Seventh NCR and Teradata National IT Excellence Awards 2007

NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) announced the winners for Seventh NCR and Teradata National Information Technology (IT) Excellence Awards ceremony held today at the Jinnah Convention Center, Islamabad where in a grand setting, the best of the best in the information technology (IT) industry were given much coveted awards.Minister for IT and Telecom Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari officiated at the awards ceremony and thanked Teradata and NCR for encouraging IT professionals of Pakistan through the awards. He also congratulated the winners for achieving excellence in their respective fields during his address about the importance of the awards.

According to Mr. Khuram Rahat, Teradata manager for Pakistan and Bangladesh, “I am very pleased to host the Seventh NCR and Teradata IT Excellence Awards as this is a novel concept of recognizing people in the IT industry at the national level who have been instrumental in introducing, promoting and implementing IT in Pakistan. The first awards of this kind were launched in 1997 as part of Pakistan’s Golden Jubilee to recognize professionals in the information technology arena at a national level.”

The winners of the seventh NCR and Teradata National IT Excellence Awards are:

Software Development – Mr. Rashid Latif
Micromiles is the sole game development company in Pakistan. The new mobile game development model has been created by our winner for the Software Development Category. There is currently no industry standard to create games, but the model created by this winner is not only helpful in making games easier but also saves a lot of time.

Internetworking – Mr. Hamid Nawaz
The winner for this category while working at NADRA managed the Machine Readable Passport Network. He has worked in the dual role of Project Manager as well as Engineering Manager for technology acquisition, design and integration required to reach the goal of deployment of a secure network for 28 sites within Pakistan and 10 Foreign Missions. He led the project engineering /management activities for all networking elements.

IT Software Export – NetSol Technologies Ltd.
This company was founded in 1995 with a vision of becoming a global information technology solution provider. Today, with a global resource base of more than 600 diversely qualified and experienced resources across multiple products and services, the company is truly an entity with a focus on IT service offerings. It has a functional and active presence in USA, UK, Australia, China and Pakistan through its subsidiaries and sister concerns.

Their continued growth and investments in newer markets, products and services augurs well not only for the company itself but also for the future of Pakistani IT services companies in general and more importantly, towards the branding of Pakistan as a favourable IT consulting & services destination in the years to come.

IT Promotion – Mr. Mahmood Sharif
The winner in this category is currently working as Manager MIS at Karachi Port Trust (KPT). He has personally managed the gigantic task of computerization of KPT from scratch and thereby identified areas where Human Resource Management was required. Because of this process, there has been a considerable reduction in paperwork through use of Electronic Data Interchange.

IT Research and Development – Prof. Dr. Arshad Ali
This winner is currently working as Director General, NUST Institute of Information Technology, Rawalpindi. He has over 36 national and international publications to his credit. He conceived the design of the Chaff and Flare dispensing system at the Air Weapons Complex Wah. The system is in use by the Pakistan Air Force and is exported to other countries. He has also initiated research collaboration with Centre for European Nuclear Research (CERN) Switzerland, and earned the Associate Institute status of CMS-CERN for NUST.

IT Education – Dr. Shoaib Ahmed Khan
This winner is currently working as a member of the Board of Trustees at Centre for Advanced Studies in Engineering (CASE), Rawalpindi of which he is a founder. He conceived the idea of establishing a higher centre of learning and founded CASE as a not for profit trust. CASE is the largest postgraduate engineering program in the country with around 500 MS and 80 PhD students. He is a founder of the Centre for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE), which is taking care of projects of dire technical needs of the country.

IT Media & Publication – Mr. Zubair Kasuri
The winner in this category is the Editor in Chief of the country’s leading Telecom magazine ‘Flare’. In 2005, Flare was declared the ‘Best Telecom Magazine in Pakistan’ at the Geo Future Exhibition at Karachi; it participated as the official magazine of the event. Flare also covered ITCN Asia as its official magazine. In July 2005, he was awarded Best Telecom Reporter at Geo See Future in Karachi.

IT Student – Ms. Ayesha Binte Ashfaq
The winner in this category is currently a student of MCS at NUST, Rawalpindi. She has been doing active research and development work on RFID and Traffic Monitoring and Control for the past two years. Her project secured second place at Visiospark-a national IT event held at Comsats Wah, and was put forward as one of the top 20 projects all over Asia at Softec held at FAST Lahore. Her research paper has been accepted for publication and presentation at IADC 2006, San Diego, California, USA. In addition this winner has extensive software development experience and she has developed an Inventory Management System.

For the first time, there were two winners for the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lifetime Achievement Award 1: Dr. Mohammad Ayub Alvi
When BCCI-FAST was established in 1980, he was brought in from UK to advance Science and Technology in Pakistan. He helped in creating world class IT institutes at Lahore and Islamabad.
The winner in this category has his Ph.D , MSc from UMIST, UK and B.Sc from University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore in 1975. His services to the IT industry includes establishment of BCCI-FAST Institute of Electronics at Lahore in 1983, he worked as project director till 1989. Establishment of FAST Institute of Computer Science at Lahore by the end of 1989 and worked as Director till September 1996. Then in he moved to Islamabad to setup FAST Institute of Computer Science at Islamabad and worked as a Director till 2000. He was appointed as Dean, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering of the FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences.

He is the founding member of the IT Commission of Pakistan; now know as Electronic Government Directorate. He is also the founding member of the National Computing Education Accreditation Council, established by Higher Education Commission. He has helped create Pakistan’s first Electronic Admission Test System for a University.


Lifetime Achievement Award 2 - Brig (Retd) Saleem Ahmed Moeen
The winner for this category is the Chairman of the largest IT Organisation in Pakistan having developed Homeland Security Solutions/Systems of International Standard. He joined the Army after obtaining a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering & Technology Lahore, and also holds a Masters degree in Strategic Studies.

He designed and implemented centres which were instrumental in registering 77.5 million citizens in less than four years. He is also the designer of the Multi Biometric Electronic Passport which was launched in October 2004 and since then; more than one million new passports have been issued.
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NADRA is a major Public Sector Success Story in Pakistan. And during his Chairmanship of NADRA, he has thoroughly transformed NADRA into a dynamic organization.

Special Award
A special award was presented to Syed Bader ul Islam, the outgoing Managing Director in appreciation for his dedication and commitment for over 25years to the organisation.
Anwar Maqsood and Hina Bayat were the hosts for the evening while Tina Sani gave a stunning live performance.

About Teradata Division
Teradata (www.teradata.com), a division of NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), is the global technology leader in enterprise data warehousing, analytic applications and data warehousing services. Organizations around the world rely on the power of Teradata’s award-winning solutions to get a single, integrated view of their business to enhance decision-making, customer relationships and profitability. As a growing business, Teradata is always looking for outstanding talent. To learn more about Teradata career opportunities, visit www.teradata.com/careers.

About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a leading global technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships with their customers. NCR’s Teradata® data warehouses, ATMs, retail systems, self-service solutions and IT services provide Relationship Technology™ that maximizes the value of customer interactions and helps organizations create a stronger competitive position. Based in Dayton, Ohio, NCR (www.ncr.com) employs approximately 28,900 people worldwide.......

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Organix IT Canada and Si3 Pakistan signed Rs 1.8 Billion MoU to secure Pakistan with intelligent surveillance

Lahore, Excellencies Hon.Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario, Canada and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Chief Minister of Punjab, Pakistan witnessed the signing of this first-of-its kind MoU that will secure the citizens and key Government assets of Pakistan, through security surveillance solutions. Si3, Pakistan’s premier systems integrator along with Canada-based Organix IT plan to provide solutions in the domain of IT and Security Convergence. The agreement was facilitated by Canada Pakistan Business Council, as part of the first trade mission to Pakistan led by Premier of Ontario, focused on Pakistan’s emerging Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

Punjab Govt. has attached top priority to the development of IT sector in Punjab and methodologies of information technology are being utilized to quicken the tempo of performance of Government departments. “I think MOU between Organix IT Canada and Si3 Pakistan would have deep impact in providing employment, strengthening economy and introducing modern IT techniques in the province.” Sharing his views, Amer Hashmi, President & CEO of Si3 said "This 3 year Rs. 1.8 billion (USD 30 Million) venture with Organix IT will enable Si3 to offer state of art intelligent enterprise security and real time video monitoring solutions. Organix IT and its consortium of technologies have been making cities safer with their Safe City solution. Added to this, they have proven Defense and Airport security solutions catering to the dynamic global security”

“We are pleased to announce that Si3 is now our geographical partner and system integrator in Pakistan for our security solutions”, said Mr. Babak Pirmoradi, CEO of Organix IT.

"It is a mark of Si3's proven market leadership and world class system integration services that Organix IT and Si3 are entering into this partnership. We look forward to working with Organix IT and providing our valuable clients with premium quality Enterprise security surveillance solutions." said Amer Mubbusher, COO at Si3.

“Organix IT is proud of the confidence shown by the government of Pakistan as well as our partner Si3” said Mr. Alexandre Le Bouthillier, Ph.D., CIO of Organix IT.

Si3 (System Innovations (Private) Limited) is the premier IT Systems Integrator in Pakistan with capacity and experience for providing strategic technology that achieve real business results for businesses in diverse industries including financial services, telecommunications, energy, defense and public sector. See complete details at www.s-iii.com

Organix IT Inc. adds intelligence to video surveillance systems with an application layer that enables various advanced functions such as facial image capture, biometric face recognition , behavior recognition, tracking of specific faces, unattended object recognition, crowd tallying, road traffic control, license plate recognition, waterborne object monitoring. See complete details at www.organixit.com

Canada-Pakistan Business Council was registered in Montreal in 1983, as a non-profit organization by several business organizations of Canadian and Pakistani origin, to promote trade between Canada and Pakistan.

Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Call Centre Association and Association of Call Centres & Outsourcing Pakistan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The purpose of this memorandum is to identify and develop a framework of cooperation between the two associations and to develop mutually beneficial programs, projects and activities.

“As Hong Kong is an Asian leader in the development and implementation of call centres that service a wide cross section of both Hong Kong and regional businesses, we wish to extend our working relationships with other associations for mutual benefit,’ said the Chairman of the HK CCA, Mr. Sidney Yuen. He added, ‘call centres and outsourcing providers in both Hong Kong and Pakistan have a great deal to share with one another that will enhance both markets alike.”

ACCO President, Mr. Abdullah Butt, was equally enthusiastic. He said, “In my opinion the MOU will result in providing great exposure to both sides. I am of the view that with this relationship, the Pakistani Call Center and BPO industry will gain more knowledge on how to bring the Pakistan ITeS industry to a new level, leveraging on the experience that the Hong Kong Call Center Industry has achieved. ACCO will soon be inviting experts from Hong Kong to Pakistan for sharing of their in-depth knowledge with our industry experts.”

The virtual signing ceremony took place on January 17th, 2007 with both Mr. Abdullah Butt and Mr. Sidney Yuen acting as signatories.

About the HK CCA

The HK Call Centre Association (www.hkcca.com) is a non-profit organization that has a mission to help local businesses improve their contact centres and customer service by deploying the best management practices and latest technologies. The HK CCA has grown to include over 150 individuals and corporate members in both Hong Kong and Southern China and supports its members through annual benchmarking studies, site visits, awards competitions, training seminars, speakers and many social events.

About ACCO - Pakistan

Association of Call Centers & Outsourcing –Pakistan (www.callcenter.net.pk) is a non-profit body that is committed to the promotion of Call Centers and BPO industry in and out side Pakistan. ACCO is also acting a trade and investment supporter and facilitator to international businessmen interested in ITeS sector of Pakistan, by arranging facilitation meetings of investors and trade visitors with Governmentt functionaries, as well as liaising with the Pakistan Software Export Board on implementation of initiatives and facilities to the ITeS industry in Pakistan.
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The Punjab Information Technology Department (PITD), an autonomous body with the mission to “develop IT as a major sphere of economic activity, and promote its use in the public and private sectors for increasing efficiency and competitiveness awarded the contract to Acrologix for the “Excise and Taxation Appraisal and Collection (ETAC) System to be developed under the Computerization of Excise and Taxation Department Project”.

Acrologix (www.acrologix.com), an ISO 9001:2000 certified Software Development Company will develop an automated system for Excise and Taxation Department, Government of Punjab. The project aims to automate all the activities being performed in E&T Department. Keeping in view of Acrologix’s past track of performance and high quality service standards for the automation of Excise & Taxation Department, NWFP, PITD awarded this project to Acrologix.

Acrologix (Pvt.) Ltd. is one of the leading service provider in the software development to the Government of Punjab for its various projects under Punjab Information Technology Department (PITD) and Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB). During the last one year Acrologix has been awarded 5 projects by Govt. of Punjab which includes;

• Computerization of 34 Women Development Centers and 34 Districts Bait-ul-Maal Committees in Punjab

• Rehabilitation and Modernization of Computer Facilities at Punjab Public Service Commission, Lahore

• Development of Customized Software for Labour Department, Directorate of Labour and Punjab Employees Social Security Institute (PESSI) Phase – 1

• Computerization of Punjab Cooperatives Department

Soft Hand has successfully completed the initial phase of Discuss and remotely deployed at NWI server machines. Now NWI officials are reviewing and testing it before final release to clients.
Discuss is a product of NWI for publishing industry. This application was initially developed in COBOL and is in use since last 25 years. At Soft Hand, professionals are developing a new user interface in Java/J2EE/Swing based technologies. This application is highly customizable and can be easily configured for different clients. It is developed up to the entire satisfaction of our valuable client.

About NWI
Neasi-Weber International is a US based company. They are the leading provider of integrated advertising, circulation, and insert management software for newspaper and magazine publishers.
http://www.nwintl.com/

About Soft Hand
Soft Hand was founded in 2004 by a team of highly skilled and experienced professionals of IT arena. Its major areas of interest are developing customized Enterprise Applications using Sun Microsystems’s J2EE framework.(www.softhand.com.pk)

UBL Qatar has successfully migrated to EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa), the global chip card specification, with TPS technologies. With this launch UBL Qatar becomes the first Pakistani bank in Qatar to successfully achieve EMV certification with NAPS, the Qatar Central Bank switch.
With EMV issuer certification, UBL Qatar’s clients can now use their chip based VISA debit cards on all EMV enabled terminals, anywhere in the world. In addition to this, UBL can also acquire all EMV cards on its ATM network in Qatar. This certification enables UBL Qatar’s clients to benefit from EMV chip applications and authentication services which help deter counterfeit, lost and stolen cards.

TPS is at the forefront of EMV migration in GCC region with recent certification of EMV Acquiring in UBL Bahrain as well. TPS products and solutions are ready with end-to-end EMV certified solutions which includes acquiring, issuing and chip card personalization solution, Sentinel.

About TPS:
TPS is a software, systems and consulting firm specializing in e-Banking and e-Payment products, solutions and services. For more information, please visit our website www.tpsonline.com

 

Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) organized a conference on ways to promote rural connectivity. The focus was on the use of wireless networks to bring rural and other communities closer and empower them through sharing of information among themselves. The source of this information can either be FM radios, community TV, SMS, Internet or any other means.The topmost attraction of the event was the presentation given by the team representing a Lahore based Pakistani company Five Rivers Technologies (Pvt) Limited. They gave practical demonstration of an indigenously created handheld digital device that may cost less than US$100 a piece if produced in a quantity of 1,000 units.

The device showcased at the event was a mini-computer that can be used at large scale in remote parts of the country as well as central locations to connect people. The inventors are extremely hopeful that if this platform is used appropriately, it can bring revolution in the country and bring the benefits of the breakthrough in IT to all those who are still deprived of it. The cost of ownership they say is so low that even the poorest can be capable of possessing it.

As the story goes, it was back in 2004 that Five Rivers Technologies (FRT), a purely Pakistani concern, decided to embark on the project. The goal was to figure out how the company could deliver an IT appliance to the whole world - something that appeared to be nothing more than a far-fetched idea. But within a couple of years the dream became a reality.The result of these efforts is a simple design, now two years in the making. Operating under the code-name Sirius, the design makes use of multiple, very inexpensive yet reasonably powerful processors, a low cost LCD screen, rechargeable batteries, a communications capability to interface with other computers (PCs included), cell phones and peripherals, zero moving parts, a full fledged keyboard and a form factor that lies somewhere between a PDA and a sub notebook.

In a candid talk with cyber@print on the sidelines of the conference it was heard that similar initiatives had been taken in the past. For example, the One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) initiative was touted a lot but common man does not know that only the production volume in hundreds of millions of units could lead to a US$160 cost per machine. On the other hand, Sirius can cost US$100 and less if produced in quantities as low as 1,000 pieces. "If we can leverage larger quantities, our prices would be cut in half or better. The merits of our design include its intrinsic low cost," says Amir Husain, the leader of the FRT team working on Sirius. He added that he had showcased the product at many universities in Pakistan as well as before private companies and proposed them to invest it in this venture. "It's a platform and can be used for various purposes. The education departments of the country can link all the existing schools with it, consumer goods companies keep record of inventories, stocks and demands, students can use libraries available on a handheld and so on," he says.

FRT has also built development boards that they have shared with some of the universities in Pakistan to start to create an application ecosystem around the platform. Further development is focusing on low cost wireless communications peripherals, external display capability, Operating System extensions, SMS/GPRS integration, TCP/IP stack implementation and GPS integration. On the software side, some sample applications are complete, but Five Rivers is attempting to engage universities and students to accelerate this process further.

FRT takes pride in informing that other than the chips, everything has been designed and developed in Pakistan. This includes the layout and the manufacture of the PCB, the keyboard, the internal firmware/Operating System and the device housing. The whole project was funded by Five Rivers Technologies' other commercial work and didn't consume any special funds allocated for the purpose.
 

Better safeguards are needed to protect the personal data of British consumers held by call centres in India, MEPs have warned. The Amicus union group of Labour MEPs is challenging the European Commission to prevent unauthorized access to details when they are processed abroad. The action follows reports criminals have tried to get hold of data. But British companies which outsource to India say they have adequate security in place to prevent fraud.

Organized gangs
The Evening Standard newspaper reported that organized gangs had offered a year in wages to call centre staff in return for access to UK credit card details. And US credit card giant Capital One pulled out of India after unauthorized credit levels were offered by call centres. MEPs are tabling a motion on Monday at the Employment and Social Affairs Committee calling for an investigation into the issue. Bill Miller, MEP for Scotland, who is backing the motion, says action needs to be taken before attempts to get credit card details become more widespread. "It is a worrying consequence of the trend towards outsourcing," he said. Mr. Miller says countries such as France are suffering from the same problem, and there are concerns that call centres in other parts of Asia are being targeted. The concern comes at a time when an increasing number of call centre and business service jobs are being relocated out of the UK.

'Major failing'
Amicus has predicted that 200,000 jobs will be exported by 2008, which will mean every banking and personal finance customer will be forced to allow their details out of the UK. And a recent report by accountants Ernst & Young warned that "given the volume of off shoring that is going on and the risks attached, there will be a major regulatory failing within five years". The Data Protection Act requires only that companies maintain their server within EU boundaries despite the fact data is being processed thousands of miles away. David Fleming, Amicus national secretary for finance, said: "Off shoring is an accident waiting to happen "It is only a matter of time before a serious crime is committed, which ruins the reputation of the British financial services industry.

'Closely monitored'
British companies which outsource work to India say they have comprehensive checks in place to prevent fraud. The UK insurance group Aviva, which owns Norwich Union, says its outsourced operations in India are closely monitored, and fully comply with data protection requirements. "We have rigorous anti-fraud processes in place across Norwich Union to prevent fraud," said spokeswoman Liz Kennett. HSBC says it only uses its own staff in India, and does not outsource the third parties. "We are confident that all staff, whether here or in India, exercise the same levels of confidentiality and customer protection," said an HSBC spokeswoman.

 

Keane told the SEC that it has reached an agreement with Caritor, also an outsourcing vendor, to be acquired for about $854 million in cash.

Technology outsourcer Keane filed documents Friday with a regulatory agency confirming its previously announced plans to be acquired by Caritor. In papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Keane confirmed that it has reached an agreement with Caritor, also an outsourcing vendor, to be acquired for about $854 million in cash. On Wednesday, Keane reported that fourth quarter net income increased 11% to $11.3 million. The results prompted an upgrade to "market perform" from "underperform" by analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey.

Keane's buyout follows a year of turmoil and executive turnover at the outsourcer, whose customers include Countrywide Financial, CSX Technology, and Tufts Health Plan. Last month, Keane announced that Kirk Arnold, 47, would assume the CEO post vacated in March 2006 by Brian Keane. Keane, the son of the company's founder, resigned after he was accused of sexual harassment by two female employees. Keane denied the charges but said in a statement at the time that he had exercised "poor judgment." Following Brian Keane's departure, the company formed a three-person leadership team. One of those executives, Richard Garnick, was fired in September for what the company said were problems with his travel expenses and "unauthorized communications inconsistent with the company's interests."
Garnick has since sued Keane for wrongful dismissal.

Source: Yahoo News
 

Some 89% of the customer organizations surveyed by KPMG say they plan to maintain or increase their current level of outsourcing. So why do many of the other survey findings paint such an unflattering picture of these relationships? KPMG International last week released the results of a survey it conducted on global outsourcing, prompting various pundits to conclude that the industry and customer relationships are stronger than ever.

Among the high points: 42% of customers surveyed think their outsourcing contracts have "definitely improved" their financial performance; 47% think their service providers brought to their business experience that they previously didn't have; and 62% take exception to the conventional wisdom that "as many as half of sourcing deals fail." Perhaps the most positive finding: 89% of the customer organizations surveyed say they plan to maintain or increase their current level of outsourcing.

On the whole, KPMG's 34-page "Strategic Evolution" report is balanced, especially for a vested global services interest such as itself. KPMG surveyed C-level and other execs at 650 organizations in 32 countries, 80% of them involved in IT outsourcing and most of the rest involved in business process outsourcing.

A critical eye, however, finds a dark side to many of the trends presented in the report and parroted by the punditry as positive. Let's start with KPMG's attempt to debunk the myth that half of outsourcing deals fail. While 62% of customer respondents to the survey consider this statement a "gross or mostly an oversimplification," 25% say it's "not an oversimplification but not entirely appropriate" and 13% say it's "mostly or an entirely appropriate view." It's hardly a ringing endorsement when 38% of outsourcing customers think that, to some degree, up to half of these contracts flop. Meantime, if 47% of customers think their service providers impart experience that they previously didn't have, then it stands to reason that the other 53% think their outsourcers impart little to no such experience. From my conversations with various IT executives, this is their No. 1 concern with outsourcing: Suppliers, for all their technical smarts, just don't understand the businesses of their customers.

It's the main reason Sprint Nextel's Richard LeFave nixed a long-term outsourcing contract with IBM--pulling back "full application ownership, including full life cycle management, architecture, system analysis, and design"--when he took over as CIO of the merged telecom company last year. And it's why Jamie Dimon did the same thing a little over a year ago when he became CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Dimon has said that the banking giant is as much a technology company as General Motors is a manufacturing company. No outsourcing supplier can know its core business better.

KPMG also found that 42% of the customer organizations it surveyed think their outsourcing contracts have definitely improved their financial performance, but only 27% think they have definitely improved their competitiveness. If outsourcing suppliers aren't doing one or the other for their customers, they're not doing much.Part of the ambiguity with these responses goes to another survey finding: 72% of customers say they don't have, or don't share with their service providers, criteria for measuring the success or failure of their outsourcing engagements. "Success is ill-defined," KPMG quotes the CEO of one manufacturer. "Measurement of business benefits is difficult, and there is a tendency not to measure."

Clearly, customers are still finding their footing. Last year revealed a trend toward shorter, smaller, and more specialized outsourcing contracts, producing a record number of total deals, according to advisory firm TPI. However, the fourth quarter of 2006 was the worst fourth quarter in five years when it comes to the overall value of brand-new outsourcing deals. For the year, "total contract value" declined 8% compared with 2005, to $78 billion, TPI reports. As much as $100 billion of outsourcing contracts are due for renewal this year. We'll see how strong these relationships really are.

Source: oobp.org
 

SAP will integrate the business analytics app PilotWorks into its suite of business software
In a move to strengthen its portfolio of analytic applications, SAP has agreed to acquire privately held Pilot Software, a maker of strategy management software based in Mountain View, California.
SAP intends to integrate Pilot Software's core product, the business analytic application PilotWorks, into its suite of business software products that run on the NetWeaver integration platform, the Walldorf, Germany, company said Tuesday. No financial details were disclosed.

In earlier interviews, SAP CEO Henning Kagermann said the company would make "fill-in" acquisitions in areas where it needed to "generate innovative add-on products around ... core products." Kagermann said "analytic capabilities are part of end-to-end business processes" and referred to embedded analytics as "the future." The Pilotworks application provides analytic tools for executives to manage goals and initiatives more effectively and bring structure and consistency to regularly scheduled operational review processes.

Source: IDG News Service

According to Forrester Research, 37 percent of enterprises use Microsoft Visual Basic.Net for development and maintenance of their in-house applications. What's more, among .Net developers, 59 percent use Visual Basic.Net as their only programming language.

Thus, as of 2006, at least 20 percent of all in-house business programs were still being written in Basic, according to the market analysis firm. Until now, Visual Basic applications could only run on Windows OS, without major modifications. With the Mono Visual Basic compiler, however, those applications will be able to run on many more platforms. As a proof point of this new platform-independence, the new compiler is self-hosting. That is, the complier itself is written in Visual Basic.

Source: Eweek.com

IT Security Branches Out

Security is no longer just a sport for techies. Now the most effective lineups boast players with financial acumen and people skills.Remember the good old days of security—back when knowing the latest virus’s footprint or how to configure a firewall would vault you to the top of the most valuable list? Ah yes, those were the days when security professionals could simply concentrate on identifying faulty code and leave the business to others.

Well, it’s time to wake up. Sure, there is plenty of room for techies on today’s IT security team—in fact, more need than ever. But, security is no longer just a sport for techies. Now the most effective lineups boast players with financial acumen and people skills—at least according to a recent survey conducted by INS.

The survey of 84 security professionals asked a number of questions about the state of security today. And there’s a lot of good news to report. Nine out of 10 organizations place security among their top priorities, with 29 percent listing it as numero uno. Further, more than three-quarters of survey respondents are satisfied with their IT organization’s security capabilities and an even higher number (85 percent) are satisfied with the products available to improve those capabilities. Unfortunately, those products can come at a steep price—which is where financial acumen comes in.Security products are constantly evolving to meet the ever-changing array of threats that are conjured up daily by the mischievous as well as nefarious. They also have to constantly add functionality to comply with new government mandates as well as meet simple business imperatives, such as not making the nightly news by losing sensitive customer data. All this churn comes at a price. And that price erects barriers to improving information security capabilities. In fact, 57 percent of survey respondents say that the cost of products and tools is too high. Additionally, 54 percent say that justifying the cost to upper management when compared to the potential benefits is a significant barrier to improving security.

Does this mean that security professionals need to get MBAs in order to move ahead? Maybe it does. Certainly, there will always be a need for technical skills, but understanding how to build a business case that the CFO can read and say, “Now I get it,” is just as critical to boosting security. Unfortunately, demonstrating the value of security investments is among the toughest tasks IT can undertake. While that hot new Web service might have the potential to generate new revenues—and show a solid short-term return on that investment—security improvements are usually all about potential cost avoidance. In other words, if it works, no one will notice. Yet, not making the investment might sink the business. It’s up to you to prove the danger, and the cost of the remedy. For this you’ll need numbers—cost numbers and potential cost numbers. Time to get familiar with some new acronyms like NPV and IRR.

If cost of improving security is the top barrier in today’s environment, then end-user laxity is the top issue. Nearly one-third of survey respondents say that the issue that causes them the most concern about potential security breaches is simply that end users are inadequately trained on proper security procedures, or are just unconcerned about the consequences of their actions. Neither of these situations can be cured by security products with more cryptographic code.
Security professionals have recognized for a number of years the importance of creating comprehensive security policies and procedures, and generally have done a good job of documenting them once created. Where they often fall down, though, is getting the people who are on the front lines to actually read and follow them. Simple dictums and other one-way efforts are likely to be ineffective

So the bottom line is that building information security is not much different than most other business activities. Its value to the organization must be proven in order to be funded, and wishing for cooperation is no substitute for active programs. The truth is, nerdiness is no longer the only characteristic looked for in a security MVP candidate. The security stars of tomorrow are going to be equipped with a financial calculator and a copy of Psychology Today—as well as a can of Red Bull, just in case.

Source; CIO.com
 

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Outsourcing Not Slowing Down: Study

Eighty-nine percent of respondents to a KPMG study say they plan to maintain or increase their present level of sourcing.

Outsourcing is still increasing and organizations involved in this practice either want to maintain their sourcing level or want to increase it, says KPMG’s recent study Strategic Evolution, which is based on responses from more than 650 organizations (both customers and services providers) from 32 countries. “Outsourcing is not slowing down, in fact it’s growing faster,” says Pradeep Udhas, Global Head, KPMG Advisory Services. “This industry is going to go much beyond where it is today.”

Customer respondents believe that service providers generally make positive contributions to the success of their organizations. Forty-seven percent believe that their service providers brought experience to their business that they previously did not have. Forty-two percent of the organizations believe that their sourcing contract has definitely improved their financial performance, and 27% said that sourcing has definitely improved their competitiveness.

The study also found that 87% of respondents believe that the statement “as many as half of sourcing deals fail” is a gross simplification, while only 13% believe that it is an appropriate view.
 

Source: Dr. Dobb’s Portal
 

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Getting Clueful: Five Things You Should Know About Fighting Spam:

The battle for your users' e-mail inboxes probably will never end, but it's not a failure of technology. Experienced e-mail and system administrators share the key points they really, really wish you understood.

When you started your e-mail client this morning, you were prepared for the usual set of correspondence: your daily dose of corporate politics, a dollop of technical emergencies and the background hum of projects under way. Annoyingly, your inbox also contained a few messages advertising products you would never buy, and perhaps a phishing notice warning that your account was frozen at a financial institution where you don't have an account. Your company has antispam measures in place; surely, the IT staff should be able to keep this junk out of your inbox?

Perhaps they can, but the task of doing so has become much more difficult in recent years, partly because 85 percent or more of all e-mail traffic today is spam. If you haven't been listening closely to the dark mutterings in your e-mail administrator's office, you may have missed out on significant clues about the nature of the problem and what the IT department can do to address it. However, when you do listen to the technical staff, it's easy to get lost in their arcane acronyms, such as SPF and RBLs, and you may drown in more information than you really wanted to know.

To learn what's really happening in the technical trenches, we asked several e-mail administrators to tell us about the key items—the single key item, in fact—that they wish their IT management understood. If you read through their wish list, you may be able to understand the nature of their challenges and, perhaps, help them clean out your inbox.

In brief, says Keith Brooks, vice president at Vanessa Brooks, "Stopping spam is a mixture of luck, intelligence, alcohol and planning." With luck, he says, your CEO never hears about spam. "But without it, the CIO never stops hearing about this issue."

IT Confidential: Is There Anything That Can Be Done About E-Mail?

I don't know about your e-mail inbox, but the flood of electronic messages I'm getting is reaching biblical proportions.

First, there's its sheer quantity. The most recent research I've read estimates E-mail volume at almost 200 billion messages a day. That translates into every person on earth receiving more than 30 E-mail messages every day. (That being the case, I'm receiving more than my share.) Those are the kinds of numbers they throw around in Washington when they talk about the deficit or the shortfall in Social Security. I can imagine it as a biblical plague: And the earth was visited by 10 million locusts, 20 billion frogs, and 200 billion E-mails. Wait, I forgot about spam, which represents a conservative 70% of that number. And when I see the E-mails promoting Viagra, stock tips, and porn still getting through to my in-box, I realize my brave little corporate spam filter is fighting a valiant but losing battle.

Speaking of spam, can somebody please explain how it is that phishing--the E-mail scam that tricks people into giving up their personal data--continues to flourish? Hey, there seems to be a problem with my Bank of America savings account, according to this E-mail I just received--I better click on this link and do everything it says. What's wrong with those people? Aren't they reading the E-mail warnings they receive about this kind of fraud?

Then there's the ubiquity of E-mail. The Radicati Group, a research firm, estimates there are about 1.1 billion E-mail users, and 1.4 billion active E-mail accounts, worldwide. (OK, maybe I am receiving my fair share.) Wireless Internet connectivity means people can access their E-mail almost anywhere. The advance of mobile E-mail technology--the E-mail service available on cell phones and BlackBerrys (known as "push" E-mail, please note)--erases the "almost" from that equation.

And that speaks to the addictive nature of E-mail (see "push" above). Last week Visto, a mobile E-mail service provider, reported that 60% of respondents to a survey it recently sponsored say that, a year ago, they thought mobile E-mail was too expensive, but that now 70% consider it "less exclusive" and affordable. Of the 40% of respondents who use mobile E-mail now, 29% say it has "simply become a necessity in their lives," Visto says.

After all that, it turns out E-mail may not be very effective. In fact, there's significant potential for miscommunication with E-mail, according to a research study published this month in the Academy Of Management Review. The study, by Kristin Byron, an assistant professor of management in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, explains that E-mail is very poor at expressing emotions, and people often read emotional content into E-mail where none was intended, according to a release from the university announcing the study. It's simple: "Miscommunication in E-mails can be caused by senders' inability to accurately convey their intended meaning and by receivers' inability to perceive the senders' intended meaning," says Byron. As a result, she recommends that companies consider offering training in the use of E-mail. "With the increasing reliance on E-mail in the workplace, understanding how to effectively communicate emotions by E-mail is crucial."

Source:- Information Week