Those who attended the recent Fire on the Dock competitive dinning event in Wilmington had the opportunity to use an innovative voting system to cast their vote.   

At each of the match ups, which ran from Feb. 18 to April 3, attendees used an app developed by a North Carolina company on their iPhones, iPad, Android or other smartphones to vote for their favorite dishes.

During the meals, held in Wrightsville Beach at Bluewater Waterfront Grill, diners pored over their multiple courses, rating the dishes in areas such as presentation and flavor by tapping in scores ranging from zero to five on the Competition Dining app supported by Conover-based HITS TECH. 

As the dinners unfolded, votes were saved back to a central server so that by the end of the meal participants could see tallies for each dish and find out the winning chef with the highest scores.

Jason Loftin, HITS TECH’s marketing director, said his friend Derek Sanderson developed the application.   

“We have a data center, and Derek and I were talking about the need for support,” Loftin said. HITS TECH hosts the app’s backend data at its data center and supports the apps use at each event.

Loftin said the company, which also specializes in network design and continuity of data operations during disasters for businesses, has a data center in Conover where all the data from the app is sent. 

Though the Wilmington contest is over, the Got to Be NC Competition Dining Series takes place around the state, including in the Triangle and Charlotte.

HITS TECH sends a technician to each event to ensure attendees can get online, use the application and vote.

“We help to get people registered, provide support of the applications during event and provide paper ballots for those people without phones,” Loftin said. 

In addition to assisting with the app, the HITS TECH team also sets up a temporary wireless network for event attendees. 

HITS TECH did 60 of the dining series events in 2012 and will do 142 this year, Loftin said.

HITS TECH has offices in Conover and Raleigh and “covers a couple of different markets, health care, small medical practices – hosting applications for these folks,” said chief information officer Cyrus Hurley.

Hurley said the company also recently used the same technology used during the competition-dining event to deploy a wireless network at the High Point (furniture) Market.  

“We deployed [WiFi to] 32 city blocks,” Hurley said. 

OpinionLab secures funding

OpinionLab, a firm specializing in collecting and processing consumer feedback, recently announced that it received $15 million in funding from Tennessee-based SSM Partners.

SSM Partners invests in rapidly growing companies in the software technology, consumer and Internet and health care industries.  

OpinionLab, which an office in the Chicago area and an office at Lumina Station in Wilmington, describes itself as the global leader in Omnichannel Voice of Customer (VoC) feedback. The company’s technology replaces traditional comment cards, surveys and web forms to collect information from customers.    

“OpinionLab will use the new funding to drive continued global expansion, as well as accelerate VoC innovation in support of its rapidly-growing client base,” according to a company press release.

“OpinionLab has spent more than a decade successfully helping leading brands harness the power of customer feedback,” Mark Treschl, cofounder and president of OpinionLab, said in the release. “As we continue to grow our business, we remain laser focused on delivering our clients the insight they need to monitor and optimize an increasingly complex customer experience. 

SSM Partners has a history of backing innovative technology companies, and their partnership will be critical in driving our next phase of growth.”

Wilson Orr, managing partner at SSM Partners, said the firm invests in established companies “with a proven and reliable product and demonstrated economic model.”

“OpinionLab helped to create the VoC category and continues to be an innovator and category leader,” he said in a statement.

Erica Cenci, a spokeswoman for OpinionLab, said the company was growing in both the Chicago and Wilmington offices.  

“We continue to add customers across verticals and serve nearly half of the Fortune 50. Notable recent announcements include USA TODAY in media, Lenovo in retail and Flagstar Bank in financial services,” Cenci said. 

OpinionLab’s website also lists Walmart, Bank of America and Ford Motor Company as customers.

Cenci said the company continues to create new innovations in the field of customer feedback.  

“Over the past year, we’ve unveiled tools to make it easier than ever for mobile consumers to share feedback directly with brands,” she said. “Most recently, we introduced industry-first capabilities to allow consumers to share photos and audio feedback directly with businesses anytime, anywhere.”

According to the press release, OpinionLab currently holds 16 patents on major VoC advancements and has 14 patents pending in the areas of mobile feedback, advertising feedback and social media analytics. 

Crain’s Chicago Business recently ranked OpinionLab as one of the city’s Top Innovators based on an independent analysis of the value and quality of its patents.  

The company also has a partnership with University of North Carolina Wilmington to provide internships for students and to collaborate with UNCW faculty on research.

Wireless device workshops to provide tips

Wireless users can get free help with cleaning up, organizing and personalizing their devices during upcoming workshops in Wilmington.

U.S. Cellular is offering the workshops so that attendees can get hands-on assistance with their smartphones and tablets to learn about features and tips for their devices. 

The workshop is open to anyone and not just U.S. Cellular customers. 

The upcoming dates are: Wednesday, April 17 at 8:30 a.m. at 343 College Road and Saturday, April 13 at 8:30 a.m. at 1414 South College Road.

For more information, call 799-8898 or 798-8878.