As recently reported in the Dunwoody Crier, ClickDimensions, an Atlanta-Israeli software startup, founded just 2 years ago by John Gravely and Koren Tako, is now  the top-rated Microsoft-certified marketing automation solution for the world-popular customer relationship management program, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The company has grown to 30 employees, with most of them at its Dunwoody headquarters, four in sales at an office in Fargo, N.D., and 12 in development and support in Tel Aviv.

More than half of ClickDimensions' clients are outside the US, mainly in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Its roster of clients includes big names from every segment of business, sports and education - including Volvo, the Dallas Cowboys, the Boston Red Sox, GAF Building Materials, the London School of Business and Finance, MTV Europe, and several groups within Microsoft itself. 

"We knew everything about each other, but all these years, we knew each other only long-distance, thanks to Skype," said Gravely. In the summer of 2010, they decided to start ClickDimensions. This month, Tako visited Atlanta, and the two finally met face-to-face.

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Almost 50 members and guests gathered at IBM in Atlanta on September 13^th to explore Israeli innovations around "Big Data", a key area that is of keen interest to CIOs, CMOs, and CTOs of major corporations as well as integrators and technology companies today. Organized by AICC's new Hi-Tech Committee, the event featured three Israeli companies that shared their compelling solutions.

• C-B4 is a developer of a system for identifying and analyzing hidden data patterns in large scale data warehouses. The system is particularly suited to the retail trade and customer relations management (CRM). C-B4 was the winner of IBM's 2011 SmartCamp Tel-Aviv global competition for startup companies.
• Personetics helps enterprises respond to a major shift in consumer behavior - the channels they use and the service experience they expect. The solution uses automated intelligence and customer data profiles to provide personalized support in the customers' preferred communication channel - web, mobile, SMS or telephone (IVR).
• SafePeak uses Dynamic Database Caching to resolve information access bottlenecks and latency without any change to existing applications or databases. Developed a pioneering solution that gives instant acceleration of performance and scalability to existing information applications and systems.

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The Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the world's foremost authority on diamonds, colored stones, and pearls, has opened a new center in Israel, the fourth-largest diamond market in the world. One of 16 global locations, the center will include the eighth diamond lab in the world - the sixth outside the United States, and is based in the Israel Diamond Center in Ramat Gan where it currently employs 20 people. In the next phase, the GIA will create an educational and learning center for cutting and polishing diamonds at the Israeli facility that will be one of a handful of such facilities outside the United States. Expected to enroll about 100 students a year, this new center could attract young Europeans looking to be diamantaires - diamond manufacturers or producers. Normally trainees go to the GIA's centers in Carlsbad, California, or New York City, but for Europeans, Israel is a much shorter plane ride away with fewer time zones to cross.

The opening of the center will cut the time to market and reduce risks and insurance premiums of Israeli-traded diamonds in the industry, said Udi Sheintal, managing director of the Israel Diamond Institute, the non-profit organization that encouraged the GIA to come to Israel. Sheintal is well known to AICC as the former Israeli Trade Commissioner to the US when he was based in Atlanta from 1993-1997. He continues to serve on the Chamber's Israeli Advisory Board.

Atlanta is home to two Israeli diamond wholesalers---Crown Diamond and Universal Diamonds. Additionally, most of the retail jewelry companies in the Southeast sell products with Israeli diamonds.

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Petach Tikvah-based Sycamore Israel (1994) Ltd. has opened its American subsidiary in the Atlanta area. The company manufactures cleaning wipes to industry wholesale and retail channels throughout the Americas. In its first year, the subsidiary has seen good success in the marketplace with product placement in many of the leading industrial distributors such as HD Supply, White Cap, and in the retail market by being selected as the industrial wipe carried nationwide by The Sherwin-Williams Company. According to the company, many more distributors and retail chain stores are currently in the works.

The Sycamore Group industrial wipe brand is Big Wipes that has been sold throughout Europe and the Middle East since the mid- 1990's, and is currently the market leader for wipes in the United Kingdom. The success of the Big Wipes brand is attributed mainly to the quality and performance of the product. 

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The Green Chamber of the South is a membership organization dedicated to bringing businesses and organizations together across the Southeast to promote jobs and the innovation and adoption of green energy and clean technologies. We provide opportunities for businesses to CONNECT, COLLABORATE, LEARN and GROW through education, networking and business development opportunities as we promote the growth, innovation and success of sustainability. Join us for these upcoming events: October 29^th - Sustainability Interactive!, an opportunity to connect and learn from top sustainability officers in our region via an interactive, engaging roundtable event. November 7th - monthly Green Wednesdays networking luncheon with speaker, Bruce Karas, VP, Environment & Sustainability with Coca-Cola Refreshments, and November 14th - Industry Tour of Reworx Recycling. Visit our website, www.greencs.org for full information about membership and upcoming events.