Anderson’@pbn.com’ - Patrick Anderson, Author at Providence Business News

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ABSOLUTE SUCCESS: Kevin Wilbur, president and founder of Absolute Commerce, is putting more than a decade of executive-level experience in e-procurement to work at his startup. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

The Absolute way for firms to buy efficiently

Financial Services 02/16/2013

Procurement deals between Global 2,000 companies and their suppliers can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and are increasingly fulfilled through software from...

SHOVELING OUT: Closing early Friday, Feb. 8, in advance of the blizzard, Warwick Mall didn't open again until the following Sunday morning. One of the biggest challenges was clearing the shopping center's 5,000-space parking lot. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

Travel bans test business planning

Capital Goods 02/16/2013

“The show must go on” is such a powerful mantra in live theater that for decades fearsome storms that shut down every other type...

EDC fund struggles to find takers

Economic Activity 02/16/2013

When Rhode Island secured a $13.1 million grant from the U.S. Treasury to lend to small businesses in 2011, finding Ocean State companies to...

EATING BETTER: Sen. Joshua Miller, owner of Trinity Brewhouse and Local 121, says that he is seeing signs of a rebound in the Providence hospitality market. / COURTESY R.I. SENATE

Needs of businesses should drive state economic policy

Government 01/26/2013

Through the ownership of several popular nightspots and restaurants, State Sen. Joshua Miller has been influential in the Providence dining and nightlife scene for...

Businesses are banking on a slow, steady climb up

Economic Activity 01/19/2013

Fiscal brinksmanship in Washington and the halting economic recovery in Rhode Island frustrated local business leaders in 2012, but their plans for the year...

SHINING LIGHT: Cheryl Dumas, health and wellness coordinator and claims co-ordinator, seated, and Robyn Pingitore, claims coordinator, use the new fiber-optic computer system at Fatima Hospital in North Providence. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

Beacon 2.0 is nearing completion

Education 01/12/2013

In the digital classroom, few things are more frustrating for a teacher than trying to project a video to a large group of students...

SIGN OF THE TIMES: Crown Supply President William F. Donahue IV talks with R.I. Historical Society Director of Collections Kirsten Hammerstrom in the John Brown House, which has been outfitted with wireless technology. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

Wireless alarms finding place in mainstream

Entrepreneurship 01/12/2013

The John Brown House in Providence is known for brick Georgian architecture and its namesake’s place in 18th-century Rhode Island – not fire alarms...

TIME IS MONEY: Providence-based Speidel is emerging from a 2009 bankruptcy hoping to ride a resurgence in mid-1900s fashion. Above, company principals Gennaro and Lynn-Marie Cerce look at products in the firm’s Cranston facility. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT

Speidel hoping to turn clock back

Capital Goods 01/12/2013

The heyday of 109-year-old watch-and-watchband-brand Speidel was the skinny-tie era of the 1950s and 1960s, when the company employed hundreds in its Providence Jewelry...

ALL IN? Ken Block, president of Sympatico Software Systems, hasn’t ruled out another run for governor in 2014, but says that he has no interest in running in a “three- or four-year campaign.” / COURTESY KEN BLOCK

Redirecting state funding can spur economic development

Economic Activity 01/05/2013

Since finishing fourth in a 2010 bid for governor, Sympatico Software Systems President and Moderate Party founder Ken Block has remained an active presence...