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Abilita, Inc. Opens Two New Office Locations in Raleigh, NC and Kansas City, MO

Abilita, Inc. Opens Two New Office Locations in Raleigh, NC and Kansas City, MO

Fort Worth, TX (PRWEB) February 13, 2009

Abilita, a leading nationwide telecommunications consulting company announced today the opening of two more locations in Raleigh, NC and Kansas City, MO.

This brings to a total of 6 new locations in the past 2 months and reflects Abilita’s goal of strategic growth in both new and existing markets.

According to Craig Sweet, CEO and an Abilita co-founder, the growth exhibited by the addition of these offices continues to reflect the market demand for experienced consultants to provide auditing, optimization, architecture and management of telecommunications projects and services.

About Abilita

Abilita is a leading full service independent telecommunications and technology consulting company serving the needs of a wide range of clients across North America. Abilita consultants provide specialized knowledge to our clients and continuously monitor developments in the industry to keep them well informed and ahead of the curve. Abilita’s clients look to us to help them achieve greater cost efficiencies and improved performance for all their telecommunications needs – voice, data, and wireless. For additional information on Abilita, please visit our web site at http://www.abilita.com.

Abilita Contact

Craig Sweet

817-498-7295

###

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, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Elite Telecom President Mike Russell Named Finalist for Small Business Person of the Year by Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce

Elite Telecom President Mike Russell Named Finalist for Small Business Person of the Year by Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce

Kennesaw, GA (PRWEB) May 22, 2009

Elite Telecom Services, an innovative provider of telecommunications consulting and auditing services, announced that President Mike Russell was recognized as one of five finalists for metro Atlanta’s 2009 Small Business Person of the Year at an awards luncheon hosted by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Yesterday marked the twenty-third anniversary of the event which honors five outstanding small business people for their contributions to Atlanta’s civic and business community. Russell was recognized for his significant level of community involvement and sense of commitment to helping other small businesses succeed.

“This recognition by the Chamber and leaders of our business community comes as a great honor and further solidifies our commitment to a business model which has found success by continually putting the needs of our civic and business community first in everything that we do,” said Mike Russell, President of Elite Telecom Services.

As President of Elite Telecom, Russell has made it his mission to help spare businesses the expense and frustration of managing telecommunications by serving as their personal telecommunications department. His efforts resulted in savings last year of more than $ 1.2 million for clients across metro Atlanta.

In addition to his corporate customers, Russell serves in both a volunteer capacity and as the in-house telecommunications department for more than a dozen churches, schools, foundations, theatres, and museums Russell personally donated more than 500 hours of community service to nearly two dozen civic and non-profit organizations last year alone.

“Helping business owners and nonprofits save money and ultimately make better use of their resources is one of the greatest things that I’ve been able to do for my community,” said Russell. “In turn, the respect that I have earned from the community leaders that I have served has not only led to new business for Elite Telecom Services, but opened the doors to greater opportunities to serve.”

To qualify for Small Business Person of the Year, nominees are required to be a primary owner or a major shareholder of a business that has been locally established for at least three years with gross annual revenues not exceeding $ 40 million and with fewer than 100 employees. They are also required to be a member of the Chamber and an active member of the community.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber

The Metro Atlanta Chamber — with our 4,000 member companies that collectively employ more than 700,000 workers — is a catalyst for a vibrant metro region. The Metro Atlanta Chamber focuses on the issues that matter most to the business community: improving quality of life, promoting economic growth and making Atlanta a brand name that means opportunity. For more information, visit http://www.metroatlantachamber.com.

About Elite Telecom Services

Elite Telecom Services (ETS) provides voice and data services as well as telecommunications technology audits to businesses, non-profits and government organizations. ETS offers a complete telecom management program – from procurement to technical support – and often fills the role of the telecommunications department for entities that are not large enough to support an internal telecommunications staff but nonetheless have demanding and often complicated telecommunications requirements. ETS customers save time and avoid frustration by having a single point of contact for all of their telecommunications support issues. For more information visit http://www.elitesvc.com or call 770-425-9898.

###

Attachments

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Live Webcast: Rule Your Firewalls with Automated Firewall Auditing Presented by Skybox Security and Featuring an Independent Research Firm

Live Webcast: Rule Your Firewalls with Automated Firewall Auditing Presented by Skybox Security and Featuring an Independent Research Firm

Lanham, MD (Vocus) July 28, 2009

WHAT:

Announcing a live webcast: Rule Your Firewalls with Automated Firewall Auditing, presented by Skybox Security on Thursday July 30. Webcast will incorporate observations from Forrester Research Inc.’s upcoming Firewall Audit Market Report.        

Attend this webcast if you want to:

Resolve high-priority exposures by pinpointing and correcting firewall issues
Maintain PCI compliance easily with on-demand firewall audits
Optimize your firewall change management process

WHO:

Gidi Cohen, CEO and founder, Skybox Security

John Kindervag, senior analyst, Forrester Research, Inc.

Greg Masters, managing editor, SC Magazine (moderator)

WHEN:

Thursday, July 30, 2009    2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT

WHERE:

To register, go to http://www.tinyurl.com/skyboxwebcast

WHY:

In the battle to protect your organization’s information and assets, firewalls are the first line of defense against unwanted attacks. Yet the average enterprise, with dozens of firewalls and thousands of rules, finds it impossible to manually monitor, evaluate and ensure firewall compliance. This webcast will discuss the ways that firewall auditing helps identify and eliminate the risks posed by mis-configured firewalls and competing rules, and explain why automated firewall audit solutions are an indispensable tool for IT security.

CONTACT:

Media Contact: Tanya Candia

408 741 5828

About Skybox Security

Skybox Security, Inc. is the leader in automated security risk and compliance management solutions, helping IT organizations pinpoint and prioritize security risks, compliance, and availability exposures within minutes. Our solutions automatically collect and analyze comprehensive data about network topology and systems, configuration settings, threats and vulnerabilities – anticipating the most urgent IT concerns before harm has been done. Medium to large organizations in Financial Services, Telecommunications, Retail, Government, Utilities, and Defense, rely on Skybox Security solutions to reduce risk exposure and achieve compliance. For more information visit http://www.skyboxsecurity.com.

# # #

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Taking IP Telephony into a New Era: ACI Communications Introduces New Product ? Inter-Tel 5000 & 7000

Taking IP Telephony into a New Era: ACI Communications Introduces New Product – Inter-Tel 5000 & 7000

(PRWEB) October 17, 2006

Looking to take business communications and IP Telephony where it has never gone before, ACI Communications Corporation has just announced the launch of its new Inter-Tel platform. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, ACI is a full service communication system provider that designs, markets, and supports voice and data communication systems utilizing the Inter-Tel platform. It has a fleet of authorized and certified technical support staff available 24 hours a day 365 days per year.

ACI Communications’ flagship product, the Inter-Tel platform, provides communication system solutions for businesses of all sizes across virtually all industries. The Inter-Tel platform is a converged platform with traditional PBX features coupled with the power and benefits of IP telephony. Because the Inter-Tel platform is a true converged system, combining digital, wireless, Voice over IP (VoIP) and analog technology options within a single platform, businesses have the ability to select from an array of appropriate communication system solutions while maintaining reliability. ACIs’ full service approach solves all of the customers’ telecommunications needs including structured cabling, local/long distance/internet services/data, wireless infrastructures and mobile communications. ACI Communications Corp. handles the telecommunications complexities and allows the customer to focus on their core business.

The Network division of ACI conducts “Telecommunications Bill Audits” and often saves customers 30% of their monthly expense. As a result of these audits, customers are able to realize monthly telecom savings, which can be used to fund technology enhancements. It is the most comprehensive communication system in existence.

Media Contact

Richard Rasey

ACI Communications, experts in IP telephony

Phone: 800-495-5163

Website: http://www.acicom.net

###

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Popular College Majors

Popular College Majors

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Popular College Majors

By: MichaelB
Posted: May 26, 2010

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Choosing a college major is perhaps one of the most crucial decisions we make in our life – a decision that shapes our future as professionals. However, it is also amongst the most difficult decisions which usually depend on a variety of factors that change from time to time.

If you are at a stage in life when the decision is looming large over you, then help is just around the corner. We have short-listed a few college majors that offer promising job prospects and growth opportunities in the coming years.

These college majors are handpicked from a range of healthcare, information technology, and business degree programs, based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s projection of much faster than average growth for these occupations.

So, here are some of the popular college majors that are likely to offer the best career prospects in the next few years.

College Major: Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting

Profession: Accountant

Career Path: Accountants are the custodians of an individual or a company’s financial health. Depending on their job profile, they are responsible for preparing financial records, perform internal audits, tax planning, etc. The role of an accountant has now become much wider in scope than mere bookkeeping or auditing. They have the all important job of giving financial and investment advice to individuals and companies. In fact, accountants are among the first people companies consult when making important financial decisions.

Read more articles
Looking into College Majors and Beyond: The Top Ten Most Popular College Majors in the US
Careers with Top College Majors
Online Bachelor Degree Programs and Online Universities
How to Chase Your Dream Degree through Online Degrees and Courses

Employment Opportunities: Accountants may be employed with public accounting firms, small businesses, large multinational corporations, banks, nonprofit organizations, or federal agencies. A lot of accountants choose to work independently and are self-employed.

Earning Potential: ,430 per annum*

College Major: Bachelor’s Degree in Respiratory Therapy

Profession: Respiratory Therapist

Career Path: The core job of a respiratory therapist (RT) involves diagnosing, treating, and caring for patients with breathing or other cardiopulmonary disorders. According to the American Association for Respiratory Care, an RT’s day to day work includes interviewing patients and conducting physical examinations to determine the best course of treatment, managing ventilators and artificial airway devices for patients, educating patients and their families about lung diseases, etc.

Employment Opportunities: The majority of respiratory therapists work in the anesthesiology, respiratory care, or pulmonary departments; newborn and pediatric division; emergency room; and intensive care units of big hospitals. Some RTs work at doctors’ offices, home healthcare services, nursing care facilities, rehabilitation centers, respiratory equipment rental firms, etc.

Earning Potential: ,200 per annum**

College Major: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science

Profession: Software Engineer

Career Path: One of the most popular computer degree programs, a bachelor’s degree in computer science is the preferred education qualification for software engineering positions. Software engineers use their extensive knowledge of computing theory to design, develop, test, and evaluate different types of software applications per users’ needs. They create algorithms, which are later converted into a series of logical instructions or code by programmers who make computers perform specific tasks.

Employment Opportunities: Computer software engineers work in a variety of industries ranging from IT firms, telecommunications, and electronic equipment manufacturers to media, financial institutions, and federal agencies. Some software engineers also work as consultants.

Earning Potential: ,430 per annum***

*Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Accountants and Auditors

**Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Respiratory Therapists

***Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Computer Software Engineers and Computer Programmers

MichaelB – About the Author:

California College San Diego (CCSD) has trained graduates for new careers in high demand jobs since 1978. This California College, located in San Diego, offers Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees in healthcare, business, information technology and graphic arts. CCSD also provides accelerated degrees with its FastFlex option. In-demand college degree program offered by CCSD are strictly accredited to meet the accreditation standards set by U.S. Dept. of Ed.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/popular-college-majors-2461744.html

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Article Tags:
popular college majors, healthcare majors, computer science majors, business majors

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Forces of a transport network management unit to enhance IT management system of God

Unit, the information management unit is an important data security unit. The unit manages all the documents of the Department, audio, video, Electronic Data, maintaining a huge amount of data is to force all kinds of basic data required for an important source of many units of service for the troops. Therefore, these data and their IT Work security infrastructure is very important.

Address this requirement, the unit attaches great importance to the technical staff and system building, everyone understands technology, information everywhere, the unit established a comprehensive information and data collection, analysis, compilation, use the system, there are vast amounts of Network Storage System, the core node using optical fiber links, to meet large data, high-speed requirements. In the data security management, the department specifically responsible for the establishment of a sound system, built the lead department heads, key technicians responsible for security management team, established physical security, endpoint security, Network Security , Equipment safety, system security, data security, storage security, the whole business process safety management. Royal Divine virtue of which network the army, security forces both authentication and rich project experience, has won user acceptance, provides the user with endpoint security, network security, device security solutions, from border security Firewall , Anti-virus wall, IPS, to the terminal management, network management, equipment management, safety management system for users to achieve an integrated and comprehensive management system.

Yu-bound through the deployment of network security SecFox-SNI network monitoring system, the unit achieved the following objectives:

Terminal Management: Resolving Terminal Equipment Management, access authentication, removable storage media management, DVD management, print management, implementation of personnel, equipment, comprehensive management and auditing of data, greatly improving the management level, to achieve a sophisticated management information.

Network management: dual link fiber optic network for the user, the network equipment, port status, link traffic monitoring and alarm comprehensive, timely detection of network failure, to promptly resolve, to avoid double-link failures occur simultaneously. Collection network and device logs, from network access, protocol analysis, IP traffic, port traffic to do a comprehensive analysis of unusual traffic and access.

Equipment management: a large number of hosts, data storage devices to manage, monitor equipment status and performance of equipment logs, find fault, timely manner.

Safety analysis: a comprehensive collection borders, networks, equipment, terminal logs and behavior, combined with border security alarm, network virus alarm, terminal irregularities, illegal access to the network to achieve correlation analysis to reduce false positives, the analysis found hidden achieve centralized security management system to achieve in-depth analysis, risk warning, violation of a safety management audit. Royal Divine SecFox

network security management system is already in the army General Staff, assembly, land, sea, air, and Second Artillery units received more than their specific application, has been widely recognized by military users.

Royal Divine SecFox-SNI Network Security Network Monitoring System Introduction

SecFox-SNI unified management platform to manage various types of enterprises and organizations of infrastructure and application service nodes, including network devices, host devices, safety equipment, and even room dynamic environmental and access control, various types of database, middleware, e-mail systems, web services, OA, CRM, ERP, e-government systems, and so on, provided the image of beauty and convenience of network topology, physical room layout, the true instrument panel diagram, business services, and through curves, charts, real-time describe network traffic, equipment operation, make the administrator of their own infrastructure at a glance, easy and efficient management of all devices.

SecFox-SNI from a business point of view of a unified monitoring IT resources. With SecFox business modeling process, the customer first business system is decomposed into various types of IT resources, and a set of IT resources for these key business indicator system. Then, the management system through real-time monitoring of all indicators to characterize the health of business systems. Customer interface can be monitored through the business operations of running a full picture of the situation, for example, once the business system failure, will be able to quickly navigate to a form that part of the business problems.

Addition to the availability of monitoring for IT resources, SecFox-SNI also be able to effectively monitor the overall security situation in the IT resources. Customers through the deployment of SecFox-SNI, can target level of protection of national information systems for more than two basic requirements in six categories of major control points improved and enhanced.

SecFox-SNI is an early-warning monitoring IT resources in response to platform unification. System monitoring indicators for all alarms generated by a centralized response. SecFox-SNI support for sound, light, electricity and other kinds of alarm mode, and through Mobile SMS, e-mail issue alerts. SecFox-SNI network with clients of various heterogeneous network equipment and safety equipment for strategic linkage, for example, Cisco and Huawei Switch Issued a port strategy, issued to the firewall and IDS security policy, and so on. SecFox-SNI also be integrated with our third-party management platform, including the integration of monitoring information and alarm information integration.

SecFox-SNI provides state of the whole operation of the network analysis report, which is a comprehensive analysis of the data reporting, allowing administrators to understand and assess the state of the whole network system. Royal on the net Shenzhou

Network security management team, Royal Divine safety management in accordance with long-depth research, combined with the demand from customers and the market situation at present, with full independent intellectual property rights, business-oriented network security management products God SecFox philosophy, with particular emphasis on network management, safety management and operation maintenance management, integration, as government, military, public security, taxation, electricity, insurance, telecommunications, finance, transportation, health care, manufacturing, broadcasting and other fields to provide comprehensive security to customers operational security platform. Royal Divine set up a special network security management and implementation of R & D team?? SOC Business Unit, in the domestic market by leaps and bounds, the market has made remarkable achievements. In CCID2008, 2009 and 2010, “China Information Security Market Annual Report” in the network for three consecutive years among the Divine Emperor of safety management (SOC) market first, becoming China’s leader in the security management market.

O2microsifoworks Education Industry Solutions

Network With the fast development of new technology also brings more Network Security Problem. Currently, network viruses and attacks from a new internal network security threats, how to effectively defend against attacks from the network will be a lot of network security personnel need to seriously think about.

  Education In recent years the industry has become, more and more attention to one of the industries Campus Network Contact-building has also been walking in front of network development for the education industry IT Investment also showed a rising trend year by year, the Education Reform Network based network is currently in the construction and improvement phase. Over time, from the Education Network security threats are more and more hackers, network viruses, Distributed Denial of attack causes the network traffic within 80% of exports to non-normal flow, whereas the normal user’s access can not be guaranteed. These network security risk to the entire campus is often caused by a heavy blow.

O2Micro company for the appeal, the paper offers a complete solution that helps education customers better network protection.

Here are optimized network structure of a Department of Education, we will address this specific case to illustrate how to prevent attacks from within.

Case: A Bureau of Education and the area by more than 70 schools in China Telecommunications Formation provided by MPLS VPN, all network traffic through the primary and secondary Education, the center of room to visit Internet. Education Centre in the room connected to the MPLS network links the telecommunications deploy a Firewall To prevent from the Education Network (MPLS network) within the attack.

Over time, the network appears in some of the network security issues, seriously affect the education and research work. For example, although the Bureau of Education Computer Center to deploy a firewall to ensure security of the central room, but can not guarantee that other primary and secondary networks and Education Center Computer Room exports are not subject to internal network attacks.

O2Micro SifoWorks education industry application solutions

O2Micro exit in Education Network Gigabit wire-speed firewall performance deployment O2Micro / VPN device SifoWorksM526, the export of various primary and secondary deployment SifoWorksE600. SifoWorksM526 and SifoWorksE600 is the use of AS IC Chip Set of firewall, VPN, audit functions in a real sense of Gigabit wire-speed devices, respectively 5G and 1.2G throughput, fully able to meet the Bureau of Education and various primary and secondary current and future expansion needs. At the same time, the device can be integrated IDS module can be a single device to provide users with more comprehensive Service .

Users through the firewall strict access control policy, as well as the security engine to work, the force to ensure the security of the entire internal network.

Under specific conditions, respectively, were implemented in all the firewall security policy accordingly, such as:

Hackers launched against DoS / DDoS attacks, Sasser, ip fragmented packet attacks, address spoofing, ip address and mac technical realization of the address binding (with security Management System);

Use of the contents of the firewall O2Micro Filter Technology, on the Telnet, FTP application layer protocols such as command-level filter; on the web content filtering; on the e-mail filtering, etc.;

Use O2Micro firewall integrated IDS module, the network at any time Monitor To prevent and coordination of various attacks against the firewall;

Strict access control policies, such as: the need for open access Server We need a two-tier defense system be strictly limited, and only the necessary ports open on the firewall to prevent too many open ports to the network or intranet from the outside to facilitate the conditions of attacks.

Network management company to use a self-developed SifoView O2Micro network security management platform, SifoVie to Client-Server architecture, through the graphical user interface, centralized management of enterprise in all SifoWorks equipment, policy deployment and performance monitoring . IT staff can also set different according to different roles of management rights for the entire network in a complete division of labor system, were well controlled.

SifoView overcome the traditional VPN / firewall error-prone deployment strategy, providing IT administrators an easy, centralized management capabilities, such as: Safety net Related device configuration, performance monitoring, event correlation system, list VPN tunnel topology, firewall policy unified plan, log and Report Analysis is a good management platform.

Browsing All Kinds of India Jobs Online

Using a job portal website to find India jobs will ensure that you get what you need, which are plenty of results and choices that are legitimate and promising. If you don’t know, a job portal website is just like a directory for finding jobs and for those that need to find and hire someone qualified for a job. Whether you are looking for employment or looking to hire someone a job portal website will have everything you need, including a variety of    employment industries to choose from. A job portal will allow for the direct finding of specific jobs and the browsing of jobs.
Among many others, India jobs are easily found within these types of websites and plenty of choices as well. Banking and financial-related jobs including accounting, insurance clerks, and taxation and audit services are just some of the dozens of available job industries on these online job portals. IT technology services such as data warehousing, software IT, hardware IT, programming and more are also in high demand and therefore are easy to find. Telecommunication services are a common job industry to run into while browsing a job directory website for India jobs as well as others. Telecommunications can involve IT jobs as well including programming, embedded software development, and tech staff.
There are plenty more categories that involve high qualified standards including college degrees and other certifications and/or graduate confirmation. India jobs that qualify in the hospitality, automobile and construction categories are also a dime a dozen, meaning you can find plenty of job openings online for these types of industries. Construction and automobile jobs are part of the job openings that require little to no degrees/certifications while administration and healthcare related jobs will only be available if one has the proper qualifications.
Trainee jobs are also included in the browsing of India jobs on jobs portal websites as well because everyone has to start at the beginning at some point in time. This also means that places that offer trainee jobs have a way of promoting within and training on the job to improve your learning ability and experience quicker than any other methods. Finding a job is one thing but finding a career is an even better thing and using a job portal to solve your employment queries could be a lifelong decision that yields a balanced and happy life.
Additionally, looking for India jobs don’t necessarily mean that you want to move there, all you need to do is look into the telecommuting jobs that the majority of all job portal websites offer. These are the types of jobs that require a bit of experience in whatever you choose i.e. graphic design, website services, writing ECT but they can be performed from home that has a computer and an internet connection. These jobs are great for full time parents or for those who may be disabled and unable to venture out into the world to make a living. All in all, finding the job or career you want is just a few clicks away.

For more information about USA jobs

Free Analysis of Telecommunications Expenses for Companies Seeking to Cut Costs

Free Analysis of Telecommunications Expenses for Companies Seeking to Cut Costs

Atlanta, Ga. (PRWEB) April 2, 2009

In this economy, every dollar counts. While furloughing and downsizing have been widespread tactics, many companies have taken advantage of Telco Management Group’s complementary telecommunications audit to reduce expenses while expanding their service.

Telco Management Group is a complete telecom expense management firm specializing in cost containment audits as well as contract negotiations, bill consolidation, project management and implementation services. The company is known for maximizing technology and client efficiencies while reducing their clients’ overall expenses. Telco Management Group reported that nine out of ten businesses have enjoyed savings of as much as 50% after their analysis by reducing waste and bundling contracts. In fact, many are able to obtain more services for less money.

To do this, Telco Management Group: 1. Conducts a comprehensive telecommunications bill and contract analysis (including local, long distance, internet, etc.) for all of the company’s locations. 2. Suggests where the client can recover funds while optimizing their telephony options. 3. Presents the most cost competitive quotes from Tier 1 carriers. 4. Project manage implementation.

“We’ve found that many companies are paying for services that they don’t need or use” said Jonathan Pedersen, Managing Partner at Telco Management Group. “Plus, by bundling many of these services under one agreement, companies can save approximately 10 to 25% more.” Because they represent all carriers, Telco Management Group can recommend the best solution without bias to one company over another.

“The larger the company, the more they need a telecommunications audit”, said Marilyn Dooley, founder of Telco Management Group. “Companies with multiple locations spread nationwide frequently experience billing errors, 3rd party billings and fraudulent charges.” Dooley indicated that it is not uncommon for companies to be paying for the same long distance calls twice from the same provider under two different account numbers. “One of our clients was paying over $ 2,500 per month for a data circuit that had not been used for over a year after they had moved offices.” The billing ceased after Telco Management Group uncovered the error and corrected the situation with the carrier, however.

While many companies charge a fee for this type of analysis, Telco Management Group is conducting this review and making telecom service recommendations as a complementary service. “We know that times are challenging right now for companies and we want to do what we can to help. By offering this service for free, we can help multi-location businesses, in particular, save money without necessarily having to reduce head count” said Dooley.

About Telco Management Group:

Telco Management Group was founded in 2005 by Marilyn Dooley. For more information or to request a complementary audit for your business, contact Jonathan Pedersen, Managing Partner, at 770.977-2504.

###

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Comstructure and Abilita Announce Strategic Partnership

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Suggested Research areas in IT Security, IT Services and IT Governance Frameworks for Dissertations and Theses Projects

This is the third article in the series of recommendations pertaining to dissertation and thesis topics from ETCO India. In the previous articles I have recommended various subject areas pertaining to latest challenges in the field of Wireless Communications, IT Systems and Global Computing. The dissertation/thesis projects in the fields of IT Security,  IT Services and IT Governance shall essentially comprise of studies on world class standards, frameworks and best practices that are widely accepted and implemented in organisations. Students may like to conduct case studies in organisations where these standards, frameworks and best practices are implemented or else conduct interviews or surveys among thousands of IT security professionals across the world that are connected via community groups on social networking websites (Like Linkedin, Plaxo, Google Groups, etc.). The culture of sharing knowledge in the world of IT security is excellent because the security controls, threat management and best practices can be established effectively by practicing organized knowledge sharing only. The IT security, services and governance consulting companies support academic researches whole heartedly to prepare the young minds for the future challenges such that the acute shortage of human capital in these fields can be addressed. In this article, I recommend the following standards and frameworks in which hundreds of topics pertaining to dissertations and thesis research projects can be developed.

 (a) NIST (US Department of Commerce) Recommendations: As per NIST recommendations, all the critical IT systems should be categorized at the first place such that the risks to these systems can to be identified, assessed and recorded. Thereafter, appropriate mitigation actions can be taken to reduce them to acceptable levels by either reducing the vulnerabilities (applying controls), by avoiding the risks (disallowing activities that can cause risks) or by transferring the risks to third parties (like outsourcing the controls to specialist security agencies). This entire process has been termed as IT Risk Management by NIST which is now regarded as the baseline for the industry. It requires management commitment and assignment of security roles to strategic business process owners in the organization. NIST recommends that the key roles that should contribute to IRM should be Senior Management, Chief Information Officer, System/Information owners, Business Managers, Functional Managers, IT Security Officers, Security Awareness Trainers, and Internal Auditors. The risk assessment recommended by NIST is a nine step structured analytics procedure that should be carried out by the key roles such that the outcome can be collated to form an organization wide risk registry.

(b) ISO 27005 Standard:  The ISO 27005:2008 is the formal replacement of ISO 13335-3 & ISO 13335-4:2000 which essentially recommends a 100% metrics based evaluation of all the steps of risk assessment described in ISO 13335-3 using quantitative techniques. This standard considers Risk Management, Configuration Management and Change Management as part of an integrated framework to deliver IT security in an organization. The risk management framework recommended by this standard can be viewed as a model comprising of “concentric spheres” with the information assets placed at the core of the model, vulnerabilities prevailing at the sphere above the core, controls applied over the vulnerability sphere and threats prevailing at the periphery of the model. This model was originally part of ISO 13335-3 that represents an environment of threats changing continuously thus changing the risk baselines (residual acceptable risk level) of the organizations. Hence, periodic assessment of the effectiveness of controls is required such that the vulnerabilities are not exploited by the emerging external or internal threats to affect the information assets.

(c) ISO 27002 Standard: The ISO 27002:2008 standard was formerly known as ISO 17799:2005 code of practice for information security that was used as the supplement document of ISO 27001:2005 standard which is the largest framework of standards describing Information Security implementation in an organization. The ISO 27002:2008 standard recommends the practices documented in ISO 13335-3 which essentially is a wider framework of Information Security because it covers the impacts in terms of confidentiality, integrity, availability, accountability, authenticity and reliability. Unlike “system characterization” recommended as the starting point by NIST, this standard recommends “asset characterization” as the starting point which includes tangibles as well as intangibles. The asset characterization is carried out by assuming that anything that is critical for the business to produce the products & services and retain customers as well as market share is treated as critical asset for the organization. It may be the systems (IT Systems, power systems, admin systems, etc.), people, documents, records, databases, applications, intellectual properties, etc. thus forming a much wider coverage of subjects on which the risks analysis needs to be carried out. The threat & vulnerability analysis is carried out employing steps that are similar to NIST recommendations but the impact analysis is carried out based on multiple business impacts categorized by the business stake holders – like financial loss, business loss, customer loss, market share loss, key people loss, premises loss, intellectual property breaches, regulatory breaches, productivity loss, inventory loss, etc. Protection against such losses is the direct interest of business stake holders and hence the topmost priority of the risk management teams. The final stages of risk analysis, control analysis, and control recommendations are similar to those of NIST recommendations. This framework also recommends periodic control effectiveness testing which is recommended by NIST in their special publication 800-115 released in 2008.

(d) The COBIT Framework: The COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology) framework is developed by IT Governance Institute which is a community of expert developers and reviewers from IT governance field that have contributed to the framework to arrive at the best practices published in its current form. The IT Governance Institute comprises of board of trustees, IT governance committee, COBIT steering committee, advisory panel and affiliates & sponsors. The framework is a wonderful effort of putting together all the best practices of IT governance & Risk Management which organizations can adopt to support their Business Governance & Risk Management frameworks effectively. The COBIT framework helps in effective alignment of IT systems & processes with business requirements such that the business risks due to IT enablement can be effectively mitigated.

(e) CRAMM Framework: CRAMM is the Risk Management Methodology developed the Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) which is based on qualitative methods of risk analysis. In this mechanism the steps called “asset identification & valuation”, “identification & assessment of threat & vulnerability”, “identification of security measures”, “identification of risks” and “identification & assessment of risk mitigation” are carried out using structured questionnaire defined by the CRAMM framework. Each question has either “yes” or “no” answer and the scores are collated by counting the numbers of “yes” and “no” responses which is done automatically by the CRAMM system. If the target respondents of the CRAMM questionnaire are selected very carefully (like asset owners, IT administrators, application engineers, database administrators, etc), then CRAMM can result in accurate identification & mitigation strategies of IT risks.  

(f) OCTAVE Framework: OCTAVE is the abbreviation for “Operationally Critical Threat, Asset and Vulnerability Evaluation” which is a model developed by Carnegie Mellon University. This framework takes into account operational risk, security practices and technology and leverages the existing knowledge of vulnerabilities within an organization. The assessment is carried out in three phases – “development of asset based threat profiles”, “identification of infrastructure vulnerabilities” and “building security strategies & plans”.  The first phase requires an organizational view whereas second phase requires technological view. The OCTAVE assessment criteria is self driven without the need for external experts to guide the organization. Just like CRAMM it is a self guided process but is carried out by few experts in the company that have extensive knowledge of IT systems in the company whereas CRAMM is carried out by all asset owners of the company. One good aspect about OCTAVE is that it captures the knowledge of threats to business and internal weaknesses from the people at all levels and then uses the knowledge to develop the asset based threat profiles. This ensures that the risk assessment is very close to the people’s perspective of threat exposures of the business and not based on some kind of threat database purchased from external consultants.

(g) FRAP Framework: Facilitated Risk Management Process (FRAP) is the framework which essentially takes into account prioritized threats and asset vulnerabilities that can potentially cause maximum damage to the business. This again is a qualitative approach and is popularly known as “four hour risk assessment”. FRAP is not accepted by many organizations because the threat perceptions do not allow scaled down list of assets, threats and vulnerabilities to be addressed. However, this is an effective framework given that the 80-20 rule applies in risk management as well – i.e., 20% threats cause 80% of the damages.

(h) ITIL version 2 and version 3 Frameworks: ITIL versions 2 and 3 are publications by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) UK. They are end to end IT service management frameworks that can effectively align the IT services of an organization to business requirements at the operations level. ITIL version 2 is very popular due to its wide implementation base across the world in many countries. It has two major disciplines – IT Service Support and IT Service Delivery. The IT Service Support discipline comprises of the Service desk function of an organization and five management functions – Incident management, Problem management, Change management, Release management and Configuration management. These management functions are also included in ISO 27001 and ISO 20000 standards as well as in COBIT framework. The IT Service delivery discipline comprises of five management functions as well – Service Level management, Capacity management, Availability management, IT Financials management and IT Business Continuity management.

The ITIL version 3 is much wider framework compared to ITIL version 2. It comprises of five disciplines as against two in the version 2: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement. There are many new management functions included in ITIL version 3 in addition to the ten functions recommended by ITIL version 3. This is a new framework and hence the global roll out is evolving gradually. The students can find vast opportunities of research in both these areas in the form of Phenomenography or case studies.

(i) Val IT: This is the latest framework developed by IT Governance Institute that can be seamlessly integrated with the COBIT framework. This framework can be implemented to tangibly demonstrate the value of IT investments to the Business. This framework has not yet been researched by academic researchers and hence offers an entirely new world of opportunities.

(j) ISO 27001: This is the mother of all standards in Information Security Management System (ISMS). No standard possesses such wide coverage as offered by ISO 27001 in the field of IT Security. The purpose of ISO 27001:2005 is to guide an organization on the level of ISMS implementation feasible as per the business needs. It guides the organization to implement a structured Information Security Management System with an approach of Risk Assessment & Business Impact Analysis that incorporates world class best practices in management of the existing systems running in the organization in the form of a structured Framework. The Framework includes:

Adequately documented and implemented Security Policy(ies) and Procedures.
Asset Master comprising of ALL critical Information Assets.
Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis Worksheets.
Risk Treatments Plans and Reports.
ISMS Management and Operations Group with detailed roles.
ISMS Operating Manual with Statement of Applicability.
ISMS Operating Procedures, activity log-sheets and reports.
ISMS Security Procedures pertaining to every operating area.
 Access Control Policies and Procedures for all the Information Processing and Storage Facilities.
Incident, Problem, Change, Release, Configuration, Capacity & Availability Policies and Procedures.
Detailed Implementation of the 133 Normative controls as defined in Annexure A of BS ISO/IEC 27001:2005.
Internal and External Audit Procedures, audit sheets and corrective/preventive actions.
Information Classification, Transit, Storage and Destruction Policies & Procedures.
Disaster Recovery Plan and Procedures.
Business Continuity Plan and Procedures.

TSW Penny Stock Finder Trading System Selects Five Stocks To Watch at the Close

Dec 7, 2010 Boca Raton, FL–Penny Stocks Closing on Strong Gains SEHMI, NRTLQ, INBG, BLAP, BLSP as Stocks ended flat on Tuesday as investors’ enthusiasm over a tax cut extension deal was short-circuited by rising bond yields and reports regulators were stepping up an insider-trading probe.

Market Internals

OTC BB Total Volume 1.6 Billion, Advancing Issues 489 Declining Issues 620

Pick Sheet Sheets Total volume 5.5 Billion Shares,  Advancing issues 1595 Declining issues 1746

The most active bullish penny stocks at the close of trading includes: OTC EHMI, NRTLQ, INBG, BLAP, BLSP

1- Echo Metrix, Inc. (EHMI.OB) closing price .09 up 52% on breakout volume of 2.1 million shares. Echometrix, Inc., a software company, develops technology that understands and interprets all the content on the digital Web. Its products monitor, block, and alert parents the moment a child encounters inappropriate material from any Internet related source.

2-Nortel Networks Corp. (NRTLQ.PK) close .0195 up 34% on 3.4 million shares traded.

On December 1, 2010, Nortel Networks Corporation (NNC) announced that Guangdong Nortel Telecommunication Equipment (“GDNT”), a Chinese joint venture between Nortel Networks Limited, Nortel China Limited and certain third parties, has entered into an asset sale agreement with Ericsson (China) Communications Company Ltd. (“Ericsson”) for the sale of substantially all of the assets of GDNT for a purchase price of approximately U.S. million in cash, subject to certain purchase price adjustments. Nortel subsidiaries Nortel Networks Limited and Nortel China Limited together own 62 percent of GDNT.

Nortel Networks Corporation and its subsidiaries supply end-to-end networking products and solutions serving both service providers and enterprise customers. Its technologies span access and core networks and support multimedia and business-critical applications.

3-International Building Technologies Group, Inc. (INBG.OB) close .0005 up 66% on 421.3 million shares traded at the close.

INBG announced today that, pursuant to the signed Letter of Intent between INBG and FHH Sino New Energies Co., Ltd., the audit and due diligence study undertaken by a PCAOB listed auditing firm in Hong Kong and a law firm in Beijing, China have been completed and signed off by these two firms.

4- Blast Applications, Inc. (BLAP.PK) close .008 up 29% on 14.4 million shares traded for the day.

BLAP announced in a press release today it has been accepted as an application developer for Nokia’s Ovi store, launching today its first Nokia app.

Blast Applications, Inc. is a premier creator and developer of mobile applications for Twitter® and Facebook®, allowing users to have more fun, be productive and make social media sites easier to use and more intuitive than before.

5-Blue Sphere Corp. (BLSP.OB) last price .053 up a whopping 211%  on breakout volume of 6.9 million shares at the close.

BLSP announce a press release today that Aon Israel Insurance Brokerage Ltd. has agreed in principle to arrange debt financing for our N20 abatement projects at the Navoiyazot Nitric Acid Plant No. 5 in Navoi, Uzbekistan and the Kaz Azot Plant in Aktau, Kzakhstan.

Blue Sphere Corp. focuses on the acquisition of carbon credit projects. It plans to sell carbon credits, as well as material and byproducts for energy generation.

Disclaimer

The assembled information distributed by TheStockWizards.net is for information purposes only, and is neither a solicitation to buy nor an offer to sell securities. TheStockWizards.net does expect that investors will buy and sell securities based on information assembled and presented herein. TheStockWizards.net will not be responsible in any way for or accept any liability for any losses arising from an investor’s reliance on or use of information obtained from our website or emails. Always do your own due diligence, and consult your financial advisor

Online Education – Evolving an Information Technology Plan for Distance Learning (4)

The fusion of computing, communication and telecommunication technologies used in the delivery of distance learning education in foremost institutions today emerged from properly funded dynamic IT infrastructures. The use of video, audio, print, full multimedia and the internet services (ranging from chat to all media conferences) was first exploited by distance learning institutions, these today are being refer to and Distance Learning Technologies.

For distance learning and online education be successful in this information age, there must be well established ICT infrastructure and a virile web services platform to shoulder all the operations. The distance learning and online education considered in this article is a blended type that employs the Print, electronic media, and internet technologies in the delivery of her education contents. The Online Education IT implementation plan for the open and distance learning programmes can consider the following infrastructure acquisition depending on the budget and funds in place.

Auditorium and conference rooms with full internet connectivity for video conferencing
Automated printing press with full multimedia facilities.
Computerised recording studio for audio recording of lectures
Library, information resources rooms other facilities for information outlet
Audio /video production and editing studio
Main library (traditional and virtual)
Internet and server room for knowledge warehouse and data processing centre
Telecommunication services such as telephony, fax, email and VOIP services
Multimedia hardware and software, including radio, TV, video, video-conferencing;
Classroom, projectors with internet connectivity.

There is the need for a web presence that will compliment these ICT infrastructures. The IT plan should have provision for the Training and maintenance needs both the infrastructure and the personnel to man them There is a need to have a training and re-training structure ingrained in the plan and also the maintenance culture to be evolved for the self-preservation for these infrastructures.

The IT department must design chart that will show the events, projects and timelines using academic calendar of the distance learning institution university to create a university wide activities and event calendar for a specific period -quarterly or yearly. Everyone will have a role and accompanying duties for proper appraisal and evaluation. The service charter can be provided by the IT department from all identified units of the university follow-up by a proper staff audit; to identify those that are trainable that will aid major tasks and events of the IT plan.

A fresh distance learner and an advanced elearner will find these tools very useful in computer training and online learning. With this product you need No books or software needed – Just a windows PC with Internet Explorer/Firefox. Print certificates of completion, with your name on them – great for resumes. Learn what you need to know to pass certification exams. Company managers can view progress reports for employees. 100% 7 day money back guarantee. Pay one time. No hidden fees!

Start or upgrade your career online today. You will find these tools very useful in computer training and online learning. I vote this online resource as one of the best E-Learning Products for both beginners and advanced internet users.

Now Pay Close Attention –

Using Video Testimonials to increase your websites sales and revenue is simpler than you’ve been told. Everyone with a website faces the same two problems:

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U.S. commercial Web sites use bad content filters

According to laws and regulations on the Internet is world implementation management practices. In order to produce content for the core user times, America Web2.0 each big commercial website is not about network broadcasting content, but has been unwinding on national related laws, formulating necessary regulations implementing control.
Internet porn, especially children Internet porn, has been American commercial websites and telecommunication operator’s emphasis on the supervision on the object. Many commercial websites have used for inappropriate content with the filter, and the federal government to maintain close cooperation. The famous American classified ads on Craigslist web site “adult services ads” once accounted for one-third of their income, but has been hotly debated. Facing the parties pressure, Craigslist first adopted artificially censorship, namely every AD must through the website will not release after checking.
In states government, the protection of minors, the organization further urged Craigslist last September in congressional hearing on site announced the U.S. permanently shut down “adult services ads” section, then its in Canada, South Africa and other international sites related layout closed.
U.S. telecom enterprise also actively participate in the supervision of Internet pornography. The telecommunications company sun wei, time warner and splinter company has teamed up with force-out hanging in the 3 companies on the server child pornography web sites and BBS, and contributed by millions of dollars remove bad information. Aviation network service providers from 2008 Aircell for its flights since broadband system installation filters, in million meters high altitude banned porn sites access.
Blogs, reader comments the contents of such user submitted is American businesses and news site management another important content. Several sites in user agreement expressly website in the right to remove, edit comments submitted. Internet
The New York times editor Jim Roberts had online readers asked in answer said publicly, “New York times” website editing will review each a reader comments submitted, they have tried to use filter software for auditing, but the present haven’t found any software can replace well-trained editor. Roberts said, in their delete any blasphemy against racial, ethnic, religious or personal attacks on’s remarks never relent.
“Los Angeles times” once blocked Pulitzer prize winner Michael hill cheek on its web site, the reason is the column was found under a false name hill cheek blogs in others published offensive remarks. In 2006, the Washington post comments about political offer gold together investigators, the article cause thousands of scandal, many critics accused reader comments newspaper “and republicans collude”. Although some readers think articles inaccuracies, but the Washington post after many comments involving abuse and personal attacks, violates the grounds for policy speech shut down reader reviews of this article function.
The Washington post editor Jim brady then online, said website should require readers of his comments, the real-name system for speech. The Wall Street journal in comments online in the administrative provisions on clear requirements readers use real name. Some other mainstream web although no compulsory real-name system, but to take some policy encourages users to use real hands from readers regulate website content self-discipline.
For example, web retail giants amazon’s web site will be preferential show real name consumer reviews, and in the user name below special labeled “talk” 2 words. Has the Internet first broadsheet said the “Hector fenton reaction post comments for the use of real name, specification readers send” medal “, let the user group of readers in the model have a higher prestige. The New York times editor Roberts said: “online edition of best use your name, please. If you sign Bill Clinton, we very likely put your comment deleted.”
“Facebook” overshadowed by social networking sites, also requires users to register use real name and personal information. “Facebook” terms of service, wrote, user shall not provide any false personal information, “facebook” has the right to delete a user of illegal content released.

CallKnowing Announces Security Monitoring and Intrusion Detection for Voice Networks

CallKnowing Announces Security Monitoring and Intrusion Detection for Voice Networks

Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) January 26, 2004 -

CallKnowing LLC today announced the general availability of their latest browser-based monitoring and reporting service, Intrusion Detection for telecommunications networks. The service distributes daily reports documenting suspicious activities on voice networks with installed PBX equipment, allowing companies to quickly respond to potentially devastating hacking and fraud attempts.

While they are the heart of any telecommunications network, traditional PBX and voice mail systems rarely provide logs of system changes or uncharacteristic activity occurring on the voice network. Unauthorized changes to stations, failed access attempts, excessive outcalling from voice mail and unusual trunk activity could all be indications of attempted or actual intrusion. The problem is becoming so widespread that the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI recently issued a bulletin recommending that companies with PBX systems implement strict security measures including continuous auditing of the network to detect unauthorized activity.    

“The truth is that every PBX is connected to other PBXs, and increasingly, to switches, routers and gateways between voice and data networks,” said Roger Anderson, President and founder of CallKnowing. “This convergence only expands the avenues of access to hackers – leaving the company open to expensive theft of services as well as theft of information, vandalism and espionage.”

The solution is a combination of technology, monitoring, and awareness. CallKnowing’s daily electronic reports enable continuous monitoring and auditing of telecommunications devices and databases, creating an early warning system of problems for both legacy PBX and TCP/IP networks. The system tracks the PBX’s configuration and notifies administrators of any changes, evaluates IP-connected devices for hacking vulnerabilities, and performs meticulous scans of all possible TCP and UDP ports. Results are distributed daily in an easy-to-read format via email to customer-defined distribution lists. The system can be customized to adhere to company-specific security policies and requirements.

“The CallKnowing Intrusion Detection service provides peace of mind by performing comprehensive vulnerability assessments on our network. If something changes, CallKnowing finds it,” said Jon Moeller, Director of Web Publishing for Sony Pictures Entertainment. “We have hundreds of thousands of potential doors that can be opened for attacks. It might take us weeks to compile the information they provide each day – by which time, the damage would be done.”

For further information visit our website at http://www.callknowing.com or contact Katherine Wood, VP of Sales and Marketing, (916) 716-4318.

About CallKnowing

CallKnowing LLC (http://www.callknowing.com) provides data alignment and reporting services for telecommunications networks, helping companies secure and manage their complex network infrastructures. We have developed a comprehensive set of standard and customizable utilities that quickly deliver high-quality, easy-to-understand browser-based reports to pinpoint problems anywhere in a voice network. We combine our depth and breadth of multi-vendor knowledge with the right technology, tools, and processes to deliver customized solutions to our customers.

For further information contact:

Katherine Wood

VP, Sales and Marketing, CallKnowing LLC

(916) 716-4318

http://www.callknowing.com


pr@callknowing.com

# # #

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

The Inevitable Mailroom- by Harry Herget, Co-Founder SynTel, LLC

Question: When you search on Google for the word “mail,” what do you find?

Answer: “e-mail” subject matter.

Warren Buffet says that one of his guiding principles is to invest in “inevitability”; in things that are bound to happen and we can’t avoid.

Growth in business-to-consumer e-mail volume is inevitable.

A decline in U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mail volume is inevitable.

Volumes for both channels are still in the billions.

What does this mean? That now is the time for the “Inevitable Mailroom.”

What is an Inevitable Mailroom?

Almost all documents today are created from a digital data source. The design, processing, delivery and archiving all take place on a digital platform that is better, faster and cheaper than the old paper-and-press methods used just a couple decades ago.

The new, Inevitable Mailroom facilitates document workflows by providing the user with all available delivery channels from print-to-mail to e-Delivery.  It optimizes these workflows by combining the most effective way of working with the USPS – mail manifesting – with automated electronic distribution channels. Ignoring one channel over the other will result in either falling behind the continued rise of electronic communications or paying too much for the remaining volume of print mail.

Optimizing Traditional Mail Channels and Embracing E-Delivery

The best way to optimize traditional print-to-mail channels is by offering mail manifesting for the USPS.  This particular capability not only verifies addresses for deliverability, it also reduces the effective postage rate by nearly 25 percent and eliminates the need to purchase and maintain a meter.

Financial institutions, specifically banks, are a good group to study since they produce a myriad of customer documents, such as daily notices, monthly and quarterly statements and annual tax notices. In the category of first class mail, the banking industry, as a group, has been the single largest customer of the USPS. But the world is changing, and so are banks.

The Inevitable Mailroom also provides e-Delivery so the user can send customer documents through lower cost channels such as online and mobile, including smart phones and eTablets.

According to The Boston Consulting Group’s March report for the USPS, while banks continue to produce large volumes of print-to-mail items, the move to e-delivery has grown to an average of 12 percent, with electronic channels predicted to be 50 percent by the year 2020.  One community bank in Texas, which heavily promotes e-Delivery with compelling incentives for both customers and employees, has pushed 60 percent of their customer documents to electronic channels. How the banking industry adapts to new technologies and changing customer demands over the next two years will be a harbinger for businesses across all verticals.

Using Mailroom Efficiencies to Impact the Bottom Line

In a highly competitive marketplace, banks capitalize on new technologies for marketing advantages. Smart ATMs, online banking and mobile commerce are experiencing adoption rates that are increasing at an increasing rate. Banks are also for-profit businesses, and these are not the best of economic times for banks. To survive, they must utilize new technologies to lower their unit costs of growth.

One measure of a bank’s operational efficiency is the ratio of employees to total assets. In 1960, the ratio was two employees per million in assets.  Today, that ratio has improved to one employee per million in assets, an improvement of 800 percent. But it’s not good enough. In the year 2020, a bank should double its efficiency and employ one person for every million in assets.

The Inevitable Mailroom is an important contributor to the goal of optimizing efficiencies. Cost savings are additive and they accumulate across the entire enterprise of a business. The Mailroom has traditionally been considered a “cost center” and was mistakenly exempted from efficiency reviews.

The Inevitable Mailroom is at least 50 percent more efficient than a traditional mailroom. This presents substantial, hard dollar savings in postage, paper, labor, equipment and supplies. In addition, the Inevitable Mailroom is a more secure environment since it uses document tracking and auditing tools that assure the user that the number of documents delivered, whether electronically or on paper, matches the number processed. And with the new Intelligent Mail barcode (IMB) for USPS mailed items, even more tracking and auditing tools are available to the user.

Customer life styles are changing every day, and they’re being shaped by new technologies; not just the time and money saving conveniences these technologies offer, but the fun, exciting and instructive benefits that come with them.

In a world populated with paper and electronic documents, it’s prudent to have a mailroom that accommodates both while leveraging technology for best practices and results.

All transaction based businesses such as utilities, insurance companies, telecommunications, oil marketers and the like, should follow the model being set by banks and give their customers the choice of paper, online or mobile delivery.

Your mailroom should be a model of efficiency and functionality.  It should deliver what your customers expect in the format they prefer. And the savings are what your shareholders deserve.

Let’s face it.  Customers get what they want.

It’s inevitable.  Invest in it.

Jim Lawrence, Telecom Consultant, Joins Compeau-Fawkes to Guide Technology Companies to Greater Success

Jim Lawrence, Telecom Consultant, Joins Compeau-Fawkes to Guide Technology Companies to Greater Success

PITTSBURGH, PA (PRWEB) December 13, 2006

Compeau-Fawkes Technology Marketing has added Jim Lawrence, a 23-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, to its strategic marketing consulting team. As a published industry analyst with a background working for telecom manufacturers such as Siemens, DSC Communications and FORE Systems, Lawrence brings extensive experience in product development, market analysis, and strategic planning in telecommunications and related technology industries to the Compeau-Fawkes team.

“We live in a world where over 60% of young adults are using SMS, new mobile phone data speeds are beginning to rival PC broadband connections, voice-over-IP is no longer just a curiosity, and WiFi has become ubiquitous in many cities–all of which leads to tremendous changes foisted upon today’s businesses,” said Michael Compeau, president of Compeau-Fawkes Technology Marketing. “Jim has proven expertise helping companies set pragmatic strategies to address the myriad issues that arise from this flux.”

Lawrence is a seasoned professional when it comes to disruptive technologies and evolving market structure, having worked through the telecommunications revolution since the early 1980s addressing the opportunities and threats represented by regulatory reform, technology upheaval, and market convergence.

In his five years as a syndicated industry analyst, Lawrence built the Convergence Strategies and Network Architectures (CSNA) analysis service at Stratecast Partners, which delivered actionable strategic insight regarding the business and market implications of communications infrastructure convergence. In this role Jim had on-going direct interactions with a veritable who’s who in the telecommunications industry – from the executive levels of Cisco, Lucent, IBM, Alcatel, and HP, to the founders of hundreds of start-ups.

“I’m pleased to be joining Compeau-Fawkes to help clients sort through the hype of new technologies and emerging business models in the market today,” said Lawrence. “These are exciting times, but it can be challenging to make stable strategic decisions and product plans when the competitive landscape is constantly changing. I have found that the key is thoroughly analyzing the big picture as it relates to a given microcosm, and identifying strategies that protect the firm from being blindsided.”

Lawrence will be providing Compeau-Fawkes clients with strategic planning consulting services including strategic assessments of clients and competitors, market sector assessments, quantitative market modeling, and business process audit consulting relating to new product development, product line management, market strategy, and partner strategy/management. He will also be available for marketing consulting services such as auditing and/or development of company/value-proposition collateral, and authoring white papers and articles.

About Compeau-Fawkes Technology Marketing

After nearly 20 years of experience in classical marketing, product development, technology marketing, product management, and business development, Michael Compeau formed his own consulting firm in the fall of 2003 with a focus on offering his expertise to technology firms seeking to get greater leverage in their marketplace. Along the way, his experience in the mobile software arena at firms like Cutting Edge Software and Mobility Electronics helped Compeau-Fawkes build a substantial client list, including work for Palmsource, Inc., Mobile Digital Media (now Quickoffice, Inc.), Mapopolis.com, SplashData (now part of SixApart) & iambic, Inc. Additionally, Compeau-Fawkes’ technology marketing services extend beyond mobile to many other technology sectors including IT, health care, life sciences, and material science, and include working with firms as diverse as Xerox, Biomatters Ltd, and SMBLive.

For more information about Compeau-Fawkes, visit online at http//http://www.compeau-fawkes.com or call 724-308-1405.

Contact:

Michael Compeau

724-308-1405

###

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Buzz Technologies, Inc. Forms the Buzz Audit Committee

Buzz Technologies, Inc. Forms the Buzz Audit Committee

Houston, TX; Beijing, China; Bangkok, Thailand (PRWEB) March 16, 2007

Buzz Technologies, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: BZTG) has announced it will form an Audit Committee to deal with a number of issues.

The Committee will include Pol Lt Col Panitan Santipet, Huang Haibo, Steve Jenkins,

William R Cheung and 1 Independent Member from the company’s external accountant.

The Committee will be charged with the organizing the first Audit of the company, establishing the User Driven Content Payment system and developing a remote site reporting system to deal with the various currencies income is derived in.

The Audit Committee will also seek valuations on IP and look at the accounting for research and development which has been expensed so far in the company accounts.

Today Alexa (http://www.alexa.com) ranked 12buzz.com as the 67000th most popular web-site in the world out of some 30m sites, Pol Lt Col Panitan Santipet said today “these independent numbers from Alexa are a good guide to how much online business we are doing, I would encourage everyone to monitor these figures as a guide to the companies online presence.”

About Buzz: Buzz Technology is a diverse group of Telecommunications and Internet related products and services aimed at the new frontier of next generation technology from telephony, fixed line and VoIP, to state of the art Search Engines and the delivery of Information, News, Entertainment and Communications in new ways to new devices.

Established in Asia and expanded to the USA, Buzz will continue to expand where consumers desire reliable introducing VoIP, access to powerful, direct result search engines and technological business and home solutions based on next generation technology accomplished through in house development, licensing, acquisition, and strategic partnerships based on mutually beneficial business goals and compatibilities. Buzz is poised to take the leadership position in turnkey Internet solutions in the Asian consumer market place.

The foregoing press release contains forward-looking statements based on the Company’s beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company, including statements regarding the timing of the introduction of certain products. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the Company’s expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties which are identified and described in the Company’s registration statements and periodic reports on file with the SEC, some of which are beyond the Company’s control. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors including, among others, issues related to the travel and transportation industries, and prevailing economic conditions in general. In light of these risks and uncertainties, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements contained in this press release will in fact transpire or prove to be accurate.

Contact:

Sutida Suwunnavid

+667-6239-209

http://www.12buzz.com

# # #

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Avoid Employee Cell Phone Abuse

Looking for a way to save your enterprise or government organization tens of thousands of dollars a month or more on wireless mobile communication use? First off, it’s going to take some discipline and innovative management for your cellular communication services to become more cost efficient and less prone to abuse. Cell phone and handheld usage can bleed a corporation’s IT communications funding dry without so much as a turn of the head, or at least until it’s too late.

They’re Everywhere …

It’s more common than not for a large organization to have employees carrying company owned devices such as cellular phones, pagers, PDAs, and Blackberry devices. All these wireless devices meant to increase employee productivity are more than likely draining funds and ultimately decreasing actual corporate productivity. It’s an ever increasing telecommunications expense on a road to disaster.

One is Better …

One way to better manage corporate employee mobile communication cost is to buy ALL cellular services through ONE provider. Buying through one provider gives your organization the chance to receive volume discounts. If you are giving your employees the opportunity to purchase their company wireless device themselves on the corporate account, you are opening the door to higher rates and actually taking away control from the company as a whole.

Close To Home …

Secondly, audit not just the usage, but who uses the mobile communications. You need to investigate exactly who is a necessity mobile user and who is not. An office employee who spends most of their time within corporate headquarters and who is not prone to traveling; may very well be responsible for inflated mobile usage. An employee calling friends and even relatives overseas is not entirely uncommon. This kind of abuse has been known to accumulate to a bill well over a ,000.00 in a matter of days with just one employee.

Allowance, Not Just For Teens Anymore …

It’s important to weed out vanity from necessity. If the hardship of striping cell phones and their usage from employees is too hard to bear, consider revising this strategy. A method that can be effective is allotting an allowance to employees on their usage. In other words, set up a preset amount of acceptable minutes per month per employee type. If any employee goes over their allotted amount of minutes, it is garnished from their paychecks. Many companies have deployed this method to curb abuse with much success.

Reward the Good …

In addition to an allowance program, a rewards program could be put in place as well. To sweeten the sour, award the employee with the least amount of minutes a percentage of the company savings. Let it be announced beforehand and you may find employees trying to conserve so they can take home a larger paycheck. To make it more viral, perhaps first, second, and third place winners every month. That will ensure that employees know more than one employee each month will go home with a fatter paycheck. Increasing the odds always helps feed the fever. Works in Vegas, right?

Easier Said than Done …

Now, keeping track of who is who and who calls what can equal to a big headache and ultimately take more time and money to manage. Luckily there are some companies out there that make a living from auditing and managing wireless bills or supplying the firmware to do so. While costs associated with such services vary, they are valuable and more importantly; save money. Some of the companies that provide these services include Let’s Talk www.letstalk.com, Traq www.traq.com, and Vercuity www.vercuity.com.

Carriers Feel Your Pain …

Aside from these companies that audit, track, and manage wireless usage, the mobile communications industry has seen the aches and pains of employee abuse. Many cellular carriers now offer more cost effective wireless options for large employers knowing of employee abuse and the minutes (money sacrificed. In other words, lower rates for the higher volume to curb the cost of abuse whether or not it is taking place.

One of the better cell phone providers for corporate services is Nextel. They offer over the phone ordering exclusively for corporate volume clients for all products and services which include some good plans for busy mobile users.

Outsourcing 102

20 Steps to Successful Outsourcing

Objectives

The following 20-Step Program will provide you with a guide that would help you achieve the following:

* properly organize your team;

* achieve necessary management commitment;

* properly define your own corporate needs, objectives, and priorities;

* identify appropriate alternatives;

* identify and evaluated your risks and benefits;

* select the best alternative for each specified service area;

* developed and negotiated an appropriate and effective outsourcing agreement; and

* provide the mechanisms to administer, maintain, and monitor the contract and to resolve the inevitable problems.

20-Step Program

1. Organize a top management Steering Committee assigned in planning, monitoring, overseeing and searching for your transition to outsourcing. These includes members from your internal information systems division, key user groups, and executive management including marketing and/or strategic management. It is essential to factor the changing needs, markets, distribution channels from the beginning resulting to minimal surprises in the succeeding phases. Management also needs to be informed and be part of the process to make sure that there is due diligence being performed and to provide appropriate stewardship up over these key corporate information assets. This is to minimize the loss of important information resources, losing effectiveness, or leaving the company vulnerable to competition due to a screw up in an outsourcing deal which could lead to legal suits in the future.

2. Identify and engage an expert team to be able to guide you and the organization during the decision, selection, and contracting processes for your outsourcing needs. The team should include a small group of independent experts with specialization in outsourcing such as an information technology consulting professional who understands both you and your outsourcer in your needs and who is by far capable in helping you administer the contract over time, assuring a smooth transition to the systems, and resolve problems when the contract is signed. Then, an attorney with specific contracting, business, and outsourcing expertise to help develop and negotiate and outsourcing that would be beneficial to both parties and make the relationship work. Lastly, an organization development/merger and acquisition professional to make sure that the transition of staff and relationships works well.

This team is also warranted and needed to make tough decisions because perceived or actual weaknesses in your current IS team may have caused the failure of IS within your company in the first place. Also, engaging with independent experts to assist your IS managers will be wise because they themselves would probably be most directly affected by moving to outsourcing and the resulting contracts that goes with it.

3. Identify critical internal resources, such as a particularly competent data processing director or chief information officer, who will stay on your company’s staff internally assigned in managing and administering the relationship between the outsourcer and your company. Determine which staff, and software and hardware licenses and resources should/must go to the outsourcer for the relationship to be mutually successful.

4. Identify what is good and bad about your current installation in terms of:

* service

* capability

* performance

* uptime

* costs

* user satisfaction

* backlog

* on-time

* on-target systems delivery

* controls, etc.

Then assess each strength and weaknesses such as budget constraints, changing needs of internal users, top management commitment, resistance to change, lack of tools and human resources, staff development and ability to attract and retain quality staff, lack of methodology, hardware technology limitations, platform limitations, etc. Quantify and identify which are essential items and service levels and which components should be added, improved and attained in the outsourcing arrangement. Go for the “good enough” systems and targets that are attainable, affordable and of necessary quality.

5. Update the company’s strategic business plan. The typical outsourcing agreement would cover a period of 7-10 years. You should make it a point that you know where your company is going locally and globally in terms of products, markets, manufacturing, sources of supply, distribution arrangements, labor sources, etc., before you develop the systems plan to be able to support such direction and needs.

6. Develop a 7 to 10-year strategic systems plan to identify the long-term needs of the company that translate into the strategic business plan. Also, ascertain the new applications that will be required such as electronic data interchange, integrated manufacturing and production control using robots and automated “smart” buildings, international telecommunication networks, “intranets”, etc., which applications will be updated, which and when it will be discontinued, and which will be developed from the modified new applications software.

7. Identify the alternative hardware and operating systems alternatives and find out the recommended new architecture(s) needed to develop and support the new systems plan. This includes satellite communications, wide area networks, wireless communications, mainframe and client-server usage and inter-connect, specific operating systems, open-architecture decisions, database and programming language decisions, special development and maintenance tools, etc.

8. Understand your cost structure and determine/estimate future costs to build the projects outlined in the strategic systems and architecture plans developed mentioned in steps 6 and 7 above, including estimates of manpower and supporting hardware and software and equipment to aid you in building, upgrading, maintaining, operating, and controlling such systems. You should also recognize that over the next 5-10 years there is a need to estimate all relevant capital as well as operating costs; costs of supervising the outsourcer, likely increases in costs for salaries, benefits, service contracts, etc.; “cost of money”; interest costs; residual value of equipment and facilities; cost of transition, including personnel; cost of changes in direction and level of resources; cost of contract modification, etc. it is important to note that this is the most difficult task so you should be able to utilize your expert team for guidance and confirmation.

9. Identify your current and anticipated usage: normal operations, expanded operations over time, peak periods, off-site processing, storage, archive, integrations requirements, back up and disaster recovery requirements, etc.

10. Review the strengths and weaknesses of the outsourcing alternative. Establish how the outsourcing alternative will aid your company meet its long term goals and why it is a better alternative than staying in-house or partial outsourcing or working with multiple outsourcers. Determine which applications and resources should be outsourced and which to pursue using a different approach. Update this information and re-evaluate the decision throughout the entire decision-making process as new or better information is gained.

11. Using your expert team, identify several outsourcing alternatives. Get hold of the appropriate literature of relevant information from the team’s pre-selected short list of outsourcers. This should cover all of the technical and administrative things you will need to know about your outsourcer, you will also need to know in depth: corporate history and stability; current, new and lost customers; employee numbers, turnover, and experience levels; financial stability through a review of audited financials and footnotes; technological status including methodologies, tools, platforms, expected life of existing hardware; age of current applications; their own business and systems plan; downtime statistics; results of operational and security audits; customer surveys and systems demonstrations (both are critical and must be well planned); conversion commitment success/history (a must if you want your business to prosper); such intangibles as responsiveness, control, competition for resources, flexibility, etc.

12. Determine which areas of your company you would like to outsource. Identify a phased-in approach for outsourcing services if that is the desired method.

Services can be selected for virtually any part of your Information System areas including:

* All activities in a specified area (with only listed exceptions) vs. defined tasks

* Applications software

* Audit trails

* Backup procedures for programs, data, etc.

* Communications equipment, software, and interfaces

* Compliance with applicable laws

* Consulting services

* Daily and periodic processing and reports (accuracy; timeliness; formats)

* Data and program security

* Data conversion

* Data entry

* Development of new programs and systems

* Disaster recovery capabilities

* Equipment

* Help Desk

* Live system operation, management, and control

* Maintenance

* PC installation of hardware, software, and modifications

* PC service

* Personnel

* Physical security

* Pickup and delivery

* Provision of facilities, utilities, etc.

* Responsibility for troubleshooting

* Systems integration

* Systems software, tools, etc.

13. Develop a rigorous request for proposal (RFP) with a uniform format for you to be able to compare such responses from other outsourcers. Their answers to pricing should be simplified so that you can readily understand which are essential or basic services and which are add-ons. Pricing can take on many forms and that the different services may be priced differently or in alternative combinations to your advantage such as flat monthly fees; transaction volume-based fees; fees based upon a customer unit of volume (i.e., number of customers, accounts, credit cards); fees based upon CPU usage required to execute your jobs; fees based upon the number of input or output transactions or both; fees based upon the amount of disk storage or other storage requirements; programming fees. Those may be different from enhancements, new developments, special reports, or rush jobs; data communication line charges; disaster recovery rates; training and seminar fees; consulting fees; documentation charges; conversion fees; etc.

Identify some key clauses that you would like to be integrated in the contract so that you may be able to win some concessions on these during the bidding phase and so that you can determine the sticking points early.

Identify Acceptance Criteria for outsourcer bids and for systems and service acceptance throughout the validity of the contract: the accuracy, frequency, and timing of reports and information; response time for on-line transactions; uptime of the systems or the various components; emergency procedures in the event of downtime or other disruption of services; responsiveness of outsourcer personnel in the event of problems or errors; data archiving; access security; ease of use; unit, string, systems, and acceptance testing methodologies to be used; systems development methodologies and user participation and signoff points; usage of data query, parameter-driven, fourth and fifth generation languages in programs; user of upper- and lower-CASE tools, client-server architecture, and object oriented approaches; etc.

14. Invite bidders to a bidders’ conference at your site and individually take the bidders into a tour of your site. Let your top management and the Steering Committee meet with the outsourcing representatives for at least an hour during the tour. This should set the tone and demonstrate the importance and visibility of the study and resulting relationship. This can be very important if your top management would need to meet the outsourcer’s top management in the future.

15. Evaluate proposals against your pre-established, and fully documented, criteria. Identify different approaches recommended by the outsourcer and compare it from your own research and preliminary conclusions. Be receptive to suggestions but be careful in analyzing the differences. Have a debriefing with the outsourcers for you to be able to discuss alternatives and to clarify proposals.

16. Rank proposals so that you have a backup vendor. This is essential in case negotiations break down with your preferred vendor. This can also give you the confidence to negotiate with the vendors in a tough but fair manner. Identify absolutely necessary criteria early. If the outsourcer does not meet the minimum criteria they should be asked to clarify their proposal or drop them from the list.

17. Checking references is a critical part of the evaluation and comparison of outsourcers. This is very important. You should visit their other customers as well. Review their status reports on key projects and contracts if possible. Don’t underestimate the experiences of the other customers and assume that you will gain a different result.

18. Negotiate the contract using your expert team and using pre-determined target clauses, criteria, and escalating alternative dispute resolution (ADR) options to keep the outsourcing agreement and relationship in line with your mutual objectives and be beneficial to both parties.

Consider and develop a strategy for at least each of the following contract areas:

* scope of responsibilities and services;

* third-party services;

* project managers;

* project development standards and acceptance;

* project timetables and milestones;

* progress reports and meetings;

* problem resolution and escalation of differences;

* acquisition of systems and facilities;

* interim acceptance testing;

* final acceptance testing;

* service warranty;

* proprietary rights cross indemnity;

* documentation;

* training;

* fees;

* change orders;

* personnel;

* company’s proprietary rights;

* exceptions;

* physical security and backup;

* customer access and copying rights;

* termination;

* general provisions including taxes, insurance, most favored provisions;

* force majeure, severability, right to offset, transfer of software licenses;

* ownership of developed software;

* specific concrete definitions and scenarios for those things with multiple interpretations

19. Monitor, manage, modify, and steer the outsourcer and the contract as required over time. Give three-month report cards to the management of the outsourcer. Update and change the contract over time to continue to assure that your needs and, hopefully, the mutual needs of the outsourcer continuously being met.

20. Be Lucky: Ben Rosen, a legendary high-tech venture capitalist who invested almost first in Apple and in Compaq and made it big, said in a speech a few years back that you must “be lucky” in these kinds of long term relationships in uncertain times.