Mediaboss Marketing

Industry and government leaders attending the International Telecommunications Unions (ITU) Connect Arab Summit, which closed yesterday, have identified market opportunities worth over $46bn for new projects designed to enhance ICT access, applications and services throughout the region. The investment opportunities focus around key priorities for the region, including building a regional Arab ICT highway, developing e-services, empowering local people through training and human capacity building, leveraging ICTs for youth job creation, strengthening cyber security, and protecting Arab heritage and culture. The Summit was convened to forge regional consensus on new strategies to boost infrastructure deployment, extend access to marginalised populations, and stimulate innovation and employment across the region. The Summit closed with a communique endorsed by all participating governments from across the region, which set out four key development goals around access and infrastructure; digital content; cyber security; and innovation. Connectivity commitments and partnerships announced during the event included a project between ITU and the League of Arab States to establish a dot Arab domain name (UAE announced that it would host this important new domain); a womens literacy project involving ITU, ALESCO and UAE, designed to empower women in the region with ICT skills in Arabic; a project between ITU and the Linux Professional Institute to promote open source software training and certification; a broadband toolkit to be developed by the World Bank, along with a regional broadband connectivity study to support additional infrastructure investment and an employment study focusing on the West Bank/Gaza. At the national level, Egypt proposed a raft of projects for investment, and made three announcements with ITU: a project to enhance access to Arab digital content through the Memory of the Arab World project; a project to strengthen Arab statistical indicators to better inform policy-making in the region; a project to leverage the power of ICTs to help persons with disabilities. The Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organisation (AICTO) proposed several projects, including a regional cyber security initiative to promote safe and secure e-transactions; a digital broadcasting project; a new project to establish e-accessibility centres to provide education, training and retrofitting of Arab websites in partnership with W3C; and a common legal framework on e-accessibility in Arab region. In addition, a number of counties, including Djibouti, Mauritania and Sudan, put forward exciting ICT investment opportunities for which they are seeking partners. In his closing remarks, Brahima Sanou, director, ITUs telecommunication development bureau, hailed the Summit as an outstanding success in bringing countries from right across the region and the world to share ideas and identify opportunities for business partnership.

Read more:
New investment projects worth $46bn identified

By Robert Mann

Westminster Canterbury Richmond (WCR) is a high-end continuing-care retirement community in Richmond, Va., designed for older adults who are able-bodied, active and involved. It is home to about 900 residents, and 750 employees work there.

The community has been growing, and as it expanded, WCRs commitment to securing its customer information became paramount. For IT, that meant taking a number of steps to protect not only the information of its residentswhich includes financial data and health care recordsbut also the companys proprietary information, for competitive reasons.

For an organization such as WCR, whose residents put high value on privacy, a leak of internal data, or worse, of resident information, could cause irreparable harm to its brand and image. Beyond that, the federal Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates the protection of individuals identifiable health information. No one at WCR wanted to take the risk that any of our information would end up in the public domain.

The IT department took a number of steps to protect WCRs data. These included encrypting all office laptops with PGP Whole Disk Encryption (now Symantec); using our Fortinet FortiGate Firewall to prevent data leaks; protecting Social Security, credit card and patient numbers; and encrypting email with Fortinet FortiMail Appliance.

We started at the desktops and extended from there, making data protection an organizationwide initiative. As part of that effort, we also banned the use of flash drives, which we believe pose too great a security risk.

However, our staff needed to use portable drives, whether to share financial information with investors or for a marketing presentation. So we looked for alternatives.

We evaluated a number of encrypted flash drive options. Each had something that made us steer clear of it. Some were susceptible to key logger software; others required IT to update their software at regular intervals. Thats when we turned to the LOK-IT Secure Flash Drive. The encrypted flash drive has a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validation, or government-level security, which means that it meets one of the highest standards set by the federal government for encrypting and securing data.

Some drives use encryption that must access software on a computer, but encryption on LOK-IT is performed on an internal USB controller. To gain access to the drive and the data within it, users punch a pin code into a 10-key PIN-Pad, much like an ATM.

Excerpt from:
Protecting Customerand CompanyData - Security - News & Reviews - Baseline.com

ST. LOUIS, March 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Amdocs (NYSE: DOX - News), the leading provider of customer experience systems, today announced that Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan has given Amdocs two Stratecast Global Market Share Leadership awards for 2011. By receiving these awards for rating, charging and other core billing*, and for total billing, Amdocs is recognized for its excellence in capturing the highest revenue market share for each respective category within the global communications industry.

Leading analyst firm, Stratecast named Amdocs as the top vendor in the "rating and charging and other core billing" domain with a revenue-based market share of 19.7 percent. According to Stratecast, this domain is growing in importance in the communications market and currently represents 70 percent of the global, end-to-end billing market. Amdocs was also named the leading vendor in revenue market share for the overall billing market, which in addition to rating and charging and other core billing, includes the mediation, policy management, interconnect and settlements and partner management segments.

According to Stratecast, the key drivers behind Amdocs' success are:

"We are convinced that Amdocs will remain a leading global supplier of billing software and services for communications services providers for the foreseeable future," said Karl Whitelock, director OSS/BSS strategy at Stratecast. "Amdocs is constantly demonstrating its ability to anticipate and meet market needs which contributes to its high market share. An example is the acquisition of Bridgewater Systems which, according to our analysis, positions Amdocs as a leading vendor in the policy management and data monetization domain."

Another example of Amdocs' product strength is the company's convergent charging product, based on Amdocs' innovative turbo-charging technology. According to Stratecast's research, this technology provides unmatched performance levels and scalability, while reducing hardware and software costs to cost-effectively support growing numbers of subscribers and events.

"Our leading product portfolio together with our experience in providing a wide range of professional services such as consulting, implementation, system integration, ongoing support, maintenance and managed services to the communications industry over a period of 30 years has given us deep insight into what service providers need to succeed," said Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing at Amdocs. "The innovative solutions that drive our product roadmap are the result of our high investment in R&D and the insights we gain through the successful deployment of hundreds of complex, large-scale projects."

The Stratecast analysis covers revenues from license and professional services fees, including installation, maintenance, service bureau, cloud and managed services. The analysis is based on billing vendor and service provider interviews, responses to a direct market questionnaire, information from public sources, and raw market data.

Amdocs' billing solutions support some of the world's leading service providers including AT&T (US), Comcast (US), Rogers Communications Inc. (Canada), Vodafone Netherlands, Elisa (Finland), XL Axiata (Indonesia) and FarEasTone (Taiwan).

* Included are accounts receivable, collections, bill presentment, voucher and replenishment management.

Supporting Resources

See the original post:
Amdocs Leads in Global Billing Market Share, Analyst Firm Reports

ATLANTA and NEW YORK, March 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Cloud Sherpas, recently named the Google Enterprise 2011 Partner of the Year, has merged with GlobalOne, a salesforce.com platinum consulting partner. The new company, to be called Cloud Sherpas, has also received a $20 million investment from Columbia Capital, which last year invested $15M in GlobalOne. David Northington, who was CEO at GlobalOne and previously was COO of CapGemini's North American Applications Services group, will be CEO of Cloud Sherpas. Former Cloud Sherpas CEO Douglas Shepard will be president of Cloud Sherpas' Google business unit.

The investment from Columbia Capital, a prominent enterprise-focused venture capital firm with over $2.5 billion under management, will be used by Cloud Sherpas to solidify its position as a leader in the Cloud Service Provider market (CSP). The funds will allow Cloud Sherpas to extend its reach into new geographic regions, further development of vertical market solutions, and continue to expand its portfolio of cloud-based applications that unify cloud interoperability.

"Both GlobalOne and Cloud Sherpas were born in the cloud as pure-play cloud service providers," said Northington. "The combined firm further enables our singular missionto help customers transform their businesses by leveraging the power of the cloud. The new Cloud Sherpas has the talent, domain expertise and geographic reach to help businesses improve IT agility and lower costs through a series of cloud consulting, integration and support services."

Founded in 2008, Cloud Sherpas was among the first Google Enterprise partners devoted to Google Apps. In less than four years, the company has transformed the IT foundation of businesses, governments, organizations and educational institutions large and small, by replacing legacy, on-premise email systems with messaging, collaboration and security solutions in the cloud. The company was recently named the Google Enterprise 2011 Partner of the Year, based in part on their deep-rooted commitment to Google technologies and customer success, as evidenced by the number of Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialists throughout its organization.

"The CSP business model is different than traditional professional services," said Jon Hallett, Chairman of Cloud Sherpas. "The merger broadens our capabilities, enabling us to help our customers capture the benefits of continual technology innovation provided in the cloud. Partnered with a CSP like Cloud Sherpas, customers can make incremental bets over time to consistently align technology to their business, reduce risk and deliver significantly higher value."

Meanwhile, GlobalOne, which started in 2007, has been a fast growing salesforce.com consulting partner. Based in New York with offices throughout the U.S. and Asia, GlobalOne has helped hundreds of enterprise clients deploy and realize tremendous value from salesforce.com. As one of the companies on the salesforce.com International Technical Architecture Review Board, GlobalOne is highly-respected for its CRM expertise and well-known for its vertical solutions.

In addition, GlobalOne has developed an offshore delivery center based in the Philippines and recently acquired a mobile app development team from Vodafone. These teams have helped transform how customers interact with technology at their organizations. Leveraging the power of the Salesforce platform, the GlobalOne team has built custom applications and award-winning social and mobile apps for businesses around the globe.

The following are a few relevant data points about the new Cloud Sherpas organization:

Douglas Shepard, president of Cloud Sherpas, says, "Bringing together a dominant salesforce.com partner with a leading Google Enterprise partner enables us to provide customers around the globe with a more comprehensive range of enterprise cloud solutions."

"The demand for cloud services in Asia-Pacific continues to grow at breakneck speed," added John Orrock, founder of GlobalOne and senior vice president for Asia-Pacific, at Cloud Sherpas. "Our cloud consultants in Australia and New Zealand, combined with our newly acquired mobility practice and offshore development capabilities in the Philippines, sets the new Cloud Sherpas apart from other cloud service providers in the region."

Read the original post:
Cloud Sherpas and GlobalOne Merge, Raise $20M to Create Global Cloud Service Provider Powerhouse

NEW YORK, March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Jalak Jobanputra, a prominent venture capitalist known for having backed companies with exits to AOL, IBM, Oracle and several IPOs, today announced that she has been named Managing Director and Founding Partner at RTP Ventures, a newly formed $120M fund closely associated with ru-Net, a Moscow-based $700M international investor.

With a vision of targeting innovative companies and differentiating technologies that will see tomorrow's growth, Jobanputra joins managing director Kirill Sheynkman at RTP Ventures' New York City headquarters. Jobanputra will focus on consumer internet, mobile, payments, e-commerce, and social enterprise deals.

"I am thrilled to join a team of investors who are dedicated to cross-border, global venture capital investing," said Jobanputra. "It is my goal, and that of my partners, to give entrepreneurs and startup companies greater access to a wide range of the best resources from a regional and global stance, regardless of where that market might be based."

Prior to joining RTP, Jobanputra served as Director of Emerging Market Mobile Investments at Omidyar Network, a fund founded by Pierre Omidyar, co-founder of eBay. Prior to that, Jobanputra was Senior Vice President at the New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF) where she managed technology and digital media venture investments. During her tenure at NYCIF, Jobanputra invested in technology start-ups including TxVia and Outside.in, later acquired by AOL. Additionally, Jobanputra spearheaded the formation of NYCSeed in 2008, committed to funding early stage NYC tech entrepreneurs. She began her venture career in 1999 in Silicon Valley at Intel Capital and was previously a startup founder and media and telecom investment banker.

Named one of 2010's Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business by the Asian American Development Center, Jobanputra is on the Board of Directors of the Center for an Urban Future and sits on the Executive Committee of the Social Investment Council of Echoing Green, among others. She serves as a Mentor for Techstars NYC, a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and an Advisory Board Member of Astia NYC. A frequent speaker at conferences including Mobile World Congress and TechCrunch Disrupt, Jobanputra has contributed to publications including Forbes and Business Insider, as well as maintaining her own blog (www.thebarefootvc.com).

With over twenty years of experience in media, technology, and venture capital, Jobanputra brings with her deep industry insight, global business expertise and direct investment experience from throughout the world including the United States, India, Africa, Latin America, and Europe.

About RTP Ventures RTP Ventures is a $120M venture capital fund with offices in New York City and Boston which invests in cross section of technology companies based on the deep domain expertise of its partners, from cloud computing to consumer internet, RTP provides first institutional funding as well as growth capital for its portfolio through access to ru-Net's $700M pool of capital. For more information, please visit RTP Ventures at http://www.rtp.vc.

Contact Kristen Filippini Zer0 to 5ive Kristen@0to5.com 516-356-1136

See original here:
Jalak Jobanputra Named Managing Director at RTP Ventures in New York City