Wednesday, 31 August 2011
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Tuesday, 30 August 2011
That's Education: redspottedhanky.com announces fund raising for The...
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Monday, 29 August 2011
University upgrades security
The University of Exeter has awarded Xchanging, the business process and technology services provider and integrator, a contract to design, deploy and manage its security upgrade project.
The University of Exeter is ranked within the top 1% of universities globally and listed as one of the fastest growing organisations in Europe. Data traffic levels at the University are doubling every 18 months and with the University’s increasing reliance on research activity and demand for fast online access by students, two new platforms are required to protect staff and student data and provide for future growth and demands.
Xchanging’s network and systems integration company, Data Integration, is the incumbent network provider and work has already begun to deliver the project. The new firewall platform, Juniper SRX 5800 chassis solution, will provide the high throughput, scalability and flexibility required to manage both extra-site and intra-site traffic. Furthermore it is compatible with the current Juniper Unified Access Control (UAC) platform.
Traffic shaping will be delivered by the Allot Sigma-E platform, which provides the scalability, granularity and flexibility to cope with the high traffic volumes the University expects in the future. The Allot platform also offers the management and reporting capability needed to inform network capacity planning.
The University’s Head of Networks, Roger Snelling, commented, “We have more than 16,500 full-time students using varied mobile devices. Fast, secure access has to be balanced with managing security threats and controlling traffic. Data Integration’s high levels of technical expertise and project management skills offer us the best value”.
Since 2008, Data Integration has been a trusted partner to the University. In addition to securing and stabilising the network with structure and standards, and delivering faster network access, Data Integration is working with the University on long-term recommendations. These underpin the University’s strategic plans and include developing a service transformation roadmap for the next 10-15 years.
Paul Philips, Public Sector Sales Director at Xchanging added, “Having a world-beating infrastructure is vital and the network is the central nervous system of the University. Our involvement with the University is helping to deliver flexibility and performance while maintaining security and governance”.
Www.xchanging.com
The University of Exeter is ranked within the top 1% of universities globally and listed as one of the fastest growing organisations in Europe. Data traffic levels at the University are doubling every 18 months and with the University’s increasing reliance on research activity and demand for fast online access by students, two new platforms are required to protect staff and student data and provide for future growth and demands.
Xchanging’s network and systems integration company, Data Integration, is the incumbent network provider and work has already begun to deliver the project. The new firewall platform, Juniper SRX 5800 chassis solution, will provide the high throughput, scalability and flexibility required to manage both extra-site and intra-site traffic. Furthermore it is compatible with the current Juniper Unified Access Control (UAC) platform.
Traffic shaping will be delivered by the Allot Sigma-E platform, which provides the scalability, granularity and flexibility to cope with the high traffic volumes the University expects in the future. The Allot platform also offers the management and reporting capability needed to inform network capacity planning.
The University’s Head of Networks, Roger Snelling, commented, “We have more than 16,500 full-time students using varied mobile devices. Fast, secure access has to be balanced with managing security threats and controlling traffic. Data Integration’s high levels of technical expertise and project management skills offer us the best value”.
Since 2008, Data Integration has been a trusted partner to the University. In addition to securing and stabilising the network with structure and standards, and delivering faster network access, Data Integration is working with the University on long-term recommendations. These underpin the University’s strategic plans and include developing a service transformation roadmap for the next 10-15 years.
Paul Philips, Public Sector Sales Director at Xchanging added, “Having a world-beating infrastructure is vital and the network is the central nervous system of the University. Our involvement with the University is helping to deliver flexibility and performance while maintaining security and governance”.
Www.xchanging.com
RSA Group to deliver Risk Assessment and Management service in the cloud
Global insurer, RSA has been announced as a new customer for a cloud-based Risk Assessment and Management solution from leading GRC cloud-computing company, Xactium.
Following a successful implementation with one of RSA’s largest clients accessed by 180 sites, Xactium will now assist RSA in implementing a market leading risk assessment and management system for its global customers.
Emerging as the preferred solution in a competitive bid, Xactium Risk and Audit Manager will be adopted initially by Global Consulting (GC), within the UK Group, to sustain a service utilising specialist expertise across a wide range of industries, to track and record Risk Management activities on a global basis and provide client portal services.
The FTSE 100 Company selected Xactium’s solution to enable better visibility and transparency of their client risk and audit activities. The solution is built on an award-winning cloud computing platform. It will support the remote capturing, collating and analysing of risk data and self assessment questionnaires, enabling RSA to gain a real-time view of their risk and self assessment activities.
Xactium’s Risk and Audit solution will be accessible from any location without installation, and uses the Internet to provide business users with secure access to risk information.
Giles Baxter, UK IS & Change Director at RSA, welcomed the agreement: “We are committed to delivering a modern risk assessment and management solution to our business, which should be achieved in a fraction of the time thanks to the agility of Xactium’s cloud-based solutions,” he said. “By delivering our risk assessment and management services in this way, we will be better equipped to proactively manage our critical risk and audit data, enabling us to get an immediate view of our clients' risk position.”
Dr Andy Evans, MD of Xactium, said: “We are delighted to assist RSA in delivering such an innovative solution to their global business. Using the flexibility and speed of the cloud and Xactium’s Risk and Compliance solutions, RSA can be assured that they are delivering a truly collaborative and customer-led risk service.”
FACTFILE:
With a 300 year heritage, RSA is one of the world’s top multinational quoted insurance groups. RSA has major operations in the UK, Scandinavia, Canada, Ireland, Asia and the Middle East, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe and has the capability to write business in over 130 countries. Focusing on general insurance, RSA has around 22,000 employees and, in 2010, its net written premiums were £7.5 billion
Within the UK, RSA is the second largest commercial lines insurer, covering the insurance and risk management needs of a significant number of FTSE 100 companies. It has a full multi-distribution capability, writing business through brokers and corporate partners, direct and online. RSA is also one of the UK’s top four personal motor and household insurers.
RSA was the first UK carbon neutral insurer. The company has cut its carbon footprint by half since 2000 and has offset the remainder by purchasing voluntary carbon reductions.
http://www.rsagroup.com/
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Building Society goes for Redland
Redland, the leading provider of specialised Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) IT solutions to the financial services sector, was chosen by N&P after an extensive review of the market. The Society required a system that would automate the T&C controls and governance for its branches and contact centre and which would facilitate risk based observations, case checking and general supervisory activities. N&P also wanted to demonstrate a high level visibility for its staff training and development operation; together with the formal processes of attaining and maintaining competence.
The Society was attracted to Insight as it is a proven system already used successfully by numerous financial services companies and organisations. N&P were also impressed by Redland’s ‘trusted partner’ consulting approach which ensures a collaborative transparent and flexible working relationship with a fully resourced commitment to understanding the unique business requirements of the Society.
Insight is an innovative Training and Competence (T&C) system that provides a single integrated platform enabling business applications for financial services organisations to be quickly developed and deployed. As well as improving the efficiency and transparency of reporting, the system provides a consistent approach to all aspects of Training and Competence management across all disciplines and business units. It is also an auditable solution providing evidence to the employees, management, its regulator and clients that the latest regulatory and compliance processes are in place.
The system is underpinned by a powerful and effective workflow engine that can manage wider business processes. Insight allows these business processes to be configured quickly and efficiently, so that the organisation can maintain market differentiation whilst continuing to improve their overall efficiency in a cost-effective manner.
Commenting on the new system, Mike Sketch, General Manager Sales & Marketing at N&P, said “Following an extensive review process, we have concluded that Redland’s Insight platform provides us with the best solution for our Training and Competence needs. The Society chose the Insight system as it is a live, proven and comprehensive system, well thought of by existing users. Redland are easy to work with and were prepared to commit resources to understanding and identifying the Society’s precise requirements. In addition, they adopted a collaborative, transparent and flexible approach to their relationship with us which makes them easy to work with. We look forward to working closely with them in the future.”
For his part Joel Turland, Managing Director of Redland Business Solutions, welcomed Mike Sketch’s comments adding, “Norwich and Peterborough delivers the very highest standards of customer service. This is largely the result of first rate staff training. Naturally, therefore we are delighted that Insight has been chosen to deliver such a strategic aspect of Norwich & Peterborough’s Retail Training & Competence Scheme. We look forward to working closely with them going forwards as their scheme evolves.
“The news also significantly reinforces Redland’s position as the leading provider of T&C and GRC solutions to the financial services sector. We firmly believe from our experience of the market, that Insight T&C is now recognised as the solution of choice for delivering superior compliance support to financial services organisations and that this is especially well received given the demanding challenges of the evolving regulatory framework in the market. ”
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Channel 5’s Big Brother – Punch Communications Reveals The Story of the First Live Show in Twitter Trends
On Thursday, August 18 the globally popular reality TV show, Big Brother, returned to the UK screens on a new channel with a Celebrity version. Integrated PR, SEO and social media agency, Punch Communications, monitored Twitter trends for two hours from when the first programme started at 9pm BST.
The exploration into the trends involved recording the Big Brother related terms and positions via uk.twirus.com at the hour and then seven, 15, 22, 30, 37, 45 and 52 minutes past, until 11pm BST. Visit http://bit.ly/o3xDEv to download the full statistics in a special edition of Punch’s weekly Social Media Intelligence.
Viewing figures reached a massive 5.1 million for the one and a half hour live show and a large portion of this audience was responsible for getting Big Brother and its housemates to trend on Twitter in all ten slots within just one hour and forty-five minutes; the last non-BB topic to be ousted from the top ten, at position ten, was ‘Sky News’.
At first, only the term ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ was trending in slot two but by 9.07pm the first hashtag appeared at number four in the list, which was ‘#CBB’. The hashtag that the official Big Brother profile (@bbuk) was promoting, ‘#bbuk’, was the next term to trend at quarter past nine but by then ‘#CBB’ had moved up to number one, where it remained, at least until Punch’s monitoring had finished. Even though the official profile had pre-planned to create a buzz with a hashtag, ‘#bbuk’ only managed to trend in the third to sixth place slots over the two hours, which proves that the power is firmly in the hands of the Twitterati.
Keredy Andrews, Senior Account Manager at social media, PR and SEO Agency, Punch Communications, explains: “The official Big Brother profile did exactly the right thing in promoting a hashtag in tweets during the run up to the first show being aired. However, it was the UK’s Twitter users that decided to go with ‘#CBB’ instead of ‘#bbuk’ as their hashtag of choice but interestingly, neither of these were in the trending list the following day and ‘#BB’ was.”
The top trending topics also gave immediate insight into the most discussed housemates, as audience members chattered about the celebrities who are spending up to three weeks in the house. The presenter, Brian Dowling, was the first person to trend at 9.22pm with the term ‘Brian’. This was closely followed at 10.37pm by ‘Tara’, the American actress Tara Reid, who continued to trend until 11pm and beyond, as did Amy Childs (‘Amy’) who hit the top ten at 10.45pm.
Keredy continues: “As I was monitoring the top trends on Thursday evening, I was particularly interested in seeing which of the housemates were being discussed on Twitter and Tara was clearly the most popular, whether that was for positive or negative reasons. ‘Jedward’ began trending quite quickly once they appeared on the show, as I expected, but I was particularly surprised that Kerry Katona didn’t get a look in the top ten trends.
“When a topic, hashtag or person’s name that is related to a specific TV show trends, it is very powerful and can gather massive momentum in a matter of minutes. I am sure that many Twitter users who were not watching Big Brother would have seen the trends and switched over the TV to see what the fuss was about; Twitter is a wonderful digital PR platform and certainly the TV ratings’ friend.”
For more information on Punch Communications, visit www.punchcomms.com or follow @punchcomms and facebook.com/punchcommunications.
The exploration into the trends involved recording the Big Brother related terms and positions via uk.twirus.com at the hour and then seven, 15, 22, 30, 37, 45 and 52 minutes past, until 11pm BST. Visit http://bit.ly/o3xDEv to download the full statistics in a special edition of Punch’s weekly Social Media Intelligence.
Viewing figures reached a massive 5.1 million for the one and a half hour live show and a large portion of this audience was responsible for getting Big Brother and its housemates to trend on Twitter in all ten slots within just one hour and forty-five minutes; the last non-BB topic to be ousted from the top ten, at position ten, was ‘Sky News’.
At first, only the term ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ was trending in slot two but by 9.07pm the first hashtag appeared at number four in the list, which was ‘#CBB’. The hashtag that the official Big Brother profile (@bbuk) was promoting, ‘#bbuk’, was the next term to trend at quarter past nine but by then ‘#CBB’ had moved up to number one, where it remained, at least until Punch’s monitoring had finished. Even though the official profile had pre-planned to create a buzz with a hashtag, ‘#bbuk’ only managed to trend in the third to sixth place slots over the two hours, which proves that the power is firmly in the hands of the Twitterati.
Keredy Andrews, Senior Account Manager at social media, PR and SEO Agency, Punch Communications, explains: “The official Big Brother profile did exactly the right thing in promoting a hashtag in tweets during the run up to the first show being aired. However, it was the UK’s Twitter users that decided to go with ‘#CBB’ instead of ‘#bbuk’ as their hashtag of choice but interestingly, neither of these were in the trending list the following day and ‘#BB’ was.”
The top trending topics also gave immediate insight into the most discussed housemates, as audience members chattered about the celebrities who are spending up to three weeks in the house. The presenter, Brian Dowling, was the first person to trend at 9.22pm with the term ‘Brian’. This was closely followed at 10.37pm by ‘Tara’, the American actress Tara Reid, who continued to trend until 11pm and beyond, as did Amy Childs (‘Amy’) who hit the top ten at 10.45pm.
Keredy continues: “As I was monitoring the top trends on Thursday evening, I was particularly interested in seeing which of the housemates were being discussed on Twitter and Tara was clearly the most popular, whether that was for positive or negative reasons. ‘Jedward’ began trending quite quickly once they appeared on the show, as I expected, but I was particularly surprised that Kerry Katona didn’t get a look in the top ten trends.
“When a topic, hashtag or person’s name that is related to a specific TV show trends, it is very powerful and can gather massive momentum in a matter of minutes. I am sure that many Twitter users who were not watching Big Brother would have seen the trends and switched over the TV to see what the fuss was about; Twitter is a wonderful digital PR platform and certainly the TV ratings’ friend.”
For more information on Punch Communications, visit www.punchcomms.com or follow @punchcomms and facebook.com/punchcommunications.
Centrix Software to showcase new solutions at VMworld that help organisations control their changing application landscapes
Centrix Software, a provider of unified end-user computing solutions, has announced it will be demonstrating solutions that help organisations understand in detail the real usage of applications at this year’s VMworld event, to be held in Las Vegas on 29th August to 1st September 2011.
Centrix WorkSpace provides vital information to help plan desktop transformation projects, such as desktop virtualisation. The company will also be demonstrating updated products that enable organisations to deliver user-centric applications, regardless of the underlying technology.
Located in the Innovator Pavilion at Booth 171-F, Centrix Software will demonstrate the latest version of its Centrix WorkSpace Suite, a range of business technology solutions that enable organisations to analyse, plan and deliver virtual environments and ensure they are optimised to meet user needs. It will also unveil new self-service features within WorkSpace 5.1 that allow organisations to manage the on-demand delivery of applications from virtual, cloud and physical application provisioning environments.
For organisations migrating to or expanding virtual environments, Centrix Software will be demonstrating solutions for:
• Virtualisation Planning – that help organisations determine the most cost effective approach to application and desktop virtualisation, the most viable candidates for virtualisation and the financial impact of implementing virtualisation.
• Virtualisation Implementation decision support – that gather the details of what operating system licences can be re-used, what applications should be available in a virtualised environment and who needs to access them; how to define application group templates for virtual desktops; the viability of devices as virtual desktop or application client machines; anticipated workload on virtualisation servers; who is using local printers, and many other details that help inform choices in virtualisation.
• Analysing virtualisation server usage and demand – providing reporting on the application inventory and usage demand on currently virtualised servers, as well as the use of any App-V packaged applications. This enables organisations to establish the appropriate licence entitlement, whether there are applications that can be removed from the servers and what the user load on virtual servers really is.
• Usage Reporting – that quickly identify which users consume which applications, how frequently and for how long. This provides intelligence for rationalising IT infrastructure and costs.
“Enterprise organisations are making significant decisions about their application and desktop strategies against a backdrop of tight cost control and intense organisational pressure,” said Lewis Gee, Vice President Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Centrix Software. “At VMworld this year we are showing organisations how they can gather the critical information and intelligence data they need to make the best technology decisions for their organisations, and ensure new technology investments and services deliver fast return and business value.”
FACTFILE:
Based in Newbury, Berkshire, Centrix Software provides award-winning unified end-user computing solutions that optimise the way IT infrastructures deliver applications and content provisioned from physical, virtual, web or hosted platforms. By enabling a user-centric approach to IT service delivery, Centrix Software helps its customers to be more agile, flexible and efficient in how they deliver client-side technology services.
Centrix Software’s solutions have helped leading organisations in banking and securities, insurance, telecommunications, retail, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, energy and utilities, and the public sector. For more information please visit www.centrixsoftware.com or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/centrixsoftware
Sunday, 21 August 2011
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Thursday, 18 August 2011
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Wednesday, 17 August 2011
3i and VantagePoint invest $45m in TouchTunes Interactive Networks
3i, an international investor focused on private equity, infrastructure and debt management, announced today that it has acquired a minority stake of newly issued shares in TouchTunes Interactive Networks, the world’s largest digital interactive out-of-home entertainment provider, for $40 million. Current majority shareholder VantagePoint Capital Partners will invest an additional $5 million. The total investment will support TouchTunes’ growth strategy and help bolster its product and service offering.
Founded in 1998, TouchTunes is the world’s largest digital interactive out-of-home entertainment network with 50,000 Digital Jukeboxes located in restaurant and bar establishments across North America. The company has recently unveiled its award-winning premier Digital Smart Jukebox, Virtuo, a first-of-its-kind system that breaks through the digital entertainment category with advanced music, technology and advertising capabilities.
TouchTunes holds an unmatched presence in the bar and restaurant arena, reaching and engaging the coveted, tech-savvy 21-35 age demographic. Headquartered in New York City, TouchTunes also has offices in Chicago and Montreal, Canada.
3i joins VantagePoint Capital Partners and the TouchTunes management team led by CEO Charles Goldstuck to help fuel the company’s growth strategy. TouchTunes remains focused on expanding the existing base of Digital Jukeboxes across North America and launching new products and services to broaden its in-venue entertainment capabilities. 3i’s investment and experience will enable the company to expand into Asia and Europe.
“3i is a natural partner for TouchTunes, especially with its broad global reach,” said Goldstuck. “I have known 3i’s North American leadership for a long time and have always been impressed with the firm’s global resources and experience in the Technology, Media & Telecom sector.”
Ken Hanau, Managing Partner of 3i North America, commented: “TouchTunes has experienced significant growth over the last few years, and we look forward to helping the management team to grow the business globally, expanding on its market-leading position. Employing our geographic footprint and global network, we are confident we can foster the company’s next phase of development.”
GCA Savvian Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor in connection with this transaction.
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
That's Business: Infogroup’s OneSource integrates iSell UK with Sal...
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Splunk doing well
“I am delighted to welcome 329 new customers to the Splunk family,” said Godfrey Sullivan, president and CEO of Splunk.
“In addition, we are pleased to report the expanded use of our software to adjacent departments in over 100 of our existing customers. Often customers start using Splunk for one purpose, such as IT Operations Management, but quickly realise additional value in other areas such as application management, security, business analytics and web intelligence. The significant number of use case expansions demonstrates how our customers are recognising the power and versatility of our software.”
Splunk has just announced the appointment of a new member to its Board of Directors, salesforce.com Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Graham Smith. He brings to this role over 20 years of finance experience in the software industry including prior appointments as CFO of Advent Software, CFO of Vitria Technology, CFO for Nuance Communications, and 11 years at Oracle in a variety of senior finance roles, lastly as vice president of finance for worldwide operations.
“I am delighted to be joining the Board of Splunk,” said Graham. “Godfrey has assembled a world-class management team to execute on an amazing market opportunity and I am excited by the prospect of helping guide Splunk through its next phase of growth.”
Customers
Added 329 new licensed customers for a total of over 2900 customers in over 70 countries
UK: 18 new customers added during Q2 including SELEX Systems Integration Ltd and Amee UK Ltd.
Europe: 90 new customers added including CartaSi in Italy, 02 Telefonica in Germany, Hypo Adria Bank in Croatia
Americas: Intel, Wellmark, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, Hess Corporation, TaylorMade-Adidas Golf
Asia-Pacific: Samsung SDS in Korea, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, NBN Co in Australia, and 2 Degrees Mobile in New Zealand
US Federal sector: the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Department of Health and Human Services and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR)
Expanded customer usage in over 100 accounts (not including upgrades) including Commerzbank AG Germany, Telenor in Norway, Credit Suisse in Luxembourg, KVH and NTT Data in Japan, O’Reilly Media in the U.S. and the U.S. Department of Energy
Developers
Added 31 new Splunkbase Apps – 166 total apps now uploaded and available on Splunkbase
• Jointly developed partner apps including: Splunk App for Sourcefire, Splunk App for Citrix Xen Desktop and extended the Splunk App for Citrix Netscaler w/Appflow
Company:
Achieved 70% year-over-year Q2 revenue growth
Hired first CFO, David Conte
Opened office in Cupertino, California
Received San Francisco Business Times’ 2011 Technology & Innovation Award for Fastest-Growing Company
Granted U.S. Patent No. 7,937,344 for organising and understanding machine data through use of a "machine data web"
Expanded into Latin America and hired Regional Operations Director
Surpassed 375 employees, with eight offices worldwide
Forthcoming UK Events:
President and CEO, Godfrey Sullivan will be in the UK on 19th September to conduct one to one briefings with the UK press, discussing how Splunk is transforming IT and business.
SplunkLive! London – the global Splunk seminar series returns to London on 20th September, featuring local customer speakers highlighting their use of the technology.
Splunk neither reaffirms its prior outlook or goals regarding revenues, new customers and new developers for fiscal 2012 nor does it provide any new outlook regarding anticipated future results
For more information please visit www.splunk.com.
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Monday, 15 August 2011
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Brand-Rex to Host Future Speeds – Greener Needs Seminars
Brand-Rex the international structured cabling specialist and UK market leader, will be hosting a series of UK and international seminars covering the two hottest topics in the industry this year: The Future Speeds – Greener Needs seminars will focus on planning for 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Ethernet in the LAN and data centre plus understanding the truth from the hype regarding green issues and how good green credentials can benefit businesses when it comes to networking infrastructure.
The UK technical seminars will be held in Falkirk 27th Sept 2011, London 29th Sept and Birmingham 4th October with international venues following in Prague 6th Oct, Munich 13th Oct, Stockholm 25th Oct, Madrid 27th Oct and The Hague 1st Nov.
Who should attend? The information packed days are a great opportunity for attendees to meet and learn from the Brand-Rex technical team and are ideal for IT and network managers plus IT consultants and everyone in the IT integration and installation sector. Attendance is free – simply register at website www.brand-rex.com/seminars
Announcing the seminar series, Brand-Rex Chief Engineer Ken Hodge said, ”Network speeds have evolved amazingly over the past decade – from 100Mb/s through 1GB/s with 10Gb/s just about to become mainstream and 40Gb/s already a reality for the backbone but on the cusp of being developed for the horizontal too.
Network managers and their IT consultants probably have the hardest job of any professions because they have to best-guess which technology to install 5 or 10 years before the applications are in production. Our aim with these seminars is to arm them with full knowledge of the benefits and drawbacks of each solution – in a warts and all way – so that they can be fully briefed when having to make these difficult decisions.”
As well as Ken and his technology team, Kennedy Miller and the team who recently elevated Brand-Rex to the first cabling systems manufacturer to have its entire operations assessed as “globally carbon neutral” will be there to explain what all the standards and assessments mean to you when specifying a cabling system, how specifying green can actually boost your business and how to separate the truth from the “green-wash”.
To book your free place just visit website www.brand-rex.com/seminars
The UK technical seminars will be held in Falkirk 27th Sept 2011, London 29th Sept and Birmingham 4th October with international venues following in Prague 6th Oct, Munich 13th Oct, Stockholm 25th Oct, Madrid 27th Oct and The Hague 1st Nov.
Who should attend? The information packed days are a great opportunity for attendees to meet and learn from the Brand-Rex technical team and are ideal for IT and network managers plus IT consultants and everyone in the IT integration and installation sector. Attendance is free – simply register at website www.brand-rex.com/seminars
Announcing the seminar series, Brand-Rex Chief Engineer Ken Hodge said, ”Network speeds have evolved amazingly over the past decade – from 100Mb/s through 1GB/s with 10Gb/s just about to become mainstream and 40Gb/s already a reality for the backbone but on the cusp of being developed for the horizontal too.
Network managers and their IT consultants probably have the hardest job of any professions because they have to best-guess which technology to install 5 or 10 years before the applications are in production. Our aim with these seminars is to arm them with full knowledge of the benefits and drawbacks of each solution – in a warts and all way – so that they can be fully briefed when having to make these difficult decisions.”
As well as Ken and his technology team, Kennedy Miller and the team who recently elevated Brand-Rex to the first cabling systems manufacturer to have its entire operations assessed as “globally carbon neutral” will be there to explain what all the standards and assessments mean to you when specifying a cabling system, how specifying green can actually boost your business and how to separate the truth from the “green-wash”.
To book your free place just visit website www.brand-rex.com/seminars
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Enterprise sustainability software leader donates to foundation client
CloudApps, the enterprise application leader in sustainability, has announced the latest addition to its growing foundation client list; UK and Africa-based charity Send a Cow. The charity, whose patrons include the Prince of Wales, will monitor and report its own carbon emissions and that of its African operations using CloudApps Sustainability Suite.
Send a Cow’s goals are to improve the livelihoods of African families, from Ethiopia to Lesotho, with practical farming training and support whilst educating UK schoolchildren on the issues of sustainable development, climate change and future food security. As well as donating livestock, its work involves training local farmers in animal wellbeing and sustainable organic farming practices. The organisation champions gender equality, conflict resolution, health, hygiene and HIV/Aids awareness, a balance that produces remarkable results.
Under the foundation programme, Send a Cow receives CloudApps Sustainability Suite licences and consulting time to allow it to benchmark key sustainability metrics in the same way as a corporate CloudApps customer. The management team has already started to track monthly operational sustainability metrics around energy efficiency, total CO2 emissions, the number and environmental impact of flights taken and even the quantity of paper printed.
CloudApps is helping Send a Cow to extend beyond these measures, to track their emissions intensity by the number of African households they work with. Tracking this key metric will enable Send a Cow to grow their operations responsibly, helping more stricken families whilst remaining as sustainable as possible themselves. The CloudApps foundation follows the 1-1-1 model. This integrated philanthropy approach will see CloudApps employees volunteer 1% of their working time, the company donate 1% of its equity into the foundation and deliver 1% of its product to not-for-profit institutions aligned to its corporate sustainability mission.
Richie Alford, Research and Development Manager at Send a Cow, said: “Recent events have shown how important it is to support African farmers who are working in harmony with the environment. Send a Cow’s work, based on the principle of communities working together with the resources they have, has made us very aware of the resources we consume in that work. Our tie-up with CloudApps provides a valuable way for us to monitor closely and easily report on our resource usage, allowing us to reassure our benefactors that we are living by our founding principles.”
Peter Grant, CEO of CloudApps, said: “CloudApps is dedicated to improving the sustainability of UK enterprises with world-leading technology. This mission extends to social as well as commercial enterprises. The work being undertaken by Send a Cow in pioneering practical sustainable development is ground-breaking and so really appealed to the whole team. We are honoured to be able to offer our time and knowledge for such a worthwhile effort.”
FACTFILE:
CloudApps is a leading provider of sustainability software, enabling visionary organisations to make exceptional efficiency savings and meet sustainability targets by aligning the entire enterprise behind corporate sustainability goals.
CloudApps is a leading provider of sustainability software that enables visionary organisations to make exceptional efficiency savings and meet sustainability targets by aligning the entire enterprise behind corporate sustainability goals.
CloudApps is unique in solving the sustainability challenge by connecting the sustainability efforts of employees on the front-line, or “bottom-up”, with “top-down” commitments made by management.
By giving each employee visibility to their team and their own impact and suggesting actions through an innovative desktop application, CloudApps drives the behavioural change required to accelerate a reduction in the consumption of natural resources at the workplace, resulting in significant cost savings.
For more information, please visit http://www.cloudapps.com.
Send a Cow’s goals are to improve the livelihoods of African families, from Ethiopia to Lesotho, with practical farming training and support whilst educating UK schoolchildren on the issues of sustainable development, climate change and future food security. As well as donating livestock, its work involves training local farmers in animal wellbeing and sustainable organic farming practices. The organisation champions gender equality, conflict resolution, health, hygiene and HIV/Aids awareness, a balance that produces remarkable results.
Under the foundation programme, Send a Cow receives CloudApps Sustainability Suite licences and consulting time to allow it to benchmark key sustainability metrics in the same way as a corporate CloudApps customer. The management team has already started to track monthly operational sustainability metrics around energy efficiency, total CO2 emissions, the number and environmental impact of flights taken and even the quantity of paper printed.
CloudApps is helping Send a Cow to extend beyond these measures, to track their emissions intensity by the number of African households they work with. Tracking this key metric will enable Send a Cow to grow their operations responsibly, helping more stricken families whilst remaining as sustainable as possible themselves. The CloudApps foundation follows the 1-1-1 model. This integrated philanthropy approach will see CloudApps employees volunteer 1% of their working time, the company donate 1% of its equity into the foundation and deliver 1% of its product to not-for-profit institutions aligned to its corporate sustainability mission.
Richie Alford, Research and Development Manager at Send a Cow, said: “Recent events have shown how important it is to support African farmers who are working in harmony with the environment. Send a Cow’s work, based on the principle of communities working together with the resources they have, has made us very aware of the resources we consume in that work. Our tie-up with CloudApps provides a valuable way for us to monitor closely and easily report on our resource usage, allowing us to reassure our benefactors that we are living by our founding principles.”
Peter Grant, CEO of CloudApps, said: “CloudApps is dedicated to improving the sustainability of UK enterprises with world-leading technology. This mission extends to social as well as commercial enterprises. The work being undertaken by Send a Cow in pioneering practical sustainable development is ground-breaking and so really appealed to the whole team. We are honoured to be able to offer our time and knowledge for such a worthwhile effort.”
FACTFILE:
CloudApps is a leading provider of sustainability software, enabling visionary organisations to make exceptional efficiency savings and meet sustainability targets by aligning the entire enterprise behind corporate sustainability goals.
CloudApps is a leading provider of sustainability software that enables visionary organisations to make exceptional efficiency savings and meet sustainability targets by aligning the entire enterprise behind corporate sustainability goals.
CloudApps is unique in solving the sustainability challenge by connecting the sustainability efforts of employees on the front-line, or “bottom-up”, with “top-down” commitments made by management.
By giving each employee visibility to their team and their own impact and suggesting actions through an innovative desktop application, CloudApps drives the behavioural change required to accelerate a reduction in the consumption of natural resources at the workplace, resulting in significant cost savings.
For more information, please visit http://www.cloudapps.com.
All NHS staff groups including junior doctors and consultants can now be managed from a single system from SMART
SMART, a provider of workforce management solutions, has extended its offering to the NHS with the addition of fully integrated SMART Doctors Rostering. SMART Doctors Rostering enables Trusts to manage all staff including nursing, medical, operations, ancillary, temporary (agency and locums) and admin, using one central system.
Benefiting from the same look and feel interface as SMART’s highly acclaimed eRostering for nursing staff, SMART Doctors Rostering enables medical staffing officers and managers to build rosters quickly and efficiently. The system helps Trusts to reduce the reliance on costly locums while meeting EWTD and maintaining and improving patient care.
SMART Doctors Rostering provides a wide range of features designed to streamline the smooth running of wards and departments. This includes powerful reporting capabilities so that managers and department heads can see at any time details of breaches in working time regulations, absence and sick leave, holidays taken and entitlement yet to be taken, and locum use.
Liza Wolvey, who is the Project Manager for eRostering at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust where SMART Rostering for both doctors and nurses is in use commented, “SMART Doctors Rostering enables us to manage doctors’ absence, and monitor those on call, right up to and including consultant level.
"We are able to demonstrate that all medical staff hours are planned in compliance with working time regulations. Maintaining safe working conditions for doctors means better quality of care for patients. Having one system that provides rostering for all types of staff has simplified operations significantly.”
Tristan Spencer, Health Market Director at SMART said; “SMART Doctors Rostering is a natural extension to our already comprehensive suite of health service workforce management solutions. Now fully integrated, SMART Doctors Rostering enables managers to plan ahead, while providing the flexibility to meet requirements for safe day to day operations and adhere to Working Time regulations. ”
FACTFILE:
UK-based and with 25 years experience, SMART is the top provider of solutions for workforce management designed to help organisations to achieve agility and cost efficiency from their greatest asset – their people. Utilising our own highly skilled and experienced people SMART helps companies to maximise the performance, productivity and value of their workforce. Our solutions can assist in achieving a sustainable reduction in people costs of up to 10%, while providing a better working environment for staff.
From time and attendance through to workforce planning, scheduling, absence management and comprehensive automated reporting, the SMART solution suite offers a wide breadth and depth of functionality. It can be fully installed on site, delivered as a managed or hosted service with a full range of support services from SMART’s own in-house consultants.
Accessible from anywhere in the world, SMART’s web-based workforce management solutions are developed using Microsoft .NET to give a zero-footprint solution that is flexible, reliable, scalable and easy to implement, and provides an environmentally responsible option. The data centre supports the Trees for Business Campaign and we are collaborating with Brunel University to identify practical ways to recycle heat and airflow to minimise draw on the power supply, and uses optimised hardware to ensure power consumption is reduced wherever possible.
SMART in Healthcare
SMART RPC provides a simple web based solution for creating and managing Trust-wide staff rosters and time and attendance related activity. The only Next Generation workforce management solution available today, SMART RPC has been designed by our developers to support all NHS Trust roles – a feature that is currently unique. As well as eRostering SMART RPC encompasses Automatic Attendance Recording and Bank Administration, in one easy to use system.
As a Next Generation rostering application, SMART RPC has a host of time-saving features including Auto Roster which generates staff rosters in minutes, and alerts to managers in real time to warn of potential problems with their rosters. In addition it provides unrivalled fairness and transparency in dealing with shift preferences of staff, helping to improve staff morale and reducing staff turnover.
SMART provides comprehensive workforce management solutions to a significant proportion of the UK Healthcare market and was selected as sole provider of e-rostering and time and attendance for the National ESR programme and has unique, proven and fully automated integration with ESR.
Over 600 organisations worldwide benefit from SMART’s solutions and services in both the private and public sectors. Customers include Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, The Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust, Ocado, Gist, Habitat, Jaguar, JCB, Mandarin Oriental, Sainsbury's, Swissport, Trailfinders, Tussauds Group, and Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service.
For more information, please visit www.smart-workforce.com.
For information relating specifically to the NHS sector, please visit: www.smart-rostering.co.uk
Benefiting from the same look and feel interface as SMART’s highly acclaimed eRostering for nursing staff, SMART Doctors Rostering enables medical staffing officers and managers to build rosters quickly and efficiently. The system helps Trusts to reduce the reliance on costly locums while meeting EWTD and maintaining and improving patient care.
SMART Doctors Rostering provides a wide range of features designed to streamline the smooth running of wards and departments. This includes powerful reporting capabilities so that managers and department heads can see at any time details of breaches in working time regulations, absence and sick leave, holidays taken and entitlement yet to be taken, and locum use.
Liza Wolvey, who is the Project Manager for eRostering at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust where SMART Rostering for both doctors and nurses is in use commented, “SMART Doctors Rostering enables us to manage doctors’ absence, and monitor those on call, right up to and including consultant level.
"We are able to demonstrate that all medical staff hours are planned in compliance with working time regulations. Maintaining safe working conditions for doctors means better quality of care for patients. Having one system that provides rostering for all types of staff has simplified operations significantly.”
Tristan Spencer, Health Market Director at SMART said; “SMART Doctors Rostering is a natural extension to our already comprehensive suite of health service workforce management solutions. Now fully integrated, SMART Doctors Rostering enables managers to plan ahead, while providing the flexibility to meet requirements for safe day to day operations and adhere to Working Time regulations. ”
FACTFILE:
UK-based and with 25 years experience, SMART is the top provider of solutions for workforce management designed to help organisations to achieve agility and cost efficiency from their greatest asset – their people. Utilising our own highly skilled and experienced people SMART helps companies to maximise the performance, productivity and value of their workforce. Our solutions can assist in achieving a sustainable reduction in people costs of up to 10%, while providing a better working environment for staff.
From time and attendance through to workforce planning, scheduling, absence management and comprehensive automated reporting, the SMART solution suite offers a wide breadth and depth of functionality. It can be fully installed on site, delivered as a managed or hosted service with a full range of support services from SMART’s own in-house consultants.
Accessible from anywhere in the world, SMART’s web-based workforce management solutions are developed using Microsoft .NET to give a zero-footprint solution that is flexible, reliable, scalable and easy to implement, and provides an environmentally responsible option. The data centre supports the Trees for Business Campaign and we are collaborating with Brunel University to identify practical ways to recycle heat and airflow to minimise draw on the power supply, and uses optimised hardware to ensure power consumption is reduced wherever possible.
SMART in Healthcare
SMART RPC provides a simple web based solution for creating and managing Trust-wide staff rosters and time and attendance related activity. The only Next Generation workforce management solution available today, SMART RPC has been designed by our developers to support all NHS Trust roles – a feature that is currently unique. As well as eRostering SMART RPC encompasses Automatic Attendance Recording and Bank Administration, in one easy to use system.
As a Next Generation rostering application, SMART RPC has a host of time-saving features including Auto Roster which generates staff rosters in minutes, and alerts to managers in real time to warn of potential problems with their rosters. In addition it provides unrivalled fairness and transparency in dealing with shift preferences of staff, helping to improve staff morale and reducing staff turnover.
SMART provides comprehensive workforce management solutions to a significant proportion of the UK Healthcare market and was selected as sole provider of e-rostering and time and attendance for the National ESR programme and has unique, proven and fully automated integration with ESR.
Over 600 organisations worldwide benefit from SMART’s solutions and services in both the private and public sectors. Customers include Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, The Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust, Ocado, Gist, Habitat, Jaguar, JCB, Mandarin Oriental, Sainsbury's, Swissport, Trailfinders, Tussauds Group, and Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service.
For more information, please visit www.smart-workforce.com.
For information relating specifically to the NHS sector, please visit: www.smart-rostering.co.uk
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Online gaming industry magazine launched
The iGaming Post- online newspaper www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS, has been launched by Clever Duck Media for the international gaming industry.
Industryexecutives and gaming enthusiasts worldwide can now stay up to date at any time with the latest, breaking, exclusive land-based and iGaming news.
The IGA news website www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS launched this month, will compliment the already popular Infinity Gaming Online magazine by covering both breaking news and current events through a regularly updated website. The iGaming Post will be featuring news about technology, sport,gaming regulation, land based and iGaming daily news.
Be sure to keep your sleek and sophisticated iPads, iPhones and Blackberry’s fully charged as we deliver you constant updates from within the gaming world; all at the touch of a button. So don’t get lost within other sites, trawling through pages and tabs of endless drivel; The iGaming Post is easy to navigate around so you will always find what you’re looking for.
The iGaming Post is an extension to the already established and popular b2b publication, Infinity Gaming Magazine www.gaming-awards.com/magazine/index.html. With 19,000 readers from across the world and still growing, we are dedicated towards keeping all of our readers accurately informed, satisfied and catered to with high-quality content. The iGaming Post newspaper also brings readers the very latest lifestyle, sports and technology news. So why rummage through other sites when we are here to always keep you in the loop? www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS
When it comes to gaming news, whether you’re a reader in London or Las Vegas, The iGaming Post will never keep you in the shadows as we shed light on the latest goings-on, rumours and whispers within the industry. All this and more!
So there’s no need to look clueless when everyone is discussing the latest gaming news in the office…just click onto The iGaming Post for your daily dose of gaming news and get involved! We take our readers seriously and invite you to voice your opinion about any of our news features.
Hand in hand, The iGaming Post and Infinity Gaming Magazine are two niche, innovative and unique gaming sources of news. Exclusive interviews with CEO’s and professionals within the industry will lead you in the right business direction, news features will keep you well informed and our insight into the fashion and gadget world will give you an all-rounded perspective of how to stay two steps ahead within the gaming and business world.
Visit www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS for the latest gaming news.
Infinity Gaming Magazine can be accessed through our website, and a monthly alert about the content of this Digital Edition sent to our registered reader database. Visit: www.gaming-awards.com/magazine/index.html
As William Randolph Hearst once said: “Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more interesting."
So sit back, relax and indulge in an interesting read about the gaming world you live in.
FACTFILE:
Clever Duck Media is an Event Management Company with a highly creative, efficient and passionate team with a unique understanding of the Gaming Industry. Clever Duck Media manages the International Gaming Awards www.gaming-awards.com, Women in Gaming Networking event (Conference & Awards) and publishes a hugely popular industry monthly digital magazine.
Industryexecutives and gaming enthusiasts worldwide can now stay up to date at any time with the latest, breaking, exclusive land-based and iGaming news.
The IGA news website www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS launched this month, will compliment the already popular Infinity Gaming Online magazine by covering both breaking news and current events through a regularly updated website. The iGaming Post will be featuring news about technology, sport,gaming regulation, land based and iGaming daily news.
Be sure to keep your sleek and sophisticated iPads, iPhones and Blackberry’s fully charged as we deliver you constant updates from within the gaming world; all at the touch of a button. So don’t get lost within other sites, trawling through pages and tabs of endless drivel; The iGaming Post is easy to navigate around so you will always find what you’re looking for.
The iGaming Post is an extension to the already established and popular b2b publication, Infinity Gaming Magazine www.gaming-awards.com/magazine/index.html. With 19,000 readers from across the world and still growing, we are dedicated towards keeping all of our readers accurately informed, satisfied and catered to with high-quality content. The iGaming Post newspaper also brings readers the very latest lifestyle, sports and technology news. So why rummage through other sites when we are here to always keep you in the loop? www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS
When it comes to gaming news, whether you’re a reader in London or Las Vegas, The iGaming Post will never keep you in the shadows as we shed light on the latest goings-on, rumours and whispers within the industry. All this and more!
So there’s no need to look clueless when everyone is discussing the latest gaming news in the office…just click onto The iGaming Post for your daily dose of gaming news and get involved! We take our readers seriously and invite you to voice your opinion about any of our news features.
Hand in hand, The iGaming Post and Infinity Gaming Magazine are two niche, innovative and unique gaming sources of news. Exclusive interviews with CEO’s and professionals within the industry will lead you in the right business direction, news features will keep you well informed and our insight into the fashion and gadget world will give you an all-rounded perspective of how to stay two steps ahead within the gaming and business world.
Visit www.gaming-awards.com/NEWS for the latest gaming news.
Infinity Gaming Magazine can be accessed through our website, and a monthly alert about the content of this Digital Edition sent to our registered reader database. Visit: www.gaming-awards.com/magazine/index.html
As William Randolph Hearst once said: “Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more interesting."
So sit back, relax and indulge in an interesting read about the gaming world you live in.
FACTFILE:
Clever Duck Media is an Event Management Company with a highly creative, efficient and passionate team with a unique understanding of the Gaming Industry. Clever Duck Media manages the International Gaming Awards www.gaming-awards.com, Women in Gaming Networking event (Conference & Awards) and publishes a hugely popular industry monthly digital magazine.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
That's Health: Improved patient care and 1,500 hours a year saved...
That's Health: Improved patient care and 1,500 hours a year saved...: "The Doncaster & Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is improving patient care by speeding up the process of patient feedback after im..."
Thomas Eggar Uses Integreon for Library and Information Services
Integreon, a global provider of integrated legal, research and business solutions, have announced that law firm Thomas Eggar LLP has engaged Integreon to provide library and information services. Integreon’s services will streamline Thomas Eggar’s legal library and research operations, and provide specialised information and strong domain expertise to its team of legal professionals.
Thomas Eggar joins CMS Cameron McKenna LLP, Osborne Clarke and several other innovative U.K. law firms in taking advantage of Integreon’s deep information services capabilities.
Integreon will provide Thomas Eggar with a central enquiry desk, legal and business research services and hardcopy library management. Integreon’s Library and Information Services, first offered in 2009, help law firms efficiently meet their need for high-quality legal research and specialized library services.
“Integreon’s library and information services provide us with access to a vast pool of skilled librarians and researchers,” said Sarah Ball, Operations Director at Thomas Eggar. “We now have a more scalable library service which can support our commitment to service excellence. By partnering with Integreon, we’re empowering our lawyers with the high-quality support services they need to enable them to deliver the best possible legal services to our clients.”
The services free firms from the operational and administrative tasks associated with library and research services, while providing a flexible support team comprised of knowledgeable and experienced librarians and researchers. The legal professionals from firms that engage Integreon gain timely and efficient access to large libraries and additional proprietary information resources traditionally available only to the largest law firms.
“The legal industry is changing and the law library is evolving to address firms’ changing needs,” said Kate Stanfield, Vice President of Knowledge and Research at Integreon. “Thomas Eggar is at the cutting edge of a wave of large, innovative law firms turning to external library services as a way to provide legal professionals with better service and support without increasing costs.”
“Integreon’s library and information services provide us with access to a vast pool of skilled librarians and researchers,” said Sarah Ball, Operations Director at Thomas Eggar. “We now have a more scalable library service which can support our commitment to service excellence. By partnering with Integreon, we’re empowering our lawyers with the high-quality support services they need to enable them to deliver the best possible legal services to our clients.”
The services free firms from the operational and administrative tasks associated with library and research services, while providing a flexible support team comprised of knowledgeable and experienced librarians and researchers. The legal professionals from firms that engage Integreon gain timely and efficient access to large libraries and additional proprietary information resources traditionally available only to the largest law firms.
“The legal industry is changing and the law library is evolving to address firms’ changing needs,” said Kate Stanfield, Vice President of Knowledge and Research at Integreon. “Thomas Eggar is at the cutting edge of a wave of large, innovative law firms turning to external library services as a way to provide legal professionals with better service and support without increasing costs.”
For more information about Integreon’s full range of solutions, you can visitwww.integreon.com.
Monday, 8 August 2011
IT Governance launches toolkit to help you maximise IT service management
IT Governance (ITG), the one-stop shop for ITIL®, ISO/IEC 20000 and IT service management expertise, is today launching a toolkit to help companies secure the benefits of best practice IT service management (ITSM).
The new ‘IT Service Management Documentation Toolkit’ is designed to help companies put in place ‘fit-for-purpose’ documentation, implement ITIL service management best practices and, ultimately, optimise their IT service management systems.
Alan Calder, Chief Executive of IT Governance, points out: ‘This unique toolkit is the perfect investment for organisations seeking an optimal route to ITSM best practice, guiding companies through the relevant processes. ITIL is the world’s foremost ITSM framework and ITIL implementation is invaluable for achieving compliance with ISO/IEC 20000, the globally recognised set of ITSM standards.
‘With the ITIL framework providing best practice guidance on how to manage IT infrastructure and streamline IT services in line with business expectations, ITIL is becoming increasingly vital for IT professionals.
‘Our toolkit draws on original content licensed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which oversees the ITIL framework, so you can be sure the toolkit contains the relevant documentation to ensure correct implementation and enjoy the consequent organisational and commercial benefits.
‘The importance of ITSM can hardly be overestimated, especially as many service providers are required by their governments to achieve ISO/IEC 20000 certification. This toolkit will help organisations avoid costly trial-and-error dead-ends.’
The documents contained in the toolkit include service management plan templates; a service level agreement template; 100 pre-written policies, procedures, templates and guidance documents; a pre-written IT service management system manual; and over 400 pages of fit-for-purpose information.
The toolkit was written and created by ITIL specialists Jenny Dugmore and Shirley Lacy. Dugmore was the chair of the British Standards Institution (BSI) committee that produced BS15000, a prequel to ISO/IEC 20000, and is now the chair of the ISO Committee responsible for the 20000 series. In 2005, she was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF). Lacy was an ITIL author and project mentor for the ITIL 2011 Update. She holds the ITIL ‘expert’ certificate and is an accredited trainer for ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000. Among their many ITSM-related achievements, Dugmore and Lacy have co-authored ‘A Manager’s Guide to Service Management’ and ‘Introduction To The ISO/IEC 20000 Series’.
Dugmore says: ‘Effective service management is increasingly recognised as fundamental to business success. Customers are looking for better quality, lower costs, greater flexibility and faster responses to their changing requirements. This toolkit enables all types of service providers to set up and implement an effective service management system that delivers quality and value to customers.’
Lacy adds: ‘The toolkit uses tried and tested best practices that avoid re-inventing the wheel. The gap analysis tool and template-driven approach will help an organisation assess current ITSM requirements and implement relevant service management processes.’
The toolkit costs £495 ($818.06/€568.75) and can be purchased as a download at: www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/3370.
A ‘try before you buy’ version of the toolkit is also available and can be requested here.
The new ‘IT Service Management Documentation Toolkit’ is designed to help companies put in place ‘fit-for-purpose’ documentation, implement ITIL service management best practices and, ultimately, optimise their IT service management systems.
Alan Calder, Chief Executive of IT Governance, points out: ‘This unique toolkit is the perfect investment for organisations seeking an optimal route to ITSM best practice, guiding companies through the relevant processes. ITIL is the world’s foremost ITSM framework and ITIL implementation is invaluable for achieving compliance with ISO/IEC 20000, the globally recognised set of ITSM standards.
‘With the ITIL framework providing best practice guidance on how to manage IT infrastructure and streamline IT services in line with business expectations, ITIL is becoming increasingly vital for IT professionals.
‘Our toolkit draws on original content licensed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which oversees the ITIL framework, so you can be sure the toolkit contains the relevant documentation to ensure correct implementation and enjoy the consequent organisational and commercial benefits.
‘The importance of ITSM can hardly be overestimated, especially as many service providers are required by their governments to achieve ISO/IEC 20000 certification. This toolkit will help organisations avoid costly trial-and-error dead-ends.’
The documents contained in the toolkit include service management plan templates; a service level agreement template; 100 pre-written policies, procedures, templates and guidance documents; a pre-written IT service management system manual; and over 400 pages of fit-for-purpose information.
The toolkit was written and created by ITIL specialists Jenny Dugmore and Shirley Lacy. Dugmore was the chair of the British Standards Institution (BSI) committee that produced BS15000, a prequel to ISO/IEC 20000, and is now the chair of the ISO Committee responsible for the 20000 series. In 2005, she was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF). Lacy was an ITIL author and project mentor for the ITIL 2011 Update. She holds the ITIL ‘expert’ certificate and is an accredited trainer for ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000. Among their many ITSM-related achievements, Dugmore and Lacy have co-authored ‘A Manager’s Guide to Service Management’ and ‘Introduction To The ISO/IEC 20000 Series’.
Dugmore says: ‘Effective service management is increasingly recognised as fundamental to business success. Customers are looking for better quality, lower costs, greater flexibility and faster responses to their changing requirements. This toolkit enables all types of service providers to set up and implement an effective service management system that delivers quality and value to customers.’
Lacy adds: ‘The toolkit uses tried and tested best practices that avoid re-inventing the wheel. The gap analysis tool and template-driven approach will help an organisation assess current ITSM requirements and implement relevant service management processes.’
The toolkit costs £495 ($818.06/€568.75) and can be purchased as a download at: www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/3370.
A ‘try before you buy’ version of the toolkit is also available and can be requested here.
Everything Everywhere Announce the Appointment of a New Director of Transformation
The UK's top mobile phone operator is pleased to announce the appointment of former Tesco Telecom COO, Mark Horrobin, to the role of Director of Transformation for the brand, in a move which can only lead to bigger and better things for the company.
The Former COO of Tesco Telecoms, Mark Horrobin has been named as the new Director of Transformation at Everything Everywhere, the company that was created in April 2010 when Orange UK and T-Mobile UK merged. The decision to appoint Horrobin in this role follows Everything Everywhere's four key areas of transformation throughout the integration of the two telecoms giants and will help to deliver a new strategy for the company.
A spokesperson for Everything Everywhere said: “When we decided to merge both Orange UK and T-Mobile UK, we knew overseeing the merger was going to be no easy feat. So we needed to find someone who has not only had an exemplary career in the industry but has also have hands-on experience of managing such a big project, and Mark was exactly what were were looking for.
“Mark has managed to have a very impressive career in telecoms and communications; prior to working at Tesco Telecom, he worked at The Carphone Warehouse, Onetel and AOL, so we're really very happy to have such an experienced person on-board.”
This new role will see Horrobin employed as a consultant, and his main role will be to organise and coordinate Everything Everywhere's four key areas of transformation: The HR project, 'Our People' an incentive for staff to 'be the best', 'Our Customers', which aims to create and maintain high value growth in customer numbers, and finally, 'Our Future', which concentrates on the use of data, and the actions that Everything Everywhere needs to take in order to become a data-centric telecommunications company.
The spokesperson for Everything Everywhere went on to say: “As a relatively new company that represents Orange UK [http://shop.orange.co.uk] and T-Mobile UK we at Everything Everywhere are really keen to become market leaders in the telecommunications industry.
“We believe the only way to do this is by working on our company, so we can be the very best at what we do, so we need to invest in our staff and training programmes in order to achieve the best results possible, and Mark is the man that will help us to do this.”
A spokesman added: “Our name is Everything Everywhere and that's exactly what we want to give to our customers.
“We believe wherever they are in the world, they should be able to access whatever they want, whenever they want it – at the touch of a button, with the flick of a switch, in the blink of an eye.
"We want to bring our customers closer to the people, places and things that matter most to them, giving them instant access to everything, everywhere.
“In September 2009 it was announced France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom had agreed to merge T-Mobile UK and Orange UK into a 50:50 joint venture to create the UK’s leading mobile operator. After dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, the company was officially formed on April 1 2010. Then, on May 11 we announced our name, vision and leadership team.”
The Former COO of Tesco Telecoms, Mark Horrobin has been named as the new Director of Transformation at Everything Everywhere, the company that was created in April 2010 when Orange UK and T-Mobile UK merged. The decision to appoint Horrobin in this role follows Everything Everywhere's four key areas of transformation throughout the integration of the two telecoms giants and will help to deliver a new strategy for the company.
A spokesperson for Everything Everywhere said: “When we decided to merge both Orange UK and T-Mobile UK, we knew overseeing the merger was going to be no easy feat. So we needed to find someone who has not only had an exemplary career in the industry but has also have hands-on experience of managing such a big project, and Mark was exactly what were were looking for.
“Mark has managed to have a very impressive career in telecoms and communications; prior to working at Tesco Telecom, he worked at The Carphone Warehouse, Onetel and AOL, so we're really very happy to have such an experienced person on-board.”
This new role will see Horrobin employed as a consultant, and his main role will be to organise and coordinate Everything Everywhere's four key areas of transformation: The HR project, 'Our People' an incentive for staff to 'be the best', 'Our Customers', which aims to create and maintain high value growth in customer numbers, and finally, 'Our Future', which concentrates on the use of data, and the actions that Everything Everywhere needs to take in order to become a data-centric telecommunications company.
The spokesperson for Everything Everywhere went on to say: “As a relatively new company that represents Orange UK [http://shop.orange.co.uk] and T-Mobile UK we at Everything Everywhere are really keen to become market leaders in the telecommunications industry.
“We believe the only way to do this is by working on our company, so we can be the very best at what we do, so we need to invest in our staff and training programmes in order to achieve the best results possible, and Mark is the man that will help us to do this.”
A spokesman added: “Our name is Everything Everywhere and that's exactly what we want to give to our customers.
“We believe wherever they are in the world, they should be able to access whatever they want, whenever they want it – at the touch of a button, with the flick of a switch, in the blink of an eye.
"We want to bring our customers closer to the people, places and things that matter most to them, giving them instant access to everything, everywhere.
“In September 2009 it was announced France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom had agreed to merge T-Mobile UK and Orange UK into a 50:50 joint venture to create the UK’s leading mobile operator. After dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, the company was officially formed on April 1 2010. Then, on May 11 we announced our name, vision and leadership team.”
Twitterverts? QueryClick Comment On Twitter's Introduction of Promoted Tweets
Edinburgh-based SEO agency QueryClick say they are excited about the recent Twitter announcement made on 28th July, 2011, that confirmed 'Promoted Tweets' have now been introduced to everyone's time line.
So from now on, all Twitter users will have visible promoted tweets that will appear at the top of their time line much similar to all other tweets, and will only appear from organisations they are currently following. The ability to be dismissed by a single click and the appearance of the promoted tweet only once allows for minimum impact for regular users.
Twitter have stated the social media site allows all users to connect and discover the latest information on the topics and people they care about. Therefore, if anyone is following an organisation or brand this will allow everyone to have access to the latest information and content regarding those organisations and brands as soon as they are made available.
A spokes,an from the search engine optimisation experts, QueryClick said: “The promoted tweets have been introduced in a very smart way. In which only people who you are currently following is made visible and as a result gives you ultimate control over what you see. In addition, because the the promoted tweets appear in the form of regular tweets this will reduce the impact it will have on the users experience, while offering an increased opportunity to discover more information.”
Twitter have stated that it is still being rolled out and tested with a group of selected partners. This is set to grow within the coming weeks, during which it will allow many non-profit organisations to create promoted tweets also, increasing the reach from just brands and other organisations.
The Spokesman added: “Hopefully in the coming months there will be many more features and ways in which the concept will grow, especially once there has been enough user feedback. Also, it will not be clear until the community itself speak up on how they feel about promoted tweets being introduced, but I believe it is a positive step forward for Twitter.”
So from now on, all Twitter users will have visible promoted tweets that will appear at the top of their time line much similar to all other tweets, and will only appear from organisations they are currently following. The ability to be dismissed by a single click and the appearance of the promoted tweet only once allows for minimum impact for regular users.
Twitter have stated the social media site allows all users to connect and discover the latest information on the topics and people they care about. Therefore, if anyone is following an organisation or brand this will allow everyone to have access to the latest information and content regarding those organisations and brands as soon as they are made available.
A spokes,an from the search engine optimisation experts, QueryClick said: “The promoted tweets have been introduced in a very smart way. In which only people who you are currently following is made visible and as a result gives you ultimate control over what you see. In addition, because the the promoted tweets appear in the form of regular tweets this will reduce the impact it will have on the users experience, while offering an increased opportunity to discover more information.”
Twitter have stated that it is still being rolled out and tested with a group of selected partners. This is set to grow within the coming weeks, during which it will allow many non-profit organisations to create promoted tweets also, increasing the reach from just brands and other organisations.
The Spokesman added: “Hopefully in the coming months there will be many more features and ways in which the concept will grow, especially once there has been enough user feedback. Also, it will not be clear until the community itself speak up on how they feel about promoted tweets being introduced, but I believe it is a positive step forward for Twitter.”
Keri-anne Payne: Swimming Olympian picks Freestyle Interactive to create blog
Freestyle Interactive is the digital agency picked by Olympic Swimmer Keri-anne Payne to create her fantastic new blog
The site went live just prior to Payne taking gold in the 10k open water event at the recent 14th Fina World Swimming Championships in Shanghai.
Built using the Tumblr blogging platform, the blog is designed to be the perfect hub for fans to officially keep up with what Keri-Anne is up to professionally and personally in the run up to London 2012.
Keri-anne is keen to develop “interaction” with her fans and supporters so content will be a mix of information about swimming events & training along with personal updates about trips, birthdays, cake making and more besides.
23 year old Keri-anne was the very first British Olympian to qualify for London 2012, says: “I’m constantly on the move; I use Twitter a lot and it’s great to have so many followers. Sometimes, however, I want to write more than 140 characters and that’s exactly what my new-look site allows me to do. I can update and add new images, text and video quickly and easily on-the-move & by phone if I want to.
" I’ve also added an ‘Ask me anything’ section – it’s a forum which hopefully my fans and supporters will really like – I’m sure they will let me know.”
She added: “I was very pleased to be working with Freestyle on this project. The team are definitely fun to work with but they also understand the swimming world, performance sports and what I wanted to achieve. They created Rebecca Adlington’s site and Suzanne Linton and Alan Cooper who own Freestyle are Master Swimmers themselves and are involved in running swimming clubs for young people.”
The site went live just prior to Payne taking gold in the 10k open water event at the recent 14th Fina World Swimming Championships in Shanghai.
Built using the Tumblr blogging platform, the blog is designed to be the perfect hub for fans to officially keep up with what Keri-Anne is up to professionally and personally in the run up to London 2012.
Keri-anne is keen to develop “interaction” with her fans and supporters so content will be a mix of information about swimming events & training along with personal updates about trips, birthdays, cake making and more besides.
23 year old Keri-anne was the very first British Olympian to qualify for London 2012, says: “I’m constantly on the move; I use Twitter a lot and it’s great to have so many followers. Sometimes, however, I want to write more than 140 characters and that’s exactly what my new-look site allows me to do. I can update and add new images, text and video quickly and easily on-the-move & by phone if I want to.
" I’ve also added an ‘Ask me anything’ section – it’s a forum which hopefully my fans and supporters will really like – I’m sure they will let me know.”
She added: “I was very pleased to be working with Freestyle on this project. The team are definitely fun to work with but they also understand the swimming world, performance sports and what I wanted to achieve. They created Rebecca Adlington’s site and Suzanne Linton and Alan Cooper who own Freestyle are Master Swimmers themselves and are involved in running swimming clubs for young people.”
Spar wholesaler cuts engineer call-out costs by 80 per cent with power conditioning technology
Retailer sees immediate return on investment across petrol forecourt sites
Major Spar wholesaler, James Hall & Co., has reduced engineer call-outs for the repair of critical retail and back office equipment by as much as 80 per cent, using power conditioning systems from POWERVAR, the leading global provider of power management systems.
One of six UK wholesalers, James Hall & Co. supports around 500 Spar retail stores – ranging from corner shops and convenience stores to petrol forecourts and stores on Army bases – southward from the Scottish border to North Wales and eastward to Hull and Scunthorpe.
Major Spar wholesaler, James Hall & Co., has reduced engineer call-outs for the repair of critical retail and back office equipment by as much as 80 per cent, using power conditioning systems from POWERVAR, the leading global provider of power management systems.
One of six UK wholesalers, James Hall & Co. supports around 500 Spar retail stores – ranging from corner shops and convenience stores to petrol forecourts and stores on Army bases – southward from the Scottish border to North Wales and eastward to Hull and Scunthorpe.
With responsibility for supplying and supporting these outlets with everything they need to function efficiently, James Hall & Co is also responsible for managing the back-office systems and relevant hardware for Spar’s 127 petrol forecourts, alongside HTec, Spar’s petrol forecourts IT systems provider.
After recommending power conditioning systems for all of the forecourt sites to protect Spar’s bespoke Spar POS (Point of Sale) and back office systems, HTec insisted on POWERVAR technology.
After recommending power conditioning systems for all of the forecourt sites to protect Spar’s bespoke Spar POS (Point of Sale) and back office systems, HTec insisted on POWERVAR technology.
Mike Crompton, Technical Support Manager for Retail IT, responsible for support, maintenance and upgrade of IT systems, noticed an immediate reduction in hard disk corruptions and failures after the power conditioning units were installed: “I was cautious about them at first – a few years ago, we actually removed UPSs, which are supposed to protect vital IT equipment in the event of power failures from our premises because they caused so many problems.
“But I was immediately impressed. Problems on the Epos and back office systems are down by as much as 80 per cent compared with non-protected systems, which means fewer callouts and significant cost savings. Plus, any problems are easier to identify and quicker to resolve”
POWERVAR power conditioning units have now been installed across all Spar outlets where equipment was due for renewal. As well as cost savings, the retailer has noticed a ‘softer’ ROI (return on investment), including improved customer service due to less system downtime.
In June, POWERVAR launched its white paper, The business case analysis for power conditioning: An ROI study of unburdening service costs from the bottom line, which revealed that the financial impact of irregularities – noise, spikes, surges and other transient phenomena – in the power supply can have a far greater impact on sensitive hi-tech equipment than is generally acknowledged. It showed that power conditioning technology can deliver demonstrable cost savings and measurable return on investment for businesses.
Rob Morris, UK General Manager for POWERVAR, adds: “Retail is one area where serious damage to critical equipment, like Epos and back office systems, can have very serious consequences. Disruption to vital equipment like store tills can cause frustration for both retailers and customers that ultimately results in lost sales. We are seeing a number of retailers moving from the more traditional UPS systems to more reliable power conditioning and power quality technology.”
The initial investment of £130,000 in POWERVAR equipment has been recuperated within months of being installed. James Hall & Co. is now looking into further increasing ROI by extending the life of hardware by as much as 20 per cent, which will see Spar benefit from reduced service costs when hardware contracts comes up for renegotiation.
FACTFILE:
“But I was immediately impressed. Problems on the Epos and back office systems are down by as much as 80 per cent compared with non-protected systems, which means fewer callouts and significant cost savings. Plus, any problems are easier to identify and quicker to resolve”
POWERVAR power conditioning units have now been installed across all Spar outlets where equipment was due for renewal. As well as cost savings, the retailer has noticed a ‘softer’ ROI (return on investment), including improved customer service due to less system downtime.
In June, POWERVAR launched its white paper, The business case analysis for power conditioning: An ROI study of unburdening service costs from the bottom line, which revealed that the financial impact of irregularities – noise, spikes, surges and other transient phenomena – in the power supply can have a far greater impact on sensitive hi-tech equipment than is generally acknowledged. It showed that power conditioning technology can deliver demonstrable cost savings and measurable return on investment for businesses.
Rob Morris, UK General Manager for POWERVAR, adds: “Retail is one area where serious damage to critical equipment, like Epos and back office systems, can have very serious consequences. Disruption to vital equipment like store tills can cause frustration for both retailers and customers that ultimately results in lost sales. We are seeing a number of retailers moving from the more traditional UPS systems to more reliable power conditioning and power quality technology.”
The initial investment of £130,000 in POWERVAR equipment has been recuperated within months of being installed. James Hall & Co. is now looking into further increasing ROI by extending the life of hardware by as much as 20 per cent, which will see Spar benefit from reduced service costs when hardware contracts comes up for renegotiation.
FACTFILE:
POWERVAR’s ‘The business case analysis for power conditioning: An ROI study of unburdening service costs from the bottom line’ white paper is now available at: www.powervar.com/technical-articles.cfm
Sunday, 7 August 2011
That's Parenting: Anti-technology App Helps Break Teenage Phone Addi...
That's Parenting: Anti-technology App Helps Break Teenage Phone Addi...: "In response to a report by Ofcom which claims 60% of teenagers are addicted to their mobiles, Scottish therapist, Andrew Johnson, has launch..."
Smartphone users warning on data limit penalties
Ofcom has published the Communications Market Report for 2011, revealing smartphone fever is sweeping the UK, with over a quarter (27%) of adults and almost half of all teenagers (47%) now owning one.
Smartphones are more interactive than 'normal' mobile phones, with users able to access specialist applications (apps), social networks, email and download music and video content direct to their mobile. As a result of this growing functionality the volume of data transferred over the UKs mobile networks made a massive jump of 67% over the figures for 2010.
Dominic Baliszewski, expert at www.Mobilechoices.co.uk pointed out: "Smartphones are everywhere you look these days, on the train, the street and (according to Ofcom's report) even the bathroom! Their growing popularity is no surprise as they are incredibly useful, allowing you to stay in touch, listen to music and even watch TV whilst on the move.
"Smartphone users may get a richer experience from their phone compared to regular mobile users, but it is important to keep on top of mobile phone data usage limits, as this is where many people come unstuck and incur excess data penalties which can greatly increase their monthly bill.
"Smartphone download limits, with the exception of the iPhone, can be rather stingy and the penalties can be over 10p per MB of content download over and above your usage limit. These costs mount up very quickly so anyone who is unsure of how much data they are using should follow our tips below to avoid being stung."
Mobilechoices.co.uk's top tips for downloading on a smartphone:
1. Check the small print: Customers who don't know their limit can incur substantial penalties unknowingly, so always ask your provider direct and find out about early warning systems that they may have in place to inform you if you are reaching your limit. Data usage limits on smartphones can cost upwards of 10p per MB (this is a staggering £100 per GB).
2. Set up your own warning system: Use your phone to monitor your usage, reset your phone's usage counter on your monthly billing date and use this to keep track of your usage.
3. Use Wi-Fi when you can: Making use of a Wi-Fi connection in a hotel, coffee shop or even your local McDonalds allows you to surf for free on, what is usually, a faster, more reliable signal.
4. Turn off Apps: Some apps use the internet to update your information automatically – for example, tools that keep track of your location and post it to Facebook. Allowing these to continue running throughout the day will eat into your data allowance, so turn them off if they are not in use.
5. Shop around: If you still find you are frequently reaching your data limit before the end of the month, consider the other options available to you. Compare different providers, for example, Three offers unlimited data where as O2 offers additional mobile 'data bolt-ons' - both are ideally suited to customer who do a lot of downloading on the move. You don't need to change your phone, just your SIM, to take advantage of other deals.
Smartphones are more interactive than 'normal' mobile phones, with users able to access specialist applications (apps), social networks, email and download music and video content direct to their mobile. As a result of this growing functionality the volume of data transferred over the UKs mobile networks made a massive jump of 67% over the figures for 2010.
Dominic Baliszewski, expert at www.Mobilechoices.co.uk pointed out: "Smartphones are everywhere you look these days, on the train, the street and (according to Ofcom's report) even the bathroom! Their growing popularity is no surprise as they are incredibly useful, allowing you to stay in touch, listen to music and even watch TV whilst on the move.
"Smartphone users may get a richer experience from their phone compared to regular mobile users, but it is important to keep on top of mobile phone data usage limits, as this is where many people come unstuck and incur excess data penalties which can greatly increase their monthly bill.
"Smartphone download limits, with the exception of the iPhone, can be rather stingy and the penalties can be over 10p per MB of content download over and above your usage limit. These costs mount up very quickly so anyone who is unsure of how much data they are using should follow our tips below to avoid being stung."
Mobilechoices.co.uk's top tips for downloading on a smartphone:
1. Check the small print: Customers who don't know their limit can incur substantial penalties unknowingly, so always ask your provider direct and find out about early warning systems that they may have in place to inform you if you are reaching your limit. Data usage limits on smartphones can cost upwards of 10p per MB (this is a staggering £100 per GB).
2. Set up your own warning system: Use your phone to monitor your usage, reset your phone's usage counter on your monthly billing date and use this to keep track of your usage.
3. Use Wi-Fi when you can: Making use of a Wi-Fi connection in a hotel, coffee shop or even your local McDonalds allows you to surf for free on, what is usually, a faster, more reliable signal.
4. Turn off Apps: Some apps use the internet to update your information automatically – for example, tools that keep track of your location and post it to Facebook. Allowing these to continue running throughout the day will eat into your data allowance, so turn them off if they are not in use.
5. Shop around: If you still find you are frequently reaching your data limit before the end of the month, consider the other options available to you. Compare different providers, for example, Three offers unlimited data where as O2 offers additional mobile 'data bolt-ons' - both are ideally suited to customer who do a lot of downloading on the move. You don't need to change your phone, just your SIM, to take advantage of other deals.
Nealry 40% of India’s Software Developer Population Using or Planning to Use BIRT
Actuate Corporation, The people behind BIRT® and the leader in open source Business Intelligence (BI), have revealed that, based on new research by Evans Data Corporation, over 900,000 developers in India are currently using or plan to use BIRT in the next 12 months to build Business Intelligence, data visualisations and information delivery applications.
Actuate founded the Eclipse BIRT open source project in 2004 and continues to co-lead the effort. BIRT is the only top-level Eclipse project focused on Business Intelligence and reporting and has emerged as the premier development environment for presenting compelling data visualisations to users.
Actuate founded the Eclipse BIRT open source project in 2004 and continues to co-lead the effort. BIRT is the only top-level Eclipse project focused on Business Intelligence and reporting and has emerged as the premier development environment for presenting compelling data visualisations to users.
BIRT has proven to be a winning hybrid strategy that combines the strengths of open source and enterprise development for growing the market for ActuateOne, the Company’s value-added product set for BIRT deployment.
India has emerged as a model market for BIRT, with almost 40% of the country’s developer population currently using or planning to use the technology in the next 12 months for their BI, reporting and data visualisation requirements. In response to increasing interest, the Company plans to give India’s large developer population access to the same resources and education already benefiting BIRT developers in Europe and North America.
India has emerged as a model market for BIRT, with almost 40% of the country’s developer population currently using or planning to use the technology in the next 12 months for their BI, reporting and data visualisation requirements. In response to increasing interest, the Company plans to give India’s large developer population access to the same resources and education already benefiting BIRT developers in Europe and North America.
Demand has been fuelled by India’s leading system integrators including Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Cognizant, Larsen & Toubro, CSC, Mahindra Satyam, Accenture and Cap Gemini; independent software vendors including Saba Software and Cisco; and customers including Indian Oil Corporation, Great Eastern Shipping, Blue Dart Express Limited, ICICI Bank, HSBC, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Fidelity, Wells Fargo and PayPal.
“India is the place to see our BIRT strategy in action. We’re seeing enormous interest in BIRT with a limited physical presence and minimal investment in India. Our next step is to grow revenue in a cost effective manner, which is aided by the fact that 40% of India’s developer population is using or plans to use BIRT,” said Pete Cittadini, President and CEO of Actuate Corporation.
“India is the place to see our BIRT strategy in action. We’re seeing enormous interest in BIRT with a limited physical presence and minimal investment in India. Our next step is to grow revenue in a cost effective manner, which is aided by the fact that 40% of India’s developer population is using or plans to use BIRT,” said Pete Cittadini, President and CEO of Actuate Corporation.
“We expect momentum to continue as the developer base in India is likely to become larger than the North America BIRT developer population within the next 12 months.”
Developers and IT Management are invited to attend the BIRT Roadshow in Bangalore, a free, half day event that introduces BIRT and demonstrates how developers and IT managers can leverage BIRT to quickly create data-driven reports, web pages and compelling information visualisations using its visual drag-and-drop design environment. Participants will also receive training and software material, evaluation licenses and demos. The event serves as a great orientation to BIRT, the Eclipse Foundation Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools open source project sponsored by Actuate.
The Bangalore BIRT Introductory Roadshow will demonstrate how to use BIRT and ActuateOne to build a new generation of custom Business Intelligence and information applications. Attendees can expect to:
• Understand the dynamic capabilities of BIRT, AJAX, Flash and Interactive Viewer to deliver exciting, interactive content
• View exclusive live demonstrations including data analytics and dashboarding
• Receive Actuate and BIRT collateral and presentations
• Receive free training material to get started with BIRT
• Receive free software evaluation licenses: Actuate BIRT Designer Pro and Actuate iServer
• Be awarded a BIRT Roadshow training certificate
• Gain entry into a draw to win exclusive prizes
Register via this link: http://www.actuate.com/ap/info/BIRTRoadshowBangalorePR
Developers and IT Management are invited to attend the BIRT Roadshow in Bangalore, a free, half day event that introduces BIRT and demonstrates how developers and IT managers can leverage BIRT to quickly create data-driven reports, web pages and compelling information visualisations using its visual drag-and-drop design environment. Participants will also receive training and software material, evaluation licenses and demos. The event serves as a great orientation to BIRT, the Eclipse Foundation Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools open source project sponsored by Actuate.
The Bangalore BIRT Introductory Roadshow will demonstrate how to use BIRT and ActuateOne to build a new generation of custom Business Intelligence and information applications. Attendees can expect to:
• Understand the dynamic capabilities of BIRT, AJAX, Flash and Interactive Viewer to deliver exciting, interactive content
• View exclusive live demonstrations including data analytics and dashboarding
• Receive Actuate and BIRT collateral and presentations
• Receive free training material to get started with BIRT
• Receive free software evaluation licenses: Actuate BIRT Designer Pro and Actuate iServer
• Be awarded a BIRT Roadshow training certificate
• Gain entry into a draw to win exclusive prizes
Register via this link: http://www.actuate.com/ap/info/BIRTRoadshowBangalorePR
FACTFILE:
Event Details
Date: Friday 26th August, 2011
Time: 9:00am-1:00pm IST
Location: Vivanta by Taj - M G Road, 41/3, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bangalore
Cost: Complimentary
Agenda: http://www.actuate.com/ap/resources/assets/?articleid=22503
Twitter: #BIRT_India
Actuate has over 4,800 customers globally in a diverse range of business areas including financial services and the public sector. Founded in 1993, Actuate is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices worldwide.
Event Details
Date: Friday 26th August, 2011
Time: 9:00am-1:00pm IST
Location: Vivanta by Taj - M G Road, 41/3, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bangalore
Cost: Complimentary
Agenda: http://www.actuate.com/ap/resources/assets/?articleid=22503
Twitter: #BIRT_India
Actuate has over 4,800 customers globally in a diverse range of business areas including financial services and the public sector. Founded in 1993, Actuate is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices worldwide.
Actuate is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol BIRT. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.actuate.com or visit the BIRT community at www.birt-exchange.com.
Crown Telecom on Growth Trajectory Makes First Acquisition
Crown Telecom Solutions has acquired Strata Communications. The North West-based communications engineering company has built a reputation for customer service and a strong customer base over 20 years of trading. “This is a perfect fit for us,” Crown Telecom managing director Mark Nicklin pointed out.
“Strata is a pure engineering operation, whereas, here at Crown we offer hardware, line rental, broadband/data services, mobiles and billing. This will add to our technical capacity just as new accounts require us to expand the engineering side of our business,” Mark he added.
Other acquisitions could be on the cards, too. Mark explained. “An acquisition fund to support the growth programme has been established and we are looking for compatible telecoms companies that we can integrate into the Crown business.”
Growth at Crown Telecom since launching last year has been spectacular, driven by the sales operation which has successfully won major corporate accounts and work with SME’s throughout the UK. “We are retaining all Strata employees and are actively seeking more staff in sales, support and engineering as part of our planned growth,” Graeme Jones, operations director, explained.
“Strata is a pure engineering operation, whereas, here at Crown we offer hardware, line rental, broadband/data services, mobiles and billing. This will add to our technical capacity just as new accounts require us to expand the engineering side of our business,” Mark he added.
Other acquisitions could be on the cards, too. Mark explained. “An acquisition fund to support the growth programme has been established and we are looking for compatible telecoms companies that we can integrate into the Crown business.”
Growth at Crown Telecom since launching last year has been spectacular, driven by the sales operation which has successfully won major corporate accounts and work with SME’s throughout the UK. “We are retaining all Strata employees and are actively seeking more staff in sales, support and engineering as part of our planned growth,” Graeme Jones, operations director, explained.
“Even before the Strata deal, we grew the business organically by 50% in the last six months and we see this natural momentum being maintained. People with talent and energy should send in their CV if they want to join a growing company with massive scope for career development.”
Crown Telecom is a WLR3 (wholesale line rental 3) provider, making them one of a small number of BT service resellers to be fully accredited. As such they have access to the latest technology. This includes superfast fibre-based broadband for vision and data. They can order and allocate lines more quickly and proactively monitor lines for faults at 20 minute intervals to maintain high standards of service availability.
Mark Nicklin is a 16 year veteran of the telecoms industry. After early career experience with Stanhope Telecom and Aerofone, Mark moved on to set-up GP Telecom with Tim Price in 2001. This business grew steadily before its sale to Elite in 2008, where Mark remained before setting up Crown Telecom within the NW based Crown Group.
The Crown Group is one of the North West’s largest independent companies with a £120 million turnover. Established over 65 years ago, the core business supplies fuel oils, road fuels and lubricants. Innovations have included the addition of carbon offset fuels and blended bio fuel to support clients’ sustainability programmes
The Crown Group has diversified in recent years to become a national supplier of gas and electricity services to SME’s and major companies. The company also has a specialist division that coordinates utility connections to new developments. Crown Telecom Solutions has strong synergies with existing operations and the same ethos to differentiate from competitors by offering higher levels of customer service and attention to detail.
www.crowntelecom.co.uk
Crown Telecom is a WLR3 (wholesale line rental 3) provider, making them one of a small number of BT service resellers to be fully accredited. As such they have access to the latest technology. This includes superfast fibre-based broadband for vision and data. They can order and allocate lines more quickly and proactively monitor lines for faults at 20 minute intervals to maintain high standards of service availability.
Mark Nicklin is a 16 year veteran of the telecoms industry. After early career experience with Stanhope Telecom and Aerofone, Mark moved on to set-up GP Telecom with Tim Price in 2001. This business grew steadily before its sale to Elite in 2008, where Mark remained before setting up Crown Telecom within the NW based Crown Group.
The Crown Group is one of the North West’s largest independent companies with a £120 million turnover. Established over 65 years ago, the core business supplies fuel oils, road fuels and lubricants. Innovations have included the addition of carbon offset fuels and blended bio fuel to support clients’ sustainability programmes
The Crown Group has diversified in recent years to become a national supplier of gas and electricity services to SME’s and major companies. The company also has a specialist division that coordinates utility connections to new developments. Crown Telecom Solutions has strong synergies with existing operations and the same ethos to differentiate from competitors by offering higher levels of customer service and attention to detail.
www.crowntelecom.co.uk
Saturday, 6 August 2011
Using light bulbs to transmit data
Using light bulbs to transmit data. This is an appropriate use of terms like: "The next step" and "the next stage". This is truly remarkable:-
http://www.dump.com/2011/08/03/wireless-data-from-every-light-bulb-video/
http://www.dump.com/2011/08/03/wireless-data-from-every-light-bulb-video/
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
That's Business: Innovative 10 Yetis PR Agency invests in new onlin...
That's Business: Innovative 10 Yetis PR Agency invests in new onlin...: "10 Yetis PR has today announced it has invested in a start up online video production company, as it looks at the future of PR campaigns and..."
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
ECM Solutions from Kainos underpins 450-user EDRM system
The Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has partnered with Kainos’s ECM division to oversee and manage the delivery of its corporate Electronic Document & Records Management solution.
Kainos, the IT Solutions company, was selected to deliver the high profile EDRM project which will be made available to over 450 users across the London Millbank and Manchester offices. The system is underpinned by Autonomy Records Management technology.
The contract to automate the PHSOs vast electronic document repository was awarded to Kainos, following a competitive tender, last year and is estimated to be valued in the region of a quarter of a million pounds.
Suzanne Wright, the PHSO’s head of information and records management comments “The Kainos team is a real pleasure to work with. This feels like a true partnership, both of us aiming for the same goal and feeling a sense of great pride in the outcome.”
Kainos is delivering the PHSO corporate EDRM system using the powerful, meaning-based capabilities of Autonomy’s Records Management solution. Once the first implementation has been rolled out, PHSO plans next to turn its attention to integrating EDRM into its casework management system and applying those same information management benefits, stemming the flow of information loss and delivering increased information visibility and access across its directorates.
Suzanne adds, “{{We set out to break down information silos, improve our records management practices and improve information sharing}} and access across the business. In doing so our aim is to ensure clear recognition that our information is a corporate rather than personal asset.”
Sheila McWilliams is head of Kainos’s ECM Solutions division and comments, “We are delighted to have been selected by the PHSO for this corporate information project. We are working closely with Suzanne and the team to deliver a compliant EDRM solution that will facilitate better business and accelerate information retrieval and collaboration across the user community.”
FACTFILE:
ECM Solutions from Kainos, is a specialist technology solutions and service provider dedicated to delivering comprehensive ECM solutions – from full electronic document and records management, knowledge management and web content management through to scanning technologies and services, business process management and collaboration systems.
With more than 10 years experience deploying advanced ECM solutions, particularly built around the powerful capabilities of Autonomy and Microsoft SharePoint, Kainos’s ECM Solutions division is one of just a handful of suppliers on the OGC Buying Solutions Framework for EDRM solutions, as well as the Buying Solutions Digital Continuity Framework. www.kainos.com/ecm
Kainos, the IT Solutions company, was selected to deliver the high profile EDRM project which will be made available to over 450 users across the London Millbank and Manchester offices. The system is underpinned by Autonomy Records Management technology.
The contract to automate the PHSOs vast electronic document repository was awarded to Kainos, following a competitive tender, last year and is estimated to be valued in the region of a quarter of a million pounds.
Suzanne Wright, the PHSO’s head of information and records management comments “The Kainos team is a real pleasure to work with. This feels like a true partnership, both of us aiming for the same goal and feeling a sense of great pride in the outcome.”
Kainos is delivering the PHSO corporate EDRM system using the powerful, meaning-based capabilities of Autonomy’s Records Management solution. Once the first implementation has been rolled out, PHSO plans next to turn its attention to integrating EDRM into its casework management system and applying those same information management benefits, stemming the flow of information loss and delivering increased information visibility and access across its directorates.
Suzanne adds, “{{We set out to break down information silos, improve our records management practices and improve information sharing}} and access across the business. In doing so our aim is to ensure clear recognition that our information is a corporate rather than personal asset.”
Sheila McWilliams is head of Kainos’s ECM Solutions division and comments, “We are delighted to have been selected by the PHSO for this corporate information project. We are working closely with Suzanne and the team to deliver a compliant EDRM solution that will facilitate better business and accelerate information retrieval and collaboration across the user community.”
FACTFILE:
ECM Solutions from Kainos, is a specialist technology solutions and service provider dedicated to delivering comprehensive ECM solutions – from full electronic document and records management, knowledge management and web content management through to scanning technologies and services, business process management and collaboration systems.
With more than 10 years experience deploying advanced ECM solutions, particularly built around the powerful capabilities of Autonomy and Microsoft SharePoint, Kainos’s ECM Solutions division is one of just a handful of suppliers on the OGC Buying Solutions Framework for EDRM solutions, as well as the Buying Solutions Digital Continuity Framework. www.kainos.com/ecm
ActiveXperts Software releases Network Monitor 7.3 - easy and powerful network monitoring
ActiveXperts, a top provider of network monitoring and mobile messaging software, is releasing ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.3. ActiveXperts' latest update to its network monitoring solution is designed to bring affordable network monitoring to any sized company. ActiveXperts Network Monitor checks the network for failures and irregularities.
It includes all latest anti-virus / internet security suites. ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.3 has enhanced support for PowerShell scripting; as a result, it comes with over a 100 new PowerShell scripts that users can use directly in Network Monitor.
The product has a new graphing tool, to create multiple graphs in one screen. Users can create graphs on different time intervals in history, with different checks plotted into one screen.
New in Network monitor 7.3 are templates: you can now easily define a set of checks for new servers and devices without the need to create them one-by-one. A set of checks can be copied and pasted with a simple Host/IP change. There are many GUI enhancements to the software.
Network Monitor now supports Syslog logging. Use this type of logging to log to a Syslog server or management console, in order to have unified logging.
FACTFILE:
ActiveXperts Network Monitor runs on the following operating systems: Windows 2008 R2 (x64), Windows 2008 (x64/x86), Windows 2003 (x64/x86), Windows 7 (x64/x86), Windows Vista (x64/x86), and Windows XP (x64/x86). For more information about the product, visit the following web site: www.activexperts.com/network-monitor
For a list of built-in checks, see: www.activexperts.com/network-monitor/check
The product can be downloaded from the download site. This is a fully functioning product; it expires after 30 days.
Monitor all aspects of your servers, workstations, IP devices, applications, databases, cloud, environment and more. Run the software on a central computer, without the need to install agents on the monitored computers.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.3 adds new checks, including: MS Index Server, SMPP, Citrix ICA, Citrix XenApp, Registry and more, besides.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.3 adds new checks, including: MS Index Server, SMPP, Citrix ICA, Citrix XenApp, Registry and more, besides.
It includes all latest anti-virus / internet security suites. ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.3 has enhanced support for PowerShell scripting; as a result, it comes with over a 100 new PowerShell scripts that users can use directly in Network Monitor.
The product has a new graphing tool, to create multiple graphs in one screen. Users can create graphs on different time intervals in history, with different checks plotted into one screen.
New in Network monitor 7.3 are templates: you can now easily define a set of checks for new servers and devices without the need to create them one-by-one. A set of checks can be copied and pasted with a simple Host/IP change. There are many GUI enhancements to the software.
Network Monitor now supports Syslog logging. Use this type of logging to log to a Syslog server or management console, in order to have unified logging.
FACTFILE:
ActiveXperts Network Monitor runs on the following operating systems: Windows 2008 R2 (x64), Windows 2008 (x64/x86), Windows 2003 (x64/x86), Windows 7 (x64/x86), Windows Vista (x64/x86), and Windows XP (x64/x86). For more information about the product, visit the following web site: www.activexperts.com/network-monitor
For a list of built-in checks, see: www.activexperts.com/network-monitor/check
The product can be downloaded from the download site. This is a fully functioning product; it expires after 30 days.
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