Inmar CIO named to list of top 100 IT leaders

Mark Wright, chief information officer at Inmar Inc. in Winston-Salem, has been named to Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders list for 2013.

Computerworld, an IT news magazine, says the 100 leaders on the list display exceptional technology leadership and envision innovative approaches to business solutions. The honorees will be featured in the Feb. 25 issue of the magazine.

Wright joined Inmar in 2010 and has since led the company’s growth as a retailer software and service provider. The company’s client base of 1,700 retailers, manufacturers, health care companies and government agencies utilize Inmar for management of e-commerce networks and cloud-based systems.

Inmar is preparing to relocate its 900 workers to two former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. buildings in Winston-Salem’s Piedmont Triad Research Park by next December, a move that will cost more than $100 million in redevelopment and renovation. Read more.

New Inmar Analytics unit looking to put data to use

Retailer software and service provider Inmar generates countless digital bytes of information from its clients each day as it redeems paper and electronic coupons, processes returns and generates promotions. The company’s newest division wants to make sure all that information is put to its best use.

John Ross joined Inmar in August as president of Inmar Analytics, which currently has just four of Inmar’s 700-plus total Winston-Salem employees. The company announced earlier this year that it would relocate its headquarters to the Piedmont Triad Research Park by the end of next year and expand to more than 900 workers.

The kind of data that Inmar generates companywide about shopper behavior could give brick-and-mortar retailers a “dot-com-like view of what’s going on in the business,” down to how a recommendation of one product impacts sales of another product, Ross said. That’s the kind of information that Amazon.com and other online retailers rely on routinely but is difficult for physical retailers to replicate, Ross said.  Read more. 

PTRP innovation among top priorities for Eric Tomlinson

People may know Eric Tomlinson as the president named this summer to head the Piedmont Triad Research Park, but for him, it’s his second title — chief innovation officer for Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center — that’s most important.

“When I was approached for the job, it was president of PTRP, and oh, by the way, chief innovation officer of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center,” Tomlinson said. “But actually the job is chief innovation officer, of which part is to develop the park.”

That change speaks to a shift in focus for the research park, which includes 145 developable acres next to the heart of downtown. The park is expected to support more than 6 million square feet of building space as it’s built out.

Earlier this year saw the opening of Wake Forest Biotech Place, followed by the announcement that Winston-Salem-based Inmar will relocate its 900 workers to the park. Employment in the park is expected to approach 2,000 by the end of 2013, with hundreds of thousands of renovated square feet coming online.  Read more.

Piedmont Triad Research Park -- A Whole New Future

Tipping point. Game changer. Momentum builder. Pivotal anchor.

Those are some of the terms being used in reaction to Inmar Inc.'s decision to move its headquarters into Piedmont Triad Research Park and relocate the bulk of its workforce to downtown Winston-Salem.

Winston-Salem business leaders called the move a major happening in a project that has been touted to be a key driver of the new Forsyth County economy.

Inmar said Tuesday that the company was moving more than 915 present and projected jobs to two vacant former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. processing plants.

When Inmar moves into the renovated buildings in December 2013, it will become by far the park's largest tenant, potentially boosting the park's combined workforce to more than 2,300. Read more.

Inmar helps bring pieces together at Winston-Salem research park

Something big is happening in Winston-Salem. Something special, a possible game changer. Something that has the potential not just to help revitalize that city’s downtown area but reinvent it.

I’m talking about the Piedmont Triad Research Park, and before you ask, “what’s new about that?,” let me acknowledge that I recently gained a new appreciation for the significance and unique opportunity it represents, and how the pieces are coming together. And that was before Inmar Inc., the fast-growing technology company, confirmed Tuesday that it plans to relocate to a renovated R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company building in PTRP and bring 900 employees with it.

I had the opportunity last week to tour PTRP’s most recently completed project — Wake Forest Biotech Place. Suffice to say it is an amazing building. The developer basically took an old R.J. Reynolds building and turned it into a beautiful facility now home to several departments of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine as well as a number of private technology companies.

The building is also equipped with state-of-the-art wet labs, classrooms and meeting spaces. The centerpiece, quite literally, is a five-story, glass-roofed atrium, that opens up the place and lets natural light pour in. It’s the kind of stylish, hip but totally functional facility you might expect to find in Boston or Silicon Valley.

More importantly, though, I really got a chance to see how the building fits into the larger puzzle that is PTRP. True enough, Biotech Place, with 242,000 square feet of leasable space, adds to several facilities already in PTRP. But now, especially with Inmar coming in to take over much of the structures composed by Reynolds buildings Nos. 90-3 and 90-1A, one can really start to see a critical mass taking shape. Read more.

Inmar to expand in Winston-Salem, add 212 jobs

Inmar will expand its corporate headquarters presence in Winston-Salem, creating 212 new jobs over the next five years and investing $24.5 million. By expanding in its home town, the company will also be retaining about 700 Triad jobs. Inmar provides supply chain, promotional and other services to retailers and pharmacy companies. Inmar was founded in 1980 as Carolina Coupon Clearing. After a $350 million buyout in 2007 from private equity firm New Mountain Capital, the company has grown rapidly into a reverse logistics and promotional services company with about 4,500 employees in North America. Read more.