IBM introduces new software to accelerate workload movement to System z

November 23, 2009 · Filed Under Business Software, Productivity Software, Software News · Comment 

IBM announced 10 new software products to help companies lower application management costs by optimizing the System z mainframe for more workloads, such as data analytics, collaborative application development, application maintenance and other key business processes.

Given System z’s ability to reduce costs through server consolidation, IBM and the industry have aggressively extended the breadth of new workloads for the mainframe via 3,800 z/OS-based and 3,000 Linux-based applications. The unique ability of the mainframe to host many application services on one system has helped System z achieve one of the industry’s lowest application costs per user. Minimal application costs are important for companies which rely on multiple applications to run their business.

The new products span IBM’s software portfolio to provide a range of benefits for System z customers. The benefits include optimal application connectivity, productivity, security and data management.

The new offerings complement IBM’s recent announcement of seven integrated hardware, software and services packages — IBM System z Solution Editions — to help customers deploy new enterprise workloads, such as data warehousing, electronic payments and disaster recovery.

The new products include:
– IMS 11 provides direct SQL access to IMS data from any distributed platform. This simplifies and speeds the process of connecting applications and data, while also enabling easier data replication and change capture processes. Enhanced Java support expands the number of developers available to support IMS applications and business services.

– New products from WebSphere to enhance business process management, connectivity and integration including: WebSphere Process Server for z/OS V7, IBM WebSphere ILOG Business Rule Management Systems, WebSphere MQ for z/OS V7.0.1, WebSphere Message Broker for z/OS V7.0, and IBM Problem Determination Tools V10. These products are designed to help clients discover insights that enable innovation, maximize the value of business interactions, and optimize productivity and resources. For a full list and description of the new WebSphere products visit: www.ibm.com/smartwork/businessagility

To help clients cut application maintenance costs, IBM offers:
– IBM Rational Developer for System z version 7.6 provides a modern GUI development environment, to increase developer productivity and lower the costs associated with maintaining and building multi-platform applications. The new offering helps attract next-generation workers, consolidates multi-language development into a single environment and dramatically reduces CPU usage of up to 50 percent, minimizing budget
expenditures.
– IBM Rational Team Concert for System z version 2.0 uses a new common repository to help teams to work together, share assets, automate processes and deliver software faster. The software expedites response times and cuts costs by consolidating disparate development team infrastructures and automating software development across multiple platforms, which is important for tiered applications.

– An enhanced set of IBM Rational Compilers for C/C++, COBOL and PL/I reduce application MIP requirements, while increasing developer productivity and reducing both capital expense and overall development costs.

To help clients gain better insights about enterprise assets and lower network management costs, IBM offers:

– Tivoli Asset Discovery for z/OS removes unused and obsolete software and helps determine software usage to plan effectively for the future and to run smarter systems.
– IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS 5.4 improves network and automation control for data centers and change management. It provides an understanding of how network availability and events impact the business, helping customers deliver smarter, more automated systems.
– IBM Tivoli zSecure provides a mainframe security solution for automated analysis and reporting of mainframe events and compliance dashboards that lower auditing costs helping companies run a smarter more cost effective system.

Telcordia, Sodifrance and HVB Unicredit are among the companies worldwide already benefiting from the long-term economics of the System z platform.

“Telcordia’s data systems are designed to provide consistently high throughput all the time. Each system averages five million transactions per day, supporting an average of 250 gigabytes of active data,” said Paul Gandolfo, a senior technical specialist in application development and performance at Telcordia. “Our customers bet their businesses on the services we provide, and we bet our service performance and reliability on IBM’s Information Management System. Downtime is not an option.”

“Building an agile development team requires a multiplatform approach and Sodifrance uses Rational Developer for System z and Rational Team Concert for System z to help application teams synchronize their efforts and improve collaboration,” said Hugh Smith, project manager of Sodifrance. “Rational on System z offers a powerful and valuable combination for any company that wants to boost its development team’s productivity.”

“Programmers that are using Rational Developer for System z have found that development is more comfortable than with our existing set of development tools,” says Almut Geiger of HVB Unicredit. “Debugging in particular is much faster. Features like syntax checking, content assist, multiple views and error identification make development easier. For example, when there were coding errors before, a developer had to find the correct line number in the code and then try to determine what was wrong with the code. Now they just click on an icon, and they are led directly to the position of the error. It takes people some time to get familiar with a new environment, but when they become familiar with Rational Developer for System z, we are seeing an estimated 15 percent increase in development efficiency and a 10 percent increase in testing efficiency.”

System z, visit http://www.ibm.com/mainframe

System z software, visit http://www.ibm.com/software/os/systemz

Source: IBM

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Teradata Enterprise Analytics Cloud extends architectural flexibility and business agility

October 19, 2009 · Filed Under Business Software, Internet Software, Productivity Software, Software News · Comment 

First public and private Cloud Computing offer for rapid analytics

Teradata Corporation, the world’s largest company solely focused on data warehousing and enterprise analytics, announced that the Teradata Enterprise Analytics Cloud(TM) provides Teradata customers architectural flexibility, which enables them to meet their expanding analytic needs by leveraging cloud computing technologies. Initial offerings include the Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud, Teradata Express on Amazon EC2, and Teradata Express for VMware Player.

For the business user, public and private clouds provide flexible, self service for the rapid building of short term analytic data marts, allowing users to pay only for the computing power actually used. More importantly, these cloud solutions offer business users and developers another means of improving decision making with agility and speed.

Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud

The Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud, Teradata’s entry into private Cloud Computing, is a unique set of products, capabilities and services designed to enable agile analytics in a Teradata private cloud environment. This allows for rapid development and sandbox-style analytics. Business users can create data marts inside their Teradata system within minutes. This eliminates the need to build separate, costly physical data marts, because the production data can be accessed directly, without data movement or duplication. Built on the proven Teradata Database and platforms, the Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud combines advanced workload management, the new Teradata Elastic Mart Builder tool, and a services methodology to enable business users to rapidly exploit data marts inside their Teradata System. The Teradata Elastic Mart Builder is a Teradata Viewpoint self-service portlet that makes it easy to create data marts for application development. It is flexible and allows external data to be combined with existing data facilitating the discovery of new insights. The Teradata Elastic Mart Builder is being released as a free tool to be deployed through Teradata Developer Exchange. Teradata Active System Management, the company’s flagship workload management product, is a key enabler because it optimizes priorities between experimental analytics and production workloads.

The Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud allows the business user to rapidly analyze data and respond to market opportunities with speed and confidence. This solution helps chief information officers control data mart proliferation, reduce costs for software licenses and servers, and lower training and labor costs.

“Many IT organizations are under-resourced and under tremendous pressure to cut costs, driving some business users to create their own ’shadow IT’ organizations to meet their needs,” said Scott Gnau, chief developer officer, Teradata Corporation. “These shadow IT groups create conflict between the business users and IT groups. The Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud helps to eliminate the conflicts and brings business and IT together, saving money and enriching their analytical insights.”

Teradata Express Cloud Offerings

The two new Teradata Express cloud offerings are built on Teradata Express, which is a free, non-production version of Teradata Database software intended for developers and evaluation scenarios. The cloud versions of Teradata Express support up to one terabyte of data and are powered by Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.

Teradata Express on Amazon EC2

Teradata Express on Amazon EC2 is available on the flexible Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). This prepackaged edition is a free developer version of the Teradata Database for use in the scalable, robust Amazon EC2 environment. Customers can quickly launch Teradata Express on Amazon EC2 and begin their collaborative work from any location in the world. Customers benefit from the easy self-service, flexible configurations, and the cost effective Amazon Web Services infrastructure, resulting in faster time to value and the quicker completion of projects.

Teradata Express for VMware Player

Teradata Express for VMware Player delivers a fully configured Teradata Database bundled for private cloud analytics. Once VMware software is installed, the Teradata Database can be loaded in minutes, taking advantage of the many features of VMware. For the Teradata Database, VMware is an important stepping stone towards delivering internal private clouds for developers and information technology operations managers. The value for customers will be the easy creation of Teradata test and development environments with a significant reduction in capital costs from server consolidation.

According to Gnau, “Teradata is all about choice that no other vendor can offer. Teradata’s advocated architecture is an integrated data warehouse, but we offer the flexibility for customers to leverage the power of Teradata in any architecture they chose to meet their business need. Our entry into loud Cloud Computing is one alternative and an extension to our Platform Family, which positions ‘Teradata for all your analytical needs.’”

Teradata is the only vendor to offer a broad family of platforms with price and performance that spans the unique business and analytical data warehouse needs of companies, making Teradata suitable to be everywhere in the enterprise. The family is supported by the high performance and dependable Teradata 13 Database, the most significant and technically advanced database for analytics.

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Printing with Windows Small Business Server 2008

October 16, 2009 · Filed Under Productivity Software, Software News · Comment 

ThinPrint simplifies Remote Web Workplace printing

Print-optimization specialist ThinPrint is now offering new product versions for the Windows Small Business Server. The .print RDP Engine for Remote Web Workplace 7.6 and .print for Remote Web Workplace 7.6 optimize printing for users who use the Remote Web Workplace to access a remote terminal server or desktop via a web browser.

The Windows Small Business Server tends to be utilized by small and mid-sized companies with up to 75 workstations or users. Remote Web Workplace, a feature of the Small Business Server, allows smaller branch offices, mobile employees and home workstations to access a terminal server or a remote desktop via a secure web session (https).

The .print RDP Engine for Remote Web Workplace provides locally available printers when a user accesses the terminal server with Remote Web Workplace, while the .print for Remote Web Workplace solution provides this when a user connects to a desktop with Remote Web Workplace. Access to the Remote Web Workplace printing functions becomes quick and easy in each case. In addition, the print data transferred by both .print solutions is highly compressed, meaning that it reaches the printer rapidly while conserving bandwidth.

Thanks to ThinPrint’s DRIVER FREE PRINTING technology, no printer drivers have to be installed on the company’s Small Business Server, the terminal server or desktop. All locally available printers can automatically be accessed by users via the internet. Both SBS printing solutions feature plug and play installation.

Available as 32-bit or 64-bit versions, both are already compatible with Windows 7 and support Windows Small Business Server 2003, as well as 2008.

The .print Engine for Remote Web Workplace, which facilitates access to remote desktops and enables Remote Web Workplace printing, is now available for 69 USD from the manufacturer’s online shop at http://www.thinprint.com/shop. The software can also be purchased from any of ThinPrint’s 500 partners worldwide.

Free 30-day demo versions of Remote Web Workplace printing, Remote printing, SBC printing, RDP printing and Virtual printing can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website at http://www.thinprint.com/demo.

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WinZip 14 takes advantage of Windows 7 innovations

October 15, 2009 · Filed Under Productivity Software, Software News, Utilities and Operating Systems · Comment 

New WinZip 14 offers many usability enhancements, improved security, and a new Backup Edition

WinZip 14 takes full advantage of the new capabilities in Windows(R) 7, streamlining the zipping and unzipping processes and affirming WinZip’s position at the vanguard of file compression, encryption, packaging and data backup software. In addition to the Standard edition and the full-featured Pro edition, WinZip 14 is now also available in the new Backup edition.

WinZip 14 saves time and space, making it easy to zip and unzip files for quick, efficient, and secure file transfer, email transmission, and data storage. It is the data compression choice for millions of users, including thousands of organizations, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. More than 190 million users have downloaded copies of WinZip from CNET’s download.com alone.

WinZip 14 Incorporates Windows 7 Enhancements

Windows 7 includes many significant enhancements that simplify working with documents, folders, and programs. WinZip 14 takes advantage of these new features to make working with Zip files easier than ever:

Libraries: WinZip 14 provides support for Windows 7 libraries. Libraries group together folders with a common theme; for example, the Pictures library puts all of your folders that contain pictures in one convenient place. With WinZip 14 you can simply select the Pictures library and zip all of your pictures, no matter where they are. And with the advanced JPEG compression supported in the Zipx format you can compress these pictures 20-25% without any loss of quality or data integrity. Backing up your important data is a breeze using libraries via the WinZip Job Wizard.

Jump Lists: WinZip 14 also supports the new Jump Lists. Simply pin the WinZip icon to your taskbar for quick and easy access to frequently used zip features, as well as to recently used Zip files and WinZip jobs.

Windows Touch: If you have a touch screen computer you will love WinZip’s full support for gestures — simple finger movements — on your touch screen PC. Using gestures, you can easily scroll through the contents of your Zip files. You can even pan, zoom, and rotate your images in WinZip Pro’s built-in Image Viewer without touching your keyboard or mouse!

Other interface enhancements include improved Dialogs in the Windows 7 style and new filtering and organizational enhancements for finding files and archives.

Improved Security

A key reason why many users purchase WinZip is its strong, easy-to-use AES encryption. WinZip 14 introduces automatic wiping of temporary copies of encrypted files after viewing, using the U.S. Department of Defense standard (DoD 5220.22-M). In addition, WinZip 14 recognizes Intel-based computers with built-in AES encryption and uses the available hardware support to make encryption operations two to three times faster.

WinZip 14 Backup edition

For the first time WinZip 14 is also available in a Backup edition. With its powerful Job Wizard users can automatically backup important data files and upload data backups to an off-site server using the internal FTP client, or burn backups to CD or DVD. An automated email notification can be sent upon job completion.

Availability

WinZip 14 is available now. Pricing starts at $29.95 (USD) for WinZip 14 Standard edition, $39.95 (USD) for Backup edition and $49.95 (USD) for Pro edition. Attractive volume licensing discounts are available. Existing registered users can upgrade to WinZip 14 at 50% of the new license fee.

Download links and ordering information can be found on the WinZip web site at http://www.winzip.com.

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CA Internet Security rolls out More Security. Less Cost. Completely Installed. program for the channel

September 5, 2009 · Filed Under Business Software, Networking Software, Security Software, Software News · Comment 

Free CA HIPS with the Purchase or Renewal of CA Threat Manager; All B2B Internet Security Products Now Come with Free Remote Installation

CA, Inc.  announced that its Internet Security Business Unit (ISBU) is rolling out a new channel program for its Business-to-Business (B2B) product lineup. CA will now offer CA Host-Based Intrusion Prevention (HIPS) free with the purchase or renewal of CA Threat Manager (a value of $1800 for 50 licenses). Additionally, all CA B2B Internet Security products, including CA Threat Manager, CA HIPS, CA Total Defense, CA Anti-Virus, CA Anti-Spyware, and CA Gateway Security, will now include remote installation free of charge.

“In this economy everyone is being forced to do more with less,” said Chris Hickey, vice president of Sales and Marketing for CA’s ISBU. “While the economy was in decline, the rate of malware increased exponentially. We created this channel-only program to provide our partners and their customers with the best B2B anti-malware solutions at a great value. By receiving free remote installation and configuration with our products, customers can alleviate the added drain on their already tapped IT resources, and can be assured that the product is installed correctly — helping avoid any potential downtime.”

CA’s full range of B2B Internet Security products facilitate security compliance and safeguard businesses from the most severe online security risks from the network to the desktop. These products include:

– CA Threat Manager is an integrated, cohesive and comprehensive security solution that detects, blocks, cleans and removes a wide range of security threats and covers all IT environments (desktop, laptop, server and other network access points) via a streamlined management capability.
– CA Host-Based Intrusion Prevention (HIPS) combines endpoint Firewall, Intrusion Detection, Intrusion Prevention, Operating System Security and Application Control capabilities to provide centralized proactive threat protection to counter online threats.
– CA Gateway Security is a comprehensive gateway security solution that secures, monitors, filters and blocks potential threats from messaging and Web traffic — all from a centralized console. CA Gateway Security can also protect against the outbound transmission of confidential information, facilitate compliance, improve employee productivity and optimize the use of valuable IT resources — improving overall business continuity.
– CA Total Defense combines these three products into a single offering, providing a multilayered protection solution that minimizes risk and confidentiality breaches, increase system uptime and improves productivity.

CA Remote Deployment Services

A professional CA remote deployment services team is assigned to each project to manage the full installation to help ensure that the job is done quickly and accurately. The installation of CA B2B products, as well as the removal of competitive products, is performed remotely via a broadband connection — providing a convenient way to help ensure that products are installed and configured correctly.

Benefits:
– Free up IT resources for other critical projects
– Reduces the hassle of product installation
– Site survey reduces install surprises
– Convenient scheduling

This offer is available worldwide via CA Internet Security Business Unit partners in English only.

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Panda Managed Office Protection and Panda GateDefender Performa receive industry praise

August 18, 2009 · Filed Under Security Software, Software News · Comment 

Panda Managed Office Protection (PMOP) has been awarded five stars in a PC World (Spain) review – Panda GateDefender picked up CRN’s recommended product seal

Panda Managed Office Protection (PMOP), the security as a service (SaaS) solution from Cloud Security Company Panda Security, and Panda GateDefender Performa, the company’s perimeter security device, have both received positive ratings from reputable industry publications, PC World and CRN Magazine, respectively.

Panda Managed Office Protection was awarded the maximum five stars in a review by PC World in Spain. The magazine defines PMOP as a “product based on a software-plus-services platform, offering simple and dynamic protection for workstations with extensive management options.” According to PC World, “(PMOP) is a highly flexible solution that allows users in SMBs to be managed and protected from a central point, regardless of whether they are inside or outside the company… This tool lets you create protection profiles even for groups, yet specifying parameters to apply to individual users. Solution administrators can view a status graph at any time, listing detections and their sources.”

“It also includes, for each license, unlimited Malware Radar audits, offering a rapid analysis of the general status of users.” These audits, along with the overall simplicity and management capabilities of the solution are rated as the most outstanding features of PMOP in the PC World review.

Panda GateDefender Performa has earned the Recommended Product seal in a review by CRN. According to the article, “Since GateDefender does not act as a router, it can easily be integrated into an existing network, without any changes to the architecture.” The magazine also praises how simple it is to set up the various Panda Security modules: “Content filtering is intuitive to set up. You can exclude specific files from the filter, or you can enable the HMTL page filter,” says CRN. This highly respected publication also underlines how Panda GateDefender Performa is “a heroic effort on the part of Panda to take on so many threats– antimalware, embedded Web threats, and more.”

More information about Panda Managed Office Protection is available at http://www.pandasecurity.com/enterprise/solutions/managedprotection/, and Panda GateDefender Performa at http://www.pandasecurity.com/enterprise/solutions/gatedefender-performa/.

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Sunbelt Software and FaceTime partner to enable Secure Web 2.0, Social Networks and Unified Communications

August 17, 2009 · Filed Under Communications, Security Software, Software News · Comment 

Sunbelt’s Anti-malware Technology Integrated into FaceTime’s Secure Web Gateway

Sunbelt Software, a leading provider of Windows security software, announced a licensing agreement with FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions enabling the safe use of Web 2.0 and unified communications in the enterprise.

Through the terms of the agreement, Sunbelt’s anti-malware technology, designed specifically for the gateway, and its Threat Track(TM) data feeds have been licensed by FaceTime for integration with its Unified Security Gateway product. As part of the integration, FaceTime will deploy Sunbelt’s VIPRE technology into its appliance to augment the protection provided by FaceTime’s Security Labs and the FaceTime WebFilter.

With the incorporation of Sunbelt’s gateway anti-malware technology, FaceTime’s Unified Security Gateway delivers robust malware scanning at the network perimeter alongside traditional Web filtering. This is in addition to the application research provided by FaceTime’s Security Labs, which protects enterprises from the associated threats of more than 2,100 Web 2.0 applications from instant messaging to P2P, Gaming, IPTV and social networking. Sunbelt’s Threat Track provides the industry’s most accurate and up-to-date feeds, identifying and propagating the latest malicious URLs and malware to researchers. It relies on the world-class research efforts of SunbeltLabs(TM), the malware research and analysis division of Sunbelt Software.

“As enterprise communications converge with publicly available Web 2.0 applications it becomes imperative to secure increasingly complex data streams,” said Nishant Jadhav, Director of Product Management of FaceTime Communications. “Sunbelt gives us the most powerful information in real-time to be able to protect enterprise users so they can freely communicate through any channel in a secure fashion.”

“Sunbelt’s threat research and detection technology, along with Threat Track data feeds is a perfect complement to FaceTime’s existing application security capabilities,” said Chad Loeven, VP, business development for Sunbelt Software. “The integration of our comprehensive perimeter anti-malware scanning engine provides FaceTime’s customers protection from the full range of threats that can be found in the Web 2.0 sphere.”

Source: Sunbelt Software

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69% of Australian organisations hit by one or more data breach incidents within last twelve months

August 12, 2009 · Filed Under Software News · Comment 

Research from Ponemon Institute Reveals Company-wide Use of Data Encryption Technologies Reduces Risk of Breach and is Critical to Company Reputation

PGP Corporation, a global leader in enterprise data protection, has announced the results of the second annual study by The Ponemon Institute, identifying the steps Australian organisations are taking in order to safeguard their confidential data. The 2009 Annual Study: Australian Enterprise Encryption Trends, which polled IT security professionals at 482 enterprises, found that 69 percent of Australian organisations have been hit by at least one data breach incident within the last year, up from 56 percent in the previous year. The number of firms experiencing multiple breaches was also up, with 41 percent of respondents admitting to more than two data loss incidents in the twelve month period (up from 28 percent in 2008). Of those organisations that did admit to a breach in the last 12 months 65 percent were never publicly announced; there was no legal or regulatory requirement to disclose these incidents.

Despite the rising number of data breaches, Australian organisations are aware of the consequences of such incidents, with 66 percent of respondents stating that data protection played an ‘important’ or ‘very important’ role in an organisation’s overall risk management efforts. 57 percent felt encryption helped them meet privacy commitments and 70 percent believed encryption was a critical factor in protecting a company’s reputation. The percentage of respondents who believe that the use of encryption increases customers’ trust and confidence in the organization’s privacy or data security commitments has increased from 32 percent in 2008 to 38 percent in 2009. Using encryption to comply with privacy or data security regulations and requirements has increased from 13 percent in 2009 to 15 percent in 2009. Those who selected regulations as one of the top reasons for using data encryption in 2009 point to the Privacy Act, National Privacy Principles and PCI DSS requirements.

In response to some high profile cases of lost and stolen laptops, together with the increased business use of smart-phones, this year’s study also assessed organisational approaches to encrypting data held on mobile devices. More than 64percent of respondents say it is very important or important to encrypt employees’ mobile devices and 55% believe that it is very important or important to provide end-to-end email security for Windows Mobile 6.0/6.1 Professional Edition.

“As we are finding through-out the world, breaches are on the rise as well in the Australian market where they increased 13 percent year over year,” said Dr Larry Ponemon, Chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute. “There is encouraging news in the Australian market, 85 percent of the respondents stated that when they take a strategic approach to their encryption applications and use a platform approach it increases the effectiveness and efficiency of their IT security program.”

The primary benefits of the platform approach to managing encryption across the enterprise include reducing operational costs, eliminating redundant administrator tasks and supporting the development of a strategic encryption strategy. These were cited in the 2008 study as being the primary benefits as well.

“Australia organizations are in a unique position to be able to lead the next generation of privacy and data security regulations in the Asia Pacific region,” said Phillip Dunkelberger, president and CEO of PGP Corporation. “The Ponemon data shows us that Australian organisations are already taking a proactive approach to protecting customer information and other valuable data assets.”

The study found that 75% of Australian businesses have fully executed or just launched implementation of data encryption technology while 25 percent are in the process of implementing encryption in order to protect sensitive information. Encryption is most widely used to protect the data held on file servers, Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and databases. VOIP and mainframe encryption are the least deployed applications.

Other high priority activities in 2009 also include data archive and e-discovery systems with 71 percent fully executed or recently launched and endpoint device control technologies with 70 percent fully executed or just launched. The activities with the highest in-process response in 2009 include the implementation of endpoint-based data leak detection and prevention technologies, identity and access management systems and strong authentication devices.

For more information or to receive a copy of this study, visit: www.encryptionreports.com.

Source: PGP Corporation

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Feature Pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign Solution Available to Midsize Companies

July 30, 2009 · Filed Under Business Software, Productivity Software, Software News · Comment 

Enhanced Business Functionality of On-Demand Solution Allows Complete Insight for Better Decision-Making

SAP AG announced the availability of the latest update – feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign(TM). Specifically designed for midsize companies, SAP Business ByDesign is a comprehensive, fully integrated on-demand solution that helps customers gain a higher degree of visibility across their enterprise in order to make more informed business decisions. In addition, the on-demand delivery model of SAP Business ByDesign helps reduce overall operational IT costs associated with infrastructure, equipment and software management, allowing midsize companies to maintain a competitive edge. The new feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign significantly expands functionality and provides more value to customers by offering business support for 35 end-to-end process scenarios. Managed, monitored and maintained by SAP experts in world-class hosted data centers, SAP Business ByDesign delivers the best of SAP technology, on-demand. Currently the solution is available in China, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“We are currently implementing SAP Business ByDesign and expect to gain clarity across our entire business, which will help us remain competitive and make fast, well-informed decisions,” said Patti Charlton, CFO, ResearchPoint. “We are excited about the capabilities we have seen in the feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign and believe that it offers significant benefits to service companies like ours. Through the new release, we expect to benefit almost immediately from the new capabilities, such as business analytics, project profitability and automated project billing that the feature pack offers.”

As companies carefully examine current and future investments, those in the small and midsize enterprise (SME) market need business models that reduce investment risks while simultaneously assisting users in managing the entire organization. The new feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign provides midsize companies with many additional functions to help them make better business decisions and gain clarity into their operations. With the feature pack 2.0, customers can achieve:

  • Complete insight for better decision-making. Through the integration with software from the SAP BusinessObjects(TM) portfolio, including Crystal Reports software and dashboards from Xcelsius software, executives of midsize companies can benefit from increased transparency into their business operation and can utilize comprehensive analytics to make decisions that can improve their business performance. Executive dashboards provide key performance indicators such as cash and liquidity management and sales projections. In addition, through customizable key performance indicators executives can control their key corporate measures.
  • Streamlined processes and faster execution. Feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business byDesign provides services and manufacturing companies more mission-critical business processes in a single, integrated solution. Designed to meet the needs of high growth services companies, feature pack 2.0 integrates customer relationship management (CRM), order-to-cash with automated billing, project profitability and resource management, time and expense reimbursement, procure to pay and service and repair. The solution also helps significantly reduce administrative overhead for services companies by offering a reduced per-user fee for consultants who only need to access the system for time and expense entry. Manufacturing companies will have complete visibility across their supply chain, including suppliers, customers, manufacturing and logistics. They can directly impact their bottom line by managing strategic procurement via an automated request for quotation (RFQ) process, as well as reduce recalls with integrated product engineering and quality management tools. The new feature pack can impact manufacturers’ top-line by having visibility into customer and product profitability using the built-in analytics and drill down capabilities.
  • Enhanced user productivity. With feature pack 2.0, companies can collaborate more effectively internally-as well as with customers, suppliers and partners — through new groupware integration with Microsoft Outlook and MS Office. Companies can achieve higher productivity by utilizing improved personalization features and a series of new third-party Web services that are now available in feature pack 2.0.

“With the availability of the feature pack 2.0, we significantly increase the value that our midsize charter clients are receiving from SAP Business ByDesign,” said Hans-Peter Klaey, president of SME and corporate officer of SAP AG. “Our charter client program for SAP Business ByDesign is a leading program to ensure close support and collaboration for innovative companies that want all the benefits of the only comprehensive and fully integrated on-demand solution dedicated to midsize companies.”

Current SAP Business ByDesign customers are notified about updates in the “What’s New” section within the solution to help them start planning for adoption of the new features at their own pace. Topics in the section enable customers to learn more about the value of new and enhanced features. In addition, customers will also receive new or updated learning courses that can be accessed in a personalized manner within SAP Business ByDesign. Further guidance will be provided on how to configure the solution to activate the new features when users are ready.

The online SAP Business ByDesign(TM) Business Center is the single place to go for information about SAP Business ByDesign and allows collaboration with SAP and its partners. Once in the business center, interested parties can access online product information, demos and role-based videos. Visitors to the center can contact SAP directly via phone, e-mail or online chat. The center also provides charter clients with access to the SAP Business ByDesign community.

Source: SAP AG

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Microsoft launches Silverlight 3 and Expression 3

July 13, 2009 · Filed Under Productivity Software, Software News · Comment 

NBC Sports, Continental Airlines and MGM leverage new releases to cost-effectively deliver immersive experiences across the Web and desktop.

Delivering on its commitment to help enable the creation and deployment of the world’s most compelling applications, Microsoft Corp. launched Microsoft Silverlight 3 and Expression 3, combining groundbreaking new capabilities with simplified packaging to provide the industry’s leading media and rich Internet application (RIA) solution. In conjunction with Microsoft Visual Studio, Silverlight and Expression offer a highly collaborative development and design environment that simplifies the process of delivering engaging user experiences. Adoption of Microsoft’s platform continues to rapidly accelerate as evidenced by strong demand for Microsoft Silverlight 2. In less than nine months since its release, more than 1 in 3 Internet devices now have Silverlight 2 installed. In addition, a surge of new Silverlight and Expression customers were announced today, including MGM’s “SGU: Stargate Universe” and Continental Airlines Inc. In addition, NBC Sports announced its intention to use Silverlight for all of its high-quality online video delivery across its numerous sporting franchises.

“NBC Sports is committed to bringing our viewers premier sporting events such as the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) events, the Wimbledon Championships and the Olympic Games,” said Perkins Miller, senior vice president of Digital Media at NBC Sports. “NBC Sports has evaluated many different technologies for delivering high-quality experiences online, and none have delivered the video quality, scalability and business value that Microsoft Silverlight has consistently brought. As we look forward to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver as well as other major championships in 2010, we will be using Silverlight as the preferred technology to deliver the best in next-generation online high-definition video experiences.”

Following quickly on the heels of NBC Universal’s deployment of Silverlight and Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) Smooth Streaming for its Live at Wimbledon video experience, Microsoft highlighted how other new customers are leveraging the power of Silverlight and Expression, including the following:

  • MGM: MGM’s “SGU: Stargate Universe” used Deep Zoom and Microsoft Photosynth within Silverlight to deliver an immersive experience on the official site, http://stargate.mgm.com/, for the Stargate TV franchise, allowing fans to explore the sets where the show is filmed in great detail. Using Silverlight technology, MGM’s “SGU: Stargate Universe” can also extend greater flexibility to prospective advertisers through various in-stream ad formats supporting multiple publishing frameworks.
  • Continental Airlines: Continental is updating its call center reservation system by redeveloping the application as a RIA using Silverlight and delivered through a Web browser. This will enable the company to enhance customer service, reduce costs and increase productivity, processing more than 70,000 calls a day.

In addition to widespread customer adoption, Microsoft also highlighted the strong partner ecosystem, with more than 300 Microsoft partners in more than 30 countries helping customers around the world design, develop and deliver compelling experiences with Silverlight and Expression, including leading content delivery networks, solution providers, and encoding independent software vendors. More information about Silverlight partners is available at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/partners/default.aspx.

“Silverlight and Expression fill a clear need in the marketplace for a complete end-to-end solution that makes it easy for development teams to work together effectively, from concept to deployment, to create the types of rich interactive experiences today’s users expect,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Platform at Microsoft. “In a record amount of time, we’ve gone from being the industry newcomer to achieving a remarkable rate of industry adoption, rapidly delivering capabilities such as SketchFlow and IIS Smooth Streaming that are unmatched by other vendors. With more than 6 million developers with .NET programming skills worldwide and a platform that delivers a rich user experience at some of the lowest costs possible, Silverlight ubiquity is a matter of ‘when,’ not ‘if.’”

Create the Applications of the Future Today

As part of its commitment to provide powerful, low-cost solutions for building rich user experiences, Microsoft announced it is further simplifying the pricing and packaging for its design and development tools. For example, developers and designers can now purchase Visual Studio Professional Edition and Expression together for a reduced rate of only $999 (U.S.) estimated retail price. Silverlight remains a free runtime that almost anyone can use to deliver great Web experiences. More detailed information on pricing is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/silverlight.

Microsoft is introducing several groundbreaking features in Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 that enable development teams to create RIAs and media applications with capabilities not offered by competitors, including the following:

  • Expression SketchFlow. Available to customers just four months after its initial debut at MIX09, SketchFlow provides development teams unrivaled capabilities to rapidly prototype applications and take their ideas from concept to reality.
  • Out of Browser. Silverlight 3 provides the seamless ability to add out-of-browser, connected and disconnected scenarios for cross-platform applications, radically improving the productivity and capabilities over traditional RIAs.
  • IIS Smooth Streaming. As part of Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) Media Services and combined with Silverlight 3, IIS Smooth Streaming enables the industry’s first HDTV-quality (1080p) video experiences with rich interactivity for both on-demand and live video.

Silverlight 3 also delivers hundreds of features and controls that increase development team productivity, including 3-D and hardware graphics acceleration. Combined with continued innovation in world-class tools for development teams in Expression 3, which builds on and complements the strengths of Visual Studio and works with Windows Server, the global Web community is now empowered to create cutting-edge RIAs and media experiences.

All this news and more will be highlighted as part of the Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 interactive virtual launch experience available at http://www.seethelight.com/. Visitors can watch product demos, visit customer and partner pavilions and see the latest in digital design and development in the new “Visual Kitchen.” Replays of the July 10 launch event keynote and in-depth product sessions will also be available.

Product Information and Availability

Silverlight 3 is available today for download at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight. Customers already using a previous version of Silverlight may be automatically upgraded to Silverlight 3. Expression 3 will be available within the next 30 days, including a free, 60-day trial version available at http://www.microsoft.com/expression/try-it. A Release Candidate of Expression Blend 3 with SketchFlow is available today for download.

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