Quebec’s Laurentian Bank kicked off the month of June with the launch of a summer contest on its Little Heroes Club web site. By indicating what they plan to do to stay active this summer, young contest participants have a chance to win a Wii game console, complete with controllers and games. In addition to contests like this, the Clan’s site offers children the opportunity to play interactive games, draw and explore the world of science with a number of experiments.
Through its various involvements, Laurentian Bank’s Little Heroes Club is committed to enhancing youngsters’ self-esteem by highlighting their accomplishments large and small. Once again this summer, the Club will be on hand at numerous family festivals and soccer tournaments to amuse and entertain. This initiative assembles the majority of the Bank’s activities in the area of donations, sponsorships and social involvement under a single umbrella. All geared toward children and families, these activities strive to encourage youth to actively participate in their communities’ sports, cultural and artistic life.
The contest is open to residents of Quebec, and runs until 4:00PM September 30, 2011.
Strangeloop has announced that it is the first company in the world to provide a commercial product that automatically offers the benefits of Google’s experimental SPDY protocol without requiring changes to the site owner’s code or servers. The release, which is available immediately to all Strangeloop customers, comes after months of close collaboration between Strangeloop and the Chromium Project team at Google.
“Our goal is to make the web faster for everyone,” said Mike Belshe, Lead Software Engineer at Google. “Strangeloop engineers embraced SPDY from the beginning and provided key data and feedback about their experience. They then integrated SPDY with their Site Optimizer product and moved rapidly from concept to code to product, demonstrating an impressive speed-up in their customers’ site performance.”
Strangeloop’s integration of SPDY within its Site Optimizer suite of products and services have resulted in:
At least 50% reduction in page load time.
Minimizing the complexity of deployment. Site Optimizer automates Web Content Optimization (WCO), delivering the benefits of SPDY to customers without making changes to their servers or code.
Bringing together like-minded people interested in using the power of open-source collaboration to explore protocols as a way of solving latency problems.
“At Strangeloop, we’re passionate about pushing the performance envelope, and we’re always looking for opportunities to collaborate with other industry leaders to do this,” said Strangeloop CEO Jonathan Bixby. “This is just the first phase of our SPDY integration work.” Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on Strangeloop Unveils Integration Of SPDY Into Industry-Leading Site Optimizer
OpenText™ has released a new version of OpenText Integration Center featuring an enhanced, native connector to OpenText ECM Suite 2010. Customers can help better leverage their structured and unstructured content to reduce costs and improve efficiency. OpenText Integration Center unifies access to multiple sources of disparate information from OpenText ECM Suite for applications such as business systems integration, legacy decommissioning, in-place content management and content migration.
Most integration technologies focus on either structured data in databases or content in document repositories, but not both. Now with OpenText Integration Center, which inherently understands both structured data and unstructured content, customers can give business decision makers easy access to corporate information assets through ECM Suite 2010. This allows them to take advantage of powerful analytics, semantic search and rich interactive user interfaces to boost productivity and improve decision making.
“The current economic conditions are forcing organizations to reduce the number of information sources by bringing structured and unstructured content together under the roof of a single business process and repository,” said Eugene Cherny, General Manager for OpenText’s Connectivity Solutions. “By combining these worlds in the OpenText ECM Suite, we give customers a powerful solution that helps them reduce costs during a tough economy, while enabling them to do more with their information.”
The latest release of OpenText Integration Center, together with OpenText ECM Suite 2010, provides enhanced, integrated ECM support making it easier to design, integrate, and implement content integration projects. Typical applications include:
Content Migration — OpenText Integration Center offers complete migration features to move content from one or many repositories to any new destination with all its metadata and context. It helps to automate the movement of content while delivering content integrity and operational efficiency.
Legacy System Decommissioning – Finally turning the off switch on old systems can lead to substantial cost reduction. Customers can archive data from any application and automatically apply lifecycle management rules, such as records management classifications, retention rules, and schedules through ECM Suite 2010.
Data Archiving — With a global policy to integrate retention of structured and unstructured content into one archiving system, customers can be assured of speedy and accurate collection of historical information with a full audit history.
Systems Integration — OpenText Integration Center represents a new generation of integration solutions that transforms, cleanses, enriches and directs information across the entire spectrum of decision support systems and corporate applications, for integrations that include data warehouses, data marts, mainframe systems, ERP systems, CRM systems, and content management platforms.
Leading industry analysts such as Susan Feldman, IDC’s Research Vice President for Search and Discovery Technologies, have identified unified information platforms as a new and fast-growing segment in enterprise software. Facilities like OpenText Integration Center will support enterprise strategies to implement such platforms.
“Businesses of all sizes are wallowing in too much information, without being able to make sense of it. Our survey of IT buyers demonstrates that they are eager to fix the information quandary by investing in software that gives them a single access point to all their information silos. We expect this demand to fuel a new wave of growth in information access software,” writes Feldman in a report published in April 2011 titled “Unified Access to Information: Less Seeking, More Finding.”
Comments Off on New Version of OpenText Integration Centre Now Available
Symantec Corp. has revealed the findings of its 2011 Virtualization and Evolution to the Cloud Survey which examined how organizations plan to move business-critical initiatives to virtual and hybrid cloud computing environments. The survey highlighted topics including server, client, and storage virtualization, storage-as-a-service, and hybrid/private cloud technologies; and the results uncover disparities between expectations and reality as enterprises deploy these solutions. CEOs and CFOs are concerned with moving business-critical applications into virtual or cloud environments due to challenges including reliability, security, availability and performance. The survey is based on more than 3,700 respondents from 35 countries worldwide, including 200 respondents from Canada.
“Cloud computing represents a major shift within IT – changing from a traditional IT delivery to a service-provider model. Moving to the cloud is a complex evolution for many companies and it’s essential that IT and executives are aligned on initiatives,” said John Magee, vice president of virtualization and cloud solutions, Symantec. “Virtualization is an enabler for private and hybrid clouds and our survey shows that planning a seamless move is critical to achieving all the simplicity, affordability and efficiency that these environments have to offer.”
Adoption of server virtualization is widespread, and more than 75 percent of organizations are discussing private and hybrid cloud deployments. Of the technologies evaluated in the survey, server and storage virtualization are the most mature with 45 and 43 percent of enterprises implementing. Private Storage-as-a-Service is the least mature with 36 percent adopting.
Early investments have revealed gaps between expectations and reality which indicate that organizations are still learning what these technologies are capable of and how to overcome the new challenges they bring with them. We asked respondents about initial goals in server, storage, and endpoint virtualization; private Storage-as-a-Service; and hybrid/private cloud. We then asked those who have already implemented which goals they actually achieved. The difference between the two answers revealed an expectation gap.
Server virtualization projects were most successful, with only a 4 percent average gap between expected and realized goals. The biggest gaps occurred in scalability, reducing capital expenditures and reducing operating expenditures.
The average shortfall in storage virtualization was 33 percent, with disappointments coming in agility, scalability and reducing operating expenditures.
Respondents reported an average gap between expected and realized goals of 26 percent with endpoint/desktop virtualization. They cited disappointments in new endpoint deployment, application delivery and application compatibility.
Seventy-seven percent of organizations are considering private Storage-as-a-Service, but these projects are challenging to implement and fall short of expectations by 37 percent. For example, complexity reduction was a goal for 84 percent of respondents, but reached by only 44 percent.
These gaps are a hallmark of early stage markets where expectations are out of step with reality. As the virtualization and cloud markets continue to mature, we expect to see those gaps close. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on New Challenges Emerging As Virtualization And Private Clouds Go Mainstream
MEGA Brands Inc. has entered into a multi-year international licensing partnership with Blizzard Entertainment to develop construction toys based on Blizzard’s popular Warcraft® and StarCraft® franchises, expanding on the remarkable success the company has achieved with translating gaming content into innovative and entertaining toys for kids and collectors alike. The first-ever construction toy sets from this partnership will be based on the iconic locations, characters, and vehicles from World of Warcraft® and StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty™. The Mega Bloks licensed product offerings will make their retail debut worldwide in Summer 2012.
“We’re proud and thrilled to enter into a partnership with Blizzard Entertainment, the world leader in creating epic online game franchises,” said Vic Bertrand, Chief Innovation Officer of MEGA Brands. “The depth of content in World of Warcraft and StarCraft will fuel years of fun, collectible products for gamers and collectors.”
“We’re pleased to form this partnership with the experienced toy developers at MEGA Brands,” said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “Our players regularly amaze us with their creativity, and we’re confident that they’ll enjoy building and collecting the Warcraft- and StarCraft-themed construction sets that we’ll be bringing to market with MEGA next year.”
Comments Off on MEGA Brands Signs Deal with Blizzard Entertainment
Distribution360 has sold three properties to UK-based CSC Media Group at the Banff World Media Festival. CSC owns and operates several television channels in the UK: Tiny Pop (geared to kids 4-6) will air This is Daniel Cook and This is Emily Yeung, and Kix (geared to boys 7-12) will air Ambition Skatecamp.
Tiny Pop is a popular channel for kids 4-6 years old, which features a fun mix of educational, entertaining, and inspiring programming. Starting later this summer, the channel will broadcast:
This is Daniel Cook (65 x 6′ Episodes): An educational adventure where children join six-year-old host Daniel Cook on all of his exciting adventures, whether he is learning with Olympic gold medalists and zookeepers, or creating with award-winning musicians. Preschoolers learn, create and explore with Daniel, a preschooler himself, who shares their interests and curiosity.
This is Emily Yeung (65 x 6′ Episodes): Sunny six-year-old Emily Yeung is host to a whole universe of discovery and adventures that capture the imagination of preschoolers. Children tag along with Emily as she explores, learns and creates with everyone from painters and musicians, to politicians and rocket scientists.
Kix is the UK’s only channel devoted to boys 7-12 years old. It features a mix of gross-out comedy, action-packed animation, and high energy sports programming. Starting later this summer, the channel will broadcast:
Ambition Skatecamp (8 x 30′ Episodes): Eight talented young skateboarders go head-to-head for an intense week of skateboarding competitions. The contestants compete for a profile in SBC Skateboard Magazine and a chance to participate in the Maloof Money Cup worth $450,000 in prize money.
“We’re very pleased to be bringing these great kids and youth properties to audiences in the UK,” says Stéphanie Röckmann-Portier, Managing Director/Head of Sales, Distribution360. “The CSC Media Group boasts an exceptional variety of programming on its channels,” continues Röckmann-Portier. “Daniel Cook, Emily Yeung, and Ambition Skatecamp will be great additions to the company’s lineup.”
Comments Off on Distribution360 Finalizes Programming Sales with CSC Media Group
Sonomax® Technologies, Inc. has announced that their award winning sculpted eers™ custom earphones will be available to Canadian retail customers this week. The highly acclaimed custom molded earphones will be premiered on Wednesday, June 15th at Boutique Tone in Montreal, at HearAtLast in Ottawa (Orleans) on Thursday, June 16th and on Friday, June 17th at HearAtLast in West Edmonton. The Ottawa (Orleans) HearAtLast is located at 3900 Innes Road and the West Edmonton HearAtLast is at 18521 Stony Plain Rd. N.W.
Sculpted eers, the revolutionary custom earphones which can also be pre-ordered at the sculpted eers website for delivery in August, are molded to the unique shape of an individual’s ear canal in just four minutes. They provide maximum comfort, exceptional sound, and a secure fit even during vigorous activity. Additionally, the acoustic seal delivers a total audio immersion experience so consumers can safely enjoy the highest quality music at a fraction of the volume required by generic earphones.
“I’m thrilled to offer sculpted eers custom earphones to my customers, ” said Boutique Tone Owner and CEO Jeremy Stern. “They’re amazing. I’m always looking for the newest and coolest products on the planet and that’s exactly what sculpted eers are. I saw how people reacted to them at the NAMM Show earlier this year and now that I’ve been using them, I’m even more of a believer. My customers are going to love them.”
Nick Laperle, Sonomax Technologies’ President and CEO will attend the official product launch, which will be from 4:00 until 7:00 p.m. on June 15th at Boutique Tone, 4292 Saint-Laurent in Montreal. “Boutique Tone is Montreal’s premier specialty music store for guitar and bass players. They are perfect partners for sculpted eers custom molded earphones,” Laperle said. “I’m delighted that I’ll be on hand for the launch and am looking forward to personally introducing sculpted eers to Boutique Tone’s customers.”
Laperle will also be present for the sculpted eers launch at two HearAtLast locations. The Ottawa (Orleans) sculpted eers launch is set for Thursday, June 16th and on Friday, June 17th the West Edmonton HearAtLast store will introduce the sculpted eers product. Launch time will be from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at both locations. HearAtLast, a store-within-a-store at various Walmart locations throughout Canada, sells state-of-the-art hearing aids, earphones and other assistive hearing devices. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on Sculpted Eers by Sonomax Launch In Canada
Going Loud Studios, creators of Zombie Accountant, has announced that “Lair of the Evildoer” has gone gold will be released on Xbox Live Indie Games this Friday, June 17th. Gamers will be able to download it from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for only 80 Microsoft Points.
“We’re using the latest in cutting-edge set-your-release-date technology,” said Ben Kane, founder of Going Loud Studios. “It gives us an unprecedented level of control over when the game comes out.”
“Oh and the game’s pretty good too,” he continued, when asked to say something relevant.
In “Lair of the Evildoer”, players will attempt to escape the lair of mad scientist and all-around evildoer Dr. Odious. They’ll fight over 30 types of monsters as they explore the procedurally generated levels hunting for the best loot. Their only allies are the 25 varieties of weapons, each with dozens of variations. Fortunately, players will gain experience and spend stat points to improve their character and better their odds of making it out alive. They’ll need all the help they can get.
01 Communique Laboratory Inc. and Wi-LAN Inc. have entered into an agreement that will see WiLAN assist 01 Communique in the licensing of 01 Communique’s patents related to remote access technology for a number of specified licensees.
“Having signed technology license agreements with hundreds of companies, including Broadcom, Intel, LG, Motorola and Samsung, worth many hundreds of millions of dollars, WiLAN has demonstrated superior licensing capabilities,” said Andrew Cheung, President and CEO, 01 Communique. “WiLAN’s proven track record and its strong financial position makes WiLAN an ideal choice to help maximize the revenue that we anticipate can be generated from our patented technology. We are very pleased with the opportunity to work with WiLAN.
Added Cheung, “We have a complete suite of products in the remote access marketplace that have been built using our patented technology and we believe there are companies that are using this patented technology to compete against us.”
“WiLAN has been aware of the 01 Communique patents for some time and believes these are extremely important patents,” said Jim Skippen, Chairman & CEO, WiLAN. “This partnership is very significant to WiLAN and we are confident that we will be able to develop a licensing program that will benefit both 01 Communique and WiLAN. This is especially exciting for WiLAN since it will bring us into new markets.”
Under the terms of the agreement, WiLAN’s subsidiary Gladios IP will have day-to-day responsibility for developing programs aimed at licensing 01 Communique’s patents.
Comments Off on 01 Communique and WiLAN Enter Partnership
The emergence of digital markets can help Canada’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sell internationally by increasing access to foreign customers and improving the quality, speed, and cost-effectiveness of transactions.
Despite the potential benefits, Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are hesitant to sell online because they lack the knowledge of how to do so effectively, according to a Conference Board of Canada report, Building International Sales in a Digitized Economy: Best Practices for SMEs. The report identifies three main factors that contribute to success in international digital markets: a favourable online reputation, strong online technological capabilities, and an engaged online brand community.
“Most Canadian small and medium-sized businesses use the internet, but online selling is not yet widespread,” said Rebecca Reuber, co-author and Professor of Strategic Management at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. “Many small and medium-sized businesses do not know how to reach foreign customers online or how to adapt their business model to take advantage of digital markets.”
“Although greater internationalization provides growth opportunities, doing business in foreign markets can be difficult and costly for resource-constrained SMEs, and most of them operate solely in the domestic market,” said Eileen Fischer, co-author and Max and Anne Tanenbaum Chair of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise. “One particular hurdle for some firms is the investment that’s required in technology to sell effectively online. ”
A Statistics Canada survey reported in 2008 that only 36 per cent of Canadian private sector organizations believed doing business over the Internet would allow them to reach new customers. And a 2010 Statistics Canada study found that only seven per cent of small enterprises and 13 per cent of medium size enterprises were selling online in 2007, about the same percentage reported in 2001.
The Conference Board report shows that the competitive context for SMEs in international digital markets differs from that in traditional markets. Online buyers are more apt to imitate the purchasing behavior of other customers, technological capabilities increase in importance, and online buyers are interested in participating in online communities. As a result, three main factors that affect company success are:
A favourable online reputation – elements include visibility, trustworthiness, and signals of high product or service quality.
Strong online technological capabilities – the CEO and other top managers must champion technological development, rather than delegating responsibility.
Engaged online brand communities – buyers increasingly want to become involved with firms, so companies should invest resources in monitoring a range of social media and interacting with customers.
The research also identifies three major challenges. First, SME owners need to be cautious about relying exclusively on online contact with customers. Second, entering foreign markets haphazardly – or as market pioneers – can lead to costly mistakes that could be avoided with a deliberate and coherent strategy. Third, SME owners need to think about how “Canadian” they want their image or brand to be, as there can be advantages in making borders as invisible as possible.
The report concludes on a series of eight policy-related implications, including:
foster offline interactions between buyers and sellers;
focus on foreign markets with high growth potential instead of simply responding to unsolicited online requests;
ensure access to high capacity Internet and wireless networks;
ensure banks and government agencies are able to assess intangible resources, such as a firm’s reputation and online community;
provide more recent data about the international activities of Canadian SME in digital markets;
This report is publicly available at www.e-library.ca and was produced by the International Trade and Investment Centre for the Conference Board’s CanCompete program. CanCompete is a three-year program of research and dialogue is designed to help leading decision makers advance Canada on a path of national competitiveness. The International Trade and Investment Centre also published Canada’s Trade in a Digital World in April 2011.
Comments Off on Conference Board Releases Report On Using The Digital Economy To Access International Markets
Quebec’s Laurentian Bank kicked off the month of June with the launch of a summer contest on its Little Heroes Club web site. By indicating what they plan to do to stay active this summer, young contest participants have a chance to win a Wii game console, complete with controllers and games. In addition to contests like this, the Clan’s site offers children the opportunity to play interactive games, draw and explore the world of science with a number of experiments.
