Mike Thomson here from Edelman, on behalf of Intuit and QuickBooks. I hope this email finds you well.
According to a recent Intuit survey, 65% of Canadians think they have what it takes to start their own business. Moreover, approximately one-third they plan to take the entrepreneurial leap in the next 12 months. As small business owners know, having an idea is only the beginning. With this in mind Intuit has put out a release this morning providing time-saving tips to help small business owners get off the ground and be successful.
If you interested in speaking with an Intuit spokesperson to delve deeper into these issues, I would be happy to facilitate. Additionally, we also have two SMB owners who would be happy to share their experiences of starting a business and the things budding entrepreneurs really need to know. Here are links to each of their websites, in case you wanted to get a sense of who these SMB owners are:
I think this could also make a nice sidebar to a story that is perhaps already in progress. If you would like to speak with someone or are interested in learning more, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Making Time: What Small Businesses Need to Know in 2011
Intuit offers Time-Saving Tips for Entrepreneurial Success
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Mar. 3, 2011 – In an Intuit study conducted late last year, 65 per cent of Canadians believed coming up with a successful business idea was simple, however as current small business owners know, the idea is just the beginning. There are numerous time-consuming responsibilities that come with owning a business, however managing finances does not have to be one of them.
“The big challenge is making sure that businesses spend their time wisely and track the money coming in and going out in an efficient manner,” said Esther Friedberg Karp, owner of CompuBooks Business Services in Toronto and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. “In my experience, businesses fail because owners don’t properly understand their finances. They get buried under the hundreds of other demands on their time, or they put off tracking their company's financial health until it's too late to save the enterprise. Thankfully, there are tools and simple tips that can ease the accounting process while freeing up hours, which ultimately helps keep the business dream alive and well.”
Time-saving tips
To help budding or current entrepreneurs succeed, Chris Davey, accounting professional liaison at Intuit Canada, offers these tips that show how using accounting software can help keep the books in the black and the clock off their back:
Say goodbye pen and paper, hello software
In a single screen, get a complete and detailed view of business finances
Eliminate hours spent poring over ledgers or reams of receipts with software such as QuickBooks, which offers entrepreneurs a snapshot of where money is coming in and where it needs to go
Make better decisions by having quick access to business-critical information; this helps improve the bottom line and gets entrepreneurs back on the front lines
Show me the money: Get paid on time
Delivering a great product or service is half the battle. Receiving revenue ultimately keeps the business afloat
Track the status of invoices, reduce the time spent on bill collection and learn which customers pay quickly, and which do not
Spend less time creating invoices and chasing payments and more time on customer service by using accounting software to track payments
3. Use your accountant’s knowledge – not their time
Pay an accountant for strategic advice rather than time to sort through a shoe box of receipts
Prepare year-round for the year-end. Avoid the last-minute frenzy, a costly time killer, by managing matters on a daily basis
Send electronic files created with QuickBooks, to your accountant. This saves countless hours for both the small business owner and the financial professional
“It’s no surprise that entrepreneurs would want to minimize the time they spend on managing finances and concentrate on doing what they love – being a successful business owner,” said Davey. “Saving time on the back-end means more time for other important tasks like marketing, customer service and following competitors. With the right tools, resources and know-how, taming the ‘back-office beast’ can be done more efficiently than one may think.”
For more information about the benefits of QuickBooks accounting software, please visit quickbooks.ca.
About Intuit Canada
Intuit Canada ULC is a leading provider of business, financial and tax management solutions for small- and mid-sized businesses, consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including Quicken®, QuickBooks®, QuickBooks® Enterprise Solutions, SuccèsPME, TurboTax, and ImpôtRapideMC, simplify personal finance, accounting software, and tax preparation and filing.
Additional offerings include ProFile®, a professional tax preparation software suite, the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program and the Intuit Developer Network for professional users and developers. All are provided by Intuit Canada or through its partners.
Intuit Canada has employees across Canada and offices in Edmonton, AB, and Mississauga, ON. Intuit Canada is an affiliate of Intuit Inc., which is listed on the Nasdaq stock market under the symbol INTU. More information can be found at www.intuit.ca.
About the survey
Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey from Sept. 16 to 17, among 1,045 randomly selected Canadian adults. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region census data to ensure a representative sample. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.
So what exactly is the Map of the Internet and what does it show?
It’s a layout of all the networks that are interconnected to form the internet. Some are run by small and large ISPs, university networks, and customer networks - such as Facebook and Google. It’s visual representation of all those networks interconnecting with one another, forming the internet as we know it. Based on the size of the nodes and the thickness of the lines, it speaks to the size of those particular providers and the connections.
In technical speak, you’re looking at all the autonomous systems that make up the internet. Each autonomous system is a network operated by a single organization, and has routing connections to some number of neighbouring autonomous systems. The image depicts a graph of 19,869 autonomous system nodes, joined by 44,344 connections. The sizing and layout of the autonomous systems is based on their eigenvector centrality, which is a measure of how central to the network each autonomous system is: an autonomous system is central if it is connected to other autonomous systems that are central.
PEER 1 Hosting is on the map (Grid position N10). It runs its own super network across North America and Europe.
If you would like to receive a physical copy of the map (or give some away to your readers), please let me know and I’d be happy to mail them to you.
In addition, if you’d like more information, I can put you in touch with a PEER 1 spokesperson who can speak to how this idea came about and how it works.
Best,
Shobhita
Shobhita Sharma
Account Coordinator |MAVERICK Public Relations
(416) 640-5525 x 228 | 37 Madison Avenue | Toronto | M5R 2S2
VMware Announces General Availability of VMware View 4.6
VMware View 4.6 delivers enhanced remote access with VMware View Security Server support for PCoIP
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Feb. 28, 2011 — VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced the general availability of VMware View™ 4.6 with enhanced remote access via VMware View Security Server support for PC-over-IP (PCoIP).
VMware View Security Server support for PCoIP allows for a simple, secure remote connection and authentication to a user’s desktop by removing the requirement for enterprise-class SSL VPNs — providing customers with greater choice when initiating end-to-end PCoIP protocol session. The result is a tightly-integrated and cost-effective desktop virtualization deployment that provides for easy authentication of remote users.
“The release of VMware View™ 4.6 with PCoIP support for VMware View Security Server provides a simple and secure way for users to access their VMware View desktops remotely, while taking advantage of a superior PCoIP experience,” said Raj Mallempati, director, End-User Computing Products for VMware. “When you combine VMware View Security Server with View’s wide range of supported end-point and mobility options, VMware View 4.6 provides the best of both worlds — End-user freedom. IT control.”
VMware View™ is a complete, virtual desktop solution that enables enterprises to improve security and lower operating costs, while simplifying desktop administration and management by establishing a modern, end-user computing architecture. VMware’s End-User Computing vision seeks to free users and IT from more than two decades of complex, device-centric computing and deliver a more consumer-focused cloud experience for the enterprise.
About VMware VMware delivers solutions for business infrastructure virtualization that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes. With the industry leading virtualization platform — VMware vSphere™ — customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve agility, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2009 revenues of US$2 billion, more than 170,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com. VMware Canada is headquartered in Burlington, Ontario, and can be found online at www.vmware.ca.
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VMware, VMware View, and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herei n may be trademarks of their respective companies.
For more information please contact: Cindy Watson StrategicAmpersand Inc. cindy@stratamp.com (416) 961-5595 ext. 433
Cisco Announces Unified Communications Platforms for Small and Mid-sized Businesses and New Sales Productivity Initiatives
New sales support for smaller VARs provides immediate, personalized sales support for smaller Cisco partners
NEW ORLEANS - Cisco Partner Summit - March 2, 2011 - Cisco today announced two new purpose-built unified communications solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. These new Cisco® Unified Communications offerings provide customers in these distinct market segments with complete, affordable, business-class collaboration systems to help drive productivity and profitability.
Cisco also announced a new global sales productivity initiative called Cisco Partner Advisor, with agents available to give Select and Registered partners immediate and personalized sales support to accelerate sales and make it easier to do business with Cisco. In addition, Cisco is providing channel partners with more ways to offer complete collaboration solutions for small and mid-sized customers by extending Cisco WebEx® Meeting Center to its partners.
Announcement Highlights
* New Unified Communications System for Small Business - The Cisco Unified Communications 300 Series is a complete collaboration system delivering everything a company with two to 24 users needs for business-class networking and voice communications. This easy-to-use, affordable solution lets a small business take advantage of IP telephony to reduce phone costs, boost employee productivity, and create a more collaborative company. It includes built-in data and wireless support, along with features such as voicemail and automated attendant. Three-year, zero percent financing is available from Cisco Capital® in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom for the Cisco UC300 Series through the end of July, 2011.
* New Unified Communications System for Mid-Sized Businesses - The Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 3000 is an economical unified communications platform designed for growing mid-sized businesses, and supports a capacity of 300 users across 10 sites. The system is quick for a trained Cisco partner to set up, and easy-to-use, with an intuitive user interface, helping these customers to save time and money, and helping our channel partners to optimize their implementation, support, and maintenance practices.
The Cisco Unified CM Business Edition 3000 offers essential features like voice mail, conferencing, the ability to park or hold calls, auto attendant, and standard mobility features like single number reach, extension mobility, and tele-worker support to connect business calls and voice mail messages to employees anywhere they choose to work. The Cisco Unified SIP Phone 3905 is an affordable, IP-based phone that integrates with the Cisco Unified CM Business Edition 3000 to address the need for uncomplicated voice communications for mid-sized businesses. It included fixed keys for redial, transfer, hold and resume, speakerphone, volume toggle, and a PC switch port to reduce cabling installation requirements.
* New Partner Sales Support Initiative - Cisco Partner Advisor is an innovative sales coverage and support initiative for Cisco small business and mid-market partners that provides immediate, personalized sales support via click-to-chat or phone. Initially delivered through two global centers in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Lisbon, Portugal, Cisco support personnel are waiting to help new partners get started with Cisco and provide assistance to partners for deal support, programs and tools. Over the next few months, Partner Advisor will continue to roll out in Europe, Emerging Markets, Asia Pacific and Canada, and support will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Korean. With this sophisticated sales support offering, Cisco is investing in people and technology to provide sales coverage for more than 24,000 Cisco Select a nd Registered partners selling to small and mid-market customers around the world.
* Partner Offering for Cisco WebEx - Cisco is introducing a partner-led model for Cisco WebEx Meeting Center designed specifically for partners that sell to small businesses. Cisco WebEx Meeting Center lets end users share applications, presentations, documents, or a PC desktop in real time and work with teams around the world without the time and expense of travel. By selling Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, partners can offer more complete collaboration solutions while helping customers use web conferencing to accelerate productivity and drive business growth. Partners can learn more about selling WebEx Meeting Center at www.cisco.com/go/sbwebex.
Supporting Quotes
* Matthew Hurley, senior vice president, small business market, Bell; a Canadian service provider partner:
"Bell is demonstrating our continued commitment to providing cost-effective communication solutions to small and medium businesses. The Cisco UC320W, designed for small businesses, has all of the features and functionality a customer needs, it is simple to set-up and use, affordable, and built for growing businesses."
* Reza Khorramian, vice president of sales, Business Communications Solutions; a Cisco certified small business and advanced unified communications partner:
"After a brief introduction and training on the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 3000, we installed it with a live network connection to the public telephone network. Setup was very straightforward and simple, especially compared with other PBX systems we have installed. There were no issues getting the system installed and adding and changing users and features. Installation did not require in-depth network training and we were able to get the system successfully making calls in less than an hour."
* Mark Wang, manager, Easier Way, an information system architecture designer and Cisco Unified Communications customer:
"Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 3000 is a very easy-to-use IP communications system for handling all our essential collaboration needs. The management interface in the optional Chinese language is very simple and uncomplicated, which allowed the system to be set up very quickly. We were pleased that our business experienced minimal disruption during the switch over."
* Barry O'Sullivan, senior vice president , Voice Technology Group, Cisco:
"Building on our industry-leadership in the enterprise collaboration market, Cisco is delivering innovative, unified communications solutions that are tailor-made for the unique characteristics of small and mid-market business partners and the customers they serve."
* Ian Pennell, senior vice president, Small Business Technology Group and co-chair, Small Business Council, Cisco:
"Cisco continues to be 100 percent committed to giving our partners and the customers they serve the easy-to-use technology innovation they need to succeed. Our partners and customers have told us they want simple unified communications solutions to help them stay ahead of their competition. Cisco is ready to meet that need."
* Andrew Sage, vice president of worldwide Small Business Sales, Cisco:
"Our partners are the center of our business at Cisco, and we will do whatever we can to help them succeed. Our new Cisco Partner Advisor initiative uses both people and technology to help our small and mid-market business partners to begin or continue working with Cisco to get the immediate sales and programs help they need."
Product Pricing and Availability
* Cisco Unified Communications 320W is currently available. List pricing is $995.
* Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 3000 is scheduled to be available in the second quarter of calendar year 2011. List pricing is $12,400 for 100 users.
Cisco Small Business, Cisco SMB, SMB, small businesses, mid-sized businesses, mid-market, unified communications, collaboration, partner enablement, partner solutions, Cisco small business partners, Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition, IP telephony, Cisco Unified SIP Phone 3905, Cisco WebEx, WebEx, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, Cisco Partner Advisor, partner programs, partner initiatives, channel partner
About Cisco Collaboration
From award-winning IP communications to mobility, customer care, Web conferencing, messaging, enterprise social software, and interoperable telepresence experiences, Cisco brings together network-based, integrated collaboration solutions based on open standards. These solutions, as well as services from Cisco and our partners, are designed to help promote business growth, innovation and productivity. They are also designed to help accelerate team performance, protect investments, and simplify the process of finding the right people and information
About Cisco
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco Canada Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco, has offices across Canada dedicated to customer support, sales and service. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/canada/.
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Cisco, the Cisco logo and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Contact Information
Andrea Berry StrategicAmpersand Inc. (for Cisco) 416-961-5595, Ext. 428 andberry@cisco.com
Hope all is well with you! I noticed that you have a personal printers feature coming up in your EdCal, and thought I’d let you know about Kodak’s new ESP C310 All-in-One Inkjet Printer.
The new compact wireless Kodak ESP C310 All-in-One Inkjet Printer provides excellent image quality with rich and vibrant colours. Users will like the convenience of being able to sort through their digital pictures at their computer and then quickly print pictures on the spot.
The Kodak ESP C310 All-in-One Inkjet Printer is easy-to-use, value priced, and offers low ink replacement costs. Users are able to print, copy and scan documents with the touch of a button. Additionally there are built-in templates for printing a variety of different forms such as to-do lists, grocery lists, lined paper and even sheet music for aspiring Mozarts.
The Kodak ESP C310 All-in-One Inkjet Printer is $99.99 and available at www.kodak.ca.
Let me know if you have any questions or would like more information
All the best,
Charlene
Charlene MagnayeKetchum Public Relations | 33 Bloor Street East, Suite 1607, Toronto, ON M4W 3H1 p 416.355.7430 | echarlene.magnaye@ketchum.comKetchum. Passion and Precision in Communication. A proud partner of Room to Read; World Change Starts with Educated Children ® Our goal is to reach more than 10 million children by 2015.
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
---------------------------- This message is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, is prohibited. If you have received this message by mistake, please destroy it immediately and notify the sender. ----------------------------
Accellos Announces Compatibility with New Sage ERP Accpac Version 6.0
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – March 2, 2011 –Accellos, a leading provider of supply chain execution software solutions and a Sage North America Development Partner of Sage ERP Accpac, announced today its full compatibility with the newly-launched Sage ERP Accpac 6.0 to help bring SMBs accelerated business growth. With this compatibility assurance, users of the Accellos One suite of products can be confident that their Sage ERP Accpac system will function seamlessly and effectively.
The integration between Accellos One and Sage Accpac 6.0 will continue to deliver the following features:
Seamless downloads of Sage Accpac purchase and sales orders from the native Sage Accpac ERP functionality to the Accellos One software
Support for multi-location serialized and lot-tracked inventory, and customer/vendor returns
Developed using the extensible Accellos Integration Framework allowing the user or partner to customize the information flowing between Sage Accpac ERP 6.0 and the Accellos One software
Sage ERP Accpac Version 6.0 is the latest upgrade to the Sage ERP family, offering businesses greater productivity, enhanced real time visibility to metrics, and the right tools needed to accelerate business growth. As the first step in a new web-deployable ERP framework, Sage ERP Accpac Version 6.0 enables true browser-based access, providing businesses with the interactive collaboration tools required in today’s fast-paced business environment. It can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud through Sage ERP Accpac Online. Sage ERP Accpac is award-winning business management software that helps small and midsized businesses in countries around the world manage their accounting, operations and customer relationships.
“We are excited to offer the latest release of Sage ERP Accpac to our customers, and we are dedicated to providing the most seamless experience during the upgrade process,” said Ross Elliot, Accellos’ CTO. “Our goal is to provide a rich feature set for the warehouse that extends the base capabilities of Sage Accpac ERP. The solution is designed to scale from a first-time warehouse user to a highly sophisticated operation leveraging the latest in warehouse automation equipment.”
According to Elliott, “Accellos’ integration framework provides a competitive advantage for Sage partners. It offers a comprehensive API for developers and a wide variety of tools and configurations for consultants and installers. Most importantly, the framework gives customers peace of mind that their warehouse and back-office are working as a unit.”
To learn more about Sage ERP Accpac Version 6.0, please tune into the Sage ERP Accpac Version 6.0 Virtual Launch Event, where participants will hear from industry experts about how to see their business in a new way.
About Accellos
Accellos, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is a global provider of logistics, warehouse, third-party logistics, transportation and mobile fleet management software solutions. The company addresses the supply chain management and execution market with warehouse management systems for multiple environments, including transportation management software and in-field mobile resource management solutions. Accellos’ powerful supply chain execution solutions are easy to customize and implement, providing customers with more innovation for less investment. For more information, email info (at) accellos.com or visit www.accellos.com.
# # #
If you would rather not receive future communications from Accellos, Inc., let us know by clicking here. Accellos, Inc., 90 S. Cascade Avenue Suite 1200, Colorado Springs, CO 80903 United States
I thought you might be interested in reviewing the latest consumer retail survey from IBM as it directly relates to how consumers are embracing new technology to become knowledgeable, savvy shoppers. Study results show that the shopper of the future has finallyarrived. This year, the survey revealed that more Canadian shoppers are ready to adopt new consumer technologies. In fact, the number of ‘instrumented’ consumers – those who use two or more technologies such as websites, mobile devices and in-store kiosks when shopping – increasedby 65 per cent since last year.
The survey polled more than 30,000 consumers, including 2,000 Canadians, and found that Canadians are adopting new shopping technologies faster than consumers in other countries. Shoppers here are using everything from social media, smartphones and UPC tags to be more efficient and enhance their shopping experience.
Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to speak to an IBM spokesperson about the survey. I’m happy to arrange an interview.
Best regards,
Deborah 416-355-7425
IBM Survey: Frugal, Yet Optimistic Shoppers Driving Smarter Retail Through Technology and Mobility
Canadian consumers embracing mobile retail
Markham, ON…Mar 2, 2011: An annual IBM (NYSE: IBM) global survey of 30,000 consumers in 13 countries, including more than 2,000 Canadians, reveals shoppers here are adopting new shopping technologies faster than most. In fact, the number of Canadians willing to use mobile technologies to shop increased by 160 per cent year-to-year, second only to the US in uptake.
The survey also shows the number of Canadian “instrumented” consumers -- who use two or more technologies such as a website, mobile device or in-store kiosk -- increased by 65 per cent over last year’s results, almost double the global result, which reported a 36 per cent increase year-to-year.
“It would appear Canadians’ conservative attitude toward adopting new consumer technologies is changing rapidly to the point that consumers are ahead of retailers,” says John Dawkins, IBM’s Canadian retail sector lead. “Wider access to bandwidth at lower rates, an increase in the number of Canadian wireless service providers, adoption of social media and a comparatively faster economic recovery are driving the emergence of a more complex, competitive and sophisticated shopper.”
The study reveals a portrait of the quintessential Canadian shopper: female; frugal but optimistic about her income; influenced more by family and friends’ opinions than retailers; and who regularly shops for more than people in her household such as parents or grandchildren.
The survey polled consumers from a dozen other countries, including both mature and emerging markets and show globally, shoppers have adopted attitudes during the recession that continue to dictate their behavior: they buy what they need, search for items on sale and wait longer to purchase; and they have embraced the use of technology throughout the process to save time and enhance the experience.
Other findings include:
· Shoppers are leveraging social media from Facebook to Twitter, to blogs, YouTube and reviews, more than ever before to discuss retailers, products and brands with friends, family members and strangers.
· Consumers are checking prices in store, where 70 per cent of final product selection happens, using smart phones and UPC tags to check competitive offerings.
· Consumers want a personalized shopping experience and will spend more and be more loyal to retailers who offer them quality, service and promotions on items they regularly buy and remember things such as their preferred payment methods.
· Consumers want to shop seamlessly across channels, check product prices wherever they are, get promotions based on the items they scan, and use a personal mobile device to avoid the checkout lane.
“A new approach to customer intimacy is critical in the new economic environment and this necessitates a stronger commitment than ever before. Organizations that are best at extracting previously undiscovered insights from vast amounts of customer information have a huge advantage in deepening existing connections and creating new relationships,” said Diane Brisebois, president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada.
The IBM survey of 30,624 consumers was conducted in October 2010 in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom and United States.
Leslie Plant IBM Media Relations 416-478-9840 416-526-5647 laplant@ca.ibm.com
Deborah Boyce Account Executive +1 416 355 7425
Ketchum. Passion and Precision in Communication. A proud partner of Room to Read; World Change Starts with Educated Children ® Our goal is to reach more than 10 million children by 2015. PRNews 2010 Large Firm of the Year and a Best Place to Work in PR
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
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Cisco Jabber Takes Unified Communications and Collaboration to New Heights for PC, Mac, Tablets and Smart Phones
Wake Forest University to Deploy New Cisco Jabber Application to Increase Collaboration Among Students and Faculty
ORLANDO, Fla., March 1, 2011 - At the Enterprise Connect 2011 trade show, Cisco today announced the release of Cisco JabberTM, a unified communications application that brings together presence, instant messaging (IM), voice and video, voice messaging, desktop sharing and conferencing into a single consistent experience across PCs, Macs, tablets and smart phones. Jabber provides a simple way for business workers to easily and securely find the right people, to see if and on what device they are available, and to collaborate using their preferred method or device.
Cisco Jabber, which is scheduled to roll out to Mac users starting this summer will provide users with a unified client they can deploy across on-premise and cloud-based options. With Jabber, users can easily and seamlessly escalate from an IM conversation to a voice, video or desktop sharing interaction on the fly. Additionally, users can have immediate access and utilize these capabilities whether they are in or out of the office.
Jabber is available today or in development for Windows, iPhone, iPad, Nokia, Android and BlackBerry platforms. In addition, Jabber integrates with video endpoints including Cisco Unified IP Phones, Cisco WebEx® MeetingCenter and Cisco TelePresence® connections.
Because they are able to use this application on a variety of platforms and in the locations most convenient for them, workers can collaborate faster and more effectively. They also can benefit from quicker decision-making, advanced company-to-company collaboration and increased productivity.
Cisco will showcase these new offerings along with other collaboration innovations during a keynote presentation and demonstration at 10 am ET on March 1st at Enterprise Connect in Orlando, Fla. Announcement Highlights:
Interoperability:
* Cisco Jabber uses the industry-standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for presence and IM. With Jabber's interoperability, employees from one company can interact with employees at other companies using applications from Google, IBM. Microsoft and AOL.
* Further increasing user acceptance and adoption, Cisco Jabber provides integration with Microsoft Office productivity applications so users can see a colleague's availability status, and quickly escalate communications to an instant message, phone call or conference from within the application.
Mobility Capabilities
* Mobile users will enjoy a variety of communication capabilities including presence, IM, voice over WiFi, and visual voicemail.
* Using Jabber technology, a business user can use a single work line for their desk phone, wireless device and desktop computer -- and can make and receive enterprise calls on the device over a Wi-Fi connection. This adds to the existing capability available over a cellular network.
Video Capabilities
* Standards-based H.264, high-definition (HD) resolution enables users to interoperate in HD with Cisco TelePresence and other industry video solutions.
* Users also benefit from multiparty, continuous presence video so one can simultaneously see multiple video users during group or team communications sessions.
* These integrated video capabilities are scheduled to be available in the second half of 2011.
Other Details about Jabber
* Cisco Jabber is based on Jabber Inc. technology and expands the solution to incorporate voice, video and conferencing. Cisco acquired Jabber Inc. in 2008.
* Cisco Jabber capabilities are compatible with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.1.4 andr later.
Supporting Quotes:
* Nancy Crouch, deputy chief information officer, Wake Forest University:
"Cisco Jabber will help us achieve our goa l of promoting an 'equal access to all' environment that fosters communication and collaboration across Wake Forest University. Jabber enables improved collaboration between our students, faculty, and staff by providing easy access to presence, instant messaging, voice, video and conferencing capabilities on Mac computers and PCs."
* Laurent Philonenko, vice president and general manager, Unified Communications business unit, Cisco:
"Regardless of whether customers are using Macs, PCs or mobile devices, they are looking for flexibility in how, where and on what device they can communicate using voice, video and instant messaging. With Cisco Jabber we are responding to this need by providing advanced capabilities and innovative user experiences that are available on the platform and device of their choosing."
* For more information about Cisco's collaboration news and activities visit the Collaboration Blog http://blogs.cisco.com/category/collaboration/ or follow us viaTwitter @CiscoCollab.
From award-winning IP communications to mobility, customer care, Web conferencing, messaging, enterprise social software, and interoperable telepresence experiences, Cisco brings together network-based, integrated collaboration solutions based on open standards. These solutions, as well as services from Cisco and our partners, are designed to help promote business growth, innovation and productivity. They are also designed to help accelerate team performance, protect investments, and simplify the process of finding the right people and information.
About Cisco
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco Canada Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco, has offices across Canada dedicated to customer support, sales and service. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/canada/.
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Cisco, the Cisco logo and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Contact Information
Andrea Berry StrategicAmpersand Inc. (for Cisco) 416-961-5595, Ext. 428 andberry@cisco.com
Today, Symantec announced its February 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence Report. Analysis revealed a higher than normal level of collaborative attacks using malware family integration. This technique was used aggressively to conduct simultaneous attacks and made use of ZIP archive attachments that contained a malware code.
Over the past year, malicious executable files have increased in frequency along with PDF files. In 2010, 65 per cent of targeted attacks used PDF exploits – an increase of 12.4 per cent from 2009.
Local statistics from the report include:
·1 in 328.8 contained malware in Canada
·81.4 % of email in Canada was spam; global rate was 81.3%
Paul Wood, MessageLabs Intellgence Senior Analyst, Syamantec.cloud is available for interview. Please let me know if you would like the full February 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence Report.
Press release is below.
Thanks, Linda
Symantec Announces February 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence Report:
-Malware family integration across botnets at higher-than-normal volumes -
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – March 1, 2011– Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the publication of its February 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence Report. Analysis reveals that in February, 1 in 290.1 emails (0.345%) was malicious making February among the most prolific time periods both in terms of simultaneous attacks and malware family integration across Zeus (aka Zbot), Bredolab and SpyEye. Also in February, there were at least 40 variants of malware associated with the Bredolab Trojan, accounting for at least 10.3 percent of email-borne malware blocked by MessageLabs Intelligence in February. These latest findings reveal that contrary to recent beliefs, Bredolab is not dead and techniques previously associated with Bredolab malware have now become more common among other major malware families.
Since the end of January, MessageLabs Intelligence has tracked significant volumes of collaborative attacks that make use of well-timed and carefully crafted targeted techniques. As February began, the attacks increased in number and these malware families were used aggressively to conduct simultaneous attacks via propagation techniques, signaling the likelihood of a common origin for these infected emails.
“It seems these ongoing attacks alternate between what historically have been different malware families,” said MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst, Paul Wood. “For example, one day would be dedicated to propagating mainly Zeus (aka. Zbot) variants, while another day was dedicated to distributing SpyEye variants. By February 10, these attacks had multiplied further and were being propagated simultaneously with each malware family using its own polymorphic packer to further evade traditional antivirus detection.”
Although the vast majority of attacks were related to Zeus and SpyEye, many of the attacks share commonalities with the well-known Bredolab Trojan, indicating some of the features associated with Bredolab were being used by Zeus and SpyEye. All of these attacks made use of a ZIP archive attachment that contained an executable comprising the malware code. In February, 1.5% of malware blocked comprised ZIP archive attachments and further analysis revealed that 79.2% of this was connected with the latest wave of Bredolab, Zeus and SpyEye attacks.
“During the first two weeks of February, MessageLabs Intelligence identified at least four different polymorphic engines in use by these server-side packers being used to change the code structure of the Zeus, Bredolab and SpyEye malware and to increase the number of variants of each,” Wood said. “Considering the technical difficulty of maintaining this number of polymorphic engines and that each evolves quickly to generate such a large number of variants across these three families, this is one of the first times that MessageLabs Intelligence has identified malware collaborating on a technical level to this degree and volume.”
Over the past year, malicious executable files have increased in frequency along with PDF files, the most popular file format for malware distribution. PDFs now account for a larger proportion of document file types used as attack vectors. In 2009, approximately, 52.6 percent of targeted attacks used PDF exploits, compared with 65 percent in 2010, an increase of 12.4 percent. Despite a downturn this month, if the trend were to continue as it has over the past year, 76 percent of targeted malware could be used for PDF-based attacks by mid-2011.
“PDF-based targeted attacks are here to stay, and are predicted to worsen as malware authors continue to innovate in the delivery, construction and obfuscation of the techniques necessary for this type of malware,” Wood said.
Other report highlights:
Spam: In February 2011, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources was 81.3 percent (1 in 1.23 emails), an increase of 2.7 percentage points since January.
Viruses: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources was one in 290.1 emails (0.345 percent) in February, an increase of .07 percentage points since January. In February, 63.5 percent of email-borne malware contained links to malicious websites, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points since January.
Endpoint Threats: Threats against endpoint devices such as laptops, PCs and servers may penetrate an organization in a number of ways, including drive-by attacks from compromised websites, Trojan horses and worms that spread by copying themselves to removable drives. Analysis of the most frequently blocked malware for the last month revealed that the Sality.AE virus was the most prevalent. Sality.AE spreads by infecting executable files and attempts to download potentially malicious files from the Internet.
Phishing: In February, phishing activity was 1 in 216.7 emails (0.462 percent), an increase of 0.22 percentage points since January.
Web security:Analysis of web security activity shows that 38.9 percent of malicious domains blocked were new in February, a decrease of 2.2 percentage points since January. Additionally, 20.3 percent of all web-based malware blocked was new in February, a decrease of 2.2 percentage points since last month. MessageLabs Intelligence also identified an average of 4,098 new web sites per day harboring malware and other potentially unwanted programs such as spyware and adware, a decrease of 13.7 percent since January.
Geographical Trends:
·China became the most spammed in February with a spam rate of 86.2 percent.
·In the US and Canada, 81.4 percent of email was spam. Spam levels in the UK were 81.1 percent.
·In The Netherlands, spam accounted for 82.2 percent of email traffic, while spam levels reached 81.2 percent in Germany, 81.7 percent in Denmark and 81.0 percent in Australia.
·Spam levels in Hong Kong reached 82.8 percent and 80.4 percent in Singapore. Spam levels in Japan were 78.5 percent. In South Africa, spam accounted for 81.6 percent of email traffic.
·South Africa remained the most targeted by email-borne malware with 1 in 81.8 emails blocked as malicious in February.
·In the UK, 1 in 139.0 emails contained malware. In the US virus levels were 1 in 713.6 and 1 in 328.8 for Canada. In Germany, virus levels reached 1 in 393.1, 1 in 451.1 in Denmark and 1 in 910.4 for The Netherlands.
·In Australia, 1 in 365.8 emails were malicious and, 1 in 455.3 for Hong Kong, for Japan it was 1 in 1,331.0 compared with 1 in 828.9 for Singapore and 1 in 457.0 for China.
Vertical Trends:
·In February, the most spammed industry sector with a spam rate of 84.3 percent continued to be the Automotive sector.
·Spam levels for the Education sector were 82.6 percent, 81.7 percent for the Chemical & Pharmaceutical sector, 81.4 percent for IT Services, 80.8 percent for Retail, 80.1 percent for Public Sector and 80.2 percent for Finance.
·In February, Government/Public Sector remained the most targeted industry for malware with 1 in 41.1 emails being blocked as malicious.
·Virus levels for the Chemical & Pharmaceutical sector were 1 in 458.3, 1 in 394.4 for the IT Services sector, 1 in 514.3 for Retail, 1 in 137.2 for Education and 1 in 436.9 for Finance.
The February 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence Report provides greater detail on all of the trends and figures noted above, as well as more detailed geographical and vertical trends. The full report is available at http://www.messagelabs.com/intelligence.aspx.
Symantec’s MessageLabs Intelligence is a respected source of data and analysis for messaging security issues, trends and statistics. MessageLabs Intelligence provides a range of information on global security threats based on live data feeds from our control towers around the world scanning billions of messages each week.
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