IT staff use their administration rights to snoop...

Twelve months after the Cyber-Ark “Trust, Security & Passwords” survey discovered that 33 percent of IT staff used their IT administration rights to snoop around networks to access privileged, corporate information such as HR records, layoff lists, customer databases and M&A plans, a repeat of the survey has discovered that the situation has escalated. Despite a sharp rise in data breaches and increased media awareness on the subject, the third annual Cyber-Ark survey reveals that 35 percent of IT workers now admit to accessing corporate information without authorization, while 74 percent of respondents stated that they could circumvent the controls currently in place to prevent access to internal information.

One of the most revealing aspects of the survey was found in the types and quantity of information employees would take with them if they were fired. As the economic climate has worsened, the survey found a sharp increase in the number of respondents who say they would take proprietary data and information that is critical to maintaining competitive advantage and corporate security.

Ominously, 1 in 5 companies admit having experienced cases of insider sabotage or IT security fraud. Of those companies, 36 percent suspect that their competitors have received their company’s highly sensitive information or intellectual property. Organizations are increasingly aware of the need to monitor privileged account access and activity, with 71 percent of respondents indicating that privileged accounts are partially monitored, while 91 percent of those who are monitored admitting they are “okay with their employer’s monitoring activities.” Despite these efforts, 74 percent of respondents revealed that even with the controls being put in place to monitor them, they could still get around them, making current controls ineffectual. www.cyber-ark.com.

One-to-Watch: Lanxoma, security software developed by Unity Solutions, restricts access to the root level of computer operating systems, grants limited time access permission to authorized users and records all activity while the authorized user is logged-on - so being a deterrent to the "insider threat." http://lanxoma.com

$300 billion of economic activity

Interactive advertising is responsible for $300 billion of economic activity in the U.S., according to a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The advertising-supported Internet represents 2.1% of the total U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). It directly employs more than 1.2 million Americans with above-average wages in jobs that did not exist two decades ago, and another 1.9 million people work to support those with directly Internet-related jobs. A total of 3.1 million Americans are employed thanks to the interactive ecosystem. These are the key findings of the first-ever research to analyze the economic importance, as well as the social benefits, of the Internet. Among findings: small businesses have thrived as a result of the Internet. Tthere are more than 20,000 Internet-related small businesses in the U.S. that provide a variety of services such as web hosting, ISP services, web design, publishing, and Internet-based software consulting. Many of these businesses have 10 or fewer employees. To read the full study, please go to www.iab.net.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising.

Security South of the Border

Banco Azteca has implemented the Nextiva IP Video Management solution from Verint  Video Intelligence Solutions to help safeguard its data center operations. With a previous digital video recorder (DVR) system in place, the organization required a scalable platform that would meet all of its security objectives. Verint’s Nextiva video management platform is integrated with Banco Azteca’s biometric access control system to help provide bank security and IT personnel with automated notification, along with sophisticated feature-rich video viewing and transcoding from the international location to the Mexico City central location. Banco Azteca has more than 1,500 branches throughout Latin America and is among the two largest banks in Mexico. With more than 5.2 million savings accounts, Banco Azteca operates as a bank which offers loans and depository services. Banco Azteca was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Mexico. www.bancoazteca.com. (Rogelio Garcia Cabrera, IT manager, Banco Azteca.)

Virginia Credit Union

Virginia Credit Union has chosen Online Resources Corporation for its integrated online banking and bill payment services. Virginia Credit Union is one of the top 70 credit unions in the United States and serves more than 188,000 members. Virginia Credit Union chose the Unite Financial Services Suite, opting for the customized retail Internet banking solution. This solution is hosted by Online Resources and provides the credit union the flexibility to perform extensive interface modifications for its members. Bill payment is fully integrated with the hosted solution, including same-day expedited payments. (Christopher Saneda, Virginia Credit Union’s Senior Vice President and CIO.) www.vacu.org.

Black Hills Federal Credit Union

Black Hills Federal Credit Union has purchased TotaleAtlasWeb, a remote signature capture and secure document delivery solution that provides the mobility to sign documents remotely anywhere, anytime, 24/7 via the Web. The credit union will use the solution to better service its members who live in other parts of the country. (John Madsen, Vice President of Information Technology of Black Hills FCU.)

One-to-Watch: Naultilus' unique holography revolutionizes overt and covert solutions for brand and print security. http://www.nautilussecurity.com

Sovereign Bank protection

Sovereign Bank is demonstrating its commitment to protecting its customers from fraud by agreeing to be among the first to leverage the Predictive Modeling platform, part of Financial Crime Manager suite from Fiserv. (Jim Zardecki, senior vice president, director of Loss Prevention and Security, Sovereign Bank.)

Digital color printer

Print & Letter Company has installed a Ricoh Pro C900 digital color printer, giving them greater capacity and enhanced flexibility in meeting their customers’ range of printing needs. With more than 12 years of industry experience, Print & Letter specializes in both commercial and digital printing, has a nationwide presence, and works with customers on their printing and fulfillment projects from start to finish — including concept graphic design, offset and digital printing, binding, packaging and complete direct mail and fulfillment services. (Dan Mashburn, President, Print & Letter.) http://www.printletterco.com/

One-to-Watch: NewField IT is an independent software and services company that helps organisations significantly reduce their print and document storage costs. It achieves this by accurately auditing the current costs, transforming paper related processes to an optimised state, and finally managing the new estate through the use of an innovative toolset. http://www.newfieldit.com

Financial and project management

Performance Contracting Group (PCG), one of the largest specialty contractors in the United States, has chosen to integrate their financial and project management functions with CMiC software. Based in Lenexa, Kansas, PCG’s largest subsidiary, Performance Contracting Inc, is the #1 Wall and Ceiling Contractor in the U.S and the company, as a whole, has about 3,000 ongoing projects at a time. For the last 20 years, PCG has been using a combination of homegrown, internally developed software packages and heavily customized 3rd party accounting software to meet their business needs. Though the systems served the company well, the lack of integration and multiple vendor databases became an issue. (Mick Matthews, senior vice president of Performance Contracting Group.)

One-to-Watch: Easy Price Pro is estimating software for the building industry. The main pricing system was started in 1990 by a builder who couldn't find an easy way of producing estimates. Now more than 3,000 copies of the software are in use. http://www.easypricepro.com

4,500 subscribers to customer base

In a move that will add a minimum of 4,500 subscribers to its customer base by October, Wireless Matrix has finalized a contract with a leader in the pay television industry to deploy its fleet management solution across its U.S. service fleet. Valued at more than $8,500,000 over the life of its three year contract, Wireless Matrix's solution combines its Reporter series GPS and communication device with its FleetOutlook and TechConnect fleet management applications.

Interactive Voice Response

The City of Philadelphia is using two customized NEC Interactive Voice Response (IVR) applications to help improve customer service and reduce call center costs. The first system was designed for the Revenue Department to help with information associated with real estate taxes for residents. The second was designed for The Board of Revision of Taxes, the agency that establishes property values which serve as the basis for real estate taxes levied by the City. Residents can access the IVR systems to check their tax balance, lien information, request receipt copies and gather information needed to complete tax appeals applications. Using the IVR system, callers can confirm their information and then begin the process for filing an appeal and addressing tax issues. Additional information such as current market value and assessed value of their homes, as well as the last recorded title date and sales price, is also available. (Pam Scott, information management analyst, City of Philadelphia.)

Integrated case management

The consolidated government of the City of Nashville, Tennessee, and Davidson County, Tennessee are to use Tyler's integrated case management software solution.Tyler will provide software licenses, as well as professional services, maintenance, and post-implementation support. The City and County will implement Tyler’s Odyssey product suite, including Case Manager and Financial Manager applications for civil cases in the Chancery Court Clerk and Master’s offices. (Cristi Scott, Clerk and Master for the court.)

ATN to take on 800,000 customers

Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) is to pay Verizon Wireless $200 million for wireless spectrum licenses and network infrastructure - so acquiring assets serving over 800,000 customers. Verizon is required to divest these assets as part of the regulatory approvals granted for its purchase of Alltel earlier this year.

Is setting up a home network difficult?

A consumer survey conducted by ABI Research has found that while most owners of home networks find their equipment works reasonably well, they would be willing to upgrade if that resulted in easier troubleshooting. The conclusion: there is an opportunity for home network equipment vendors if they can automate some of the commonest diagnostic and configuration tasks.

Although nearly 30% of the 1007 respondents to the survey reported some initial difficulties in setting up their equipment, only 11% actually returned products as being “too hard” – a figure at the low end of the typical range of consumer electronics returns reported recently by the Wall Street Journal. Most of the problems occurred with wireless setup, suggesting that vendors have an opportunity to make wireless network setup and security a much easier process through software and hardware solutions. At present the overwhelming majority of those surveyed use their home networks to provide Internet access to more than one computer; printer sharing and (in those under 35) online gaming ran distant second and third. However that usage pattern – and the associated setup and maintenance – will soon become much more complex, as networks increasingly assume the role of distributing multimedia content around the home. www.abiresearch.com.

Kraft demand sensing

Kraft Foods, the world’s second largest food company with annual revenues of $42 billion, has implemented Terra’s Demand Sensing (DS) solution in North America to decrease costs, improve service levels and reduce inventory. Terra’s Demand Sensing solution uses pattern recognition mathematics to decipher daily streams of data to determine which information is predictive of actual demand and to more accurately predict retailer requirements. Kraft implemented the software after successfully piloting DS in all U.S. warehouse businesses. (Agnes Feliciano, vice president of customer service and fulfillment for Kraft Foods.)

Kraft Foods (http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com) has 100,000 employees. Brands include Kraft cheeses, dinners and dressings, Maxwell House coffees and Oscar Mayer meats, to global brands like Oreo and LU biscuits, Philadelphia cream cheeses, Jacobs and Carte Noire coffees, Tang powdered beverages and Milka, Cote d'Or, Lacta and Toblerone chocolates.

One-to-Watch: Kelsius automates temperature monitoring of refrigerators and cold rooms, simplifying task management and providing cost effective compliancy reporting for users in the food industries. http://www.kelsius.com

Secure file transfer at P&G

As part of its ongoing initiative to be a supply chain leader and optimize trading partner relationships, consumer products leader Procter & Gamble (P&G) uses Axway’s business-to-business (B2B) solution for their external managed file transfers (MFT). The solution delivers secure file transfer with real-time visibility and control, improving communication within and outside P&G. It also offers the agility P&G needs to respond quickly to changes in its supply chain. Currently, orders, invoices, shipment notifications and other message files flow through the Axway gateway daily at P&G, for a total of more than one million files per month — all of which must be processed automatically and on time for business to flow. Transmission failures and system downtime would interrupt P&G’s entire supply chain, negatively impacting production and revenue. (Chuck Patterson, P&G’s service manager, enterprise application integration.)

Predictive analytics and email services

Perricone MD, a leader in prestige skincare, is realizing improvements to both revenue and profitability by using iPost’s predictive analytics solution and email services to re-engage dormant customers. By segmenting customers based on level of engagement, Perricone MD is re-invigorating relationships – and sales – with both latent and active customers. (Neil Kjeldsen, vice president of eCommerce at Perricone MD.)

Prestige products are prone to counterfeiting. One-to-Watch: Naultilus' unique holography revolutionizes overt and covert solutions for brand and print security. http://www.nautilussecurity.com

500 wireless disconnect units

Nighthawk Systems, Inc., a provider of wireless and IP-based control devices and solutions, has received an initial order for 500 of its CEO700 wireless disconnect units from Inland Power and Light Company of Spokane, Washington. Inland Power is the largest electric cooperative in Washington, providing electricity to over 35,000 commercial, residential and agricultural customers. The CEO700 gives electric utilities the ability to wirelessly disconnect and reconnect power to residential electric meters from a centralized location, improving customer service response times and saving the utility significant time and money over the traditional manual disconnect method that requires multiple truck rolls and field personnel.

Support for life insurance sales

ULLICO Life Insurance Company has selected iPipeline’s Illustration Suite to support their individual life insurance sales. iPipeline’s Illustration Suite, powered by COSS, provides insurance carriers and their distributors and agents with flexibility, ease of use, and the option to integrate with iGO e-App for straight-through processing. (Stephanie Whalen, Director Insurance Operations, ULLICO Life.)

Centralized management of audit operations

Impac Funding Corporation (IFC), which, previously purchased non-conforming first mortgage loans and second mortgages from a network of third-party correspondents has selected ReliantAuditor, to provide centralized management of audit operations, controls testing, remediation and risk assessment. (Anthony Padilla, Director of Internal Audit.)

Predictive analytics underwriting

ICW Group, an auto, work compensation, catastrophe, and surety insurance carrier, has selected Valen Technologies to develop a proof of concept using its UnderRight  predictive analytics underwriting solution for their workers’ compensation line of business. Features such as Valen’s Xdata external data warehouse, as well as data from Valen Networks, Valen’s data consortium, add increased predictive value, all delivered through its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. Additionally, the Valen solution should help ICW Group streamline operations through improved underwriting automation. (David Hoppen, Chief Operating Officer at ICW Group.)

Supply-chain pricing

Telvent has announced an expanded integration between Telvent and DTN refined fuel supply chain solutions. Telvent DTN manages 80 percent of the supply-chain pricing and billing transaction interchange conducted in North America every day; and more than 60 percent of the total hydrocarbon movements in North and Latin American pipelines. Telvent DTN delivers solutions for real-time electronic integration of key inventory points across terminals and from pipeline inventory deliveries. Automatic integration of external and internal information eliminates manual entry and mistakes, speeds reconciliation of physical to book inventory and ensures security, safety and compliance needs for all stakeholders involved with the selling and buying of fuel. Telvent DTN provides operational intelligence aligned with the operative processes needed by the customers. www.telvent.com

Parental controls and web filtering

CyberPatrol, a provider of parental controls and web filtering technologies, has announced the implementation of SiteSURV 3.5 managed service at The Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. The implementation was managed and deployed by Definition 6, one of the Southeast’s managed service providers and IT Strategy organizations. SiteSURV web filtering will be used to secure the computer systems at The Ron Clark Academy and to protect the students, teachers, and administrators from internet threats.

The Ron Clark Academy is a private, nonprofit SACS CASI accredited middle school that promotes innovation and inspires its students through energetic teaching balanced by a strict code of discipline. Each year, 3,000 educators from around the world visit the Academy to learn how to replicate the school's style, philosophy and success in their own classrooms. The Academy currently relies on outside funding to provide scholarships to students from varying academic backgrounds. www.ronclarkacademy.com

One-to-Watch: At home Spysure PC product helps protect children from paedophiles and blocks adult content. In the classroom or office it monitors and views user activities and tells you what is happening online. http://www.spysure.com

Centralized phone system - VoPI

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the nation’s largest minority education organization, has partnered with iCore Networks, a D.C. metro area provider of Voice over Private Internet (VoPI) services, to implement a centralized phone system using VoPI. “iCore’s VoPI system will enable UNCF to integrate its telephony system at headquarters and more than 20 branch offices nationwide,” said Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D., UNCF president and CEO. “This will allow our entire organization to operate seamlessly and more cost-effectively.”

UNCF serves the youth, the community and the nation by supporting its 39 member historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in acquiring the resources necessary to provide students with a high quality education. Additionally, UNCF provides students with the support they need to gain access to and graduate from college prepared for competitive employment, further educational advancement and active participation in civil society. UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 900 colleges and universities across the country. www.UNCF.org.

Two-to-Watch: Replify virtualized products accelerate applications over wide area and mobile connections without the need for costly hardware. http://www.replify.com; dooloop, a provider of Bonded DSL solutions to improve network performance and reduce operating costs. http://www.dooloop.com

Measuring schooling effectiveness

Measuring schooling effectiveness is critical to improving education outcomes. SAS Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) for K-12, recently saw its 1-millionth login. Four states – Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina – use the software-as-a-service (SaaS) statewide. SAS EVAAS for K-12 lets users analyze and report on student learning growth over the school year, a key metric in evaluating schooling effectiveness. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $100 billion for education, making better evaluation a major emphasis. The milestone login occurred in Tennessee, where Dr. William Sanders developed the EVAAS methodology more than 20 years ago. SAS EVAAS for K-12 is also used by the South Carolina Teacher Advancement Program (SCTAP).

Mobile Resource Management

CompassCom Software has implemented a multi-fleet Mobile Resource Management solution for the City of Thornton, CO. The City is now able to manage more than 100 vehicles from four city departments, tracking with GPS in real time using CompassCom Software’s solution. The Thornton vehicle fleets included in the mobile resource management implementation are snowplows, fire engines, ambulances, and a variety of service trucks. A major selling point of CompassLDE is its universal compatibility with third-party vehicle equipment, such as snowplow material spreaders and emergency vehicle sirens. CompassLDE is hosted by the City and integrates with these devices and automatically transmits their status back to dispatchers. This is especially important with the snowplows because it enables the city to know precisely where de-icing materials have been applied by the spreaders. (Jim Gilbert, Maintenance Services Manager for the City of Thornton.)

Massively multiplayer online games

Gazillion Entertainment, a leading developer, publisher and operator of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, is using RTView enterprise-wide across all projects to monitor and analyze gameplay. The Gazillion studios are taking advantage of the flexibility of the RTView platform to provide their varied teams with customized, real-time visibility into the multitude of different events that impact their customers. RTView currently provides Gazillion’s studios with real-time visibility into critical play habits (via advanced interfaces such as heat maps), game service and safety events, and conversion activities – those activities that highlight play habits that will most likely result in conversion to full-paid subscriptions.

For MMO games, the ability to respond to customer interests in real time can be the difference between a successful property and one that reacts too slowly and fizzles. Understanding gameplay – knowing where critical players are at any given time and how they’re interacting with the property and organization – is of paramount importance. There are a myriad of requirements from different departments to understand customer gameplay. For example, requirements vary widely for game designers during play test sessions, marketing executives during promotional periods, and customer service representatives during in-game events. The flexibility of the RTView platform enables Gazillion to provide these different teams the right level of visibility to the right information in real time. Moreover, by combining the millions of real-time gameplay events with data sources from billing, customer service and other systems, RTView can provide all team members with the full picture of a player’s experience.

One-to-Watch: Operator of computer-based gaming centers enhance customer loyalty and optimize profits with software from Game the World. http://www.gametheworld.com

3-D facial modeling technology

Big Stage Entertainment, Inc., platforms for consumer projection of self into digital life, has licensed its proprietary 3-D facial modeling technology to Virtual Space Entertainment for their new high definition, photo-realistic 3-D virtual universe, Blue Mars 2150. Blue Mars 2150 launches August 2009 with support to follow from innovative interactive museum exhibits, television and a million dollar race around a transformed virtual planet that is ready for colonization.

Top software initiative for businesses this year

Modernizing key legacy applications is the top software initiative for businesses this year, according to a new survey by Forrester Research, Inc. The survey of more than 2,200 IT executives and technology decision-makers in North America and Europe is Forrester’s largest annual study of software spending and adoption trends for both enterprises and small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) and is part of Forrester’s Business Data Services (BDS) series. BDS provides an extensive data set for B2B Market Research professionals’ go-to-market strategy assessments.

“The costs of operating monolithic legacy applications makes them unsustainable, and these survey results show that firms are seeking efficient ways to modernize,” said Jean-Pierre Garbani, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. “Companies are willing to adapt their business processes to cheaper packaged software solutions rather than wait for custom applications. Automation is the key to IT’s future.”

Updating key legacy applications was cited as the top initiative for both enterprises and SMBs at 64 percent and 55 percent, respectively. More than one-quarter of enterprises and more than one-fifth of SMBs said that updating and modernizing key legacy applications is very important. Top-line overviews of the full survey responses are available to Forrester RoleView™ clients. Subscribers to Forrester’s Business Data Services receive more detailed data and access to unlimited custom data cuts. Other key highlights of the survey include:

Software budgets will hold relatively steady. Enterprises allocated 16 percent of their IT operating budgets toward expensed software costs in 2008 and plan to allocate 17 percent over the next year. SMBs allocated 19 percent toward expensed software costs in 2008 and plan to allocate 19 percent in the next 12 months.

Reducing IT costs and improving integration are top goals. Eighty-one percent of enterprises consider reducing IT costs to be an important goal, with improving integration between applications not too far behind at 77 percent. Seventy-one percent of SMBs consider improving integration to be important, with reducing IT costs and using information technologies to increase innovation next.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) concerns and barriers have diminished. Compared with 2008, the 2009 landscape for SaaS is looking brighter, but there are still some bumps along the road to adoption. Currently, at 31 percent, security concerns are the most commonly cited reason why enterprises aren’t interested in SaaS. At 39 percent, total ownership costs represent the top concern for SMBs that aren’t interested in SaaS.

Packaged applications are preferred. When implementing a major application, a packaged application or application modules are the most preferred deployment options for 33 percent of enterprises and 45 percent of SMBs. The next preferred option for both is a tailored solution assembled from existing custom and packaged application modules. Few firms prefer to turn to SaaS or a hosted solution. www.forrester.com.

Locally placed search advertising growth

Locally placed search advertising in the U.S. is projected to grow 30 percent over the next five years, from $4.1 billion in 2008 to $5.3 billion in 2013. According to research by Borrell Associates, this growth will be led primarily by advertising service providers that adopt scalable technology infrastructure and recalibrate their economics to allocate more customer investment to search media spend. According to the report, many online advertising resellers and affiliates, who service local businesses, churn half their customers within a year’s time, and some lose as many as 90 percent. This often is due to missed expectations and a lack of return on investment for local-business customers. Critical points for local advertising success include correctly pricing advertising products for local businesses, and devoting a greater percent of that investment to media spend. Most important, advertising products and value must be easily understood by local businesses. That requires a shift from selling Web site clicks to selling measurable leads, delivered via email and phone calls. This report is available for free at Clickable.com.

Predictive analytics software at Procter & Gamble

The Procter & Gamble Company has turned to Predictive Analytics to gain a complete view of customer attitudes and preferences about its products. By using SPSS Inc. Predictive Analytics Software (PASW), Procter & Gamble is able to gather and analyze direct feedback – harnessing the vital Voice of the Customer to improve marketing research and brand evaluation. Procter & Gamble (P&G) manufactures well-known brands including Tide, Pampers, Pantene and Crest products. (Patrick Hogan, consumer research solutions manager for global business services at P&G.)

Network upgrade for Mizuno USA

Mizuno USA, a leading manufacturer of sports equipment and sportswear, has conducted a network upgrade using Brocade FastIron Power over Ethernet (PoE)-enabled and ServerIron application delivery switches. Mizuno’s new architecture enables efficient and advanced IP communication between geographically distributed campuses and product development groups, providing the foundation needed to manage and expand business operations. Parent company, Mizuno Corporation, designs and manufactures sports equipment and sportswear for recreational and professional athletes worldwide. Founded more than 100 years ago by Rihachi Mizuno in Osaka, Japan, the company has followed a product development strategy to create sporting goods with unique features and innovations that enhance athletic performance. (Keith Neely, vice president of Customer Support, Mizuno USA.)

Discount Tire Company e-commerce

The world's largest independent tire and wheel retailer Discount Tire Company has implemented a combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Satellite for its growing e-commerce business. In 2000, Discount Tire decided to bring the management of its e-commerce infrastructure in-house after having outsourced it for several years. The IT team originally tried building a new e-commerce system based on a Windows platform, but the solution did not meet Discount Tire’s performance, reliability and stability needs. Additionally, Discount Tire’s use of IBM Lotus Domino Server was a critical aspect of its daily ability to meet business demands. Previously running on Windows, the lack of reliability and consistent downtime of its Lotus software was critically impacting its day-to-day operations. “Our e-commerce environment has to be available 24/7/365 at 99.99 percent availability, making it absolutely mission-critical. Our internal applications running under Red Hat Enterprise Linux include inventory management and email – things that people cannot live without,” said Will Darton, senior server support administrator for Discount Tire.

Software for restaurant chain

Pollo Campero, located in eleven countries around the globe and serving more than 75 million customers annually, is to deploy MenuLink Labor, the labor management back office application, and MenuLink Inventory, the inventory and food cost management back office application in its franchise and company-operated locations of its Campero USA business. The combination of comprehensive labor and food cost management tools will help the global restaurant chain to optimize scheduling, forecasting and financial reporting. By gaining the ability to closely monitor inventory and analyze food cost, Campero USA will be able to deliver higher levels of profitability by allowing greater control and efficiency without adding incremental resources. (Rodolfo Bianchi, vice president of operation services at Campero USA Corp.) www.campero.com.

Power management software saves

As part of the City of Honolulu’s Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s Sustainability plan, the city’s deployment of Verdiem’s Surveyor PC power management software. Since deployment and power policy enforcement across 1,700 of the city’s 4500 PCs beginning in July 2008, Verdiem’s Surveyor has saved the City of Honolulu $30 per PC per year, reducing PC energy costs by more than 30 percent. As a result, the city has also achieved a payback from its purchase within 8 months of use and is accruing an ongoing positive return on investment. “At thirty cents per kilowatt hour, the City of Honolulu pays the highest energy rates in the country, so we deployed power management solutions as a key component of our Green-IT initiative and it’s already paying dividends,” said Gordon Bruce, Director/Chief Information Officer of IT for the City of Honolulu.

“The City of Seattle has set an ambitious agenda to address climate change and the results we are achieving with Verdiem in reducing the City’s PC energy consumption demonstrate, in a very tangible way, how we can collectively save on energy costs and protect our planet,” said Seattle’s Mayor Nickels.

Enterprise-wide banking solution in Hawaii

American Savings Bank has chosen Fiserv to provide a complete, enterprise-wide banking solution based on the Signature Bank Platform.  Serving Hawaii’s businesses and communities for more than 80 years, American Savings Bank is Hawaii’s third-largest financial institution based on 2007 year-end assets and has the second-largest branch network in the state, with 61 branches and over 200 automated teller machines. American Savings Bank provides a full range of financial products and services, including commercial and consumer banking, insurance and investments. www.asbhawaii.com.(Rick Robel, executive vice president, Operations and Technology, American Savings Bank.)

Money laundering prevention services

Community Trust Services Corp. has implemented Banker’s Toolbox’s Bank Secrecy Act / Anti-Money Laundering Management System (BAM) software to provide enterprise-wide money laundering prevention services and WirePro for complete wire processing capabilities. “As our banks continue to extend their reach, we were ready to move beyond spreadsheets and find a unified and more innovative approach to compliance reporting,” said Royce Dillard, senior vice president of Community Trust Services Corp. Community Trust Financial Corporation is a financial holding company with more than $1.1 billion in total assets providing financial services. www.ctbonline.com.

Streamline customer communications

SafeAuto Insurance Company has selected the Thunderhead NOW platform to streamline the creation and delivery of customer communications across the enterprise. SafeAuto provides personal auto insurance on a consumer-direct basis exclusively through online and telephone distribution channels. The company specializes in providing low-cost, state-required minimum limits auto policies. “We needed a solution that could help bring our claims communications system into the 21^st century,” said Jeff Fields, SVP and CIO of SafeAuto. We will now be able to create and deliver our customer communications in a more seamless and efficient manner, leveraging the latest channels, including online.” www.safeauto.com.

Self-healing PCs at USPS

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has awarded a contract to Persystent Technologies to deploy Persystent Suite, which restores corrupted, changed, or missing operating system and application files in less than 30 seconds, will be used to image, protect and enforce desktop policies on approximately 150,000 PC workstations for the USPS nationwide. Persystent Suite ensures that PCs are always work-ready by identifying and resolving system problems every time the computer is started. With more than 32,000 post offices nationwide, USPS faces the challenge of managing thousands of remote PC workstations. In the past, USPS staff relied on remote IT help desk assistance for the majority of computer issues, which could take hours to resolve. With Persystent Suite, individual employees will be able to resolve computer issues caused by malware, system misconfiguration and viruses by simply rebooting the machine – essentially giving them a self-healing PC. As a result, USPS expects to reduce PC downtime and the time and expense associated with re-imaging a failed PC. 

Next Generation E9-1-1 Call Taking

Shelby County, Alabama has awarded Emergency CallWorx (ECX) a contract to provide an integrated, multi-agency Next Generation (NG) E9-1-1 Call Taking solution. Multiple jurisdictions within Shelby County will experience the receiving and handling both traditional and VoIP-based calls using Fault Tolerant servers. Shelby County will utilize ECX NG9-1-1 call taking by integrating with several legacy Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems. Encompassing approximately 800 square miles in Central Alabama, Shelby County is the fastest growing county in the state. The county receives on average 70,080 calls for service per year and responds to about 155,750 incidents. (John Ellison, Executive Director, Shelby County 9-1-1.)

Defense ID access control system

Intellicheck Mobilisa has received a contract from Parris Island Marine Recruit Depot to provide the Defense ID access control system to protect the base. Defense ID is currently in use at over 70 secure government installations. Utilizing Intellicheck Mobilisa’s patented ID reading technology, Defense ID quickly scans various forms of IDs, such as Drivers Licenses, Military ID’s or TWIC cards, and instantly compares the data to over 100 “bad guy” lists.

DISA to enhance command-and-control software

The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has selected GemFire solution to enhance the delivery of command-and-control software to the Global Command and Control System–Joint Program Office (GCCS-J). Through a partnership with Northrop Grumman Corporation, GemFire is providing best-of-breed data management capabilities to arm agencies with up-to-the-minute visibility and situational awareness of military actions wherever they occur. The U.S. military relies on data to make the decisions that impact the American people. To make these crucial security decisions, the military requires immediate and ongoing access to the maximum amount of information possible. Any downtime or delay in obtaining vital security data may lead to a slowdown in military response time and, consequently, the compromise of missions and operations necessary to ensure national well-being. Northrop Grumman, in support of the DISA GCCS-J Program Office, is working to provide command-and-control software to the U.S. Military Commands, Joint Task Forces, the Pentagon and other vital information-reliant agencies. The Agile Client, an alternative to the standard GCCS-J client, provides three-dimensional views of geographic referenced data. The GemFire data fabric, with its robust, built-in distributed data management functionality, provides lightning-fast caching, support for disconnected operations, continuous querying and real-time analysis to speed the delivery of this vital data to users’ desktops anywhere, at any time. (Brian LaRoche, Director of Joint Command and Control Programs for Northrop Grumman Information Systems sector’s Defense Systems Division.)

IFS Applications for SEAKR Engineering

SEAKR Engineering, which develops solid state memory systems and other products for embedded computing in the aerospace and defense industry, is implementing IFS Applications to help it better serve its growing roster of major OEM customers. Since SEAKR works on government programs in partnership with major aerospace and defense OEMs, government-mandated reporting methods like earned value management (EVM) are important and, since SEAKR develops its technologies for each specific application, but still has some standard parts, it needs an enterprise environment optimized for mixed manufacturing modes, including engineer-to-order, make-to-order, make-to-stock and kitting of complex electronic assemblies.

Paris Air Show

The Paris Air Show 2009 takes place June 15, 2009 - June 21, 2009 at Le Bourget Exhibition Centre. A list of exhibitors (with contact details and profiles) is available, free of charge, on request from Roger Frampton: rogerf@exportaction.net.

Security and compliance process support

Connectria Corporation, a managed hosting and data center services provider has adopted Tripwire Enterprise by Tripwire. Tripwire Enterprise allows Connectria to support security and compliance processes across all its world-class data center locations. The net result for the company is increased system availability and customer satisfaction. Two of Connectria's strong differentiators are its high degree of security and cost-efficiency. With partners such as Cisco, Dell, Lotus and VMware, it is important to establish proactive solutions that continue to mitigate risk. Tripwire Enterprise provides automated detection, enhanced file integrity monitoring, compliance assessments and remediation processes for any change or configuration that seems suspect or at risk for non-compliance. (Rich Waidmann, President and CEO, Connectria)

Network at Quinnipiac University

Quinnipiac University will deploy 3Com’s H3C core-to-edge enterprise data networking solutions throughout its three-campus network that serves about 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff. The network and its applications resources will be managed by one of 3Com’s newest offerings, the H3C Intelligent Management Center (IMC), and secured using 3Com’s TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention System. Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution. The university enrolls 5,600 full-time undergraduate and 1,900 graduate students in 52 undergraduate and 19 graduate programs of study in its School of Business, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, School of Law, College of Arts and Sciences and College of Professional Studies. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among the top universities with master’s programs www.quinnipiac.edu. (Fred Tarca, associate vice president, Information Services.)