Archive for February, 2011

Software AG unveils cloud computing vision for faster business innovation, transformation

February 24th, 2011

Software AG today announced its comprehensive technology approach for cloud computing. Software AG fully supports the vision of extreme collaboration with cloud-enabling technology to facilitate faster change and process improvement with greater participation from all key stakeholders.

“Everyone understands that cloud computing can reduce total cost of ownership and speed up time to market for software-based projects,” said Dr Wolfram Jost, Chief Technology Officer and member of the Executive Board, Software AG. “But Software AG’s cloud strategy delivers additional value by embracing the vision of extreme collaboration, which goes beyond just cost savings to create a new way of innovating for the business. Cloud enablement of enterprise IT is the base for extreme collaboration, which will remove the traditional barriers to collaboration between business and IT and accelerate business improvement.”

Building on the core concepts of cloud computing (such as the use of Internet technologies and elastic scalability), Software AG’s cloud vision goes further: it combines dynamic and active process modelling, ad hoc management and monitoring, and decisions powered by the historic and real-time intelligence from a wide variety of enterprise and external participants.

It includes the use of social technologies to support these ad-hoc and collaborative efforts. While spanning organisational and geographic boundaries, extreme collaboration brings together diverse individuals who work together to improve the business, the process, and ultimately, the goods and services delivered by the enterprise.

What is new about Software AG’s cloud computing is that more people, more knowledge and more history are leveraged to act faster within the context of the corporate strategy. Collaboration within and beyond the enterprise is supported by governance and approval life cycles to ensure consistent quality and movement towards the overall company strategy. Empowering a new class of enterprise workers with a variety of mobile devices ensures the co-ordination and decisions are made in real-time with continuous, streaming updates, while enabling individuals to join or leave interactions at will. The resulting solutions provide benefits to customers by driving business change dynamically and fast, and ultimately, dramatically reducing the cost of doing business.

For example, by involving product experts, process experts, business leaders, customers and partners, Software AG’s technology in a manufacturer’s product planning process would reduce the time between product improvements and result in faster product delivery. Ultimately, this would save the manufacturer time and money, increasing competitive advantage.

“SOA and business process management initiatives aim to improve business and process performance,” said Daryl C Plummer, Managing VP & Gartner Fellow. “But Gartner believes that extreme collaboration is critical to impacting change and improving performance. Cloud computing accelerates collaboration and allows BPM and SOA initiatives to have an even greater impact.”

“At Software AG we have been incubating capabilities to support extreme collaboration for several years,” noted Dr Jost. “Now, as relevant cloud computing technologies are becoming mainstream and our business innovation efforts are bearing fruit, we are poised to deliver breakthrough solutions for services-oriented architecture and business process management in the cloud.”

Source:http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41451:software-ag-unveils-cloud-computing-vision-for-faster-business-innovation-transformation&catid=272

Meet korean it and the software industry with kotra

February 24th, 2011

Trade with Korea – the sixth largest exporter and the tenth largest importer in the world – the fast survivor of the global financial crisis. Meet Korean IT – highly advanced -reasonable priced products and technologies. The signal comes from only a few steps away from the Brand Promotion Team of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA): IT Industry Department and Software Industry Team. Individual but as a whole, this ice breaker generates for a common goal: trade. Here, the new project of IT industry department, which is Company Consortium, comes up as a significant subject.

Director General Yang Jang-suk of IT Industry Department is starting New Year with new approach. KOTRA IT industry department formed consortium with 4-5 card reader and RFID chip companies. The team is to study emerging markets around the world to further speak on behalf of the customers. “We carry business based on our customers’ demand. This is the time where we question what we hadn’t done for our customer. Another angle we are focusing on this year is network with the global mobile players. We are planning to invite them this year to conduct numerous buyers meetings with Korean related parties. Beginning with Haier, HP, Telkomsel, and Sony Erricson are only a few global players that are lined up to visit Korea this year.

Global Mobile Vision is getting a makeover. This year, the 4th GMV will serve clearly as an exhibition to create a trade pool. KOTRA is trying to expand its exhibition size and participants. Director General Yang Jang-suk believes that Korean companies need more than a single day to interact fully with foreign companies abroad, study the region, and understand the market. About fifty companies this year will be given two days at the trade tour overseas(Korea ICT Roadshow).

Working closely with the IT industry department, the Software Industry Team brings fresh ideas on the table as well. According to Director Jo Eun-ho, 120 different sized software consortiums have already been formed to globalize the Korean software industry. In 2010, outstanding records from Korean SMEs shined a ray of hope in software exports. Infinite Healthcare’s Medical Imaging System was chosen as the best system for the hospitals that have less than 200 beds. Digital Aria’s image system for mobile phones signed a US$1.8 million license contract. If the previous efforts lied on e-government, ITS, u-City, broadcast communication and smart projects, now this is the time to develop business based on all the established platforms.

Director Jo Eun-ho stated that “The new business of this year will focus on exporting App/Mobile solutions, succeeding Login Korea, and upgrading the quality of another Smart Korea exhibition.” Shanghai u-City road show in April and open customer-on-demand business is also on the agenda. KOTRA’s Software Industry Team is also a perfect place for any country in the globe which is seeking to establish broadcast communications. New Zealand, Australia, and Mexico have already joined with Korea to establish a communication infrastructure in their countries and as well as digital broadcasting services.

The IT convergence industry team and the software team are in full gear at KOTRA to showcase magnificent IT technology.

Source:http://www.koreaittimes.com/story/13215/meet-korean-it-and-software-industry-kotra

New playstation slogan to highlight exclusive software

February 24th, 2011

It Only Does Everything.” That’s the marketing slogan we all know and recognize, but it seems Sony plans to shift promotional gears.

Starting this year and according to Sony senior brand manager Scott McCarthy, the aforementioned motto will be changed to “Only On PlayStation.”

The reason for this move? Well, the old slogan was designed to move hardware while the new one is supposed to put the emphasis squarely on the software.

Now might be just the right time; with exclusive franchise names like Uncharted, Killzone, inFamous, Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal, Ratchet & Clank, and Resistance, there’s every reason to highlight the exclusive software.

Maybe it’s long past time for Sony to remind the consumer that when it comes to games that can only be played on a certain console, the PS3 has the obvious edge.

Multiplatform titles can be excellent, too, but console-specific games often seem to be a step ahead.

Might as well put that fact on display, right? So in 2011, expect to see a lot of “Only On PlayStation” when exclusive titles are advertised.

Source:http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/8617.html

Motorola xoom reviewed: awesome hardware held back by software

February 24th, 2011

The first Motorola XOOM review has just been added this evening by Engadget. In the in-depth write up for the upcoming –releasing in just a few more hours– 10.1-inch Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet from Motorola.

In the review the hardware is praised for the XOOM, and rightfully so the tablet has a dual-core processor, GeForce graphics and 1GB of RAM. But the software for the XOOM –including Android 3.0– proved to be the only drawback for the $799 tablet (off-contract). Joshua Topolsky found the OS to be buggy and the small selection of available native applications as well as Android Marketplace applications for the XOOM to be a bit troubling.

However Topolsky also found that the XOOM has very very good battery life (8 hours and 20 minutes ) and at by their previous battery testing results the XOOM has the best battery life for an Android tablet thus far but fails to catch the Apple iPad’s 9 hours and 33 minutes.

Source:http://tablets-planet.com/2011/02/24/motorola-xoom-reviewed-awesome-hardware-held-back-by-software/

Investor makes offer on Wilsonville software firm Mentor Graphics

February 23rd, 2011

Activist investor Carl Icahn has offered to buy the remaining shares of software maker Mentor Graphics for $17 per share in cash, valuing the company at about $1.9 billion, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Mentor makes software and systems used to test electronics components used in aerospace and military-grade products, automobiles and low-power electronics.

The offer is a 17 percent premium over the Wilsonville company’s closing price last Friday. Its shares rose 95 cents, or 6.5 percent, to close at $15.47 Tuesday after rising to a 52-week high of $16.56 earlier in the session.

Mentor said in a statement that it will review the proposal and said Icahn and his affiliates already own a 15 percent stake in the company. In the meantime, it advised its shareholders not to take any action until the review is complete.

The billionaire investor’s offer leaves room for Mentor Graphics to receive even higher bids without paying him a break-up fee, according to the filing.

“We believe that our fellow shareholders should have the opportunity to accept our offer or a higher one, if one emerges as we think it will,” he wrote in a note dated Tuesday to the company’s board of directors. The company included the letter in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Icahn met with Mentor Graphics last week to discuss putting the company up for sale, according to an earlier filing. At the time, Icahn argued that a sale would greatly enhance shareholder value and that several buyers would be interested in paying a “substantial” premium for it.

Icahn’s offer assumes that Mentor Graphics will waive a shareholder rights plan, or so-called “poison pill,” to protect the company from unsolicited takeover bids.

The disclosure of the Icahn bid for Mentor comes only four days after his $665 million offer for the Texas power company Dynegy Inc. failed to get sufficient support from Dynegy shareholders and was terminated.

Source:http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20110223/BUSINESS/102230393/Investor-makes-offer-Wilsonville-software-firm-Mentor-Graphics?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|News|p

Goldman invests $70m in UK software group

February 23rd, 2011

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Goldman Sachs is investing $70m for a minority stake in a Cheshire-based software group as the US investment bank makes a bet on growth in technology that helps mobile working.

AppSense has grown rapidly by offering “user virtualisation” services, which involves decoupling user-specific information on a desktop and deploying it across a range of devices such as tablets and laptops on demand. It is the first time that AppSense has received outside investment.

Darron Antill, chief executive, said that AppSense would use the proceeds from Goldman’s investment to accelerate its expansion into the US, where year-on-year sales have risen 150 per cent. He said AppSense would look to carry out an initial public offering in the next three to four years.

Goldman last month invested $500m in Facebook, the social networking site, together with Russia’s DST and arranged a $1bn offering in privately traded shares to a group of overseas investors.

AppSense, which in the year to July 1 2010 reported a 60 per cent jump in sales to $47m, employs about 300 people round the world, half of whom are based in Daresbury near Warrington in the northwest of England.

Last year the group took on 120 people and Mr Antill who is based in New York, said that he expected to add another 150 to 200 over the next 12 months.

The group is expanding fast in Europe and the Middle East and also plans a push into emerging markets in Asia and Latin America.

Mr Antill, who last month replaced the group’s founder Charles Sharland as chief executive, said the company had been approached by a range of investors, including private equity firms.

The company was founded in 1999 but has grown rapidly in the past few years offering virtualisation technology and cloud computing services. Clients include government departments such as the UK’s GCHQ as well as global companies such as BAA, Broadcom, GE Money, Citigroup, Vodafone, Volkswagen and Time Warner.

AppSense currently works in collaboration with companies including Citrix, VMware and Microsoft but Mr Antill said that he expected the group to increasingly work on a standalone model.

According to IDC, the research firm, revenues from virtual client computing software hit $1.52bn last year and the market is projected to be worth about $2.5bn by 2014.

Chris Ingle, consultancy director at IDC, said that while virtualisation has been discussed for the past few years, demand has recently increased as companies emerging from the economic downturn tried to find ways to deploy and manage the migration of technology across multiple platforms.

As part of the deal with Goldman, Pete Perrone, managing director at the bank, will join AppSense’s board of directors.

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Source:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/90bbf938-3f33-11e0-8e48-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1EmVRRpbE

IT firms hope for STPI extension in budget

February 23rd, 2011

Indian information technology firms are looking for increased spending on education, e-governance and defence sectors, and an extension by at least one year of tax benefits under the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme, but many think it is unlikely.

STPI was a society set up by the Ministry of Information Technology in 1991 to boost software exports. Among other benefits, the STPI scheme provides a 10-year income tax exemption for units situated in software technology parks.

“I think extension of STPI is a bleak possibility in the current form,” said Ganesh Murthy, chief financial officer at MphasiS.

In the 2009-10 budget, the government had extended tax benefits for units in STPI by a year to March 2011, in the backdrop of a financial crisis in the United States, which accounts for more than 50% of India’s software exports.

The budget for 2010-11 went without any mention of extending the STPI scheme, disappointing IT companies.

“We believe, an extension will not come,” Anand Rathi Securities analyst Naushil Shah said, adding most analysts have factored in higher tax rates for the next fiscal. “So, if STPI is not extended, it will be neutral for the sector and if it gets extended, it will be a positive surprise.”

Small- and mid-cap IT firms are hoping for an extension of the STPI scheme, as many have still not migrated to special economic zones to continue enjoying some sort of tax benefits.

“We urge the government to extend the tax benefits under the STPI scheme for another year or two to empower growth of small and medium sized companies,” Surjeet Singh, chief financial officer at Patni Computer Systems, said.

SEZs, often located in and around large cities, also pose capacity constraints, while high rentals pose a cost barrier for small companies.

If the STPI scheme is not extended, the increase in tax rate further could crimp margins, which are already under pressure due to attrition, rupee’s appreciation and lower pricing.

“Most of the companies are paying an effective tax rate of about 15% and straight away that will jump to 25%,” Murthy said. “Obviously the margins will take a hit.”
IT companies greeted last year’s budget with a muted response as the government, while remaining silent on STPI, also raised the minimum alternate tax to 18% of book profits from 15%, impacting cash flows.

The industry is looking forward to the minimum alternate tax rate being rolled back to 15%, Patni’s Surjeet Singh said.

However, analyst Shah expects the government to maintain status quo.

The $60 billion IT services sector is also expecting the 2011-12 budget to bring increased funding to the e-governance, defence and education sectors, increasing opportunities in the domestic market for IT companies.

Increase in defence spending will benefit companies such as Rolta India and Infotech Enterprises, while a rise in the education outlay would give a boost to firms such as Aptech, NIIT and Everonn Education.

The industry is also expecting the budget to address the refund of service tax on inputs used for export of software and simplify the process.

Source:http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/it-firms-hope-for-stpi-extensionbudget_525543.html

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