90% of Enterprise Businesses Benefiting from Virtual Collaboration, says Genesys Conferencing Survey

Growing use of multimedia collaboration tools companywide - ability to replace face-to-face meetings easily and effectively is key to increased usage – greater visibility of cost and environmental savings needed   

Croydon, UK, 19 June 2008: In the UK, an overwhelming nine out of ten large companies are using some form of virtual collaboration solution to enhance the quality of their communications, both within and beyond the business.  And, of these, nearly two thirds have incorporated an element of video and/or web collaboration, in addition to their established audio conferencing capability. 

So finds a survey of UK manufacturing and service businesses undertaken by Vanson Bourne on behalf of leading unified collaboration and communications services provider, Genesys Conferencing. 

Key findings

• 90% of businesses employing 1,000+ staff have adopted a conferencing/collaboration tool as part of their communications strategy.  For businesses with 3,000+ staff this rises to 96%.

•  74% of these use integrated multimedia conferencing tools to some degree, with only 26% exclusively using audio conferencing solutions.  This is especially strong in manufacturing businesses, with 81% of respondents using multimedia tools.

• Companies are also using virtual collaboration tools more frequently.  Nearly one third (29%) of respondent businesses are using virtual conferencing on a daily basis, with a further 45% every week.  Financial services businesses lead the field here, with 83% using conferencing tools weekly or more frequently.

• 30% of respondents confirmed they would use their conferencing solution more frequently, if it could more effectively replace face-to-face meetings, followed by 25% who pointed to the need for peer groups to use it more often.  The ability to see tangible evidence of cost savings and if it were easier to use were also seen as significant barriers to greater usage, by 22% and 14% respectively, with only 5% expressing an environmental concern in wanting to see tangible evidence of reduced carbon emissions.

• The above priorities were exactly mirrored by those businesses who have yet to implement a virtual collaboration solution, but who plan to within the foreseeable future.

Enterprise-wide use, enterprise-wide benefits

“Companies have long recognised the value of collaboration tools,” says Jerona Noonan, sales director, Genesys Conferencing, “yet historically, for many businesses usage was restricted to audio conferencing and a relatively small number of ‘power users’.

“Yet those businesses with easy-to-implement and easy-to-use multimedia tools such as Genesys Meeting Center typically achieve greater benefits - in terms of operational cost savings, lower carbon emissions and improved work/life balance for their employees - as a result of much higher take-up by staff across the whole enterprise.”         

Troux Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant in Leading Industry Analyst Firm’s Enterprise Architecture Tools Magic Quadrant

Evaluation based on completeness of vision and ability to execute

AUSTIN, Texas – June 19, 2008 – Troux Technologies, the leading provider of Strategic IT Planning software, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the leaders quadrant in the ‘Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools (1)’ report.

Access the Gartner report, compliments of Troux: http://www.troux.com/company/events/special/200805_gartner.asp

“We believe our Magic Quadrant position reflects a maturing market that understands how Strategic IT Planning unlocks the power of Enterprise Architecture and enables IT to keep pace with business change while reducing operational risk,” said David Hood, CEO of Troux Technologies.  “Troux’s demonstration of thought-leadership in Strategic IT Planning, Enterprise IT Standards and Optimization continues to drive record-breaking sales worldwide.”

To be included in this Magic Quadrant, “a vendor must have a product (or integrated set of products) that meet the minimum requirements for an EA tool described previously (2). All vendors were required to demonstrate that they are being used in production to support EA work in at least 50 organizations, and user references were checked.  Additionally, when the list of vendors was finalized on 29 November 2007, the vendor must have derived at least $2 million in license and maintenance revenue during the previous reporting year from products that are used for enterprise architecture or have exhibited an innovative approach to addressing the market’s needs.”

According to the report “As organizations grapple with the need to understand and relate multiple aspects of their enterprise architecture (EA), the EA tool market continues to attract considerable interest and benefit from enhanced functionality.”

13th May 2008 – Telephonetics PLC, the UK-based automated telephony speech solutions group held their Annual General Meeting on the 24th April 2008.

At the AGM all resolutions were agreed by shareholders. In addition, Michael Neville, Chairman of Telephonetics, was confident about the positive future outlook for the group. He stated "Telephonetics has made a successful start to this year, with trading in line with expectations and good inroads made in our business development. This has come through new product lines and gaining further traction in our core markets.”

He continued "Encouragingly, we are seeing a healthy pipeline of new business, with the continued successful roll out of our hospital results service and Remind+, our automated notification solution. This year new contract wins have included a dual-sited resilient ContactPortal® solution at Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the purchase of our SEMAP+ platform by Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospital Trust, with their first application being Result. With the increased number of clients and success in cross-selling, service and maintenance revenues have increased by approximately 17% year on year. Over the course of the year, we will continue to look at breaking into new markets and growing our customer base on all sides of the business.

Internally we are continuing to invest and develop for the future, with the management-training programme running at full speed and the first phase of our new CRM deployment now live.”

Michael concluded “We remain confident in the outlook for the sector and are now gaining international recognition for our technology and services."

Brings on Industry Veterans to Expand Product and Technology Vision and Expand Aggressively into Europe

Mountain View CA, 22 April 2008: Bubble Motion, the pioneer and global leader for ‘voice SMS’, today announced significant new additions to the executive management team. Joining Bubble Motion’s management team are TS Ramakrishnan as Chief Technology Officer, Paul Hedman as Vice President of EMEA, Chris Dunn as Chief Financial Officer, and Rick Osterloh as Advisor to the Bubble Motion executive team.

These new additions will help the company expand its product and technology vision as the global leader for ‘voice SMS’, and will provide a strong entrance for the Company into the European market. 

“Bringing in these extremely talented and very successful veterans is an indication of Bubble Motion’s momentum, and points towards immense growth opportunities for the company in 2008 and beyond,” said Thomas Clayton, Bubble Motion CEO.  “We’re delighted to have top-notch additions like TS, Paul, Chris, and Rick on board.”

“TS’ product and technical vision will be a tremendous boost for Bubble Motion,” said Gaurav Garg, Partner at Sequoia Capital.  “To attract someone as talented and as successful as TS is really a credit to the great momentum of the company.”   

TS Ramakrishnan, a technology industry visionary, joins Bubble Motion as CTO.  TS brings a wealth of experience and positive early-stage results with viral messaging and social networking companies, and will play a key role in Bubble Motion’s strategic and technical direction.  TS most recently served as VP of Engineering at AdMob, the leading mobile advertising marketplace. Prior to AdMob, TS worked as VP of Engineering for Facebook, where he oversaw the social networking site’s architecture, led Facebook’s product engineering team, built the site out beyond its primarily college-age user community and built the site’s first mobile version.  Prior to Facebook, TS served as Head of Partner Technologies for Skype. 

TS also managed Yahoo! Messenger for over seven years from its initial development and launch, through the product’s release to over twenty countries.  He also pioneered the development and deployment of Yahoo!’s Mobile Messaging product. 

"I am thrilled to join Bubble Motion as we start to rapidly expand the product and business,” said Ramakrishnan.  “The company’s platform is a very exciting challenge, and the service is ripe for viral usage and extremely high growth rates. The mobile voice platform has the potential to become another core communication medium for users worldwide.” 

Paul Hedman, a prominent and experienced mobile industry veteran, joins Bubble Motion as Vice President, EMEA.  Paul brings over 25 years of international sales, business development, and executive management experience in the IT and telecom industry.  Previously, Paul served as Chief Operating Officer for Seven Networks, a leading enterprise mobility company.  At Seven, Paul was responsible for all operations globally, with a focus on sales and business development activities in EMEA and APAC, where he was responsible for 120+ operator partnership across 60+ countries.

Paul joined Seven as part of Seven's acquisition of Smartner, an enterprise mobile email provider where Paul served as CEO.  As CEO, Paul was responsible for building the company's organizational structure, recruiting and establishing the management team and leading the company's overall strategic direction. At Smartner, Paul was responsible for generating 115+ operator partnerships and all major handheld manufacturer partnerships, and leading Smartner to be one of the leading providers of mobile email.

Prior to Smartner, Paul was Managing Director of Telia Electronic Commerce in Sweden, a subsidiary of TeliaSonera. In addition, Paul held various strategic executive positions at IBM, where he spent 17 years of his career.  Paul is currently a Board Member of Momail, a consumer email software company.

“Paul is a very well respected and proven mobile industry veteran, and knows the messaging space as well as anyone in Europe,” said Clayton.  “He has the perfect set of contacts and experience to quickly build out our European presence.”

Chris Dunn joins Bubble Motion as Chief Financial Officer.  Most recently, Chris served as CFO for Covad Communications, which owns and operates the largest national broadband network in the United States. Chris led a number of capital restructuring and fundraising transactions while working for Covad, and also headed a number of company-wide operational efficiency initiatives.

During his tenure at Covad, Chris led strategic and financial negotiations with numerous carriers including AT&T and Verizon. Previously, Chris helped lead Santa Cruz Networks and Global Netoptex, two venture-backed communications companies as both CFO and COO.

Rick Osterloh joins as an Advisor to the Bubble Motion executive team, and will be a valuable advisor for the product and marketing strategy of the Company.  Rick is the General Manager of Google Android Products at Motorola.  Prior to Motorola’s acquisition of Good Technology, Rick served as the Vice President of Marketing & Product Management at Good. Rick has also worked as a consultant for venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and as a Product Manager for Amazon.

Leading Industry Programme Benefits Partners with Greater Margins and Lower Costs

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC/Ingres Partner Summit — 8th April, 2008 — Ingres Corporation, a leading provider of open source database management software and support services, today announced the launch of the Ingres Partner Programme to empower and showcase partners achieving success using the open source business model.  The Ingres Partner Programme is designed to help partners from the very beginning by increasing margins, reducing costs and eliminating up-front licenses to make projects more affordable and give systems integrators a bigger share of the total solution.

Partners that join the Ingres Partner Programme will be able to market and deliver solutions in one of the industry’s high-growth areas. Within the total database market, Gartner, Inc. expects revenue from open source databases to grow at a 40 percent compound annual growth rate from $274 million in 2008 to $753 million in 2011. The open source business model helps partners enjoy a predictable revenue stream of support subscriptions. In addition, Ingres is working with several partners in delivering software appliances, such as the Ingres Icebreaker BI appliance with JasperSoft. The appliance business model is designed to accelerate the delivery of value to customers and therefore, faster realisation of increased revenue.

“Partners are essential to Ingres and we are committed to their success,” said Rukash Kumar, vice president of the global Partner Programme at Ingres. “Organisations that can deploy open source solutions from Ingres, or leverage Ingres with complementary products or services, can access significant new revenue streams. Ingres has thousands of enterprise customers and 25-plus years of experience delivering enterprise databases. The company is well positioned to supply technology, service, support and education to partners looking to build enterprise-class solutions that drive maximum value for their customers.”

The Ingres Partner Programme is an integral component of the business strategy at Ingres. Ingres focuses on core product development to create significant related opportunities for Ingres partners in business consulting, project delivery, integrationand complementary products. The Ingres Partner Programme provides a structured way for Ingres partners to access these opportunities. In addition, the Ingres Partner Programme builds directly on the substantial experience Ingres has of working with and supporting all partners. The partner programme is designed to cater to independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers and software integration firms at the following levels:

• Bronze – the Bronze partnership provides the framework for Ingres and the partner to establish and promote a joint value proposition and is supported via the Ingres website, partner extranet and an Ingres test and development facility.

• Silver –partners at the Silver level benefit from a high degree of collaborative sales, marketing, R&Dand project support. Silver partners delivering Ingres projects receive full project delivery support from Ingres.

• Gold – as a Gold level partner, participants achieve the maximum opportunity and support for building strategic global revenue streams and additional margin opportunity, in return for a significant strategic commitment to Ingres and joint business development goals. As the programme evolves, Gold partners will have the opportunity to gain accreditation. This will provide an additional programme of structured training and certification to enable partners to be promoted on the basis of their exceptionally strong Ingres expertise.

Partner Achieving Success With Ingres

Atos Origin
“We are a longtime partner of Ingres and really recognise the benefits the Ingres Partner Programme brings,” said Heiko Schwidrogitz, sales director industry, Atos Origin Germany and Central Europe. “The programme builds directly on the substantial experience Ingres has of working with and supporting all partners. Ingres speaks directly to our business needs by creating significant business opportunities as well leveraging the open source model for reduced total cost of ownership and greater margins.”

Capita Software Services
“At the centre of many Capita Software Services solutions is the Ingres database and a 10-plus year business relationship that was given yet more impetus in late 2005 by the emergence of Ingres as an independent company.  This latest partner initiative from Ingres gives us further confidence in our ability to deliver on our promises to our customers,” said Nick Breeds, chief architect, public sector software, at Capita Software Services.  “Ingres is a strategic element of our offering and we see the latest iteration of the partner programme as yet more evidence of their desire to help partners like us provide customers with market-leading solutions and service.  The Partner Summit is ideal to launch the new programme.”

ecl ip’s
“With its strong competency in data management, ecl ip’s has formed a dynamic partnership with Ingres, both in France and globally,” said Hervé Leclerc, head of ecl ip’s software and services for the Alter Way Group. “Our participation at the Ingres Partner Summit gives us a platform not only to share and exchange knowledge and experience, but to showcase the various community projects we have carried out with different partners of Ingres.”

JasperSoft
“JasperSoft is pleased to be an Ingres Gold partner,” said Jose Morales, vice president of business development at JasperSoft. “Ingres offers a world-class support organisation, open source leadership, corporate financial strength and global sales and marketing, which all attracted JasperSoft to commit as a strategic partner.  Ingres has been a great partner for JasperSoft – our successful collaboration with Ingres on the IceBreaker BI Appliance has already set the foundation for new product innovation and continued momentum in the market.”

Rational Commerce
“We have been a long-time Ingres partner and to see the Ingres partner programme develop further is excellent news for our customers, as well as for us,” said Roy Hann, technical director at Rational Commerce.  “Ingres has been opening up new opportunities for our business since we joined the programme, through brand promotion, increased brand awareness and improved success in getting onto procurement short-lists. Increasing the scope and capability of the programme makes sense now that Ingres has a broader product portfolio.”

 Steria
“Steria’s credo is to follow a pragmatic, innovative and durable approach of technology with open source. Our goal is to provide our customers with an optimal solution for their process that meets all constraints, technically and economically and Ingres is the perfect fit,” said Francois Bessaguet, head of open source offerings at Steria. “Ingres is concerned and proactive with their partners, which helps us in our approach to create new possibilities and to be innovative in that scope for our customers.”

To apply to join the Ingres Partner Programme, please complete the online application form at www.ingres.com/partners.

Attenda to host new SAP system for Smythson
 
London – 8th April 2008 - Attenda Limited, the Always On Managed Services Company, today announced that it has signed a new five year contract with Smythson to host and manage their new SAP infrastructure.

Established in 1887 and the proud holder of three Royal Warrants, Smythson is internationally renowned for its elegant range of leather goods, travel and writing accessories and bespoke stationery. Exquisite quality, timeless design and traditional British craftsmanship have made Smythson the choice of British and European royal families and a number of international celebrities, as well as leaders in the arts, business and politics. Smythson recently opened their second US store in Beverly Hills.

Commenting on the contract with Attenda, Martin Wildsmith, commercial director, Smythson says, “We selected to work in partnership with Attenda because of their credentials, their track record and their flexibility.” Wildsmith continues, “They have the unique capability to assist us through managing this change in our strategic IT systems, and to extend the depth and breadth of our limited internal SAP resource.” 

Attenda is providing a fully managed service for the new SAP infrastructure in the initial phase of a major project to review and replace the current IT systems and business processes at Smythson. The service includes taking operational responsibility and management of the SAP system up to and including the SAP Basis layer, in a secure and robust environment. The solution includes the full extent of back office applications from Financials, ERP, warehousing and procurement through to sales, telesales and CRM.

Recently re-accredited as SAP Hosting Partner, Attenda has proven expertise in the operational management of SAP and a continued investment in delivering highly available and secure SAP managed services. Attenda has built a team of highly skilled, highly motivated and fully certified engineers providing 24 x 7 operational support to its clients. Attenda’s partnership with SAP provides clients with access to the very latest SAP NetWeaver® platform and new evolving enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) and business process technologies, plus the availability of an extended network of SAP technical specialists and business consultants.

- ends –

TELUS chooses Anam to deliver enhanced messaging control

First North American carrier to implement Smart Services Messaging Control solution

CTIA Las Vegas NV, April 2 2008 l Anam, a leading provider of revenue generating SMS applications, announced today that TELUS, a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, is the first North American carrier to select SMART Services Messaging Control for enhanced performance of its wireless prepaid text message services.

“Anam’s Smart Services Messaging Control solution will allow TELUS to offer an enhanced services experience to its customers,” said Zouheir Mansourati, vice-president Technology Strategy at TELUS. “Anam has good experience in pioneering SMS applications and is an obvious partner for us to deliver enhanced messaging control. A key factor in TELUS’ decision was that the solution can be easily installed on our existing system.”

Anam has pioneered the use of new revenue generating SMS applications which allow operators to dramatically increase usage and revenues from text messaging. Anam’s Smart Services include SMS Money Transfer, which allows global money transfers to contacts in your address book, and mobile advertising - placing targeted ads inside text messages as they are sent that offer specific deals or offers.

Gerry McKenna, CEO of Anam says, “Top tier mobile operators understand that SMS is a highly important and significant part of their future business. More and more operators are looking to invest in SMS infrastructure and applications and having the trust of an important carrier such as TELUS strengthens Anam’s position as the leading provider of revenue generating SMS applications.”

For further information about Anam’s solutions please visit: www.anam.com

Fidessa presents its tailored solution for Borsa Italiana members
 
Milan and London, 2 April 2008 – Fidessa group plc (LSE:FDSA), the leading provider of trading systems, market data and global connectivity, is today showcasing its European trading solution at an event at Palazzo Mezzanotte, Milan, Italy.

Fidessa has seen high levels of interest in its trading solution from both local Italian and international financial institutions impacted by the forthcoming merger between the LSE and Borsa Italiana. MTA market members migrating to London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) TradElect™ platform can take advantage of Fidessa’s established TradElect connectivity and its proven trading technology.

With over 100 LSE members already using its trading solution, Fidessa is the leading supplier of software for brokers trading on the LSE’s TradElect platform. The first stage of the LSE/Borsa Italiana merger, in which MTA listed stocks will migrate to the TradElect Platform, is expected to be completed later this year.

Fidessa’s trading solution combines member and non-member trading with powerful order management, fully integrated market data and sophisticated pre- and post-trading tools. Provided as a fully hosted and managed service, Fidessa offers direct access to TradElect and other markets for member firms as well as access to non-member markets through a network of 255 brokers offering Care, DMA and Algorithmic trading services for exchanges around the world.

“With our tried, tested and proven trading solution, Fidessa is ideally placed to provide access to the new platform for Borsa Italiana members. The sheer weight of TradElect users we already support speaks volumes for the quality of our offering. We can alleviate the migration pain for the Borsa Italiana market members, providing the flexibility of a fully hosted solution.” comments Simon Barnby, Fidessa’s global marketing communications director.

The Fidessa trading platform currently enables member trading on 92 global markets, including Borsa Italiana, LSE, Euronext, Xetra, SWX/Virt-X, Eurex, LIFFE, CME, SIBE, Saxess, MarkitBOAT, PLUS, Chi-X and DIFX. It also provides non-member trading across global markets via Fidessa’s global connectivity network. The network carries over 95 million messages a month covering DMA, care and algorithmic orders, Indications of Interest and FIX Allocations between around 1,500 buy-sides and 255 brokers across 92 exchanges worldwide.

The Fidessa product suite supports over 22,000 users at around 530 clients around the world, and is trusted by over 85% of global, tier-one equity brokers.

-Ojom release Men In Black: Alien Assault–

Ojom GmbH, a leading creator and global publisher of mobile games, announced today the launch of the mobile game adaptation of the alien-thwarting classic, Men in Black. Packed with intergalactic action lurking around every corner, the classic movie comes to your mobile phone. Are you prepared to give up your identity and put on the last suit you’ll ever wear?

Rumours are spreading across New York that unidentified creatures are causing havoc in the city. Your mission is to head up an investigation to find evidence of the alien invaders. The first lead brings you to the city of New York where alien activity has been rife. So be sure to carry your Neuralizer to ensure there are no civilian witnesses.

Marc Busse, Sales Manager at Ojom GmbH, said: “I’ve always wanted to use a Neuralizer and now I can. With all the action of the hit movie on your mobile phone, you can hunt down aliens and solve crimes along the way. Men in Black – Alien Assault is an exhilarating game packed with power ups, secret levels, freaky weapons and a world threatening alien conspiracy. And this time it’s up to us to save the planet and kick some alien butt.”

Look out for alien artefacts and new weapons - as your investigation unfolds, you will appreciate their very unique features. Improve your final score, earn extra bonus points and unlock secret levels in the Story Mode to blast even more aliens back to wherever they came from.

Men in Black: Alien Assault forms part of a series of games based on Hit Movie Classics. For more information, visit the Ojom website at www.ojom.com.

Fully-Dedicated, Family-Friendly Channel To Broadcast Across 4 More Territories

KidsCo, the joint venture channel owned by leading media companies NBC Universal, DIC Entertainment (DIC) and Corus Entertainment Inc.’s Nelvana Enterprises, goes on air in the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Palau on 20th March 2008.

The announcement follows the securing of carriage deals with various platform operators in Asia, including SingTel’s mio TV in Singapore, the Philippines’ Sky Cable, Palau’s PNCC and Korea’s HanaTV at the end of this month. KidsCo has also signed a deal with the Philippines’ Cable Boss to act as their distributor in that market.  It is anticipated that KidsCo will be available in up to 40 territories – including Europe and Latin America within the next 18 months.  The channel currently broadcasts in Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Russia, Turkey and Poland.

KidsCo, a 24/7 multiplatform channel, will be committed to providing a responsible and entertaining environment for children and families around the world. The unique channel utilises NBC Universal’s state-of-the-art broadcast distribution facility in the U.S. and the company’s international network of affiliates.

KidsCo Managing Director Paul Robinson said: “The launch of KidsCo in Asia is a strategic part of our expansion into all the world’s TV markets and we are delighted to be welcomed into Asia.  KidsCo’s unique positioning and content partner ownership makes us a valuable new channel to platforms and kids.”

Raymund Miranda, NBC Universal’s Managing Director Global Networks Asia Pacific, added: “KidsCo represents a unique opportunity for platforms to continue to address an underserved audience in a region that is one of the youngest in the world. Our partners have recognized this and have embraced KidsCo with great enthusiasm. We’re equally confident that families all over the region will welcome KidsCo into their homes with a lot of excitement.”

KidsCo features renowned animated and live-action television series and feature-length movies from pre-eminent independent animation programme suppliers, DIC and Nelvana. DIC’s programming library features over 3,000 half-hours of top quality series, including;

Inspector Gadget, Strawberry Shortcake, Madeline, Dennis the Menace, Care Bears and more. With more than 3,200 half-hours of kids’ programming, Nelvana Enterprises’ catalogue features international favourites such as Babar, Franklin, The Adventures of Tintin and Rolie Polie Olie.

KidsCo has also acquired programming from other major children’s content suppliers after signing deals with Entertainment Rights and TV-Loonland. KidsCo programming is being localised market-by-market and has been programmed by day-parts to create a strategic line-up targeting segmented audiences.

Financial Director wins award

London, 13th March 2008: WhiteLabelDating.com is celebrating today after a wonderful evening at the Fast Growth Business Awards (FGBA) last night, having been selected as one of the UK’s fastest growing businesses and winning the Financial Director of the Year Award.

The company narrowly missed out on the One to Watch award, an award given to the company with the strongest potential for growth, in what was a hotly contested category won by gocompare.com. WhiteLabelDating.com’s Financial Director Jennifer Raines won the Financial Director of the Year category for her outstanding contribution to the company’s extraordinary growth.

The FGBAs, organised by the UK’s leading entrepreneurial magazine Growing Business, celebrate the very best of the UK’s most successful businesses. The ceremony took place at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square.

The 15 categories were judged by a panel consisting of some of the biggest names in business including Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Peter Jones and Charles Tyrwhit founder Nick Wheeler.

Ross Williams, Chairman of WhiteLabelDating.com, said: “We are extremely proud to have been short-listed by this year’s Fast Growth Business Awards. It is wonderful that our team’s hard work is being recognised and rewarded. We are extremely proud of Jennifer’s much deserved achievement. She has made an outstanding contribution to the team. It was a lovely evening and we congratulate gocompare.com and look forward to competing again next year.”

3ple-Media Survey Shows Positive Change in Attitudes to Mobile Multimedia But Where’s the ARPU for Operators?

A new survey from 3ple-Media shows a positive shift in subscriber perceptions and expectations about the evolving role of Mobile Operators in the delivery of multimedia services. While 66% of subscribers among the 1,250 respondents say they now see their Mobile Operator as a data connectivity provider, encouragingly 20% see their Mobile Operator as most like a cable or satellite TV provider –i.e. as an aggregator and provider of multimedia content and services. A further 14% see Mobile Operators as most like their Bank – trusted guardians of their personal data and information - and as a supplier of personalized mobile multimedia services.

Operators themselves agree that this is part of their future with 80% agreeing that becoming a mobile data connectivity provider is either quite likely or highly likely. However, somewhat less clear, is the extent to which Operators expect to move beyond simply offering flat-rate data connectivity and evolve to become mobile multimedia service companies; thought by many to be essential to counter the ongoing ARPU decline from traditional services.

So who will be the revenue winners? Presently, 52% of Operators agree they are the current revenue leaders in the embryonic multimedia ecosystem. Understandably, Operators are more cautious when forecasting who might enjoy the most revenue success by 2010, rating themselves closely behind Media/Content Providers with 26% & 28% respectively, then advertisers at 24% and web 2.0 companies at 15%.   

Interestingly, these other players (Media/Content Providers, brands and Internet companies) rate Operators as having the strongest current and future offering in the newly emerging “Mobile 2.0” ecosystem. This is especially true for critical components such as billing and response (58%), being guardians of customer data (54%) and having the strongest customer service capabilities (48%).

Overall consumer confidence in, and acceptance of, mobile multimedia is strong with 55% of subscribers saying they are looking forward to receiving mobile multimedia and 58% of Operators saying regular multimedia usage amongst subscribers will be at mass-market penetration levels (in the region of 31-50%+)  by 2010.

However, 85% of Operators agree more education is required, as subscriber multimedia ‘know-how’ is either a partial or total hindrance to increasing their addressable market. 84% agree that subscriber misperceptions of mobile multimedia costs are equally prohibitive to growth. This finding is confirmed in subscriber responses with 59% of subscribers saying they either don’t know what services are available, or that they perceive services to be too expensive. A 65% majority of Operators say the estimated infrastructure cost to expand capacity to serve all subscribers is also a hindrance to increasing active multimedia subscriber levels.

StJohn Deakins, Chief Commercial Officer for 3ple-Media says: “There’s a debate within many Operators: do they simply become a mobile IP connectivity provider, or also seek to ensure ARPU growth by becoming their subscriber’s mobile multimedia service provider?  This survey strongly suggests that despite the technological, educational, and commercial hurdles still to be conquered; Mobile Operators are the clear front runners in the race to be at the heart of the new mobile multimedia ecosystem”.

For a free copy of the full survey report findings, contact 3ple-Media:
[email protected]
To find out more about 3ple-Media’s MercuryTM platform and Mobile Multimedia Push, visit:
www.3ple-Media.com

The Media Momentum Awards 2008 today announces the fastest growing digital media companies. The prestigious invitation-only Media Momentum Awards organised by investment bank GP Bullhound, presents accolades to just five companies selected from an elite pool of fifty, all outstanding achievers and expanding rapidly in their field. 

The categories (and winners) from the ceremony are as follows:
Fastest Growing Company ( Mobile Interactive Group ) Vision and Future Growth Potential ( YouGov ) Best Management ( The Search Works ) Best Execution ( Net-a-Porter ) Uniqueness Of Offering ( Vibrant Media ) Digital Media Personality Of The Year ( James Murdoch ) Judges Award ( YouGov )

The premium sponsors this year were 3i, Olswang and Sky Digital Media. The featured digital agency of the year was POD1, doing the visuals and presentations for the evening.

“Competition was fierce this year, but ultimately everyone involved in the awards is recognised by the industry as someone to watch”, the panel commented.  Representatives from Google, Olswang and 3i amongst others were present on this year’s judging committee.

As well as specific best-in-category prizes, the top 50 companies are arranged in a league table based on revenue over the past two years.  Over a third of the invitees came from digital agencies, with mobile the second most-represented sector with 14%.   

Manish Madhvani, Co-founder and Partner of GP Bullhound, said: “Media Momentum recognises the hottest, fastest growing digital media businesses in the UK.  We recognise the best of the best – wherever they are in the UK and whatever aspect of digital media they’re involved in.”

UK data warehousing and BI consultancy strengthens systems integration proposition with WisdomForce FastReaderTM – an ultra-high performance Oracle database extraction, migration, and load tool

LONDON, UK – 13th March, 2008 – Edge Associates (UK) Limited, the professional services business specialising in large scale data warehousing and business intelligence, today announced that it had signed an agreement with WisdomForce Inc., a Washington, US company to distribute, install, and support its FastReaderTM product in the UK. 

FastReaderTM is an ultra-high performance Oracle database extraction and migration tool for use in heterogeneous database environments.  It supports high-speed loading for all the major database platforms, including: Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Teradata and Netezza.  FastReaderTM also support most operating systems and hardware platforms.

FastReaderTM is more than twenty times faster than UTL_FILE or SQL*Plus spool for full table unload methods of data extraction.  This translates into a huge reduction in latency from source system to data warehouse end-user. FastReader’sTM highly optimised, parallel processing architecture minimises the CPU load, a real benefit to database administrators managing highly stressed resources.  It can be applied to data migration, propagation and archiving tasks, and when combined with its native ‘on-the-fly’ compression and extraction capability, delivers a significant reduction in network utilisation.  FastReaderTM also offers a portable data extraction format that can be loaded to any target environment.

Andy Goldthorpe, Director at Edge Associates, said: “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to distribute this fantastic product in the UK. Our experience has shown that the extraction time is often the most significant delay in migration and propagation of data. Given the speed of this software, our aim is to accelerate our client’s business, delivering more value from data as quickly and efficiently as possible.  FastReaderTM fits this model perfectly.”