RSA: Call for Speakers opportunity

RSA Conference (www.rsaconference.com) has made available the offline call for speakers submission form for RSA Conference 2010, taking place March 1 – 5, 2010, in San Francisco. Information security professionals are encouraged to download the form at: http://sn.im/meyq5. Interested speakers will be able to submit their online submissions once the site is live beginning Tuesday, July 28, 2009. All submissions are due no later than Friday, August 14, 2009.

Wi-Fi-enabled healthcare products

A study from ABI Research forecasts that revenue from sales of Wi-Fi-enabled healthcare products worldwide (not even including Wi-Fi-equipped medical equipment) will total $4.9 billion in 2014. Visit US Market Statistics for more information.

Shopping cart abandonment program

S&S Worldwide, a national distributor of arts and crafts and sporting goods products, recently implemented a shopping cart abandonment program through Silverpop Engage that helps the company generate an impressive 25 percent conversion rate—more than seven to eight times the average conversion rate of 3 to 3.5 percent that Forrester Research reports retailers typically achieve. Busy people often put items in online shopping carts and then fail to complete the transaction. Within an hour of cart abandonment, S&S Worldwide automatically sends shoppers an email reminder to complete their purchases. The program operates using Web analytics from Coremetrics integrated with Silverpop Engage Transact, a dedicated sending architecture specifically designed for triggered transactional emails and messaging. If the customer still takes no action, the company follows up periodically with additional emails that offer various incentives for completing the purchase. Nye said the ability to send triggered, one-off messages with content relevant to the items in the abandoned cart plays a significant role in enticing customers to complete their purchases.

Silverpop, a leading provider of email and B2C customer engagement marketing solutions and multichannel B2B marketing automation, assists retailers with email marketing programs that build closer consumer relationships and drive revenue. S&S Worldwide is a national distributor of arts and crafts and sporting goods products for recreation, health care and education professionals. S&S has been in business for 103 years. Currently the company employs approximately 300 employees. (Carolyn Nye, marketing manager for S&S Worldwide.)

Caterpillar dealer improves business

Wagner Equipment Co., a U.S.-based Caterpillar equipment dealer, has licensed the Lawson for Equipment Service Management and Rental Suite. Wagner will deploy the Lawson system to help bring new capabilities, functionality and improved efficiencies into its business. This industry-specific solution from Lawson helps heavy equipment dealers better manage sales, service, maintenance and equipment rental operations within their business. Wagner Equipment Co., a privately held Caterpillar dealer since 1976, sells and rents quality Caterpillar machines and engines. These machines and engines are used in heavy construction, building construction, mining, waste handling, paving, municipal and governmental applications, forestry, power generation and more. (Bruce Wagner, COO for Wagner Equipment Co.)

$268,000 order for a custom designed SMB connector

Aviel Electronics has been awarded an initial $268,000 production order for a custom designed SMB connector from Zargo Technologies, a leading Canadian Electro-Mechanical Distributor. The initial order of 10,000 connectors is expected to be substantially delivered in RFI's current fiscal year.

Pay for parking by 'phone

Verrus Mobile Technologies, Inc. has implemented its Pay by Phone parking service in Sacramento, CA, Ann Arbor, MI and at Texas Tech University. www.verrus.com.

Seattle Fleets and Facilities workflow

The City of Seattle's Fleets and Facilities Department has chosen Skire Unifier to replace four obsolete systems with a single, Web-based platform for systemizing and integrating management processes and data. The City of Seattle Fleets and Facilities Department operates and manages approximately 3 million square feet of city-owned facilities. Skire Unifier will integrate workflow between the city's property management, lease and tenant management, resource conservation, facilities maintenance, space planning, building asset management, cost and time tracking, facilities and condition inventory, and other functions. http://www.skire.com.

Fuel savings on Canadian Pacific

GE Transportation has been awarded a contract by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited to equip 200 locomotives with its Trip Optimizer fuel savings product. Trip Optimizer, a product of Ecomagination, is an advanced energy management system that optimizes fuel consumption based on a specific train's makeup and the route being traveled. The system calculates a fuel optimal speed profile for the trip and then automatically controls the throttle to maintain that planned speed. Trip Optimizer uses GPS, a digital track database and advanced algorithms that automatically learn the train’s characteristics throughout the trip to achieve the fuel savings. The system evaluates train length, weight, grade, track conditions, weather and locomotive performance to calculate the most efficient way of running the train while maintaining smooth train handling. www.getransportation.com.

Online banking service

Realtors Federal Credit Union, the country’s first Internet-based credit union, has launched a comprehensive online banking service using Corillian Online from Fiserv. The credit union opened in May 2009 and serves the more than 1.2 million members of the National Association of Realtors, as well as their families. (Jesse Boyer, chief information officer, Realtors Federal Credit Union.) www.realtorsfcu.org. www.fiserv.com.

$5.3m in contract modifications

Argon ST has been awarded two contract modifications by the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training & Instrumentation (PEO STRI) to support pre-production activities of the Operational Test-Tactical Engagement System (OT-TES) Communication Upgrade program. The contract modifications are valued at approximately $5.3 million.

Family organization solution

Cozi, a free web service that helps families organize and simplify their daily lives, has formed a partnership with Nestlé to offer a co-branded edition of its popular family organization solution. Nestlé will launch the Cozi co-branded service in conjunction with its back-to-school “Happy New School Year” campaign beginning July 15. Cozi has more than 1.4 million family members, and is available for free at www.cozi.com. Nestlé USA had 2008 sales of $8.8 billion. (Becky Chao, mom insights director, Nestlé.)

Bakery’s catering program

La Boulange, a San Francisco-based rustic French-inspired bakery, has selected MonkeyCatering to help develop the bakery’s first catering program with online ordering and end-to-end production management. La Boulange will launch its new website, www.laboulangebakery.com, next month and plans to complete the implementation of MonkeyCatering in the late summer to early fall timeframe. MonkeyMedia Software specializes in web-based operations solutions for the foodservice industry.

Wireline and wireless solutions for Pinnacle

Sprint and Pinnacle Airlines have reached an agreement for Sprint to provide a suite of integrated wireline and wireless solutions to Pinnacle, one of the airline industry’s largest regional carriers. The agreement encompasses a wide range of voice and data services. Wireline services include MPLS network services, SIP Trunking, Mobile Integration and international long distance, and wireless services include mobile broadband, Wireless WAN with DataLink, Land Mobile Radio (LMR) and in-building coverage. Sprint will supply more than 1,100 voice and data devices to support the converged solution. www.sprint.com.

Pinnacle Airlines Corp.’s two operating subsidiaries, Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. and Colgan Air, Inc., have 6,000 employees and fly over 1,000 daily flights transporting 13 million passengers a year to 144 cities and towns in North America. (Jayne Pendergast, Director of Information Technology for Pinnacle Airlines Corp.)

$2m for smart microgrid demonstration

With the goals of increasing energy security, energy efficiency, and promoting cleaner, alternative energy at U.S. military bases, GE today announced it has been awarded $2 million in Federal stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for a smart microgrid demonstration project at Twentynine Palms Base, California. The base is the world's largest Marine Corps Base and it is the premier training facility in the world for Marine operations, drawing military personnel from all over the world for Combined Arms Exercises. GE and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) office at DOD are in the process of finalizing a contract for the project. www.ge.com/research.

$1 million on visual recognition

Evolution Robotics has won a federal contract from the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research valued at nearly $1 million for research on scaling visual recognition for maritime domain awareness. Evolution Robotics partners with brand leaders to make their products smarter by providing solutions for vision, autonomous navigation and intelligence. From toys to cell phones and vacuum cleaners to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) the company has over 5 million products on the market through partners such as Sony, Bandai, Sharper Image and AU Phones from KDDI in Japan. Evolution Robotics is an operating company of Idealab, a creator and operator of technology businesses. www.evolution.com

$1 billion of unclaimed property

Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. has been awarded a contract from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts to increase the amount of unclaimed property the state returns to its rightful owners. To support the Comptroller’s mission of finding the owners of more than $1 billion in property, the ACS Unclaimed Property Clearinghouse will provide the state with management and program direction, specialized services to locate property owners, as well as supplemental claims processing and call center services under the competitively bid contract. The unclaimed assets include payroll checks, utility deposits, bank accounts, safe deposit box contents and insurance proceeds.

The work of ACS touches millions of people every day. ACS processes more than half of the nation’s child support payments; manages 24 electronic payment card programs for state and federal clients, disbursing government payments and benefits; processes nearly 570 million Medicaid claims each year totaling more than $50 billion in provider payments; saves state child care programs millions of dollars; and services student loans for more than 11 million borrowers.

$16m in driver’s license solutions

L-1 Identity Solutions has been awarded contracts and contract extensions from Delaware, Louisiana, Tennessee, Indiana and a State to be named at a later date, to continue providing secure driver’s license solutions, bringing the total value of these contracts to $27.6 million. Extension options in the yet-to-be-named State would add an additional $16 million. All of the awards were made to the Secure Credentialing Division of L-1. www.L1ID.com.

$6.8m on explosives-detection systems

The U.S. Army has purchased $6.8 million of Fido XTi explosives-detection systems from ICx Technologies, a developer of advanced sensor technologies for homeland security, force protection and commercial applications. The Fido XTi is the international version of the combat-proven Fido XT. The Fido XTi features a modified user-interface, weighs less than three pounds, and provides trace detection of explosive materials or contamination.

Promoting to mobile phone’s idle screens

Ace Hardware is promoting popular home maintenance products to mobile consumers through mobile phone’s idle screens. A national campaign launched around Ace’s Memorial Day Sale invited consumers to visit their local Ace Hardware to take advantage of deals. The campaign was executed by Horizon Media and generated an average CTR of 18%. In addition, consumers that viewed the campaign were nearly 30% more likely to visit an Ace Hardware retail store. Mobile Posse’s innovative mobile idle screen advertising platform powered the campaign.

The Mobile Posse solution also allows advertisers to conduct short form surveys through the mobile idle screen. In follow-up to the Ace campaign, users were asked whether they had visited an Ace Hardware store within the past seven-to-ten days. Users that viewed the campaign were 29% more likely to have visited an Ace Hardware retail store than users that did not view the campaign. These results demonstrate that mobile idle screen ads and sponsorships can help to drive traffic to retail locations. Consumers opt-in to Mobile Posse’s free application to receive informative and fun content, along with valued offers from local and national retailers. Full-screen offers are targeted and interactive, and can feature rich graphics and customer surveys. Ace Hardware has 4,600 hardware, home center and building materials stores that generate annual retail sales of more than $12 billion. www.acehardware.com. (Andrew Vitellaro, Sr. Creative Specialist at Ace Hardware.) www.mobileposse.com

Alternative to plastic cards

CashStar, the interactive gift card and incentives company, has been selected by Dippin’ Dots, well known for its beaded ice cream. With CashStar’s technology, Dippin’ Dots will provide consumers with an alternative to plastic cards. Beginning this summer, ice cream lovers everywhere can order Dippin’ Dots gift cards online to be sent to recipients via e-mail. Virtual gift cards will be available on the company’s website (www.dippindots.com) and can be purchased the same way plastic gift cards are ordered; only the virtual gift card can be personalized with different images and text and is delivered via an e-mail with a link to activate the gift. Dippin’ Dots are tiny, cryogenically frozen beads of ice cream, yogurt, sherbet and flavored ice. Invented in 1988 by microbiologist Curt Jones., Dippin’ Dots are sold in nearly 250 franchised retail locations. (Anthony George, local area marketing manager at Dippin’ Dots.) www.cashstar.com