London, 2 February 2010 - The 2nd PoweredbyCloud 2010 and the first international Cloud Law Summit taking place in London over three days, 8-9-10 February 2010 has attracted a wide international audience, particularly from the enterprise sector (www.poweredbycloud.com).

The PoweredbyCloud conference has established a reputation for providing strategic insight into the evolution of cloud services and business models that work.  With a speaker academy comprising of experts and front line players from Europe and North America, the event is positioned as the key content platform for providers and users.

In addition to the 2-day content driven conference, a special summit will focus on emerging Cloud Law will draw on experts from the US and Europe to discuss the implications of the Patriot Act in the United States, and EU Data Directive for enterprises.  Other topics covered included Privacy in the Cloud, Open Law, financial services, Cloud content and liability, negotiating contracts for Cloud Services, and how Cloud law might be framed in future.

"What emerges from this important conference in terms of creating a commercial and technological perspective of cloud services and infrastructure in Europe will be of key interest to enterprises," commented Philip Low, managing director at BroadGroup, the conference researchers and producers. "The added dimension of how potentially a wide range of cloud issues will be treated legally represents the first such initiative across the region, and is also being observed from Brussels to Tokyo." 

Council will be first UK Education Authority to Deploy Media Filter

LONDON, UK – 14th January 2010. Bloxx, the innovator in Web content filtering, today announced that Bolton Council will be the first Local Education Authority in the UK to deploy the recently launched Bloxx Media Filter. This will help schools in its area take advantage of YouTube media content in a secure online environment, improve local collaborative learning and resource sharing and give autonomy to teachers to help them enrich learning experiences through the use of approved online media.

“We had a real dilemma on our hands: our schools were demanding access to YouTube, but due to the inappropriate content and user submitted comments which can sometimes be found on the site, it was impossible to allow access in a safe and controlled way,” said Phil Brockbank, Technical Consultant at Bolton Council. “The Bloxx Media Filter will allow us to empower teachers to create and use a free online library of rich learning resources, students will be happier as lessons will be more engaging and enjoyable and the council will be able to deliver on its commitment to keeping our children and young people safer online.”

“We are delighted that Bolton Council has been quick to see the value that the Bloxx Media Filter delivers and will be one of its first customers,” said Eamonn Doyle, Bloxx Chief Executive Officer. “The Council is at the forefront of embracing new teaching technologies and Bloxx Media Filter will allow them to take advantage of the great content that’s available on sites such as YouTube without any of the associated risks and problems.”

...Intuitive, interactive and exciting Confirmit surveys to improve insight gathered by My MTV panel...

New York, NY and Oslo, Norway – Jan12, 2010: Confirmit Horizons, the on-demand, multi-mode platform for customer feedback, employee feedback and market research, has been selected by Viacom Brand Solutions International (VBSI), a division of MTV Networks International (MTVNI), to support the rebranding of the My MTV consumer research panel.

The creation of a new interactive survey for My MTV is expected to enhance the user experience and survey completion rates for 4,200 unique MTV panellists. This will ultimately improve the quality of insight gathered about young people for MTVNI advertisers and media agencies who want to get a better understanding of youth culture across Europe.

The ability to create a bespoke survey template that’s more engaging than a series of tick boxes was one of the main reasons for the selection of Confirmit, as was speed of development. The first survey to use Confirmit focused on music and was sent to panellists following a short implementation period of only six weeks, which also included some re-branding.

Lisa Cowie, Insight Manager at VBSI explains: “Fun is a key factor for engaging our target audience of 15 to 34 year olds. Communication to youth won’t resonate unless it’s interactive, intuitive and exciting. My MTV must respond to this trend by improving the way we talk to our audience. In order to attract and retain panellists, we need to make their experience with us a stimulating one. We wanted to enhance the ‘look and feel’ of our email and surveys to avoid research fatigue and Confirmit is the best tool to enable us to quickly build surveys that fit with our communication style.” 

The survey template can be adapted for specific research purposes quickly and easily allowing VBSI the ability to create a survey and gather insight within a week, on any subject, to enhance and develop its understanding of youth culture or about a category, product or service on behalf of its clients’.

PACS-neutral archive and storage management functionality streamlines image data management, simplifies migration tasks, advances “meaningful use,” and reduces storage and archival costs.

Chicago – RSNA Conference – With “meaningful use” and “interoperability” emerging as key concepts in current discussions about health information technology, forward-looking healthcare leaders are compelled to seek solutions designed specifically to deliver optimal access to data generated by diverse systems across their enterprises, notes Tony Cotterill, President and CEO of BridgeHead Software, a leading developer of healthcare data management software.

"Nowhere is this need – or this challenge – reflected more clearly than in the field of radiology," he adds, pointing to the broad spectrum of imaging modalities and data management issues currently being discussed at the annual Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago. “More and more hospitals are relying upon multiple PACS systems to capture and present images for clinical review. While vital to quality patient care, this diversity raises a host of challenges related to long-term storage, retrieval and access to images.”

Four schools across north-east England to benefit from integrated online systems

AMSTERDAM – December 1, 2009 – Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) today announced that The Emmanuel Schools Foundation, a charitable schools sponsor, has chosen Blackboard to establish its first Virtual Learning Environment. Blackboard LearnTM for Academic Collaboration will be rolled out across the Foundation’s four schools in the north-east of England: Emmanuel College in Gateshead, The King’s Academy in Middlesbrough, Trinity Academy in Doncaster and the newly opened Bede Academy in Blyth.

The Foundation was set up in 1988 to partner local schools with the aim of improving all facets of academic life, from the welfare of students through to improved results. During the last 20 years the Foundation has seen its reputation for excellence flourish as it has grown from one school of 150 pupils and 20 staff to four schools with 5,500 students aged 3 to 18 and over 800 staff. Implementing Blackboard’s Virtual Learning Environment reflects the Foundation’s intention to use innovative education delivery techniques which reflect its traditional ethos and values.

“The online world opens up enormous and exciting possibilities for our staff and students to connect and collaborate in innovative ways,” said Nick Mather, director of teaching and learning, The Emmanuel Schools Foundation. “Blackboard offered us all the aspects we were looking for in a VLE partner; this is key to our vision for educational excellence and our future growth.”

Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs) can afford service providers the opportunity to open up symbiotic, bi-directional flows of information and innovation with third parties so they can participate as an “enabler” in the digital economy.

MORRISTOWN, NJ—TM Forum, the world's premier industry group focused on business effectiveness for the communications and media sectors, has launched its latest Insights Report, “Evolving Service Delivery Platforms: Essential Plumbing For ‘Smart Pipes.’”

“Rather than fear being relegated to ‘dumb-pipe’ status service providers should look for opportunities to increase their innovation while lowering their cost of service delivery,” said Rob Rich, managing director, TM Forum Insights Research. “This report details how SDPs combined with new business models can help organizations in both emerging and mature markets avoid being reduced to commodity provider status.”

To explore opportunities for communications service providers (CSPs) wanting to become “enablers” in the value chain, market analyst Kristofer Kimbler demystifies the concept of the SDP, and he explores the potential for opening up CSP environments to third parties (i.e., content- and application developers) for innovation in services.

The report, exclusively available to TM Forum members, looks at why other stakeholders would covet CSPs’ enormous data stores and sophisticated operations- and business support systems, as well as real-time charging, CRM and security capabilities. The CSP knows its customers’ lifestyle preferences, locations, and demographics; the CSP already has the trusted relationships with both individual and enterprise customers.

With this report, CSPs from both mature and emerging markets, as well as their partners, will learn about the full business potential enabled by SDPs.

London, 27 August 2009 - United Planet (www.unitedplanet.com), one of the leading developers of Enterprise Portal software for mid-sized companies in Europe, has unveiled a new web-based application, Intrexx Time Recording, to enable employees to track and record ‘hours worked’ quickly and easily on the company intranet, from any location.

Employees can create customer and project records and allocate hours worked directly onto the intranet, either using a stopwatch or by entering hours worked manually. Time can be recorded immediately or at a later date, from the office, while with a customer or from home.

Employees and managers are able to view clearly structured reports across all projects and customers at any time in order to track activity, re-allocate time and resources as needed and to simplify the invoicing and quotation process going forward. Analysing working hours in detail and on the basis of time split across customers, projects or time periods also provides an opportunity to streamline and optimise the company’s working processes.