CascadeTEK Tests in Denver, Possible expansion

Oracle Corp., one of the few Denver-area product testing labs, has stopped performing tests such as vibration, MIL-STD, DO-160, ISTA package and transportation simulation testing for non-Oracle customers.  As a result many area businesses, once dependent on Oracle to test their products, are scrambling to find accredited labs large enough to handle all their testing demands.  Enter Cascade Technical Sciences.

Original article (below) by DailyCamera in Boulder, CO:

Oracle closes Longmont test lab to outside business

Portland firm eyeing market as a result

By Alicia Wallace Camera Business Writer

Posted: 10/12/2010 07:49:28 PM MDT

Oracle Corp. recently closed its Longmont technology testing facility — a site with roots dating back nearly 30 years to StorageTek — to outside business, an official for the lab’s certifying organization confirmed Tuesday.

As a result, officials for one Louisville company said it and other firms are scrambling to effectively test and fail-safe their high-tech devices. Alternatively, the move has lead a Portland firm to scope out sites in Boulder County for a testing lab.

The Advanced Product Testing laboratory at 1601 Dry Creek Drive in Longmont is no longer being certified by the International Safe Transit Association and will be used for in-house testing for Oracle, said Meredith Dougherty, an ISTA vice president.

Officials who worked closely with the lab directed inquiries to Oracle’s corporate office. Oracle officials could not be reached for comment.

The lab started in 1982 as an in-house product packaging design and testing site for Louisville-based Storage Technology Corp. and moved 10 years later to a site in Longmont. In 1995, the Advanced Product Testing lab was opened to outside business, an offering that remained after Sun Microsystems acquired StorageTek.

Prior to its acquisition by Oracle this year, Sun Microsystems moved its radio frequency identification technology testing center to the local facility and touted on its Web site the lab was “one of the largest … radio-frequency identification, packaging design and product testing laboratories in the nation.”

Customers such as Jack Strandquist and Mike Swain at Broomfield-based Aircell Business Aviation expected that to continue under Oracle’s watch, but said they were shocked to receive a call from Oracle about the facility no longer being available.

The decision sent Aircell “scrambling” to find another outfit to satisfy the testing requirements for its aviation telecommunication technologies.

“Locally, on the Front Range, from Fort Collins to the Springs, I found nobody,” Swain said. “I found a couple little labs that specialize in bits and pieces, which means that I’m having to go to several differing locations to do the same kind of testing. I’m getting quotes from Tempe, Ariz.; San Jose; Portland, Ore.”

The closure “greatly complicates” Aircell’s product development process and, possibly, it’s competitive position, Strandquist said.

“There’s a big demand for that lab, and they’ve shut the doors,” he said.

Terry Candlish, vice president of operations for Portland, Ore.-based Cascade Tek, said his environmental testing services firm has received a number of calls from former Advanced Product Testing customers seeking alternatives since the closure.

The inquiries put a little more fuel on the Cascade Tek’s expansion hopes, he said.

“We had heard about Oracle closing their lab there and letting some people go, and that accelerated some of our interest there,” he said. “It’s looking like it’s a possibility.”

During the past couple weeks, Candlish visited Colorado and toured a couple of properties in the Denver region, including a couple of sites in Longmont.

Contact Camera Business Writer Alicia Wallace at 303-473-1332 or wallacea@dailycamera.com.

Original Article:Oracle closes Longmont test lab to outside business – Boulder Daily Camerahttp://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_16322143#ixzz12MU8onNc
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