SaaS Newswire: April 2011

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Sage VP Hal Bloom to Share Customer Intelligence Expertise at 9th Annual Symposium for Customer Operations & Relationship Exposition Event

BOSTON, MA (Apr. 28, 2011)—Sage North America today announced that Hal Bloom, vice president (VP) of market research, will participate in an education session on using customer intelligence information as part of customer experience management (CEM) at this week’s 9th Annual SCORE (Symposium for Customer Operations & Relationships Exposition) event, being held through April 29 at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, Mass. SCORE is a comprehensive conference dedicated to driving your organization’s revenue and profits by implementing the right CEM strategy.

“We’re proud to have Hal representing us at this event, because customer experience management is so important to us,” said Dennis Frahmann, executive vice president for corporate marketing at Sage. “Across the organization—from our executive leadership team and customer-facing employees, to our back-office support teams—we’re committed to staying on top of customer needs and opportunities to help them maximize their productivity and achieve success. Collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer data is an important component of that.”

Bloom will serve as a panelist for the SCORE session, “Gaining Competitive Advantage through Customer Intelligence,” this afternoon. Bob E. Hayes, PhD, president of Business Over Broadway, will serve as moderator for the session, while Bloom; Rob McCabe, VP for CA Global Support at CA Technologies; and Patrick O’Hara, senior vice president (SVP) for CEM at APAC Customer Services, Inc., will serve as panelists.

The panelists will discuss constantly evolving customer intelligence best practices and why they are a fundamental component of customer relationship management (CRM). They will also discuss how knowing core characteristics of different kinds of customers can help companies more easily and accurately predict purchase decisions, as well as make choices about product improvements, new product/service offerings, and more. Attendees will learn about the tools to use, and how to use them to get ahead of the competition, while strengthening their customer relationships.

As head of the Sage North America market research team, Bloom is responsible for providing strategic direction to the corporation by designing, conducting, and analyzing all market research. He has more than 35 years of domestic and international expertise in all aspects of marketing research, long-range strategic planning, new business development, and customer loyalty in Fortune 500 companies, including Coca-Cola, Pillsbury, Tupperware, and Grey Advertising. Bloom has also been a consultant for major advertising agencies, service industries, and small businesses, and has contributed to such media outlets as CustomerThink, Journal of Advertising Research, and KMWorld.

SCORE 2011 is a comprehensive conference dedicated to driving an organization’s revenue and profits by implementing the right CEM strategy that will leverage their CRM investment. Attendees will learn, from CRM industry pioneers, how to develop a CEM strategy that will leverage their CRM investment. Best-in-class industry leaders will present stimulating new concepts for customer satisfaction, employee motivation, employee rewards, incentive-based compensation, and customer retention and loyalty—and how all are linked to increasing revenues and profits. Skill-building sessions will promote excellence in developing world-class CEM strategies that will drive a company’s bottom-line. For more information, visit http://www.omegascoreboard.com/score_2011.shtml.

About Sage North America
Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs 4,000 people and supports 3.2 million small and midsized business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,400 people and supports 6.3 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com. Follow Sage North America on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageNorthAmerica, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/sagenamerica.

Press Contact:
Cynthia Sutton
Sage North America
703-793-2700 x 3032
cynthia.sutton@sage.com

Pulled from/Sourced: sagenorthamerica.com

Tags: hal bloom, relationship exposition, SaaS speakers, sage, sage north america, Symposium for Customer Operations & Relationship Exposition

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

CELEBRATE WEB PROFESSIONALS’ DAY FRIDAY

4th Annual Holiday to Honor Web Pros April 29

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (April 26, 2011) – While many are abuzz about the upcoming royal wedding, Go Daddy reminds you to honor the pros that make your life better by celebrating Web Professionals’ Day.

Friday marks the fourth annual Web Professionals’ Day. A holiday created in 2008 by Go Daddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar and Web hosting provider, in conjunction with the World Organization of Webmasters. The idea is to honor all online professionals around the globe – the people who help develop, run, refresh, secure and repair websites at your office, or even your home.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts the profession will be one of the top five fastest-growing industries over the next decade. According to BLS, more than 1.5 million people have jobs as Web professionals in the U.S. right now and IDC, an industry analyst, cites two-thirds of small to medium-sized businesses as having their own Web Professionals in-house. Recently, online advertising surpassed conventional newspaper advertising in terms of revenue – yet another sign of the power of the Internet.

“There’s a bosses’ day, an administrative professional day … why not a day to honor Web professionals?” asked Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “The Internet is at the heart of the new global economy. Having a successful website is something many businesses didn’t have to worry about six or seven years ago … those days are gone forever!”

In addition to maintaining websites, Web professionals oversee issues such as user availability, speed of access and ease of use. They collect and analyze data on Web activity, traffic patterns and other metrics, as well as monitor and respond to user feedback.

“In these tough economic times, the Web profession continues to lead the way in job opportunities,” said Bill Cullifer, Executive Director of WebProfessionals.org and the Web Professional Directory. “I am pleased to recognize and honor Web professionals for their commitment, excellence and service to the enterprise, as well as small to medium-sized businesses.”

You too can show support for hardworking Web pros everywhere by posting on Twitter through the hash tag: #GDWebPro.

Go Daddy offers domain names, websites and other products to help people and businesses develop their online presence, including Web hosting, SSL Certificates and Email Marketing tools, all backed by Go Daddy’s 24/7 customer support.

To learn more about how to get online quickly and affordably, visit ,a href=”http://www.godaddy.com/”>www.GoDaddy.com.

To learn more about the World Organization of Webmasters and roles, responsibilities and careers opportunities for Web professionals visit ,www.WebProfessionals.org. About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and website design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce website hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group has more than 47 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers more than one domain name every second of every day. GoDaddy.com is the world’s largest Web hosting provider and is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. In 2010, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.

Get up close and personal with CEO and Founder Bob Parsons and receive great advice for life and business along the way! Visit: www.BobParsons.Me

Contact:
Stephanie Bracken
PR Specialist
480.505.8800 x4451
PR@GoDaddy.com – The Go Daddy Group -
©2011 GoDaddy.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

14455 N. Hayden Road, Suite 219 • Scottsdale, Az 85260 • T: 480.505.8800 • www.godaddy.com

Pulled from/Sourced: godaddy.com

This is not an original piece by SaaS newswire, rather this is a suggestion to our readers of great content on a great site. All credit given to the original source.

Tags: CELEBRATE WEB PROFESSIONALS' DAY, domain, godaddy, honor web pros april 29, hosting, registrar, saas news, virtualization, web hosting

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Adobe to fix Flash Player hole this week

Adobe will release a fix for a new critical bug in Flash Player on Friday for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris, while Google Chrome users will be protected by Thursday through the browser’s auto-update feature, Adobe said today.

“As part of our collaboration with Google, Google receives updated builds of Flash Player for integration and testing. Once testing is completed for Google Chrome, the release is pushed via the Chrome auto-update mechanism,” Adobe said in a statement.

“Adobe is testing the fix across all supported configurations of Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris and Android (more than 60 platforms/configurations altogether) to ensure the fix works across all supported configurations,” the statement said. “Typically, this process takes slightly longer and, in this case, is expected to complete on April 15 for Flash Player for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris.”

Meanwhile, an update for Adobe Acrobat X and earlier for Windows and Macintosh, Adobe Reader X for Macintosh and Adobe Reader 9.4.3 and earlier for Windows and Macintosh will be available no later than the week of April 25, the company said in a security advisory.

Adobe warned on Monday that attackers were exploiting the hole to take control of Windows computers by sending e-mails with malicious Flash files embedded in Microsoft Word attachments. The company said it was not aware of any attacks via PDF (portable document format) files targeting Reader and Acrobat.

Because Adobe Reader X Protected Mode prevents such exploits from executing the company will address the hole in that software in its next quarterly security update for Reader, scheduled for June 14.

Pulled from/Sourced: news.cnet.com by Elinor Mills

Tags: adobe, android, chrome, flash player, linux, mac, patch, Windows, zero-day

Monday, April 11, 2011

Oracle Announces First MySQL 5.6 Development Milestone Release

New Features Make MySQL Even Better for Web, Cloud, and Embedded Applications
COLLABORATE ‘11, Orlando, Florida – April 11, 2011
News Facts

* Demonstrating its continued investment in MySQL, Oracle today announced the first development milestone release for MySQL 5.6, the world’s most popular open source database.

* The first MySQL 5.6 development milestone release delivers increased MySQL performance and scalability enhancements, an improved InnoDB storage engine, and enhanced replication capabilities.

* Several milestone releases of MySQL 5.6 are scheduled to be made available to the MySQL community during its development phase, each including a new set of stable features.

* In addition to the new features in this MySQL 5.6 development milestone release, the MySQL community can test significant new features such as NoSQL access to InnoDB via the Memcached protocol, via http://labs.mysql.com.

New Features in MySQL 5.6 Focus on Increased Performance, Scalability and Flexibility

The first development milestone release of MySQL 5.6 delivers:

* Increased performance and scalability, including:

* An improved optimizer enabling better query performance.

* More partitioning options providing faster access to relevant data.

* An enhanced PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA facilitating better performance monitoring and tuning.

* An improved InnoDB storage engine, offering:

* Persistent Optimizer Statistics that produce improved, more predictable optimizer plans, as well as reduce start-up time.

* Multi-threaded Purge delivering steady performance by making purge operations more efficient.

* New INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables that provide more comprehensive resources information for performance tuning and troubleshooting.

* Configurable Data Dictionary cache enabling DBAs to more efficiently deploy systems with a large number of tables.

* Enhanced replication, providing:

* New crash-safe slaves and replication checksums that improve data integrity and detect errors that could cause slave corruption.

* Optimized row-based replication improving replication performance and reducing system resource consumption.

* Time delayed replication providing DBAs more flexibility and Remote Binary Log Backup enabling them to create real-time backups from the binary log.

* The following key features are also available through http://labs.mysql.com, for early testing:

* High performance NoSQL access to InnoDB from Memcached, delivering the added flexibility of using NoSQL techniques to access InnoDB data.

* New replication multi-threaded slaves which improve replication performance using multiple execution threads to apply replication events to slave servers.

Supporting Quote

* “From significantly investing in the technology, to working closely with the community, Oracle continues to make MySQL better,” said Tomas Ulin, Oracle’s MySQL vice president of Engineering. “With this first MySQL 5.6 development milestone release, we are offering early access to new stable features for testing. Oracle continues to innovate and enhance the MySQL Database, delivering a higher performing, more scalable, reliable, and easier to use MySQL.”

Supporting Resources
Oracle and MySQL
The MySQL 5.6 development milestone release can be downloaded here. Terms, Conditions and Restrictions apply.
MySQL
MySQL Community Edition
MySQL Enterprise
MySQL Developer Zone
http://labs.mysql.com
About Oracle

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world’s most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.
Trademarks
Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contact Info

Teri Whitaker
Oracle
+1.650.506.9914
teri.whitaker@oracle.com

Kristin Reeves
Blanc & Otus
+1.415.856.5145
kreeves@blancandotus.com
Pulled from/Sourced: Oracle.com

Tags: development release, mysql, mysql 5.6, oracle, saas news

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Closed or Open Source: Which CMS is Right for Your Business?

Oneupweb, a leading digital marketing agency representing some of the nation’s most recognized brands for more than 15 years.

The goal of any web development agency is to deliver a website that not only looks attractive but is also manageable. It seems there are new contenders vying to be the top content management system (CMS) every day. Making it easy to add products, articles and just about anything else is a mandatory development skill today. Inevitably, the question always arises: “Do we download something free and open source, or do we buy a solution?”

Ask developers and they’ll probably explain they have favorites from both realms. However, most marketing execs and decision makers aren’t as familiar with CMSs, let alone quick to name drop their most preferred. Feel overwhelmed or torn by CMS choices? Let’s discuss the pros and cons of developing within both open and closed source systems. And for further direction, let’s scope out the top open and closed source ways to manage content for both ecommerce and general content sites.

Open Source vs. Closed Source

Open source means there are a lot of people working on the software. Plenty of individuals are making sure the code is solid and that the software is easy to use. Documentation is usually easy to find, and there are plenty of people out there writing “how-tos,” which make design and development easier and even fun. You can count on regular updates that are continually improving the product. Open source systems let you see what makes the software tick, and you can often change it to suit your needs. Use this to your advantage when it comes to differentiating yourself from the rest of the pack.

However, because of the popularity of open source systems, many people are familiar with open source code, which creates a higher risk for hacking. If you choose to design in an open source system, your development team is going to need to put time and work into preventing third-party tampering. This difficulty will scale based on many factors such as how many people need to have access to sensitive areas of the site (like the admin panel).

Closed source software usually equates to better security and support. For an ecommerce site, it isn’t necessarily more secure to go with a closed source system, but unlike open source systems, developers don’t have to spend as much time securing code. If a developer runs into any issues in a closed source software, providers are more than happy to offer you support. This is a convenience, because it cuts down on the development time and cost.

Unfortunately with closed source, the barrier to entry is a lot higher. A smaller community means less experience and collective knowledge. This usually equates with much higher costs across the board. You often have to pay for the software or service, and if your support package doesn’t include it, you end up having to pay someone else for their expertise.

Top Open Source CMSs for Product Management

Three of the top open source CMSs for successfully managing ecommerce sites are: Magento, osCommerce and Zen Cart. All three of these CMSs provide well-structured source code, which allows for easier collaboration between developers and designers and an overall smoother workflow. It’s important that developers have access to a rich architecture that makes plugin and extension development a snap, while designers have access to a powerful, templating system.

Top Open Source General Purpose CMSs

It seems that there are hundreds of these out there. With its humble start as a simple blogging platform, WordPress has grown into a full-blown content management system. The community supporting this gem has made it into a powerhouse capable of handling just about anyone’s needs. Some big names are using this CMS: The Wall Street Journal, CNN and Ford, to name a few. Although WordPress has achieved notoriety, both Joomla and Drupal are also big names in the open source general purpose realm. Some of the biggest sites online are built with Joomla (Living Well Magazine) and Drupal (The White House, The Economist). Developers and designers have a number of possibilities when creating websites in WordPress, Joomla or Drupal.

Top Closed Source CMSs for Product Management

If taking the closed source route, it’s usually best to make sure the service offers good, customizable aesthetics. Shopify, Volusion and AspDotNetStorefront are all fully functional and secure storefronts to help developers and designers with creating successful ecommerce sites. Though you can’t peek at the code running your store, you do have access to the powerful templating systems such as “Liquid” (if using Shopify), which allows your imagination to run wild while designing. When using any of these three closed source CMSs, it’s a snap to include custom HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Top Closed Source General Purpose CMSs

Where to begin? Many of the closed source content management systems offer different prices for different needs. There are services out there such as CushyCMS for individuals or small companies with mostly static content, and there are the big kids on the block such as Telerik and Sharepoint that operate on Microsoft’s .NET Framework.

CushyCMS is a designer’s dream as there is no development involved — just standards like HTML, CSS and JavaScript are used. In the case of Telerik and Sharepoint, the .NET Framework and the powerful editor Visual Studio can make developing and designing much easier.

In the end, it all boils down to the abilities of your in-house tech staff and your budget. Many enterprise companies design with open source because they have qualified developers. If you don’t feel that your team is ready to take on extra challenges, then closed source (and its built-in support) may be the best route. Although closed source companies will offer support, they may not always offer you programming support. For instance, they may outsource a job for you. The very best design work is created with confidence, so be sure you’re working with a CMS that you feel secure in.

Pulled from/Sourced: news.yahoo.com

Tags: cms, drupal, joomla, web development news, what cms should i use?, wordpress

Monday, April 4, 2011

Digital Infrastructure, Cloud Computing Transforming Fragmented Manufacturing Industry Value Chain, According to Microsoft Study

As industry calls for closer collaboration, Microsoft launches Reference Architecture Framework for Discrete Manufacturers Initiative to accelerate cloud computing, improved collaboration across value chain.

HANNOVER, Germany, April 4, 2011 /SaaS Newswire via PRNewswire/ — New technology advancements available in a digital infrastructure, such as cloud computing and social computing, are transforming manufacturing industry value chains, according to a Microsoft Corp. survey released today at HANNOVER MESSE 2011 in Hannover, Germany.

The survey results revealed a need to better integrate collaboration tools with business systems (47.4 percent) and to improve access to unstructured data and processes (36.2 percent). Almost 60 percent see an industry wide collaboration that includes manufacturing products and services providers, IT providers, systems integrators and in-house business analysts as most capable of bringing about these improvements.

To support tighter collaboration across these stakeholders, Microsoft has created a Reference Architecture Framework for Discrete Manufacturers Initiative (DIRA Framework) to drive solutions based on cloud computing across manufacturing networks while helping integrate processes within and across the enterprise, extend the reach of the network to more companies globally, and connect smart devices to the cloud. Microsoft partners involved in the initiative currently include Apriso Corp., Camstar Systems Inc., ICONICS Inc., Rockwell Automation Inc., Siemens MES and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.

“Globalization has fragmented industry value chains, making them more complex and unable to quickly respond to increased competition and shorter product lifecycles. Cloud computing is empowering today’s global manufacturers to rethink how they innovate and collaborate across the value chain,” said Sanjay Ravi, managing director, Worldwide Discrete Manufacturing Industry for Microsoft. “As a result of these increasingly rapid changes in technology and business, manufacturers are seeking guidance on how to best plan and deploy these powerful technologies in concert with their business strategies and priorities and how to achieve greater competitive differentiation. Microsoft is leading a DIRA Framework in response to this need while offering a pragmatic solution roadmap for IT integration and adoption.”

Cloud Computing Survey Findings

The Microsoft Discrete Manufacturing Cloud Computing Survey 2011, which polled 152 IT and business decision-makers within automotive, aerospace, high-tech and electronics, and industrial equipment manufacturing companies in Germany, France and the United States, found that the biggest benefit of cloud computing is lowered cost of optimizing infrastructure, according to 48.3 percent of respondents. This was followed closely by efficient collaboration across geographies(47.7 percent) and the ability to respond quickly to business demands (38.4 percent).

“The survey shows current cloud computing initiatives are targeted at cost reduction, but a growing number of forward-looking companies are exploring new and innovative business capabilities uniquely delivered through the cloud,” Ravi said. “Manufacturers are exploring ways to improve product design with social product development, enhance visibility across multiple tiers in the value chain, and create new business models and customer experiences based on smart devices connecting to the cloud.”

DIRA Framework

Development of the discrete manufacturing reference architecture will be an ongoing effort led by Microsoft, with close collaboration by participating companies, including industry solution vendors and systems integrators. The initiative defines six key themes to guide this development: natural user interfaces, role-based productivity and insights, social business, dynamic value networks, smart connected devices, and security-enhanced, scalable and adaptive infrastructure.

Microsoft has developed the principles of the DIRA Framework in conjunction with the technology adoption plans and solution strategies of its key partners. Several Microsoft partners across multiple business areas in manufacturing have endorsed the DIRA Framework because it helps them deliver high levels of customer value through complementary solutions aligned with the framework.

“We see the DIRA Framework, combined with the unparalleled discrete manufacturing content and application solutions from Rockwell’s FactoryTalk, as an opportunity to help our customers leverage their IT investment by accelerating the integration of manufacturing and enterprise information to reduce the time-to-value for the enterprise,” said Doug Lawson, chief software strategist, Rockwell Automation.

“Siemens welcomes the new DIRA Framework— which is a good fit to its own industry software offering and Totally Integrated Automation approach,” said Ralf-Michael Franke, CEO Industrial Automation Systems, Siemens. “We expect this architecture to lever an improved interoperability information flow between the shop floor and the enterprise functions, as well as increase efficiency between enterprise systems and enterprises throughout the supplier network. The Siemens MES product, SIMATIC IT, is just one example that aligns well with this reference architecture.”

“Apriso supports the (DIRA Framework) initiative because it echoes many of the architectural principles that we currently practice — it is essentially an extension of the global platform for manufacturing operations that Apriso’s customers currently utilize,” said Tom Comstock, executive vice president, Apriso.

“A comprehensive reference architecture is essential for dynamic, data-driven applications to meet current and future challenges,” said Scott Jones, chief technology officer and vice president of R&D at Camstar Systems. “Customers will benefit from these technologies to assist in solving complex business problems and meeting today’s industry needs.”

“At Tata Consultancy Services, we help the manufacturing industry improve competitiveness with best-of-breed solutions that deliver business functionality, integration and data synchronization. Our solution uses industry best practices for all manufacturing enterprise roles,” said Kalpan Raval, practice director, Enterprise Solutions, Tata Consultancy Services. “The solution ensures full integration between shop floor systems, Siemens MES, enterprise resource planning and other data sources, which enable lean and traditional scheduling principles to be readily applied. Using this newly released reference architecture, we expect to accelerate value realization for our customers due to asset-leveraged, shorter implementation cycles.”

“ICONICS provides to the discrete manufacturing industry HMI/SCADA solutions and manufacturing intelligence solutions that assist our customers in maximizing their productivity and efficiency,” said Gary Kohrt, vice president, Marketing and Product Marketing for ICONICS. “ICONICS supports the DIRA Framework and utilizes many of the technologies referenced by it. For example, by utilizing Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft SharePoint Technologies, our GENESIS64 and PortalWorX products are able to deliver user interfaces that are not only graphically rich, natural to use and role-based to the many different users in our customers’ enterprise, but also often ‘excite’ those that use and share information with them. By utilizing Microsoft’s mobile technologies, we can deliver information to our customers’ ever-shifting, on-the-go workforces, with no loss in functionality.”

“The principles of discrete manufacturing reference architecture align well with key offerings from Infosys, such as Supply Chain Visibility and Collaboration product suite and manufacturing collaboration accelerators,” said Sanjay Jalona, vice president and head of Manufacturing North America, Infosys Technologies Ltd. “These offerings take advantage of Microsoft technologies to solve business challenges like supplier collaboration, innovation management and knowledge management.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.