Todas las entradas hechas por Richard

AvePoint, compliance, Document Management, Lotus Notes, Microsoft, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint 2013

AvePoint’s DocAve 6 Service Pack 2 Enhances SharePoint, Office 365 Support

AvePoint today announced the general availability of DocAve 6 Service Pack (SP) 2, the next generation of the management platform for SharePoint governance, with expanded SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 support.

Designed to increase business productivity without sacrificing on security and compliance, DocAve 6 SP2 will support the migration, protection, and administration of data in your SharePoint 2013 environment, whether it’s on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid deployment. DocAve 6 SP2 supports migration into the latest online or on-premises SharePoint release from a variety of legacy sources, including previous versions of SharePoint, file shares, EMC Documentum, Lotus Notes, and Open Text (Livelink).

Making the move to SharePoint 2013 is just the beginning. DocAve 6 SP2 extends SharePoint’s native capabilities, enabling application development, scalable storage, compliance and records management, and geo-distributed collaboration with confidence. New SharePoint capabilities such as business intelligence, eDiscovery, mobile device support, and social computing are also focuses of DocAve 6 SP2, as AvePoint continues its quest to enable customers to take advantage of the latest platform releases that Microsoft has to offer.

“As with each previous release, AvePoint is focused on ensuring that our more than 10,000 customers worldwide have all of the tools necessary to realize the full potential of Microsoft SharePoint 2013,” said George Petrou, Chief Technology Officer at AvePoint. “The landscape of business collaboration is ever-changing, and now more than ever organizations need a trusted solution to help them overcome any challenges that may arise. With DocAve 6 SP2, our customers can remove the roadblocks to enterprise-wide collaboration.”

DocAve 6 is built upon all Microsoft technologies and standards, including .NET, WCF, and Silverlight, utilizing only fully supported Microsoft methodologies and APIs. With robust protection, management, optimization, integration, compliance, reporting, and migration capabilities for SharePoint, DocAve is the enterprise-class management platform for SharePoint governance.

DocAve 6 SP2 is generally available to customers today, February 20. For more information about all of the new features and functionality in DocAve 6 SP2, please visit http://www.avepoint.com/docave6/.

Amazon, Amazon AWS, Amazon Web Services, AWS, Cloud & IT Management, Cloud computing, Data center, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, Hardware, James Hamilton, Networking

Wired Profiles a New Breed of Internet Hero, the Data Center Guru

The whole idea of cloud computing is that mere mortals can stop worrying about hardware and focus on delivering applications. But cloud services like Amazon’s AWS, and the amazingly complex hardware and software that underpins all that power and flexibility, do not happen by chance. This Wired article about James Hamilton paints of a picture of a new breed of folks the Internet has come to rely on:

…with this enormous success comes a whole new set of computing problems, and James Hamilton is one of the key thinkers charged with solving such problems, striving to rethink the data center for the age of cloud computing. Much like two other cloud computing giants — Google and Microsoft — Amazon says very little about the particulars of its data center work, viewing this as the most important of trade secrets, but Hamilton is held in such high regard, he’s one of the few Amazon employees permitted to blog about his big ideas, and the fifty-something Canadian has developed a reputation across the industry as a guru of distributing systems — the kind of massive online operations that Amazon builds to support thousands of companies across the globe.

Read the article.

 

Email, email marketing, Internet marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Messaging, Social

89 Degrees Launches ECHO Email Optimization Plan

89 Degrees, a customer engagement agency that leverages data and analytically driven strategy for maximum ROI, has launched a new service, ECHO, an email capabilities & health optimization plan that maximizes email investments for increased impact and ROI.

“Industry surveys show that the amount of email sent by retailers in 2012 jumped by at least 19 percent, and with good reason,” said Arthur Sweetser, CMO of 89 Degrees and recent speaker at the Email Evolution Conference. “Email is evolving and remains highly profitable; the evidence keeps mounting and businesses know it is a smart bet for their budgets.”

89 Degrees also hears from many marketers that are convinced of emails’ value, but still don’t know if they are making the most of their investment. Or they may not be achieving the growth numbers on which they were counting.

“When businesses are allocating a sizable portion of their marketing budget to email marketing, they want to be sure they are spending smart,” continued Sweetser. “That’s why we introduced ECHO – to help marketers reach and exceed their goals, increasing their success with each following campaign.”

Education, Kaplan, Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, TechStars, Venture Funding, Washington Post Company

Kaplan Launches Education Startup Accelerator

Kaplan, Inc., the education services subsidiary of The Washington Post Company, announced today the launch of the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, powered by TechStars, an intensive three-month mentoring and business development program for 10 startup companies, in collaboration with TechStars, a nationally recognized startup accelerator.

The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator will select startups using technology to create products and services across the broad spectrum of education including K-12, higher education, professional education, lifelong learning, and other areas. TechStars will invest $20,000 in each company accepted into the program.

The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator is the first corporate sponsored accelerator focused exclusively on the education sector, using TechStars’ mentor-driven, deep immersion model. TechStars has completed 15 accelerator programs and its selected companies have attracted more than $285 million in funding in the past six years.

The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator will host the startups, to be chosen by application, at its offices in New York City’s West Village neighborhood from June to September 2013. They will be mentored by industry leaders, such as Kaplan, Inc. Chairman and CEO Andy Rosen, TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen, Washington Post Company Chairman and CEO Don Graham, noted venture capitalist and Foundry Group Managing Director Brad Feld, and many notable founders of ed-tech companies, including Jose Ferreira of Knewton and Eren Bali of Udemy.

Additionally, Kaplan will provide the startups with office space and facilities, and other resources as they work to build their companies and products. This support includes access to Kaplan’s proprietary “Kaplan Way for Learning” program, which harnesses the latest learnings from the fields of science, instructional design, and technology to support the development of highly effective, evidence-based learning products. Kaplan also has tremendous reach in education with more than one million students enrolled annually, taught by 10,000-plus instructors globally, relationships with 300-plus U.S. school districts, more than 20 university partners worldwide, and thousands of corporate customers.

The program will culminate in Demo Day, when the startups’ founders will present for an elite group of angel and venture investors and education industry influencers, with the goal of securing funding to grow their companies.

“We’re thrilled about partnering with TechStars to launch the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator,” said Andy Rosen, Kaplan, Inc. chairman and CEO. “Kaplan’s mission is to provide students around the world with the best, most efficient means to achieving their educational goals. Ongoing cultivation of new innovations from all across the sector—in ways like this accelerator program—is embedded in our company’s history.”

From its start, Kaplan has pioneered notable education innovations. It has, for example, launched the first wholly online law school in the U.S.; built its online university into one of the country’s largest higher education institutions; and, more recently, created mobile delivery systems for its test prep and professional education customers, a new prior learning assessment service for adult learners, and an innovative, large-scale online instructional platform, KAPx. Kaplan will be making available as mentors several of those Kaplan professionals who have driven many of these innovations.

The application deadline is April 14, 2013. Selected companies will be contacted in late April, and the program will begin in June. Further details and the application for the program are available at KaplanEdTechAccelerator.com.

Business Processes, Consulting, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise resource planning, NetSuite

A Beginner’s Guide to Netsuite

As a mid-tier ERP and CRM solution, NetSuite is an affordable software-as-a-service platform for small to mid-sized businesses. The cloud-based interface makes the platform available from anywhere with Internet access. Some of the many business tasks covered by NetSuite include sales and service tracking, order fulfillment management, project collaboration and lead tracking.

NetSuite Benefits

The benefits offered by NetSuite will differ between businesses. However, there are a number of service tiers and pre-configured options from which to choose that can help to provide maximum benefit with minimal start-up and implementation times. Benefits offered across most business types and sizes include:

  • Improved efficiency
  • Reduced maintenance
  • Improved collaboration
  • Greater accountability
  • Faster communication
  • Global access to data, reports and processes

How NetSuite Works

NetSuite is most often provided as a hosted service. This means that the platform is accessed and used through a web interface. Every person within the business uses the same interfaces and databases. This allows for real-time updates, instant access to information and improved interaction between departments and business segments. Setting access rights and roles by account or tier provides simple data management, user accountability and security.

Things to Consider before Choosing NetSuite

Though NetSuite offers many ways to customize and personalize the ERP experience, it is, at its core, a pre-configured product. This means that in-depth customization is often a highly involved process. Many NetSuite service providers will offer demonstrations or free trials to see if the product’s interface and features are a good fit for your business.

To help determine if NetSuite is a proper fit for your business, consider NetSuite consulting services. Professionals can help explain what to expect and provide an in-depth look in how your business can utilize the platform without the worry of service contracts, costly set up fees or time intensive research and training.

More Food for Thought…

As a cloud-based service, NetSuite offers a unified platform that is accessed using a high-speed Internet connection. However, with lack of local back up or local server solutions, any interruption in Internet service will result in an inability to access your NetSuite services.

NetSuite is a modular solution. This means that features can be added or removed on-demand to suit the needs of your business. Unfortunately, this also means that updating the platform can be tricky. Since modules are updated independently, you may find that you are forced to wait to implement an update due to conflicting module configurations and other issues.

The most common way of signing up for NetSuite service is through a value-added reseller. Comparing resellers and service providers is an essential part of finding the best NetSuite configuration. Phone and email support directly through NetSuite require recurring subscription costs as well. By finding a reseller that offers support, you can avoid unforeseen fees and service issues.

NetSuite is a proven platform for businesses of nearly any size. However, like any software suite, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the platform is essential to maximizing benefits.

Conventional PCI, Intellectual Property, nCircle PureCloud, Network security, Patent, PureCloud

nCircle Gets Additional Patent for Their Security Services

nCircle today announced the award of its second PureCloud patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. nCircle’s intellectual property portfolio now includes 11 patents. nCircle’s patents cover a wide range of security innovations and represent the company’s significant, ongoing investment in security technology research and innovation.

nCircle PureCloud is a cloud-based security services platform that requires no hardware or software to be installed or managed. nCircle PureCloud dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of a wide range of security services — including vulnerability scanning, PCI scanning and web application scanning — making these practices easily accessible to small and medium businesses.

“Attackers are targeting smaller businesses that typically have fewer security resources than larger companies,” said Tim ‘TK’ Keanini, chief research officer for nCircle. “The breakthrough technology in nCircle PureCloud helps level the playing field by making enterprise class security tools accessible to all businesses, regardless of size.”

Business Processes, Mavenlink, Project management

Mavenlink Launches New Financial Management, Reporting Capabilities

Mavenlink today announced the launch of new capabilities which provide users with end-to-end financial reporting and management control. With real-time visibility into their projects and financials, Mavenlink customers benefit from greater visibility and control over their business performance, and staying in alignment with business goals becomes more certain.

“Mavenlink, and our new smart class of products, is improving the way work is defined and managed across distributed teams,” said Ray Grainger, Mavenlink’s CEO. “With the addition of these new financial management and reporting capabilities, Mavenlink becomes even more compelling, enabling businesses to improve productivity, increase profitability and more effectively manage business outcomes.”

Mavenlink enables companies to efficiently manage more of their business online, including team & project management, messaging & conversations, file management, time & expense management, invoicing & online payments and financial reporting. Mavenlink’s new reports, available in real-time and multiple currencies, provide users a detailed view of the entire financial life cycle of projects.

Key new features include:

  • Utilization Reports: Maximize revenue through more efficient resource utilization and planning
  • Work In Progress (WIP) Reports: Keep track of planned and actual costs, as well as what has been billed and awaits billing on any project for every client
  • Accounts Receivable Aging Reports: Reduce time-to-payment through better visibility of upcoming and late invoices
  • Time Sheets: Effortlessly capture time, view and report on billable and non-billable hours for each team member or workgroup, with a real-time view of project costs
  • Task-Level Budgeting: Manage cost expectations and ensure tighter project controls by tracking budgets (hours and dollars) down to the task level

 “Social Task Management (STM) platforms combine project management and social networking to enable teams to more effectively get their work done,” said Alan Lepofsky, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. “By adding capabilities with financial related areas such as budgeting, invoicing payments and management reporting, Mavenlink has created a single place for team members to seamlessly organize all aspects of a project. I’ve yet to see this type of broad project management and financials together from any other STM SaaS provider.”

Business Processes, iPad, iPhone, Mobile, QuickBooks, Small business

QuickBooks Online Adds Mobility With New iPad App

With today’s introduction of QuickBooks Online for iPad, small businesses that are mobile by nature will no longer have to save the books for last. Rather, they can get more out of their workdays with an app that helps them work more productively, wherever they are.

“As a wedding planner, I spend 70 percent of my time away from my desk meeting with clients and vendors. At the end of the day, I used to sort through my meeting notes, map out next steps, track payments and expenses, and follow up with invoices,” said Sadie Waddington of Locally Grown Weddings in San Francisco, Calif. “Now, I save time by catching up on accounting during the four hours I commute on public transit each week using QuickBooks Online for iPad. The app also helps keep me more organized and look more professional in front of my clients and vendors.”

Now available in the App Store, QuickBooks Online for iPad brings the world’s No. 1 small business cloud accounting solution to one of the world’s fastest-growing computing devices. It packages the most useful on-the-go business tasks in an easy-to-use, friendly app with a native iPad experience, including integration with the Camera, Contacts, Push Notifications and Location Services.

“Managing a small business is a different game today than it was a few years ago, due in large part to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets,” said Dan Wernikoff, senior vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Financial Management Solutions division. “We found that more than 20 percent of QuickBooks Mobile for iPhone users access the app through iPads. And, customers like Sadie told us they need more than mobile point solutions – they need an all-in-one app that lets them work in a whole new way, and that’s what we created.”

Call Center, Evolve IP, NACR, Partnerships, Telecommunications Industry

Evolve IP, NACR Partner for Unified Communications, Hosted Contact Centers

Today Evolve IP announced it has partnered with NACR, an independent integrator of communications solutions. With this agreement, NACR will leverage Evolve IP’s  unified platform to offer its customers cloud services including unified communications/hosted IP phone services, virtual servers, and call center solutions.

NACR serves over 5,500 clients from small businesses to Fortune® 100 and global enterprise clients. Through this relationship, NACR’s customers gain access to Evolve IP’s cloud services including:

  • Unified communications/IP phone systems that provide advanced features such as fixed mobile convergence (FMC), find me/follow me, unified messaging, HD voice, and more, all delivered as a cloud service but with the quality and control of on-site equipment.
  • Virtual servers that utilize Evolve IP’s private cloud infrastructure to reduce CAPEX while improving IT productivity. Evolve IP’s virtual servers leverage the scalability and failover of public cloud services while maintaining the privacy and security of dedicated environments.
  • Hosted contact centers that improve operations and customer service with intelligent routing and queues, call recording, call whisper, and every major feature needed to run a best-practice call center.

8X8, Partnerships, Softbank, Virtualization, Zerigo

8×8 and SoftBank Partner to Offer Virtualized Cloud Data Services

8×8, Inc., provider of cloud-based business communications and computing solutions, and SoftBank Telecom Corp. today announced that they have signed an agreement for SoftBank to license 8×8’s subscription-based “Zerigo” enterprise cloud software.

The agreement calls for 8×8 to license its Zerigo software and to develop some additional related software for Softbank to provide virtual desktop interface (VDI) services to its customers in Japan and throughout the world. The combination of the Zerigo software and the new VDI software will enable SoftBank to offer a full suite of virtualized cloud services to its major enterprise customers using Vblock products from VCE, a leader in converged cloud infrastructure systems.

Initially, SoftBank will deploy these services in Japan, but plans to rapidly extend the roll out of services to the rest of Asia as well as Europe, the United States and other major markets throughout the world. SoftBank counts some of the world’s largest enterprises as customers for its award-winning services and it intends to market these new, innovative virtualized services to those same customers. The agreement provides 8×8 with development and installation fees as well as on-going license fees over an initial 36-month contract.

“8×8 is delighted to partner with SoftBank to deliver these valuable services to their business customers,” said 8×8 Chairman & CEO Bryan Martin. “SoftBank is one of the most agile, successful telecom service providers in the world and the speed at which they move matches 8×8’s similar culture of always leading rather than following the market.”

“SoftBank selected 8×8 after an extensive search of software providers based on 8×8’s clear commitment to quality, scalability and reliability as well as flexibility and cost competitiveness,” said Ken Miyauchi, Director of The Board, SoftBank Telecom Corp. “SoftBank is pleased to partner with such a nimble, Silicon Valley company whose culture mirrors our own and whose experience in delivering cloud services will be invaluable in helping us to rapidly deploy similar services in Japan. We expect our customers will be delighted with these new offerings and we look forward to expanding the available markets in the near future.”