Accenture Supports Canadian Charities with C$780,000 in Grants and Volunteering

Press release:

September 18, 2012

Accenture Supports Canadian Charities with C$780,000 in Grants and Volunteering

 

Grants reflect Accenture’s Skills to Succeed corporate citizenship initiative

 

TORONTO; September 18, 2012 – Accenture has awarded 12 grants totaling C$780,000 to help support Canadians who are seeking job skills to re-enter the workforce. In addition to the grants, Accenture employees are volunteering and donating pro bono consulting skills, reflecting the company’s Skills to Succeed initiative to equip 250,000 people around the world by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business.

 

“By working with these strong organizations and programs, Accenture hopes to help Canadians from coast to coast develop their skills and find new careers,” said Michael Denham, president and country managing director, Accenture.  “We share the commitment of these organizations to making a significant, lasting impact on the long-term economic vitality and resilience of individuals, families and communities around the world.”

 

The charities were selected following an official call for proposals to all Accenture employees in Canada.  A panel of Accenture’s corporate citizenship team in Canada then decided to fund programs that include:

 

• United Way (Ottawa) – assisting the Minwaashin Lodge’s Employment Readiness Program in efforts to help Aboriginal women find meaningful work and/or training to participate in the job market.
• The Salvation Army’s Harbour Light ministry (Vancouver) – training disadvantaged people in Vancouver’s downtown eastside community, using technology programs to start businesses or find jobs.
• Mixed Company (Toronto) – training at-risk young adults from diverse backgrounds and cultures in skills development, so they can gain employment and explore opportunities to develop their own creative ventures.
• Centre for Addiction & Mental Health Foundation (Toronto) – supporting Employment Works!, a program that helps people with a history of mental health issues and/or addiction to successfully return to the workforce.
• Hull Child and Family Services (Calgary) – partnering with organizations to assist young people, adults and families of people with significant developmental and behavioral challenges learn new skills to achieve success in their lives.
• Green Skills Network (Niagara) – mentoring and providing skills training to young adults, so they understand pathways to careers in the renewable energy field.
• Le Refuge des Jeunes de Montréal (Quebec) – developing a program to help disadvantaged young men in Quebec start a business or secure meaningful work.

 

Grants will also be given to Free The Children, The Canadian Centre for Diversity, Ability Online, ACCES Employment and Alberta Ecotrust.

 

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 249,000 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.  Through its Skills to Succeed corporate citizenship focus, Accenture is committed to equipping 250,000 people around the world by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business. 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.

 

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PRESS RELEASE

3M Littmann Stethoscopes Supported by Cisco HealthPresence System

3M and Cisco Expand the Existing Array of Devices that Have Been Tested to Function with Cisco HealthPresence

SAN JOSE, Calif. and St. Paul, MN – September 13, 2012 — Cisco, a world leader in developing and supplying communications products, equipment and solutions, and 3M, a diversified technology company, announced today that the 3M™ Littmann® Electronic Stethoscope Model 3200 has been tested for use with the Cisco HealthPresence® system.

3M and Cisco, working together, expands the existing array of devices that have been tested to function with Cisco HealthPresence thus providing an improvement in the remote delivery of healthcare, globally. Cisco HealthPresence care-at-a-distance solution represents significant advances in technology and telecommunication techniques, effectively delivering remote health care 24/7 by integrating high-definition video, third-party medical devices, collaboration tools and clinical applications.

In turn, Littmann stethoscopes are reputed for their acoustic performance and used by millions of clinicians worldwide. The Littmann Electronic Stethoscope Model 3200 has won numerous industry awards for delivering high quality auscultation sounds at both a local patient site and a remote consulting physician site. Integration of Littmann electronic stethoscopes with the Cisco HealthPresence system will provide the remote consulting physician the ability to listen to the same heart and lung sounds that he/she would hear if conducting an in-person examination, demonstrating a significant leap in remote health care capabilities.

"We are excited by the collaboration with 3M, a company renowned for its high quality stethoscopes, and Cisco, a global leader in networking," said Vishal Gupta, vice president and general manager, Global Healthcare Solutions, Cisco. "We believe this collaboration will accelerate adoption of Cisco HealthPresence and create more choices for health care providers."

With this partnered offering, doctors no longer need to visit a dedicated telemedicine room to connect with patients; they can now consult with patients using high-quality devices such as Littmann stethoscopes on a laptop supported by Internet connection on the HealthPresence platform. Remote "clinical examination" is now possible in a seamless manner with the option of integrating with existing clinical applications.

"Cisco is a leader in telemedicine with a global network, said Bob Kody, 3M Littman global business director. "We are excited to integrate Littmann stethoscopes with the Cisco HealthPresence system, which provides consulting physicians a convenient way to care for patients, and now the ability to access heart and lung sounds."

Currently, 3M™ Littmann® Stethoscopes are being deployed with two lead customers of the Cisco HealthPresence solution and will be available to customers on a broader basis later this year.

About 3M

3M captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of ingenious products. Its culture of creative collaboration inspires a never-ending stream of powerful technologies that make life better. 3M is the innovation company that never stops inventing. With $30 billion in sales, 3M employs 84,000 people worldwide and has operations in more than 65 countries. For more information, visit www.3M.com or follow @3MNews on Twitter.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

# # #

PRESS RELEASE

European Broadcasting Union Successfully Executes on Streaming Strategy for Major Sports Events with Cisco Videoscape Media Processor

Cisco technology supports international media organization at London 2012 Olympic Games

IBC, Amsterdam, Netherlands: 7 September 2012 – Cisco today announced that Eurovision – the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) business, operations and network arm – deployed Cisco's Media Processor,  part of the Cisco Videoscape™ TV services delivery platform, to bring European viewers thousands of hours of live streamed coverage from the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Cisco® technology formed an integral part of the EBU's live streaming platform, www.eurovisionsports.tv. During the Games, more than 3,000 hours of EBU members' programming from live HD feeds were encoded in multiple bit rates for adaptive streaming on the site.

To support the growing demand for video streaming during the London 2012 Games, Eurovision deployed Cisco's Media Processor, a cornerstone of the Acquisition Suite, and an important part of the Videoscape™ platform.

The Cisco Media Processor family offers multiple streaming options from single- to multi-format, standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD), and streaming to any device; from set-top boxes, IP connected TVs, tablets, smartphones and PCs. It supports streaming to the latest platforms, including iPhone, iPad, feature phones, smartphones, Microsoft Smooth, and Adobe Dynamic streaming.

Cisco's technology enables EBU to quickly adapt the profiles to its broadcasters’ requests and can automatically optimize the resolution, bit rate and metadata of video streams for the user's specific device characteristics and network conditions, helping to ensure a premium video experience over any IP network and on any device.

EBU Network Director Graham Warren said:

"Events such as the Olympic Games generate huge demand from consumers wanting to follow the action live, using whatever device is most convenient. This can represent a significant technological challenge as our systems need to adapt content to each endpoint and IP network to deliver a seamless, high-quality, live service. We have been very satisfied with Cisco's technology and look forward to developing our streaming services further."

Edwin Paalvast, senior vice president, Service Provider Group, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia, Cisco, commented:

"Demand for online video is growing incredibly quickly, with the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index predicting that video will make up as much as 54 per cent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2016. This growth, combined with the sheer variety of devices that will be used to consume video content, will mean that intelligent, adaptable technology platforms will become increasingly vital for the broadcast industry if it is to deliver a high-quality live experience. We look forward to continuing to work with the EBU and to build on the success of our initial deployment in the future."

Supporting Resources:

• Cisco Service Provider:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns341/networking_solutions_service_provider_home.html
• Cisco Videoscape
• http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1043/networking_solutions_market_segment_solution.html
• Cisco Media Processor: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/video/ps11488/ps11791/ps11806/overview.html
• Cisco Visual Networking Index:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns827/networking_solutions_sub_solution.html#~overview,
• EBU London 2012 Games Coverage:
  http://www3.ebu.ch/cms/en/sites/ebu/contents/frontpage-news/news-2012/european-public-service-broadcas.html

Tags/Keywords:

Cisco, Service Provider, video, VOD, IPTV, ABR, Videoscape, Media Processor, EBU, Eurovision, broadcast, tablet, smartphone, live streaming, multiscreen

RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html

About the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)

The EBU serves 74 Members in 56 countries in and around Europe. Services to Members range from legal advice, technical standardization and development to coproduction and exchange of quality European content. The Eurovision and Euroradio networks deliver news, sports, events and music to EBU Members and other media organizations.

For more information about the EBU: www.ebu.ch and www.eurovision.com

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is provided by Cisco Systems International B.V. and Cisco International Limited, wholly owned subsidiaries of Cisco Systems, Inc.

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Accenture to Acquire NewsPage, a Leading Provider of Integrated Distributor Management and Mobility Software for the Consumer Goods Industry

Press release from Accenture:

August 30, 2012

Accenture to Acquire NewsPage, a Leading Provider of Integrated Distributor Management and Mobility Software for the Consumer Goods Industry

 

NEW YORK; Aug. 30, 2012 – Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has entered into an agreement to acquire Singapore-based NewsPage Pte Ltd (“NewsPage”), a leading provider of integrated distributor management and mobility software for the consumer goods industry in emerging markets.

 

NewsPage provides software products to some of the world’s largest consumer goods companies. Upon closing, the acquisition will complement the capabilities of the Accenture CAS software platform, a leading integrated software platform that supports the consumer goods industry sales processes, and help strengthen its capabilities in emerging markets. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

 

The Accenture CAS software platform helps consumer goods companies achieve greater trade efficiency and sales by enabling improved product availability on the shelf and increasing their ability to efficiently collaborate with retailers, while supporting the management of large, mobile sales and distribution forces.

 

Upon closing, the acquisition of NewsPage will add distributor management and mobility capabilities to the Accenture CAS software platform through a lean, user-friendly application. Also, NewsPage will bring a multi-platform mobility capability to the Accenture CAS solution, allowing it to run on Windows, Android and iOS devices. NewsPage’s products are delivered on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis or on-location.

 

The combination of the Accenture CAS software platform and NewsPage’s products will offer consumer goods companies the ability to manage all of their sales processes on a single global sales platform – from trade promotion management and optimization to retail execution, and from distributor management to direct store delivery, merchandising and customer service.

 

“This acquisition is important as it will enhance Accenture’s ability to help global consumer goods companies by supporting all route-to-market sales and delivery models across mature and emerging markets,” said Fabio Vacirca, senior managing director of Accenture’s Consumer Goods & Services practice. “NewsPage has a strong client base of global consumer goods brands that have benefited from its products. Its addition will strengthen Accenture’s software capabilities in emerging markets and reinforce Accenture’s position as a leading provider of integrated sales software for the consumer goods industry.”

 

Once the transaction has closed, approximately 128 NewsPage employees will join Accenture, and will continue to focus on product development, client sales and delivery. This team will be integrated into the Accenture Software organization.

 

“We are pleased that Accenture has recognized the strength of the NewsPage products, and the valuable work that we deliver for our clients,” said Tim Yoon, CEO of NewsPage. “We believe that the combination of our two organizations will create a compelling offer for consumer goods companies in emerging markets. Now we will be able to meet our client’s software implementation needs in countries outside of our traditional geographic area, benefiting from Accenture’s global reach and experience. This will be particularly useful where clients want business process changes before they implement the software platform.”

 

The acquisition is subject to closing requirements and is expected to close within 60 days.

 

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 249,000 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.

 

Accenture Software combines deep technology acumen with industry knowledge to develop differentiated software products. It offers innovative software-based solutions to enable organizations to meet their business goals and achieve high performance. It's home page is:www.accenture.com/software. For more information on Accenture CAS, please visitwww.accenture.com/accenturecas.

 

About NewsPage
NewsPage, a market leader in mobility, has been in the business of developing and deploying industry-ready mobile applications since 1993. NewsPage Distributor Management is an end-to-end enterprise solution that caters for businesses that sell thru distributors. NewsPage has an extensive install base worldwide with more than 60 successful systems running in 20 countries across 7 different time zones in multiple languages. For more information, visitwww.newspage.com.sg.
 

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Microsoft Recognizes Accenture and Avanade with 2012 U.S. Regional Partner of the Year Awards

Press release from Accenture:

August 29, 2012

Microsoft Recognizes Accenture and Avanade with 2012 U.S. Regional

Partner of the Year Awards

 

Companies Honored as Eastern Region Cloud Partner of the Year, Central Region Enterprise Compete Partner of the Year and Northeast District Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year; Receive Individual Recognitions for Healthcare Industry Solutions and U.S. Federal Dynamics Partner of the Year

 

NEW YORK; Aug. 29, 2012 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN), a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, and Avanade, a business technology solutions and managed services provider, have been recognized with several regional U.S. Partner of the Year awards for 2012 by Microsoft.

 

The U.S. East region was honored as Cloud Partner of the Year and the U.S. Central region was awarded the Enterprise Compete Partner of the Year. This marks the second consecutive year that Accenture and Avanade have been honored with these two awards. The Cloud Partner of the Year Award honors the partner that sold and deployed innovative solutions and services for customers with hybrid on-premises, public cloud and private cloud needs across the U.S. East region.

 

Microsoft also recognized Accenture and Avanade with the Enterprise Compete Partner of the Year for its work on strategic accounts across the central United States. Additionally, Accenture and Avanade were honored as the Northeast District Dynamics Partner of the Year for CRM. This award recognizes a Microsoft partner who provides innovative solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and fosters superior customer engagement in the Northeast District.

 

“Accenture and Avanade continually work with clients to achieve maximum performance from the Microsoft platform,” said Scott Harrison, global managing director of alliances channel management at Accenture. “As companies continue to look for ways to become more competitive, Accenture and Avanade are helping organizations achieve important business results through technology innovation in areas such as cloud computing and CRM, and in industries such as healthcare. We are pleased to be recognized by Microsoft for the results we have delivered to our clients.”

 

Aziz Virani, Avanade’s president of North America, said, “These awards reflect Accenture and Avanade’s commitment to enabling customers to harness the business benefits that can be achieved with the Microsoft platform. Together we are working with customers across all industries to help them drive down costs, strengthen customer relationships and improve performance."

 

Accenture and Avanade were also individually recognized for their work in the healthcare industry. Accenture was named the U.S. Health and Human Services Partner of the Year for 2012 for its Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) offerings. The Accenture Public Health Platform (APHP) is based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and is designed to enhance administrative efficiency, improve flexibility in program management and speed deployment, thus reducing total cost of ownership. The platform enables states to better adapt to the continually evolving Medicaid landscape, budget pressures and initiatives surrounding health reform mandates.

 

Separately, Avanade was recognized as the U.S. Health and Life Sciences Dynamics Partner of the Year for its innovative work developing solutions that enable the healthcare industry to build stronger customer relationships. For example, Avanade is working with a leading cancer treatment organization in North America to create an automated patient relationship management system to ensure that patients and caregivers have the best experience possible throughout the entire relationship – not just during treatment. Built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the solution enables hospitals to track each patient throughout the care lifecycle, as well as ensure ongoing contact with primary caregivers and family members.

 

Finally, Accenture Federal Services was recognized as the U.S. Federal Dynamics Partner of the Year for its Task Management solution, TMT. TMT is the leading task management solution deployed in the U.S. Department of Defense and is used by over 70,000 users world-wide.

 

The companies were selected for these awards by Microsoft’s Field Partner Awards Program, which enables Microsoft to award regional partners on a global scale. The recipients of the 2012 Microsoft Partner of the Year awards were recognized at this year’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, held July 8-12 in Toronto. More information can be found at: http://www.digitalwpc.com.  

 

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company with over 249,000 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.

 

About Avanade

Avanade provides business technology solutions and managed services that connect insight, innovation and expertise in Microsoft® technologies to help customers realize results. Our people have helped thousands of organizations in all industries improve business agility, employee productivity, and customer loyalty. Avanade combines the collective business, technical and industry expertise of its worldwide network of experts with the rigor of an industrialized delivery model to provide high quality solutions using proven and emerging technologies with flexible deployment models–on premises, cloud-based or outsourced. Avanade, which is majority owned by Accenture, was founded in 2000 by Accenture LLP and Microsoft Corporation and has 16,000 professionals in more than 20 countries. Additional information can be found at www.avanade.com.

 

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PRESS RELEASE

Cisco and EMC Take 'Three Paths to the Cloud' Strategy to the Next Level

New Joint Reference Architectures, Aligned Channel Incentives and Integrated Customer Support Accelerate VSPEX Momentum
New Offerings Support VCE Vblock in Delivering Customers Unmatched Cloud Infrastructure Choice and Flexibility

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — VMworld — August 28, 2012 — Cisco and EMC today announced further collaboration to help accelerate IT transformation by providing customers with unrivaled choice and flexibility via "three paths to the cloud" — custom-design infrastructure, validated reference architectures, and pre-integrated converged infrastructure.  Cisco and EMC introduced new joint reference architectures, aligned channel partner incentives, and integrated customer support to speed customers' path to the cloud.

Building on a decade-long partnership, Cisco and EMC now provide enterprise and service provider customers with an unmatched menu of options to build cloud infrastructure.  The "three paths to the cloud" include:

• Implement a custom-designed infrastructure with best-of-breed products
• Install validated, easy-to-deploy reference architectures with Cisco solutions for EMC VSPEX™ Proven Infrastructure
• Purchase a pre-integrated converged infrastructure with VCE™ Vblock™ System.

Partnership Highlights:

• The two new Cisco® Validated Designs (CVD) for EMC VSPEX are unified computing reference architectures tailored to SMB and mid-market customers.  Designed to accelerate the journey to the private cloud, the CVDs are Cisco Solutions for EMC VSPEX for Microsoft Hyper-V Architectures and Cisco Solutions for EMC VSPEX for VMware vSphere 5.0 Architectures.
• More than 200 Cisco and EMC Velocity™ channel partners within the global VSPEX community have been trained to resell and deploy EMC VSPEX with Cisco Unified Data Center.
• Cisco and EMC have also aligned their channel incentive structures to simplify the process of accruing incentives and boost partner profitability.
• Cisco and EMC have implemented a customer support framework for VSPEX for collaborative case management.
• VCE — Cisco and EMC's joint venture with VMware — pioneered a groundbreaking integrated data center offering with end-to-end vendor visibility, enabling the leading time-to-market and one of the lowest TCO for converged cloud infrastructure.
• VCE's fully productized converged infrastructure standardizes processes and life cycle management to significantly improve application availability and enable VCE's unique seamless support experience. 
• VCE continues to gain traction in enterprise data centers as well as in cloud service providers with hundreds of VCE Vblock Systems in production at mission-critical data centers worldwide.
• VCE demand continues its strong growth in the most recent fiscal quarter and remains on track to reach a $1 billion revenue run rate.

Customer Quote:

Rajinder Gill, Group Finance Director, Minor, Weir & Willis Ltd

"Our business needed a complete network and infrastructure upgrade in order to implement a new ERP system. VSPEX was an obvious fit for our environment and working closely with Synapse, we reduced our deployment and integration time. The prior validation work performed by Cisco, EMC and Synapse on VSPEX reduced our risk and complexity. Because of the tight integration between EMC, Cisco and VSPEX, we have decided to leverage the VSPEX platform as the primary core of our network and infrastructure for all current and future applications."

Indu Kodukula, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, SunGard Availability Service

"We want to devote our IT resources to developing new innovative automation tools for high-availability services, not building out infrastructure. The pre-integrated Vblock System architecture relieves our staff from having to make different vendors and solutions work together."

Channel Partner Quote:

Joe Coxon, Business Development Manager, Synapse

"Many of the customers we work with want to deploy a cloud, but aren't quite sure how to do so quickly and easily.  VSPEX is a powerful solution that helps us deploy clouds for our customers quickly and efficiently.  By leveraging our expert understanding of client requirements, and Cisco's and EMC's industry-leading technologies, we can deliver a complete solution that matches our customers' business needs."

Dave Hart, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Presidio

"We deliver the ultimate in choice and flexibility to our customers by offering solutions based on EMC and Cisco technologies.  We're seeing a lot of demand for Vblock Systems with larger enterprise and service provider customers and VSPEX configurations allow us to reach a broader market.  Both enable us to provide our unique expertise and differentiated value to help customers meet their business requirements."

Cisco Quote: 

Rick Snyder, Vice President, Global and Strategic Partners, Cisco

"Cisco and EMC partner every day in the engineering labs and in the field, helping customers around the world transform their data centers and strengthen their business.  Through VCE we've unleashed market-moving innovation through the pre-engineered, pre-integrated Vblock Systems.  Now, we're working together to meeting customer demand with Cisco Validated Designs for EMC VSPEX and aligned channel incentives to accelerate VSPEX adoption."  

EMC Quote: 

Josh Kahn, Vice President, Solutions Marketing, EMC Corporation

"VCE enables customers to standardize on a converged infrastructure solution, dramatically accelerating their journey to the cloud. We are very pleased with VCE's momentum and the benefits it is delivering to customers around the world. Building upon this, we are very excited to accelerate our partnership with Cisco on VSPEX to address market requirements for best-of-breed reference architectures offered exclusively via the channel. Channel partners are seeking solutions that reduce complexity and simplify the deployment for their customers."

Additional Resources

Related Links

• Cisco Solution for EMC VSPEX for Microsoft Hyper-V Architectures
• Cisco Solution for EMC VSPEX for VMware vSphere 5.0 Architectures
• Learn more about EMC VSPEX
• Learn more about Vblock Systems

Follow Us Online

• Connect with Cisco via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn.
• Join the Cisco Worldwide Channels conversation on Twitter, Facebook, and Cisco Channels Blog
• Join the #EMCChannel and #VSPEX conversations on Twitter.
• Connect with EMC via Connect with EMC via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and ECN
• Follow VCE on Twitter

About Cisco

Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go tohttp://newsroom.cisco.com.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.emc.com.

# # #

PRESS RELEASE

New Survey: Likely U.S. Voters Strongly Back Open Video Calling, Want Technologies to Work Together for Job Creation, Social Benefits and Key Services

77 Percent of Likely Voters Believe Video Calling Should be as Easy as Making a Phone Call

Washington, D.C.  –  August 28, 2012 – Nearly four in five likely U.S. voters believe it is important for technologies such as video calling to work together to help create jobs, promote innovation and deliver critical benefits in remote health care, education, business and other services, according to a newly-released survey. In fact, at least two-thirds of Democrats and Republicans alike believe that more jobs will result from open video calling – for instance, dialing a certain number to reach someone on any video system – than if consumers and businesses are forced to  rely on closed systems that can only talk to one another.

In a survey of more than 1,000 likely U.S. voters conducted on behalf of Cisco by Purple Insights, a division of Purple Strategies, 89 percent felt that the ability of two devices or programs made by different companies to communicate with one another – known as interoperability -- was personally important to them, with almost half indicating such communication is extremely important to their use of devices at home or at work. Of respondents, 77 percent want video calling to be as easy as making a phone call is today.

The use of video by consumers, government and business is growing at a staggering rate.  According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, in just three years, one million video minutes (the equivalent of 674 days) will traverse the Internet every second.  Use of video calling services is also increasing.  For instance, on February 27th of this year,Skype reported that 34 million people were using the service at one time. 

As video collaboration becomes increasingly mainstream, multiple vendors will have to work together to enable global scale and broad customer choice like consumers have today with phone, Internet and email. Currently, not all video calling technologies work together.  Cisco's TelePresence® and many other video communications products connect using the same standards-based "language." Unfortunately, one of the most popular consumer video calling services, Microsoft's Skype, relies on proprietary standards, which hinders Skype's more than 600 million users from calling non-Skype users, and prevents businesses from reaching them via systems that offer services such as health care and job training by remote video. 

Cisco is a strong advocate of video communications using underlying technologies based on open standards agreed upon by credible standards bodies open to all interested industry participants, a framework that has been used successfully to create the standards that underlie the Internet, email and voice calling. With this approach, anyone who adopts an open standard is assured of basic interoperability that is not controlled by any single commercial vendor. 

Key Highlights of Survey

• 87 percent of respondents want companies to agree to a common standard for video calling so that programs will work together
• 77 percent believe that video calling should be as easy as making a phone call
• Two-thirds, regardless of party affiliation,believe more jobs and innovation will be created with open and interoperable video
• 83 percent (67 percent strongly) want Skype to be interoperable with other video technologies
• 63 percent agree that innovation is how companies grow, how new companies start and how prices are kept down. If one company, such as Skype, controls a majority of the video calling market and does not make its product interoperable, respondents believe that will cut off innovation, slowing the growth of technology jobs and increasing prices.
• Purple Insights, a division of Purple Strategies, conducted 1008 telephone interviews nationwide of likely voters in the 2012 general election for president from August 8 – 15, 2012.  755 interviews were conducted with respondents via landlines; 253 interviews were conducted with respondents on their cell phones. Margin of error for this study is +/- 3.1%

Supporting Quotes

Marthin De Beer, Senior Vice President, Cisco Video & Collaboration Group

"Video is the most engaging medium and its use in every aspect of our lives is growing exponentially. Consumers and business users alike today are demanding that video communications solutions work together and that making a video call be as seamless and easy as making a phone call.  This is about freedom of choice, and we the technology industry must rally around open standards, as we did so effectively with telephone service, the Internet and email. Only with a truly open video community will we fully reap the economic and social benefits of this transformational technology."

Purple Strategies partners, Alex Castellanos and Steve McMahon, jointly noted:

"As a Republican and as a Democrat, we each believe – and it is clear from Purple's data – that all ends of the political spectrum want to be able to communicate as freely as possible. Whether they use video at home or at work, they understand that's where the world is headed and they don't want to be scheduled for a video-to-video job interview and have everything go wrong. We think it's clear to people that video communication is or will soon be a ‘must have,' not a ‘nice to have'. "

Supporting Resources:  

• Watch a video on why interoperability is important
• Share your support for an open video community
• Learn more about Cisco's vision for open standards in video
• Read a blog on standards-based interoperability
• View an infographic on business leaders' thoughts on in-person / video meetings

Tags / Keywords:

Cisco, video, video calling, interoperability, industry standards, TelePresence, Skype

RSS Feed for Cisco:  http://newsroom.cisco.com/rss-feeds

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go tohttp://newsroom.cisco.com.

# # #

PRESS RELEASE

Barcelona, GDF SUEZ and Cisco announce the launch of the City Protocol

City Protocol aims to define a global, cooperative framework among cities, industries and institutions with the goal to address urban challenges in a systemic way in areas such as sustainability, self-sufficiency, quality of life, competitiveness and citizen participation

Anil Menon discusses the new City Protocol

Barcelona, August 28, 2012 — More than 30 cities plus organizations and universities took part in an international meeting organized by Barcelona's City Council, GDF SUEZ and Cisco to launch and agree on the criteria for the creation of the City Protocol, the first certification system for smart cities, which may be put into practice by any city in the world.

The event, which took place in Barcelona under the title of Building Better Cities Together, focused on simplifying the methodology behind creating an urban innovation model based on standards definition, platform integration and technology and solutions development. All this will help ensure the efficient use of resources as well as the economical, social and environmental sustainability of smart cities.

The City Protocol will be presented during the SmartCity Expo that will take place in Barcelona from the 13 to 15 of November.

The initiative is a part of the agreement signed by Cisco and Barcelona's City Council last March. This agreement envisages several strategic projects such as the Cisco® Smart+Connected Communities™ platform, which has as one of its main aims to help Barcelona become a reference model for sustainable urban development.

KEYS OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT

• There is a growing need for a radical change in urban planning, to accelerate city transformation, and the City Protocol will set out the framework to achieve it.
• City Protocol is a new open, global, and progressive working framework for cities worldwide to assess and improve performance in environmental sustainability, economic competitiveness, quality of life and city services, by innovating and demonstrating new leadership models, new ways or engaging society and by taking advantage of new information and communication technologies (ICT).
• City Protocol will involve reports, standards, certification systems, services definition, best practices and recommendations to turn cities into more innovative and sustainable environments. This will be possible due to the use of technologies in different fields including information, communication, energy, mobility, construction and waste management. Governments, councils, planners and developers looking to transform urban centers into smart cities may put the protocol into practice.
• Well known as an innovative and smart city, Barcelona has been the driving force behind the project, being an example of a real model for intelligent solutions.

An environment opened to participation

• In the same way as the Internet Protocol shaped the original development of the Internet, the City Protocol will be discussed and developed internationally, setting up an evolutive protocol based on the agreement of a global community. It will deliver benefits within and between cities, by addresing urban development in an integrated systemic way.
• A non-profit organization called the City Protocol Society will be created with the aim of ensuring this open participation. It follows the Internet Society's model and will be represented by universities, research centers, companies and citizens of different cities.  Its objectives are defining, developing and promoting the City Protocol.
• Cities will benefit from its participation by achieving real improvements; companies will better understand the structure and management of cities in order to collaborate with them; and education institutions, research centers and also non-profit organizations will be able to more precisely study urban problems and propose solutions.

Statements of support:

• Barcelona Mayor Xavier Trias: "As a reference in sustainable urban development, Barcelona wants to share its ideal of a smart city with the whole world. This will generate a new economy based on sustainability, job creation and social integration to guarantee a better quality of life for XXIst Century citizens."
• Stéphane Quere, responsible  for Urban Development at GDF SUEZ Corporate Commercial & Marketing Department: "It is logical for GDF SUEZ to support and actively participate to the City Protocol. This kind of initiatives is essential to develop better cities and we participated in the Smart City Protocol Workshop  to accompany the city officials in order to transform their objectives into reality, no matter how complex and unique the situation is."
• Jordi Botifoll, senior vice president for LATAM: "In 2050, 70% of the world population will live in cities, which already consume 60% of power resources and generate 80% of the global economical growth. Despite their different locations and cultures, most cities share the same challenges in terms of sustainable growth and, ultimately in assuring quality of life for their inhabitants. The City Protocol is essential to optimize cities' performance in terms of efficiency, sustainability and intelligence as if it was an ecosystem managed by a standards-based, integrated IT platform."
• Vicente Guallart, architect in chief of Barcelona's City Council: "Every initiative related to smart city concepts agree about the problems that need to be solved and even the solutions themselves; nevertheless there's a lack of methodology to apply these solutions. City Protocol can solve this situation through a common innovation framework wich is able to state the rules for planification, regulation, management and financing of smart cities."
• Nicola Villa, Urban Innovation World Director for Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group: "City Protocol will help to integrate information flow in the cities by using the Internet as a platform, and creating a universal methodology to weigh up cities' performance. It also will define strategies, projects and policies to manage the urban environment in a short, medium and long-term."

Additional resources:

• Video : Anil Menon discusses the new City Protocol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxzO98o1U2Y
• Further information about Cisco Smart+Connected Communities initiative:http://www.cisco.com/go/smartconnectedcommunities
• Video about future cities: http://newsroom.cisco.com/songdo
• Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CiscoSCC
• Follow Cisco Smart+Connected Communities on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/CiscoSCC

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Accenture Named Leader In Business Technology Transformation

Press release:

August 27, 2012

Accenture Named Leader In Business Technology Transformation

 

NEW YORK; Aug. 27, 2012 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has been named a Leader in Business Technology Transformation by Forrester Research, Inc.

                                                                                                                                       

Forrester®, an independent global research and advisory firm, evaluated 10 companies and included Accenture as a Leader in a July 2012 independent report titled, “The Forrester Wave^™: Business Technology Transformation, Q3 2012.”

 

“We believe Accenture’s Leader position in the Forrester Wave is a testament to our proven global capabilities and innovative approach to complex technology-enabled business transformations,” said Marty Cole, group chief executive, Technology at Accenture.  “Our passion is helping our clients transform their businesses by applying a unique blend of broad industry knowledge, superior technology proficiencies, and exceptional business process management capabilities.”

 

The 10 vendors were evaluated against 18 specific criteria, which were grouped into three high-level buckets:

 

• Current offering.Forrester evaluated the transformation capability of each vendor, including assessing their ability to deliver a balance of both technology consulting and business consulting services.
• Strategy.Forrester evaluated the ability of providers to align IT transformation strategy with key business objectives.
• Market presence.Forrester analyzed the number of consultants who could be considered dedicated to technology-enabled business transformation, as well as the number of purely technology-focused consultants who could be leveraged for technology-enabled business transformation.

 

According to the report, “Accenture’s breadth and depth of offerings and its technology and business process expertise placed it firmly in the Leader category. In addition, Accenture believes that business transformation is the goal of the entire organization, not just a discrete group within Accenture. Thus, its consultants are able to deal with both the technology and business stakeholders. Accenture has outstanding knowledge management capability, and Accenture consultants view the reusable methods and IP and processes as the critical success factor in their everyday activities. Its ability to leverage institutional assets and knowledge allows Accenture more time and flexibility to innovate on behalf of its clients.

 

“In our view Forrester’s assessment of Accenture reflects our ability to meet market demand for strategic transformations that deliver real business value and measurable outcomes,” said Sander van ’t Noordende, group chief executive, Management Consulting at Accenture. “Clients expect us to help them improve margins, enter new markets and improve their agility. Technology can only deliver those goals if it is closely integrated with company strategy, business processes, talent and skills.”

 

About Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 249,000 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.

 

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Cisco Hosts First Cable Summit In India: Expands Video Set-top Box Portfolio

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Accenture & Panalpina Collaborate on Optimizing Finance & Accounting Business Processes

Accenture and Panalpina Collaborate on Optimizing Finance and Accounting Business Processes

 Related Assets

March 20, 2012

Accenture and Panalpina Collaborate on Optimizing Finance and Accounting Business Processes

 

Agreement helps freight and logistics company to standardize F&A processes and achieve cost efficiencies

 

BASLE; March 20, 2012 – Panalpina, a leading freight and logistics company, has rolled out the first phase of a finance and accounting (F&A) business process outsourcing (BPO) initiative as part of a seven-year agreement with Accenture (NYSE: ACN) signed in October 2010.

 

Panalpina is working with Accenture to consolidate and standardize finance processes across its global operations, including Purchase to Pay, Order to Cash and Record to Report services. The project aims to deliver consistent processes, uniform technology and a strong control environment for Panalpina’s finance function while achieving significant cost efficiencies.

 

Accenture first designed the new operating model for Panalpina’s finance function and is now delivering F&A services to the company in 14 languages and in 23 European countries[i], as well as the U.S. and Canada. This represents approximately half of the finance and accounting operations at Panalpina.

 

“By implementing a financial shared services model, Panalpina is able to achieve significant efficiency improvements,” said Marco Gadola, Panalpina’s CFO. “We chose to work with Accenture because of their proven track record on delivering robust F&A services using the capabilities and flexibility of their global delivery network.”

 

“Accenture and Panalpina are working to create a world-class finance organization for Panalpina,” said Michael Sturm, a senior executive for Accenture’s Air, Freight & Logistics and Travel Service group. “That means a finance organization that is both efficient and effective – that has consistent processes, uniform technology and a strong control environment to help achieve high performance in a challenging, global marketplace.”

 

This outsourcing work builds on a strong relationship between the two organizations as Accenture has worked with Panalpina on a number of management consulting projects. Panalpina started the project of optimizing its F&A operations in late 2010 with implementation during the course of 2011. The work is being delivered by teams located on-site at Panalpina and in Accenture Global Delivery Centers the Philippines, the Czech Republic and the United States.

 

The Panalpina Group

The Panalpina Group is one of the world's leading providers of supply chain solutions, combining intercontinental Air and Ocean Freight with comprehensive Value-Added Logistics Services and Supply Chain Services. Thanks to its in-depth industry know-how and customized IT systems, Panalpina provides globally integrated end-to-end solutions tailored to its customers' supply chain management needs. The Panalpina Group operates a global network with some 500 branches in more than 80 countries. In a further 80 countries, it cooperates closely with partner companies. Panalpina employs approximately 15,000 people worldwide.

www.panalpina.com

 

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.

 

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