The use of the latest accounting software could be the best way to ensure accurate and fair financial results – and avoid becoming a victim of three new campaigns launched by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Small businesses and individuals who fail to submit tax returns or pay the wrong amount will be targeted by the body.

One campaign will be launched imminently with two more to follow later in the year and each will focus on different areas of possible tax avoidance.

Missing returns will be the primary objective of HMRC, before those in the home improvement and direct selling trades are put under the microscope.

Marian Wilson, of HMRC’s Risk and Intelligence, said the department is using new technology to close in on any bosses who may not be paying the right tax – something accounting software can help to avoid.

The Bristol Evening Post recently told how local firm Smith & Williamson had offered to lend its accounting expertise to the Bristol City Community Trust in order to ensure its finances add up in the future.

Source:http://www.codestone.net/news/story/accounting-software-could-help-to-keep-hmrc-at-bay/801288618/

The Milford, Mass.-based Manhattan Software, a business real estate software company, has signed a deal with Indiabulls Real Estate to launch its products in India and the Middle East. Indiabulls Real Estate is one of the largest real estate companies in India with development projects including high-end office and commercial complexes, premium residential developments, mega townships, retail spaces, state of the art special economic zones and infrastructure development.

According to Manhattan Software, the ability for Indiabulls to implement its Integrated Workplace Management System and Computer-aided Facility Management software will provide corporations and government institutions with the necessary applications to have the most comprehensive knowledge of their real estate property portfolios and be able t reduce the total cost of occupancy, increase visibility into scheduling, planning and decision making on the entire portfolio, improve collaboration to reduce expenses and time-to-market and increase productivity of both staff and built resources.

“Partnering with Indiabulls complements and extends Manhattan Software’s growth into the global real estate community,” said Craig Gillespie, CEO of Manhattan Software, Americas. “As the leading enterprise real estate software company in the world, we are committed to providing the best solutions to our customers wherever they are. As we grow our footprint in India, we could not have chosen a better partner than Indiabulls for implementation of Manhattan Software applications.”

“Indiabulls is excited to be partnering with Manhattan Software,” said Tejinderpal Singh Miglani, chief information officer of Indiabulls. “Their Integrated Workplace Management System and Computer-aided Facility Management solutions add to our existing domain knowledge and portfolio of solutions for real estate developers and corporate real estate teams. Our presence in India, Africa and Asia Pacific, combined with their product strength, shall be an ideal agent of growth for both organizations.”

Source:http://www.indusbusinessjournal.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=3363DC752D9B487B9F4A1F83B079C530

Faced with declining attendance and revenue numbers, the Apache Software Foundation is seeking to hand off management of one of its semi-annual ApacheCon events.

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) has released a request for proposal to prepare, manage, and execute the ApacheCon conference in North America.

Last year’s five-day conference was held just a few months ago from Nov. 7-11 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The ASF has, in the past, managed two ApacheCons a year–one in Europe and one in North America. According to the ApacheCon wiki page, however, the last formal “ApacheCon Europe” took place in 2009, with other various “Retreats” and presences at other shows, such as GotoCon Amsterdam in 2011, taking the place of the ASF’s branded European conference.

This new RFP, which was released on Jan. 23, deals only with the North American event. “Subsequent years and/or regions will only be considered following a successful initial event, and will not be entered into at this time,” the RFP states.

Source:http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/248528/apache-software-foundation-outsource-event-management

Automobiles of all types have evolved from basic transportation to elaborate “systems of systems,” which incorporate hardware and software components that give consumers a range of software-enhanced experiences. These range from the highly visual multimedia dashboard to the data-driven performance of fuel delivery, braking, and drivetrain systems. To meet market demands, automakers are launching new cars with the latest technologies, or they are substantially re-engineering older models to retain and expand their existing customer base.

This means that advances in automotive technology have led to exponential increases in complexity, competition, and cost. Within the automotive space, perhaps more than in any other industry, these three “Cs” are directly related to each other. Growing complexity derives both from the need to stay competitive within the supply chain and from the tremendous increase in software and systems engineering practices that play the biggest role in vehicle design—all of which impact cost. Specifically, the electrical, electronic, and software components determine 75% of a car’s value these days, with up to eighty electronic control units (ECUs) and ten million lines of code per vehicle.

The complex combinations of mechanical and electronic equipment that define today’s automotive products are essentially large systems comprised of smaller systems. Relying heavily on software for data-driven performance and competitive differentiation, these “systems of systems” require stakeholders to understand that decisions made during the conceptual design stages impact all other areas of engineering and development.

Never has this sort of detailed understanding of design, materials, suppliers, and processes been more critical. The auto industry has seen a dip in earnings over the past decade, with many bankruptcies or mergers and acquisitions impacting the bottom line. Along the way, rapidly rising prices for raw materials were another factor. To reduce costs and increase profit margins, automotive companies are seeking new ways to cooperate with each other.

The remainder of this article will explore how the recent alignment of automotive manufacturers under the AUTOSAR initiative is beginning to improve on these industry-wide constraints, and, as an example, how IBM and its partner Elektrobit are advancing automotive design and development technology that helps businesses implement these new capabilities.

The automotive industry responds with AUTOSAR
In order to manage the complexity and challenges throughout the automotive industry supply chain as well as the internal challenges businesses have in staying competitive, automobile manufacturers, suppliers, and tool developers jointly developed an open, standardized architecture called AUTOSAR.

Source:http://www.eetimes.com/design/automotive-design/4236117/Software-tools-ease-AUTOSAR-compliance

The San Francisco-based software-as-a-service provider of travel, loyalty and payment solutions, today announced it has rebranded the company, changing its name to Switchfly, Inc. effective immediately.

From its founding in 2003 with a focus on travel transactions, the company has evolved into a leading provider of software solutions that help companies build their brands and connect with their highest-value customers through a rich online experience. Switchfly works with some of the world’s largest and most respected brands in travel, loyalty and payments, including American Airlines, AirAsia, American Express, Emirates, Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, JetBlue, Lufthansa, PayPal, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and United Airlines.

The rebrand is a natural progression following the company’s rapid growth and global expansion over the past few years. It also follows the company’s recent acquisition of Topguest, which provided entry into the social media and mobile arenas, and its move into payments with a new digital wallet product that was announced in October 2011 with beta partners PayPal and United MileagePlus. Unmatched in the marketplace, Switchfly delivers a single technology platform that can power multiple products under multiple brands deployed across multiple countries.

“The Switchfly brand embodies the growing range of products and services our company offers across several channels,” said Daniel Farrar, CEO of Switchfly. “Switchfly offers our clients the unique ability to enhance their brand and create loyalty with technology solutions that go beyond customer expectations while at the same time decreasing costs.”

Source:http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news/article/ezrez-software-rebends-to-switchfly/

In the last few decades, the departmental stores became a very important tool in the economic development of our society. The departmental stores can be found around the world and in order to modernize their business, they often use different retail pos software. The different point of sale software systems used in the departmental stores come equipped with new and innovative features that allow the stores to minimize the amount of time they spend on each customer, without compromising with the quality of service, Hence, the customers benefit from faster service and the stores benefit from reduced time of service as they can utilize the time saved in catering to higher number of customers.

Hence, people who visit departmental stores no longer need to stand in long queues, in order to pay for the items they buy. Point of sale software systems used in the departmental stores also help in managing the stock of merchandise.

Source:http://www.setpieceanalysts.com/retail-pos-software-for-departmental-stores/376/

Mezeo Software(R), a leading provider of cloud storage management solutions, today announced that Rahul Bakshi has been appointed Sr. Vice President of Sales. Bakshi will be responsible for global sales and field operations teams that oversee enterprise, service provider and channel sales strategies. He reports to President and CEO Steve Lesem.

Bakshi brings over 15 years of sales, product management and solution design skills to Mezeo with a strong background in the Managed Services industry. Most recently, Bakshi was with SunGard and served as Vice President, Solution Design for the Managed Services Line of Business. In addition, he held responsibility for the Managed Services product portfolio and drove the launch of SunGard’s first Enterprise Cloud Computing Service offering. Prior to SunGard, Bakshi was Director of Sales and Marketing for VeriCenter, a leading Managed Services Provider that was acquired by SunGard in 2007. In addition to wide-ranging sales and management experience, Bakshi also has comprehensive product experience in cloud computing, SaaS, managed services and outsourcing.

“In the past six months, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the demand for Mezeo solutions from a number of avenues,” stated Steve Lesem, Mezeo President and CEO. “The interest from our traditional market — service providers — has really accelerated. We’ve also had a number of enterprises, school districts, universities, and government agencies contact us over their growing concern about confidential corporate data leaking onto the public cloud via file sync and share solutions that their employees and partners use for personal music and photo sharing and then evolve to for storing corporate data so they can access it via a smartphone or tablet. Organizations are looking to Mezeo to help them build their own private storage cloud to protect proprietary data. In addition, we have growing interest from hardware and software vendors looking to partner with us. Rahul will focus on the service provider and enterprise markets. His well rounded background is an ideal fit for the Mezeo environment where we are very nimble and team oriented — focusing on meeting the needs of the customers in a fast-paced and often changing environment.”

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mezeo-software-appoints-senior-vice-president-of-sales-2012-02-09

Software piracy rates are highest in the developing world, where per capita incomes are lowest. For some observers, this correlation is evidence of causation. Software costs too much for people in emerging economies to afford, the argument goes; that’s why they steal it. Charge less, and the problem will take care of itself.

But this pricing argument does not hold up under close scrutiny. Never mind that software is in fact typically priced lower in emerging markets than in developed markets. Consider all this instead:

First, the correlation between income and software piracy itself breaks down upon inspection. Just look at China and India. China has more than twice the per capita GDP of India (roughly $7,600 versus $3,500). Yet India has a considerably lower software piracy than China (64 percent versus 78 percent in 2010), and it spends three times more on legal software per PC currently in use — $31.40 versus just $9.15 annually. (The math: India had $1.5 billion in legal software sales in 2010 divided among the 49 million PCs that were in use there, according to IDC, while China had $2.2 billion in legal software sales divided among its installed base of 240 million PCs.)

Second, look at the gap between hardware spending and software spending. If the software-pricing hypothesis were to stand up, then you would expect to see something at least vaguely similar in the hardware market — namely, computers would have to be priced considerably lower in emerging markets than in more developed markets in order to achieve similar sales. But that is not the case. In fact, the average price of a new PC in the four so-called BRIC markets was $726 in 2010 versus $704 in the US. This, while new PC sales were surging an average of more than 32 percent in the BRIC markets, compared to less than 6 percent in the US. Indeed, China this year will pass the US to become the world’s largest market for new PCs.

Finally, remember that the most concerning sort of software piracy around the world, economically speaking, is enterprise software piracy — the piracy that occurs when otherwise legitimate businesses buy a few copies of the programs they need and then ignore the licensing terms by installing the software on too many computers. (In large companies, that can quickly become hundreds or thousands of illegal copies, and avoiding those costs amounts to an unfair competitive advantage.) It simply defies logic to believe that medium-sized and large companies in emerging markets — companies that may own sophisticated industrial equipment, operate factories, and export products to global markets — would be pirating software because it costs too much. How do they afford all the rest of their plants, equipment — not to mention their PCs — if they can’t afford software to run them?

The answer is they most certainly could and should pay for it. But in many developing markets, ineffectual enforcement of intellectual property laws encourages a general disregard for them. Too often, companies act as if software licensing terms need not be taken seriously. This has broad economic impact. So it is in every country’s interest to enforce the law in a way that sends clear deterrent signals to the marketplace.

Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-holleyman/software-prices-and-pirac_b_1259691.html

In a sign of continued dedication to building a strong leadership team focused on its customers, Iconixx Software today announced the appointment of Bruce Jackson as President and Chief Operating Officer.

“Bruce will be responsible for all strategic development, business and organizational growth, as well as execution of all sales and operational aspects of the Iconixx Software business,” says Derrik Deyhimi, Chairman and CEO for Iconixx Software. “Having spent the majority of the last two decades working with Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 companies helping to align business strategy and enabling technologies within core Sales Performance Management, Bruce understands our business and clients like few others. He brings outstanding experience and skills, combined with a dedication to customer success, that will help guide Iconixx Software in delivering superior results for our growing customer base.”

A seasoned executive in the Sales Performance Management arena, Jackson is no stranger to the industry, and in fact, was previously Vice President – Business Solutions with Iconixx prior to its acquisition by nGenera Corporation. In his previous role with Iconixx, Jackson led the business solutions team in advising clients on business strategy and technology enablement. Prior to joining Iconixx Software, Jackson was the Vice President of Business Development for Varicent Software.
“I am excited about the opportunity to work with such an experienced team of industry experts focused on delivering a best-in-class Cloud solution for Sales Performance Management and Incentive Compensation,” says Jackson. “I look forward to building upon the company’s existing momentum and further establishing its position as a market leader.”

Source:http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/09/4251298/industry-veteran-reunites-with.html

Virtuon announced today it has expanded its virtual application service to support MAC, iPad and Android devices. The software distribution platform allows software publishers to put their applications immediately in the cloud as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering with no development or rewrite effort.

Virtuon’s service platform expedites the porting process for developers, as all they have to do is load their application in Virtuon’s service. “This is the fast-track to supporting the iPad and other contemporary devices,” said Forrest Blair, CEO of Virtuon. “Porting and conversion costs have been eliminated, and at the same time the entire software distribution and support system is streamlined.” SaaS applications offer tight control over which version of an application users have access to, as well as user activity and product performance are very visible. Installation and support issues are significantly reduced.

The number of software applications available from the cloud is growing at a significant pace. Traditionally, software developers have had to rewrite the framework of their application for it to function in a SaaS cloud or portal. SaaS conversion costs and time consuming efforts have been road blocks for many developers wanting to make the journey to the cloud.

Older 32-bit Windows applications loaded on Virtuon’s Virtual Application service are fully functional for users with 64-bit Windows, MAC and iPad devices. “Many developers are struggling over the thought of abandoning older applications that are no longer supported on the newer platforms. Our virtual application platform gives new life to old apps and expensive certification fees are eliminated,” said Blair.

Virtuon has built its software-as-a-service platform on state-of-the-art virtualization technology, and the offering comes from work at Virtuon’s cloud computing and virtualization center.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/software-developers-get-saas-y-with-expanded-software-as-a-service-platform-2012-02-09

GrayHair Software, Inc., a leader in solutions for business mailers, announces the release of a ground-breaking reporting engine that expands the versatility and depth of the services offered in its SelectSolutions(TM) cloud platform. This unique approach to presenting the information retrieved from clients’ mailing campaigns keeps GrayHair at the forefront of the direct marketing industry.

The new reporting engine includes access to GrayHair’s current industry-leading mail tracking reports as well as on-demand access to a new set of interactive reports providing visual analysis that will change how users see their mail data. Mailers gain access to an enterprise view of all mail data, dynamic graphical representation of live data, a detailed view of their history and have a simple option to determine trends in production and delivery. This reporting engine provides an easy-to-use set of tabs that graphically present an in-depth view into a user’s mail. The new reports allow for more accurate prediction of InHome(TM) deliveries. This allows for better planning of follow-up campaigns, call center activity or on-hand product supplies when the demand is needed, not days before or after a user’s mailpieces were expected to reach their intended recipients.

“We are providing our clients with the most comprehensive set of reports on the market,” comments Raymond Chin, Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, GrayHair Software. “By giving them the ability to see data interpreted and presented at various levels of detail in distinct charts and graphs, GrayHair is saying ‘here’s your mailing world organized and accurately presented so we can help you see what works and what doesn’t.’”

These new reporting enhancements serve as the backend for SelectSolutions and incorporate reporting for all of the platform’s applications and offerings, which currently include IM(R) barcode assignment, mail tracking, address quality, presort analysis, postage reconciliation and mail monitoring. The initial tabs cover the mail tracking, postal management and address hygiene areas. Address Hygiene includes the ability to view the number of undeliverable addresses and Change-of-Address types in past mailings. For this initial launch, the enhanced reports are available only for the mail owners’ side of SelectSolutions.

“Providing our clients with as much useful information as possible about their mailings presents them with the opportunity to analyze the data and strategically plan for their next projects and campaigns. GrayHair has products to help their current mailings be successful but we are also looking to the future and want our clients to stay productive and competitive in the industry,” says Therese Powers, Vice President of Client Services.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/grayhair-software-releases-a-dynamic-reporting-engine-to-complement-its-cloud-platform-2012-02-09

U.S. retail sales of video-game hardware, software and accessories tumbled 34 percent in January to $750.6 million from a year earlier, researcher NPD Group Inc. said today in an e-mailed statement.

Sales a year ago were $1.14 billion, when the industry benefited from titles such as “Dead Space 2” and “Little Big Planet 2,” NPD reported.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s Xbox 360 led the console category with sales of 270,000 units, down from 381,000 a year ago, David Dennis, a product manager for the company, said in an interview, citing NPD data.

“We’ve shown that we can deliver new experiences by updating the Xbox experience with new software,” Dennis said. “We’re bringing more value to the 360, we’re bringing more experiences with Kinect and new software. It’s like every year there’s a new Xbox.”

Dennis declined to comment on reports that the Redmond, Washington-based company will introduce a new console in June at the annual E3 video-game industry show.
Retail sales of packaged video games have fallen sharply in the past year as consumers purchase games for play on smartphones and social networks such as Facebook Inc., NPD reported.

The Port Washington, New York-based research firm estimates sales of games through alternative channels accounted for an additional $350 million to $400 million.
Sony Corp. (6758) had “solid results” for the PlayStation 3 in January with retailer promotions such as “Play Days” helping increase sales for the console and its peripherals, said Patrick Seybold, a spokesman, in an e-mailed statement.

The Tokyo-based company plans to begin selling its PlayStation Vita handheld console in the U.S. and Europe on Feb. 22.

Source:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-10/video-game-retail-sales-in-u-s-slid-34-in-january-npd-reports.html

BigHand, the leading voice productivity software vendor in the global legal and professional services sector has today announced that the niche personal injury and medical negligence firm Price & Slater, has dramatically increased billable time without hiring more fee earning staff via BigHand’s hosted digital dictation software. The ability to increase fee-earning capacity whilst minimising costs has resulted in a significant improvement in profitability for the firm.

BigHand’s hosted dictation software, Small Business Edition, has improved mobile productivity as fee earners now instantly submit dictations to their Australia-based admin support from any location via their Android smartphones, improving document turnaround times and client service.

Mark Slater, partner at Price & Slater comments:

“Since implementing BigHand we have experienced a huge increase in the amount of billable work we are able to do. By increasing the hours we spend fee-earning we have dramatically increased our profitability, without increasing the number of fee-earning staff. The costs associated with BigHand’s hosted solution are minimal, and the software is incredibly easy to use.

We are a cloud based firm and do not operate from a dedicated office, so work mainly from home. This hosted solution is the perfect fit for our firm. We dictate from Manchester and our typing service transcribes in Australia. No documents are emailed between us preventing any data protection issues and I can easily see when work has been completed. The software has been a doddle to use, it’s as if a typist is sat next to me.’’

BigHand Small Business Edition is the hosted version of BigHand’s award-winning digital dictation software, specifically designed for law firms with 10 or fewer users wanting to improve productivity. BigHand Small Business Edition is easy to download and enables authors to instantly submit dictations to an assistant via USB connected microphone, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android devices.

http://www.theknowlist.com/2012/02/bighand%E2%80%99s-hosted-digital-dictation-software-for-android-dramatically-increases-billable-time-at-compensation-claims-specialist-price-slater/

Source:

Salesforce.com has made a series of changes to its support services that include the removal of certain features from the Standard tier, but which the company says overall will provide a better experience for customers.

First, phone support for Standard support customers will be now be focused on “severity one” issues, such as if no users can access the system, said Dean Robison, senior vice president for global services, in a video interview posted this week on an official Salesforce.com blog.

Standard plan customers can submit critical issues via phone during regular business hours, with a response time of two business days.

“But if it isn’t critical, the best way to get in touch with us is our Web portal,” Robison said. “And on the Web portal, we will deliver an experience where they log a case, we know what type of category that case is, and what skill that requires.”

That’s going to be better than in the past, where “you hit our phones and you might get somebody who’s not an expert, and it’s not the best service experience in the world,” Robison said. “We want to change that. We want to make sure that when you log a case, you get an expert.”

That’s not to say that Standard support customers can only call if they have a critical issue, just that they’re being encouraged to limit calls to such matters, said Salesforce.com chief operating officer George Hu, in an interview Wednesday.

“What we saw was the opposite issue,” Hu added. “People were taking critical issues and logging them through the portal. If it’s a real critical issue, we want you to pick up the phone and call us.” Still, “I think you could talk to us for any issue,” he said.

Salesforce.com is also “scaling back, or better refining” its developer support capabilities, Robison said in the video interview. Standard support customers will be able to log development bugs and issues with Salesforce.com, he said. “We’ll capture that and get the information back to you when and if we are able to solve and remove that bug.”

Meanwhile, Premier support customers still get a higher level of support, including code troubleshooting. “So it’s a little bit better of a clarification and a differentiation between Standard and Premier,” Robison said.

Thirdly, Salesforce.com is taking the resources it had devoted to its Standard support chat channel and diverting them to the Premier channel, he said. Chat will no longer be an option for Standard support customers.

Finally, Salesforce.com is changing the way password resetting is done. “We used to handle password resets on behalf of all of our customers. What we found is customers were actually relying on us a little too much,” Robison said. “We don’t think that’s a really safe way to go.”

Salesforce.com has developed some “amazing tools” that customers and their IT staffs can use to conduct password resets, he said. “We’re going to be coaching and suggesting that customers do that in the future.”

A “significant” amount of support resources was being spent on password resets, and all customers will be redirected to the self-service tools regardless of their support plans, Hu said.

The support changes went into effect on Feb. 2, according to the blog post.

Along with these changes, however, Salesforce.com’s self-service capabilities are going to dramatically improve, according to Robison.

All customers “can expect to see a better portal experience including localization in numerous languages for our customers around the world,” he said in the blog post. “Ultimately, we look to have one seamless, consolidated post-sale Web experience where all of our vibrant communities, customer forums and support expertise blend together. We believe this will truly give anyone who needs answers and expertise the most efficient and effective experience possible.”

Standard support is included at no charge with all Salesforce.com editions. Premier support costs 15 percent of license list price for Professional and Enterprise Edition users, while a Premier+ tier costs 25 percent of license list for Professional and Enterprise and is included with the Unlimited edition, according to Salesforce.com’s website.

Premier plan users get around-the-clock phone access with a two-hour response time, as well as expanded training resources, according to Salesforce.com’s website. They may also get an assigned support representative if they have enough CRM (customer relationship management) licenses or subscription fees. Premier+ adds in a series of administrative services.

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff has long positioned SaaS (software as a service) as a superior alternative to on-premises software, asserting that it’s easier to deploy and upgrade.

But Benioff has also decried the long-standing practice of annual maintenance payments for on-premises software, which typically run 22 percent of license fees, even calling for “the end of maintenance” in a 2009 internal email that made its way to the media.

It was not clear Wednesday whether Salesforce.com’s decision would generate widespread push-back from customers, as occurred with its recent announcement of an Analytics Edition that originally would have cost users extra money.

Customers complained about the analytics pricing, saying that the functionality was long-needed and should have been included in base subscription fees. Salesforce.com quickly relented and said the features would be rolled into some versions at no additional charge.

Salesforce.com is an “adaptive company” that takes customer feedback seriously, Hu said.

Still, “if you’re a Standard customer, you’re getting great support,” Hu said. Salesforce.com’s own internal surveys find that Standard support receives on average of nine on a scale of 10 from customers, he added.

Source:http://www.cio.com.au/article/414805/salesforce_com_shakes_up_standard_support_plan_features/

Oracle Corp. agreed to acquire online-software maker Taleo Corp. for $1.9 billion, its second such acquisition in recent months and the latest sign that the software industry’s old guard is embracing a newer model.

Taleo makes software that businesses use to recruit and track job applicants, conduct training and carry out other human-resources functions. Unlike the majority of Oracle’s software, which customers install on computer servers they own and operate, Taleo’s products are delivered online and accessed via a Web browser.

The model, known as cloud computing or software as a service, is growing quickly, with sales reaching $21.6 billion last year compared with $16.6 billion in 2010, according to research company IDC. Traditional software is a much larger market—$334.6 billion last year, according to IDC—but growing at only 6% annually.

Buying online software has become “a no-brainer,” said Jeffrey Chasney, chief information officer and executive vice president at CKE Restaurants Inc. He said CKE, which owns the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s chains, has favored online software over traditional software “for all of the most recent things we’ve adopted,” partly because it is usually less costly and faster to get up and running.

As a result, big software makers such as Oracle have started to develop their own online products. The Redwood Shores, Calif., company unveiled a number of online programs at its annual conference in October and later that month agreed to buy RightNow Technologies Inc., which makes online customer-management software, for $1.5 billion.

Oracle, with annual earnings exceeding $8 billion and more than $30 billion in cash, can easily afford to buy its way into the online-software market. An Oracle spokeswoman declined to comment about the deal, as did a spokeswoman for Taleo.

Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison has made fun of online software in the past, saying a few years ago that companies that sell online software don’t earn any money and dismissing the term “cloud computing” as “gibberish.” But more recently he has overseen his company’s push into the area.

Online software for human-resources tasks has been a particularly successful niche. Many companies use software from Oracle and its rival SAP AG for core human-resources functions such as tracking payroll, benefits and head count, but Forrester Research analyst Paul Hamerman estimates that only 20% of Oracle’s customers have bought its recruitment and learning software. Instead, businesses have tended to buy these add-on products from online vendors such as Taleo and SuccessFactors Inc., which SAP agreed to acquire for $3.4 billion in December.

Oracle and SAP “always seemed to me to be a step behind” the online makers, said Mr. Hamerman, who added that the acquisitions give them a chance to catch up.

Other makers of online human-resources software are rising quickly. Workday Inc., a closely held online human-resources company that also makes other software, in October raised $85 million in venture financing and is widely seen as a candidate for an initial public offering of stock. Analysts said Workday is gaining traction among Oracle’s customer base, and that the Taleo acquisition gives Oracle a capability that the start-up doesn’t have.

Taleo, of Dublin, Calif., said Thursday it had revenue of $309 million last year, up 30% from a year earlier. It posted a net loss of $14 million. The company’s board has approved the sale to Oracle, which the companies expect to close later this year.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577212820539133232.html

Mr Sachin Duggal, 28, hates digital jargon. He doesn’t like software and computers being sold at a high price. He joined Mr Surabh Dhoot, friend from his days at Imperial College in London, to launch a start-up, pooling up $1 lakh from his two former bosses and matching it up with his savings.

Eight years later, this start-up, Nivio, is ready to launch something that can be afforded by big enterprises. They are about to splash three cloud products for Indian users — a portable, free drive that offers 10 GB of free-storage space, a downloadable desktop and an App Store — that can be accessed by anyone from anywhere and using any digital device.

You need not worry about your data being locked up in a phone, laptop, tablet or PC. Using any of these devices working on iOS (Apple’s operating system), Android, Windows or Mac, you can access data through Nivio’s cloud.

In beta version for sometime, these services are going to hit the market for regular use in a week or two. Costly software and applications can be accessed by paying a monthly rental. After your project is done, you can either renew association with Nivio or simply let go. You can store your information on the nDrive.

“We are looking at 35-40,000 desktop registrations and one million storage users in the first year,” Mr Duggal, Chief Wizard of Nivio, said.
How it works

All you need to have is a functional PC with Windows XP or above with a browser installed on it. You can access nDeskptop through Nivio’s Web site to get a desktop interface on the browser. Then, you can go to nApps, the application store, and download whatever application or software you might require without any time lag.

“We don’t buy any software or application. We take it from ISVs (independent software vendors) and share revenues. In this process, we work on negative working-capital model. We pay a few weeks later to the vendor after we [have] received payments from our users,” Mr Duggal, who is in India ahead of the launch, told Business Line.
Gets $21-m funding

Nivio has received a funding of $21 million from Videocon group and AEC Partners, a Kansas (US) based fund. Nivio will use this fund to roll out cloud services for individuals and small and medium businesses in India, Europe, West Asia and Australia.

Mr Venugopal Dhoot, Chairman of Videocon, sees a huge opportunity for this service globally and for the company in this investment.

Mr Duggal, his friend-colleague Mr Dhoot and angels invested $2.5 million. Deutsche Bank International Pension invested $6.5 million.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/article2876009.ece?ref=wl_industry-and-economy

Large numbers of data breaches are being initiated by targeted malware that antivirus software simply can’t detect, an analysis of 300 real-world incidents from 2011 has suggested.

Trustwave’s 2012 Global Security Report studied 300 incidents across 18 countries where the company’s SpiderLabs division was called into investigate what had gone wrong.

In 100 percent of the incidents, malware undetectable by a representative sample of antivirus products must have been the root cause of what had happened, typically entering an organization via an employee’s PC.

Specifically, 88 percent of the malware isolated by Trustwave was able to evade detection by all antivirus products used in the test, while the remaining 12 percent that did flag malware were only able to do so retrospectively, possibly months after being used in an attack.

In other words, the malware had won the battle on every occasion.

“We have anti-virus, shouldn’t we be protected?” is often heard during Trustwave investigations,” the report found. “The historical perception of antivirus and the sometimes blind faith in its ability to detect and stop malware is one of the reasons attackers are so successful in what they do.”

The net effect of this invisibility was that 84 percent of the affected organizations only realized they had suffered a data breach when alerted by an external body such as law enforcement, a regulatory body, a partner or even the public. By that time, the breach had been active on the network for a startling average of 173 days, with some appearing to go back years.

Antivirus Software Powerless to Stop Data Breach Attacks, Study Finds”Antivirus has a role but many organizations make that a large role,” said Trustwave SpiderLabs head, Nicholas J. Percoco. “The reality is that antivirus vendors only know about what they know about.”

“The criminals go to great lengths to develop new malware that they do not throw out,” said Percoco. Antivirus software couldn’t detect it because its targeted nature meant that vendors might never see it until it had been used in a successful attack.

A common factor in three-quarters of the breaches was that some aspect of the IT had been outsourced to a third party, he said.

The most commonly stolen data were customer records, responsible for 89 percent of lost data, with more than a third of the detected breaches happening in franchised businesses. The food and beverage industry accounted for 44 percent of breach incidents.

In addition to an overreliance on antivirus, the commonest security weaknesses included poor or nonexistent logging and passwords being shared between systems; the favorite password found was ‘password1′. Trustwave also found a decided lack of enthusiasm for data breach disclosure.

Source:http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/249630/antivirus_software_powerless_to_stop_data_breach_attacks_study_finds.html

Software maker Nuance Communications Inc. reported late Thursday that its first-quarter net income rose as revenue climbed for its health care, mobile and imaging applications, but its adjusted earnings and revenue fell short of analysts’ expectations and its shares plunged about 13 percent after hours.

The company, based in Burlington, Mass., reported after the markets closed that it earned $9.3 million, or 3 cents per share, for the quarter. In the same quarter last year, the company lost $9,000, which amounted to breaking even on a per-share basis.

Excluding acquisition costs, restructuring charges and other one-time items, the company earned 34 cents per share, compared with 28 cents per share last year. But analysts were looking for adjusted earnings of 36 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Nuance has bought a number of other companies over the past few years, including Equitrac, eCopy and Loquendo, which skewed its results.

The company’s revenue rose nearly 19 percent to $360.6 million with gains across its business segments during the quarter. The company reported adjusted revenue of $382 million, which includes revenue lost in accounting measures tied to recent acquisitions. It said its health care and mobile and consumer revenue rose by almost one-fourth on that basis.

But analysts were expecting still higher adjusted revenue of $392.1 million.

The shares sank $4.05, more than 13 percent, to $26.40 in after-hours trading, before settling around $26.57. They had ended regular trading at $30.45, up $1.12, or 3.8 percent.

The company’s quarterly and full-year forecasts are roughly in line with analysts’ expectations.

In the current quarter, Nuance said it expects adjusted earnings of 36 cents to 40 cents per share and adjusted revenue of $395 million to $415 million. Analysts on average expect 38 cents per share in adjusted earnings and revenue of $405.2 million, according to FactSet.

For the full year, Nuance projects earnings of $1.55 to $1.62 per share on revenue of $1.66 to $1.71 billion, both adjusted. Analysts expect $1.59 per share on revenue of $1.69 billion.

Source:http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57374377/software-maker-nuance-shares-plunge-on-1q-miss/

An international team of mathematicians, physicists, and engineers has found new ways to extract valuable information from the data obtained in CT scans.

The BIO-CT-EXPLOIT research project, begun in December 2009 and funded by the European Union through the 7th Framework Program, has led to modeling software for medical applications that will be used for bone implants, surgery, and tissue engineering.

Academic research and private companies involved in the project included Simpleware, InMatrixs, CADFEM, Skyscan, Vienna University of Technology, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Politechnika Warszawska, and Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg.

“If we want to make the most of our x-ray data, we need to have an excellent understanding of the microstructure we are looking at,” said project coordinator Christian Hellmich of the Vienna University of Technology in a press release. “We created detailed, voxel-specific computer models of biological tissue. That way we can gain information from the CT scans that has not been accessible up until now.”

The research team has pioneered concepts for extracting chemical information from the scans using micromechanical computer modeling. This information can then be converted into a 3D map of specific material properties, according to Hellmich.

“It is an unparalleled, highly reliable simulation tool for structural design purposes,” he said. It should not be difficult to use the newly developed computer codes for real-life applications, he added.

“Our prototype tools are fully compatible and pretailored for commercial simulation packages and the software that comes with commercial CT devices,” Hellmich said.

Software tool for dentists

CADFEM, one of the private research partners involved with the research project, offers a portfolio of software tools for numerical simulations, including finite element analyses and CAD. In the context of BIO-CT-EXPLOIT, CADFEM has enhanced a software prototype that allows a dentist to perform patient-specific simulations of a dental implant.

With this tool, a dentist can calculate the stress pattern around the implant in the mandible for getting information on potential mechanical overloading of the bone, the company noted. Previously, CADFEM modeled the mechanical properties of the bone tissue in a simplified manner and did not account for all effects (such as anisotropy, microstructure, correlation between gray values, and stiffness) of the real bone. With the new prototype, CADFEM can perform much more realistic simulations of patient-specific models.

InMatrixs, another private research partner involved with the project, was founded as an academic spin-off company by the Russian Academy of Science’s Institute for Physical Chemistry of Ceramics. InMatrixs is a biomedical device and skeletal tissue engineering company that develops and manufactures medical products based on calcium phosphate.

The company’s goal is to provide integrated and cost-effective healthcare solutions based on advanced tissue engineering concepts for regenerating damaged skeletal tissues, with particular emphasis on bone. The BIO-CT-EXPLOIT project has helped to unravel structure-property relations in InMatrixs ceramics and provided numerical tools to show the beneficial properties of these biomaterials.

The BIO-CT-EXPLOIT project concluded in December 2011.

“In only two years, we have accomplished our goals,” Hellmich said. “The collaboration was very successful.”

Source:http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=img&pag=dis&ItemID=309751

The increasing use of software applications (widely known as apps) in solving Africans’ problems has been highlighted by the three winning entries of the Apps4Africa: Climate Challenge contest.

The regional competition encourages participants to address local climate change challenges through the development of web-based and mobile applications in the East African region.

The first prize, worth US$15,00, was awarded to Grainy Bunch, a national supply chain management system which monitors the purchase, storage, distribution and consumption of grain across Tanzania.

It was followed by the Mkulima Calculator team from Kenya, who won US$7,000 for an application designed to help farmers know when to plant crops and how to select suitable crops for a particular location using climate and weather data.

Agro Universe, a mobile and web-based application from Uganda, took the third prize of US$3,000.

The design of apps is flourishing as more Africans enter the middle classes, said Jonathan Gosier, co-founder of metaLayer Inc, a US-based company that develops apps and application programme interface products.

“There’s a great deal of significance in the market being created.

“Local apps developers are building solutions for the local mass market, who in turn are purchasing these apps and services. This is creating an ecosystem. This would be significant for Africa, as it creates jobs and local content, which allows them to represent themselves online,” he said.

Gosier added that many young people were now solving problems using apps: “This generation of Africans will build an app that demands their governments come to their villages and fill holes”.

Elisha Bwatuti, Mkulima Calculator project manager, said that his team made their app as user-friendly as possible and hoped that uptake would be successful.

He added that the team plans to use the prize money to develop further apps, for example to alert farmers about when to apply various chemicals and to recommend good farming practices.

But team member William Nguru said they are facing some challenges, especially funding. “We are still at university, hence we cannot work on applications full time, collect the data to feed into the system and get it to the farmers,” he added.

Linda Kwamboka, data collection and integrity officer with the Nairobi based M-Farm, a software and agribusiness company set up by women entrepreneurs, said information on weather patterns and what to plant in a particular region is useful, because farmers experience huge losses when they plant in regions that are not conducive for their crops.

The winners of the contest, which was supported by the US Department of State, were announced last month (14 January).

Source:http://allafrica.com/stories/201202090172.html