Mobile apprentice

For Bill Rancic, winner of the NBC reality show “The Apprentice” and Donald Trump's newest protégé, being hired to direct construction of the 90-story Trump International Tower and Hotel in Chicago was the break of a lifetime. But Rancic's life is not all late-night talk shows, red carpet strolls and charity fundraisers. Behind the reality-show stardom lies the real work of learning how to build a billion-dollar building.

The job involves frequent travel to New York to meet with the owners' representative on the project, HRH's Construction Co.'s Greg Cuneo, and because demolition is already under way at the current Chicago Sun-Times building, the site of the future Trump behemoth, Rancic says he has less time to travel back and forth for those meetings. Instead, he has devised his own system of communication incorporating a cell phone, Sidekick mobile e-mail device and the Genesys Conferencing Meeting Center, a Web conferencing system that combines audio and video into a single interface.

The Genesys system has been a boon to Rancic because it allows the sharing of PowerPoint presentations and the editing of documents in real time and lets him record meetings for playback at later dates.

“From a building perspective, the Web conferencing helps me because if I have a question, I can get online and communicate with the people in New York, and they can kind of talk me through it rather than me trying to wing it on my own,” Rancic said. “And [the Sidekick] helps me because I can be anywhere and get my e-mails. I don't have to wait until I get home and then have 400 e-mails — I can just respond quickly, and it's so much more efficient.

“I'm not a high-tech guy — I can't stress that enough,” he added. “I'm an old-school entrepreneur. I believe in getting out there and getting dirty. I'm just integrating this stuff into my life now because I have to. Just because of the sheer time factor, I need to make myself more efficient.”

Rancic, who founded Web-based cigar business Cigarsaroundtheworld.com eight years before his Apprentice stint, is now planning on a future in real estate development.

“It's kind of foolish not to, just because of the education that I'm receiving,” he said. “It's like going to medical school and not practicing medicine. I'm establishing connections and really developing a great network. For me, the way I'd like this story to end would be to do a deal with Donald Trump where we build a building together as partners. But we'll see what happens.”