Archive for June, 2011

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Enterprise software revenue to hit $267B this year

June 22nd, 2011
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Worldwide enterprise software revenue will exceed US$267 billion this year, growing 9.5 percent from last year which clocked US$244 billion, according to a report Wednesday by Gartner.

The market is expected to see continual growth through the next five years, hitting US$288 billion in 2012. The Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is also projected to clock the second-fastest growth rate, after Latin America, by the end of 2011.

In fact, enterprise software spending in Asia-Pacific will hit US$26.4 billion, up from US$23.6 billion last year, Gartner noted, adding that this figure will grow pass US$40 billion by 2015.

“The market for enterprise software continues to recover well following the 2009 downturn,” Joanne Correia, managing vice president at the research firm, said in the report. “The earthquake and tsunami in Japan has created additional marketplace uncertainty with a multiplicity of effects that are beginning to be determined. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) results and other research have pointed to a second-quarter 2011 slowdown in demand with some recovery later this year.”

Worldwide, enterprise infrastructure software is on pace to reach US$153.3 billion this year, registering a 9 percent increase from 2010’s revenue of US$140.6 billion. Within this category, operating systems (OSes) see the largest spending with a projected revenue of US$32.6 billion in 2011, followed by database management systems revenue at US$25.5 billion.

Enterprise application software spending will hit US$114.4 billion, growing 10.2 percent from last year’s US$103.8 billion, Enterprise resource planning (ERP) will lead as the largest segment with revenues expected to hit US$23.3 billion, followed by office suites at US$15.7 billion.

Correira said: “With this latest research, we see short-term currency uplift for U.S. dollar-denominated growth for the period of 2011 to 2012, and downward adjustments in GDP across all regions.

“We have identified a strong correlation between GDP growth and enterprise software spending growth, where software tends to grow 4 to 6 percent above GDP in normal market conditions. However, we do have concerns about the rising cost of commodities including oil, and its impact on certain regional and country economies.”

Source:http://www.zdnetasia.com/enterprise-software-revenue-to-hit-267b-this-year-62300870.htm

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NZCS welcomes tax deductibility for software

June 22nd, 2011
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NZCS Chief Executive Paul Matthews said today “The New Zealand Computer Society recently highlighted the IT sector’s very serious concerns in relation to the recent announcement that failed software projects could lose their tax deductibility. We strongly congratulate the Minister and IRD for acting on this so promptly, thereby providing certainty to the sector and New Zealand”.

The Inland Revenue Department recently released a determination that re-interpreted the deductibility of failed software projects and found that in some circumstances software projects that failed could never be treated as a business expense – either in the year they failed or in subsequent years through depreciation.

If this determination remained it would have had a very significant effect on the willingness of companies to invest in software and especially in relation to smaller local software providers”, Matthews said.

“This is not a minor matter – this decision has the effect of safeguarding investment in software which will see our economy grow through increased innovation, efficiency and productivity”, Matthews said. “It’s excellent that the Minister has heard the concerns of the technology and business sectors”.

Matthews also welcomed the news that the issue would be resolved promptly and backdated to the date the previous determination took effect, thereby providing certainty to the business community.

“This announcement sends a loud and clear message that investment in software and innovation is a priority for New Zealand”, Matthews said.

Source:http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1106/S00716/nzcs-welcomes-tax-deductibility-for-software.htm

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Big Blue Launches IBM Connections Software for Social Business

June 22nd, 2011
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IBM has expanded its social business initiative with the release of its new IBM Connections software, which Big Blue identifies as a social networking platform with real-time compliance capabilities.

IBM launched its social business strategy at the company’s Lotusphere 2011 conference in February as a way to help its customers and partners leverage social networking and social paradigms to their benefit.

The new IBM Connections software allows organizations to track and trace data on the fly throughout their organizations. This information can be analyzed and is discoverable in real-time using the IBM Connections active compliance service versus waiting until day end for analysis, IBM officials said.

The adoption of social software is on the rise and rapidly becoming a vital business tool, enabling organizations to transform virtually every part of their business operations from marketing, customer service and sales, to product development and human resources. The market opportunity for social platforms is expected to grow by a factor of nearly two billion worldwide by 2014, according to IDC.

Moreover, Gartner recently said that “by the end of 2013, half of all companies will be forced to produce material from social media websites for e-discovery so enterprises need an overall governance strategy for all applications and information.”

The new IBM Connections 3.01 software uses microblogs, wikis, communities and activities to collaborate with clients, partners and employees.

The social networking platform delivers enterprise-quality compliance capabilities providing the ability to monitor, track and quickly pull out relevant data around conversations, posts and file uploads in real-time. This electronic trail of online interactions helps organizations meet their policy needs while working at the speed of social networking.

IBM plans to provide these industry agnostic compliance capabilities for clients through a collaboration with Actiance, a leader in compliance capabilities, Big Blue said. In the third quarter, IBM is expected to introduce Actiance Vantage for IBM Connections, which archives and logs social content to help enterprises remain compliant with corporate and government regulations. Actiance software is used by nine of the top 10 U.S. banks and more than 1,600 organizations globally for the security, management and compliance of unified communications, Web 2.0 and social media channels.

The new features within IBM Connections also help foster greater participation in communities through moderation allowing managers and editors of online content to review materials before they are published, a critical step in compliance governance practices. To help organizations take advantage of the social business opportunity, IBM Connections also features social analytics to help users find experts and the ability to comment or vote on ideas in a community. The Connections Ideation Blog is designed to allow crowdsourcing of ideas across teams and customers.

“The benefits of social business are too great to ignore,” said Alistair Rennie, general manager of collaboration solutions at IBM, in a statement. “With these new advancements around compliance enablement, a social business can confidently activate networks of people to use a variety of collaborative tools, to improve and accelerate innovation.”

Meanwhile, IBM also announced that IDC ranked IBM number one in worldwide market share for social platform software for 2009 and 2010. According to IDC, the worldwide revenue for the social platforms software market was more than $500 million in 2010, representing growth of 31.9 percent.

The adoption of social networking in the workplace is on the rise. According to IBM’s 2011 CIO Survey, 55 percent of CIOs plan to invest in collaboration and social networking to increase competitiveness over the next few years. In addition, 77 percent of CIOs are looking to change their internal collaboration processes over the next three to five years.

Moreover, IBM said more than 35 percent of Fortune 100 companies have adopted IBM’s social software offerings. In the past year, new IBM Connections clients include GMCH, Bayer MaterialScience, CEMEX, Sogeti, Singapore Airlines, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Berlitz International Inc., Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG, Panasonic and Rheinmetall AG. IBM officials said IBM Connections is available both on premise and in the cloud.

Source:http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Big-Blue-Launches-IBM-Connections-Software-for-Social-Business-658616/

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Apple releases Final Cut Pro X to the Mac App Store for $299.99

June 22nd, 2011
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Apple released Final Cut Pro X, its newest video editing software, to the Mac App Store on Tuesday, promising new speed and more efficiency.

The new software isn’t merely an update of the previous Final Cut Pro 7 — it’s rebuilt from the ground up, Apple says.

For those who’ve used Final Cut before, the newness is apparent as soon as Final Cut Pro X is launched, with a darker-colored user interface, tool boxes replaced with iMovie-style buttons and new keyboard shortcuts (though older key commands can be remapped).

Among the most noticeable differences for many users probably will be the disappearance of the “render box” while editing and exporting a video project, as well as the new Magnetic Timeline, which is one of many features the new software has that looks a bit like Apple’s consumer-level video editor, iMovie.

The Magnetic Timeline removes the familiar video and audio tracks that made up the timelines of past versions of Final Cut Pro and the now-discontinued Final Cut Express (a cheaper, stripped down version of Final Cut). With the old system, many editors would complain about getting video and audio clips out of sync — a problem Apple hopes the Magnetic Timeline solves.

Whenever a video portion of a clip is moved, the matching audio clip moves with it. If a user selects multiple clips to move around, it’ll push other clips down the timeline to make room for the rearrangement. Everything just snaps into place.

Users can also tag clips and add keywords to clips, which make finding video and audio files easier.

Multiple formats of video, from multiple sources — DSLR cameras, pro-video camcorders, smartphones, flip cams — all play nicely, without the need to convert file formats or render everything before being able to watch what is in the timeline. All the rendering, Apple says, takes place in the background, which should allow for faster editing.

Previously, Apple sold Final Cut Pro in a full suite of applications that sold for $999. The most recent Final Cut Studio included Final Cut Pro 7, Color 1.5 (for color editing), Compressor 3.5 (for compressing and exporting finished videos into a variety of formats), DVD Studio Pro 4 (for burning DVDs), Motion 4 (for adding computer graphics to a project) and Soundtrack Pro 3 (for audio editing).

Now all Apple offers is Final Cut Pro X and Compressor 4 and Motion 5, also newly released Tuesday. The three apps sell separately, only in the Mac App Store, with Compressor 4 and Motion 5 selling for $49.99 each. Altogether, the three apps would cost about $400.00 — quite a bit less than $999.

The price drop was met with a very positive reaction in April, when Apple previewed Final Cut Pro X at the National Assn. of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas before journalists, filmmakers, TV producers and other creative professionals.

Apple says that DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack Pro and Color no longer need to be standalone products since Final Cut Pro X has advanced features that replace the old stand-alone programs.

But already, some editors online have complained that Final Cut Pro X favors digital formats over DVD or Blu-ray friendly discs or exporting projects to tape.

And indeed, Final Cut Pro X is one more example of Apple pushing its users toward a digital distribution future — the software isn’t available in a hard-copy format.

Mac OS X Lion, the upcoming version of Apple’s computer operating system, is set to release in July, and like Final Cut Pro X, it’ll also be available only through the Mac App Store, at $29.99.

As of now, the only way to get the Mac App Store on an Apple computer is to have Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) installed. Snow Leopard sells for $29 on disc and runs only on Intel-based Macs.

The reaction to Final Cut Pro X so far has varied, with some reviews saying that those who switch will be glad they did, while others express mixed feelings on the new software.

One good feature for those who tepidly decide to plunge into Final Cut Pro X — installing the new app won’t remove older versions of Final Cut, as the software did in the past.

So users can have both Final Cut X and Final Cut 7, or older, installed and use whichever they prefer or both until they get used to the new app.

Source:http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/06/apple-releases-final-cut-pro-x-to-the-mac-app-store-for-299-dollars.html

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Progress Software Selected by Betfair for Global Expansion Drive

June 21st, 2011
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Progress Software Corporation PRGS +1.03% , a leading software provider that enables enterprises to be operationally responsive, today announced that Betfair, the world’s largest international sports exchange, has signed a deal to deploy the Progress(R) SonicMQ(R) messaging platform for high availability and fault tolerant enterprise messaging.

The SonicMQ platform is the industry’s most robust and resilient standards-based enterprise messaging systems, delivering unmatched service availability, high performance, exceptional management capabilities and unsurpassed scalability for vast and sophisticated enterprise deployments. The SonicMQ platform also provides the communications infrastructure for the market-leading Progress Sonic(TM) enterprise service bus (ESB).

The SonicMQ platform will be used as Betfair’s messaging solution to aid its expansion into new markets. Its selection of the SonicMQ enterprise messaging platform is a key element of a three year GBP 25 million technology investment programme to deliver a more cost-efficient, robust and flexible platform and support future international growth, following Betfair’s recent initial public offering (IPO).

With over 3 million customers in the UK and abroad, Betfair selected the SonicMQ platform for its high volume message delivery coupled with best in class low latency performance. The solution will address the challenging wide area network conditions that can adversely impact the delivery of data.

Betfair can now benefit from the SonicMQ platform’s high performance, guaranteed message delivery under these challenging conditions, alongside an increase in network uptime, allowing betting markets to stay open for longer periods.

Hugh Fahy, Development Director at Betfair, explained: “With our ambitious company growth plans a need arose for a single, consolidated and highly reliable messaging solution. We needed a partner we could trust, who understood both the demands of the dynamic business environment we operate in, and our need for very tight service level agreements (SLAs).”

In the proof of concept stage, the SonicMQ platform processed over 5,000 messages per second under extreme packet-loss conditions over an unreliable network — and did not lose a single message.

Hub Vandervoort, Chief Technology Officer, Enterprise Infrastructure at Progress Software, commented: “The Progress SonicMQ platform is a robust messaging solution that raises the bar for high availability and fault-tolerant messaging, reduces operational risk and allows 24/7 responsiveness with zero downtime. We believe this solution will ensure that a single and clear messaging standard is put in place that will aid Betfair’s further success and expansion into new markets.”

About Betfair: ( www.betfair.com ) Betfair is one of the world’s largest international online sports betting providers and pioneered the betting exchange in 2000. Driven by cutting-edge technology, Betfair enables customers to choose their own odds and bet against each other. The company now processes over five million transactions a day from its three million registered customers around the world. In addition to sports betting, Betfair offers a portfolio of innovative products including casino, exchange games and poker.

Betfair has twice been named the UK’s ‘Company of the Year’ by the Confederation of British Industry and has won two prestigious Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, being recognised for Innovation in 2003 and most recently for International Trade in 2008. Betfair currently employs over 2,000 people worldwide. The company holds betting licences in Gibraltar, the US, Tasmania, Italy and Malta.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/progress-software-selected-by-betfair-for-global-expansion-drive-2011-06-21?reflink=MW_news_stmp

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Software firm Misys gets bid approach

June 21st, 2011
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British financial software company Misys said it had received a bid approach, which the market has been expecting for some weeks, sending its shares up more than 8% on Tuesday.

The company is taking the approach seriously and is in talks with one bidder over sale of the whole company, said a source familiar with the matter.

Misys shares have risen sharply from from around 312 pence in early May as market speculation of bid interest swirled around the stock. The Financial Times said on Monday that rumours indicated the company had opened its books to a US-listed peer.

“The board of Misys Plc confirms that it has received a preliminary approach that may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company,” the company said in a short statement on Tuesday.

Misys shares were up 8.5% to 417.2 pence at 1014 GMT, valuing the company at around 1.4 billion pounds ($2.3 billion).

Misys, which competes with companies like Temenos , Fidelity National Information services , Fiserv and SunGard has clients including all of the world’s top 50 banks.

Jefferies said the bidder could be from the United States or India, with fair offer exceeding 5 pounds per share.

“US heavyweights like FIS and Sungard will be looking for an opportunity to internationalise their footprint, while Indian providers like Infosys and TCS will be looking for more onshore presence and brand,” said Jefferies analyst Milan Radia.

“Our view remains it’s going to be a competitive situation. Each camp has good reasons to be involved in this

Source:http://www.livemint.com/2011/06/21161309/Software-firm-Misys-gets-bid-a.html

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McAfee announces Wavesecure security software

June 21st, 2011
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SECURITY OUTFIT McAfee has announced its Wavesecure security software for Android tablets.
As the number of mobile devices such as tablets continues to increase, so does the security risk for users, McAfee claims. And it has leapt to the rescue with its tablet specific security software.
Todd Gebhart, EVP at McAfee said, “The threats to mobile devices are in many ways the same as in the online world. Beyond device loss or theft, users can be hacked, infected or phished on a mobile device just as easily as they can online.”
McAfee developed the Wavesecure Tablet Edition especially for tablets running on Google’s Android operating system. Other than IOS on Apple’s Ipad, Android is the alternative found on most other tablets, such as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer.
The Wavesecure software offers users the ability to find their device, should it get lost, with alarm and location tracking. It can also stop misuse with a remote wipe and lock feature, and it also has a remote backup option that can prevent unwanted data loss.
McAfee claims, “Users can also trigger an audible alarm to help them find the device or disrupt a thief, and send a brief SMS message with instructions for returning it.”
The software is available now, which is just under the wire to meet McAfee’s prediction of a second quarter launch that it made when it announced its mobile security suite in February. An annual subscription to Wavesecure costs $19.99 and it is available from McAfee or at the Android Market.

Source:http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2080483/mcafee-announces-wavesecure-security-software

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