Panduit, IT and network solutions provider and the global leader in Unified Physical Infrastructure (UPI) solutions, has opened a new Customer Briefing Centre (CBC) at 6 Broad Street Place in London. The firm is a world-class developer and provider of leading-edge IT and network solutions that help customers optimize the physical infrastructure through simplification, agility and operational efficiency. They also have Customer Briefing Centres in Paris, Frankfurt and Chicago.

The new headquarters in London will house a working demonstration data centre to showcase the firm’s latest UPI solutions, which help businesses to connect, manage and automate networks and communications. Kenny Presly, UK and Ireland Area Manager at Panduit, said: "This is a very exciting development for us, it’s the first time that UK customers can see first-hand how our world class technology can easily improve operational efficiencies.

"Visitors can view Panduit’s Net-Access cabinets containing high density patching and cable management solutions and passive cooling systems such as the Net-Access server cabinet cooling door and the Cool Boot raised floor air sealing grommets. All these solutions help reduce cooling systems power requirements by managing warm air away from active equipment and will significantly reduce energy bills."

The data centre is also home to the QuickNet cabling system, a custom-made pre-terminated cabling solution which meets unique structured cabling requirements. "Installation of QuickNet not only produces much less waste packaging than conventional components," said Presly, "but also saves up to 75 per cent on installation time. It’s a win-win solution."

Leading analyst firm Gartner has named Accenture the 2009 western Europe leader in market share and revenue in three key solution categories: operations system support, billing systems support and service delivery platform.

Gartner released this ranking in a report entitled "Market Share: Telecom Operations Management Systems (BSS, OSS and SDP), EMEA, 2007-2009," authored by Martina Kurth, Kamlesh Bhatia and Norbert Scholz, 30 April 2010. The report ranks the top 50 telecom operations management system vendors in western Europe, with an emphasis on business systems support, operations systems support, and service delivery platform.

Accenture’s award-winning SDP solution utilizes Web 2.0 technology to promote the ultimate open and collaborative environment for providing the infrastructure and common business functions that can drive high performance. It helps providers to create, deliver and manage a wide range of products and services for consumers and enterprises more quickly, and at lower cost and risk.

"BSS, OSS, and SDP will continue to be the heart of any communications providers operations, providing the critical foundation for new, high-speed broadband networks, which are enabling a broader range of innovative services and content," said Angelo Morelli, Global Executive Director, New Product Development and Innovation, Accenture’s Communications and High Tech Group. "Today, traditional providers are working to transform their operations and platforms to serve consumers' emerging needs and preferences, while new providers are jockeying for position to become the new providers of choice"

Key consulting technologies that Accenture provides include:

Converged billing systems, designed to enable providers to address the increasing complexity of pricing models and revenue sharing to support new products and services roadmaps which require more real-time integration with the network, service platforms, and marketing;

Workforce management solutions that enable organizations to increase productivity, market share, and shareholder value by ensuring that they have the right people, with the right skills in the right role;

SDP, which delivers a common way to create, provision, and execute multiple service types across different types of networks, and data center operations processing and hosting;

Provisioning and activation solutions, which provide communications companies with end-to-end service fulfillment capabilities, including order entry, service and network design and provisioning, third-party provisioning, service test and activation and customer-facing order management; and

Inventory management solutions, which help companies track and manage their telecom assets through a central repository of all fixed and wireless, and voice and data networking assets across the service providers. Obtaining an accurate view of the network assets and services deployed by the service providers is particularly critical for optimized telco operations, from network design and build to capacity planning, service creation, provisioning and service assurance.

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Accenture, global management and technology consulting firm, has announced the aquisition of Acceria, a company that specializes in providing business processes and methodologies dedicated to the after-sales operations of industrial companies. The companies did not disclose the terms of the agreement.

The acquisition includes Acceria's employees and assets which provide innovative business solutions intended to help companies improve and sustain after-sales performance. With this acquisition, Accenture aims to strenghten its operations on the automotive and industrial manufacturing market as well as its capabilities in management consulting.

Sergio Colella, managing director of Accenture’s Industrial Equipment group, said, "For successful after-sales operations in a competitive market environment, optimizing a company’s product and service portfolio and its pricing strategy is key. Acceria’s after-sales expertise, industrialized assets and innovative solutions can help automotive and industrial manufacturing companies improve after-sales revenues. This acquisition is designed to accelerate Accenture’s expansion into the automotive and industrial marketplace."

"We are excited to be combining our business with Accenture’s consulting expertise and global reach," said Laurent Boutboul, CEO of Acceria. "We are confident that together we will make a significant impact on the after-sales operations of companies in the automotive and industrial manufacturing sector, which should enable Accenture clients to set strategies that grow their businesses and allow for rapid return on investment."

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Enterprise applications software company Deltek, Inc. has completed its tender offer to acquire Maconomy A/S, European ERP provider. With this offer, Deltek is acquiring approximately 94 percent of the company's outstanding shares at the price of DKK 20.50 per share, hoping to acquire the remaining shares in the course of the coming weeks.

"We are thrilled to be part of Deltek," said Hugo Dorph, CEO of Maconomy. "Deltek and Maconomy are a great synergistic fit, and for years we have both been focused on improving business performance for project-focused organizations around the world with specialized solutions and technology. Now, Maconomy is aligned with an organization that can accelerate our growth objectives and introduce our innovative solutions to more customers. I look forward to working with the entire Deltek team as we work together as one organization to deliver world-class solutions to leading professional services firms around the globe."

"On behalf of the entire Deltek organization, I want to welcome the Maconomy customers and employees into the Deltek family," said Kevin Parker, President and CEO of Deltek. "Acquiring Maconomy is a game-changing move for our organization in many ways. It greatly extends our reach into Europe, broadens our portfolio of solutions to additional professional services segments, and adds new cutting-edge resource management capabilities that are applicable across the entire Deltek customer base -- including government contracting. With more than 45 years of combined research and development in our software solutions and decades of knowledge obtained from powering the world's most dynamic professional services firms, our new organization stands alone in the marketplace as the true global enterprise applications leader serving project-focused businesses."

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Deltek and Maconomy are an excellent strategic fit, and the combination pairs two leaders in their respective markets. The combined company has unmatched domain expertise in the professional services market with close to 13,000 customers worldwide, as well as immense geographic reach across the world. It serves all major segments within the professional services vertical market, including architecture & engineering, advertising, public relations, accounting, management and IT consulting, and legal. The combined organization has a prominent market position and has an unmatched list of project-based customers, including:

• 80% of the Engineering News Record Top 500 Design Firms
• Approximately 80% of the 2009 ZweigWhite Top 200 fastest-growing Architecture, Engineering and Environmental consulting firms
• Four of the five largest Global Accounting and Consulting firms
• The world's three largest Marketing Communications Networks
• Approximately 90% of the Top 100 U.S. Federal Contractors

Deloitte has released the results of its 2010 security survey, entitled "The Faceless Threat," for which the consultancy's global financial services team surveyed senior information technology executives at more than 350 major financial institutions earlier this year.

The results show that senior security executives at the world's largest financial institutions are making investments in identity and access management tools their top security initiative this year. 44 percent of the executives surveyed cited this as their number one priority. 56 percent of the respondents said that their information security budget has increased.

Adel Melek, DTT Enterprise Risk Services, Global Financial Services Industry Leader, explained, "Institutions are far less confident that traditional controls will protect them, and with good reason. In the early days of information security, access control performed the function of a gatekeeper, essentially keeping the bad guys out. But it has now evolved far beyond that, especially in terms of more sophisticated levels of access, better access control reporting, and the ability to track what events took place, when, and by whom. Today, many organizations realize that simply entering a user ID and password is no longer adequate, especially for customers and business partners."

"Organizations are starting to recognize the importance of the information security function to business," he added. "The increasing sophistication of faceless threats, the change in the threat agents and players, and the decreasing level of competence required to pose a threat due to the availability of fraud tools on the Internet are all factors that have caused financial services organizations to evolve their security practices in many areas. The security environment is undergoing a metamorphosis."

Additional findings of the survey:

• Data loss prevention has taken on greater urgency: Data loss is caused by an intended or unintended action on the part of an organization’s people. When asked to characterize their ability to thwart internal breaches, only 34 percent of respondents are “very confident”; however, that response rises to 56 percent when respondents are asked about their ability to thwart external breaches. Respondents indicate that, in addition to encryption, data loss prevention will be the most piloted technology in the next 12 months.
• Regulatory compliance is a key priority for financial institutions: Financial institutions are clearly expecting more regulatory pressure. Respondents to the survey include regulatory and legislative compliance as one of their top five initiatives and are hiring more internal auditors to resolve internal and external audit findings in preparation.
• Business alignment is still lacking: While 87 percent of respondents either have, or plan to have, a security strategy within the next 12 months, respondents reveal that security functions do not get input or involvement from the lines of business when the strategy is being developed; this indicates that strategy development tends to be driven by the security function rather than driven by business goals. Given this, as well as increased spending, the security function must now be prepared to demonstrate ROI to further cement this trend as well.
• Insurers are ahead of banks in planning to tackle certain security initiatives: For the first time, Deloitte’s survey breaks out sector-based comparisons. While banks appear to have a stronger security posture than other financial services institutions, insurers are quickly catching up. Of key 2010 priorities, insurers have a bigger appetite for identity and access management (a priority by 51 percent of insurance organizations and only 44 percent of banks) and data loss prevention technologies (32 percent versus 25 percent).
• For the first time, organizations appear eager to embrace emerging technologies to combat threats: Organizations are now proactively embracing new technologies as “early majority adopters,” where, in the past, they were content to be “late adopters.”

Wipro Infotech, the subsidiary of Wipro Ltd and IT services & business transformation leader in India and the Middle East, has announced that Pink Elephant has certified its eHelpline tool, an integrated ITSM solution offered as a suite of service management applications, which helps automate business workflow and integration to service desk applications.

With the certification, eHelpline version 3.0 becomes the first ITSM tool from the Asia-Pacific region to be successfully assessed for PINK Verify 3.1 for the 3 key processes Incident Management (IM), Problem Management (PM) and Change Management (CM) by the Pink Elephant corporation for its adherence to ITIL V3 standards, capabilities for its automation and documentation standards. eHelpline has also been successfully assessed for the Bronze level OGC SWIRL (Office of government of Commerce U.K) Certificate by APM Group. It is also among the first 5 ITSM products that are currently certified on the latest PINK Verify 3.1 toolset.

Pink Certification for eHelpline 3.0 means the tool is in compliance with all the ITIL V3 norms, methodologies and recommendations. eHelpline has also been assessed for capabilities on automation and user documentation for getting certified on OGC Swirl an ITIL body. With this prestigious certification, eHelpline 3.0 would be positioned along with the leading ITSM tools in the market.

“Over 150 customers are serviced by Wipro’s homegrown eHelpline tool. This is indeed an important milestone for us and reiterates our commitment to provide our customers IT best practices that are recognized globally,” said Mr. Ramkumar Balasubramanian, General Manager - Practice & Business Development, Manage IT, Wipro Infotech.

Pink Elephant is the world’s leading consulting and training provider in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices framework. It is recognized as an ITIL Licensed Software Assessor by the APM group. With more than a decade of experience in independent tool assessment, PinkVerify is the most mature and rigorous tool certification program in the world that objectively assesses a software tool’s enabling applications against the definitions and workflow requirements of the following ITSM processes.

Infosys BPO, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, today announced that it has been awarded the 5-star rating for energy efficiency by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) for its building located in its Phase 2 campus in Hinjewadi, Pune, India. The rating is under the "Star rating for BPO buildings" scheme of BEE that rates office buildings in India from which BPO services are rendered on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, where a 5-star rating signifies being the most energy efficient. The rating is valid for a period of five years.

The eligibility criteria included the overall energy usage efficiency and minimization of operation costs of the BPO building. The 5-star rating was an outcome of using higher efficiency products that enabled reduction in the energy consumption in the building. The building spans a total area of 25,577 square metres and the annual energy consumption is approximately 2406199 kWh.

Commenting on the rating, (Swami) Swaminathan, CEO & MD, Infosys BPO, said, "We are delighted to have received this prestigious rating. Obtaining the BEE 5-star rating highlights our commitment towards energy efficiency. We continue to focus on designing world-class green buildings with energy efficient designs, using solar heaters as well as efficient lighting systems. We are also focused on educating our employees to optimize energy consumption by shutting down computers and other electrical devices when not in use. We believe that these small steps can help address the larger concerns in India."

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency is a statutory body at the national level and functions under the Ministry of Power, Government of India. The organization has launched the "Star rating for BPO buildings" scheme to recognize energy conservation and efficiency of office buildings.

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited, and Oracle, announced today the launch of a co-developed solution, a Process Integration Pack (PIP) for the High Technology industry.

This solution is part of Wipro’s offerings that provide a comprehensive solution footprint for the High Technology industry. Wipro is one of the first partners to sign an agreement with Oracle to develop end-to-end industry process solutions in the Campaign-to -Cash business process. The development effort underscores Wipro’s thought leadership in Oracle applications-based services practice worldwide and is part of the collaboration initiatives between Oracle and Wipro, across high-technology.

The solution provides for optimization and accurate payment of commissions, thus enabling sales alignment to drive desired sales behaviors across industries. The solution allows increased efficiency of compensation management and can help reduce commission overpayments by 90%. The PIP integrates Oracle’s Siebel CRM and Oracle Incentive Compensation using Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA), offering enhanced commission visibility for sales representatives and channel partners.

“In today's environment, companies need to accelerate their Campaign-to-Cash cycle times to help protect margins and healthy revenues,” said Jonathan Oomrigar, Global Vice President, High Technology, Oracle.  “This Siebel CRM to Oracle Incentive Compensation co-developed PIP helps to automate the end-to-end Campaign-to-Cash process by integrating critical components of the Oracle portfolio. Wipro’s process capabilities and skills around Oracle applications combine to create this unique capability for the High Technology Industry.”

“Wipro is excited to work with Oracle and we look forward to leveraging this partnership and global reach in the High-Technology industry to tackle the industry’s challenges of customer acquisition, retention and cross-sell”, said Pavan Goyal, Vice President, Computing, Peripherals and Consumer Electronics, Wipro Technologies. “The Campaign-to-Cash solution set provides a great platform for addressing these Industry challenges and leverages the best-of-breed functionality across the Oracle stack.”

NetSuite Inc., a vendor of cloud computing business management software suites, has entered into a strategic partnership with Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited. The partnership aims to set a new standard for cloud solutions expertise that large organizations worldwide can rely on for advancing their mission-critical business processes. The current scope of the partnership focuses on the Asia-Pacific market with future expansion planned for North America.

Echoing with current market demands, Wipro has been working on a number of strategic initiatives to empower its cloud computing capabilities. This new partnership with NetSuite is a part of a broader Wipro-level initiative to build a leadership position in providing, implementing and supporting application development on Cloud and SaaS platforms.

"As we progress in an era of virtualization, where the emphasis is on helping companies achieve the most efficient and lowest cost infrastructure, cloud computing resounds as an inevitable and highly attractive option," said Sangita Singh, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Application Services, Wipro Technologies. "This partnership, which combines Wipro's IT and business process expertise with NetSuite's deep functionality in cloud business applications, has the potential to be a game-changer for organizations that demand guaranteed customer satisfaction when it comes to mission-critical business functionality in the cloud."

"As large organizations move mission-critical business processes to the cloud, partnerships between global IT services leaders like Wipro and technology leaders such as NetSuite are essential," said Zach Nelson, NetSuite CEO. "This landmark partnership shows the unstoppable momentum of IT infrastructure moving to the cloud."

Nearly three-quarters of organizations believe they have adequate policies in place to protect sensitive, personal information, yet more than half have lost sensitive data within the past two years — and nearly 60 percent of those organizations acknowledge data loss as a recurring problem, according to findings of a global study released today by Accenture.

The study — which surveyed more than 5,500 business leaders and 15,500 adult consumers in 19 countries — reveals a startling difference between organizations’ intentions regarding data privacy and how they actually protect sensitive personal information, such as name, address, date of birth, race, National ID/social security number and medical history.  The study was conducted in conjunction with the Ponemon Institute, an independent privacy, protection and information security research firm.

“The volume of sensitive personal information being collected and shared by organizations has grown exponentially in recent years, making data protection a critical business issue and not just a technology concern,” said Alastair MacWillson, managing director of Accenture’s Security practice. “Our study underscores the importance of taking a comprehensive approach to data privacy and protection, one that closes the gaps between business strategy, risk management, compliance reporting and IT security.”

Global business findings

Fifty-eight (58) percent of business respondents have experienced at least one data security breach over the past two years, yet 73 percent said their organization has adequate policies to protect the personally identifiable information it maintains.

While 70 percent agreed that organizations have an obligation to take reasonable steps to secure consumers’ personal information, there are discrepancies in their commitments for doing so:

• Forty-five (45) percent of respondents were unsure about or actively disagreed with granting customers the right to control the type of information that is collected about them.
• Forty-seven (47) percent were unsure about or disagreed with customers having a right to control how this information is used.
• Nearly half also did not believe it was important or very important to: limit the collection (47 percent) or sharing (46 percent) of sensitive personal customer information; protect consumer privacy rights (47 percent); prevent cross-border transfers of personal information to countries with inadequate privacy laws (47 percent); prevent cyber crimes against consumers (48 percent); or prevent data loss or theft (47 percent).

The study revealed that the biggest causes of data loss are internal — problems presumably well within an organization’s ability to detect and correct. For instance, business or system failure (57 percent) and employee negligence or errors (48 percent) were cited most often as the source of the breaches; cyber crime was cited as a cause of only 18 percent of security breaches.

While many organizations believe that complying with existing regulations is sufficient, it appears that compliance alone may not be enough to protect sensitive data.  For instance, 70 percent of respondents said they regularly monitor privacy and data protection regulatory compliance requirements, yet data breaches have occurred in 58 percent of organizations polled.

The study also identified significant differences in terms of attitudes and policies regarding data privacy and protection between organizations that had not experienced any data-security breach in the past two years and those that had.  Specifically, respondents in organizations that did not have a data-security breach:

• were more likely to know where personal information on customers and employees resides within their organization’s IT enterprise (75 percent versus 66 percent); and
• were more likely to feel an obligation to control who has access to personal data (72 percent versus 60 percent).

Global consumer findings

More than two-thirds (70 percent) of consumers surveyed around the world believe that privacy of their personal information is important or very important, yet 42 percent are skeptical that organizations are doing enough to adequately protect the personally identifiable information they have shared, revealing an overall lack of trust.

The study suggests that while consumers want to ‘own’ their personal information, they feel organizations have a responsibility for managing and protecting it.  For instance:

• Fifty-three (53) percent of consumers said they believe they have the right to control how their personal information is used. The same percentage said they believe they have a right to access and review the data collected and used by organizations.
• When asked who has the most responsibility for ensuring that information is adequately protected, 41 percent of consumer respondents said the government, 21 percent said companies, 19 percent said the individual, and 20 percent said it should be a shared effort.

 “The findings reinforce the critical role that data privacy plays in maintaining trust between organizations and their consumer and business customers,” said Bojana Bellamy, Accenture’s director of Data Privacy and vice president of the International Association of PrivacyProfessionals. “A proactive approach to data protection and privacy can not only help organizations avoid fines for non-compliance but, even more importantly, can help avoid breaches that can alienate customers and destroy brand credibility.”