Niagara College Innovates and Educates with Avaya Video Solution

Niagara College Innovates and Educates with Avaya Video Solution

For Immediate Release:24 Jul 2012

  • New Applied Health Institute at Niagara College has launched high quality video capture to provide cutting-edge training and conferencing tools
  • With the Avaya Flare® Experience, senior management have quick and easy touch screen access to desktop video, social media, web conferencing and more
 
TORONTO, ON – Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions and services, today announced that Niagara College has deployed a state-of-the-art video solution at its new Applied Health Institute that delivers a more interactive medical training facility for students and has increased collaboration between staff.
 
Niagara College’s Applied Health Institute, which opened in 2011, provides applied health sciences students with a more dynamic and collaborative training environment that includes simulation centers for pediatric, emergency, palliative and intensive care units. Niagara College wanted to integrate high quality video into its lessons to enable students to share and view practical experience in its new interactive health training facility.
 
Building on its existing Avaya voice and networking infrastructure, Niagara College now benefits from:
 
  • Avaya Series 1000 Video Systems that connect HD video from the classroom, to the meeting room, to the desktop. Niagara now has video conferencing capabilities across sites, inside classrooms and boardrooms.
  • The Avaya Desktop Video Device and Avaya Flare® Experience; powering a new level of communications for all senior management to have quick and easy touch screen access to desktop video, social media, web conferencing and more. 
  • Avaya Aura Session Manager, which brings the college’s whole unified communications system together, harnessing the power of the cloud to create web-style, on-demand access to all of the school’s new and existing technology.
 
A recently expanded Avaya network with Ethernet Routing Switch (ERS) 8800 and ERS 5000 Series switches supports this solution.
 
With video integrated into Niagara College’s unified communications, the school has met its objective of providing innovative learning experiences for health students. It also now harnesses the power of video to increase collaboration through conferencing—all built on a cost-effective solution that can scale as Niagara College continues to grow.
 
This announcement highlights Avaya’s commitment to bringing The Power of We™ to every Avaya customer to help drive faster collaboration, smarter decisions and better business results.
 
Quotes
"As an educational institution we want to be as cutting-edge as possible—so we’re not using HD video to capture talking heads. Instead, Avaya's video solution allows us to teach some very interesting and delicate procedures in our Applied Health Institute. Students can learn from one another, review their own work, and benefit from guest speakers from around the world. I truly believe this is going to have a profound impact on both teaching and learning at Niagara College."
John Levay, director of Information Technology Services, Niagara College 
 
Additional Resources 
Tags
Avaya, Niagara College, video, health, education, training, Flare, Aura, unified communications, networking
 
About Avaya
Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

TELUS responds to misleading foreign ownership allegations

TELUS responds to misleading foreign ownership allegations, calls on CRTC to dismiss Globalive complaint

TELUS compliant as non-Canadian ownership is below 33 1/3 per cent

VANCOUVER, July 23, 2012 /CNW/ - Today TELUS formally responded to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) about the misleading allegations by Globalive concerning TELUS' foreign ownership levels. TELUS' response highlights that its long-established systems to monitor and control foreign ownership of its voting shares have kept the company compliant with Canada's foreign ownership restrictions for telecommunications companies.

As of June 29, 32.59 per cent of TELUS' voting shares are held by non-Canadians, below the federal limit of 33.3 per cent. This includes the holdings of New York based hedge fund Mason Capital, which recently reported it held a 19.98 per cent ownership stake of TELUS common shares.

Mason has recently made foreign ownership allegations public that are very similar to Globalive's in an attempt to frustrate TELUS plans to consolidate its dual class share structure on a one-for-one basis. Mason Capital has employed a controversial investment strategy that is contrary to good corporate governance known as "empty voting". This entails making a large investment in TELUS voting shares as well as shorting a large amount of TELUS shares - primarily non-voting shares - to minimize its overall net economic investment in TELUS in order to benefit from driving a wider spread between the price of TELUS' two share classes.

"Globalive relies on flawed data to support its false claims, a report that added 39 million shares to our total while not accurately reporting citizenship of shareholders. The CRTC should dismiss their complaint," said Robert McFarlane, TELUS executive vice-president and CFO. "TELUS continues to be fully compliant with Canada's foreign ownership restrictions and has again proven that decisively with the information we put forward to the CRTC today."

Globalive and Mason both used reports from Broadridge Financial Solutions as the basis for their allegations. Broadridge reports use geographical and mailing information to provide companies a snapshot of where their investors are based, but do not filter out short trading and other factors that can result in shares being counted more than once. As a result, the Broadridge reports counted 214 million TELUS voting shares, yet the company has only 175 million such shares. Subsequent to Globalive and Mason's claims, Broadridge confirmed to TELUS its reports did not accurately portray TELUS foreign ownership, and should never be used for that purpose.

"Any reports that add 39 million extra shares to your actual total cannot form the basis for determining an accurate percentage of foreign owners," Mr. McFarlane said. "TELUS has a reliable foreign ownership monitoring and control process involving a reservation and declaration system for non-Canadian shareholders purchasing our voting shares. That process has proven effective in maintaining our foreign ownership levels under the threshold allowed despite Mason's recent purchase of almost 20 per cent of TELUS' voting shares."

TELUS' processes to control foreign ownership levels are administered through its third party transfer agent, Computershare, which processes the applications from non-Canadians interested in purchasing TELUS shares, maintains TELUS' shareholder registry, and obtains investor residency declarations from participating institutions.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $10.5 billion of annual revenue and 12.7 million customer connections including 7.4 million wireless subscribers, 3.5 million wireline network access lines and 1.3 million Internet subscribers and more than 550,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed more than $260 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.2 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Eleven TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS Community Boards in British Columbia include Vancouver, Victoria and the Thompson-Okanagan. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

SOURCE: TELUS Corporation

For further information:

Shawn Hall
TELUS Media Relations
604-697-8176
shawn.hall@telus.com








































































New Dell Storage Solutions Reduce the Pain and Costs of Managing Big Data

New Dell Storage Solutions Reduce the Pain and Costs of Managing Big Data











  • Dell Big Data portfolio expands across storage, management and analytics solutions
  • Dell storage supports big data analytics with RainStor software to help reduce data volume and costs
  • Professional services help customers develop a big data infrastructure from the ground up

As customers face the increasing deluge of big data driven by business demands for greater analytics, Dell is introducing a new Big Data Retention solution that can significantly reduce the costs of retaining big data while helping to improve management for easy retrieval and analysis.

The new Dell Big Data Retention solution is designed for organizations that leverage big data analytics to derive business value from their data. The solution integrates with existing analytics platforms as a frontend big data repository for large datasets or a backend archive. It can also serve as a standalone repository or as an analytics platform with Hadoop.

With this latest offering, Dell expands its portfolio of Big Data capabilities across the spectrum of ingest, storage, management, warehousing, and analytics. Customers can scale from efficient storage and retention, into more complex analytics like the Dell Cloudera management platform, Apache Hadoop Solutions based on Dell PowerEdge C- and R- series servers, Force 10 networks, and Dell Crowbar deployment toolkit.

The Big Data Retention solution combines Dell storage, including the DX Object Storage Platform, and RainStor®™ database technology, to help reduce the cost of retaining big data through data reduction, simplified data management and near-perfect scalability, which can provide easy access to the data by standard SQL BI/analytics tools. The solution also includes Dell professional services to help customers enhance their current big data environment or create a new one that can scale to company demands and data growth.

Much of the anticipated massive data growth is tied to automated systems that continuously create structured or semi-structured data that can be mined by data analytic programs to drive new discoveries and save money. The further adoption of big data analytics will ultimately place enormous demands on IT to change the way data is stored and managed.

“Not only are the volumes of data growing – so is its value to the organization,” said Darren Thomas, vice president and general manager, Dell Enterprise Storage. “Being able to cost-effectively capture and store all of the relevant data makes it possible to gain insights that support innovation and business value. The key is having the right data management solution to fluidly move data, tier it, dedupe it, protect it and archive it. To us, that means your data is fluid.”

The Dell Big Data Retention solution can provide an average data compression ratio of up to 40:1,(1) freeing up disk space approximately 97 percent. This greatly-reduced footprint can accelerate query access for analytics. The solution leverages the capabilities of the Dell Fluid Data architecture, which enables these extreme data volumes to be efficiently accessed, moved and leveraged when and where needed.

The RainStor database provides online data retention at a massive scale, with unlimited scalability and zero administration. It can be deployed on any combination of Dell servers and storage, on premise or in a cloud configuration. When paired with the Dell DX Object Storage platform, the solution provides a single system for retaining structured, semi-structured and unstructured data across an unlimited number of data sources, formats and types, providing cost savings that can change the economics of big data retention.

While available on other Dell storage platforms, when the Big Data Retention solution is added to the DX Object Storage Platform customers can add capacity in amounts as small as 2TB, scaling up to petabytes and to billions of objects without the set-up and management complexity and costs of traditional file and block storage. The Dell Big Data Retention solution is currently available in the U.S.

“Dell’s best-in-class servers and storage are a perfect complement to RainStor’s Big Data database,” said Ramon Chen, vice president of product management at RainStor. “With RainStor’s ability to run on any storage platform, customers can choose the combined solution that will meet their business needs at the lowest total operating cost.”

About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

Fuji Xerox Provides Solution to Streamline Clinical Trial Work at Hospitals

Fuji Xerox Provides Solution to Streamline Clinical Trial Work at Hospitals



TOKYO, July 17, 2012 — Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. has begun providing a document management solution for streamlining clinical trial work carried out at hospitals to gain approval under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act as part of a drug development process. The company offers the solution to hospitals that carry out clinical trials and to the clinical trial network where joint clinical trials are conducted by a number of hospitals.

Overview of the Solution

Built based on Fuji Xerox's Apeos PEMaster—software that effectively manages electronic and printed records in an integrated manner—this document management solution for clinical trials (hereinafter, this solution) efficiently manages forms, materials, registers, certificates and other various documents that appear during the work process of clinical trials, and allows users to visually check each progress.

When basic information of a certain clinical trial plan is registered, this solution automatically produces a face sheet with a quick response (QR) code with that information encoded. By scanning clinical trial-related documents with a fax or a scanner along with the face sheet, those documents will be stored in the same designated folder. With this solution, all documents that are used or created during each clinical trial process can be appropriately registered to the system and viewed with simple operations. Some examples of such documents may be schedule documents, results created in each clinical trial process, letters of consent, requests, safety reports, and other types of evidence.

Moreover, information encoded in the QR code on the face sheet, as well as handwritten information such as trial subject codes and start/end dates of drug administration, are also automatically listed on to a register of the system and attached to the simultaneously registered documents. This register will enable the users to get a panoramic view of the overall status and easily check if all necessary documents and evidence are ready for the Institutional Review Board (IRB) while confirming progresses and looking for any missed steps from the overall trial process.

By streamlining document management of the entire clinical trial work, Fuji Xerox helps doctors and staff to concentrate on their primary work with less stress from supplementary matters.

Also Offered to the Clinical Trial Network

This solution will also be provided to the clinical trial network where joint clinical trials are conducted by a number of hospitals. One example is its introduction to the Japanese Pediatric Clinical Trial NetworkNote1, a network specialized in clinical trials of pediatric drugs. The operation has begun in June and a clinical trial document management system mainly around a central bureau is nearly established.

By meeting user needs to build networks or document management systems, Fuji Xerox assists streamlining the clinical trial work. This solution helps centralize work by making a single interface against the central bureau, standardizing documents and processes, sharing information among hospitals, and managing each progress according to case or facility.

Fuji Xerox will contribute to accelerating and improving the quality of drug development by assisting medical institutions in information sharing and communications. Furthermore, as can be observed from the already-offered integrated medical record management solution toward hospitals as well as the document services provided toward pharmaceutical companies, we will provide solutions and services that contribute to medical safety and quality improvement with our strengths in document-related technologies and know-how.

Note1
Established in November 2010 by those participating in the Japanese Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, and then organized with the public financial support from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The National Center for Child Health and Development is the central bureau.

This solution will be presented in the International Modern Hospital Show 2012 to be held from July 18 to 20 at Tokyo Big Sight.

Basic Scheme of Clinical Trial Document Management Solution

Images of Usage

Image of the Face Sheet Imprinted With a QR Code to be Used for Document Registration

Note:
Please note that the linked pages in this news release or other information are subject to be shut down without notice.

HP Doubles the Speed of Cloud, Virtualization Project Delivery for Organizations

HP Doubles the Speed of Cloud, Virtualization Project Delivery for Organizations

New software offerings help clients reduce complexity, save time and automate costly IT service configuration projects

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 23, 2012

HP today introduced new offerings that improve visibility into the relationship between software and physical, virtual and cloud IT infrastructure, enabling organizations to reduce complexity and take control of their IT processes and services.

The new HP Configuration Management System (CMS) 10 includes new HP Universal Discovery software, which offers automated discovery capabilities to support the deployment and management of physical, virtual and cloud projects. Automated discovery capabilities enable clients to reduce costs and risks associated with service disruptions, as well as decrease the time spent on manual discovery by more than 50 percent.(1) In addition, HP CMS clients have recently seen an increase in speed of projects completed.(2)

HP Discovery software offerings are currently being used by 40 percent of the Fortune 50, as well as six out of the seven largest global automotive manufacturers, and four out of the five largest global telecommunication service providers.

HP CMS 10 enables enterprises, governments and managed service providers (MSPs) to:

  • Save time by quickly discovering software and hardware inventory, as well as associated dependencies, in a single unified discovery solution;
  • Speed time to value with a simplified user interface and enhanced scalability, allowing IT teams to consume and use rich intelligence hosted in the HP CMS;
  • More easily manage multiple client environments within a single HP Universal Configuration Management Database (CMDB)with improved security, automation and scalability;
  • Save money by automatically locating and cataloging new technologies related to network hardware, open-source middleware, storage, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and infrastructure software providers; and
  • Minimize application failure risks as a result of poorly constructed server clusters by introducing new server compliance thresholds.

“Clients have trusted Equifax for more than a century to deliver innovative, high-quality solutions—and our IT organization is expected to deliver the same,” said W. Scott Hite, director, Technology, Global IT Asset Management, Equifax, Inc. “HP CMS software introduces a new category of intelligent discovery that adds tremendous value and helps support our ongoing mission of delivering the best services as quickly as possible. What HP has done for discovery tools is equivalent to what Apple has done for the cell phone industry.”

With the growing adoption of cloud computing, organizations are under increasing pressure to deliver new services and scale existing ones. The complexities of cloud-based infrastructures, coupled with a lack of infrastructure visibility, have hampered organizations’ ability to efficiently and predictably manage IT performance.

“CMDB implementations have additional complexity when there are requirements for dependency mapping, discovery and inventory tools,” said Ronni Colville, vice president and distinguished analyst, IT Operations Management, Gartner, Inc. “A unified offering that combines the best of both could offer users a more efficient means of tracking and modeling data-center services, applications and infrastructure.”

HP CMS 10 also introduces capabilities specifically for service life cycle design and IT operations within both HP Business Service Management and HP IT Service Management. It includes the new HP Universal Discovery offering as well as Content Pack 11, HP Universal Configuration Management Database (UCMDB), HP UCMDB Configuration Manager and HP UCMDB Browser.

“Service disruptions within complex cloud and virtualized environments are difficult to identify and resolve,” said Shane Pearson, vice president, Product Marketing, Operations, Software, HP. “With the new enhancements to HP Configuration Management System, IT executives now have the configuration intelligence they need at their fingertips to make rapid decisions to ensure consistent business service availability.”

HP CMS 10 is a key component of the HP IT Performance Suite, the next-generation enterprise performance software platform that enables IT management to improve performance with operational intelligence.

Availability

HP CMS 10 is available worldwide in 10 languages and sold through HP Channel Partners.

Additional information about the HP CMS 10 is available at www.hp.com/go/CMS.

HP’s premier Europe, Middle East and Africa client event, HP Discover, takes place Dec. 4-6 in Frankfurt, Germany.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

Philips Healthcare, Therapeutic Monitoring Systems and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute collaborate to initiate clinical decision support pilot study

Philips Healthcare, Therapeutic Monitoring Systems and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute collaborate to initiate clinical decision support pilot study

July 10, 2012

Andover, Mass., and Ottawa, Ontario --  Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHE, AEX: PHI) and Therapeutic Monitoring Systems (TMS) Inc. today announced a collaboration agreement aimed at the integration of selected Philips cardiopulmonary monitors with clinical decision support software being developed by TMS.  Following integration, a pilot study will be conducted in the intensive care unit (“ICU”) at The Ottawa Hospital under the supervision of Dr. Gwynne Jones, a respirologist and intensivist in the Department of Critical Care Medicine. 

The pilot study will assess several areas, including the performance of technologies and features potentially useful in predicting readiness for discontinuation of mechanical ventilation, providing patient-specific recommendations related to making mechanical ventilation adjustments and exploring the utility of a new measurement device to support ventilator decision-making. Ultimately, the long term goal is to reduce the period of mechanical ventilation, thereby improving patient comfort, preventing related complications such as ventilator-associated pneumonia, and reducing costs.

Said Dr. Adam Seiver, chief of Medical Affairs, Therapeutic Care, for Philips Healthcare: “We are very pleased to be working with TMS and the medical staff and researchers at The Ottawa Hospital on this initial project. As a leader in respiratory monitoring and clinical decision support, Philips regards the integration of advanced clinical decision support software analytics with monitoring as fundamental to our vision of providing actionable point-of-care monitoring to improve both patient care and efficiencies in the ICU.”

Commented Simon Goulet, TMS’ Chief Operating Officer: “The agreement with Philips represents important validation of our belief that vital sign analytics are key to advancing patient monitoring and care in the ICU.  Interest in our clinical software platform by a global leader in critical care medicine is exciting and we look forward to building on this interest during the coming months.  We are also delighted that the initial study will take place at The Ottawa Hospital, a key clinical partner for us.”

“We rely on Philips monitoring equipment every day to guide us in providing the best possible care for our ICU patients, and we are happy to collaborate with Philips and TMS to advance this technology further,” said Dr. Dave Neilipovitz, Chair and Head of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa, and Clinical Investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

 


For further information, please contact:

 

Steve KellySimon GouletJennifer Ganton
   
Philips Healthcare
Tel: +1 (425) 487-7479
steve.kelly@philips.com
Therapeutic Monitoring Systems
Tel: +1 (613) 368-4311 x 403
sgoulet@therapeuticmonitoring.com
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Tel: +1 (613) 798-5555 x 73325
jganton@ohri.ca 

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity.” Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 122,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 22.6 billion in 2011, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.


About Therapeutic Monitoring Systems

Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Therapeutic Monitoring Systems is commercializing clinical decision support software applications for use in critical care medicine that offers the potential to materially improve patient care decisions and reduce the cost of patient care.  TMS has licensed technology from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.  TMS is a portfolio company of Genesys Capital (www.genesyscapital.com), the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (www.marsdd.com/aboutmars/partners/iaf/) & the Queen’s TriColour Venture Fund (www.business.queensu.ca/centres/qcbv/tricolour_venture_fund.php). TMS has also received financial & advisory support from The Health Technology Exchange (www.htx.ca), FedDev Ontario (www.feddevontario.gc.ca), the Ontario Centres of Excellence (www.oce-ontario.org/), the Industrial Research Assistance Program (www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/irap.html), MaRS Discovery District (www.marsdd.com) & the Ottawa Technology Transfer Network (www.ottn.ca/).


About The Ottawa Hospital and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

The Ottawa Hospital (www.ottawahospital.on.ca) serves 1.2 million people across Eastern Ontario, striving to provide each patient with the world-class care, exceptional service and compassion that we would want for our loved ones. The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (www.ohri.ca) is the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital and is an affiliated institute of the University of Ottawa, closely associated with the university’s Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences. The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute includes more than 1,500 scientists, clinical investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff conducting research to improve the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human disease.

Study: Privacy Commitment Key to Selection of Cloud Providers

Study: Privacy Commitment Key to Selection of Cloud Providers

Small and midsize businesses are embracing cloud services, but are closely scrutinizing privacy policies and practices when choosing providers.

REDMOND, Wash. July 18, 2012 Attracted by the opportunity to improve efficiency while cutting IT costs, small to midsize businesses (SMBs) are rapidly adopting cloud computing, yet they continue to express concerns about privacy in the cloud, according to research released today by Microsoft Corp. Consequently, data protection policies and practices of cloud providers are figuring prominently in U.S. SMBs’ cloud-purchasing decisions.

Among the survey’s noteworthy findings:

  • 65 percent of U.S. SMBs surveyed say cloud computing is “important” or “essential” for their organization today, and 81 percent say it will be two years from now.

  • 59 percent said the privacy policies of cloud vendors impact their selection of cloud-service providers.

  • The cloud policies and practices that SMBs care about most include transparency about location of data, segregation of data between customers, and commitments not to mine cloud data for advertising.

“Not long ago, the IT industry wondered if privacy concerns would prevent small and midsize companies from moving to the cloud. Our research indicates that is not the case,” said Brendon Lynch, chief privacy officer, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing. “Instead, SMBs are expressing their interest in data protection by using it as a way to evaluate potential cloud providers. This desire for transparency from our customers is one reason we created resources such as the Microsoft Office 365 Trust Center to clearly explain our cloud privacy, security and compliance commitment.”

The research shows that SMBs expect potential cloud providers to prove their commitment to privacy in several different ways:

  • 51 percent insist on proof of compliance.

  • 43 percent require the completion of a self-assessment checklist.

  • 59 percent seek privacy provisions at the contract negotiation and legal review stages.

“It’s encouraging to hear SMBs asking the right questions of cloud providers,” said Jim Reavis, executive director, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). “The CSA considers clear service-level agreements, proof of compliance and self-assessment checklists as best practices for conscientious cloud providers.”

To this end, the CSA created the Security, Trust & Assurance Registry (STAR) to help businesses assess cloud providers’ security and privacy capabilities. The STAR is a free, publicly accessible registry that documents the security controls provided by various cloud-computing offerings, thereby helping businesses assess the security of cloud providers. Since the STAR’s launch in December 2011, Microsoft has supported the registry by completing self-assessments for Microsoft Office 365, Windows Azure and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Seven hundred and sixty-nine privacy professionals in the U.S. with an average of 11 years working in IT, compliance, data security, risk management and privacy fields took part in the study, which was commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by The Ponemon Institute in April and May. Respondents were not screened according to which products or services they used, or aware of Microsoft’s involvement in the study.

The research was conducted in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United States. More information is available in the Microsoft Security, Privacy and Online Safety Newsroom and at http://www.microsoft.com/privacy.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

Investment Activity by Canadian Angel Groups: 2011 Report

Investment Activity by Canadian Angel Groups: 2011 Report

Angel Capital Activity on the Rise: More Investments to More Companies

Click here to download the full report.

TORONTO, July 17, 2012 /CNW/ - The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) is pleased to announce the release of the Investment Activity by Canadian Angel Groups: 2011 Report.  This report, the second of its kind, examines 2011 activity levels and highlights trends such as a significant increase in levels of Angel activity. The report also presents an initial analysis of the mode of exit and the returns generated by Angel-backed companies. 
Significant findings of this report include:

  • ~12% increase in the number of business plans funded as a proportion of those selected for detailed review.

  • 2% increase in the number of business plans funded as a proportion of those received.

  • 134 investments in 2011 (103 new and 31 follow-on) totalling $82.4 million ($60.5 million new and $21.9 follow-on), 90 investments (80 new and 10 follow-on) were made in 2010 totalling $35.3 million ($34.2 new and $1.1 follow-on).

  • $172K increase in average investment, from $442K in 2010 to $614K in 2011.

  • ICT (51%), clean technology (21%), and life sciences (17%) received the largest proportion of investments.

  • ICT ($33.3M), life sciences ($26.6M), and clean technology ($17.5M) received the most investment.

  • 70% of recorded investments involved a co-investor, with 74% of these being either independent Angel investors or investors associated with an Angel Group.

  • 49% of investments indicated government support in the form of a regional economic development agency program.

  • 72% of investment exits were from a ‘sale to/merger with another company’.

  • 4 years or more was the length of time investments took to mature before an exit took place.

"The impact, importance and growth of the Angel community in Canada is clear, with more Angels investing more capital in more companies across the country in 2011,” said Bryan Watson, Executive Director of NACO. "To continue to support this trend of investment into Canada’s emerging companies,  the Government of Canada must develop national programs that reduce the substantial risk Angel investors face and leverage additional capital into the market through co-investment programs, tax credits and direct support to the Angel community.”

"Angel investor groups invested significantly more capital in 2011 than in 2010," said Michelle Scarborough, Chair of NACO.  "For 2011, NACO estimates that Angel investors in Canada invested just under $1 billion into high-growth, early-stage companies across all industries and geographies. As such, Angels continue to fill an important financing gap at the early and growth stage of company development, putting our own capital to work along with our expertise, helping to mentor entrepreneurs during critical stages of company development and helping accelerate company growth."

This study was funded by Industry Canada and BDC Venture Capital.

BDC VC is working with a number of angel groups across the country, including NACO, to help them thrive. “Angels are playing a considerable part in starting to fill the financing gap that Canadian startups continue to face in their early stage,” said Michael Mahon, Director, Strategic Initiatives and Investments at BDC VC. “Canada needs strong angel networks capable of providing not only early-stage funding, but also mentorship to entrepreneurs. It is important to get a better understanding of the Canadian angel capital market so that we can more effectively support it.”

To download a copy of the full report, please click here

For further information:

Media Contacts
Bryan J. Watson
Executive Director, NACO
T: 416-581-0009
E: bwatson@nacocanada.com






















































CoreLogic(R) Selects Dell Services for Technology Transformation Initiative

CoreLogic® Selects Dell Services for Technology Transformation Initiative

-- Seven-year Agreement Expected to Deliver a Platform for Future Growth and Generate $175-200 Million in Cumulative Net Operating Expense Reductions -- PR Newswire

SANTA ANA, Calif., July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today announced it has signed a seven-year agreement with Dell Services to provide CoreLogic next-generation technology platform, security, cloud computing and infrastructure management services. Key aspects of the arrangement include:

Enhanced performance and lower operating costs – CoreLogic will migrate to a new state-of-the-art technology infrastructure over the initial thirty months of this agreement. This platform, together with Dell's infrastructure management services, is expected to provide the Company with new functionality, increased performance, and an overall reduction in application management and development costs. Security – Dell SecureWorks, an industry-leading IT security service is expected to help CoreLogic proactively and continuously monitor and protect its IT assets from cyber threats while reducing current security costs. Cloud computing – Dell's secure enterprise-class cloud solutions are expected to enable CoreLogic to efficiently scale to accommodate long-term growth and seasonally demanding workloads. Virtualization and cloud computing are expected to increase CoreLogic's agility, efficiency and responsiveness to business demands.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100609/CLLOGO)

"Combining the industry-leading data, analytics and services of CoreLogic with state-of-the-art technology is pivotal to building our competitive advantage. We are excited to have Dell Services as a strategic partner in this effort. We expect this multi-year program to transform our IT infrastructure, protect our assets, enhance flexibility and support our future growth," said Anand Nallathambi, President and Chief Executive Officer of CoreLogic.

"The transformation of CoreLogic's technology infrastructure is a key element of our previously announced Project 30 program and will substantially lower the cost profile of our technology functions commencing in 2014," said Frank Martell, Chief Financial Officer of CoreLogic. "We believe Dell Services is the right partner to help us achieve our long-term strategic technology plan."

"Dell Services has a track record of transforming and modernizing IT infrastructures for our customers' long-term growth and innovation," said Steve Schuckenbrock, President, Dell Services. "CoreLogic has a clear vision of how to succeed and we plan to support and help facilitate every step of the process with our security, cloud and IT management offerings and expertise."

Following an initial transition period of approximately thirty months, CoreLogic expects to realize net operating expense reductions of approximately $35 to $40 million per year compared to 2012 projected operating cost run-rates. The Company expects to incur non-recurring cash and non-cash charges totaling approximately $40 million during the transition period in conjunction with exiting its existing data center infrastructure. 

About CoreLogic

CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) is a leading provider of consumer, financial and property information, analytics and services to business and government. The Company combines public, contributory and proprietary data to develop predictive decision analytics and provide business services that bring dynamic insight and transparency to the markets it serves. CoreLogic has built one of the largest and most comprehensive U.S. real estate, mortgage application, fraud, and loan performance databases and is a recognized leading provider of mortgage and automotive credit reporting, property tax, valuation, flood determination, and geospatial analytics and services. More than one million users rely on CoreLogic to assess risk, support underwriting, investment and marketing decisions, prevent fraud, and improve business performance in their daily operations. The Company, headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif., has approximately 5,000 employees globally. For more information, visit www.corelogic.com.

CORELOGIC and the stylized CoreLogic logo are registered trademarks owned by CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. No trademark of CoreLogic shall be used without the express written consent of CoreLogic.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including but not limited to those statements related to the expected operating cost reductions over the seven-year agreement period, the expected level of non-cash charges to be recognized in the coming 30-month period, the expectation that the Dell technology platform will provide new functionality, increased performance and an overall reduction in application management and development costs, the expectation that Dell SecureWorks will help CoreLogic to monitor and protect its IT assets and reduce security costs, the expectation that Dell's cloud computing solutions will enable CoreLogic to efficiently scale to accommodate long-term growth and seasonally demanding workloads, and increase CoreLogic's efficiency and responsiveness to business demands, and the expectation that the Dell partnership will transform CoreLogic's IT infrastructure, protect its assets, enhance flexibility and support future growth.  Risks and uncertainties exist that may cause the results to differ materially from those set forth in these forward-looking statements.  Factors that could cause the anticipated results to differ from those described in the forward-looking statements are set forth in Part I, Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, as updated by our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and also include the following: Dell's ability to deliver on its commitments in the agreement, CoreLogic's ability to manage the transition to the Dell platforms and services, and the increasing sophistication of cyber threats. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.  The Company does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the forward-looking statements are made.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

SOURCE CoreLogic

Citrix’s Collaborative Work Platform Podio integrates with Outlook and Google Calendars

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It’s a Date! Citrix Podio Collaborative Work Platform Now Supports Outlook Exchange and Google Calendars

 

Real-time syncing, filtering and following of meetings and events create a seamless experience for teams and help more people work the way they want to

 

TORONTO, ON — July 17, 2012 — Citrix today announced significant enhancements to the calendaring capabilities in the Citrix Podio collaborative work platform, including new customizable filtering and viewing options and two new platform integrations with Outlook Exchange Calendar and Google Calendar. Combined with Podio’s recently announced integration with Citrix GoToMeeting, these new capabilities deliver a more personal and flexible calendaring experience for users, allowing teams to more effectively work together in and around their meetings, deadlines and projects.

 

In this new cloud era of business, increasingly mobile, dispersed and social workstyles are evolving: freedom in choice of tools and work practices is critical for these emerging workstyles to succeed. Podio is the world’s most open and connected collaborative work platform for teams, offering integrations with a wide range of leading file sharing and content storage services and cloud-based business solutions, including Citrix Sharefile and Citrix GoToMeeting. Podio’s latest calendar integrations with Outlook Exchange and Google Calendar empower users and teams to effectively connect their external calendars with their mission-critical project management and collaboration apps in Podio.

 

The new Podio calendar integrations and updates include:

 

        Connect with Outlook Exchange Calendar and Google Calendar: Users can connect their Podio calendar with their primary Outlook Exchange or Google calendar and keep track of all their critical Podio projects, deadlines, meetings and events, including any GoToMeeting details.

        Customize and Personalize the Podio Calendar: Customizable viewing options, featuring a new sliding-bar filter that allows users to quickly toggle between personal and team events or display a custom combination of both.

        Follow and Sync Workspace-Specific Calendars and Events: Users can “follow” or subscribe to apps and app content within workspaces to include them as deadlines and events on their primary external Outlook Exchange or Google calendars.

 

The Citrix Podio platform enables people to set up workspaces where they can connect with their teams, collaborate socially, work the way they want to and thus become more effective. To customize their workspaces, people can access and modify free apps from the Podio App Market, or create new apps to support their preferred workflows.

 

Related Quotes

“Calendaring and scheduling have long operated in a silo; we’d make meetings and mark events in one place, but set and work towards deadlines in a separate system. With our latest calendar updates and added integrations, our users’ primary external calendars are connected and in sync with day-to-day project work happening in Podio, delivering one consistent global view that’s customizable and delivered in real time on any device. No more double booking.”

Tommy Ahlers, VP of Social Collaboration, Citrix.

 

“Podio continues to focus on platform flexibility and customization, to enable more individuals and teams to plug in their favorite apps and services and get work done more efficiently and effectively. These latest integrations with Outlook Exchange and Google Calendar support and bridge the gap between calendaring and ongoing workflows, while the updates to Podio’s native calendar bring added visibility and relevancy to individual tasks and team projects and deadlines.” Alan Greenberg, senior analyst and partner, Wainhouse Research

 

“Calendaring is an age-old challenge for anyone making a combined effort on a project or task. With Podio’s enhanced calendar, our team can track both our individual deadlines and events, as well as what’s happening across the company, and even better, we can share our Podio calendars with our Outlook calendar, so we’re always up to date and in sync about what’s on the horizon.” Harrison Lynch, VP Merchandising, LetsTalk.

 

Related Links

        Citrix Podio, the Most Open and Flexible Collaborative Work Platform, Supports All Major Cloud File Sharing Services

        Google Docs Integration Added to Podio's Work Platform

        Blog: Podio Gets Personal With Your Outlook and Google Calendars

        Blog: Make the Most of Your Meetings: Upgraded Apps & GoToMeeting Integration!

        Analyst Report: Gartner Cool Vendors in Social Software and Collaboration 2012 Report


Follow Us Online

        www.podio.com, www.citrixonline.com

        Twitter: @Podio

        Facebook: Podio on Facebook

        Workshifting blog: http://workshifting.com

 

About Citrix

Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) transforms how businesses and IT work and people collaborate in the