Oracle Introduces Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index 2.0

Oracle Introduces Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index 2.0

New Release Improves Data Matching Capabilities, Enables Faster Deployment, and Expands Support for Chinese Market

Redwood Shores, Calif. – February 13, 2012

News Facts

Oracle Health Sciences today announced Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index Version 2.0, an open, standards-based solution to provide a single point of reference for information about a patient, provider, or other healthcare entity within and across healthcare organizations. The new release provides solutions for patient and provider indexing, enables faster, more flexible deployment, allows more targeted and accurate data matching, and features expanded support for the Chinese market.
Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index – which identifies, merges and de-duplicates patient and provider identities and demographic information from multiple systems – now supports Simplified Chinese characters for names, as well as mainland China address variations. The latest version also provides Chinese-localization for the data custodian web-interface and the design-time configuration environment.
Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index 2.0 includes an out-of-the-box provider index that helps manage healthcare provider identities and avoids data duplication and errors.
Leveraging its global healthcare market experience, Oracle has also included variations of patient models for the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
These pre-built, standards-based patient and provider solutions accelerate implementation, enabling healthcare organizations and health information exchanges to quickly set up a patient or provider project foundation using a template, and then configure the solution to their specific requirements.
This release incorporates a broad spectrum of country-specific and international healthcare standards, including the United States National Provider Identifier, Australian Standard for Healthcare Provider Identification (AS 4846), Australian Standard for Healthcare Client Identification (AS 5017), Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Healthcare Provider Directory, and Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) Direct.
New advanced power match options in Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index deliver additional sophisticated matching approaches for increased flexibility and accuracy. This can significantly reduce false positives and the need for manual follow up.
A standards-based solution, Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index supports multiple IHE profiles to help healthcare enterprises and health information exchanges create, process, and manage electronic health records through secure and trusted applications.
Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index 2.0 completed testing of multiple IHE profiles in the IHE North American Connectathon 2012 to demonstrate its ability to quickly interoperate with other IHE-compliant applications. The solution is a fully integrated component of Oracle Health Information Exchange solution which offers secure, scalable exchange of patient information within and across different healthcare entities.

Supporting Quote

“Healthcare organizations, eager to harness the potential of IT to transform care delivery, seek powerful IT solutions that are standards-based, flexible, secure and easy to implement, use and integrate,” said Neil de Crescenzo, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Health Sciences. “Oracle Healthcare Master Person Index 2.0 is purpose-built to these requirements. Its country-specific patient and provider index solutions enable quick deployments, while expanded Chinese language support facilitates use in the growing Asia market. Power match options ensure more accurate and efficient data matching, and the expanded support for IHE profiles streamlines integration and helps to ensure security – enabling healthcare entities globally to reduce costs, enhance revenues, and improve patient care.”

Supporting Resources

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center.  For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.

About Oracle in Industries

Oracle industry solutions leverage the company's best-in-class portfolio of products to address complex business processes relevant to health sciences, helping speed time to market, reduce costs and gain a competitive edge.

Trademark

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Contact Info

Greg Lunsford
Oracle
+1.650.506.6523
greg.lunsford@oracle.com

Mary Tobin
O’Keeffe & Company
+1.503.658.7396
mtobin@okco.com

PureSCM Enhances Competitive Advantage With CA Technologies Integrated and Automated Approach to IT Service Delivery

PureSCM Enhances Competitive Advantage With CA Technologies Integrated and Automated Approach to IT Service Delivery

Service Management and Unified Automation Solutions Help IT Services and Software Development Company and its Customers Minimize Costs and Maximize Service Quality

 

ISLANDIA, N.Y. - February 15, 2012 – CA Technologies today announced that PureSCM is incorporating its Service Management and Unified Automation capabilities into value roadmaps that enable integrated and automated IT service delivery. By applying CA Technologies Business Service Innovation, PureSCM and its customers are achieving competitive advantage through the following business outcomes: reduced costs, faster deployment and improved service quality by responding more quickly to changes, incidents and requests.

PureSCM is an IT services and software development company that specializes in service management consulting. The company has a proven track record in helping customers meet their strategic goals – including cost reduction, business expansion and simplified compliance – by delivering value roadmaps that combine technology and best practice management processes such as Six Sigma, COBIT and ITIL®. Over the last five years, PureSCM’s customers have increasingly requested integrated and automated solutions that focus on the delivery of business services across traditional, cloud or hybrid environments.

“By establishing a unified platform for IT service management, we have deep visibility into the costs of delivering support services to our internal end users and customers, which is key to ongoing profitability,” said Warren McCall, president and CEO, PureSCM. “The CA Technologies solutions integrate seamlessly with each other and other management tools to simplify our deployments and enable consistent IT service management across traditionally siloed departments operating in a hybrid IT environment.”

PureSCM has deployed a number of CA Technologies service management solutions to optimize development, and to improve productivity and customer satisfaction. CA Service Desk Manager and CA Service Catalog form the basis of IT service level management for PureSCM and help simplify and accelerate the resolution of approximately 100 incidents per month.

While CA Service Desk Manager provides ITIL-aligned incident, problem and request management, CA Service Catalog provides a “shopping cart” for requesting bundled services that meet a specific business need, such as those required by a new employee. Using CA Service Catalog, PureSCM can create an on-boarding package that takes into account all the requirements, such as access to IT systems and company offices as well as the provisioning of computing equipment. Automated workflows track approvals and direct each sub-task to the appropriate group to enable a seamless process.

CA Automation Suite for Clouds extends this automated approach to virtual server provisioning both internally at PureSCM and at client organizations. Test and development environments can be built and dismantled quickly and easily using the solution. IT also can use CA Automation Suite for Clouds to schedule virtual server deployments in advance, based on future business need. Once a request is logged, no further human intervention is required. For one particular PureSCM customer, the solution reduced the provisioning process from up to three weeks to just a few seconds.

CA Process Automation helps bring the capabilities of CA Service Desk Manager, CA Service Catalog and CA Automation Suite for Clouds together by providing underlying process automation and integration. CA Process Automation enables PureSCM to implement workflows that are automated and auditable and assign a specific cost to every client change request, which is key to the company’s billing process.

“Using CA Technologies Business Service Innovation as the basis for their IT service management, PureSCM is able to achieve the business outcomes of reduced cost of IT support, improved efficiency and service quality, and a strong reputation for IT service management,” said Brian Bell, general manager, Service and Portfolio Management, CA Technologies. “An integrated and automated approach enables PureSCM to deliver the high quality and cost-efficient support services that its customers expect.”

For more information about PureSCM’s use of CA Technologies IT management solutions, visit ca.com/PureSCM.

About CA Technologies

CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) is an IT management software and solutions company with expertise across all IT environments – from mainframe and distributed, to virtual and cloud. CA Technologies manages and secures IT environments and enables customers to deliver more flexible IT services. CA Technologies innovative products and services provide the insight and control essential for IT organizations to power business agility. The majority of the Global Fortune 500 relies on CA Technologies to manage evolving IT ecosystems. For additional information, visit CA Technologies at www.ca.com.

Follow CA Technologies

VMware and Mitel Bring Desktop Virtualization to the Contact Center

VMware and Mitel Bring Desktop Virtualization to the Contact Center

Integrations Enable Contact Center Managers to Better Serve Customers with Centralized Administration, Better Security and the Ability to Reduce Costs

LAS VEGAS – February 13, 2012 – Today at the VMware® Partner Exchange 2012, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) and Mitel (NASDAQ: MITL) unveiled the integration of Mitel’s Contact Center Solution for VMware View?, which can enable contact center managers to deploy and manage agents anywhere in the world, while empowering the center to lower costs. This solution provides contact center agents with cloud-based access to contact center functionality as well as a unified desktop and communications device (soft phone or desk phone) wherever they may be.

In addition, Mitel announced the availability of Mitel’s virtualized Unified Communicator® (UC) Advanced client software for VMware View. Additional information on both solutions can be found at this link: http://www.mitel.com/solutions/virtualization/virtual-desktop-solutions/VirtualDesktop

"We chose Mitel specifically because they were the only vendor we evaluated that could integrate with our VMware View?-based virtual environment," said Russ Johnson, president of Fuse Networks. “The flexibility of Mitel’s open UC architecture combined with VMware’s leading virtualization solutions gave us a consolidated communications infrastructure that we could manage like any other virtual application."

Desktop virtualization using VMware View decouples desktop components from physical devices and delivers them as a managed service from a centralized location, such as the data center or from the cloud. By centrally managing the desktops, applications and user data in the data center, organizations can benefit from improved manageability and control. When used in conjunction with Mitel’s Contact Center Solution, contact center and communications applications can be deployed as a single unified solution in a virtual desktop environment, enabling IT departments to reduce costs, while also extending their desktop and mobile environment to anywhere an end-user has an Internet connection.

For the contact center manager, this can allow for greater flexibility when bringing on additional agents during times of peak capacity, while maintaining centralized control over each agent. IT managers can reap similar cost and control benefits, while delivering their end-users a rich, consistent and high-performance desktop experience to any qualified device – including tablets and smartphones – whether in the office or on the go.

"These latest integrations of Mitel solutions with VMware View™ further advance our vision to deliver highly secure, centrally managed virtual desktops with advanced multimedia capability,” said Vittorio Viarengo, vice president, End-User Computing, VMware. “Mitel has once again demonstrated the flexibility of its open, single software stream Freedom architecture."

"Our contact center customers have consistently pushed for more flexibility in terms of managing their agents, as well as continued integration with virtualization technologies of all kinds," said Stephen Beamish, Mitel's vice president, corporate marketing and business development. "They will now have the ability to deliver their agents’ contact center, desktop and softphone capabilities as a unified, virtualized application – it doesn’t get more flexible than that."

Interested parties can view a demo of this joint solution at VMware's booth and Mitel's booth No. 602 at VMware’s Partner Exchange 2012, currently taking place in at the Venetian Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas through Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012.

Additional information on Mitel Contact Center Solutions can be found at: http://www.mitel.com/products/contact-center/enterprise-edition

Additional Resources

About Mitel
Mitel (NASDAQ: MITL) is a global provider of business communications and collaboration software and services. Mitel's Freedom architecture provides the flexibility and simplicity organizations need to support today's dynamic work environment. Through a single cloud-ready software stream, Mitel delivers a powerful suite of advanced communications and collaboration capabilities that provides freedom from walled garden architectures and enables organizations to implement best-of-breed solutions on any network; extends the "in-office" experience anywhere, on any device; and offers choice of commercial options to fit business needs. For more information visit: http://www.mitel.com

Mitel and the Mitel logo are registered trademarks of Mitel Networks Corporation.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About VMware
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 300,000 customers and 25,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

VMware and VMware View are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. The use of the word "partner" or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

Norton protects multiple devices with one solution and introduces Norton One


Norton 360 Everywhere Extends Powerful Protection to Multiple Devices

 

Norton 360 Version 6.0 Earns Highest Marks for Protection and Performance

 

TORONTO, ON. – Feb. 15, 2012 – Norton by Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced two premium security suites: Norton 360 Everywhere, which protects multiple devices in one solution, and an update to the award-winning Norton 360.  Norton 360 Everywhere, available in spring 2012, will provide security across PCs, Macs, Android-based phones and tablets. Norton 360 version 6.0 is available now and has just earned top rankings for both protection and performance.

 

Most families today have some combination of PCs, Macs, smartphones and tablets – all of which need security of their own to protect against online threats, data loss, and device loss and theft. A recent study 1 found that some households have as many as 14 to 20 consumer digital devices. Norton 360 Everywhere will deliver a multiplatform solution where consumers can customize their security to meet their specific needs. 

 

“With the introduction of Norton 360 Everywhere, we’ve expanded the powerful protection consumers know and trust to their digital devices,” said Janice Chaffin, Group President, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec. “We are enabling consumers to protect their valuable data and personal information no matter the device.”

 

Norton 360 version 6.0

Norton 360 version 6.0 offers industry leading PC protection and top ranked performance. In recent third party tests, Norton 360 ranked first in overall real-world protection and remediation from AV-TEST Institute2 and received top performance scores from PassMark Software3.

 

Norton 360 version 6.0 highlights:

 

·         Norton Identity Safe – Secures, remembers, and automatically enters user names and passwords while protecting users from online threats.

·         Norton Management – Delivers advanced cloud-based functionality to manage select Norton products remotely for greater ease and control.

·         Bandwidth Management – Limits non-critical Norton updates when connected to metered networks to avoid using up monthly data allotments or causing overage fees.

·         Improved Backup – Faster and easier back up capabilities and tracking.

 

Pricing and Availability

Norton 360 version 6.0 can be installed on up to three PCs and is available for purchase in the U.S. through various retailers and the Norton online store at http://ca.norton.com. The suggested retail price is US$89.99 for the standard edition including 2GB of online storage space and US$99.99 for the premium edition including 25GB of online storage space. The price for both editions includes a three PC license, a one-year subscription, Symantec’s protection updates and one full year of Norton’s best-in-class customer support. All Norton 360 users with a valid product subscription are eligible to download and use the latest product versions and updates, released during their subscription period. For more information, visit the Norton Update center at http://updatecenter.norton.com.

 

Norton 360 Everywhere will be available in select markets in spring 2012. Details on pricing and systems requirements will be available at that time. 

 

About Norton

Norton protects the Stuff that matters to consumers, across all aspects of their digital lives. Norton provides a range of security solutions including technologies for PCs and mobile devices, live tech support services and online backup. Like Norton on Facebook.

 

About Symantec

Symantec’s Canadian operations are headquartered in Toronto with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver.  For more information on Symantec products or current promotions, access Symantec’s Canadian Web site at www.symantec.ca. Symantec is an active member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA).


Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world.  Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

 

1 “Customers’ Need for Premium Technical Services: Consumer and Provider Perspectives,” Accenture, 2011

2Source: AV-TEST Institute January 2012 Real World Protection and Remediation Testing Report

3Source: PassMark Software, January 2012 Consumer Security Products Performance Benchmarks (Edition 3)

 

 

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MaRS Client Infonaut Signs Contract with University Health Network to Test Disease Surveillance System, Hospital Watch Live

MaRS Client Infonaut Signs Contract with University Health Network to Test Disease Surveillance System, Hospital Watch Live

TORONTO, Feb. 14, 2012 /CNW/ - Health technology company Infonaut (www.infonaut.ca), a MaRS client, announced it has signed a contract with the University Health Network to test its real-time disease surveillance system, Hospital Watch Live, at the Toronto General Hospital.

Designed to assist hospitals in controlling and stopping the spread of infectious organisms, Hospital Watch Live has been installed on the multi-organ transplant unit, an area of the hospital where all of the patients are on therapies to prevent organ rejection, which also suppresses their immune systems.

Response from staff on the unit has been enthusiastic because they believe that the data generated by the system will help them increase hand hygiene compliance, track equipment throughout the unit, respond to infectious disease outbreaks, conduct studies on techniques to increase quality and better protect staff from exposure to infections. This work should also reduce overall costs to the hospital.

"There are universally accepted techniques and methods of disease surveillance and infection control based on an understanding of 'history of location' and 'transmission,'" says Infonaut CEO Niall Wallace. "Infonaut is the only system that automates and applies these techniques inside the hospital to save money, save lives and create a new gold standard for safety and quality that is driven by evidence and analytics."

Easily integrated into existing hospital systems, Hospital Watch Live follows and records - in real time - the movement, contact and interaction of patients, employees and equipment, helping everyone on the unit understand and break the chain of transmission. When combined with preventative action from staff, this knowledge helps reduce hospital-acquired infections, saving lives and reducing hospital costs. It also provides instant, risk-rated contact tracing, with predictive analysis of patterns and disease reservoirs.

"The prevention of hospital-acquired infections is the result of many strategies," said Dr. Michael Gardam, Director of Infection Prevention and Control at University Health Network. "I've seen a lot of systems that can help us with this work and Infonaut's Hospital Watch Live is particularly interesting because staff can follow the data each day and track a number of possible sources of infection.  We're very focused on everyone washing their hands, but we also know that infection travels on equipment, so this system gives us the benefit of being able to track a number of things and feed that data back on a daily basis."

This project was made possible with funding from Infonaut, Canada Health Infoway and UHN.

"Leveraging innovation to help curb transmission of infectious diseases such as C. difficile has the potential to improve patient outcomes," said Richard Alvarez, President and CEO, Canada Health Infoway. "We are pleased to have invested in the Hospital Watch Live initiative and look forward to learning more about its potential to add clinical value by protecting patients and employees from hospital-acquired infection."

"The data collected will be anonymous," said Dr. Gardam. "It will provide information to the unit and analysis of patterns of movement which will be fed back to all staff who will then take the lead to make to further reduce hospital-acquired infections."

Hospital Watch Live was designed from the ground up with respect for privacy. Infonaut believes that respecting the ethical use of clinical surveillance tools and making a strong commitment to the Privacy By Design philosophy (http://privacybydesign.ca) will ultimately make our approach to preventing and controlling hospital acquired infections more successful.

"I applaud this new initiative to proactively embed the principles of Privacy by Design into the design of Infonaut's information systems, right from the outset," said Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada. "By anticipating privacy-invasive events, they can be prevented, before they arise. This 'positive-sum' approach will benefit multiple parties - hospitals, health-care workers, and most importantly, patients."

"Bringing a game-changing, innovative product like Hospital Watch Live to market has required the full spectrum of entrepreneurial skills," said Peter Adams, Senior Health IT Business Advisor at MaRS. "We're thrilled to have supported Infonaut throughout this complex, iterative process and delighted with the company's well-deserved success."

About Infonaut
Infonaut is a privately held health technology company based in Toronto with expertise in disease surveillance, infection prevention and control, using state-of-the-art real-time location system (RTLS) technology. Born out of Toronto's SARS crisis, Infonaut has received recognition and acknowledgement from international leaders in hospital infection control, global technology vendors, trade journals, mass-market publications and leading market analysis firms for their unique platform and patented approach to Infection Prevention and Control.

About UHN
UHN is a major landmark in Canada's healthcare system and a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. Building on the strengths and reputation of each of our four hospitals - Toronto General Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, UHN brings together the talent and resources needed to achieve global impact and provide exemplary patient care, research and education.

About Canada Health Infoway
Canada Health Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government. Infoway jointly invests with every province and territory to accelerate the development and adoption of information and communications technology projects in Canada. Fully respecting patient confidentiality, these secure systems will provide clinicians and patients with the information they need to better support safe care decisions and manage their own health. Accessing this vital information quickly will help foster a more modern and sustainable health care system for all Canadians.

About MaRS
MaRS Discovery District (www.marsdd.com) (Twitter: @MaRSDD) is a mission-driven innovation centre located in Toronto. MaRS works with partners to catalyze, accelerate and amplify innovation. MaRS supports entrepreneurs building Canada's next generation of growth companies.

For further information:

MaRS
Chris Stevenson
Director, Communications
(416) 673-8104
cstevenson@marsdd.com

Infonaut
Niall Wallace, CEO
(416) 432-8348
nwallace@infonaut.ca

UHN
Alexandra Radkewycz - Senior Public Affairs Advisor - Toronto General Hospital
Phone:  (416) 340 3895
Alexandra.Radkewycz@uhn.ca

Canada Health Infoway 
Dan Strasbourg
(416) 595-3424
dstrasbourg@infoway-inforoute.ca

Angoss Expands Predictive Analytics in the Cloud with KnowledgeCLOUD™ Solutions

Angoss Expands Predictive Analytics in the Cloud with KnowledgeCLOUD™ Solutions

Announces KnowledgeHUB™ best-in-class Cloud-based analytical platform

TORONTO, Feb. 14, 2012 /CNW/ - Angoss Software Corporation (Angoss) (TSX-V: ANC) today announced its suite of KnowledgeCLOUD solutions. These industry solutions deliver predictive analytics in the Cloud to help organizations in the financial services, high tech, healthcare and retail industries gain competitive advantage in the areas of sales, marketing and risk management.

"Angoss, an early pioneer in hosted predictive analytics solutions with its FundGUARD™ and ClaimGUARD™ solutions, is proud to expand its Cloud-based offerings for both structured and unstructured data," remarked Martin Galligan, President & CEO of Angoss. "In today's competitive environment, predictive analytics are an increasing focus for companies looking to significantly improve business performance by solving the labyrinth of data trapped in their organizations. Predictive analytics in the Cloud is particularly helpful for organizational divisions or lines of business that lack advanced analytics competency. These groups often struggle with implementing basic reporting and business intelligence tools, while advanced analytics seems out of reach. At the same time, Cloud computing is an increasingly popular choice for acquiring and deploying solutions without the need for highly specialized resources or expensive technology."

KnowledgeCLOUD solutions are delivered via KnowledgeHUB, a secure and scalable Cloud-based analytical platform that combines best-of-breed technologies with rapid deployment processes and professional services that ensure clients can effectively convert analytical insight into action—and improved business performance. In this era of big data, KnowledgeHUB provides for rapid data integration from a multitude of customer and third party data sources including structured and unstructured data—to unleash the opportunities of text mining and social media analysis. Once consolidated, data is transformed and loaded into client-specific Analytic Data Marts. These Analytical Data Marts power the predictive analytics insights and actions at the heart of each KnowledgeCLOUD solution.

"KnowledgeCLOUD solutions sit squarely at the convergence of these trends to combine predictive analytics with Cloud computing to accelerate time-to-value," said Bill Sheldon, Chief Solutions Officer. "KnowledgeCLOUD solutions allow organizations to gain competitive advantage through advanced analytics while KnowledgeHUB allows them to do it faster, cheaper and better."

Angoss' patented predictive analytics technology, KnowledgeSTUDIO™, provides the analytic engine at the center of the KnowledgeHUB platform. Data profiling, segmentation and model evaluation is performed using best-in-class decision trees. Strategy development and optimization is greatly enhanced through the use of StrategyBUILDER™. Analytical insights and actions are sent to the front-lines for execution. Results from that execution are fed back into the KnowledgeHUB ensuring continuous program improvement. Detailed management reporting ensures full program transparency and Return-on-Investment accountability.

About Angoss Software Corporation

Angoss is a global leader in delivering predictive analytics to businesses looking to improve performance across sales, marketing and risk. With a suite of desktop, client-server and in-database software products and Cloud solutions, Angoss delivers powerful approaches to turn information into actionable business decisions and competitive advantage. Angoss software products and solutions are user-friendly and agile, making predictive analytics accessible and easy to use. Many of the world's leading financial services, insurance, retail, health care and information communication and technology organizations use Angoss predictive analytics software products and solutions to grow revenue, increase sales productivity and improve marketing effectiveness while reducing risk and cost. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Angoss has offices in the United States and United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.angoss.com.

Coral CEA and the Digital Media Zone build on an ecosystem to expand Ontario’s software capabilities

Coral CEA and the Digital Media Zone build on an ecosystem to expand Ontario’s software capabilities


Ottawa-based Coral CEA has invested $120,000 in four companies located at Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone (DMZ), and Coral CEA is reviewing possible investments in even more firms at the DMZ. “We are attracted to teams who are ‘getting it done’ versus talking about innovation and we want this type of collaboration to set a new standard in Ontario,” says Brian Forbes, Executive Director at Coral CEA. Forbes believes the DMZ has taken a hands-on approach with entrepreneurs that is a perfect fit with Coral CEA.

At the DMZ Coral CEA has invested in:

ARB Labs Inc. designed a software application that that allows any video display to create an immersive 3D effect – without the need for goggles or glasses
Greenguage Inc. developed a software tool for smartphone and Web that blends mobile technology with the green movement allowing monitoring of Corporate Social Responsibility efforts
HitSend Inc. offers an online platform to enable and enhance community-based change by tapping into the community’s collective voice
ViaFoura Inc. created a cloud-based plug and play user engagement and gaming platform for online content sites

“Coral CEA’s funding will allow us to add two more people to our current staff of five. The DMZ and Coral CEA are not just paying lip service to innovation, they are not just talking, they have a plan of action,” says Warren Tanner CMO at HitSend. He adds, “There is no better business school than starting a business and that is exactly what we do.”

The DMZ launched in the spring of 2010 with over 6,000 square feet of downtown Toronto office space. In just over a year and a half, the DMZ has almost doubled in size and has assisted more than 190 innovators to incubate and accelerate 38 startups, launched more than 61 projects and fostered over 350 jobs. The DMZ is a centre for creativity, collaboration and innovation that acts as a catalyst for cross-pollination of skills. The focus is on the commercialization of software applications.

Ryerson students use the DMZ as a home base to establish new companies. “Young people work in a business realm that never existed before and they naturally embrace collaboration and open innovation like never before. Coral CEA brings the Open Innovation ecosystem to our companies and that is a crucial addition,” says Valerie Fox, Director of the DMZ.

“Ontario’s creative environment, world-class education system and proven business experts are second to none,” says Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Innovation. “Collaborations like this are the key to success. That’s why we helped establish Coral CEA and why we’ve made it easier for entrepreneurs across the province to get the help they need to succeed; while creating jobs and prosperity for all Ontarians.”

The Conference Board of Canada rates Canada 14th out of 17 nations for innovation. Innovation is the ability to turn knowledge into new products and is the crucial factor that will allow Canada to compete in the global economy. “Canada is a resource-rich nation, including knowledge resources. We also have a rich history of innovation, especially in communications. Communications innovation helps refine knowledge resources, adding value for global export,” says Forbes. Coral CEA has assisted more than 50 companies to capitalize on innovation.

Ryerson University President Sheldon Levy became aware of Coral CEA and encouraged collaboration with the DMZ. In a recent speech Levy called on universities to better educate young people on how to create their own businesses and take their innovations to market. “Youth are the primary users of digital media but lack the skills to turn ideas into reality,” says Levy. He believes schools must to do three things

• Connect innovators to each other, and to business, at the earliest stages
• Teach innovators how to be their own bosses
• Support research that leads directly to markets and economic benefit

Coral CEA has also partnered with Ryerson in a first-ever study on innovation in Ontario. The research team of the Ontario Cross-Border Technology Innovation Ecosystem (OCTIE) released preliminary findings in October 2011 stating that the more entrepreneurs network, especially with social networking, the more investment money they acquire. “Socializing your ideas enables more focused targeting so that entrepreneurs align with capitalists that better understand their value – which results in better valuations. Social networking enables an entrepreneur to reach people they could not have by other means,” says Forbes.

“We need to embrace Open Innovation and collaboration,” says the study’s primary author Professor Wendy Cukier, Vice President of Research and Innovation at Ryerson University. “The DMZ at Ryerson fosters innovation with a lean methodology and small teams that are very focused on going to market. Ontario will see action from our collaboration with new jobs, companies and applications,” says Forbes.

About Coral CEA

Coral CEA is a not-for-profit Open Innovation Network composed of member companies and organizations focused on the commercialization of Communications Enabled Applications (CEAs). Coral CEA was founded by the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, Carleton University, IBM, GENBAND, Eclipse Foundation and ITAC. The mandate is to create sustainable companies and jobs by supporting members in the commercialization process of new products and services. This includes business development, distribution and brokering of alliance and capital relationships.

About Digital Media Zone and Ryerson University

The DMZ is a multidisciplinary workspace for young entrepreneurs. It is a hub of digital media innovation, collaboration and commercialization that is home to both entrepreneurial startups and industry solution-providers. With access to overhead and business services, students and alumni can fast track their product launches, stimulating Canada’s emerging digital economy through spending and job creation. Ryerson University is Canada’s leader in innovative, career-oriented education with more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs. Distinctly urban, culturally diverse and inclusive, the university is home to 28,000 students.

Coral CEA contacts

Brian Forbes
Executive Director
Phone: 613-317-2118
Email: bforbes@coralcea.ca

Paul Brent
market2world communications inc.
Phone: 613-256-3939
Email: paul@market2world.com

DMZ Contact

Lauren Schneider
Media Relations Officer
Phone: 416-979-5000 ext. 2997
Email: lauren.schneider@ryerson.ca

Gartner Says Adopting a Pace-Layered Application Strategy Can Accelerate Innovation

Gartner Says Adopting a Pace-Layered Application Strategy Can Accelerate Innovation

Special Report Shows Pace Layers Can be Used to Build a Business Application Strategy That Delivers a Faster Response and a Better ROI

STAMFORD, Conn., February 14, 2012—  

           Many organizations are finding themselves with an enterprise application strategy that no longer satisfies the needs and desires of the business community, and this often leads to poor decisions and bad investments, according to Gartner, Inc.

"There is a gap developing between the business users of enterprise applications and the IT professionals charged with providing these applications," said Yvonne Genovese, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "The business leaders are looking for modern, easy-to-use applications that can be quickly deployed to solve a specific problem or respond to a market opportunity. The IT organization is typically working toward a strategic goal of standardizing on a limited set of comprehensive application suites in order to minimize integration issues, maximize security and reduce IT costs. These competing goals often lead to strategic misalignment."

In the Gartner Special Report, "Accelerating Innovation by Adopting a Pace-Layered Application Strategy," (http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/pace-layered-application-strategy/), Gartner analysts explain that Gartner's Pace-Layered Application Strategy is a new methodology for categorizing applications and developing a differentiated management and governance process that reflects how they are used and their rate of change.

In the past, many companies had a single strategy for selecting, deploying and managing applications. They may have had methodologies for classifying applications by value or technological viability, but they did not recognize that applications are fundamentally different based on how they are used by the organization.

Gartner believes the idea of pace layers can be used to build a business application strategy that delivers a faster response and a better ROI, without sacrificing integration, integrity and/or governance. Similar to the concepts in building architecture, Gartner has defined three application categories, or "layers," to distinguish application types and help organizations develop more appropriate strategies for each:

  • Systems of Record — Established packaged applications or legacy homegrown systems that support core transaction processing and manage the organization's critical master data. The rate of change is low, because the processes are well-established and common to most organizations, and often are subject to regulatory requirements.
  • Systems of Differentiation — Applications that enable unique company processes or industry-specific capabilities. They have a medium life cycle (one to three years), but need to be reconfigured frequently to accommodate changing business practices or customer requirements.
  • Systems of Innovation — New applications that are built on an ad hoc basis to address new business requirements or opportunities. These are typically short life cycle projects (zero to 12 months) using departmental or outside resources and consumer-grade technologies.

"These layers correspond to the notion of business leaders having common ideas, different ideas and new ideas," said Dennis Gaughan, managing vice president at Gartner. "The same application may be classified differently in one company than in another, based on its usage and relationship to the business model. We expect to see applications move among layers as they mature, or as the business process shifts from experimental to well-established to industry standard."

Gartner analysts said that one of the keys to developing this strategy is listening carefully to the way business people describe their vision for particular parts of the business. These categories of ideas include:

  • Common ideas — aspects of the business in which leaders are happy to follow commonly accepted ways of doing things that change fairly slowly.
  • Different ideas — aspects of the business in which leaders not only want to do things differently from comparable organizations, but also can specify the details of how the different approach should be taken, and can expect these details to change on a regular basis.
  • New ideas — aspects of the business in which leaders are thinking of an early stage concept, and are not at the point where they can be specific regarding the details of how things should work.

Organizations must establish a new strategy for business applications that responds to the desire of the business to use technology to establish sustainable differentiation and drive innovative new processes, while providing a secure and cost-effective environment to support core business processes.

One of the keys to using pace layering is to take a more granular approach to thinking about applications. She said that organizations are accustomed to using common, three-letter acronym application categories (such as ERP and CRM) but, when classifying applications in pace layers, they must be broken down into individual processes or functions.

For example, financial accounting, order entry and collaborative demand planning are often part of a single ERP package, but are separate application modules that belong in three different layers in the Pace-Layered Application Strategy. This approach should also be used to classify individually packaged or custom-developed applications. It is important to determine whether they support a common requirement, a unique business methodology or an innovative new business process. This allows the organization to apply the appropriate governance, funding and data models, based on the characteristics of each application.

"As organizations look to pace layers to help their application portfolios evolve from the rigid nature of current monolithic application strategy, it will be important to establish process and data integrity requirements within and between each," Mr. Gaughan said. "The pace-layered approach acknowledges that process and data integrity requirements will be different within each layer, and defines a set of architectural standards at each level to accelerate an organization's ability to adapt."

"For each layer of the portfolio to be managed effectively, a strong governance structure must unite all stakeholders," Ms. Genovese said. "The challenge for IT management teams is to develop a culture of governance that encourages consistent and persistent participation. This means that governance cannot be about IT telling the business stakeholders what needs to be funded — rather; there must be a true partnership that includes respect."

The Gartner Special Report "Accelerating Innovation by Adopting a Pace-Layered Application Strategy" (http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/pace-layered-application-strategy/?prm=gcom_classic&ref=g_homelink). The special report includes video commentary, and links to more than 20 reports examining various aspects of a Pace-Layered Application Strategy.

Gartner analysts will provide additional commentary during the Gartner webinar, "A New Application Strategy to Accelerate Innovation," March 1, at 10 a.m. EST and 1 p.m. EST. To register for this complimentary webinar, please visit http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=202&mode=2&PageID=5553&ref=webinar-rss&resId=1897216&prm=WB_PLS11R.

Mr. Gaughan explains why the Pace-Layered Application Strategy framework was developed in his Gartner blog post, "Introducing the Pace Layered Application Strategy Special Report." The blog post is available at http://blogs.gartner.com/dennis-gaughan/2012/02/03/introducing-the-pace-layered-application-strategy-special-report/.

Contacts:

Christy Pettey
Gartner
+1 408 468 8312
christy.pettey@gartner.com

Laurence Goasduff
Gartner
+ 44 1784 267 195
laurence.goasduff@gartner.com

Xplornet's 4G Satellite Broadband Service Goes Live


Xplornet's 4G Satellite Broadband Service Goes Live


Faster and More Affordable Satellite Service Meets With Strong Demand

WOODSTOCK, NB, Feb. 14, 2012 /CNW/ - Xplornet Communications Inc., Canada's leading provider of rural broadband services, is pleased to announce that its first 4G broadband satellite has passed all tests and is now operational, serving customers across Canada.  Launched in October 2011, ViaSat-1 is the highest capacity broadband satellite ever placed in orbit over North America, and Xplornet has acquired 100% of its Canadian Ka-band capacity to use exclusively to provide 4G broadband to rural and remote Canadians.

John Maduri, CEO of Xplornet Communications, called 4G satellite broadband "a game-changer" for Canada.  "I can't overstate the importance to rural Canadians of being able to access fast, affordable broadband.  We made it our mission to overcome the urban/rural digital divide, and we are succeeding. This should matter to all Canadians.  Universal access to and adoption of Internet technology has to be a national priority if Canada wants to compete and win in the global digital economy."

Xplornet initiated a pre-sale campaign after the launch of ViaSat-1 which included pilot subscriptions to rural Canadians to test the integrity of the broadband service.  According to Avis Sokol, Xplornet's VP of marketing, "The customers on the service during the testing phase were from select communities in Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec.  Sales and positive testimonials have exceeded our expectations.  Today, we begin marketing the service nationally through over 400 dealers".

One such pilot subscription was for Stan Campbell, who runs Dinners4You, a catering and meal planning business in Cobourg, Ontario.  "Our only option before was dial-up, and now we have something that's very fast and efficient" said Mr. Campbell.  "Xplornet has helped me be faster with my emails, looking up information online, and it's freed up my phone line for customer calls".

ViaSat-1 is the first of two 4G satellites Xplornet will be using to provide coverage across Canada.  The second, Hughes-Jupiter, will be launched later this year and will further enlarge Xplornet's 4G footprint and capacity.  Those satellites, together with Xplornet's 4G wireless terrestrial network and additional Ka band satellites mean that Xplornet can make real, affordable broadband available to virtually 100% of Canadians, regardless of where they live.

About Xplornet Communications Inc.

Headquartered in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Xplornet Communications Inc. (formerly Barrett Xplore Inc.) is Canada's leading rural broadband provider.  We believe everyone should have access to the transformative benefits of broadband, so we make our service available everywhere in Canada, including the hard to reach places.  We overcome the challenges of Canada's vast geography through our deployment of Canada's first national 4G network, which leverages both fixed-wireless towers on the ground and next-generation satellites in space.  Our customers live in the farthest reaches of the country and just outside of major urban centres, and through our coast-to-coast network of local dealers we connect them to all that the Internet offers.  Xplornet is high-speed Internet - for all of Canada.

xplornet.com | twitter.com/xplornet | facebook.com/xplornet

For further information:

Media Inquiries:
Jeff Hecker, Director, Marketing Communications and Public Relations
Xplornet Communications Inc.
(905) 944-7969


Symantec announces update to compliance solution to manage IT risk


Symantec Provides Business Perspective on IT Risk with New Risk and Compliance Solution

 

TORONTO, ON. – Feb. 14th, 2012 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the upcoming release of Symantec Control Compliance Suite 11, the latest version of its enterprise-class IT governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solution. It will feature the new Control Compliance Suite Risk Manager module which enables security leaders to better understand and communicate risks to the business environment from their IT infrastructure. Risk Manager translates technical issues into risks relevant to business processes, delivers customized views of IT risk for different stakeholders, and helps prioritize remediation efforts based on business criticality rather than technical severity.

 

Click to Tweet: Symantec helps CISOs speak language of business:  http://bit.ly/wyg5eV 

 

Security threats and risk management are becoming part of boardroom-level discussions.  A January 2012 study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Symantec found:

·         70 percent of security decision makers reported increased executive awareness of IT security as a direct result of recent high profile attacks and data breaches

·         When asked what changes to their IT risk program would have the most positive impact on their business counterpart relationships, 47percent indicated the improved ability to communicate the value of security and risk management in business terms

·         More than 40 percent called out the need for more timely and accurate data or more frequent reporting of risk and compliance

 

Symantec Control Compliance Suite Risk Manager module will allow security leaders to create a targeted view of IT risk as it relates to a specific business process, group or function. Instead of sending business unit owners detailed reports on outstanding configuration or vulnerability issues, they will be able to illustrate how these issues are causing unacceptably high risk to the company’s online e-commerce site, transaction processing system or other key business process. Translating technical IT issues into business risk terms that can be more easily understood helps drive greater awareness, accountability and action.

 

The solution will facilitate more effective communication around IT risk by allowing security leaders to customize dashboards with audience-specific risk metrics.

·         Executive-level dashboards can illustrate high-level metrics, such as risk by business unit, or risk scores for mission-critical business processes.

·         Security operations dashboards can drill down to examine technical details behind these risk scores.

·         Dashboards for IT operations can outline detailed remediation plans and monitor risk reduction over time as scheduled remediation activities take place.

These different dashboard views provide business stakeholders with the information they need to make better decisions around IT risk, while ensuring that security and IT operations teams are more closely aligned on what needs to be done to reduce the most critical risks to the business.

 

Symantec Control Compliance Suite will feature a flexible, scalable data framework which is critical to providing a rich data-driven view to multiple audiences.  This framework greatly simplifies the process of bringing together and “normalizing” information from multiple different sources, so that it can be viewed in a common format.  The suite brings together automated, technical assessment information with manual data inputs and procedural assessment information.  It combines all of this with additional data from other Symantec and non-Symantec solutions, providing a rich set of information available for better analysis and decision making. The result is a truly multi-dimensional view of the IT risks associated with any given business process, group or function. 

 

Quotes

“The ability to move beyond the traditional role of technical expert and become a business risk advisor is critical to the success of today’s IT security leaders,”said Art Gilliland, senior vice president, Information Security Group, Symantec. “Symantec’s next generation IT GRC solution will empower information security leaders to drive real change and accountability with their business counterparts at a time when security threats are becoming boardroom level discussions.”

 

“When you are called before senior executives of the business to talk about IT risks, you better have sound metrics behind you.  Gathering this information and effectively communicating it to business stakeholders is one of the biggest challenges we face today. With Control Compliance Suite Risk Manager, Symantec is providing a powerful tool to help address this challenge,” said Tim Stanley, director of information and infrastructure security, Waste Management, Inc. 

 

“We are seeing a growing number of CISOs being asked to provide a business-centric perspective of IT risk that executives and line-of-business managers can understand and act upon.  Meeting this need requires a strong focus on the intersection of risk management and IT-based business processes,” said Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group.

 

Availability

Symantec Control Compliance Suite 11 is expected to be available by early summer 2012.

 

Resources

 

Connect with Symantec

 

About Symantec

Symantec’s Canadian operations are headquartered in Toronto with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver.  For more information on Symantec products or current promotions, access Symantec’s Canadian Web site at www.symantec.ca. Symantec is an active member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA).


Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world.  Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

 

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NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please visit the Symantec News Room at http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices noted are in U.S. dollars and are valid only in the United States.

 

Symantec and the Symantec Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Forward-looking Statements: Any forward-looking indication of plans for products or programs is preliminary and all future release or delivery dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future program plans, or release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should not be relied upon in making program participation or product purchasing decisions.

 

Symantec and the Symantec Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

 

Forward-looking Statements: Any forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.

 

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