ClinPhone Showcases EDC Solution at IIR’s 17th Annual Partnerships with CROs Conference

(Nottingham UK, 11 March, 2008) ClinPhone, the world’s largest Clinical Technology Organization (CTO), will be showcasing its leading EDC/CDMS, DataLabs by ClinPhone, at booth #201/203 at IIR’s Partnerships with CROs Conference, April 14-16, 2008 in Las Vegas, NV. 

DataLabs by ClinPhone is the industry’s only true hybrid system, incorporating EDC and Paper Data Management in a single platform. The product offers the most cutting-edge technology, modern architecture, custom reporting tools and unique integration capabilities - all supported by ClinPhone’s unparalleled customer service.

ClinPhone will also be demonstrating its comprehensive portfolio of clinical technology solutions, including its recently launched combined EDC-IVR solution, randomization, trial supply management, drug accountability, electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO), clinical trial management systems (CTMS) and integration solutions. ClinPhone is the first company of its kind to offer such a comprehensive suite of software and services to the biopharmaceutical industry.
 
Partnerships with CROs is a significant clinical development and outsourcing conference, with over 150 speaking faculty, providing access to key outsourcing leaders and influencers.

“This event is becoming increasingly important for us,” comments Nick Richards, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at ClinPhone. “We have established relationships with many of the world’s leading CROs and we continually seek new ways to deepen those relationships, as well as contribute to their success through innovative technology solutions. Our goal is to help our CRO customers deliver maximum value to their customer base, and the Partnerships conference provides unique insight into the latest challenges faced by this group.”

ClinPhone provides a range of clinical technology solutions to many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The company is the largest and most accomplished Clinical Technology Organization (CTO) in the industry, with experience in over 2,000 trials.

For further information on ClinPhone’s clinical technology solutions, please visit booth #201/203, at IIR’s 17th Annual Partnerships with CROs Conference in Las Vegas. Alternatively, please visit www.clinphone.com or email [email protected].

Solution will provide detailed analysis of over 50,000 IT assets

Paris, 10th March 2008 – SOGEI, the organisation responsible for IT at the Italian Ministry of Finance, has selected a global IT inventory solution from BDNA to manage over 50,000 assets within the Agenzia delle Entrate and Agenzia delle Dogane, Italy’s Inland Revenue and customs departments. The deal, won with BDNA’s Italian distributor Daman and systems integrator Energent SpA, is worth 1.35 million Euros.

BDNA Inventory will provide Sogei with a detailed view of the Agenzias’ IT infrastructure. The solution delivers rapid, comprehensive information such as usage statistics and maintenance agreements for all devices, operating systems, peripherals and storage and software applications. By integrating the resulting data with the BDNA Catalog of market data, BDNA Inventory will also enable Sogei to categorise, analyse and manage the Agenzias’ IT assets and vendor relationships. Detailed reports generated by the analytics engine will help to support technology governance and future investment decisions.

Data gathered using BDNA Inventory will subsequently be integrated into the Agenzias’ HP Peregrine and BMC CMDBs (Configuration Management Database).

BDNA was selected following a European public tender in which more than 14 companies participated, including most large system integrators and asset management software vendors. BDNA Inventory was selected for its ease of use – offering plug and play implementation, with no need for agent intervention. The solution also has detailed hardware and software configuration capabilities and offers easy integration into the CMDB.

“We need to support SOGEI to ensure that the IT infrastructures of Agenzia delle Entrate and Agenzia delle Dogane are delivering value, in terms of both costs and efficiency”, says Gianni Baroni, managing director at Daman. “BDNA’s solution will enable Sogei to track and manage every single IT asset within the departments, from determining which PCs have not undergone a full virus scan for more than a month or are out of warranty, to identifying equipment with incorrect configurations.”

“BDNA has a strong heritage in the government sector, with a number of the US Federal Government departments using our solutions”, says Eric Faurisson, General Manager BDNA Europe. “Sogei strengthens our position in this market and builds on our success with existing European customers such as KPN, Telecom Italia and ENEL . Working closely with Daman, our distributor and Energent SpA, we look forward to working with Sogei to increase efficiencies at the Agenzias, as well as delivering valuable cost savings”.

ConSentry’s Intelligent Switching Architecture Delivers Operational Efficiency, Reduced Cost, Network Control and Visibility in a Single Platform

Milpitas, CA –March 10th, 2008 – ConSentry Networks announced today that Pasporte, the UK’s leading provider of managed ICT outsourcing to the mid-market, is deploying the LANShield™ Switch platform for all customers. ConSentry’s Intelligent Switch will provide user, file and application control along with granular network visibility for Pasporte’s managed customers in each of the company’s three datacentres.

Pasporte operated a traditional network within its datacentres based on Cisco access switches, but proactively sought to upgrade these products to provide additional levels of control and visibility. After reviewing enterprise switches from ConSentry, Cisco and Juniper, Pasporte selected the LANShield CS-4048 for its ability to immediately give control and visibility of their network whilst being deployed in the same way as a traditional edge switch.  Pasporte will replace their existing Cisco access switches with the ConSentry CS-4048 48 port Gigabit switch.

“As part of our strategy to continually improve the service offering to our customers, we presented ourselves with a challenge to source an intelligent switch that would be more operationally and technically effective than our existing Cisco devices. The ConSentry Switches offer in depth visibility of user access, application activity and traffic flows,” said Steve Bedford, senior solutions architect at Pasporte. “Other vendors have a piecemeal approach with multiple add-ons and layers that increase operational expense with little extra benefit. Once we evaluated ConSentry’s single platform, it was an easy decision to deploy their product. Theirs is a simple solution with a level of functionality that the competition can’t touch.” 

ConSentry’s Intelligent Switch delivers a complete understanding of the user, what applications they have access to and their file and Internet activity. This tied with the LANShield’s transparent role based access control capability means that Pasporte can take complete control of their LAN. The LANShield Switch authenticates users and devices against standard identity stores and automatically learns their roles. For each traffic flow, it identifies the application in use and applies policies based on that user’s role.

This level of granularity ensures Pasporte are fully aware of all activity on the customer network and can manage that activity to an individual user level. The integration of user, role and application control in addition to standard switching functionality in a single platform improves efficiency, reduces OpEx and demonstrates a clear differentiated service offering for Pasporte.

“The majority of our customers have a dynamic and diverse workforce. Some of them, JD Sports and Orient Express Hotels for example, need to address the important issue of PCI compliance. They must have the ability to know exactly what is happening on their LAN,” continued Steve Bedford. “The ConSentry Intelligent Switch understands users and their roles within the organisation and addresses these challenges by ensuring only certain users can reach the applications and servers involved in credit card transactions. Furthermore, historical reporting allows us to create audit trails for all of this activity.”

Every new client of Pasporte will be provisioned a ConSentry enabled LAN. In addition, as each client contract is renewed, Pasporte will replace the existing Cisco switches with the ConSentry LANShield platform. To confirm their commitment to total LAN security, Pasporte is also deploying ConSentry LANShield Switches on its own network, utilising role-based LAN segmentation to ensure only approved individuals have access to specific customer information and resources.

Steve Bedford concluded, “Other switch vendors’ access control solutions use bolt on technologies that create additional overheads and technical headaches. ConSentry’s Intelligent Switch simplifies the complexities of LAN management and as a result, our ongoing costs related to troubleshooting, network management, security and reporting are all significantly reduced.”

“Pasporte is a leader in the outsourced ICT industry and wanted to continue their track record of innovative offerings to their customers,” said Dean Hickman-Smith, vice president of worldwide sales at ConSentry. “The deployment of Intelligent Switching has provided new functionality, visibility and control that has undoubtedly enhanced its competitive advantage, and all for the price of traditional layer 2 edge switches.”

WhiteHat Security and F5 Team to Battle Attacks Against Enterprise and eCommerce Websites

WhiteHat Sentinel and F5 BIG-IP Application Security Manager integrate via F5’s iControl API; Customers achieve dynamic vulnerability assessment, detection, and remediation for total website security and PCI compliance

LONDON, MARCH 10, 2008 – WhiteHat Security and F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) today announced a partnership agreement. The partnership yields a uniquely powerful and efficient solution that provides organisations with a new means of combating the onslaught of website attacks that place customer and corporate data at risk. F5’s open iControl® API provides the integration between WhiteHat Sentinel, the industry-leading website vulnerability management solution, and the award-winning F5® BIG-IP® Application Security Manager™ (ASM™) web application firewall. As part of this agreement, WhiteHat has also joined F5’s Technology Alliance Program.

“The integrated solution brings the entire industry to a new level of website protection—with extreme accuracy and efficiency,” said Stephanie Fohn, Chief Executive Officer at WhiteHat Security. “Customers have been waiting for a solution that delivers rapid identification and immediate repair of vulnerabilities. The F5-WhiteHat alliance makes complete website security simpler than ever for the end-user.”

The Solution Elements

A web-based subscription service, WhiteHat Sentinel combines advanced proprietary scanning technology with expert analysis, enabling customers to identify, prioritise, manage, and remediate website vulnerabilities as they occur. F5’s ASM provides proactive network and application-layer protection from generalised and targeted attacks by understanding the user interaction with the application. Through the F5 iControl API, WhiteHat Sentinel will be able to directly configure policies on F5’s ASM to protect against vulnerability exploits (e.g., cross-site scripting, parameter tampering, SQL injection) found during the scanning process.

Achieving PCI Compliance 6.6

The combined solution from WhiteHat Security and F5 fully meets requirement No. 6.6 (Develop and maintain secure systems and applications) of the PCI compliance standards developed by VISA, MasterCard, and other major credit card companies. According to the standard, an organisation must do at least one of the following to meet this requirement:

·         Undergo application scanning and code review by an application security specialist

-OR-

·         Install a web application firewall in front of the web-facing applications

This partnership enables customers to achieve both requirements in just one step.

Existing customers of both WhiteHat and F5 will benefit from the partnership immediately through the ability to leverage their investments with the added security and automation of the combined solution. The Sentinel-ASM integration simplifies and speeds vulnerability remediation by finding the problem, and then fixing it through “virtual patching.” Developers also gain more time to fix code without leaving applications exposed. Customers will benefit through:

·         Increased protection via WhiteHat Sentinel’s rapid identification of web application vulnerabilities, with minimal false positives

·         Highly targeted vulnerability remediation (virtual patching) via ASM

·         Simplified management: Data is continuously filtered and validated to provide only actionable results

·         Ease of operation: A simple interface with one-click remediation

“Our partnership with WhiteHat elevates ASM, allowing us to offer a more comprehensive website security solution using trusted data from an industry leader,” said Ken Salchow, Senior Technical Marketing Manager at F5. “ASM’s integration with Sentinel offers our customers immediate time and cost savings. With the ability to apply a ‘virtual patch’ to their sites, they can effectively mitigate the most pressing risks with confidence and address the root issues as time and budgets allow. That type of flexibility and security assurance is quite rare in this industry.”

•   New RoadTour GPS tour guide provides travellers with a running audio commentary on the events, locations and monuments that shaped British history

•   The launch comes as research shows that one in ten 18-24 year-olds think Stonehenge is in Norfolk and six in ten think the Globe theatre is in Stratford upon Avon. 

A new GPS tour guide that alerts motorists to Britain’s greatest historical sites as they drive near them is set to spark fresh interest in our heritage as well as transform journeys for tourists. Invented by history enthusiast Daniel Taylor, the RoadTour software works with Global Positioning (GPS) equipment to trigger audio commentary and pictures of 600 key attractions, including castles, stately homes and battlefields.

The low-cost software responds to satellite prompts as cars approach places of historical interest throughout the UK, delivering fascinating information narrated by a friendly female voice through the SatNav. It means motorists will no longer remain oblivious to the cultural treasures around them as they cruise along Britain’s roads.

The guide is launched today for hire or download, as new research commissioned by RoadTour shows that a quarter of people think Leeds Castle is in Yorkshire, rather than Kent, one in ten that the Romans built the A1 and 10 per cent of 18-24-year-olds that Stonehenge is in Norfolk. A further 38 per cent of all those questioned by YouGov believe that Hadrians Wall is in Scotland, not England.

Five years in the making, this invention fulfils Daniel Taylor’s passion for history and his desire to help Britons as well as tourists use technology to get the most out of our heritage. Ironically, GPS technology has perhaps until now put us out of touch with roadmaps and chance discoveries en route.

“RoadTour will help restore our knowledge and understanding of the history of this amazing country and will also provide tourists with the perfect companion when driving around,” said Daniel, managing director of RoadTour.

“GPS make it easy for us to get from A to B, but perhaps in the process we’ve lost touch with the history that surrounds us. A friendly reminder, which tempts us into exploring heritage as we’re driving, seems to me to be altogether a good thing.”

The software package features a total of 600 sites in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each has an average 90 seconds of commentary, researched and written by a team of 12 amateur historians. There’s at least one picture of each place, plus opening times and prices where relevant.

Examples of the commentary include this snippet about Charlecote Park, near Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire: “It is easy to believe the stories of a young William Shakespeare poaching deer at Charlecote Park.  It is reputed that he was given a beating by Sir Thomas Lucy - in return for which Shakespeare ruthlessly mocked Sir Thomas in a satirical verse which he stuck on the landowner’s gate.  This time coincides with a ten year period in which Shakespeare made a mysterious disappearance only to re-emerge 10 years later in London.”

Noting that the gardens at Bowood House, Wiltshire, were designed by the eminent eighteenth century landscaper Capability Brown, the guide says: “So determined was he to create a grand design for the Wiltshire countryside surrounding this stately home, that he submerged a village in the process. 
He created the centrepiece, a 45-acre lake, by damming a nearby stream and flooding a village called Manning’s Hill. The story goes that he simply had the buildings taken apart and the inhabitants re-housed elsewhere.”

Daniel Taylor hit on the idea for RoadTour five years ago while walking round the Roman baths in Bath with his wife. “We were listening to one of those walk-around hand-held audio guides which really bring the history to life and I got so absorbed that I very nearly walked away with it,” he said. “I felt truly inspired and began wondering about other heritage attractions nearby.”

“It struck me that it would be great to have an audio guide in the car, alerting you to all the historical sites in the area. At the time the technology wasn’t really there, so I chewed on it for a few years and honed the concept. It’s only during the last year that the devices have become powerful enough to make it happen.”

“We hope our guide will tempt people to pull off the motorway or A-road and visit some of the wonderful sites which have helped shape Britain’s history.  But even if they don’t, their journeys will be enlivened and filled with interesting stories and snippets about the country through which they’re travelling.”

The RoadTour Heritage software is available to download from www.roadtour.co.uk and retails for £19.95.  It is also available to rent with a GPS unit for Tourists travelling in the UK.

Milton Keynes, 10 March 2008. DIGITALK today announced that eTel Austria, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telekom Austria TA AG successfully started using the DIGITALK SIP Media Application Server.
   
eTel has provided Voice Prepaid Services on the DIGITALK Multiservice platform since 2000, and will be migrating all DIGITALK applications to the NGN SIP Application Server. eTel plans to optimize its current portfolio by introducing intelligent number services using DIGITALK Service Numbers application.

The next generation DIGITALK Service Numbers application offers both simple number translation services as well as more sophisticated intelligent call routing capabilities all managed by a web self-care interface. Services supported from the DIGITALK MSP can be customised to meet the exacting demands of the business subscriber, enabling service providers to target markets that were previously only possible using expensive and large scale IN solutions.

"eTel's decision to expand the range of services handled by the DIGITALK Platform and to migrate to next generation intelligent networking services for service numbers and prepaid was made easy by DIGITALK's clear roadmap and track record for delivering services rapidly. The Service Numbers application has a strong set of features which has given us great confidence in using DIGITALK," says Ilias Liakopoulos, CTO, eTel Austria.

Mark Ashdown, DIGITALK's Sales and Marketing Director commented: "DIGITALK is delighted to be assisting eTel's value added services. We were up against some well-known competition and this proves that our reputation in this market is going from strength to strength."

More information about eTel's services can be found at www.etel.at

Applied Security Launches New File Encryption Solution

fideAS®  file enterprise delivers data loss and information leakage prevention

10 March 2008: Applied Security has launched its new fideAS® enterprise file and folder encryption solution in the UK to protect and secure access to sensitive data on fileservers, deskops and laptops by encrypting all the files and folders on the disk drives.  Integrated into existing workflow and completely transparent to users, the fideAS® encryption process can also be used to control removable storage media such as USB keys or removable hard drives. This prevents data theft or leakage and also ensures that viruses or other malware are blocked from getting onto the network.

Other features of fideAS® file enterprise include automatic encryption of email attachments, revision-safe logging and the enforcement of the ‘four-eyes-principle’ that ensures at least two people are present to access specific confidential data.

The entire administration of fideAS® file enterprise, including access authorisations, is performed centrally using a simple graphical interface and is integrated with existing directory services such as Microsoft Active Directory. Role separation between system and security administrators ensures that no one has unauthorised access to confidential files; while keys and certificates are generated automatically and distributed to users as software or on smartcards and USB tokens.

“Recent high profile date loss incidents from the HMRC and Royal Navy to TKMaxx, and Marks and Spencer, could all have been avoided if files had been encrypted,” says Frank Schlottke, CEO at Applied Security.

“It is clear that companies and public sector organisations now recognise that encryption is the most effective way to protect confidential data falling into the wrong hands and fulfilling compliance requirements. fideAS®  file enterprise has been designed to combine a high level of cryptographic security with maximum user friendliness, so that encryption does not slow down or get in the way of day-to-day work activity,“ adds Schlottke. 

Also available from Applied Security is fideAS® file safe, a free tool for encryption and decryption of files by a password that can be used to decrypt email attachments encrypted by fideAS® file. fideAS® file safe uses AES-256, the strongest state-of-the-art symmetric encryption algorithm.

Record Results With Net Income More Than Tripled To €302 Million. 

Strong Profitability Improvement In All Businesses.

- sales: €5,118 million (organic growth: +8.2%)
- EBITDA[1]: €573 million (€371 million in 2006; +54.4%)
- adjusted EBITDA[2]: €529 million (€407 million in 2006; +30.2%)
- ebit: €508 million (€258 million in 2006; +96.8%)
- net income: €302 million (€91 million in 2006)
- Free cash flow (before dividends): €245 million (€166 million in 2006)
- net financial position improved from €879 million in 2006 to €716 million
- Proposed Dividend: €0.417[3] per share for a total of approximately  €75 million

Share buy-back plan for up to 18,000,000 ordinary shares, corresponding to 10% of the capital
 
Milan, 07 March 2007 – Today the Board of Directors of Prysmian S.p.A., a worldwide leading group in the energy and telecommunication cables industry, has approved its 2007 consolidated financial statements and the draft statutory financial statements[4].

In 2007, consolidated Sales reached €5,118 million, up from €5,007 million in 2006. Net of perimeter changes, metals price effects and exchange rate translation effect, Organic growth was 8.2%. All the businesses contributed to the growth, with a sharp increase in volumes in the Industrial business, especially cables for the OGP, mining, transport and renewable energy industries, and a significant increase in demand in the Utilities business, driven by many projects of extension and modernisation of high voltage networks and submarine power links worldwide. In 2007, Prysmian was awarded with some of the largest projects worldwide, such as TransBay in the USA and Cometa in Spain, and can currently count on a solid order book that ensures high visibility on future sales.

2007 Adjusted EBITDA increased to €529 million (+30.2% from 2006). The leap in profitability was mainly the result of the focusing on high added value products and services and of the continuous enhancement in the business mix, as well as the excellent level of operating leverage achieved. Adjusted EBITDA margin on sales rose to 10.3%, up from 8.1% in 2006.

EBITDA increased by 54.4% to €573 million, resulting in a significant progress of the margin on sales from 7.4% to 11.2%. This growth benefited from positive non-recurring items for €44 million (compared to non-recurring net charges of €36 million in 2006), mainly attributable to adjustments to the price of the acquisition of the Pirelli & C. cable business in 2005.

EBIT rose to €508 million, up 96.8% from €258 million in 2006, driving a sharp increase in EBIT margin from 9.9% to 5.2%. Adjusted EBIT5, before positive non-recurring items of €44 million, reached €464 million, recording an increase of 40.6% compared to 2006. Adjusted EBIT margin on sales rose from 6.6% to 9.1%.

Net income[5] more than tripled, reaching the record level of €302 million, compared to €91 million in 2006. In addition to the positive non-recurring items of €44 million mentioned above, net income was affected by:

-          write-downs of bank fees related to the old credit agreement (negative effect before taxes of €59 million);
-          appreciation of the fair value of the derivatives used to hedge metal prices and financial risks (positive effect before taxes of €8 million);
-          release to the income statement of an equity reserve related to the valuation of interest rate derivatives defined as "cash flow hedges", necessary as a consequence of the old credit agreement refinancing (positive effect before taxes of €4 million).

Net income also benefited from a reduction in the tax rate from 38.2% in 2006 to 21.9% in 2007, mainly attributable to the better geographical mix of the profit before taxes, which determined a significant use of past tax losses. 

In 2007 Prysmian confirmed its strong cash generation, posting a positive Free Cash Flow (before dividends) of €245 million(from €166 million in 2006). This improvement was mainly driven by the significant increase in operating profitability.

Net financial position at 31 December 2007 amounted to €716 million, recording a substantial decrease from €879 million a year earlier. This improvement led to a significant drop in the ratio net financial position to third parties[6]/adjusted EBITDA, down from 2.2x at 31 December 2006 to 1.4x at the end of 2007. This result will trigger a further decrease in the cost of debt in 2008.

The Parent Company is reporting €61 million in net income in its financial statements drafted according to IAS/IFRS, from €76 million in 2006. This decrease is due to the transfer of the staff in charge of the Group core business previously employed in subsidiaries to Prysmian S.p.A. since 1 January 2007.

Based on these results, the Board of Directors of Prysmian S.p.A. will propose to the next shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for 14 April 2008 on first call and 15 April on second call, the distribution of a dividend equal to €0.417 per share , calculated on the number of shares outstanding at the current date (180,000,000 shares). The total amount of the dividend is approximately €75.06 million. This dividend policy has the two-fold objective of remunerating Prysmian shareholders and maintaining an adequate level of financial resources to sustain both internal and external growth. The dividend will be paid out from 24 April 2008, with coupon detachment on 21 April 2008, and will be applied to the shares outstanding at that date.

“The positive trend achieved throughout the year was fully confirmed in the fourth quarter - Mr Valerio Battista, Chief Executive Officer of Prysmian S.p.A., commented -. 2007 brought strong results in terms of both organic growth and improvement of profitability. The Company benefited from the decision to keep focusing on high value-added and high technology businesses, as well as markets with high growth rates and profitability. We fostered this strategy in 2007 and invested in both internal growth and acquisitions, thanks to which Prysmian will be able to leverage on sound manufacturing and sales operations in promising markets such as India. 

Looking forward - Mr Battista added - demand continues to be healthy on the markets that we regard as  strategic, mainly high voltage land and submarine cables, boosted by the continuous growth in consumption of energy. Utilities are committed to projects to expand and upgrade the power transmission networks, with major investment plans in the medium-long term. Thanks to the strong know-how, the long experience, and the ability to offer high value added services, Prysmian maintains its worldwide leading position in this sector with a significant share of this market.”     

Performance and results of the business areas

Energy Cables & Systems

Sales in Energy Cables & Systems rose to €4,583 million and posted and organic growth of 8.4%. The focus on high value added products and channels led to a 42.6% increase in Adjusted EBIT, amounting to €420 million in 2007. Adjusted EBIT margin on sales surged from 6.5% in 2006 to 9.1%.   

Utilities

Sales to third parties in Utilities reached €1,894 million and recorded an organic growth of 3.3% from the previous year; growth in high voltage submarine cables accelerated significantly in the second half of the year. Profitability also increased, and adjusted EBIT margin rose from 8.4% in 2006 to 11.0% in 2007. The high value added sectors of high voltage land and submarine cables posted the fastest growth, with major contracts awarded in all the regions of the world.  More specifically, in submarine cables, the Group collected strategic orders in Spain, with the Cometa Project (a power link between the Balearic Islands and the Iberian peninsula) and in the USA, with the TransBay project in San Francisco where Prysmian, in cooperation with Siemens Power T&D, will build the first 200kV high voltage DC link, using the new Voltage Source Converter technology and offering lower cost and higher operating flexibility. In underground high-voltage cables, Prysmian won major contracts in the USA, UK, and China. The growth of the order backlog provides high visibility on future sales. In particular, Prysmian is well positioned to profit from the emerging strong growth trend in investments in offshore wind park for power generation, with 8 large projects already awarded in the world. Investments in power transmission infrastructures are characterised by long-term cycles and, with the aim of consolidating and strengthening its leading position, in 2007 Prysmian started and completed new investments to expand its production capacity.

Trade & Installers

Sales in the Trade & Installers business reached €1,802 million in 2007. The organic sales growth of 7.1% was achieved thanks to a selective strategy which allowed to improve the geographic and product mix and which led to an increase in profitability. Adjusted EBIT margin improved from 6.1% in 2006 to 7.6% in 2007. The strategy of focusing on high added value projects (e.g. LSOH/Afumex fire-resistant cables) produced positive results throughout the year, also thanks to a sustained demand in Europe (especially France, Spain, UK, and Italy), South America and Canada, where Prysmian further strengthened its market position. In the United States the slowdown of the construction industry didn't affect Prysmian significantly, thanks to its limited exposure to this sector.

Industrial

In Industrial cables, organic sales growth was 21.1%, and sales reached €795 million. The strong performance was driven by the demand of cables for the OGP industry, which grew across all the regions, as well as cables for the renewable energy industry, in particular in Spain, Germany, and China. In Brazil, volumes of “Umbilical” cables for the petrochemical industry increased significantly thanks to a new dedicated plant become fully operative in 2007, while in China sales growth was driven by the investment to upgrade the production units. In the other segments, Prysmian achieved a significant sales growth in cables for the mining industry (mainly in Australia); we also obtained large orders from the shipbuilding industry, where Prysmian will provide cables for GENESIS, the world’s biggest cruising ship, and from the railway industry, where it will supply Alstom with cables for the world-fastest train. Profitability increased significantly, and adjusted EBIT margin rose to 9.0% from  5.3% of 2006.

Telecom Cables & Systems

Sales to third parties in Telecom Cables & Systems posted an organic growth of 6.3% and reached €535 million. In 2007 Adjusted EBIT increased to €44 million (+22.6%). Adjusted EBIT margin rose from 6.6% in 2006 to 7.9%.

Sales in optical cables were driven by growing demand in Northern Europe, where several emerging players realized important Fibre to the Home (FTTH) projects. Sales trend was also positive across Asia, and in particular in India. These results allowed the Group to limit the negative effects coming from the US demand slowdown.

Among the new technologies and products introduced to the market in 2007, the CasaLight TM optical fibre and the VertiCasa TM cabling system brilliantly satisfied market demand, allaying concerns that the installation of the final metres of fibre in existing buildings could require significant further investment.

Sales rose in the copper cables business too, with good volumes in Turkey, Italy and Romania, as well as in South America, which achieved a solid performance in both the domestic market and  in exports to North and Central America.

SALES AND RESULTS BY GEOGRAPHIC AREA

In EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Prysmian achieved 14.1% organic growth in 2007, and all business segments gave a positive contribution. EMEA accounted for 70.0% of total sales in 2007.

In North America, at constant metals prices and net of the Neptune submarine project that affected 2006, 2007 sales were substantially stable. In the business of optical cables, some large customers reduced the level of investments. North America accounted for 12.0% of total sales in 2007.   

In Central and South America, sales recorded an organic growth of 18.5% in 2007, with a significant acceleration during the second half of the year, in particular thanks to the strong demand for cables in the oil industry. Sales in Central and South America represented 9.0% of total 2007 sales.

In Asia and Oceania, the strong demand for industrial and telecommunication cables has been only partially offset by the decrease in demand from utilities companies in Australia. Organic sales growth was 5.6%. The region accounted for 9.0% of total 2007 sales.

Further resolutions by the Board of Directors

Approval of share buy-back plan

The Board of Directors of Prysmian S.p.A. passed a resolution to propose to the next shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for 14 April 2008 on first call and 15 April on second call, the approval of a share buy-back plan. The plan calls for the buy-back of up to 18,000,000 ordinary shares, corresponding to 10% of the current share capital, to be executed in one or more buy-backs. The buy-backs may be executed up to the amount of available reserves as recognised in the last annual report regularly approved. The term of the plan is 18 months effective from the date of the shareholders’ meeting approval.

The objective of the plan is the efficient management of the Company’s capital and to give the possibility to build a stock of own-shares that could be also used in any eventual extraordinary transactions and for any share-based incentive plan reserved to Prysmian Group employees, and in any case for all the reasons allowed by the laws in force.

The share buy-back can take place in the market in compliance with applicable laws and regulations:

(i)            at a minimum price 10% lower than the  closing price  on the previous trading day
(ii)           at a maximum price 10% higher than the  closing price  on the previous trading day

To date, the Company has no treasury shares.

Directors independence 

Based on statements made by the Directors, the Board of Directors announces that, as per the Self-Regulatory Code for listed companies, it has carried out the appropriate checks on independence requirements, observing that directors Wesley Clark, Giulio Del Ninno, Francesco Paolo Mattioli, and Udo Günter Werner Stark continue to satisfy these requirements.

Prysmian Cavi e Sistemi Energia S.r.l. patent portfolio demerger

The Board of Directors of Prysmian S.p.A. has approved the plan for the partial demerger of the patent rights of the wholly-owned subsidiary Prysmian Cavi e Sistemi Energia S.r.l. in favour of Prysmian S.p.A. The objective of the demerger is to increase the value of the patent portfolio, concentrating its management in the parent company. Prysmian Cavi e Sistemi Energia S.r.l. is the Prysmian Group company that directly and/or indirectly holds all equity investments in companies operating in the “energy cables & systems” business. Since Prysmian S.p.A. is the sole shareholder in Prysmian Cavi e Sistemi Energia S.r.l., the beneficiary will issue no new shares as a result of the planned split, nor will its share capital undergo any change. As a result, no share exchange ratio is called for. Likewise, no cash compensation is called for. The demerger has no negative consequences for and does not compromise the interests of shareholders, creditors, and third parties. Documentation on the planned demerger will be available at the registered offices of Prysmian S.p.A., pursuant to law. The planned demerger is subject to the approval in April of the relevant boards of the respective companies involved, and the signing of the demerger deed is scheduled within July. The split transaction is not subject to suspension or termination conditions, and no restructuring or reorganisation is planned as a result of the demerger.

The Annual Report as of 31 December 2007 will be filed at the Company's registered offices at Viale Sarca 222, Milan, and with Borsa Italiana S.p.A. in compliance with relevant regulations. It will also be available on the corporate website at www.prysmian. com.

This document may contain forward-looking statements concerning future events and the operating and financial results of Prysmian Group. These statements by nature contain elements of risk and uncertainty which depend on the occurrence of future events and developments. Actual results may vary, even significantly, from those projected as a result of multiple factors.

Mr. Pier Francesco Facchini, manager responsible for preparing the Company's financial reports, hereby declares, pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article 154-bis of the Consolidated Law on Finance, that the accounting information contained in this press release corresponds to the document results, books and accounting records.

The Board of Directors resolved to call the next Shareholders Meeting on April 14th (first call) or eventually on April 15th (second call).

[1] EBITDA is the Profit/(Loss) for the period, including depreciation and amortisation, finance income and costs, the share of
income attributable to associated companies, other company dividends and taxes. For further information, please see the table in Annex B,
which provides the reconciliation statements between Profit/(Loss) for the period, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA.

[2] We define adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA before charges and income that, according to the Group's management, do not have a recurring
nature and are reported in the table in Annex B.

[3] DIVIDEND PER SHARE calculated on the number of shares outstanding at the date of this press release.

[4] The consolidated financial statements and Parent Company financial statements are currently being audited.

[5]  We define Adjusted EBIT as adjusted EBIT before charges and income that, according to the Group’s management, do not have recurring nature.

[6] We define Net Financial Position to third parties as the Net Financial Position before additional charges on financing and shareholders’ loan.

 

From Murder To Money-Laundering - GB Groups Technology Helps Make The UK A Safe Place To Live

An innovative on-line people tracing tool from GB Group, a specialist provider of identity information, is helping bring criminals to justice by enabling police forces to trace criminal suspects to their known address. 

GB’s Accelerator IQ is helping reducing the burden on police administrative resources by many hundreds of man-hours by focusing resources to locate individuals quickly. Already in use by the Metropolitan Police and Suffolk Police forces, its most recent high profile use was in tracking Steve Wright, recently convicted of the murder of five Ipswich women.

GB Accelerator IQ is a specialist tool that is used specifically by police and Government agencies for the prevention and detection of crime. It works by cross referencing the broadest and most current spectrum of UK population databases to confirm the last known or current address of a suspect

Richard Law, Chief Executive at GB Group, said: “We support the police and Government with leading edge technology to save valuable resources and to speed up the time taken to conclude an investigation. In many cases, time is of the essence and by quickly identifying suspects, such as Steven Wright, and being able to trace them to a current address, we can provide intelligence to the investigating team that would previously have taken thousands of man-hours to complete.

“We firmly believe that GB Accelerator IQ is making the UK a safer place to live by helping the security services to identify and profile suspects quickly.  At a time when citizens in the Ipswich area felt particularly at risk, we were pleased to support Suffolk Police in helping secure a firm conviction. We have since extended the use of our identity technology to many other Police Forces and Government Agencies. 

Detective Inspector Phil Boswell from Suffolk Police said: "GB Accelerator IQ has saved us hundreds of hours which would otherwise have been spent manually searching through intelligence provided by the community.  Accurate intelligence gathering and address verification is key in an investigation of any size, but on the scale we experienced here it made officer time far more efficient and made a vital difference.

“We have always been keen to employ the latest technology in an investigation and this case has proved why.”

Richard Law added:  “Our ability to locate and verify people for the prevention of criminal activity underpins our position as the market leader in online identity verification solutions. Our technology is equally used within the private sector to combat money laundering and fraud – activity that is often used to fund organised crime syndicates or terrorist groups – groups who are particularly adept at covering their tracks.”

Domestic violence videos ahead of International Women’s Day to kick-start human rights debate on ‘Speaker’s Corner Online’
 
Amnesty International is to put its hard-hitting domestic violence videos on the online video debate site Friction.tv (www.Friction.tv).

Appearing on the newly-launched “Amnesty” channel at www.friction.tv/amnestyinternational in time for International Women’s Day on 8 March, they will feature Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart speaking about domestic violence in his family background, and Patrick and TV star Joanna Lumley doing voice-overs for an innovative “talking knuckles” domestic violence animation film. Other Amnesty-content videos are set to follow.

Amnesty International, the world’s biggest human rights organisation - with a quarter of million supporters in the UK, and 2.2 million worldwide - has already launched numerous campaigns and human rights initiatives through online social media.

In October it launched “Unsubscribe” (www.unsubscribe-me.org), an online campaign to unite and activate public opinion against terrorism and against human rights abuses in the “war on terror”.

Set up a year ago, Friction.tv has been described as “Speakers Corner Online”, enabling anyone to debate issues without censorship or editing. The site allows users to upload their own “viewpoint” videos as well as respond to those already on the site. Debates range from current affairs, sport and gossip.

Amnesty International UK Web and New Media Manager Sara Ashton said:

“Friction.tv is exactly the sort of place that Amnesty wants to be these days.

"It's where people are spending their time so that's where we want to be, engaging with them and talking about human rights. Debate is at the heart of what we do, and with the increasing availability of broadband, video is a great way for us to reach new audiences and inspire them to get involved in human rights."

In the Amnesty International-Friction.tv link-up, video content supplied by the human rights organisation will appear on a specific branded channel for distribution to Friction.tv’s 200,000-strong online audience.

Friction.tv. Chief Executive Officer Omer Shaikh said: We are delighted to provide Amnesty International with a dedicated channel on Friction.tv.  The first step in causing any positive change in society is to talk about the issues at hand, raise awareness of them and so throw them open for debate.  Social Media is proving to be an increasingly powerful force in changing people’s attitudes and making them stand up for what they believe in.  Amnesty International on Friction.tv is a perfect example of this.

“The new Amnesty International channel on Friction.tv will give our growing community of users the opportunity to debate human rights in an informed, compelling and entertaining way. This is a great link-up and one we’re proud of.”

London – 7th March 2008- Attenda Limited, the Always On Managed Services company, today announced that it has been awarded the VMware EMEA Hosting Partner of the Year Award.

The award was presented at the Partners Awards ceremony at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, as part of VMworld Europe 2008, which was attended by more than 4,500 IT professionals from around Europe to experience Europe’s largest virtualisation industry event.

The award is a mark of Attenda’s success as a leading VMware Service Provider, bringing to market new virtual infrastructure hosting and managed services offerings.

Commenting on the Award, Steve Jackson, Director, EMEA Strategic Partners, VMware, said “VMware is proud to honour Attenda with this well deserved accolade. As one of our primary EMEA Service Provider Partners, Attenda is embracing VMware ‘s datacenter virtualization capabilities in VMware Infrastructure 3 to create innovative and powerful on-demand computing services for its clients.”   

Attenda is utilising VMware technology to power its Real Time Infrastructure, with the benefits of faster provisioning, higher availability and lower cost than would be possible with conventional hardware hosting, whilst also helping the environment by consuming less power and data centre space.

“Our adoption of VMware in late 2006 transformed our business.  By leveraging the functionality of VMware, we have been able to improve the agility and availability of our clients applications, whilst providing a robust DR platform,” comments Mark Fowle, CEO, Attenda Limited.

According to industry analysts, utility computing is becoming a key component of the hosted services industry and Attenda is providing a broad range of utility computing solutions, from high end managed services to individual web hosting solutions.

Fowle continues, "This award from VMware and our other certifications and industry awards, is a great testament to the investments we continue to make in our shared operations platform Attenda M.O. Time and time again, it proves to differentiate Attenda and deliver a quality of service and cost point unmatched in the managed services industry."

Immediacy, part of the Mediasurface group, Europe’s leading content management solution provider, announce the launch of the new website for Automotive car manufacturer Skoda. 

06 March 2008. Immediacy, one of the leading UK content management solution providers (part of the Mediasurface group (UK, AIM: MSR)) has announced the launch of newly designed website for Skoda. Fun and simple to navigate, www.skoda.co.uk incorporates unique and innovative features such as flipcharts and flash applications to give viewers even more information. The new website was built for ease of use and simplicity on Immediacy Web Content Management suite (WCMs) 6.0 and designed by digital communications agency, Reading Room. 

At the heart of Škoda’s marketing plans, the new website is designed to encourage users to “experience the happiness of Škoda on-line”, embodying the new branding ‘the manufacture of happy drivers’. Wanting to keep the website clean, fun and simple to use, Škoda needed a solution that would be easy to manage but also have the scalability to run an additional 130 network of UK retailer’s microsites.

Škoda chose Immediacy Web Content Management suite (WCMs) 6.0.  Selected for its plug and play technology and ease of use, Immediacy WCMs 6.0 enables non-technical staff including Škoda’s retailer car salesman to edit and maintain content on their own web pages. Employing Immediacy WCMs 6.0 to integrate depth of functionality into the new website means visitors can benefit from new designed flash and XML technology to help them book test drives, order brochures and use online new car configurator.
 
The use of fun tools, such as a car conveyor belt on the home page, moves the new Škoda website away from the archetypal, masculine sleekness of other automotive brands. Instead www.skoda.co.uk aims to attract a younger audience through the creation of a ‘happy’ user experience which is reflected by the use of Immediacy Web Content Management suite (WCMs) 6.0 to deliver a site with a simple underlying structure, that serves up to date, accurate information and follows straight-forward navigation terms.

Sarah Chapman, (TITLE) Škoda, said: “We are absolutely delighted with our new website. Immediacy WCMs 6.0 was the right choice to run our website and UK retailer microsites and has done a fabulous job.”

Andy Peart, Chief Marketing Officer for Mediasurface adds: “Škoda has an amazing new, fun website that fully reflects their new branding. The project has been perfectly executed by Reading Room and is a success for everyone involved.”

•   Demand for Transduco Pavilion at Sibos 2008 unaffected by tough economic climate

London and Frankfurt, 6th March, 2008 – Transduco (www.transduco.com), the specialist provider of cross-border business development services for companies operating across the English, French and German speaking financial services technology sectors announced that Datamation and AnaSys have become the first exhibitors to sign up for the Transduco Pavilion at Sibos 2008 in Vienna.  Despite the tough economic climate, interest in the first Transduco Pavilion at Sibos has been strong with potential suppliers attracted by Transduco’s unique business model for industry events.

Sibos is the world’s premier financial services exhibition.  It is the highlight of the year for many companies looking to raise profile, generate leads and find new business partners.   The location for Sibos moves to a new continent each year.  This brings fresh language and cultural barriers to overcome as well as putting pressure on resources.  The Transduco Pavilion offers a cost effective method of gaining access to the German speaking market.  Previous Transduco Pavilion clients include SWIFT, the EBA Group, GoldenSource, CB.net, Trace Financial, ProfitStars, City Networks and Datamation.

Sotiris Nossis, Founder and Managing Director of payment solution specialists, Datamation said, “By joining the community stand on the Transduco Pavilion we again combine the best of both worlds:  a place at a key industry events and a low cost, low resource method of having a highly effective presence.  Transduco’s professional services ensure the events we attend run smoothly.  I am looking forward to working with the Transduco team to make Sibos a huge success.”

Stefan Mies, Founder and Managing Director of Transduco comments, “For many companies the investment in attending Sibos will take a significant portion of their marketing budget.  Transduco are experts in helping exhibitors get the maximum value from each event.  The unique services that we offer ensure our clients can focus on achieving their business objectives safe in the knowledge that organization and logistics have been taken care of.”

Elisabeth Lehmann, Founder and CEO of AnaSys said, “The Transduco Pavilion provides AnaSys with the ideal platform to cost-effectively promote our SWIFT services at Sibos.  We were attracted by Transduco’s strong track record in helping companies secure maximum value from their investment in exhibitions.”

The Transduco Pavilion is a shared community stand that provides an innovative and affordable bridge to the German speaking market.  Suppliers have full local language support from Transduco.  The Transduco Pavilion frees up time and resource that can be better spent on value added sales and marketing activities.  Exhibitors get a high quality platform on a shared stand at a fraction of the cost and resource overheads associated with going it alone.

Mies concludes, “Early interest in the Transduco Pavilion at Sibos has exceeded our expectations and space is selling fast.  We look forward to working with Datamation and AnaSys and the members of the Transduco Pavilion community to ensure Sibos 2008 delivers a measurable return on investment.  We are also experiencing strong interest in the Transduco Pavilions that will be run at FundForum in Barcelona, July 2008 and the European Banking and Insurance Fair in Frankfurt, November 2008.”

Skywire Software Launches Enhanced Version of Acclaimed Documaker Customer Communication Management (CCM) Suite

Over 90 new enhancements drive improved business efficiency and customer communications for banking, finance and utility companies

Skywire Software, a leading global provider of software and services to key vertical industries, has launched Documaker 11.3, the newest version of the leading enterprise customer communications management (CCM) suite. The latest release of Documaker is designed to put even more power in the hands of business users, featuring more than 90 customer- and market-driven enhancements designed to help businesses to increase efficiency, accelerate response times and improve overall customer communication.

Documaker is a dynamic publishing platform used by more than 1,000 customers worldwide to acquire, create, manage and present batch, real-time and interactive customer communications. This can include statements, invoices, bills, and other essential customer communications. The Documaker suite helps companies manage customer communications enterprise-wide — including document production, correspondence, Web presentment and cross-selling campaigns — across all locations and lines of business. These features help to streamline customer communications across the board, whilst also ensuring fast response times and flexibility – a valuable advantage for any business.

“Skywire Software is committed to continuously innovating and investing in our CCM offerings,” said Wendy Gibson, chief marketing officer at Skywire Software. “We have worked with our Client Advisory Council to ensure that Documaker 11.3 reflects the latest technology trends and meets their evolving business needs for improved customer communications.”

Tested and deployed by Fortune 500 companies, this latest version empowers business users to design, create and change documents more quickly and easily than ever before. Documaker 11.3 provides: 

•   Structured and interactive publishing for batch or real-time, on-demand documents such correspondence, billing reminders and renewal letters
 
•   Expanded conversion capability, helping companies maintain the intelligence and integrity of their data during legacy system migrations
•   Support for the widest variety of formats, platforms, databases, integration methods and print streams in the industry
•   Improved ease of application development
•   Industry-leading support for high-volume output and enterprise-wide document output management

A roles-based workspace and enhanced toolbar in Documaker 11.3, featuring the look and feel of Microsoft Office 2007, further enhance usability. Other new features include:

•   Enhanced styles, tables and templates
•   Advanced charting and graphics wizard
•   Flesch scoring with full readability statistics
•   Ability to import or attach multi-page PDFs as bitmaps
•   2D Datamatrix barcode support
•   Signature placeholders in PDFs for use with 3rd-party PDF e-signature solutions
•   Enhanced reporting, including library and deployment validation reports, trigger rule usage reports, and variable field analysis reports
•   Ability to rollback a promotion

Many of the new features include “wizard” options to accelerate learning and provide a more immediate impact. This agility and flexibility lets companies respond more quickly to changing business requirements and improves speed-to-market. 

Skywire Software was recently named a leading provider of enterprise document automation solutions by advisory and research firm Celent LLC. In Celent’s report, Document Automation Solution Vendors for Insurers 2007, Documaker was shown to have the largest install user base of any product in the industry, with more than 1,000 insurance and financial services customers. Skywire Software led or scored highly in all four categories examined in Celent’s “ABCD” requirements: Advanced technology and technical flexibility, Breadth of functionality, Customer base, and Depth of client services. 

“Documaker is the most widely-used document automation tool in the industry for a reason: it has a long history, a complete set of functionality, a stable product, and supports almost any infrastructure,” wrote the report’s author, Celent senior analyst Jeff Goldberg. “Insurers should rest assured that this is a modern system that will fit into their technology roadmaps.”

Documaker 11.3 is open by design, built for integration into today’s modern SOA architectures, and integrates easily with Web services. Skywire Software recently achieved IBM SOA Specialty partner status, meaning Documaker is certified to integrate with IBM’s software and strategy for SOA. Documaker also has achieved “SAP® Certified Integration” status.