http:// 2013-05-20T04:28:00Z 2013-05-20T04:28:00Z sanity-in-tune-with-oki-for-retail-printing

OKI Data Australia, a global manufacturer of business range printers and multi-function devices, today announced that it has been selected to deploy its productive, high performance mono printers at 120 Sanity retail locations nationwide. Sanity is one of Australia’s largest entertainment retailers specialising in music and movies. It selected the OKI B431dn networked mono printers based on the solution’s quality and productivity, three-year warranty, and nationwide technical services support. Also critical was OKI’s 30-minute average printer break fix time enabling Sanity to maintain its strong brand promise for customer service excellence. The OKI B431dn printers feature 1200 x 1200dpi resolution which delivers fine, crisp detail. This is supported by a powerful 330MHz processor and 64MB of memory (expandable to 320MB), and a paper supply that can be increased to 880 sheets to mirror productivity demands. The printer is also shipped with a 100-sheet multi-purpose tray, supporting a range of paper sizes, to meet everyday office printing requirements. Built for speed and maximum efficiency, the B431 produces the first printed page in less than 4.5 seconds and the rest at an impressive 38 pages per minute. The compact design of the B431 means it can be placed on any desktop within the retail environment. Other essential features include ultra-reliable digital LED technology with fewer moving parts for exceptional durability, automatic two-sided printing and a ‘Power Save’ mode that reduces energy consumption to just 8W. As the toner cartridge and drum are all separate, store managers only ever have to replace what needs replacing at the moment of need. “We are delighted that Sanity, one of Australia’s leading entertainment retailers has selected OKI to help improve productivity and deliver a superior customer experience,” says Antonio Leone, ANZ Marketing Manager, OKI Data Australia. “These easy to use desktop printers give Sanity advanced productivity features in a robust and compact design that’s perfect for the store environment. At the same time, Sanity will be able to reduce costs by tracking and controlling printer usage and generating detailed reports for assigning costs to individuals and store locations.” About Oki Data Australia Oki Data Australia is a global manufacturer of business range printers and MFP’s. The company commenced operations in Australia in 2009 following the acquisition from long-time master agent and distributor, IPL. Over 30 years ago OKI pioneered LED printing technology, an advanced form of printing using fewer parts compared with the more widely known laser printing. This in turn provides many benefits to users including longer product life, fewer operational issues, increased reliability and better image quality over the entire life of the print engine. All OKI printer products are supported by Australian-based technicians and a three-year warranty.

2013-05-20T02:37:41Z rock-aid-charity-event-attracts-aussie-rock-legend

Australian rock legend, the Honourable Peter Garrett AM MP, will join the charity music event Rock Aid, on Saturday June 15 at the Randwick Labor Club in Sydney, to show his support for Australian communities in need.  Rock Aid was created by two local Sydney rock bands - The Hips and The Hummers - as part of a new telecommunications industry philanthropic movement. All proceeds from Rock Aid will go to the Telco Together Foundation – the telco sector charity that supports Indigenous communities, the homeless, young people with mental health issues and refugee communities. “Peter Garrett is Aussie rock royalty and has been a consistent champion of the need to help disadvantaged Australian communities. We are delighted that Peter has agreed to be part of Rock Aid,” said John Stanton, CEO of Communications Alliance and guitarist with the Hummers. “Rock Aid has been created with support from across the telco sector and is an opportunity for music lovers of all ages to strap on their dancing shoes and enjoy a great night out, while supporting some very worthwhile causes.“ Peter Garrett commented: “It is a great pleasure to support a charity event like Rock Aid right here in the Kingsford Smith electorate and I applaud The Hips and The Hummers for their initiative.”Patrons can expect a night of first-class entertainment, with the The Hips boasting former members of retro-rock favourites Ol’55 in their line-up. The Hummers will showcase rock classics from the 1970s through to today, from artists as diverse as Stevie Wright, Queen, Crowded House, The Church, The Cars and the Rolling Stones. The Hips will play covers from the Beatles, Status Quo and other rock gems from across five decades.A range of additional fun activities is planned, with great prizes including the latest in smart-phone technology. Rock-Aid is a family-friendly event, kicking off at 7pm on June 15. Family tickets are on sale for $45, and singles for $20. All proceeds will go to the Telco Together Foundation.Tickets are available online at http://rockaid.telcotogether.org, or can be purchased at the door. The Randwick Labor Club is located at 135 Alison Road, Randwick.

2013-05-20T01:06:25Z with-music-education-at-risk-musicians-and-teachers-take-action

Perth, WA, May 20, 2013 - Peter Luff, the conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, doesn’t believe that the children are being exposed enough to music in elementary school. Furthermore, he feels that music should be a right and that adults, educational and music professionals most notably, have the obligation to impart some kind of musical knowledge and appreciation to them.The Queensland Symphony Orchestra has been performing during an annual concert series to elementary schools specifically in an effort to fight against the decline in well-supported music and arts programs.From the Queensland Conservatory of Music, Dr Ralph Hultgren makes the claim that musical education is much more creative than math and other subjects, and that it is music that enhances a person, separating them from everyone else. Music education also correlates with increased performances in math and other academic subjects, making it the perfect supporter of those other fields. It can also lead to increased social skills, including the greater capacity for teamwork.In fact, a good number of music and non-music academics agree that music education is very important to a well-rounded, holistic education, and is much more than just learning how to play an instrument, although that is a facet of it. That is not to say that math and other tested subjects are not as important, or even less, but that musical instruction is just as important as instruction and development in those areas.This being said however, Hultgren also makes mention of the point that music teachers should be trained professional in a way, thus making the quality of the education that much better. An average music fan could not effectively teach a music class without proper training and a specialist of sorts is required for the best possible music instruction.Other school principals and administrators are nervous about increased cuts to music program, especially in light of the new government NAPLAN teaching reform. Teachers and principals agree that music and instrument playing tuition is very important to a better education and development as a person overall. The QSO and other musical organisations continue to push for better music programs in primary schools nationwide.Monster Music, an online network of music teachers in Australia, and its owner, musician and teacher Danny Achurch, fully support the growth of music programs in primary schools and are against the cuts made to schools for any reason.“Music programs are so vitally important for our children,” Achurch, a personally major proponent of musical education states. “If a school cuts its music program, I feel that it’s letting down its children and students and short-changing them from what could be the best possible education for them.” Being a teacher himself, Achurch knows the value that teaching children of any age about music holds. “It doesn’t just make them a better student, but it makes them a better overall person to be able to appreciate music and express themselves creatively.” He claims on the subject. “Monster Music’s mission is to spread music education to those who need it and we do it because that’s what’s best for our young people.” Monster Music provides piano, violin, singing, and guitar lessons in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, and many other cities across the whole country. For more information about them, please visit http://www.monstermusic.com.au/ or call 08 9335 8881 now.

2013-05-17T06:50:39Z samsung-galaxy-s4-i9500-16gb-samsung-s-latest-flagship-phone-with-exynos-5-octa-chipset

Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 16GB is the Octa-core version of Samsung's latest flagship smartphone Galaxy S4. It is now available for purchase from MobiCity, Australia's most trusted online mobile phone store. The handset builds on the innovative features offered on Samsung's previous handset, the Galaxy S3. In terms of dimensions, the Galaxy S4 i9500 is much slimmer and showcases a bigger screen. At only 7.9-inch thin, the unibody handset comes with a Full HD 5.0-inch Super AMOLED display with a staggering pixel density of 441ppi for stunning clarity. Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 16GB is powered by the most recent Android OS v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). It features an Exynos 5 Octa chipset which is a combination of two Quad-core processors (one 1.6GHz Cortex A15 processor and the other 1.2GHz Cortex A7 processor). This essentially forms eight cores for super-fast operation and performance that's further bolstered by a hefty 2GB RAM. 16GB of internal storage is provided with the possibility of memory extension up to 64GB via microSD memory card. Described as a Life Companion by Samsung, the phone is big on unique features that are not available in other smartphones. These include Smart Pause for pausing video when you look away from the screen and resuming automatically when you face the screen again, Dual camera for recording from both front and rear cameras simultaneously, Adapt Display for auto adjustment of screen brightness based on environment's light, Air View for S-Pen-like touch-free navigation and S Translator for text to speech translation and vice versa. The device boasts a powerful 13MP rear camera with AF and Full HD 1080p movie recording capability. It can shoot 100 pics in 4 seconds in Drama Shot mode and comes with pre-loaded camera apps including Photo Eraser for removing unnecessary objects from the background.  Other key features of the handset include Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth v4.0, IR LED Remote, Group Play to stream and intensify same music on up to 8 Galaxy S4 phones, Smart Scroll, Home Sync, S Voice Drive, Knox security for business, 2MP front cam and a 2600mAh Li-Ion battery. A Quad-core version of the Galaxy S4 (Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505 4G LTE 16GB) is also available and features Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 chipset. Both phones come with a 12-month local warranty and can be purchased now from MobiCity.

2013-05-17T06:13:32Z amd-introduces-the-world-s-fastest-notebook-graphics-card

(SYDNEY, Australia. – 17 May 2013 — AMD launched the AMD Radeon™ HD 8970M, the world’s fastest notebook graphics card1. The AMD Radeon HD 8970M graphics processing unit (GPU) delivers the best mobile gaming experience imaginable to gamers, powered by AMD’s award-winning Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture.“Today’s gaming notebooks need a graphics card that is fast, powerful and energy-efficient,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit, AMD. “The AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU is the perfect combination of technologies, blending performance, immersive features and an extensive battery life that delivers an unrivaled gaming experience, even on the go.”“When developing our new gaming notebook, the MSI GX70, we required a graphics card that would truly enhance the gaming experience. The AMD Radeon™ HD 8970M graphics card exceeded our expectations,” said Eric Kuo, vice president for Global Sales and Marketing, MSI Notebook. “Its speed, features and intelligent power capabilities perfectly complement our product. The GX70 is surely designed for professional and top tier gamers” Features and Benefits:• Speed: Featuring AMD’s GCN Architecture2 , the AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU is built for speed and designed from the ground up to provide the best experience in the top PC games for today and tomorrow.• Intelligent Power Features: AMD’s Enduro™ Technology3 allows the AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU to optimise battery life. The power features are inherently dynamic, delivering instant performance when needed and adjusting GPU requirements when in idle mode. • Multi-Display Optimisation: AMD Eyefinity technology allows for the highest quality multi-display gaming spread across several different monitors, creating an immersive experience4. • Engineered for Compute: AMD App Acceleration harnesses the compute power of the AMD Radeon™ GPU to take workload off the CPU and provide unprecedented performance in everyday applications. The AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU offers improved performance and enhanced visual effects5.• Unparalleled Image quality & Video Playback: The AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU is the ideal entertainment and productivity tool that provides smooth video playback and maximises image quality for all of your multimedia needs.• DirectX® 11.1 Support: Offers full support for DirectX 11.1 and Windows 8 for all of today and tomorrow’s games and applications.Supporting Resources• AMD Radeon™ HD 8970M GPU Product Page• Become a fan of AMD Gaming on Facebook• Follow @AMDRadeon on Twitter• View the AMD Radeon™ HD 8900M Series Press Deck About AMDAMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualisation environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit www.amd.com.AMD, the AMD Arrow logo and Radeon are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.Footnotes:1. The AMD Radeon HD 8970M is the world's fastest notebook GPU. In tests by AMD as of 18th, April 2013, the reference AMD Radeon™ HD 8970M showed higher average performance than NVIDIA's highest performing single GPU mobile graphics card, the GeForce® GTX 680M, in the 3DMark® Fire Strike test with a score of FS4571 vs. FS3749 and in Crysis 3 (FPS, 1080p at very high quality presets). System configuration: Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM (2.6GHz), 6GB DDR3-1600 and Windows 7 x64. AMD Radeon™ HD 8970M evaluated with AMD Catalyst™ 13.10 Beta 4. NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M evaluated with NVIDIA® ForceWare™ 307.17 WHQL. GRM-42. The GCN Architecture and its associated features (PCI Express® 3.0, AMD Enduro™, AMD ZeroCore Power technology, etc.) are applicable to select AMD Radeon™ HD 7000M & HD 8000M Series Graphics. Not all technologies are supported in all system configurations—check with your system manufacturer for specific model capabilities.3. AMD Enduro™ technology automatically turns off the AMD Radeon™ discrete GPU for non-intensive applications to help maximise battery life for more time unplugged, and requires either an AMD A-Series APU or an Intel processor, plus an AMD Radeon™ discrete graphics card and is available on Windows® 7 and Windows® 8 Standard and Professional editions. Linux OS supports manual switching which requires restart of X-Server to switch between graphics solutions. With AMD Enduro™ technology, full enablement of all discrete graphics video and display features may not be supported on all systems (e.g. OpenGL applications will run on the integrated GPU or the APU as the case may be). Always check with your system manufacturer for specific mode capabilities and supported technologies.4. AMD Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, additional panels with native DisplayPort™ connectors, and/or DisplayPort™ compliant active adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your cards DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s), are required. Support for five simultaneous displays may require complementary products compatible with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport. Maximum number of configured displays may vary - check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities and supported technologies. SLS (“Single Large Surface”) functionality requires an identical display resolution on all configured displays. 5. AMD App Acceleration is a set of technologies designed to improve video quality and enhance application performance. Full enablement of some features requires support for OpenCL™, DirectCompute or DirectX® Video Acceleration (DXVA). Not all products have all features and full enablement of some capabilities and may require complementary products. requires an identical display resolution on all configured displays.

2013-05-17T05:45:34Z most-common-regret-of-brides-is-not-spending-enough-on-wedding-photography

Perth, WA, May 17, 2013 - Two different polls, two different years, one result: 21% of the recently-married brides who were polled regretted not spending more money on their wedding photos. The first poll was conducted by photography website Shutterfly from 10th to 13th January, 2011, and had 500 participants. The second poll was conducted by New York Magazine for their current issue, and had 100 participants. While the sample size may appear small, the convergent results cannot be attributed solely to coincidence. In the more contemporary of the two surveys, which provides more detailed data, flowers were the next item of regret at 16%, the wedding cake came in at 9%, the wedding gown came in at 9%, and everything else combined came in at 45%. A second part of the recent poll asked the bride’s what they regretted splurging on the most. Flowers were number one at 17%, while photos came in second at 12%. Hair and makeup or third at 9%, the wedding gown was fourth at 8%, and the wedding cake was fifth at 6%, leaving everything else at 48%. Peter Edwards is a wedding photographer with a wealth of experience in the Perth area, and is the owner of Peter Edwards Photography. He is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP), and has also achieved a Double Master of Photography. His specialisation in wedding photography and the sheer number of weddings he has photographed make him uniquely qualified to interpret the data from the two surveys. Edwards begins by pointing out a pattern that is obvious to him: “Everything mentioned in the poll is visual, because the visual element of a wedding is extremely important to the bride. That is why it is so important to hire the best photographer for your wedding instead of price shopping. It is no accident that photos were mentioned first, and no accident that the other visual elements of the wedding were mentioned as the next three most important items.” Edwards continued: “When the wedding is being put together, it is often a reflex action to try and reduce costs. Sometimes, it is possible to find good work and an inexpensive price. Unfortunately, price shopping is usually hit and miss at best, and the bride ends up being disappointed at the quality of service she receives. Worse yet, when photography is one of the items at which the bride tries to save money, the results are almost always disappointing. This is false economy as if the purchase doesn’t meet expectations, no matter how small the amount paid there is no value. On the other hand an item purchased that is truly valued as time passes is priceless and the cost is soon forgotten and may even appear “cheap” on reflection.” Edwards added: “Ultimately, when the wedding is over, your photographs are going to provide the most enduring memory of your happiest day. If there is one thing, and one thing only, to make sure you do right, it is to hire a professional and experienced wedding photographer. Professional wedding photographers know how to use light effectively, how to use their equipment to the best advantage, how to pose people, capture that moment and put people at ease. ”Edwards commented further: “If a few of the visual elements in your wedding are a bit off, a great photographer can find a way to make them look good. However, a mediocre photographer only produces photos that look mediocre.” Edwards concluded: “Don’t trust your most cherished memories to chance: hire a professional and preserve your memories for a lifetime.” Peter Edwards Photography is a professional wedding photography firm from Perth. Not only do they specialise in weddings, weddings are all they do. For more information, or to inquire about their services, call 08 9316 2465 or visit their website: http://www.peteredwardsphoto.com.au/

2013-05-17T04:38:48Z xec-inc-chooses-cincom-for-its-microsoft-dynamics-crm-needs

Cincom’s relationship with Microsoft has grown significantly over the past year.In March 2012, Cincom announced that it had signed a strategic, global independent software vendor (ISV) agreement with Microsoft to deliver enhanced enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution capabilities. Cincom agreed to create a new ERP solution combining the breadth of Microsoft Dynamics AX with Cincom’s deep domain expertise in complex manufacturing. In July 2012, Cincom furthered the relationship by adding its Cincom Acquire® configure, price, quote (CPQ) software to the global ISV agreement. The agreement integrated Cincom Acquire with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It also integrated the Cincom Guru™ business rule engine to knowledge-enable the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform by automating decision-making using business rules. In August 2012, Cincom announced a new Microsoft Dynamics practice that would resell Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Office 365 in the United States.In March 2013, Cincom announced its new Cincom Total™ ERP software, natively developed within the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. Cincom Total is the only knowledge-driven ERP solution that enables manufacturers to manage and optimize their total business from complex selling through manufacturing to aftermarket services.“Cincom is an example of an organization that is driving innovation in complex manufacturing.  They are delivering solutions that help our customers save money and discover new ways to sell and achieve more,” said Doug Kennedy, Vice President, Microsoft Dynamics Enterprise Sales and Customer Lifecycle Management.

2013-05-17T04:38:24Z cincom-systems-launches-first-knowledge-driven-erp-solution-for-global-manufacturers

Cincom Systems announced the launch of its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, Cincom Total™, natively developed within the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. Cincom Total is the only knowledge-driven ERP solution that enables manufacturers to manage and optimize their total business from complex selling through manufacturing to aftermarket services. Cincom Total infuses a company's expert and tribal knowledge as business rules inside any enterprise information or process; thus allowing manufacturers to master complexity, improve decision-making and increase business process velocity. Designed to Handle Production Processes Specific to Manufacturing IndustryCincom Total is built to help companies master the challenges, complexities and chaos of modern manufacturing. Cincom Total delivers a single view into all of manufacturing’s critical processes including opportunity-to-order, order-to-cash and plan-to-achieve. “This result is smarter decision-making because you have the immediate knowledge you need to streamline your processes, reduce your costs and improve your margins,” said Dave Schwarber, managing director of Cincom Manufacturing Business Solutions. “Cincom Total builds on the company’s extensive engineer-to-order (ETO) expertise and combines its expertise in ERP, which makes this solution ideal for the rapidly changing needs of manufacturers,” said Dylan Persaud of Eval-Source, a software evaluation and strategic consulting firm. “Cincom Total with the Microsoft Dynamics AX partnership brings ETO to the midmarket and enterprise very effectively.”Improved Production EfficiencyAccording to the NAM/IndustryWeek 1Q 2013 Survey of Manufacturers, more than 55 percent of U.S. manufacturers see increased efficiencies in the production process as a primary driver for future growth.“Cincom Total lets you operate in your ideal style using what you need to be most efficient. For instance, you can have multi-mode processes next to batch and next to kanban individual projects running in the same facility, on the same system,” continued Schwarber.Manufacturers can now benefit from the breadth and depth of Cincom Total capabilities including:·        Knowledge Configuration·        Complex Selling·        Estimating·        Product Configuration

2013-05-17T04:33:29Z sterling-group-selects-cincom-acquire-configure-price-quote-software

Worldwide software provider, Cincom Systems, announces that the Sterling Group (http://www.sterlco.com), a provider of industrial equipment for the plastics industry, has chosen Cincom Acquire® (http://acquire.cincom.com), a product configurator, quoting and pricing software designed to improve sales processes for companies selling  complex products or services. Cincom Acquire is a Microsoft® global strategic partner for manufacturing.“What we see with our customers who implement knowledge-enabled configure, price, quote solutions is that they are not just selling  products and services,”  says Jim Wilson, Cincom Acquire Program Director, “they are also selling more value because they are putting knowledge around recommendations and guidance.”Cincom Acquire helps companies:·        Close deals up to 80 percent faster·        Configure products and services·        Produce perfect quotes and proposals for customers and prospects·        Extend product, pricing and discounting knowledge to field reps, channel sales and dealers·        Access, view and analyze all sales activity and pipelines across all channelsCincom Acquire enables true collaborative selling processes and provides guided selling, channel and distributor collaboration, sales and product configuration as well as quotation and proposal management and integrates with existing systems including Microsoft Dynamics® and other enterprise systems. Cincom Acquire has helped companies selling complex products and services successfully streamline their sales, design and proposal processes by delivering critical product and sales knowledge to the point of sale, while significantly reducing “quote-to-cash” time. Cincom has helped manufacturers reduce proposal generation time from five days to 15 minutes, decrease time to close a sale by 80 percent and cut lead times from 14 weeks to six weeks.

2013-05-17T04:29:47Z cincom-acquire-brings-real-time-dealer-information-into-microsoft-dynamics-crm

Cincom Acquire® (http://acquire.cincom.com), a guided selling and product configuration software solution from Cincom Systems, has improved its integration with Microsoft Dynamics® CRM to help companies selling complex products or services through multiple channels improve their sales effectiveness. Cincom Acquire allows channel reps to configure, price and quote offerings through a web portal that directly integrates to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.“Selling complex products and services through extended channels is a big challenge for most companies,” said Jerry Miller, director of Cincom’s Intelligent Selling Solutions division.  “Cincom Acquire captures the knowledge of the product engineers, pricing agents and network planners and provides it to your channels directly through the portal interface, so they can be as knowledgeable as your own staff.”Acquire’s integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM creates more knowledge of sales activity.  “Information input into Acquire by channel partners goes immediately into your CRM system,” said Miller. “This gives a real-time, full view of all direct and indirect sales activity—this is a huge competitive advantage.”The Value of One Platform Solution versus Many Point Solutions Cincom Acquire for Microsoft Dynamics CRM combines multiple point solutions into one integrated, multi-channel selling platform. The solutions included are configuration, pricing engine, quoting and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which includes a selling solution, marketing solution and customer-service solution. “It’s a one-stop software technology designed to scale and grow with your company and its changing technology,” said Miller.“So much has improved with the use of this system. We’re not only saving a tremendous amount of time, but our costs have been drastically reduced as well,” said Jeff Wegner, Regional Sales Director for Smeal Fire Apparatus Co.About Cincom Acquire Cincom Acquire is a multi-channel, multi-currency and multi-lingual selling solution that automates the configuration, pricing and quoting (CPQ) of complex products and services. Cincom Acquire is powered by the Cincom Guru™ Business Rule Management System (BRMS) that empowers business users to automate complex sales and product knowledge. Cincom Acquire has helped companies streamline their sales processes by delivering critical product and sales knowledge to the point of sale, while significantly reducing “quote-to-cash” time―reducing proposal generation time from days to minutes and closing deals up to 80 percent faster.

2013-05-17T04:28:55Z cincom-systems-has-stellar-year-with-cincom-acquire-configure-price-quote-system-1

Worldwide software provider, Cincom Systems, has much to be happy about as it starts a new calendar year. Its Cincom Intelligent Selling System division, makers of Cincom Acquire® and Cincom Guru™ software, has improved its 2012 global fiscal year new business revenue by almost 300 percent over the previous year. “This has been one of the best years for our Intelligent Selling Solutions division all around,” says Jerry Miller, Worldwide Managing Director of Cincom’s Intelligent Selling Solutions division. “Many of the initiatives we’ve been working on—developing strong partnerships, expanding our sales channels, improving our business processes and releasing significant new product—have come together all at once.  We are beginning to see a significant uptick in demand in our primary targeted regions of North America, Europe and Greater Asia Pacific.”Expanded Partner Network One of those initiatives—expanding sales channels—progressed significantly when Cincom Acquire configure, price, quote software was added to Cincom Systems’ Global Independent Software Vendor (ISV) agreement with Microsoft Dynamics. The partnership integrates Cincom Acquire with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.Cincom also spearheaded the first Special Interest Group within the Microsoft User Group focused on manufacturing; expanded its partnership with IT consulting company, eLogic Group; and added several new partners.Increased Customer Base Both Fujitsu Frontech North America Inc. , Smeal Fire Apparatus and Caroil System S.p.a. announced successful implementations of Cincom selling software this year while many others began extensive multi-site, enterprise implementations. New sales were penned this year including Heil Trailer, Stewart & Stevenson and Fortis Alberta.  In addition, many existing customers significantly increased their investments in Cincom’s best-in-market Configure, Price, Quote solutions by extending usage into additional users and new business operations.New Cloud Offering Cincom Acquire also became available this year as a hosted service on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform. Cincom Acquire customers benefit by having the Microsoft Windows Azure platform because it delivers a more cost-effective, on-demand solution while ensuring the performance, reliability and security of an on-premise alternative. “We had a great year and are looking forward to an even better year in 2013,” said Brad Fleming, North American sales manager for Cincom Acquire.About Cincom Acquire Cincom Acquire is a multi-channel, multi-currency and multi-lingual selling solution that automates the configuration, pricing and quoting (CPQ) of complex products and services. Cincom Acquire is powered by the Cincom Guru Business Rule Management System (BRMS) that empowers business users to automate complex sales and product knowledge. Cincom Acquire has helped companies streamline their sales processes by delivering critical product and sales knowledge to the point of sale, while significantly reducing “quote-to-cash” time―reducing proposal generation time from days to minutes and closing deals up to 80 percent faster.

2013-05-17T04:26:29Z cincom-systems-signs-barry-wehmiller-international-resources-as-channel-partner

Worldwide software provider, Cincom Systems, has signed a strategic, channel partnership agreement with Barry-Wehmiller International Resources(BWIR). BWIR now resells Cincom Acquire’s configure, price, quote capabilities on Microsoft Dynamics CRM.Cincom Acquire® for Microsoft Dynamics increases the value of existing Microsoft Dynamics investment by providing additional deep functionality to:§  configure complex products and services,§  create and manage complex pricing and discounting rules required for multi-channel selling, and§  generate customized offer documents tailored to each customer’s specific needs.Power of Partnership“Leveraging the power of both companies and focusing on our strengths—Cincom’s deep product capabilities and BWIR’s knowledge of the manufacturing industry—will be a great benefit to our customers,” said Jerry Miller, Cincom Acquire managing director. “Our customers will receive solutions that are not just suited to their unique needs but that also help them empower more people in their organizations to make better decisions faster.”“Barry-Wehmiller International Resources (BWIR), the consulting arm of Barry-Wehmiller Companies in the areas of Enterprise Consulting, Engineering Design and PLM to the mid-market manufacturing industry globally, has a strong presence in the industry verticals like industrial equipment manufacturing and oil and gas equipment manufacturing. These industry verticals require product configuration solutions to be part of the business systems like CRM or ERP. This provides completeness to the capabilities of these enterprise systems to support business needs. Realization of this has ensured a partnership with best-of-breed product configuration solutions from Cincom Systems. We see this partnership going beyond a value added reseller model to BWIR being a consulting and development partner to Cincom Systems, which will add more value to our customers globally,” said Balachandran Anantharama, partner in Enterprise Consulting for BWIR.“We have extensive experience in discrete manufacturing, and our relationship will Cincom will be a ‘best fit’ for our clients’ needs going forward,” said Praveen Rudraradhya, director of Enterprise Consulting for BWIR. “Cincom has the flexibility, power and range of capabilities that we can use to address a wide range of products and environments, while being easy to use for both us and our customers. As with any technology we embrace, we will invest in maintaining in-depth expertise on Cincom’s products within the Microsoft environments we support.”Cincom Acquire Makes Complex Selling Simple Cincom Acquire has helped companies streamline their sales processes by delivering critical product and sales knowledge to the point of sale, while significantly reducing “quote-to-cash” time―reducing proposal generation time from days to minutes and closing deals up to 80 percent faster.About Barry-Wehmiller International Resources Barry-Wehmiller International Resources (BWIR) is a global provider of business and technology solutions to the mid-market manufacturing domain. BWIR is a division of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc.  For more information, visit the company’s website at http://www.bwir.com.

2013-05-17T03:46:00Z frontrange-and-thinkstrategies-survey-confirms-customer-preference-for-hybrid-it-service-management

FrontRange, the only provider of Hybrid IT Service Management solutions, in partnership with THINKstrategies, a strategic consulting firm that specialises in enterprise IT, today announced the results of a comprehensive survey that examines how the accelerating adoption of cloud computing is impacting the ITSM needs of organisations. A key finding in the survey reveals a growing number of IT organisations are seeking a new generation of IT Service Management applications to help them monitor and manage their IT services from within a hybrid environment of on-premise and cloud services. The survey, conducted between December 2012 and January 2013, draws its data from 341 participants within organisations of all different sizes and a variety of industries worldwide. The following were among the key findings reported: · Nearly three quarters of respondents (72.7%) currently rely on legacy on-premise ITSM solutions to address their needs. · Only 13.5% of respondents reported that they are “very satisfied” with the delivery method of their current ITSM solution, and an almost equal proportion stated that they are “dissatisfied” with said delivery method. · One-third of respondents reported that the primary driver behind changing their ITSM solutions is to better align IT with the business. More than a quarter of survey takers also cited improved ease-of-use as a key factor in such a decision. · Over half of the respondents categorised their organiations as being at the first level of ITSM maturity—in which organisations utilise a basic offering of IT help desk tools including incident, problem, inventory and knowledge management and reporting—and only a little more than a third of the respondents (35.5%) are at the second level of maturity—in which organisations take advantage of an expanded range of IT services including change management, self-service, service request and SLA management. · Less than 10% of survey respondents are at the highest level of maturity and using service virtualisation, release governance, social IT management, analytics and reporting, and mobility management tools. · A significant portion of respondents are committed to making the necessary investment in their ITSM systems and skills in 2013 to raise the maturity level of their ITSM deployment · The IT manager is the key decision-maker in an organisation’s selection of its ITSM solution, and the quality of the ITSM supplier’s support and their ability to reduce the user’s total cost of ownership (TCO) are the most important criteria for selection. “Scores of organisations are committed to improving their ITSM capabilities and maturity levels” said Jeffrey M. Kaplan, Managing Director, THINKstrategies. “However, many are finding that traditional, on-premise solutions do not always provide the best value when applied across the whole of the organisation. There are many instances where a cloud delivery method provides a level of cost-effectiveness and functionality that simply cannot be matched by legacy offerings.” “Based on these survey findings, it is becoming increasingly apparent that organisations need a new generation of ITSM solutions that can address their evolving business needs with a mix of traditional, on-premise systems and widening array of cloud services,” said Kevin J. Smith, vice president and general manager of the Cloud Business Unit with FrontRange. “These findings confirm our position as the only provider of hybrid service management solutions on an integrated platform and that our vision and roadmap are aligned with what our end-users want and need to succeed in their business.” To view the complete survey results, please see The Impact of Cloud Technologies on IT Service Management or go to the FrontRange YouTube channel to watch a recap of our findings. About FrontRange FrontRange is the global leader in Hybrid IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions for enterprises of all sizes. FrontRange is the only ITSM provider in the world that delivers Service Management software with fully integrated Voice Automation and Client Management capabilities on-premise and in the cloud. HEAT manages millions of service interactions a day for more than 15,000 leading organizations around the world. HEAT enables customers to deliver world-class service while maximizing operational efficiencies with reduced cost and complexity. FrontRange is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif. and can be found at www.frontrange.com. About THINKstrategies, Inc. THINKstrategies is the only independent strategic consulting firm which focuses entirely on helping enterprise decision-makers, solution providers and investors capitalize on the unprecedented business opportunities created by the shift of the technology industry from a product-centric to a services-driven orientation, including Cloud Computing, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Managed Services. THINKstrategies also founded and administers the Cloud Computing Showplace (www.cloudshowplace.com), the largest, vendor-independent, online directory and best practices resource center in the industry. For more information, visit www.thinkstrategies.com, or contact info@thinkstrategies.com.

2013-05-17T03:29:00Z -39

Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open, standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), today announced that the Jaypee Group, a large and well-diversified conglomerate in India, uses Polycom® RealPresence® video solutions as mission-critical to their business for improving communications between internal teams and other subsidiaries within the Jaypee Group. With JIL Information Technology (JILIT) – the InfoTech arm of the Jaypee Group – responsible for managing and delivering Polycom’s RealPresence video solutions across the Jaypee Group, employees in 40 dispersed and remote offices in India can now collaborate face-to-face at any time from wherever they are. This has reduced travel by 40 percent and doubled employee productivity, whilst also providing a cost-efficient, scalable solution that can easily integrate with the organisation’s existing UC investments. Jaypee Group has businesses in many industries including engineering and construction, power, cement, hospitality, real estate and education. As the Group’s technology arm, JILIT develops, implements, and supports services around people, process and technology initiatives for the large number of companies that form the Jaypee Group, and also provides IT support services including IT infrastructure management, training solutions, multimedia, content development and enterprise resource planning (ERP) management. Prior to the deployment of the video conferencing solutions, long distances between offices were a challenge with the Jaypee Group’s many business units spread across the country, often in remote locations. This resulted in significant travel requirements and ineffective and costly collaboration. Polycom video solutions speed decision-making between teams, improve communication across the group’s companies and merge multiple ‘collaboration islands’ under one unified communications solution. For the company, video was seen as an essential way to transform teamwork on projects, including those with long lifecycles such as infrastructure and energy. For example, the Jaypee Group recently completed development of a new residential township, known as ‘Jaypee Wish Town’ in Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh, India), which includes facilities such as a new Medical Centre, an F1 Race Track and several remote offices. With many employees required to travel to the township to oversee projects, Polycom video collaboration solutions were used across the remote offices in the township to enable real-time project discussions and update meetings with executives at the company’s headquarters, located some 30 kilometres away. To date, Jaypee Group has installed a number of Polycom video collaboration solutions including: 30 Polycom® Real Presence® HDX® 7000 room systems; 20 Polycom VVX® 1500 video-enabled business media phones for easy integration with the company’s existing infrastructure; and Polycom® RealPresence® Desktop 2.0 (software for PCs and laptops) for its mobile workforce. The solutions enable video collaboration from anywhere – whether in a conference room, on the desktop, or on the go. “We are increasingly seeing large Indian conglomerates with dispersed workforces turning to video collaboration solutions to facilitate quicker decision making, improve teamwork and enhance their engagement process,” said Neeraj Gill, Managing Director, India & SAARC at Polycom. “We are pleased to be delivering these benefits to the Jaypee Group though real-time collaboration, helping them to enhance their working environment and accelerate the achievement of their business objectives.” The Polycom solution is interoperable with the company’s existing UC systems and networks due to the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform. Based on open standards to ensure interoperability in multi-vendor environments, the RealPresence Platform transforms islands of mobile, remote, and on-site employees and fragmented communications systems into a seamless video enterprise, making enterprise-grade video easily and securely accessible to all authorised personnel. “Video collaboration is a mission-critical application in our day-to-day business – whether for internal purposes or for communication across other Jaypee Group companies,” said Sunita Joshi, Director and CIO, JILIT. “Polycom offers a broad range of cost-effective video collaboration solutions, which provided us complete integration with our existing infrastructure, making it the perfect fit for our needs.” The company has also enlisted Polycom’s Professional Services, including Polycom Implementation Services for faster deployment and accelerated return on investment and Polycom Premier Onsite support service to ensure the best use of Polycom’s video collaboration solutions. “Our technical teams were provided with complete IT training for the solutions installed,” said Joshi. “By adding these advanced and support services, the organisation received added-value for our investment, and perhaps more importantly, minimised resolution and response time, helping us streamline operations and accelerate decision-making. Project delivery time was significantly reduced as well.” Joshi added: "With Polycom’s Professional Services team we’ve been able to implement an effective UC strategy that has satisfied our business objectives. In addition, Polycom’s Advanced services enable our engineers to have a more detailed understanding of each component and how they come together. This has really contributed to a seamless video experience for all our users.” About The Jaypee Group The Jaypee Group is a 20,000 crore well diversified infrastructural industrial conglomerate based in Noida, India. It was founded by Jaiprakash Gaur which is involved in well diversified business interests in Engineering & Construction, Power, Cement, Real Estate, Hospitality, Expressways, Sports & Education (not-for-profit). About JIL Information Technology JIL Information Technology Limited (JILIT) is the InfoTech arm of Jaypee Group, responsible for developing, implementing, and supporting services around people, process and technology initiatives, and offers IT support services to the large number of companies which form the Jaypee Group, including IT infrastructure management, teaching-learning solutions, multimedia, content development and enterprise resource planning (ERP) management. About Polycom Polycom is the global leader in open, standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence™ Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.asia or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn how we’re pushing the greatness of human collaboration forward. ## © 2013 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom logo, and the names and marks associated with Polycom’s products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

2013-05-17T02:17:18Z yellowfin-6-3-to-reveal-a-better-way-to-collaborate-with-business-intelligence

Register for the official Webinar launch here: http://www.yellowfinbi.com/YFCommunityNews-Yellowfin-6-3-launch-Webinar-A-better-way-to-collaborate-with-your-data-130499 The Yellowfin 6.3 Webinar launch will highlight the major additions and enhancements to Yellowfin’s BI solution. Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie, said that the latest iteration of the vendor’s BI platform focused on improvements to three key areas – collaboration, data visualization and usability. “Major new collaborative features, in conjunction with important improvements to existing collaborative functionality, form the centerpiece of this release,” said Rabie. “Other areas that we’ve paid particularly close attention to, during the last six months of development, include enhancements to Yellowfin’s renowned usability and data visualization capabilities.” Collaboration: Driving action with better information sharing Rabie said that the release of Yellowfin 6.3 would further its reputation as the market leader in Collaborative BI, by making it easier to share and consume data and analysis via enhancements to: Yellowfin’s PowerPoint-like BI presentation module, Storyboard, including new export and mobile options Discussion features to enable more useful and user-friendly information exchange Users’ ability to monitorand understand their relationship with BI content via personalized timelines “Yellowfin is very passionate about Collaborative BI,” said Rabie. “We believe that great Business Intelligence and analytics needs more than just data– it needs to be shared among people in a very simple way.” Data visualization: Make better decisions faster with intuitive analysis and deeper insights Rabie said that the second major goal during the development of 6.3 was to make it simpler and more intuitive to build and interpret BI content. “Yellowfin has always been a highly visual BI solution, aimed at empowering non-technical people with the ability to independently construct – and derive deep understanding from – insightful BI content,” said Rabie. “Yellowfin 6.3 improves this experience, making it even easier to create, edit, manage and interpret reports, charts and dashboards. Yellowfin 6.3 supports deeper, faster analysis, and effortless at-a-glance insight.” Usability: Making BI even easier to use and enjoy Rabie said that because ease-of-use remained the most important purchasing criteria for organizations evaluating a BI solution, Yellowfin would continue to set the industry benchmark for BI usability. “Usability is a critical aspect of what we believe makes Yellowfin so special,” said Rabie. “It’s why our customers love using Yellowfin. “With each release we work harder to improve how Yellowfin works, as well as the look and feel of the application, to ensure that it just gets better and better.With 6.3, Yellowfin is even easier to use, and much more visually appealing.” Yellowfin will host three 6.3 release Webinars throughout Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 May 2013. Register for the official Webinar launch of Yellowfin 6.3 here:http://www.yellowfinbi.com/YFCommunityNews-Yellowfin-6-3-launch-Webinar-A-better-way-to-collaborate-with-your-data-130499 About Yellowfin Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percentWeb-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visitwww.yellowfinbi.com For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact: Lachlan James, Yellowfin Communications Manager, on +61 03 8617 4954, 0431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi For regular updates and news, follow Yellowfin on Twitter (@YellowfinBI), LinkedIn (Yellowfin Business Intelligence) or email pr@yellowfin.bi to subscribe to Yellowfin’s free e-newsletter.For more information:www.yellowfinbi.com/YFCommunityNews-Yellowfin-6-3-launch-Webinar-A-better-way-to-collaborate-with-your-data-130499www.yellowfinbi.com/YFWebsite-Collaborative-Business-Intelligence-100879More: Business Intelligence Companies Australia BI News Yellowfin Category: Business Intelligence Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded ...