SMBs reclaim control with the affordable and easy to use 3CX Mobile Device Manager solution

LONDON UK, 14 MAY 2013 – 3CX, developer of the award-winning Windows VoIP PBX 3CX Phone System, has recognised the booming mobile device management market and announces the launch of 3CX Mobile Device Manager – an easy to use and inexpensive hosted and deployable mobile device management solution that allows users to secure, monitor and manage their Android, iOS and Windows devices.

According to the Global Mobile Data Forecast, mobile devices will outnumber people by the end of 2013! Osterman Research has shown a steep uptrend of companies deploying mobile devices within their workforce, with a predicted 33% of US employees using company apps and having confidential corporate data on their devices by the end of 2013. More importantly, Osterman’s research shows us that the annual IT labour cost to manage a device will cost companies $399 per user.

With 7 million dollars’ worth of mobile phones being lost every day in the United States and over 300 devices being stolen in London each day, businesses can’t afford to have their sensitive data, such as confidential client emails and contact details, fall into the wrong hands.

“Organizations that do not address MDM properly face a growing set of risks, including an inability to adequately secure and retain data on mobile devices, greater downtime, higher IT costs, regulatory compliance violations and reduced employee productivity,” said Michael Osterman, President of Osterman Research.

3CX received significant demand from its customers for a mobile device management solution as Android and iOS devices have become popular end-points for PBXs such as 3CX Phone System. 3CX has already led the way in increasing mobility with its 3CXPhone client, therefore developing a mobile device management solution was the next natural step in the company’s progression.

“The demand for mobile device management is clear, yet a dedicated, easy to use and affordable mobile device management solution seems to be surprisingly lacking in the market.” said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO. “3CX Mobile Device Manager ticks all those boxes and is set to revolutionise the market, just like 3CX Phone System did for the IP PBX market. This release is just our first step – many new innovative features are coming soon that will make 3CX Mobile Device Manager leapfrog the competition.”

3CX Mobile Device Manager USPs – Inexpensive, Quick to Deploy, Easy to Manage
3CX Mobile Device Manager differentiates itself from the competition as it’s easier to use and affordable, unlike some other cumbersome MDM solutions. Many SMBs simply cannot afford the enterprise-level pricing and support the competition demands and certainly can’t afford to hire specialists to manage their difficult to use MDM solutions.

Unparalleled Android Manageability
Remote control
3CX Mobile Device Manager provides more advanced Android features, especially with the upcoming integration of 3CX DroidDesktop – the popular Android app that allows IT Administrators to remotely control and manage Android devices of employees.

Remotely Configure Corporate Email
Another pioneering feature 3CX plans to integrate into 3CX Mobile Device Manager soon is Aqua Mail. This email client allows administrators to remotely configure corporate email for users - having full control over corporate email without affecting the user’s personal emails. Companies can now delete all corporate emails as well as the attachments that are stored on the device when an employee leaves the company. This Android email client provides Enterprise-style features at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the administration effort!

Securing Your Data – Remote Lock or Wipe a Device
If a device is lost or stolen, 3CX Mobile Device Manager can remotely lock or wipe the device and its SD card to avoid unauthorized use, even if it isn’t connected to the internet, or just delete corporate email and any stored attachments. Enforce a strong password policy remotely and set minimum password length and time lapse before device auto-lock.

Removing Inappropriate Apps & Mass Deploy
Administrators can review all the apps that are installed on the devices from a single screen and remove any inappropriate apps that affect employee productivity and drain data plans with a few mouse clicks. Mass Deploy corporate apps to devices without using the Appstore or Google Play!

Remote Administration
Administering a large number of mobile devices manually is an administrator’s nightmare. 3CX Mobile Device Manager makes the IT administrator’s job of managing multiple devices painless. Deploying new Wi-Fi network passwords or changing security settings is a lot easier with 3CX MDM. Administrators simply push out the changes to all the devices to allow users to connect seamlessly. Also, they are alerted if any policy violations are committed as they receive an email alert. All alerts are also logged within the alerts node.

Find & Track Devices & Supervise Staff Routes
3CX Mobile Device Manager stores the current location of all devices and keeps detailed logs of where the devices and employees have been. All device locations are shown with their full address using Google Maps.

Mass Deploy Apps to All Devices
3CX Mobile Device Manager allows administrators to easily deploy apps to single or groups of devices. They can define apps present on Google Play or the Apple Appstore, or apps that are stored only on the 3CX MDM App Repository. Administrators can also deploy APK files directly to mobile devices, thus bypassing Apple’s Appstore and Google Play.

Try 3CX Mobile Device Manager for Free with a 5 Device Account
Experience all the features of 3CX Mobile Device Manager by signing up for a FREE 5 device account! Signing up is easy and only takes a few minutes. Read the step by step guide on how to get started. The 3CX MDM pricing can be seen here. Visit the 3CX Mobile Device Management website at www.MobileDeviceManager.com and find us on Facebook.

Review the social media version of this press release which includes press contact details, core facts, additional images and content.

http://www.3cx.com/blog/press-release/3cx-mobile-device-manager-launches/

Open Mobile Alliance and industry experts to discuss the future of big data, mCommerce and mobile advertising at Dublin event

San Diego, CA May 14, 2013 – Industry leaders from the mobile advertising community will gather in Dublin this June to attend a Big Data seminar, hosted by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). The seminar will take place at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, on June 6 and, for the first time, participants around the world will be able to join the event over an interactive webinar streamed live throughout the day.

The seminar, titled, “The era of Big Data, mCommerce and Mobile Advertising – How standards can fill the gaps in the ecosystem," will unite industry giants such as GS1, Huawei, and Telefonica, among others. Speakers will explore the ecosystem and make recommendations for new standards and best practices, which will stimulate innovation, market growth and greater end-user satisfaction. 

“On the mobile device, each use of an application, view of a website, text received or call made, results in the creation, collection and use of data,” said Gary Jones, Board Chairman of OMA. “This seminar will examine the big data landscape as it relates to mobile advertising and mCommerce and identify areas where the industry and OMA can contribute to interoperability, security and ease of use across networks and applications.”

The interactive session will address: the Big Data generation and what is needed for efficiency and interconnectivity; mobile commerce and advertising and what is needed to enhance current services; the need for increased standardization in mobile codes and NFC; and mobile social interaction and the role of standardized or proprietary APIs.

Attendees can join in person or over the interactive live-streamed webinar, which will enable viewers to present questions to the panel.  Attendance is free for OMA members and a select number of invited guests.  Interested parties should contact Elizabeth Rose at erose@omaorg.org. See http://www.omaevents.org/ to register for the webinar.

Connected home event provides insight into the growing opportunities in the healthcare Smart service market

London, 14 May 2013 – As the connected home industry grows and Smart Home technologies advance, a huge impact is being made on the digital healthcare sector that could revolutionise health systems and the way care is delivered to patients. Leaders in the digital healthcare field will throw a spotlight on the issue of Improving Life Quality Through Remote Healthcare at this year’s Digital Home World Summit, taking place 18-19 June in London.

In 2012 venture capital funding of digital health radically increased, with investors injecting a 46 per cent increase in money and a 56 per cent rise in deals in healthcare compared with 2011. With cumulative funding totalling $1.4 billion last year (2012)[1], the industry looks set to continue to thrive.

As part of the Digital Home World Summit programme, Sébastien Marché, Director for Strategic Operations, Orange Healthcare, will speak about The Game-changing Potential of Home-based Patient Cares. Marché will address facilitating the growth of home-based patient care, chronic disease remote management, the move by device manufacturers from a one shot ‘medical devices’ strategy to ‘connected medical devices’ and enabling the automatic flow of patient data from patient to caregiver via connected medical devices.

In addition Eda Uluca, Head of Division at Turkcell, will look at Achieving Healthcare Reform Through Remote Healthcare Projects. Uluca will tackle mobile information and knowledge portals for healthcare practitioners, remote monitoring and education of chronic disease patients via mobile communication technologies, user and patient friendly mobile health technologies and cost effective use of the latest communication technologies for a sustainable m-health system.

“Demand and expectation of Smart services are growing and the healthcare industry is taking huge leaps and becoming an increasingly significant area of growth in the industry,” said Kamelija Stefanova, Research Manager at Informa Telecoms and Media. “Technology is transforming the way that medicine is practiced and care is delivered to patients, and investment is on the rise. This trend looks set to continue in 2013 and beyond, and our event provides the ideal platform for important assessment and discussion.”

The conference and exhibition will take place at the Hilton Paddington in London on 18-19 June. To view the full event programme and register for Digital Home World Summit, please visit http://www.digitalhomeworldsummit.com/. Alternatively, keep up to date with the event on twitter by following @DIGITALHOMEWS.

[1] Source: Rock Health, 2012 Year-End Funding Report

(London, UK, May 14th 2013) Thomsons Online Benefits, the leading employee benefits provider, has announced another year of strong results for the financial year ending 31 December 2012. Both revenue and operating profit saw substantial increases, with revenue increasing 19% from 2011 to £32.7m, and operating profit substantially increasing from £2.5m in 2011 to £7.6m in 2012.

Other key highlights included:

A full order book for 2013 and a strong pipeline building for 2014;

A 25% increase in recurring revenue, improved visibility over revenue and longer-term contracts with their Clients;

An increase of 50,000 employees on the Darwin™ platform taking the total to over 550,000, in 60 countries;

The addition of 46 new clients in the year;

A £5m investment in the Darwin™ platform in the year.

Commenting on the results Michael Whitfield, CEO of Thomsons Online Benefits said:
“I am delighted that in 2012, in our two core business areas of UK Corporate and Global Enterprise, we continued to see the quality of both our Client base and revenue grow. If you add to that the fact that we already have a full order book for 2013, and clear visibility of a strong pipeline building for 2014, we have a business confidence at Thomsons which is allowing us to make clear, considered and effective strategic decisions.”

“The announcement of the recent investment in Thomsons by ABRY brings a new global private equity partner to support us as we look to significantly drive our growth in both the UK and globally. It will enable us to extend our global footprint, our software development capability and the development of our people, as well as the opportunity to explore acquisitions, home and abroad, that will add significant shareholder value.”

“I would like to thank all of our Thomsons People, wherever they work for us globally, for their incredible passion, energy and continued commitment to powering the Thomsons growth engine, year after year.”

Paul Smolinski, CFO of Thomsons Online Benefits adds:
“In 2012 we continued our clear focus on developing Thomsons into a SaaS business, with more visibility over our longer term bookings, revenue and cash, and in 2013 we expect to see further growth in recurring revenue as a result.”

“Despite the tough economic environment there is no decrease in demand for our services, as companies continue to strive for greater control and proven return-on-investment from their reward strategies and benefit spend, and the increasing burden of legislation adds to the risk and complexity of administering these programmes.”

“2013 will bear the fruits of our continued heavy investment into Darwin with the launch of our Auto-Enrolment solution, our new Reward Centre and the expansion of our Global Enterprise strategy to become the market leader in global benefit administration platforms.”

London, UK – May 14, 2013: Com Hem, the leading triple play operator in Sweden, has implemented Tribold, the world’s leading provider of Enterprise Product Management (EPM) software, to underpin the Product & Service Innovation program.

“Having a single place in which to model our increasingly complex & personalised offers is an important goal in our efforts to create value for our customers” said Stefan Berg - CIO at Com Hem. “Tribold are the right partner as they allow us to create, update and manage what we sell to our customers from a single platform”.

Simon Muderack, Tribold CEO says: “Working with Com Hem we see a drive to streamline service innovation and improve customer experience. These goals are directly aligned with where Tribold EPM can deliver real value to our customers”.

-- ends --

About Tribold (www.tribold.com)
Tribold is the leading provider of software solutions powering product agility. Our objective is to enable customers to accelerate speed to market for new offerings, improve offer conversion rates, and improve efficiency in the fulfilment of orders.
 
Tribold solutions include:

Tribold EPM (Enterprise Product Management) - a Centralized Product & Service Catalog with end-to-end Product Lifecycle Management capabilities.

Tribold CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) - a Services Engine powering the Quote, Order Capture and Order Management processes.

Today, Tribold powers over US$148b of products and services for our customers. Headquartered in London, and with offices in North America and Asia, Tribold was founded in 2003 and is privately held.

Press Contact:  Ernest Margitta (marketing@tribold.com) +44 20 7665 4000.

About Com Hem (www.comhem.se)
About 40 percent or 1.75 million, of the Swedish households are connected to Com Hem's network and have access to Sweden's widest range of TV channels, HDTV, TV On Demand and high quality and complete services for broadband and fixed lines. The foundation/basis for our business is a reliable infrastructure in cooperation with Swedish landlords. Com Hem has about 950 employees with offices in Stockholm (HQ), Gothenburg, Malmö, Härnösand and Örnsköldsvik. Com Hem was founded in 1983 and is owned by BC Partners since 2011.

Semantic Search technology leader scoops prestigious Pipeline COMET Innovations Award 2013

London, UK & Nice, France– May 14, 2013: At TM Forum Management World today, Ontology Systems, the semantic search company for structured enterprise application data, announce they won the Pipeline COMET Innovations Award 2013 in the Big Data and Analytics category at last night’s Gala Awards reception in Nice.

The recognition came on the eve of today’s Ontology 4 product announcement and as Ontology is being increasingly adopted by enterprises across a range of industries, including telecommunications and financial services. Ontology 4’s innovative uses of semantic search of large, complex data estates is rapidly acknowledged as a faster, more cost-effective, more resilient and more accurate alternative to traditional data integration approaches.

“We are thrilled to receive this Big Data and Analytics Innovation Award from one of the communication industry’s most respected publications,” said Benedict Enweani, CEO of Ontology Systems. “The award coincides with today’s launch of Ontology 4, which brings the power, simplicity and speed of search to all business application data across the enterprise.”

Pipeline’s prestigious COMET Innovation Awards acknowledge thought-leaders for advancements in technologies, products and deployments. To find out more about the Pipeline COMET Innovation Awards 2013, please visit www.pipelinepub.com/info/innovation_awards.php

For further information about Ontology please visit  http://www.ontology.com/ or visit their booth (#60) at Management World in Nice this week.

Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator 3.1 offers advanced flexible metering and billing and integration, simplified product catalog management and extensive customization

London, UK – 14 May 2013 – Flexiant, a leading international provider of cloud orchestration software and a Gartner Cool Vendor, today announced that it has released Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator 3.1. The latest version extends functionality and integration for metering and billing cloud services, simplifies product catalog management across reseller environments, and offers extensive customization with upgraded Flexiant APIs, Flexiant Query Language and a new Flexiant Development Language.

More Flexible Metering and Billing and Integration
Cloud services accentuate what is already a significant challenge for many service providers. The on-demand, agile and instantly-scalable nature of the cloud demands a metering and billing engine that is flexible enough to cope with different business models.

Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator’s already comprehensive metering and billing solution now offers support and flexibility for customizable billing based on a cloud service provider’s requirements. This includes the ability to integrate reseller specific product and pricing customization, customer specific user interfaces and service offerings. For instance, customers can now adopt the following metering and billing strategies, through integration with their existing billing system:

Full ‘pay as you go’ cloud billing with granular metering

Bill a fixed amount for individual virtual machines with fixed configurations, with separate metering for disk I/O and/or bandwidth

Bill a fixed amount for a bundle of resources shared between virtual data centres while allowing capacity bursts to be charged in arrears on a pay as you go basis

Any other method required by using Flexiant Development Language

Tony Lucas, Product Champion and Founder, Flexiant said, “This level of flexibility makes it significantly easier for service providers to move their existing business model to cloud services, which overcomes one of the key challenges in adoption. With 3.1, customers can customize standard billing models to meet their specific needs and also integrate it easily with existing systems.”

Product Catolog and Service Management
Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator 3.1 now includes a product catalog to help manage and simplify management of product and service offerings. New capabilities include:

Reseller and customer templates

Reseller and customer specific pricing and service offers

Flexible metering periods

Retiring/managing products

Hierarchical product management

Lucas continued, “When moving to a cloud model, service providers will need to determine how to offer different pricing structures, support new products and multiple resellers. This risks leading to product catalog complexity. Employing our solution allows easy tracking, management and metering of a wide range of products, allowing differentiation, customized services and new reseller opportunities.”

Improved Extensibility and Customization
Improved extensibility allows flexibility for Flexiant and third parties to easily extend functionality of Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator to meet business requirements.  New extensibility and flexibility includes:

‘API first’ policy to enable all functionality through powerful APIs

Enhancements to Flexiant Query Language to enable flexible data management and better reporting

Flexiant Development Language for bespoke customization for each service provider customer

“The enhanced APIs and Query Language together with our new Development Language make it easier for third party tools to integrate fully with Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator and allow our customers to build differentiated models without the need for Flexiant’s involvement,” Lucas added.

George Knox, CEO of Flexiant said, “We continue to invest in Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator to improve constantly the value it brings to cloud service providers. This latest upgrade gives greater functionality, reduces complexity and supports new and individual business models. All this comes hot on the heels of being named a Gartner Cool Vendor in cloud management.”

Learn more about Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator 3.1 or take a Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator business use tour.

Semantic Search technology leader launches Ontology 4 to apply the power, simplicity and speed of search to all business application data across the enterprise

London, UK & Nice, France – May 14, 2013: Today at TM Forum Management World, Ontology Systems, the semantic search company for structured enterprise application data, announce the immediate availability of Ontology 4, the semantic search platform that replaces data integration.

Ontology 4 completes vision of “Search, don’t Integrate” by incorporating unstructured as well as structured application data, it enables businesses to search and link applications, databases, files, spreadsheets and ad-hoc data from anywhere across the enterprise; without the cost and risk of integration and deliver solutions in record time.

“Today, the Holy Grail for enterprises across the globe is a ‘360 degree view of their business through their data’, and like the Holy Grail itself, this 360 view has eluded most businesses,” claims Benedict Enweani, CEO of Ontology Systems. “The real-world constraints of risky, painful, expensive data integration projects simply kill most attempts to unify business entities across the enterprise.”

Paul Turner, Data Integrity Manager at Ericsson UK noted: “Ontology’s semantic search-led approach enabled Ericsson to quickly and relatively easily combine device and configuration data to provide a single, accurate view of network misalignments – something we believed was not achievable using traditional integration approaches.”

Daniel Schultz, Team Manager – Infrastructure Services at Internet Solutions, and Ontology’s  first customer, explained:  “Since first using Ontology in 2009, we have been able to unify and search data across our business more rapidly and easily than possible through traditional integration.  The data agility Ontology brings our business, and the maturing of the Rothko project vision into Ontology 4, makes data available to more of our users, gives us a hard competitive edge and a strategic way forward with our IT systems.”   

Phinda Ncala, CIO at Neotel, who won a 2012 innovation award with Ontology for their Service Management deployment, said:  “Using Ontology we are able to unify structured billing data with unstructured data locked away in customer contract and SLA documents.  The data is delivered in a dashboard to our CSRs who now respond accurately to billing disputes.  The materialisation of Ontology’s Rothko vision into Ontology 4 has shortened billing dispute resolution times, improved accuracy and has enabled us to increase customer satisfaction through timely access to accurate data.”

Ontology 4 completely side steps traditional data integration technologies of rigid schemas and data models that fail to embrace the dynamic, diverse data estates in modern businesses. Instead, Ontology 4 uses semantic technology to examine the data held in sources right across the business, adds an organisation’s knowledge of the data, and produces a semantic model of the business’ entities. The result is a searchable graph allowing business users to search for “Things”, i.e. linked business concepts and not just “Strings” of text., as is the case with a text based search engine.

“Ontology is dispelling the myth that integrating disparate IT systems and data can only be achieved through lengthy point-to-point integration, MDM, ETL, BI or DQ projects, “ explains Nancee Ruzicka, Chief Strategist at analyst firm, ICT Intuition. “Using a search model to centralize and align data from anywhere across the enterprise offers a level of data agility that businesses now need to remain competitive.”

Ontology 4 is built to five key principles that separate it from traditional data integration technologies:

1.No schema - Ontology uses a searchable, semantic model built on proven graph-based technology.

2.No Integration - Ontology uses a semantic model to find and combine data relating to business entities fragmented across the enterprise.

3.No Big Bang - Ontology’s semantic model embraces on-going changes while delivering value early and iteratively over the duration of a project.

4.No Search Restriction - Ontology’s semantic search find's information across application data, documents and emails.

5.No Upfront Risk. – No integration to data sources, No unnecessary tying up of team resources, No feasibility surprises, and No problem changing project requirements.


“The Internet is the world’s largest source of data, yet no one integrates it.  They search it,” concluded Enweani. “So, when it comes to enterprise data, we say ‘Search, don’t Integrate.”

Ontology 4 products
Ontology Systems ship two products built on the Ontology 4 platform: Ontology Intelligent 360, which is capable of real-time search and dependency mapping, and Ontology Integrity Manager which is used for data alignment, migration, reporting and other analysis-based applications. Both are available via hosted SaaS solution or perpetual license.

Ontology 4 solutions
The Ontology 4 products are used to deliver solutions in three cross-industry spaces:  Business Dependency Mapping, Data Alignment and 360 Single View - the “Big Picture”.

- ends -

Product Agility software solution wins both Product Innovation and Best Deployment industry awards

London, UK & Nice France – May 14, 2013: Today, at TM Forum Management World, Tribold, the world’s leading provider of software solutions powering product agility announced it scooped two separate awards at last night’s Pipeline COMET Innovation Awards 2013:

Product Innovation winner: The Tribold Configure Price Quote (CPQ) services engine, won the Pipeline COMET Product Innovation awards. Tribold CPQ powers the front end of the Quoting and Order Capture process to make the revenue critical Order-to-Install process product-aware by providing the backbone to intelligently guide customers, partners and sales representatives in selecting relevant products in response to their requirements. See more details at: www.tribold.com/products/tribold-cpq/

Best Deployment winner: Tribold and BSkyB were voted winner for the automated product personalization enabled by Tribold EPM within BSkyB’s Product and Sales Program. The BSkyB sales channel represents a world first in personalization and the associated customer experience. Customers can tailor their offering in an interactive way by selecting the components of the offer that meet their requirements.

See this in action at: www.sky.com/shop/bundles/popular/

“We are thrilled to be recognized for the 2nd year running in these prominent industry innovation awards,” said Ernest Margitta, Tribold VP Marketing. “Product innovation is how we ensure our customers stay one step ahead of the market and accelerate new offerings, improve offer conversion rates, and improve efficiency in the fulfillment of orders.“

Pipeline’s prestigious COMET Innovation Awards acknowledge thought-leaders for advancements in technologies, products and deployments. To find out more about the Pipeline COMET Innovation Awards 2013, please visit http://www.pipelinepub.com/info/innovation_awards.php

To learn more about Tribold, please visit www.tribold.com.

Rostrvm Solutions, the customer service hub software provider, is showing visitors how to make more effective customer contact at its stand at the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) Conference & Exhibition.

Rostrvm will be on stand A22 at ExCel, London, on 15-16 May and will be showcasing its products for the Insurance industry.

The UK-based company designs, develops and supports customer service hub software for the insurance sector and has a wide range of experience, counting Equity Insurance Partnerships, IDL, Autonet and One-Sure amongst its satisfied customers.

Rostrvm’s products support customer service staff in being more efficient, so that they can gain more new customers and keep existing customers happy, even in difficult economic conditions.

Ken Reid of Rostrvm Solutions said, “The insurance industry is complex, highly competitive and evolving at a rapid rate. Our flexible, robust applications allow our customers to work profitably, productively and with accountability. If you’ve got efficient people and processes, you will be in the right place to satisfy existing customers and make those renewals at the right time. You’ll also be able to make more product add-ons and up-sells. Gaining new customers will be a more successful, slicker operation if you have intuitive, straight-forward systems working in the background.”

rostrvm is platform independent, works with existing systems, complies with statutory legislation and will evolve as insurance industry requirements change.

To find out more, visit the BIBA exhibition or call Rostrvm Solutions on  0800 6122 192

Innovative JVM specialist provides key to unlock the power of Java

London, United Kingdom, 14 May, 2013  The B2 Group provider of cloud based FX, funds and payments STP software and consultancy solutions to transaction banks and corporates across the globe, announced today the successful implementation of Waratek’s CloudVM for Java. This innovative solution provides additional enhancements to the already robust hosted environment in which B2’s Global Transaction Services (GTS) platform has been gaining traction in the market.

“Significant investment and expertise has been invested by The B2 Group team in the development of our GTS platform to ensure it runs successfully in a hosted environment, for those clients who prefer this option.  That said, there are some very talented technologists in our industry who continue to identify new ways that users can realise even more benefits from Java technology and we are keen to continue to utilise best of breed technologies in our B2 solutions. We have been impressed by the work done by Waratek, recently recognised by SWIFT’s Innotribe as a 2013 Innovator finalist and named by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in their 2013 Application and Integration Platforms report[1]. They are a great team to work with and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial association. ” comments Phil Boland, Chief Executive Officer, The B2 Group.

Waratek’s CloudVM for Java specifically provides The B2 Group with three key benefits, namely

1.Reduces the hosting burden.  B2 can continue to offer cost effective financial messaging services, by using centralised execution of multiple applications and sharing resources on a reduced server footprint;

2.Enables multi-tenancy environments.  Traditionally organisations need to maintain separate environments for each individual client which is expensive.  With Waratek, we can safely and securely host multiple clients on a single machine, without risk, and better manage and control costs of the IT utility service, and

3.Improved the time-to-market for new services - Waratek allows us to add new clients onto the platform, re-allocate resources between clients depending on their needs or add new code in one environment without impacting the other environments.


The Waratek CloudVM for Java is a JVM that virtualizes Java at the software level.  This unique hypervisor is built inside the JVM itself, enabling applications to gain the classic benefits of Cloud Computing without a single line of code change.  Applications run in isolated containers providing increased application density, greater use of resources and improved performance.

Brian Maccaba, Chief Executive Officer, Waratek adds “We are delighted that The B2 Group have chosen our Waratek CloudVM for Java solution as part of their on-going drive to deliver excellence to their customers.  There is no doubt that the Cloud opens up a myriad of opportunities for business today, providing they have built their applications on a robust and agile technology.  We believe, and are totally committed to ensuring Java users can squeeze every bit of value out of the technology.  Waratek is very well placed to offer Java users excellent ROI and we welcome the opportunity to demonstrate our ability to anyone who feels they would like to do more, for less.”

[1] Cool Vendors in Application and Integration Platforms, 2013 dated 16 April 2013.  Authors: Benoit J. Lheureux, W. Roy Schulte, Yefim V. Natis,, Massimo Pezzini, Michele Cantara and Ben Huang

Disclaimer:
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

MDS provides Intelligent Billing solution to enable a 360 degree view of customers and products

14th May 2013, Warrington, UK:  It has been announced today that TalkTalk Business, one of the UK’s leading providers of network, telecoms and broadband solutions in the B2B market, has signed an agreement with MDS, a leader in providing managed service revenue and customer management solutions, to deliver a wholesale billing solution to consolidate TalkTalk Business’s existing wholesale rating and billing systems.

The agreement means that MDS will deliver its market-leading Revenue and Customer Management Platform based on its CMP 6.0 technology, a solution that allows TalkTalk Business to achieve a consolidated billing experience for its customers, as well as a unified analytic reporting function. Importantly, the MDS platform provides a consolidated view of all revenue and product data, enhancing the ability to deliver an improved customer experience and creating a single view of partner value to help drive improved decision making and insight.

TalkTalk Business previously billed its customers on different, disparate platforms which were adding complexity to support processes such as monetary collection. Through implementation of the MDS solution and its ability to deliver ‘Intelligent Billing’, TalkTalk Business has an enhanced capability to automate and combine existing processes, to reduce the operating time for billing and the associated resource costs.

Phil Haslam, Operations Director at TalkTalk Business commented, “The consolidation of our legacy platforms into a single unified rating and billing engine not only drives significant efficiency and consistency for TalkTalk Business internally, but will also ensure we offer customers and partners  an improved flexibility in product offering, and a consolidated billing experience. The MDS CMP solution forms a significant part of our systems strategy as we seek to collaborate with our partners and customers in an online environment, providing insight and core business data via intuitive and integrated media.”

Matt Hooper, Chief Marketing Officer, MDS added, “We are delighted that TalkTalk Business has chosen MDS. Our proven track record in delivering customer management and revenue management solutions to operators means that we can enable a sophisticated end-to-end, fully managed revenue and customer management platform, that can bill any service and support rapid change, utilising our ‘Intelligent Billing’ capabilities. This agreement reflects a strong partnership between MDS and TalkTalk Business, one based on mutual collaboration and delivering services that are evolving rapidly as the market for communications services changes and grows.”

...technology and trends

Proven pitch format that helped to launch Pinterest, Tivo and Salesforce coming to Moscow in June

Moscow, Russia, 14 May 2013 – Digital October, a hotspot for digital entrepreneurship located in Moscow, today announced the first ever DEMO event for the European market. Taking place on 3-4 June, DEMO Europe will gather the hottest technologies from the entire continent for a grand two-day showcase.

DEMO Europe will see around 50 companies pitching their new products, services and solutions to an audience of investors, consumers and media. The event is divided up into high-profile industry sectors, and the first three categories to be announced are those of Mobile, Cloud and Music & Media.

The Mobile stream will examine the latest technologies and trends in this rapidly-growing sector. Applications for this category are extremely high, with 40% of the 100+ submissions coming from this industry sector. The Cloud theme will explore how cloud services and software-as-a-service (SaaS) is replacing traditional software, whilst Music & Media will question to what extent this landscape has been disrupted by the advent of the internet and which are the new business models most likely to survive.

Ron Croen, founder of Volio, commented, "I launched Nuance at Demo in 1996 and it gave me a platform to present to the tech world which I would never otherwise have had. It put us in the big leagues. As a 'returning customer', I saw the same advantages with DEMO Mobile. I was pleased to be able to launch my newest venture, Volio, at this year's DEMO Mobile. The world has changed and Demo has kept up - they fielded a best in class team and enabled us to get our story across far beyond what we imagined possible."

Neal Silvernam, SVP and GM of DEMO Conferences, added, "In today's competitive mobile environment, it's crucial that entrepreneurs and start-ups are given the best possible opportunity to get their solutions noticed. DEMO Europe will enable new technologies to be seen by the right people at the right time in their development."

Each of the themed sections will begin with six-minute pitches from the pre-selected start-ups and entrepreneurs, followed by an Alphapitch session, consisting of 90 second pitches by companies at a much earlier developmental stage. The pitches are followed by a Founder Feedback panel session, featuring relevant experts discussing general trends in the industry and applying them to the products they’ve just seen. Each category is rounded up by a Keynote speech from an influential figure in that industry.

In the mobile sector, the recent acquisition of Orchestra’s Mailbox app by Dropbox is another confirmation of the industry’s growth. Gentry Underwood of Orchestra (creator of Mailbox, recently purchased by Dropbox) will talk about the revolutionary changes shaping the mobile industry. The Cloud keynote will be given by Serguei Belousov, chairman and founder of Parallels and managing partner of Runa Capital, who will discuss the future of the industry, new business models available and the start-ups he is seeing in this area.

“As an international launch platform, DEMO has seen tremendous innovation from start-ups all over the world,” Peter Tatischev of Digital October explained. “Russia has been selected as the location for the first DEMO Europe because of its unparalleled access to the local market. The amount of venture capital in Russia more than doubled in 2012 and DEMO Europe brings together active venture capitalists, angels and corporate investors looking to invest in the next big thing in Europe. Russia also boasts the largest online population in Europe and is highly receptive to new products and services, with Moscow seeking to create favourable conditions for international companies and entrepreneurs.”

The DEMO format differs from other conferences in that it is not a start-up battle but a showcase for entrepreneurs to present their technologies. Digital October selects the most promising start-ups and entrepreneurs in the region and helps them to produce and present a high quality, professionally-prepared, six minute product demo in which they demonstrate how their product will change the world.

In order to help them do this, Digital October provides personal presentation coaching, technical expertise, product rehearsal and PR training, enabling each company to reach its full potential. Certified DEMO coach Nathan Gold, who has been coaching companies for DEMO since 2000, helps companies prepare their DEMO launch presentations ahead of June’s event, with scripting, production and delivery of the timed live demo.

Digital October is a centre for the globally-minded technology entrepreneurship community based in Moscow. Its focus is on new technologies and technology entrepreneurship, providing educational programmes and hosting international conferences and presentations of new technology products.

DEMO Europe is the newest addition to the DEMO line-up and the first to take place in Europe. Over the past 22 years, DEMO has been a launchpad for companies such as Pinterest, salesforce.com, Webex, Netscape, Tivo, GarageBand and more, helping them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships, and influence early adopters. In the past five years, DEMO companies have raised over $4.5 billion dollars following their debut at DEMO. Recently the conference has expanded outside Silicon Valley with conferences in China, India, Brazil and Africa.

Industry and legal experts share best practices in managing time critical investigations

LONDON – May 13, 2013 – Consilio, a Symphony Technology Group (STG) company and global leader in eDiscovery software and services, has announced that two of its key Executives will be members of a panel discussion designed to provide valuable insights on how to prepare for competition law audits and dawn raids.

The open event is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 23 May, 2013 from 8.30am to 10.00am CET at Cercle de Lorraine, place Poelaert 6, 1000 Bruxelles. Registration and refreshments will be available from 8.00am.  The discussion will be conducted in French and is targeted at French speaking corporations and in-house counsel.

The expert panel will include Mathieu van Ravenstein, Director of European Managed Review Services at Consilio; Olivier Aelterman, Senior e-Discovery Consultant at Consilio; Frédéric Puel, Partner at Fidal; and Thierry Bontinck, Partner at Dal & Veldekens. The subject matter will be on how to address European competition law audits, dawn raids, and the technical and legal considerations of how to reduce risk.

Mathieu van Ravenstein, Director of European Managed Review Services at Consilio, adds, “Corporations and corporate counsel should not underestimate the time taken to conduct the initial stages of an audit exercise. In a multi-jurisdictional matter with custodians in various countries, simply getting to the right place at the right time, and ensuring the relevant members of staff are present, can be a daunting task.  The key to responding to a regulatory investigation is in the preparation. Understanding your company’s IT infrastructure and the legislation that restricts movement of data in relevant jurisdictions, and knowing who to turn to if a matter arose, will make a huge difference in time and cost.”

For further information please email Virginie.Dierckx@consilio.com