tech industry.

Meet Jessica Vance, Account Director for Alloy. Jessica has lived in Birmingham for over 20 years. Read on to learn more about Alloy and the great things they are doing in Birmingham and beyond.

Hi Jessica! Let’s get started — Tell us more about Alloy and your typical day.

The company rebranded as Alloy less than 2 years ago, but Intermark Interactive, where the company was born, has been around since 1996.

The typical morning starts with a full to-do list of tasks to tackle. I spend 75% of my day in meetings so that the development team can focus on our project work. There are a mix of scrums, project status meetings and client calls mixed with a fair share of accounting meetings, Google hangouts and brainstorm sessions. Our office is very casual, so in good weather, we on our side patio or head out for lunch nearby. Our environment is highly collaborative, so although we live and die by Slack, we also resort to yelling over cubes or bounce ideas around in the aisle. My clients range from automotive to supply chain to manufacturer / retailer which keeps my mind active.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about your industry?

The biggest misconception is that you have to be a lifelong technology guru to excel. Some of our employees went to college with different careers in mind or are even working in technology now as a second career. You don’t have to have an extensive technology background to excel, but instead, an intense passion for continued learning.

What exciting news or product/service announcements does your company have on the horizon?

We are working on a number of interesting endeavors including a large technical consulting project and multiple industry disruptive commercial projects, but nothing we can share by name.

How do you feel about B’ham’s tech scene?

Being in a technical company with a non-technical role, I would definitely like to see more females in the field along with applicants from out of state (or country). Birmingham has a lot to offer career-wise and socially that I am happy to see TechBirmingham getting the word out about everything that’s going on.

Thanks so much for sharing, Jessica! 

Follow Alloy online here:

http://alloy.digital

http://www.linkedin.com/company/alloy-digital

http://twitter.com/wearealloy

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TechBirmingham thrives through its immensely talented and diverse group of member companies. Meet our Member Companies is an ongoing Q&A series highlighting this group of movers, shakers and makers in B’ham’s tech industry.

Meet Jason Lovoy, President of Infomedia. Jason is originally Birmingham and loves it here! Read on to learn more about the 22 year history of Infomedia and the great things they are doing in Birmingham and beyond.

Hi Jason! Let’s get started — Tell us more about Infomedia.

We specialize in web design, web development, Internet marketing and website support, and we’ve been in Birmingham for 20 years — since 1994, we’ve developed over a thousand websites. We work with strong companies and big brands, building complex websites that have robust functionality. The fact the our commitment doesn’t end at the site launch, and that we continue to provide support for our clients throughout the life of their companies, is part of what sets us apart.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about your industry?

One of the biggest misconceptions about our company is that building a website with good functionality takes time and effort. With the popularity of template websites, throwing a web page online is simple, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that those cookie-cutter templates don’t work for complex systems; they don’t suit a lot of e-commerce needs, and they’re rarely built to help drive leads and sales for a company. There’s also the issue of security, of maintaining backups and installing updates, which we take very seriously at Infomedia. Once our clients see these benefits in action, they understand why we put so much into a website, but at the outset, it can be tough for people to understand why a new website isn’t as simple as they’d thought.

What exciting news or product/service announcements does your company have on the horizon?

We’ve just re-signed one of our long-running clients, United Airlines, and we’re doing a lot of work with city government sites, notably Douglas County, Colorado — working with them to solve problems and develop an incredibly complex and user-friendly site has been a wonderful challenge. We also get a lot of our ideas through our monthly Lunch & Learns at Innovation Depot, where we invite our clients and the Birmingham community to get together and train in various tech topics. These are free, and they’re always on the third Tuesday of the month; the schedule is available on our website.

How do you feel about B’ham’s tech scene?

I love that there’s such a focus on local development here in Birmingham. We’re seeing more and more companies go to a local shop for their tech needs before looking elsewhere, and that’s really positive. We’re a tight-knit community, and we tend to work with and help each other, which is just amazing. Birmingham’s tech industry is growing just as the rest of the city is developing, and there is just so much potential because of that; we have more jobs in tech than there are people to fill them right now, and there’s a real drive to develop talent, both on the creative and the development side.

Anything else about you or your company you want us to share?

The thing we’re proudest of at Infomedia, and what really sets us apart, is our work environment. It’s a cliche to call a business a family, but we really do try to foster that feeling here, and our teams are close-knit and very committed to working with each other as a result. We try to say “yes” to our employee needs, ranging from further training to schedule flexibility, to help our teams find a good work-life balance, and we’ve seen that freedom and autonomy translate into great creativity and a higher calibre of work for our clients.

Thanks so much for sharing, Jason! 

Follow Infomedia online here:

infomedia.com

Facebook – facebook.com/infomedia

Twitter – twitter.com/infomediadotcom

Instagram – instagram.com/infomediadotcom

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/infomedia_2

Google+ – plus.google.com/116305403432792469505/posts

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