InterDyn AKA Named in Accounting Technology’s VAR 100

InterDyn AKA, one of the most distinguished Microsoft Partners globally has been recognized by Accounting Technology magazine and it’s online counterpart WebCPA as one of the country’s top 100 value-added resellers of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) business solutions. VARs are selected for the list and ranked based upon company and revenue size and growth from year to year, as well as the variety and value of the accounting software solutions they provide.

The article, published in Accounting Technology’s special Report August 23rd 2010, highlights InterDyn AKA’s ability to build loyalty among it’s customers and team members. This year marks the fifth time in six years that InterDyn AKA has made the Top VAR 100 list and is ranked 28th for 2010.

“To be recognized as part of this list is a tribute to our team’s dedication to growing our business and the commitment we have to our clients,” said Jack Ades, Co CEO of InterDyn AKA. “Our firm is constantly looking for ways to better serve clients and use technology to help solve business problems. It is rewarding to have our team recognized nationally for their outstanding work.”

This year, special consideration was given to organizations embracing vertical solutions. InterDyn AKA has expanded their reach into focus industries including ad sales and billing solutions with DynamicsADvantage for CRM and GP. InterDyn AKA also provides Advanced Distribution for Dynamics AX software, which s provides deep distribution functionality on top of Microsoft’s industry leading Dynamics AX software.

With thousands of firms servicing these industries, it is a tremendous accomplishment for InterDyn AKA to be selected among the top 100 VARs. Along with the VAR 100 InterDyn AKA has consistently received numerous honors from Microsoft year after year including Global Partner of the Year finalist 2010 and Inner Circle membership which represents the top 1% of Microsoft Dynamics Partners worldwide.

About InterDyn AKA
InterDyn AKA is a leading Gold Certified partner dedicated to the sales, consulting, training and support of Microsoft Dynamics Business Solutions. InterDyn AKA focuses specifically on implementing and creating solutions around the Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains), Microsoft Dynamics AX (Axapta) and Microsoft Dynamics CRM applications and Microsoft based portals and Business Intelligence (BI) solutions. As an InterDyn company, InterDyn AKA offers the advantage of specialized talents and industry expertise of more than 500 certified professionals supporting more than 3,500 customers worldwide. For more information about InterDyn AKA visit http://www.interdynaka.com.

Channel Partners Continue Migration to NetSuite Cloud ERP Offerings

NetSuite Helps Microsoft Dynamics GP and Sage VARs Achieve Success in the Cloud Economy

VARs Turn from Stone-Age Software to Cloud-Age NetSuite for Integrated ERP, CRM and Ecommerce

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SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- NetSuite Inc. ( NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, today announced the latest North American channel businesses to join the NetSuite Solution Provider Program. These fast-growing companies come to NetSuite with experience selling both traditional on-premise products and point cloud solutions, demonstrating the appeal of NetSuite's unique suite approach, which provides a complete end-to-end business management solution that tightly integrates ERP / Financials, CRM and Ecommerce applications. Resellers of conventional ERP products such as Microsoft Dynamics GP or Sage are turning to NetSuite in order to embrace the future of enterprise computing, while established cloud VARs which previously focused on sales or accounting products recognize the advantages of NetSuite's comprehensive solution. The new partnerships signal the growing market acceptance and adoption of NetSuite's leading cloud business application suite by established channel businesses as the entire cloud computing economy undergoes accelerated growth.

The resellers announced today include Eide Bailly, BPS, Cirrus eBusiness, Business Intelligence 101, and Avankia. These new NetSuite partners are focused on expanding the reach of cloud computing suites into mid-market enterprises and divisions of large companies, helping clients modernize their business processes while the resellers themselves gain the competitive edge they need to thrive and stay competitive.

"Today's partnership announcement strengthens NetSuite's ability to transform business processes at companies looking to get off the on-premise software treadmill throughout North America," said Craig West, Vice President of Channel Sales at NetSuite.

Driven by growing demands for cloud software among businesses, and ongoing economic uncertainties, VARs are recognizing the need to offer customers comprehensive and cost-effective solutions. NetSuite is the natural choice for on-premise VARs looking for a strong flagship partner to help shift their businesses to the cloud. Among the on-premise resellers to join the NetSuite Solution Provider Program are:

* Eide Bailly (www.eidebailly.com) is based in Fargo, North Dakota, with offices in nine states, and is one of the top 25 CPA firms in the US. As trusted accounting advisors to thousands of companies in construction, real estate, professional services, automotive, wholesale and manufacturing industries, Eide Bailly is perfectly positioned to enhance the workflow and capabilities of its clients. NetSuite's anywhere, anytime access maximizes the potential for customers to collaborate and streamline processes as they grow beyond the capabilities of small-office accounting solutions or grow frustrated with the limitations of on-premise software. A long-time Sage reseller, the company going forward expects to empower its clients with NetSuite, the world's most adaptable ERP solution. "NetSuite is such a flexible tool and so easily customized that even as new mandates, such as expanded credit card collection or 1099 reporting come up, the solution is able to absorb all of the changes," said Victor Puchi, Eide Bailly director of accounting services. "And NetSuite's real-time data allows us to put the proper metrics in front of our clients on a day-to-day basis, which enhances our relationships phenomenally."
* BPS (www.bpsusa.com) is a Chicago-based solution provider focusing on combining expertise in accounting and business intelligence to serve companies in the Chicago Loop and beyond. A long-term reseller of Microsoft Great Plains and Dynamics products, BPS turned to NetSuite due to increasing client demand for seamless business solutions with low IT overhead. At the same time, a growing number of corporate customers saw the appeal of CRM solutions fully integrated with financials and other back-office processes, making NetSuite's end-to-end solution a clear fit. BPS plans to penetrate new vertical markets, such as distribution, with the strength of NetSuite's order processing and Ecommerce capabilities. "We are always watching industry trends and have seen cloud computing advance in a number of ways. As Wayne Gretzky said when he became the NHL goal leader, we watch where the puck is going to be," said Marc Moskowitz, BPS engagement partner. "The team at NetSuite has been very professional and responsive, and we can see that the cloud is where our clients are going."


Today's innovative VARs have already committed totally to the cloud, seeing its advantages as a service delivery mechanism for clients of all sizes. As cloud solutions have matured, some have grown in sophistication while others remain focused on narrow segments of enterprise capabilities. NetSuite, as the world's first and only end-to-end cloud enterprise management solution, is the natural next step for cloud VARs looking to expand and enhance their offerings. Among the existing cloud VARs to graduate to the NetSuite Solution Provider Program are:

* Cirrus eBusiness (www.cirrusebusiness.com), a Mount Laurel, NJ-based cloud consulting firm, focuses exclusively on delivering feature-rich, scalable, cloud-based business platforms to its Philadelphia and New York area clients. Recognizing a significant market opportunity as the recent economic downturn drove companies to reduce administrative overhead and IT expenditures, Cirrus was formed to help companies automate processes with affordable and powerful solutions that emphasize efficiency and low total cost of ownership. "Each business has its own language and its own requirements, and NetSuite customizations just snap into place and remain compatible moving forward," said Scott Shelko, Cirrus principal. "This makes NetSuite very efficient to administer, and the simplicity of rolling out a web-based system is as easy as opening up your web browser. Once clients see the power, flexibility, and efficiencies of NetSuite, they don't see why they would choose a different direction."
* Business Intelligence 101 (www.bi101.com) of Livermore, CA, is an independent software consultancy delivering software expertise, guidance and implementation services. The company changed to a cloud-only model in 2007 after seeing the unstoppable momentum of the cloud computing revolution. Not only do cloud computing solutions better meet the needs of today's evolving enterprises, but the reliable repeat revenue from customer renewals delivers a valuable revenue stream, freeing Bi101 from the "feast or famine" model that plagues so many traditional resellers. "Given the high level of customization and scalability that NetSuite offers, we believe their financial suite to be well-suited to a variety of industries," said Kevin Lalor, President of Business Intelligence 101. "We expect NetSuite will help us engage with significantly more clients as other financial systems and that our Google Apps customer base will benefit greatly by migrating from their on-premise ERP applications to NetSuite."
* Avankia (www.avankia.com), based in Nashville, is a Cloud/SaaS-focused reseller with hundreds of successful clients in several vertical markets including technology, eCommerce, health care and recruiting. After seeing NetSuite show up on the other side of the table in a number of proposals, Avankia decided to pursue a partnership with the world's leading cloud suite vendor. By combining the entire range of business critical applications in a single solution, NetSuite offers Avankia customers a superior approach to making better real-time decisions. And NetSuite's strong partner support team and innovative compensation models ensure that Avankia's successes will be rewarded. "We have found everybody at NetSuite helpful, from CEO Zach Nelson on down, and we sense their genuine interest in discussing new vertical applications and ways they can increase the value of their partner channel," said James R. Solomon, Avankia VP of sales and marketing.


To meet the growing demand for NetSuite's industry-leading cloud computing approach to end-to-end enterprise management, the NetSuite Solution Provider program seeks out experienced business software resellers which can meet client needs across a wide range of vertical markets. For more information about the NetSuite Solution Provider Program, please visit http://www.netsuite.com/portal/partners/solutionprogram/main.shtml.

For more information about NetSuite, visit www.netsuite.com.

SOURCE NetSuite Inc.

Panorama a new vision for business intelligence

Quite a while ago, Eynav Azarya, CEO of Panorama, and I had a really interesting discussion about business intelligence tools and how they could be of more use to business decision makers. The bottom line is that business decision makers are often too busy to take time to learn complex business intelligence tools and so they ring IT when they need something. I’m sure this is very frustrating to the IT organization because they acquired those tools to offer these decision makers needed information and analysis and don’t really understand why they keep getting those telephone calls.

Eynav said that his organization has devoted a great deal of time (over a decade) and effort to learn what these decision makers need and how to offer them the self-service tools that would make inquiries easy. They developed the NovaView family of products and a large number of connectors to allow access to nearly all the sources of data found within the organization. They’re a long-time partner of Microsoft and have some intriguing tools to make Microsoft’s data sources and BI tools easy to use as well.

Panarama’s goal, of course, was making life easier and help these folks make better, data-driven decisions. The company has even thought about how to make it easier to share this data within the organization, with partners and with customers (if that’s a requirement.)

I was impressed with the whole concept. You might be too.

Source:zdnet.com/blog/virtualization

Siebel, SAP still top Forrester CRM rankings, but face competition

The latest CRM software suite rankings from Forrester still show SAP and Oracle-Siebel leading the pack, but the distance is not that great.

In fact, as the CRM market has matured, some of the software products in the market have become very difficult to differentiate, said William Band, principal analyst with the Cambridge, Mass.-based research firm and an author of the report.

"That's the interesting thing about this market," Band said. "At one level, the solutions are very similar. You can say it doesn’t matter, but when you get down to specific use cases, there are differences. If you're a buyer, you still have to do your homework."

According to the report, Oracle's Siebel offering and SAP CRM still have the most complete applications with good usability, but CDC, Microsoft, Oracle's CRM On Demand application, RightNow and Salesforce.com are all gaining ground thanks to relatively fast deployment times and ease of use. Meanwhile, the Oracle CRM product that is part of its E-Business Suite (EBS) and its PeopleSoft CRM are good options for customers already running those ERP applications.

Source:SearchCRM.com

Infor Selects Microsoft as Preferred Technology and Tools Provider for Infor Software Solutions

Infor, the leading provider of business software for mid-market companies, today announced that it will closely align its key business applications with a wide range of complementary Microsoft products, forming software solutions that are easier for mid-market companies to deploy and use.

News

* Next-generation Infor software solutions that use Microsoft tools and technologies will be designed to:
o Use a unified, intuitive graphical interface running on Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for an improved end-user experience across all applications.
o More tightly integrate widely adopted Microsoft server-based products and industry-standard technologies, enabling IT to deploy Infor solutions faster and manage them more easily.
o Use Infor ION™ for application interoperability, data sharing and management for a more seamless and secure flow of information.
* The Microsoft products and technologies that will be integrated with Infor applications include:
o Microsoft SharePoint® 2010 acting as the foundation for portal based, unified interfaces for applicable Infor applications.
o Microsoft Silverlight® for dynamic graphical interface elements.
o Microsoft SQL Server® as the preferred Infor database.
o Microsoft Reporting Services as a part of the foundation for the Infor Business Intelligence strategy across its portfolio.
o Microsoft Single Sign-On service for storage and mapping of credentials across applicable Infor applications.
o Microsoft Windows Server® as the preferred on-premise operating system.
* Infor also plans to deliver pre-built reports, dashboards and analytics that run within Microsoft SharePoint 2010 to help reduce customers' cost to build and upgrade their reporting environments. These will combine rich backbone data from Infor applications via Infor ION, with proven Microsoft Reporting Services and analysis capabilities.
* Infor also expects to accelerate the introduction of new products through increasing alignment with Microsoft technologies because it will allow greater code re-use, more standardization of technologies across applicable Infor applications, and decreased overall design complexity.

What Microsoft Says
"In Infor we see a leading partner that is using the Microsoft platform to provide simplicity and flexibility for great customer value," said Walid Abu-Hadba, corporate vice president, Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Corporation. "Companies want simplified, integrated solutions to help manage their business processes, and by integrating Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, Silverlight and SharePoint 2010 into their solutions, Infor will help companies of all sizes -- from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies -- improve their efficiencies and reduce costs by simplifying how they use business software."

What Altimeter Group Says
"The perception of Microsoft according to more than 74.6% of business and IT leaders recently polled is one of neutral and trusted supplier," said R "Ray" Wang, founding partner and analyst at Altimeter Group. "As Microsoft's technology offerings are enjoying a renewed interest and reinvestment among customers, partners and critical OEMs, Infor's customers should be pleased to see the close integration with the company as it will simplify software deployment and ease of use."

What We Say
"The business software industry is at a crossroads," said Jim Schaper, chairman and chief executive officer of Infor. "For too long, business software vendors have failed to meet the needs of mid-size companies that are increasingly frustrated with the high cost and complexity of traditional enterprise applications that were designed for multi-billion dollar corporations. By integrating the rich functionality of Infor's applications with Microsoft's intuitive technologies, we will be able to provide mid-size businesses with fast and affordable solutions that meet their functionality needs and are easy to use. This combination of power and simplicity is the direction our industry is headed."

Additional Resources

* More information about Infor ION is available at www.infor.com/company/ION.

At Infor, we work with a core belief. We believe in the customer. We believe that the customer is seeking a better, more collaborative relationship with its business software provider. And a new breed of business software: created for evolution, not revolution. Software that's simple to buy, easy to deploy and convenient to manage. Our 70,000 customers in more than 100 countries stand with us. We look forward to your sharing in the results of our belief. There is a better way. For additional information, visit www.infor.com.

This announcement reflects the direction Infor may take with regard to the specific product(s) described herein, all of which is subject to change by Infor in its sole discretion, with or without notice to you. This announcement is not a commitment to you in any way and you should not rely on this document or any of its content in making any decision. Infor is not committing to develop or deliver any specified enhancement, upgrade, product or functionality, even if such is described in this announcement and even if such description is accompanied by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should," "will," and/or similar expressions. Many factors can affect Infor's product development plans and the nature, content and timing of future product releases, all of which remain in the sole discretion of Infor. This announcement, in whole or in part, may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Infor or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Infor expressly disclaims any liability with respect to this announcement.

Is Microsoft Office 2010 Worth the Money?

Partners have had their hands on Office 2010 for a while now, but the massive productivity suite just rolled out to consumers on Tuesday. It's not cheap -- depending on the version, it runs from about $150 to nearly $500.

Five hundred dollars? (It just looks so much more dramatic spelled out.) Granted, that's for the highest-end version of the software (Office Professional 2010), but your editor does much of his work on a netbook that only cost $350 -- and that was with an upgrade to 2GB of memory plus the cost of shipping. We at RCPU are still trying to figure out Office 2007 (at home -- not in the office). Why on earth would we move to Office 2010? Heck, Office 2003, like XP, still works just fine. Your editor is typing in Microsoft Word 2003 right now.

It used to be that buying a new version of Office was just a given. Each version was pretty significantly better than the one before, and not much of anything else could seriously compete with it (fire away, StarOffice and WordPerfect fans). Now, though, there are lots of productivity-suite options not named Office, and some of them are free. For one, Microsoft recently released its own (limited) free online version of Office. Then there are OpenOffice.org and Google Apps (among others), both of which cost nothing for basic versions and are compatible with Microsoft Office.

We believe that the primary driver for sticking with Office is fear. Sure, Google Apps and other such suites are supposed to be compatible with Word and Excel, but...what if they're not? What then? Will people be able to open my files? Will I have to use some sort of weird adapter? It's all too scary to consider.

Free online suites are compatible -- Google Docs might be a bit clunky to use, but the brief process of transitioning a document from Docs to Word has been as smooth as silk in our experience. We use Google Apps every day and convert Docs documents to Word documents all the time. Still, the thought always persists: Is this really going to work? Better check Word just to make sure...And so Office rolls on, and so does the revenue for Microsoft, and for partners that's probably not a bad thing.

We have a comment on Office from RCPU e-mail legend Peter, who really wasn't too impressed by it:

“I went to the Office 2010 launch in Melbourne this week, and that was a major disappointment. What do they do with that $9 billion per year, anyway? The main presenter looked like he was about 12 years old. Office 2010 looks just like 2007 with a few fixes. Call me a Luddite, but I'm still on XP Pro and Office 2003. Microsoft folk actually seem to believe that their customers like that idiotic ribbon thing. They were not at all impressed when I told them repeatedly that I actually like Google!”

Peter, we like Google too, and we're still trying to get around Office 2007. The question is, though, would you go all-Google, all the time? We at RCPU aren't so sure that we would...yet. But free vs. $150 and up really does seem tempting.

Source:onwindows.com

The ERP Software That Can Transform Your Business

The market for ERP software is highly competitive and it’s most definitely a buyer’s market



Looking for the best ERP solution for your company is not an easy task in today’s market with all the providers, systems and applications to choose from; there is so much potential for distraction and it’s hard to make the right choice. But don’t be put off. Yes, the market is highly competitive, but, by its very nature, this is great for consumers. It means only the best players and solutions can survive. If they refuse to listen to and watch the demands of customers, change in technologies and emerging practices, then they’ll suffer a fall.


Some of the top ERP sellers are as follows:

Microsoft (Microsoft Dynamics)

Microsoft is a giant when it comes to IT. However, it doesn’t occupy the same position when it comes to ERP. It is, though, amongst the best and its Dynamics package is fast becoming the solution of choice for those looking for a flexible solution that helps increase efficiencies and increase profitability.

“Success in the manufacturing industry requires producing the right products, in the right quantities, at the right time, with good quality, and at a price the customer is willing to pay,” says Microsoft. “The flexibility to respond to compliance standards and the ever-changing needs of customers is also imperative for success. Meeting these demands requires the ability to make quick decisions based on accurate data.”

Microsoft Dynamics boasts an impressive client list and there are a number of success stories, including that of Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift Europe, which manufactures, sells, and distributes more than 18,000 forklifts each year throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

“Our dealers expect a high efficiency level with as few mistakes as possible, and due to Microsoft Dynamics, we are able to hold on to this high efficiency service level, now and in the future,” Robert Vleeschhouwer, General Manager of Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift Europe’s Information Systems Department, says.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software. They automate and improve financial, customer relationship, and supply chain management.

Oracle ERP (also called E-Business Suite)

Oracle is one of the top players in the ERP market, focusing on innovation and results, and how they can benefit customers.

Its manufacturing family of applications enables you to optimise production capacity, from raw materials through final product, regardless of manufacturing methodology, and a unified data model provides a single, accurate view of your manufacturing process. This means businesses can configure customer orders, optimise subcontracting, and manage cost, quality, and compliance.

“Oracle customers use Oracle technology, applications, and services to build information systems that help them retain the value of existing investments, stay competitive in the current economic climate, cut costs and improve security, make compliance easier, and manage complex upgrades with fewer risks,” the company says.

Infor

Infor is another big name in the ERP market and it aims to develop flexible, low-cost ERP solutions that match the way businesses work, delivering the “critical” ERP tools required to thrive in a lean world.

Its ERP solutions help companies:
• Reduce operational costs and improve efficiency
• Gain better visibility into transactions
across the enterprise
• Make better business decisions
• Deliver the right product at the right time
• Keep customer promises
• Adopt manufacturing best practices, including lean.

“Global competition and pricing pressures place an extraordinary demand on today’s manufacturers to strive for new levels of efficiency, innovation, and competitiveness,” says Infor.

“Having the manufacturing control to respond appropriately to a volatile market, along with the operational agility to anticipate what will be demanded in six months or a year, can mean the difference between struggling to survive, or setting
the pace.”

SAP ERP

SAP ERP is a software program that is aimed at providing solutions to the users in overcoming their technical and managerial problems with regards to data handling and transformation. It has become a favourite choice of corporates as it renders valuable services to companies by redefining the way business should be done.

“A sound foundation is necessary to compete and win in the global marketplace,” says SAP. “The SAP ERP application supports the essential functions of your business processes and operations efficiently and is tailored to specific needs of your industry.”

Some of the advantages of SAP ERP are:
• Improved alignment of strategies and operations
• Improved productivity and insight
• Reduced costs
• Improved financial management and corporate governance
• Retaining top performers
• Providing immediate access to enterprise information.

IFS

Last but not least, we have IFS, one of the world’s leading providers of component-based business software.

Its industry-focused solutions help leading companies improve profitability, meet regulatory requirements, and take advantage of new business opportunities.

Unsurprisingly, it works extensively with leading automotive brands such as Honda, BMW, Lotus, Volvo and Toyota, providing component based solutions that enable them to adapt in a rapidly changing world.

Conclusion
So, there we have it – our review of the best ERP sellers on the market is complete.

What is best for you? Well, that’s difficult to answer and it will involve a lot of research; it is vital you choose a provider who builds software programs that suit your needs. A lot of factors will come into play in deciding the credibility of the ERP sellers, so choose wisely.

Source:execdigital.com

Salesforce.com Scores World Cup CRM Deployment

The 2010 FIFA World Cup gets underway on Friday, and it will bring hundreds of thousands soccer fans to South Africa over the next month. To cope with an anticipated ten-fold increase in visitor calls and online contacts, South African Tourism has turned to Salesforce.com for a rapidly scalable and social-network-connected CRM environment.

South Africa is used to hosting visitors to its wildlife parks and reserves. But the World Cup is expected to draw as many 300,000, including many first-time visitors to the country. With 64 matches set for nine different cities, more travel will be required once visitors arrive in country. The combination required big changes for South African Tourism, which normally handles pre-visit calls from would-be visitors.

"We had to turn our call center inside out to handle calls from within South Africa, whether people need help with travel logistics, accommodations or ticket availability for specific games," said William Price, global manager of e-marketing at South African Tourism.

The government-sanctioned agency had an aging, custom-built CRM system built on Microsoft technology, but Price says he immediately thought about cloud possibilities when planners estimated calls might jump from 1,000 to 2,000 per week up to 10,000 to 15,000 during each week of World Cup play. Salesforce.com was one of seven CRM systems and three software-as-a-service options the agency considered.

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"The World Cup has been a great catalyst for us to get something that is easy and quick to deploy and something we don't have to invest in from a software point of view," Price said. "When it came time for deployment, it took Salesforce about three weeks to get the system up and running, which is phenomenal from an implementation standpoint."

Social-network-analysis capabilities were also of interest, as South African Tourism wants to monitor what tourists are saying even if they aren't using a telephone. Salesforce.com was able to plug in South African Tourism's existing Twitter handle and Facebook profile (along with followers and friends) into the agency's CRM implementation.

"We'll be able to listen to these networks, so if there a lot of Tweets on 'FIFA' or 'World Cup' or another keyword we discover, we can quickly figure out what people are saying and start managing and directing those conversations using our Twitter handle and our Facebook page," Price said.

South African Tourism is also planning a June 11 launch of a feedback portal through Salesforce Ideas, an electronic survey capability through which the agency can gather crowd-sourced tips on transportation logistics or favorite side trips, hotels and restaurants.

Price said South African Tourism will also exploit Salesforce.com's built-in business intelligence and workflow capabilities. The former gives South African Tourism real-time trend analysis on types of inquiries, volumes of calls by category, and the languages of incoming contacts. The latter provides case management and escalation capabilities, so special problems or complaints can be routed to appropriate contacts or departments.

Once the World Cup is over, Price said South African Tourism will phase out the old CRM system, which is still handling calls from outside of South Africa, and permanently replace it with Salesforce.com.

"We may cut the number of licenses we'll need by half, but it's a powerful CRM tool that we can also use for knowledge management," Price said. "We want to be able to capture the information our call center agents are giving people over the phone so we can share that through our online presences."

South African Tourism expects as many as 300,000 visitors during the World Cup, though Price said that's down from pre-recessionary highs of more than 400,000 visitors per month. Despite the success of online channels for European ticket sales during the 2008 World Cup in Germany, Price said many South Africans don't have Internet access, so in-country ticket sales have been predominantly through physical distribution sites including banks and vending machines.

Source:informationweek.com

Microsoft Shows Off BI "Engine Of The Devil"

Microsoft hinted at some amazing new capabilities coming to its BI products in yesterday’s Business Intelligence Conference keynote, including an "engine of the devil" that allows instant analysis of more than 2 billion rows of data.

Microsoft BI engineer Amir Netz joined senior exec Ted Kummert to demo new technology the company is working on to go beyond current capabilities of its recently released PowerPivot "BI for the masses" application. I previously wrote about a demo I attended that showed how easily PowerPivot could handle 44 million rows of data.

Netz had upped the ante Monday at Microsoft’s TechEd conference in New Orleans with a 100-million-row example. Yesterday, using a server with more memory than the desktops used before, he seamlessly tackled the 2-billion-row demo with the same storage technology used in PowerPivot. "You know, we talked about wicked fast yesterday," he said. "This is beyond wicked fast; this is the engine of the devil, right?"

The crowd loved it, but Kummert wasn’t so sure about the characterization. Microsoft senior leadership probably isn’t too keen on branding its products with references to Satan. "You said that, I didn’t," Kummert said, before joking about Netz’s upcoming performance review.

Netz said the company had received great feedback on PowerPivot, but some BI pros wanted more capabilities and functionality. His demo connected the PowerPivot technology that can be used in Excel to SQL Server Analysis Services for some incredible performance metrics.

He explained the demo: "We have 10 widgets on the screen, six slicers and four charts. And each one of those sends two queries to the data source in order to render itself. So we have about 20 queries being sent. Every one of those queries is a full table-scan of the 2 billion rows. So all together whenever I click, we are scanning 40 billion rows, and it takes about two and a half seconds to do that. So if you just do the math in your head, we are seeing here a scan rate of a trillion rows per minute. That's kind of what we're talking about."

Then he jokingly countered Kummert by saying "Performance review!"

Netz also shows some striking PowerPivot data visualization capabilities that reportedly will be available in the next 30 days.

In another tidbit, Kummert said the company was working on bringing the full capabilities of SQL Server to SQL Azure, its cloud-based "set of relational features oriented toward application development scenarios." That mismatch of features has been a point of contention in the SQL Server community.

"We're hard at work on that now," Kummert said. "I'm not announcing the specific release timeframe for that, but this is something you're going to hear from us shortly in the future."

Source:visualstudiomagazine.com/blogs/data-driver

Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff Calls Microsoft 'Alley Thugs'

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff used strong language during a recent earnings call to describe a patent-infringement lawsuit leveled against his company by Microsoft, which he equated with "alley thugs." Microsoft alleges that Salesforce infringed on nine of its patents related to cloud-based applications. Benioff also hinted that Microsoft’s lawsuit could grievously affect other cloud vendors. Although Microsoft has traditionally focused on hybrid and on-premises solutions, its increased attention to the cloud brings it into competition with companies such as Salesforce.

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff minced no words in describing the recent patent-infringement lawsuit leveled against his company by Microsoft, using the pulpit of a May 20 earnings call to compare the legal action to a late-night mugging.

“The reality is that these patent trolls are unfortunately just part of doing business in technology these days,” Benioff told analysts and reporters, according to an earnings-call transcript published on Seeking Alpha. Microsoft alleges that Salesforce, which markets cloud-based applications for business intelligence and other areas, violated nine of its patents.

From there, Benioff’s language escalated:

“They’re basically the alley thugs. Every thriving economy has alley thugs, and we do, too, and that’s fine,” Benioff said, “Personally, I’m just disappointed to see this from a former leader of our industry, but it’s imminently resolvable, and it’s not material to our day-to-day business.”

Benioff suggested that the lawsuit could have a broad impact on companies developing similar cloud-based platforms: “I think it probably has more ramifications for other cloud vendors than it, honestly, does for us because we’re strong. And a lot of other cloud CEOs have been contacting me, and my heart goes out to them and because I feel like that’s the real impact is that if you go through it, you can see where this is going. And there’s obviously a next step here, and it’s not about us, it’s about others.”

The amount of damages claimed by the lawsuit remains unspecified, although the patents contested by Microsoft cover very specific areas such as “Method and system for mapping between logical data and physical data,” “Method and system for stacking tool bars in a computer display,” and “System and method for providing and displaying a Web page having an embedded menu.”

While Microsoft continues to play out its legacy in desktop-based and hybrid software, the cloud has become an area of increased focus for the company, as more and more businesses gravitate toward receiving applications over the Web as opposed to running them on-premises. Meanwhile, Salesforce has been at the vanguard of pushing cloud-based platforms as the way of the future—placing it on a collision course with Microsoft as the software giant tries to adopt a suitable strategy in that market.

Salesforce’s recent push to attract developers also puts it at odds with Microsoft, which has pushed application development using its .NET framework. For its part, however, Microsoft is framing the lawsuit against Salesforce as a straightforward case of patent infringement.

“Microsoft has been a leader and innovator in the software industry for decades and continues to invest billions of dollars each year in bringing great software products and services to market,” Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing, wrote in a May 18 statement. “We have a responsibility to our customers, partners and shareholders to safeguard that investment, and therefore cannot stand idly by when others infringe on our IP rights.”

But Benioff’s comments cast the lawsuit as a more strategic move by Microsoft, a point of view supported by some analysts.

“Microsoft considers these to be the core patents, ideas that differentiate Microsoft’s offerings broadly,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst of the Enderle Group, wrote in an e-mail to eWEEK. “They won’t license these and approached Salesforce and Salesforce evidently [blew] them off, likely thinking that Microsoft wouldn’t litigate because they rarely do.”

In that spirit, Enderle theorized, Microsoft could be choosing to make an example of Salesforce, if only to flex its litigation muscle: “Microsoft’s investment in this effort will be significant. They’ve been doing this for decades.”

The Salesforce lawsuit comes at a time when Microsoft finds itself embroiled in other legal action, including a patent-infringement lawsuit leveled against it by Canadian firm i4i that has already passed through several rulings and appeals. On May 17, Microsoft announced that it would pay $200 million to settle a patent-infringement suit leveled against it by VirnetX, which builds communication and collaboration technologies.

Source:eweek.com

Business Intelligence and Analytics Were Bright Spots Last Year

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

A lot of areas in the IT business were slammed last year, with double-digit revenue declines, but the market for business intelligence, analytics, and performance management (meaning the performance of the business, not the underlying systems) software was not one of them.

According to the bit and money counters at Gartner, these three interrelated software products accounted for $9.3 billion in combined revenues in 2009, up a modest 4.2 percent from the $8.9 billion companies brought in during 2008.

"Even though growth was nowhere near the levels of 2008, and by no means immune to the recession, BI showed that it is not as cyclical as many other software areas, recording healthy growth in one of the toughest years recorded in software history," explained Dan Sommer, senior research analyst at Gartner, in a statement accompanying the figures. "The dominant vendors continued to put BI, analytics, and PM front and center of their messaging. Organizations largely continued their BI projects, hoping that resulting transparency and insight would enable cost-cuts and improved productivity and agility. However, there is no doubt pressure has intensified on deal sizes and price points on new sales throughout the year."

As readers of The Four Hundred know full well, IBM has put business analytics and optimization at the heart of its Smarter Planet marketing strategy. But IBM has yet to launch a Smartie analytics appliance that is based on the Power Systems i platform and exploit some of the advanced features that make it suitable for exactly this kind of work and particularly for AS/400 and i shops that already have their production databases on Power gear and the OS/400, i5/OS, and i For Business operating systems. To my great disappointment.

Across this combined software category, Gartner reckons that German software giant SAP is the king, and will no doubt improve its position if it prevails in its $5.8 billion acquisition of database maker and analytics expert Sybase, which I told you about in last week's issue. SAP might have been the market leader in the BI-A-PM racket in 2009, with $2.08 billion in revenues and giving it 22.4 percent of the pie, but its business was off six-tenths of a percent, according to Gartner. The acquisition of BusinessObjects helped SAP, but as the big player aimed at large enterprises who slammed on the spending brakes, SAP took the hit.

Oracle, thanks to its acquisition of Hyperion nearly three years ago, was the number two player in this BI-A-PM space, says Gartner, with $1.35 billion in sales, up 5.2 percent from 2008. SAS Institute was right on Oracle's heels, with $1.32 billion in sales, up 3 percent, followed by IBM, with $1.14 billion in sales, up 14 percent. If you want to know why IBM is talking up Smarter Infrastructure and Smarter Planet and even releasing its own version of the Hadoop MapReduce and file system software used by Yahoo, Facebook and others (as it did last week). this is why: IBM sees a lot of growth potential in big data crunching.

Microsoft is a distant fifth in the BI-A-PM space, with $739.1 million in revenues last year, but also grew at an 8.5 percent clip, more than twice as fast as the market at large. MicroStrategy, with $205 million in sales and growing at 5.4 percent last year, is still hanging in there as an independent, but with a market capitalization of $880 million as this newsletter goes to press, it is hard to imagine that IBM or Oracle won't snap it up soon. Other vendors made up another $2.93 billion in sales of BI-A-PM products, up 3 percent and getting a 25.7 share of the pie. There are obviously a lot of niche players down there, and they are all acquisition targets from the big boys, too.

By product category, business intelligence and data warehousing platforms accounted for just under $6 billion in sales last year, up 4.8 percent from 2008. Corporate performance management (CPM) suites accounted for $1.94 billion in revenues, up 3.6 percent, while analytic applications and performance management software (this is distinct from standalone CPM suites and represents modules that are add-ons to existing ERP, SCM, and CRM applications) brought in $1.4 billion in sales, up 2.3 percent.

Oracle To Acquire Secerno for Database Security

Oracle has agreed to acquire database firewall-solutions provider Secerno. The move keeps Oracle competitive with IBM, which acquired Guardium in December. Secerno will be Oracle's first line of defense against threats from outside and inside as more people access databases through analytics and business intelligence tools.

Oracle is still integrating Sun Microsystems into its fold, but that didn't stop it from making yet another acquisition. On Thursday, Oracle agreed to acquire database firewall-solutions provider Secerno.

Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed, but the acquisition is expected to close before the end of June. Analysts said that puts Oracle in a position to compete more effectively against IBM in the database market.

In acquiring Secerno, Oracle gets firewall solutions that work with both Oracle and non-Oracle databases. Oracle is tapping into the demand for security solutions that protect databases against sophisticated hacker attacks. Secerno's technology promises to block unauthorized activity in real time.

"The Secerno acquisition is in direct response to increasing customer Relevant Products/Services challenges around mitigating database security risk," said Andrew Mendelsohn, senior vice president of Oracle Database Server Technologies.

Oracle's Plans with Secerno

He made clear that Oracle plans to use the Secerno technology as a first line of defense against threats from both the outside and within an organization. As he explained it, the firewall makes a protective perimeter around databases that will complement Oracle's other database-security solutions.

In other words, Secerno offers a missing piece that Oracle thinks will bolster its database-security suite to protect data privacy, block threats, and enable regulatory compliance. The missing piece is like the one IBM acquired last December when it scooped up Guardium, so it's not surprising that Oracle is making this acquisition. In fact, it was almost a must, according to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"Secerno and Guardium, which IBM acquired, offer tools that both help to secure database assets and also to track the activities of people who are accessing that data," King said. "So you can basically be alerted to see if any particular employee is coming by a place they are supposed to stay out of or trying to slip the lock."

Monitoring Internal Database Threats

Although external threats are real, King said internal threats are just as possible in a world where customer sales and credit data can be used for personal profit. With business analytics and business intelligence tools, King noted, companies can search databases for actionable insights that drive revenue. But in doing so, it opens up the database to new groups of users.

Logically speaking, the greater number of people who have access to the database, the greater the threat. It's critical to secure such data because it's subject to regulatory compliance. When customer information leaks from the database, it tends to make national headlines in a hurry.

"Secerno, it's a great additive technology that Oracle is very wise to have purchased for its own offerings," King said. "Between IBM's Guardium deal in December and now Oracle's deal, I think it will probably be considered a must-have type of technology for players in the database market."

Source:newsfactor.com

Microsoft Takes Google Head On

Microsoft this week is releasing the 2010 versions of its Office and SharePoint applications. Sure, there are a range of new and exciting features, but unlike previous Office versions, that is not where this launch is making the most noise. Microsoft’s strategy for competing with Google and owning the cloud is coming more into focus, and that is where this release will make or break Microsoft’s dominance on the office suite front.

First let’s talk about the features. Three areas really catch my eye when we look at the enhancements to Office 2010: collaboration, business intelligence and social networking. Office 2010 really takes collaboration to the next level. Users can edit documents simultaneously, with changes being locked at the paragraph level in Word and at the slide level in PowerPoint. As changes are saved, the other authors get a note that updates are available, but it’s very unobtrusive and flows naturally. One caveat to this is that the document must be stored on a SharePoint 2010 server.

And Microsoft continues to follow through on its commitment to bring business intelligence to every user in the organization. Sparklines and Slicers in Excel 2010 create entirely new, simple ways for any user to intelligently interpret and evaluate data. They are basically charting/graphing and PivotTables simplified and improved. I think the average user will have a lot more success working with these tools than anything they've had in the past. If you have more complex data-analysis needs, the new PowerPivot add-in for Excel makes it much easier to import and work with large amounts of SQL Server right inside Excel.

If you live and breathe e-mail like I do, the Outlook 2010 upgrade is a must-have. First off, the Ribbon Bar we got in Office 2007 is now in Outlook. Like it or not, it’s here to stay. As a side note, all of Office 2010 includes the ability to customize the Ribbon Bar, which I think makes it much, much better. The first major issue Outlook 2010 tackles is e-mail overload. The conversation view, which was in previous versions, is greatly improved and really works well. With the click of a button, you can ignore entire e-mail threads that don’t relate to you, or "clean up" a conversation, which gets rid of all the redundant messages within a message back and forth. It will take a little getting used to, but once you get it, you'll like it.

Social networking is focused in Outlook. The Outlook Social Connector is a window pane that sits at the bottom of all your messages. It connects to social-networking sites and shows you updates from your contacts. Microsoft is clearly trying to make the e-mail client the center of your online universe. At the moment, it only works with LinkedIn and MySpace, but Microsoft says a Facebook version is coming soon and likely Twitter as well.

Office 2010 also includes what Microsoft is calling Office Web Apps. These are Web browser-enabled versions of the key programs. There will be a number of ways users can get them. A free version for consumers will be available through the Windows Live SkyDrive service. Businesses can subscribe for a monthly fee through Microsoft Online Services. Lastly, any Microsoft customer can host his or her own version of Web Apps as part of purchase of SharePoint 2010.

So Microsoft is taking a three-pronged approach to competing with Google. The consumer version is free and it competes directly with Google Apps. Everything I have seen and heard suggests that this is a superior product, but I expect this will be an ongoing battle as each side releases new versions and features.

Microsoft is giving businesses that need the Web applications the flexibility to deploy and manage them according to their need. Subscriptions work well for a business that doesn't want to own or manage IT. Just pay for it, use it and don’t worry about it. This is similar to the corporate offerings from Google.

Where I think Microsoft steps up, however, is giving the business that wants to own the technology the ability to still enable Web-based users without the additional subscription cost. SharePoint 2010 on its own is a great product, and I mentioned previously how one of the key new features in Office requires SharePoint. Add to that the fact that SharePoint is probably Microsoft’s fastest-selling product ever, and you have a nice install base. All these companies are getting the functionality for free basically. If not, maybe this helps drive SharePoint adoption even more, as this is the type of selling point that would likely put a company over the edge when making a decision.

Microsoft has chosen to attack Google on its own turf. The Office Web Apps offering targets exactly what Google has been doing for the past few years. When you add in the power of flexibility that Microsoft is giving customers by allowing them to own and host their own solutions, you really see an offering that Google can’t compete with yet. There are about 500 million Office users compared to about 25 million for Google Apps, so Google will have its hands full. I’m looking forward to seeing how this is received, whether it’s profitable for Microsoft and how Google responds.

Source:ctoedge.com

MDI Holdings earns Microsoft gold rating

Ponte Vedra-based MDI Holdings Inc. said the company has been endorsed as a “Gold Certified Partner” by Microsoft.

The Microsoft program recognizes companies with the highest levels of reliability, experience and capabilities in various technological fields. MDI has earned the certification in business intelligence, custom web development, data management solutions, software-oriented architecture and business process.

“We’re really proud of this recognition from Microsoft,” said David Darnell, vice president of software research and development at MDI. “Our talented programmers and software designers are constantly improving our existing products and creating new solutions for our customers. It’s great to know that Microsoft sees that work and recognizes their talent.”

MDI was also recently featured in the keynote address of Microsoft’s MIX10, The Next Web Now Conference in Las Vegas.

MDI’s E.A.R.L., a product that provides an interactive visual interpretation of the human body to illustrate a patient’s claims and medical history, was created with Microsoft Silverlight, a browser plug-in. It is part of the company’s newly launched MDI Analytics Suite, which allows users to analyze and manipulate data to manage current and future healthcare costs.

“Our customers have been using the E.A.R.L. technology for almost two years,” said MDI Healthcare Solutions President Ted Willich. “We have been working on this latest iteration for the better part of 2009, and what we’ve created is a detailed graphic representation of data that up until now has been very hard to understand. To be recognized at this very important gathering of industry professionals is very gratifying.”

Read more: MDI Holdings earns Microsoft gold rating - Jacksonville Business Journal:

Source:bizjournals.com

Birst Announces the Availability of Birst 4 Spring Release

Birst Inc., a leading provider of on-demand solutions for business intelligence (BI) and analytics, recently announced the availability of Birst 4 Spring Release. Birst 4 Spring Release is the latest update to Birst 4, a comprehensive business intelligence solution that features rapid deployment and high ROI. The new features made available in the Birst 4 Spring Release include more powerful, interactive dashboards for business users, the introduction of geographic mapping with Birst Maps, and new connectors for Hyperion Essbase and Microsoft Analysis Services cubes.

"The Spring Release showcases some very powerful new features that not only empower business users with unprecedented self-service capabilities, but also make it easier for IT to deliver business visualization of critical business data. These new capabilities further demonstrate why Birst is the leader in on-demand business intelligence and analytics," said Stefan Schmitz, Senior Director of Products at Birst.

New and Improved Dashboards and Business Visualization

* BI for Everyone with Improved Interactive Dashboards - new Interactive Dashboard capabilities empower business users to conduct drill-down ad-hoc reporting and analysis from within the dashboard view -- making it even easier to explore key data and make critical business decisions, without ever having to leave the dashboard.
* One Step Further in Business Visualization with Birst Maps - the power of Birst analysis can now be visually mapped to where companies do business. Triggers can be set so that regions crossing critical limits are automatically highlighted with color; business managers can see the status of their region with one glance. With the click of a mouse, users can also drill down into specific geographic areas for detailed information.
* New Connectors for Hyperion Essbase and Microsoft Analysis Services - Birst 4 Spring enables full querying of cube data via XMLA connectors. Using Birst's data federation capabilities, cube-based data sources can be combined with other data sources, either on premise or loaded into Birst, for new types of analysis.
* "The Birst 4 Spring Release takes a great solution and makes it even better for the business user," said Rick Clements, President of Spartan Technologies, a Birst partner. "No other business intelligence solution, either traditional or on-demand, comes close to Birst's easy to use and powerful self-service capabilities. Our customers are really looking forward to this release."

http://www.birst.com/

Phocas Launches New Microsoft Dynamics Reseller Program

US partners to benefit from GP2010-ready BI software to deliver additional revenue streams

Microsoft Convergence, Atlanta, USA April 27, 2010: Phocas, the global provider of simple, intuitive Business Intelligence software (BI), today launched its first channel program for the North American market, aimed at Microsoft Dynamics resellers.

“Because Phocas is built on Microsoft technologies including SQL and .NET resellers can expect to make the same margins as they do with their existing Microsoft Dynamics solutions,” said Phil Dodds, director, Phocas. “With these sales margins and the validation of our recent Microsoft Gold Certification, we expect to add at least 50 new resellers through our channel program over the next 18 months.”

The new program, which has already seen great success in Australia since its launch in Q4 2009, will offer a secure online portal for resellers. This will include access to a comprehensive suite of product information, training material and technical and marketing collateral that enables them to integrate Phocas as part of their Microsoft Dynamics range. Phocas is also set to announce a similar program for the UK and European markets in the near future.

Over 600 companies and 5000 users worldwide are using Phocas BI solutions, spanning a wide range of vertical markets including manufacturing, electrical, automotive, plumbing, building, industrial and medical.

Phocas’ BI solution is a direct add-on to the Microsoft Dynamics platform, enabling resellers to cross-sell to existing customers already using Microsoft Dynamics AX, NAV and CRM, or to deliver additional value with the latest edition of Microsoft Dynamics’ ERP release - GP2010.

A framework that is customizable to suit business needs, Phocas enables business users to easily access and analyze real-time data across the suite of Microsoft Dynamics solutions. Microsoft Dynamics Resellers therefore have the opportunity to make fast returns by providing their customer base with a solution to delivers immediate ROI and enables them to make future business decisions that improve profitability and performance.

Dodds commented: “The launch of the Microsoft Dynamics Program in the US market represents an exciting step forward for Phocas in the US, complementing our existing direct sales model in the region.”

Phocas is exhibiting at Microsoft Convergence 2010, April 24-27, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, booth 1044.

About Phocas
Phocas is simple, intuitive business intelligence software that unleashes companies business potential. A framework that is customizable to suit business needs, Phocas reveals opportunities that deliver immediate impact and helps companies make future business decisions that improve profitability and performance.

Phocas delivers simplicity and usability to a complex data landscape, created by existing ERP and CRM systems. Whereas traditional Business Intelligence and software tools focus on turning data into information, Phocas has been specially designed to help business users turn information into results.

For more information, please visit www.phocas.biz.

Editorial contact:
Chris Martin
Waggener Edstrom
+44 (0)20 7632 3857

Florida State U Transforms Reporting with Business Intelligence

By Dian Schaffhauser

Michael Barrett came to Florida State University in 2003 to manage a conversion to a new enterprise resource planning suite that was being implemented as a joint project among Financial Operations, Human Resources, and ITS. The university's move off of IBM's DB2 and onto Oracle's PeopleSoft software was driven by a 2002 Florida state constitutional amendment that mandated creation of a statewide board of governors responsible for the university system. Suddenly the state universities had to get off state-run systems that handled processing for finance and HR operations. The Tallahassee-based institution, with 40,000 students, is now running PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0 as the replacement platform.

Online Management of Networked Information, or OMNI, the university's name for its ERP system, consists of an enterprise portal, financials, HR and payroll, and enterprise performance management. That word, "online," is revealing. Beginning in March 2008 Florida State has been in a continuing process to move off of third-party BI vendor and legacy tools for reporting and to open up its data systems to 1,500 active users on campus through several analytics tools provided in Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus (OBIEE). These include a query system; dashboards; Microsoft Office-integrated analytics; and "ibots," e-mail alerts sent when specific user-set conditions in the data occur.

The university estimated that it has saved $360,000 in license and maintenance fees as well as infrastructure and administrative support costs. Recently, Barrett--now the university's CIO and associate vice president for IT Services--discussed the business analytics aspects of the project he's been involved with for the last seven years.

Prior to that we were in a typical IT report shop mentality, where people would line up wanting reports, which we would deliver to them six months or a year later, depending on the workload and availability of resources. People couldn't be dynamic about the things they wanted. They had to think about them way in advance.

With business intelligence, a lot of offices go off and do their own reports. If it's not terribly complex, they can get some assistance from us, but they can turn things around in a day or two in a lot of cases. Before, it might have taken them months.

Schaffhauser: Had dashboards been in use at the campus before they were introduced with this latest initiative?

Barrett: Not really. It evolved from printed reports, of course--delivered printed reports. Then with the use of computers, it became more: Run your report and print it from there. We just distributed the printing functions out to the individuals who needed it. Then it became online viewing of reports with more flexible parameters with the ability to put in a search function and get a specific report so you didn't have to print out everything. But dashboards weren't really there. We didn't have software that provided them.

And I have to tell you, when we first started the project, a lot of people thought about it as reporting. We actually talked about it as a reporting tool, not a business intelligence tool, because the culture wasn't really ready to even think about what business intelligence meant and what the dashboards would mean. Now everybody uses dashboards, and it's just second nature.

Schaffhauser: What kind of training did you put users through?

Barrett: For developers and people who were going to be developing report queries, we did a series of offsite and onsite training sessions--generally about a week for people who were going to be doing a lot of query and report development.

For end users in the field, we just provided amphitheater type of training, where we invited large numbers of people and we just showed them the features on a big screen. We produced some training materials online that showed them how to click the buttons and some of the basics. "Here's what the new dashboards look like. Here are the reports. You used to get these before by going directly into the system and running a report. Now you're going to get it by clicking this button." Then we offered workshops to handle any issues where people thought they got it but were still having a little bit of an issue. They could drop into a lab-setting and get some help. We did that for about a month.

Schaffhauser: After you made the shift to PeopleSoft tools, did the reports your crew was generating simply emulate the previous generation of reports?

Barrett: They did to a large extent. We were driven by that because it's what people knew. That was part of the difficulty. A lot of what made the reporting difficult was that the particular format didn't lend itself well to the new PeopleSoft data structure. Things were very different once we implemented PeopleSoft. That created a situation where the old style reports--while it made sense to people in the old days and gave them a new sense of comfort--really didn't apply in the new world. But nobody stepped back to take a look at it and say, "What do we really need? What's the information content that's important to us?" That was a good bridge, because it helped people with a little bit of a comfort level from the old to the new. But now with the new dashboards, we're really providing information in a much more tabular fashion, more graphics, more pivot tables, and other types of analytical approaches that we never had before in the old system.

In fact, we used to generate those by downloading the data into Excel spreadsheets and providing those. We're actually going out ahead of what people were already doing in some cases anyway. When people saw [the dashboards], they recognized them: "Oh, I already do that today, manually. This is great. Now I just push a button and get it."

Schaffhauser: How did you establish the parameters for what those dashboards would consist of?

Barrett: We had a focus group team. Our governance is multi-faceted. We have people from our research office, administration, our financial group, our academic side. We got all those people together and talked about, what are the priorities? Our first phase with OBIEE had concentrated on a set of 12 or 13 subject areas and about two dozen dashboards we rolled out. That was our first phase. We said, if we get those out, that would satisfy about 80 percent of the needs of the average person in the university who just needs access to the data--if we could do that and be successful, then we'd move on and fine-tune some other areas, which is what we did.

Schaffhauser: It sounds like IT is still kind of in charge of setting up the dashboards.

Barrett: IT definitely has the warehouses and transformation logic to get the logic into the data warehouse. And that has to be decided by committee, and they need to know what the data looks like in the warehouse to get the data they want. That's one thing we definitely want. IT is responsible for the met a-data or data definition, which is what makes that data available to the end users. We're responsible for that.

We take care of making sure that everything runs. These things update generally every night, though some are real time. We do all the troubleshooting and make sure things run properly. Making sure all the data reconciles. The data has to be accurate, otherwise, people won't trust it. All of that we do in IT. Then we do the complex dashboard development for big projects, and we do the support for people when they want help doing their own dashboards.

Schaffhauser: Have people experienced dashboard fever?

Barrett: In some pockets, yes. Right after that initial rollout, we got people who were really excited about it and really wanted to push things in their research area. We did a big phase of rolling out a bunch of things in the research reporting area. We do a lot of grants and contract processing here. That's a little different from your day to day business of educating students.

More recently, we've really gotten involved in our student information systems. That was really the last leg of the three-phase project. We're actually finishing that up right now. We've created about 20 or so dashboards already for them in the last six months. It's expanding quite a bit.

Schaffhauser: Do you find the dials are getting smaller and smaller--to accommodate the growth of KPIs that need to be monitored?

Barrett: In the student information area, there are so many that we created a dashboard of dashboards. We have a main dashboard, and we split it up into 20 different subject areas, almost like a menu. From that dashboard you click and you go into another area that's more focused. There isn't a lot of need to cross over. The graduate waiver data doesn't need to cross over on the same dashboard with information on undergraduate admission. They're inherently different subject areas. So we tend to work from subject area approach. We try to keep them focused on the information they're trying to convey. Once users know generally what subject they're interested in going into, then when they get into there, there are dashboards that have multiple content that are related to one another that they might want to see on the same screen.

Schaffhauser: Is there still room at the university for traditional reporting?

Barrett: The other product we got with OBIEE is [Business Intelligence] (BI) Publisher. That created the one missing component--the ability to produce what we call traditional production reports and distribute them in various ways. We needed good quality and control of the output to make it look just a certain way. We have several reports that are like that. We use the BI Publisher tool for that.

All in all, [the business intelligence system] has become a one-stop shop for people to do everything from traditional dashboarding and queries to what I'd call production reports, as well as moving into the area of online or operational analytics. We're actually looking at real-time data directly from our transaction system using the dashboards because it provides a convenient tool to be able to look at it that way. We've got enough flexibility in the system to do that. People don't have to know where it's pointing. They just have to know the subjects areas and why they care about looking at that data.

Schaffhauser: Do you have any advice for making sure that the project is staying in alignment with the initial business requirements--those initial business goals?

Barrett: Certainly, if you have multi-disciplinary inputs in this, you need a strong steering committee or governance body to get updates from the project team and to take into account things that are changing and to make sure things stay on course, and to effect communications with all the stakeholders. I think that's very important.

Also the thing we did that I think made it successful was that we limited our scope in the early days. We had tons of ideas, but we said, "We've picked these 13 subject areas because they represent about 80 percent of our needs." If we could get 80 percent of our needs out in a reasonable project in less than a year and have it out in the field where people were using it, then we'd consider that success, and the rest would come in time. We didn't try to boil the ocean in this initial project, where it would have taken us years to get it out of the door, and frankly people would have forgotten why we were even doing it by the time we were done. So pick a reasonable scope that offers meaningful success and focus on that. Then use your governance to keep you focused on that through the project.

Schaffhauser: Eighty percent seems ocean-like.

Barrett: Twenty-six dashboards may seem like a lot. But, we felt, this is really going to have widespread university impact. It's going to go across a lot of areas. It really did. I was very surprised. The end user adoption of it was almost a non-event. We showed people the reports. We showed them the dashboards. They got on and just started using them. We didn't get pushback. We didn't get a whole lot of complaints. We had a couple of problems starting up, like anyone does. And we had to do performance tuning here and there, and the usual things you get into when you scale something up into an enterprise level.

But we've got a fairly sizable group of people using it on a fairly regular basis. We don't have a whole lot of support type issues with it. Most of the support issues we have are in the background. They have to do with data transformation. The users don't even see that. We just have to respond to them and fix them. That's not really about the tools. That's about data quality, and the issues you get into in general when you're dealing with large quantities of data and somewhat changing rules.

Overall, though, it's been very well received. And that's why we're moving ahead into our student area. We kept that for last because student-related information is our most critical from a business standpoint. We figured, if we could it from an administrative area like finance and HR, and it worked well there, then we'd get grounded in our experience and we could go and hit the student area. They wouldn't be the guinea pigs, so to speak.

Schaffhauser: So that's what's next?

Barrett: It's on going right now. We're due to get that third phase done around the end of June this year. That'll complete our initial suite. From there on out, it'll just be incremental improvements as needed.

Source:campustechnology.com

Ascentium Sells CRM Unit to Focus on Creative Technology, New Strategies for Crafting Client-Consumer Connections

SEATTLE, April 23 - Ascentium, The Experience Agency™, today announced a formal agreement to sell its U.S. Microsoft Dynamics CRM business to Avanade Inc. Terms of the transaction are undisclosed.

Ascentium CEO and Co-founder Curt Doolittle said the sale reflects the firm's growing focus on using emerging technologies to develop new creative strategies for clients and build powerful and lasting relationships between clients and consumers.

"For several years, digital firms have evolved in ways that place them in competition with traditional agencies," said Doolittle. "Ascentium's evolution is extraordinary. Our history reflects a singular expertise in innovative uses of digital technology. We combine this experience with new creative ideas and are increasingly in a position to provide creative leadership by developing meaningful, dramatic experiences for clients and consumers."

Doolittle believes misunderstandings of marketing industry changes have hampered the progress of many modern agencies.

"Too many firms have been mired in a debate over the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional and digital agency models," said Doolittle. "This is the wrong debate. The agency of the future will apply appropriate technologies across multiple channels to create integrated, cross-media experiences that unite both the physical and virtual worlds."

As The Experience Agency™, Ascentium combines strategic brand ideas, consumer intelligence, and creative and emerging technologies to deliver interactive products and breakthrough experiences that inspire consumers. The benefit to Ascentium's clients is connected, interactive and responsive brands that build deeper and more loyal relationships.

Ascentium has evolved from implementing pure technological solutions to a mix of strategy, technology, creative, and experience design that enables clients to maximize their relationships with their customers.

"This divestiture allows us to focus our investments on the creative application of technology to build better consumer experiences and let the multinational consulting firms deliver services for IT," said Doolittle.

Ascentium President and Co-founder Steven Salta said the firm will continue its commitment to being a thought leader in both technology and user experience.

"Our core strength has always been execution," said Salta. "The Forrester Wave™ awarded Ascentium the highest client satisfaction score of any agency, and we believe the key reason is that we generate great ideas and deliver on our promises. This is a differentiator in the agency industry today and one that we believe positions Ascentium to realize its vision of setting a new standard for the agency model."

"The agency landscape is dynamic and ever-changing, and Ascentium is committed to leading the way," said Salta. "We will continue to expand the breadth of our offerings and adjust our model with the needs of our clients, the marketplace and consumers, while retaining our focus on technology, strategic partnership with our clients, and flawless execution and delivery of innovative marketing solutions."

Ascentium expects the sales of its US CRM business to be completed within 90 days, subject to closing conditions.

About Ascentium:

Ascentium, The Experience Agency™, delivers unmatched user experiences and innovative business solutions by fusing strategic account planning, cutting-edge use of emerging technologies, and world class creative ideas to create multichannel connections between consumers, brands, and businesses. With offices in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and London, Ascentium provides transformative ideas and results for some of the world's top brands. In 2009, Ascentium was singled out by Forrester Research as the agency with the "highest client satisfaction" on the Forrester Wave™ of Top Interactive Agencies.

SOURCE Ascentium

Microsoft rolls out update to Dynamics ERP

Microsoft has updated its Dynamics GP enterprise resource planning application for medium-sized businesses, adding features to streamline day-to-day tasks.

In addition, Dynamics GP 2010, introduced on Tuesday, is the first to include integration with Dynamics CRM, the company said.

A number of the new streamlining features allow processes to be set up more easily. For example, the software includes personalised 'role centres', which customise the product for different types of users. It also provides more than 400 built-in Microsoft SQL Server reporting services and Excel reports.

GP 2010 also includes built-in workflow processes such as forms for creating invoices through Microsoft Word, and other features for simplifying setup and IT administration processes, Microsoft said.

"By combining the power of business applications and productivity applications, we're able to support how people really work in their everyday jobs," said Crispin Read, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics ERP, in a statement.

Dynamics GP is based on enterprise resource planning (ERP) software from Great Plains, which Microsoft acquired in 2001. Microsoft has estimated that about 300,000 businesses use its Dynamics product line, which is sold through a network of about 10,000 reseller partners.

The update improves interoperability with Microsoft Office Unified Communications, as well as with SharePoint and the PowerPivot business intelligence (BI) tool for Excel 2010, the company said.

The update is scheduled for release on 1 May in most countries, including the UK, with French Canadian and Latin American Spanish versions coming in the second half of the year.

Microsoft said it will offer on-premises and subscription-based hosting models for GP, but said it has no plans to offer a multi-tenant hosted version of the product.

Under multi-tenancy, a single instance of the application is shared by several companies in order to cut costs, with the drawback that the product cannot be customised for individual customers. Microsoft said it will continue to sell the product through its reseller network, with resellers offering customisation services.

Last month Microsoft invited developers from 400 companies to participate in a community technical preview of the next version of Dynamics CRM, codenamed CRM5. The company said early in the development process that CRM5 would include advancements in solution management and better deployment of secure code on the server.

Dynamics CRM will also be offered in either on-premises or hosted editions.

Source:zdnet.co.uk

Health IT M&A: Impact of Oracle Acquisition of Phase Forward

The Health IT market is consolidating. E-Clinical Data Management demands all but force R&D, as well as post-market prescription and OTC product surveillance, into digital domains. Robust database applications are needed to support these applications and systems. Oracle, Microsoft, and SAP are the three dominant players in the space.

Oracle has been on a steady acquisition spree for some time and has just strengthened its position further. The Oracle Health Sciences (OHS) unit, created in 2008, acquired safety and pharmacovigilance specialist Relsys (makers of Argus Safety) in April 2009. Past Oracle acquisitions of Siebel Systems (Siebel Clinical CTMS - Clinical Trial Management System) complimented the Oracle Remote Data Capture (RDC) application that is widely used for Electronic Data Capture throughout the industry.

Today, Oracle announced the $685 Million (€507m) acquisition of Phase Forward, the leader in the EDC market, having as much as 70% market share, including as many as 15 out of 20 of the top pharma and biotech. More companies use Phase Forward's EDC applications than use Oracle's RDC applications. However, the landscape has now changed. This move adds Phase Forward’s broad range of EDC, CTMS, and other key products to Oracle’s existing offering, thus elevating its position profile in a market that Forrester Research recently predicted will be worth $26 Billion before the end of 2010.

Combined with Oracle's seamless integration of leading sales CRM software (Salesforce.com) and visual Business Intelligence (Hyperion), Oracle has widened the gap in the eClinical space. In order to keep up, Microsoft will certainly have to consider either building a new application in-house, or buying one of the 3-4 other products on the market that currently have any significant market share. Other players in the EDC space include Meditata Systems (Makers of Rave), OmniComm Systems (Makers of TrialMaster), TrialStat (owned by Indian giant, Jubilant Organosys), and Perceptive Informatics (A Parexel company) Clinphone/Datalabs EDC and CTMS applications. Another potential target is Aris Global (perhaps the #1 competitor of Relsys; makers of ARISg safety and pharmacovigilance software). Similarly, SAP will have to take a hard look at the industry as well. The result could be a bidding war for the last remaining players in what was a fragmented EDC landscape.

Novella Clinical, a North Carolina -based eClinical Contract Research Organization (CRO), has been using Phase Forward EDC software for over a decade. Having demonstrated successful cross-platform integration resulting in smooth and seamless global operation, impressive ISO compliance validated by world renown Underwriters Laboratories, and being named to the Deloitte Fast-50 list of the 50 fastest growing companies, Novella is the paradigm example of integrative workability and the gold standard of eClinical quality. Many companies seek to do what Novella has done. The components of their successful Health IT platform offering is a great model regarding what can be developed next.

Accordingly, safe bets for the next waves of acquisition likely focus squarely on the makers of Electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (ePRO) software, and makers of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Electronic Health Records (EHR), and Personal Health Records (PHR) applications. Leaders in the ePRO space include InVivo Data, PHT, and eResearch Technology (ERT). In fact, based on Phase Forward's July 2009 acquisition Maaguzi, it would appear Oracle is already poised to be in the ePRO space. Along the health record lines, Microsoft already has a strong edge in the EMR/EHR/PHR space. For Oracle to capture significant market share, it would likely need to target a company like Madison, Wisconsin -based Epic Systems, or perhaps even go after Cerner, another market leader.

For SAP, the uphill battle will be even steeper. Any decision not to yield market share will require expedited aggressive acquisition and integration efforts. While some high level integration consultants say that SAP products are more advanced, the fundamental lack of leading applications specific to healthcare currently leaves them almost entirely out of the market.

Benjamin Williams, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Catholic Healthcare West (CHW; owners of the Mercy Hospitals in the Sacramento region), is in his third year of technology implementation, consolidation, and integration at the organization's 42 hospitals across California, Nevada, and Arizona. He oversees business intelligence, clinical information systems, and the entire IT infrastructure. This includes oversight of Care Connect, CHW's EHR system. What is Care Connect? The names often seem to come out of left field. It is a uniquely branded and customized version of Epic software.

Further investigation reveals what most already know, the EMR space is even more fragmented than EDC. There are many more players, and many more uniquely branded products. Even the iconic General Electric is in the space. GE Healthcare owns Centricity, an enterprise class EMR application in use in over 200 hospitals around the country. Both Centricity and Care Connect have been used by Providence Healthcare hospitals in various locations. Providence is regarded much like CHW. They have approximately 35 hospitals in their system.

Perhaps the newest and most interesting market participant is a company called Eclipsys. The Atlanta, Georgia -based company has just unveiled its new Sunrise 5.5 enterprise class EHR suite. According to the company, this new version includes an open architecture platform designed to improve the exchange of data between the various layers of software technology being used inside an institution, while simultaneously lowering the total cost of license or ownership. Furthermore, the new solution is said to include smart alert functionality, embedded clinical documentation interoperability by way of of industry-standard vocabularies that allows for smooth data exchange, enhanced documentation of allergies, intolerances and other adverse events that affect patient quality of life, as well as their uniquely branded clinical analytics technology that helps make complex data easier to understand and use.

Ultimately, that's the goal. Make data transferable, visible, able to be understood, and able to be used, all while being securely protected from malicious misuse and public view. Pine Bluff, Arkansas -based Jefferson Regional Medical Center will be the first Eclipsys client to deploy Sunrise 5.5 perhaps as soon as next week. Surely many eyes will be monitoring changes in efficiency, quality, and cost management. Positive results may lead Eclipsys near the front of acquisition target lists.

Interestingly, Kaiser recently completed its system-wide national deployment of ambulatory and in-patient EMR on March 2, in Vallejo. The systems are live in every location, including 21 hospitals in Northern California alone. Kaiser uses Epic. Their system is customized and is called Health Connect.

The last of our major regional healthcare service providers is Sutter Health. Sutter CIO, Jonathan Manis, is an industry veteran with over 20 years of healthcare IT leadership experience, and a background that includes education at the United States Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. With Sutter, he oversees over $1 Billion in IT infrastructure. Given that sutter will spend perhaps as much as halfa billion dollars between now and 2015 on system-wide EHR implementation, Sutter CEO, Patrick Fry, says Manis' experience is crucial to Sutter's continued success. Sutter uses Epic software.

Clearly, all eyes should be on Epic. If the Sacramento valley and the Northern California region are any indication, Epic is to EMR what Phase Forward is to EDC: the gold standard. While CHW, Sutter, and Kaiser may compete for patients, members and service utilization, they all agree on one thing: the goals of technology implementation are clear: increase efficiency, reduce administrative processing time, expedite critical information availability, reduce medical error, increase communication, lower costs, and improve the quality of care that people in the community receive. Looking at Oracle's acqisition of Phase forward, a well-known and highly regarded industry veteran opting to remain anonymous says the following, "This provides an opportunity for better integration into the majority of backbones for data warehousing throughout the healthcare sector. It's good for Phase [Forward] and it's great for Oracle, who, by the way, has been calling themselves an eClinical software and service provider for months." It is with this in mind that market consolidating acquisitions must be carefully examined, because compromising any of the above is rarely - if ever - in the public interest.

Source:sacramentopress.com

Altosoft Introduces Business Service Management for Microsoft System Center and Opalis

LAS VEGAS, NV, Apr 19, 2010 -- Altosoft, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a leading provider of process-aware business intelligence solutions, today announced its Insight Dashboard for System Center. With this introduction Altosoft extends its suite of solutions for System Center and Opalis to provide a comprehensive Business Service Management (BSM) solution for users of Microsoft's /quotes/comstock/15*!msft/quotes/nls/msft (MSFT 31.32, +0.28, +0.91%) powerful suite of IT infrastructure and server management solutions.

"BSM tools can associate events from underlying IT infrastructure elements and IT operations availability and performance tools to provide a more holistic, business-oriented IT services view," said David Williams, research vice president for Gartner. "Through integration with performance-monitoring tools, they can associate an event with a broader service impact and enable IT operations personnel to proactively address a performance-based service degradation issue in-line with business priorities."

Altosoft's Insight Dashboard for System Center is built on Altosoft's process-aware business intelligence platform. The power of the Altosoft platform allows IT personnel to quickly and easily integrate IT operational data with underlying business process data to achieve deep insights into the impact and value of IT operations. This insight allows IT staff to fully understand the precise business impact of IT investments on a company's ability to meet its performance goals related to Service Level Agreement (SLA) obligations and the result of any deviation from these targets.

The Insight Dashboard for System Center joins Altosoft's existing Insight Dashboard for Opalis introduced in December following Microsoft's acquisition of Opalis. The latest product extends Altosoft's solution to include pre-built dashboards with access to a rich set of pre-defined key performance indicators (KPIs) utilizing data from the System Center Operations Manager's data warehouse and System Center Configuration Manager. Users can modify or extend these KPIs using any data from System Center or Opalis as well as any other data source without requiring any coding of any kind.

"The ability to combine IT operational data with real business data will be critical to the success of IT operations in the next decade," said Scott Opitz, CEO of Altosoft Corporation. "All areas of business, including IT must be able to demonstrate a clear ROI from their IT investments and be able to proactively demonstrate a direct business benefit. Our goal is to provide tools which empower IT professionals to achieve global visibility over their entire operation with a detailed understanding of how each system impacts the company's top and bottom lines."

"Altosoft's System Center solutions allow Microsoft's customers to realize even greater value from their investment in System Center," said Warren Talbot, director of product planning, Management and Services Division, Microsoft Corporation. "Altosoft's ability to quickly combine data from System Center, Opalis and other line of business data sources and make it available in an operational dashboard gives our customers great levels of visibility into their IT infrastructure and its value to the business's overall performance."

Based on the Microsoft .NET platform, Altosoft solutions leverage a variety of Microsoft technologies. Altosoft supports native dashboard and report development both independently using Altosoft's dashboard server or natively in the SharePoint Portal or System Center Operations Manager dashboard environments.

The Altosoft Insight Dashboard for System Center is available immediately. For more information go to: http://www.altosoft.com/products.

About Altosoft Altosoft empowers organizations with the ability to deliver powerful dashboards, reports and analysis to any business user, on demand. Altosoft eliminates the cost and complexity of ordinary BI by automatically gathering data from any source, converting it dynamically to business metrics, and storing it in an intelligent, optimized data mart. Altosoft also goes beyond other business intelligence solutions by enabling users to monitor, analyze, and optimize their business process performance and quality.

For more information, please visit http://www.altosoft.com.

For inquiries please contact:
Scott Opitz
(484) 427-2821

SOURCE: Altosoft Corporation

Basis Technology Expands Linguistic Technology Support for Bing Web Search

Basis Technology Corporation announced today that it has entered in an extensive, long-term licensing agreement with Microsoft Corp. to provide advanced linguistic technology for Bing web search. The company's Rosette(R) Platform is used in Bing search to identify and analyze text in several languages, enabling the creation of a high quality index, which in turn contributes to a high quality search experience. The Rosette Platform is also used to locate entities within web documents such as people, places and organizations. The entity identification is used by Bing's clustering algorithms to automatically categorize news topics, enabling users to find relevant news topics.

Under the new agreement, Bing will have access to the latest version of this platform, Rosette 7, recently announced by Basis Technology. Rosette 7 has enhanced entity extraction accuracy, as well as expanded language coverage, cross-language name matching and translation. Basis Technology will collaborate closely with Microsoft to continually improve and expand the features of Rosette to meet the demanding requirements of large scale web search applications.

Rosette is a high performance linguistic analysis platform that has been deployed in hundreds of text solutions around the world to classify, standardize and process unstructured text so it can be used for analytic and intelligence purposes. It includes support for dozens of world languages, including languages of Europe, East Asia, the Mideast, and Central Asia. Basis Technology has been delivering Rosette to OEM, SaaS and enterprise users since 1997.

"Basis Technology has been a great partner for Microsoft and Bing," said Harry Shum, corporate vice president for Search Product Development at Microsoft. "We selected the Rosette Platform to enhance the precision of our Web search results, and found the quality of the software and support from Basis Technology to be excellent."

"Microsoft is a sophisticated user of the Rosette Platform," said Steve Cohen, COO of Basis Technology. "We're focused, along with Microsoft, on delivering the best linguistics and the best relevance to Bing users in all locales. We look forward to helping Microsoft deploy Rosette 7 and meeting the increased demands that Bing search will place on the platform."

About Basis Technology Basis Technology (www.basistech.com) provides software solutions for text analytics, information retrieval, and name resolution in over twenty languages. Our Rosette(R) Linguistics Platform is a widely-used suite of interoperable components that power search, business intelligence, e-discovery, and other enterprise applications. Our company is at the forefront of applied natural language processing using a combination of statistical modeling, expert rules, and corpus-derived data.

Leading software vendors, content providers, financial institutions, and government agencies rely on Basis Technology's solutions for Unicode compliance, language identification, multilingual search, entity extraction, name matching, and name translation. Our products and services are used by over 250 major firms, including Cisco, EMC, Endeca, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Oracle, and Symantec. Our text analysis products are widely used in the U.S. defense and intelligence industry by such firms as CACI, Lockheed Martin, MITRE, Northrop Grumman, SAIC, and SRI. We are the top provider of multilingual technology to web search engines, such as Amazon.com, Ask.com, Bing, Google, and Yahoo.

Company headquarters are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with branch offices in San Francisco, California; Herndon, Virginia; and Tokyo, Japan. For more information, visit www.basistech.com or call 800-697-2062.

For more information:
Basis Technology Corp.
Miryon Pak, 617-386-2050

SOURCE: Basis Technology Corporation