Press release:

IBM Opens Natural Resources Industry Solutions Lab in Brazil

Lab to accelerate development of environmental, intelligent resource extraction and real-time analytics solutions

Tab navigation

• News release
• Related XML feeds

• Contact(s) information

São Paulo - 20 Aug 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of its Natural Resources Industry Solutions Lab (NRIS Lab) in Sao Paulo, Brazil to help mining, oil and gas companies use innovative technology to meet the operational, environmental and supply demands facing the industry today.

The new software development lab will be located in São Paulo but will have a national scope to service Brazil’s growing natural resources industry.  The lab will be connected to a global network of labs and industry solution centers enabling teams to share knowledge and expertise with local clients. The operations of NRIS Lab will be integrated with other existing local IBM facilities including IBM Research – Brazil, focusing on development; and the Natural Resources Solution Center, focusing on the development of solutions and interaction with clients.

Today there is greater demand than ever for natural resources, yet the availability of our planet's natural reserves is dwindling. Cost cutting is maxed and prices, competition and risk keep rising. Natural resources companies are looking for greater visibility over their entire enterprise, insight into financial impact of operating decisions, and the ability to know, evaluate and respond in real time.

This lab, the first of its kind in Brazil, will focus on the development of automated solutions to help natural resources companies tackle these challenges.

“Making innovative technology rapidly available to help our clients is a key priority for IBM and this initiative is aligned with our strategy to strengthen this capability to help clients. We’ll combine technical and scientific potential to offer world-class projects as well as leveraging research, development and support from market specialists,” said Fábio Scopeta, Director, Software Lab, IBM Brazil.

According to Ulisses Mello, Natural Resources Executive, IBM Research - Brazil, the project will help companies adopt state-of-the-art technologies already in place in foreign markets. “Operations will build on an environmental focus, intelligent resource extraction, real-time analytics and big data management for the collection of valuable data.

“The goal is to enable technology-driven operations and leverage predictive analytics, helping companies improve their natural resource extraction capabilities,” says the executive. The initiative will make available to clients a comprehensive set of projects spanning the entire IBM portfolio, from consulting to development.

Natural Resources Solution Center (NRSC)

IBM has established Natural Resources Solutions Centers (NRSC) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil opened in March 2011 and Perth Australia, opened in June 2010 with the objective to help companies in the oil, gas and mining industries to speed up the adoption of innovative technology and business strategies.

NRSC works as a showcase of IBM solutions, where clients can experience hands-on demos of leading-edge technologies for the oil & gas and mining industries. The new São Paulo lab will focus on software R&D to create a specialized portfolio for this industry, which will be available at the NRSC in the form of demos.

About IBM

For more information about IBM’s offerings to the oil and gas, as well as mining industries, visit: www.ibm.com/industries.

Customer Experience & Growth

News Press Release
Optic 2000 Focuses on Customer Experience and Growth With Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail

France’s leading eyewear-maker chooses Microsoft’s ERP solution for its usability, ease of maintenance and flexibility for future growth. Its objective: to unify its IT solution at 1,850 points of sale.

inShare2

ISSY-LES-MOULINEAUX, France — March 20, 2012 — The Optic 2000 group, with more than 1,850 specialty stores for eyewear and hearing devices, has chosen Microsoft Corp.’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail, to manage its sales, supply and inventory across its entire network of operations in France. Usability, simple maintenance, functional excellence and ease of upgrading are the key advantages that led to the company’s strategic decision to adopt the Microsoft business solution. “The choice of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail is part of a comprehensive strategic vision for our company, which sees Microsoft as a key partner for stability, trust and innovation. Our objective is to streamline our resource management with this ERP solution, to deliver a real value proposition to our customers — through the advice and support we offer during the sales process and beyond, as well as by ensuring we are offering real value for the money,” said Didier Papaz, CEO of the Optic 2000 group. “We counted on our IT department to find a unified solution that was innovative and easy for our employees to use. The solution needed to transform IT into a genuine asset for our company, as a way of managing sales and inventory as well as the specifics related to all our lines of business.” “We are excited about the partnership established between Microsoft Dynamics and Optic 2000, who clearly have a vision for the future and are working to offer the best possible level of customer service,” said Michael Griffiths, global product director for retail, Microsoft Business Solutions. “Microsoft is all in when it comes to retail — from our stores and consumer devices to the customer already running Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail in more than 30 countries. We are taking that investment to the next level with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail and customers such as Optic 2000.” Unify, Simplify and Look to the Future With more than 1,850 stores (cooperatives, franchises and outlets) whose tools were no longer simple and effective to use and which were not able respond to industry developments, Optic 2000 was looking to adopt a unified and easy-to-use solution that could be adapted to the needs of each outlet. After extensive research, the team abandoned the idea of an eyewear-specific ERP solution in order to benefit from the power and flexibility of Microsoft solutions. Over and above the stability, the performance, the ease of maintenance and the wealth of functionality, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail distinguished itself as an innovative and open ERP solution, ideal for developing new tools specific to the eyewear industry. “We wanted a single solution that was easier to manage and that allowed us to optimize the quality of services provided by our IT department to our users,” said Patrick Seux, director of organization and IT of the Optic 2000 group. “By using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail, we can regularly update the entire system, all the applications on all the workstations. We also wanted to manage, archive and share our data from each point of sale. The data will remain specific to each outlet, but their security features will be centralized. In addition, the Microsoft solution allows us to look to a future in which we will be able to confidently access data on the go from mobile devices and heterogeneous point-of-sale terminals, and this for a price lower than that of the solution currently in place.” An Agile and Flexible ERP Solution Beyond the standard ERP functions of purchasing, inventory and pricing, Optic 2000 wanted to manage requirements that are specific to the optical sector. Glasses and lenses sold by prescription are constrained by prescription management, reimbursement, health insurance and third-party payer regulations. The supply of technical products, such as custom-made lenses, is also particularly complex to manage. This is why Optic 2000 has entrusted Prodware to develop complementary solutions specific to its industry, leveraging the adaptability of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail. “Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail brings us longevity, flexibility and ability to upgrade our technology, which are fundamental for enabling us to anticipate changes in the marketplace, whether in terms of in-store sales techniques or consumer buying preferences,” said Yves Guénin, secretary general of Optic 2000 group. Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

News Release from MSFT: Convergence 2012

News Press Release
Media Alert: Kevin Turner and Kirill Tatarinov to Open Convergence 2012

Join a live webcast of the Convergence 2012 keynote presentation Monday, March 19, at 9 a.m. CDT.

inShare1

REDMOND, Wash. — March 15, 2012 — Convergence 2012, the Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) premier event for decision-makers regarding purchases of enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management solutions, kicks off in Houston next week with more than 10,000 attendees. As part of the keynote presentation, executives will share product news, show demonstrations and discuss Microsoft’s vision for the future of business solutions. The event will also feature a broad range of customers, including winners of its Customer Excellence Awards, which includes organizations that are achieving outstanding success with their Microsoft business solutions. What: Microsoft Convergence 2012 keynote presentation Who: Kevin Turner, chief operating officer, Microsoft Corp.; Kirill Tatarinov, president, Microsoft Business Solutions Division When: Monday, March 19, 2012, 9–10:30 a.m. CDT Where: George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston Live webcast information: The live webcast of the keynote address will begin at 9 a.m. CDT. Viewers may access the webcast at http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/houston12/. Transcript information: A transcript will be available within 24 hours at the Convergence 2012 virtual pressroom. Live broadcasts of general sessions of Microsoft Dynamics solutions will also be available for viewing. The complete list of sessions and schedules is available athttp://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/houston12. The complete list of Microsoft Dynamics Customer Excellence Award winners and finalists is available athttp://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/houston12/CustomerExcellence.aspx. More information and news from Convergence 2012 is available athttp://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/dynamics. Those who want to follow and engage with the Microsoft Dynamics Twitter community can do so at @MSDYNCOMM using #CONV12.

News Release from Oracle - Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2

Oracle Announces Production Release of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2 for Oracle Linux

Fastest Linux Kernel for Transaction Processing Now Generally Available

Redwood Shores, Calif. – March 13, 2012

News Facts

Oracle today announced the general availability of the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2 for Oracle Linux.

Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2 includes performance and scalability enhancements that allowed Oracle to achieve record database benchmark results(1,2).

Based on the 3.0.16 mainline kernel, Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2 also includes improved memory and resource management, and is optimized to be deployed as a virtual guest.

The Btrfs file system is now production-ready with this release. Standard in Oracle Linux, Btrfs supports data stores of up to 16 exabyte, is optimized for solid state disks, is easy to administer, and includes built-in data integrity.

In addition, Oracle is offering technology previews of the very popular dynamic tracing mechanism, DTrace, and a powerful instance isolation capability, Linux Containers, to Oracle Linux support subscribers.

Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2 is included with Oracle Linux 5 and 6.

To learn more, join the Oracle Linux Online Forum, March 27th.

Record-Setting Linux Performance Plus the Most Modern Feature Set

Highlights of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2 (R2) include:

Performance Improvements: to the scheduler, memory management, file system layer and networking stack, all lend to performance advantages on any size system.

Performance Benchmarks: Oracle Linux with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel R2 has recently delivered two record breaking TPC-C benchmark results, on a small and a largesystem (1,2).

Btrfs: the “next generation file system” for Linux. With btrfs included, Oracle Linux can support large files and file systems, snapshots and checksums for data and meta-data, provides integrated RAID and volume management, and simplifies administration.

Transparent Hugepages: automatically organizes memory in larger units to reduce memory management overhead and improve stability for memory-intensive workloads.

Optimized for deployment as a virtual guest: the same Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel R2 kernel image, with full support for the Xen hypervisor included, can be used to run both in hardware virtualized and paravirtualized modes.

Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel R2 also includes the following technology previews:

Built-in virtualization: Linux Containers allow multiple isolated Linux instances (containers) to run on the same host. Processes running in containers can have their own private view of the operating system, file system structure and network interfaces, and their use of server resources can be tightly controlled.

DTrace: provides a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework that is designed to quickly identify the root cause of system performance problems without rebooting the kernel and recompiling—or even restarting—applications.

Running Oracle Linux with Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel R2 fully maintains existing userspace application compatibility and certification without any modification.

Oracle Linux with Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is extensively tested with the most demanding workloads, both on third-party servers and Oracle’s, including Engineered Systems such as Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine and Oracle Big Data Appliance – to help ensure superior performance and reliability.

With Oracle Linux Premier Support, customers can implement zero downtime kernel updates for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel R2 with Ksplice technology.

Oracle Linux is open source with a public git source code repository and compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Supporting Quote

“Oracle Linux continues to deliver timely Linux innovations, backed by real-world testing, providing users a modern, scalable and reliable platform for their business critical workload demands,” said Wim Coekaerts, senior vice president of Linux and Virtualization Engineering, Oracle. “Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2 further demonstrates Oracle’s investment in Linux technology and the community, and delivers on our goal to make Linux better for everyone.”

Supporting Resources

Oracle and Linux

Oracle Linux Customers

Wim Coekaerts Blog

Oracle Linux Online Forum, March 27th

New Innovations in Oracle Linux Webcast

Visit Oracle Linux on Blog, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Accenture Upgrades Technology to Help Massachusetts Manage $45 billion Annual Budget

March 08, 2012

 

Accenture Upgrades Technology to Help Massachusetts Manage $45 billion Annual Budget

 

Commonwealth Raises Standards for State Budgeting and Forecasting

  

BOSTON, Mass.; March 8, 2012 –At a time when state governments face unprecedented challenges in meeting the needs of their citizens, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has implemented a new budget system and adopted standards that enhance the state’s ability to project and allocate financial resources throughout the fiscal year.

 

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) worked with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance (ANF) to complete the Commonwealth’s annual budget process using the new “Massachusetts Budget Application.”  

 

The system enhances the state’s ability to provide a uniform, consistent and comprehensive budget process for the state’s 156 agencies by creating a common approach to project budget needs and reviewing and approving budget proposals. A detailed workforce-planning capability now enables agencies to project spending by individual positions and full-time employee staffing levels.

 

The new system also provides administration officials with a powerful tool that creates the foundation for more informed decisions about allocations to support programs and services while providing increased visibility on how agencies match financial and personnel resources to critical services and needs.

 

“Our goal was to build a foundation for better analysis and continual enhancements of the state’s performance, leveraging information to improve outcomes and fulfill missions of each state agency as well as the Commonwealth’s fiscal responsibilities to its citizens,” said Matthew Gorzkowicz, Massachusetts undersecretary for Administration and Finance.

 

Additional features and benefits of the new system include:

• Ability to do detailed workforce planning and position-based budgeting
• All funds (Operating, Federal, Trust) budgeting and reporting capabilities
• Visibility into the budget development, review and approval process
• Detailed point-in-time capabilities that reconcile budgeted costs to actual expenditures
• Increased accuracy to project cash flow to better identify spending patterns

 

“State governments face new fiscal constraints and increased pressure to control costs,” said Pallavi Verma, Accenture senior executive. “Massachusetts has demonstrated leading-edge fiscal management and a commitment to its citizens.”  

 

Accenture will continue working with the Commonwealth on other budget-related projects, including consolidating the state’s budget technology platform, implementing a planning application for capital budgets, creating budget management dashboards for state executives and the production of the governor’s budget.

 

Learn more about Accenture’s work with governments on cost reduction and budget transformation and delivering Public Service for the Future.

 

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 244,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries.  Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments.  The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011.  Its home page is www.accenture.com.

 

# # #