Permanent Residence Movie

Synopsis

The second film from the producer/screenwriter/co-director of City Without Baseball takes the Hong Kong gay film into even bolder territory. It explores in complete abandon and full nudity the life story of a young man who pursues an impossible love with his straight boyfriend and who contemplates on the mortality of his loved ones. Remaining independent, yet extravagantly shot in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Thailand, Australia and Israel under the confident cinematography of veteran Herman Yau, Permanent Residence exudes a deep understanding and sensibility towards the important issues involved in loving, living and dying.

Director : Scud
Cast : Sean Li, Osman Hung, Jackie chow, Lau Yu Hong

Drifting Flower Movie

Synopsis

Taiwanese director Zero Chou (Spider Lilies) offers up three subtle, interwoven lesbian tales of the lost and found nature of love. The first segment opens with a fragile domestic bliss cobbled together by Jing, and her younger sister Meigo. Butch accordionist Chalkie upsets the balance by falling for Jing and inspiring Meigo’s first big crush. The middle story belongs to Lily, a patient endlessly searching in her disintegrating memory for her lost lover. The final segment follows Chalkie, coming of age with best pal and coming to terms with her repulsion at her own budding body and her complicated feelings for girls. Selected by the Berlin International Film Festival, HKIFF and Tokyo Int’l Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

Director : Zero Chou
Cast : Serena Fang, Chao Yi Lan, Lu Yi-Ching, Sam Wang

Candy Rain Movie

Synopsis

Some people are happy together. Some people are happier when they are not together. Some people are unhappy because they can’t be together. And some will never by happy even if they are together.Based on true stories, CANDY RAIN tells four intimate, lyrical stories of women in love with women in contemporary Taipei.
Having broken up with her boyfriend and quarreled with her family, Jessie decided to restart her life in Taipei. Her highschool friend and secret admirer-Pon, told her, “I’ll take care of you.” U is an Aries. She protects herself well. She has been looking for the ideal love but she doesn’t know where it is. Spancer is in love with Summer, who is getting married. Before saying goodbye, they promise a reunion in 10 years’ time. Ricky’s relationships are always filled with violence. Like fireworks, magnificent but short. For Ricky, It’s a vicious cycle.

Director : Hung-I Chen
Cast : Karena Lam, Cyndi Wang

IBM Signs 10-Year IT Outsourcing Agreement With Kurmanchal Bank in India

IBM announced that it has signed a 10-year information technology (IT) outsourcing agreement with Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank Ltd, one of the leading urban co-operative banks in the state of Uttarakhand in India. As part of the agreement, IBM will remotely host and manage the IT infrastructure, manage the disaster recovery site and provide the networking infrastructure for the bank. This will help the bank focus on its aggressive expansion plans while reducing its capital expenditure on IT by as much as 60%.

Signed in 1Q 2009, this agreement is first-of-a-kind for IBM in Uttarakhand and follows its success with other co-operative banks in different parts of the country. IBM is aggressively increasing its focus on the small and medium businesses in India.

Established 25 years ago, Kurmanchal Bank plans to expand its banking network from 17 existing branches to nearly 35 over the next two years. As part of its expansion strategy it also acquired another co-operative bank last year. The bank is now looking at rolling out core-banking solution along with offerings like Internet banking, mobile banking and ATM facilities to its customers. The end-to-end managed services provided by IBM will greatly reduce the burden of upfront capital expenditure for the bank as the agreement allows it to spend in an operational expenditure model over a 10-year period.

"Customer-friendly approach, product innovation and rapid technology adoption have been some of the core strengths of the bank," said Mr. Manoj Sah, CEO, Kurmanchal Bank. "We are delighted with our partnership with IBM, the world's leading IT services company. We believe their technology expertise and focus on delivering cost-efficient solutions will help us achieve our growth strategy and higher levels of customer satisfaction."

Nipun Mehrotra, Vice President and General Manager, Global Technology Services, IBM India/South Asia, remarked, "With businesses across India sharpening their focus on cost-efficiency in these challenging times, IBM has once again proved its partnership value for small and mid-sized customers. We are excited about our relationship with Kurmanchal Bank to offer managed services that will help them reduce their upfront IT expenditure. The fact that the bank decided to enter into a 10-year long agreement further reiterates the trust clients -- big or small -- put in IBM's capabilities."

Through this agreement, IBM will host and manage Kurmanchal Bank's entire IT infrastructure from its data center in Bangalore as well as providing backup and replication services to the bank's Disaster Recovery site in Nainital.

About Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank

Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank is a licensed urban co-operative bank having 17 branches in the state of Uttarakhand. The bank which completed 25 years of operations in 2008 has over 150,000 customers with Rs 414.85 crore in deposits as of December 2008. In 2007, the Bank acquired the ailing Doon Valley Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd and despite absorbing the inherent losses, offered a healthy 20% dividend payout.

CEA/Leti and IBM to Collaborate on Future Nanoelectronics Technology

CEA/Leti (the Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory of the CEA, based in Grenoble), and IBM today announced that they will collaborate on research in semiconductor and nanoelectronics technology.

This five-year agreement is focused on advanced materials, devices and processes for the development of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology for the production of microprocessors and integrated circuits at 22nm and beyond.

With this agreement, CEA/Leti becomes a research associate of IBM and IBM’s semiconductor Joint Development Alliance ecosystem centered in Albany, N.Y. CEA/Leti will reinforce this ecosystem through its specific expertise in low-power CMOS (such as SOI technologies), in e-beam lithography and in nanoscale characterization and modelling. This agreement strengthens the links between the IBM and Crolles-Grenoble ecosystems, following STMicroelectronics’ decision to join the IBM Alliance in 2007, for the development of core CMOS and value-added application-specific derivative technologies and industrialization of these processes.

“Due to increasing complexity, CMOS technologies can only be developed through global alliances. CEA/Leti chose to partner with IBM since its alliance directly benefits companies with strong industrial activity based in Europe,” said Laurent Malier, General Manager of CEA/Leti. “With 22 and 16nm nodes ahead of us, many challenges remain to be tackled and we are strongly committed to speeding up the advent of the best options for these technologies”.

“This agreement reinforces the IBM ecosystem of leading companies and research organizations who are working together to achieve significant advances in semiconductor and nanoelectronics technology,” said Scottie Ginn, vice president, IBM design enablement and packaging. “This unique model of collaborative development can help accelerate the production of more powerful and energy efficient chips for next-generation computers, consumer electronics and mobile devices.”

Complementary expertise

This collaboration will focus on three key areas:

* Advanced lithography for fast prototyping and 22nm chip technology

* CMOS technologies and low-power devices for 22nm chip technology and beyond

* Technology enablement, including innovative nanoscale characterization techniques for research and for the monitoring of manufacturing protocols

This development work will bring complementary expertise to the IBM Research Alliance. Research work will be carried out on CEA/Leti’s 300mm silicon platform in Grenoble, as well as at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering of the University at Albany, N.Y., STMicroelectronics’ facility in Crolles, and IBM’s 300mm fab in East Fishkill, N.Y. A team from CEA/Leti will be assigned to work on the program at Albany Nanotech.

"We are very pleased with this agreement between CEA/Leti and IBM. It is within the logic of overall cooperation and it represents an important step for the development of advanced processes which are necessary for the implementation of the core CMOS and value-added applications specific derivative technologies at our Crolles site," added Jean-Marc Chery, executive vice president, chief technology officer, STMicroelectronics.

This agreement reinforces CEA/Leti’s role as a supporter of the European microelectronics industry, as the results of this cooperation will benefit European partners of the IBM Alliance as well as the users of the alliance technology.

“A company’s competitiveness depends on innovation, which is why IBM enters into partnerships with industry leading companies and laboratories to jointly take on the challenge of developing the technologies of the future,” said Daniel Chaffraix, country general manager, IBM France. “Partnerships between public and private research teams can dramatically spur projects, rapidly transforming the results of researchers into benefits that improve our daily lives."

About CEA/Leti:

CEA is a French public research and technology organisation, with activities in three main areas: Energy, Technologies for Information and Healthcare, and Defence and Security. Within CEA, the Laboratory for Electronics & Information Technology (Leti) works with companies in order to increase their competitiveness through technological innovation and transfers. Leti is focused on micro and nanotechnologies and their applications, from wireless devices and systems, to biology and healthcare or photonics. Nanoelectronics and Microsystems (MEMS) are at the core of its activities. As a major player in MINATEC excellence centre, Leti operates 8,000 m² state-of-the-art clean rooms, on 24/7 mode, on 200 mm and 300 mm wafer standards. With 1,200 employees, Leti trains more than 150 Ph.D. students and hosts 200 assignees from partner companies. Strongly committed to the creation of value for the industry, Leti puts a strong emphasis on Intellectual Property and owns more than 1,400 patent families. In 2008, contractual income covered more than 75% of its budget worth 205 M.

Sainsbury's to Transform Supply Chain With IBM

IBM announced it has signed a five-year agreement with Sainsbury's, to transform the retailer's supply chain network. IBM will help Sainsbury's further enhance its customer experience by implementing new systems which aim to heighten stock availability for customers.

The new IBM solution, which is based on the Wesupply network and visibility application, aims to provide an effective platform to help Sainsbury's and its approximately 4,000 suppliers find smarter ways of managing overall supply chain performance to support the continued growth of the business.

With large stores offering around 30,000 products, the IBM solution will allow Sainsbury's to monitor the status of orders across its entire network and manage the availability of products. The Wesupply service will allow information flows to be streamlined and greater visibility of real-time supply chain performance will be provided to heighten stock control.

"To support our continued growth, we were looking to enhance our collaboration with suppliers without a significant increase in cost, while continuing to introduce greater intelligence into our supply chain," explained Tim Goalen, of Sainsbury's. "With a thorough understanding of the solution and services required, and after a detailed review of the market, we chose the IBM and Wesupply solution."

IBM will provide business consulting services to manage the establishment, implementation and maintenance of the Wesupply services which are designed to meet the requirements of a large supplier network such as Sainsbury's. IBM will then manage the migration of suppliers onto the systems, providing Sainsbury's with enhanced communication across its network. As part of this migration, Sainsbury's will be transitioning its EDI VAN service to Inovis. With hundreds of Sainsbury's suppliers already using Inovisworks, the VAN service fits very well within the IBM solution.

"Visibility of stock and collaboration with suppliers are key aspects of Sainsbury's vision of success, making the transactional platform a critical element of their operation," said Justin Suter, Retail Supply Chain Leader, IBM Global Business Services. "Utilising its retail expertise IBM is committed to working with Sainsbury's to achieve this vision and develop smarter solutions that benefit the continued growth of its business."

"We're delighted to be part of the solution and providing Sainsbury's with the tools to enable increased visibility with suppliers," added Bob Godfrey, CEO, Wesupply.

IBM Awarded Seven-Year Services Contract by Sun Life Financial

IBM announced a seven-year agreement to manage select infrastructure and operational services in addition to the existing mainframe services for Sun Life Financial (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF) in Canada and the U.S. This transaction is valued at more than CDN$300 million over the seven-year term.

"IBM is focused on utilizing its people and business processes in support of Sun Life Financial's global growth strategy," said Saad Toma, general manager, Global Technology Services, IBM Canada. "Building on our strong historical delivery performance, our relationship is being extended further to provide new highly integrated, cost-effective and intelligent solutions to support Sun Life business goals."

This new agreement signed in March 2009 extends and expands upon a contract signed in 2002.

About Sun Life Financial

Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of protection and wealth accumulation products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Chartered in 1865, Sun Life Financial and its partners today have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China and Bermuda. As of December 31, 2008, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of $381 billion.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under ticker symbol SLF.

IBM Unveils Prototype of World's Fastest Financial Analysis System

IBM unveiled a revolutionary prototype of the world's fastest automated options trading system. During the project, scientists at IBM Research collaborated with TD Securities to achieve a 21 times performance improvement on the volume of data consumed by financial trading systems.

Financial services firms must rapidly, capture, process and find value in massive volumes of data in order to maximize client returns and minimize risk. Traditional business intelligence approaches -- which rely on capturing, organizing and then querying a fixed snapshot of data -- can no longer keep pace.

Through the combination of IBM's InfoSphere Streams -- a breakthrough software technology from IBM Research -- and IBM's Blue Gene/P supercomputer, the IBM Research team created a unique stream processing system ideally suited to meet and surpass the demands of the financial services industry. By enabling rapid, intelligent analysis of live streaming data from a practically unlimited number of sources, IBM delivered astoundingly low latency -- the time between when data is received and when it's acted upon -- far surpassing the performance of traditional trading systems.

"In the constantly evolving electronic marketplace, innovative technology solutions to better manage high volumes of real time information are a significant competitive edge," said Rizwan Khalfan, Chief Information Officer at TD Securities.

According to the Financial Information Forum, the combined options and equities traffic has exploded, doubling in size every year since 2003. The challenge to ingest, analyze and automatically act upon millions of messages every second is the difference between success and failure for automated trading systems. IBM's use of its unique stream computing architecture and Blue Gene allowed for significant enhancements to real-time messaging and analytical capabilities while offering a simplified, energy-efficient underlying infrastructure.

The collaboration with TD Securities is part of IBM's First-Of-A-Kind program (FOAK), which engages IBM's scientists with the company's clients to explore how emerging technologies could solve real world business problems. In this collaboration, IBM Research scientists worked with TD Securities to create a tailored, unique system through applying advanced and emerging technologies and new approaches.

"TD Securities could potentially use the new system to analyze and act on information before their competitors can finish ingesting and analyzing, effectively blinding the competition to its actions," said Nagui Halim, chief scientist of the Stream Computing Project at IBM. "We're not talking about 20 percent faster here. We're talking about 20 times faster," he added.

Today's exchange data rates challenge financial firms trading systems to process up to two million messages per second. The goal of any automated trading systems is to reduce the time between the receipt of market data messages and the decision, achieving a very low latency while processing extreme amounts of data. The more messages a system can process, the more decisions can be made; hence, the more valuable the system.

In testing, the system was found to be capable of handling data at 21 times the speed of Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA), the world's single largest market data feed, while maintaining ultra low end-to-end latencies.

IBM InfoSphere Streams

The IBM InfoSphere Streams computing platform offers low-latency, high-throughput analytics processing for the continuous streaming of heterogeneous data, and can scale seamlessly from a single server to thousands of general-purpose computational nodes and/or special-purpose computing architectures such as the IBM Blue Gene supercomputer. The stream processing core continually monitors and adapts to the state and utilization of its computing resources, the information needs expressed by users and the availability of data to meet those needs.

In financial services, where increasingly volatile trading conditions necessitate ever faster decisions, stream computing is a game-changing technology that enables traders to see clearly through a rising storm of data. By enabling financial services firms to absorb and understand vast quantities of live data from almost limitless sources, IBM's stream software can deliver clear competitive advantage in an increasingly fast-moving and interconnected world. Firms that can derive insight and build new models ahead of the news cycle and faster than the competition will achieve higher margins and faster time-to-market, using their intellectual property to drive competitive differentiation.

IBM Helps InSite One Tackle Explosion in Medical Imaging Data with Cloud Computing

InSite One, Inc., the largest cloud provider for medical image data archiving, storage, and disaster-recovery solutions in the U.S., today announced it has chosen IBM technologies to help hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies store and manage massive increases in medical imaging data. InSite One has chosen IBM as the vendor of choice for its primary datacenter expansion and storage device upgrades.

Under terms of the agreement, InSite One is purchasing IBM storage and servers in its primary data center in Connecticut. Over the next three-to-five years InSite One will also replace its existing storage and servers. The total amount of storage purchased will exceed 1 petabyte. The data center will use IBM System x Servers and DS3200 Storage systems.

IBM and InSite One will also collaborate on client enterprise storage and archiving opportunities where InSite One sells its services and IBM sells its storage and infrastructure solutions. The total value of the agreement is in excess of $15 million.

The world’s information infrastructure will soon be unable to handle the demand now being asked of it by the healthcare industry and others, including finance, retail and telecommunications. With the emergence of cloud computing – a model for delivering and consuming IT capabilities as a service – healthcare and other enterprises can gain competitive advantage through economies of scale in archiving, compliance, security and privacy, resiliency, systems integration and management of huge, constantly increasing amounts of data.

InSite One and IBM are well positioned to help healthcare and life sciences organizations manage the rapid growth in medical imaging data with technology that is scalable, secure and interoperable. Both companies support intelligent, open-standards-based technology that adheres to interoperable document sharing protocols endorsed by leading standards organizations such as DICOM, HL7, CIFS and XDS. InSite One’s InDex storage and content management services feature an on-demand repository that ensures rapid retrieval of clinical information for healthcare and life-sciences enterprises. The services span the legally required lifetimes of all images and provide a tamper-proof, HIPAA compliant environment.

Currently, the InDex Archive is averaging 15 terabytes of digital medical data on a weekly basis, with a total of more than 2.3 billion image objects, representing five percent of the U.S. patient population. This makes InDex the largest single medical storage service in the industry, with two petabytes of medical imaging date managed by InSite One.

“IBM delivers the storage capability and infrastructure that are necessary for the virtualization of clients’ datacenters,” said Paul Dandrow, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of InSite One. “IBM’s innovative technology combined with our InDex solutions allows InSite One to build datacenters that can seamlessly integrate new medical imaging innovations and constantly scale to accommodate future business demands.”

The technologies supporting cloud computing – virtualization, automation, Web-delivered services, open standards and Internet-scale computing – are some of IBM’s core capabilities. IBM runs more data centers than any other company in the world, and has strengthened its capabilities over recent years through acquisitions and first-of-a-kind projects with clients in its 13 cloud computing centers.

IBM and InSite One have already begun to collaborate on client enterprise storage requirements, where managed solutions can provide cost effective alternatives that address the need for data sharing and long-term retention and data protection. Available now from InSite One and IBM, the enhanced, open, secure and interoperable data archiving, storage and disaster recovery solutions set themselves apart from the competition.

The ability to share medical images on open-standards based infrastructure from IBM helps companies to preserve the qualities that differentiate their products and services while increasing their ability to share the value of their data over interoperable delivery platforms. Further, InSite One and IBM offerings are more cost effective for clients: they are based on the life of each individual radiology study as compared to per-gigabyte charges demanded by many competitors.

“Our collaboration with InSite One will lift the growing, cost-intensive burden of managing massively data-intensive medical image archives from the hospitals, health insurers and pharmaceutical companies,” said Dan Pelino, General Manager, IBM Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry. “The security and scalability of the open, advanced solutions offered by InSite One and IBM allows customers to grow beyond their walls and achieve their goals with expanded medical imaging capabilities and reduced operational and financial responsibilities for maintaining such data.”

About InSite One

InSite One, Inc. is the market leader for over a decade in storage management – as a centralized clinical data repository, and disaster recovery for any size enterprise’s medical imaging and related healthcare data. Driven by emerging technology incorporated into value-added partner reseller solutions, InSite One services define the data management and disaster recovery services solutions set for the diagnostic imaging market. The full spectrum of services provides seamless data migration, ongoing IT support, state-of-the-art hardware and software upgrades that keep pace with a site’s evolving needs without on-going capital investments.

IBM to Deliver Smart Solution for Fees Calculation to Prague Airport

IBM signed an implementation and four-year services contract with Prague Airport to deliver a specialized system IBM BlueSky to Prague Airport. It enables the Airport to collect and analyze information more efficiently to set the most suitable strategy for the calculation of airport fees and handling charges.

"The Prague Airport served more than 12.6 million travellers last year and it is our goal to increase the number every year. To achieve this we need effective and flexible support of ICT services," said Executive Director of ICT & Central Project Office of Prague Airport Vladimír Mekota. "The cooperation with IBM will enable us to increase airport operational efficiency and will provide quick access to important data in a real time."

IBM BlueSky is able to automatically generate records to calculate billing charges for the airport's services including: landing; noise; parking; airport usage by passengers; provisioning of airport facilities and resources for individual flights (such as departure and arrival bridges; check-in counters; buses and others) and special handling services. The IBM BlueSky solution has been successfully implemented at many major international airports around the world.

"IBM has a vision of the airport utilizing integrated information to maximize efficiency of its operations," said Vladek Slezingr, Global Business Services Leader IBM Czech Republic. "IBM BlueSky is an integrated, intelligent system providing the flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of airports and their customers."

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Has Extended Its Strategic Outsourcing Contract With IBM

IBM announced that Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance in Japan has extended its strategic outsourcing contract for an additional five years. As part of the agreement, IBM Japan will manage the operation and maintenance of the company's IBM mainframe systems.

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance has a business plan to become a world leading insurance and financial group by 2010 and advocates providing high-quality, competitive business services. To support this strategy, IBM Japan will help improve the quality of the information technology (IT) system, which is the foundation of the insurance group's operation.

IBM Japan was selected for the extended agreement based on its proven ability to improve IT management capabilities, quality of maintenance and reduce IT cost. Through the new contract, the outsourcing scope will be extended to include the operation and management of data processing. IBM will also enhance process automation and system efficiency to realize higher quality of operation and management services and improve service quality by using IBM's latest technologies.

The new agreement was signed in March 2009 and follows the original ten-year contract signed in August 1999.

IBM Green Data Center to Save Victoria University Thousands in Power Costs

IBM today announced that Victoria University has selected IBM to design and build the university's first green data center.

As a result of the green technology employed, Victoria University will be able to manage its increasing need for data management for the next decade, while expecting savings of up to $300,000 in power costs over the same period. In addition, the IBM solution will allow the University to achieve a 'single logical data center' across two physical sites underpinned by cost-effective design.

Stephen Weller, Victoria University's Pro Vice Chancellor - Students, said, "The University has 11 campuses and sites from the CBD across Melbourne's west, providing education to more than 45,000 students. The data center is critical to supplying educational services to all our students, as well as supporting the University's administrative functions. With the rapid growth in data, we needed to make sure that we stay ahead of the game, and so acquired a design and solution that would cater for our data center needs for the next 10 years -- including increased power, cooling, space, and floor load capacity."

The project involves IBM implementing a modular design approach to enable the University to minimize start-up energy demands from the existing site electrical supply. IBM will also employ an in-row cooling solution which offers targeted cooling at the heat load source, combined with free cooling chiller plant technology to leverage the favorable Melbourne climate. Smaller uninterruptible power supply (UPS) module sizes will be used to maximize the amount of usable power and UPS efficiency. This will all result in both substantial energy savings and the elimination of hot spots to provide an optimum equipment operating environment.

Energy efficiency is also important to the University. The solution is cost-effective to own and operate, with up to 45 percent less power consumption than a conventional design, potentially saving more than 300,000 kilowatts per year of energy.

"The IBM solution includes a high level of reliability, as the power and cooling systems have been designed for high availability and scalability with little or no downtime. Furthermore, the solution will help the University avoid more than 230 metric tons of CO2 carbon emissions per year," said Malcolm Mackay, IBM Australia Executive, Site and Facilities Services. "This agreement demonstrates the University's technical and environmental leadership."

The agreement was signed in March 2009.

About Victoria University

Victoria University (VU) is a multi-sector institution (Higher Education and TAFE) with excellence in teaching, training, research and scholarship. It offers short courses, as well as qualifications in vocational education (TAFE) and higher education. VU's learning pathways enable students to move from a certificate course through to an advanced diploma, degree, or postgraduate qualification by coursework or research. The university has more than 45,000 students enrolled at local campuses and international sites. It operates primarily at campuses in the western suburbs of Melbourne (Australia), within the Melbourne city center and locations provided by educational partners in Asia and Europe. As the primary university in Melbourne's western region, Victoria University delivers courses, research and engagement activities that are locally relevant and globally significant.

University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine Joins IBM to Build a Community-Wide Medical

The University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine and IBM announced today they will build a primary-care practice model that will meet President Obama's vision of an information-based, connected healthcare system. The project will begin at the physician's practice level and will include the digital health information technologies required to help doctors deliver coordinated and patient-centered care.

"All Oklahomans can be proud that, after looking at the qualifications of medical schools in the nation, IBM selected the University of Oklahoma as its partner," said OU President David Boren.

This new program, which marks IBM's first "medical home" pilot with a medical school, includes 355 physicians and connects clinical data from 11 different EMRs between hospitals, physician offices, local ambulances, fire departments and patients.

The U.S. Healthcare system faces many communications challenges. The average Medicare patient sees more than five different providers each year. This means that potentially critical clinical information is stored in five different sets of medical charts. Even if each of the doctors has an electronic medical record system, the data will remain locked in separate silos, preventing the providers from effectively coordinating patient care beyond the boundaries of their own practices.

Increasingly, physicians are seeking ways to efficiently and affordably jumpstart the use of interconnected and digitized healthcare systems to help them reform a fractured healthcare system. IBM and OU will produce a working model of an EMR-enabled medical home practice that can be adopted by health systems and primary care practices across the United States to provide patients with the personalized, information-based care needed to improve healthcare delivery.

IBM will bring to the collaboration its secure information-exchange technologies, electronic medical records (EMRs) enabled with patient-centered medical home (PCMH) processes, and electronic health record (EHR) portals for use by patients, physicians, caregivers and health insurers.

In addition, OU and IBM will also collaborate to design and implement new health analytics platforms to derive value from the clinical data contained in interconnected EMRs. The health analytics solutions will use IBM's open standards-based technology and will serve as a way to store, analyze and capitalize on OU's clinical, financial, operational, claims, genomic and other medical data.

"Our new relationship with OU reflects our deep commitment to drive comprehensive Healthcare reform through smarter healthcare solutions. Because OU stands committed to PCMH in its curriculum, research and practice, they make an ideal partner in our shared mission to build smarter healthcare systems," said Robert Merkel, IBM Healthcare Global Industry Leader. "We look forward to marrying OU's strengths in family medicine and medical home best practices with IBM's business transformation capabilities. By enabling information exchange and improving collaboration, we will empower physicians and patients to drive healthcare innovation within Oklahoma.and across our nation."

OU and IBM will also team in research projects to solve critical issues such as: the effects of human factors and technology upon each other in health care delivery settings; how patients can most efficiently communicate with their physicians; how patients can better manage their medical challenges using connected EMR technology; and how technology can strengthen the patient-doctor relationship. In addition to data management, data integration, patient privacy and patient safety will also be addressed in this research effort.

About the University of Oklahoma:

Thanks to a $50 million gift from the George Kaiser Family Foundation in February 2008, The OU College of Medicine at OU-Tulsa changed its focus and was renamed the OU School of Community Medicine. It is the first formally named School of Community Medicine in the nation. The OU School of Community Medicine's explicit purpose is to improve the overall health status of underserved communities, both rural and urban, by providing additional community-based medical student education programs and resident training, and to increase the number of physician graduates.

The City of Parma and IBM Cooperate to Develop a Smarter City

The city of Parma has entered into a strategic initiative with IBM with the aim of creating a Smart City. IBM consultants will serve on an Innovation Board to identify and design a new model for a sustainable city through a range of digital solutions.

Parma is a modern city, home to approximately 200,000 people, and famous for its culture, art and food. The city's management is planning citizen-focused innovations that will provide new "intelligence" for existing infrastructure to optimize resources, reduce traffic congestion, improve services to citizens and businesses and make the city smarter and more efficient.

Parma's strategy matches IBM's vision of a Smarter Planet, infusing intelligence into the world's systems, processes and infrastructure and providing a better quality of life for people living and working in a smart city. This means a systemic and open approach, with new intelligence through innovative IBM solutions designed with and for Parma.

"This strategic initiative, signed with IBM, allows us to create an Innovation Board," said Pietro Vignali, Parma Mayor. "This Board has the mission of finding innovative citizen services solutions leveraging new technologies: from info-mobility to security, to social services. We are the first town in Italy to engage in this initiative with IBM and this puts Parma in the network of Europe's most innovative capitals, like Stockholm and London."

Elsewhere, IBM is working with many other authorities on smarter systems. The cities of Singapore, Brisbane and Stockholm are all working to reduce both congestion and pollution through intelligent transport solutions.

In Malta, a new smart grid utilities system is being created and implemented by IBM to enable more efficient consumption of energy and water and completely transform the relationship between Maltese consumers and utilities suppliers.

These solutions, and many more, are making a real impact today -- the first step towards creating a true smart city.

"It is vital for the future that we transform our cities into accessible, dynamic, thriving communities," said Luciano Martucci, General Manager IBM Italy. "In cities like Parma, technology can make the local systems and infrastructure smarter and create benefits directly related toward improving the quality of life for all its citizens, in a cost-effective way."

Initial projects in Parma include a virtual teller in several locations around the city. Citizens will be able to interact with the municipality as if there were a municipal official in front of them, delivering and receiving documents and cheques, filling in and signing forms, and requesting support.

Parma is one of 6 Italian Cities which have agreed on a common protocol on IT innovation, and is the first to initiate the project.

Mayo Clinic and IBM Host Medical Language Initiative

Biomedical informatics researchers at Mayo Clinic and IBM today launched a Web site for the newly founded Open Health Natural Language Processing (NLP) Consortium. The consortium is establishing the open-source space to promote past and current development efforts, including participation in information extraction from electronic medical records.

As part of the launch, Mayo Clinic and IBM released their clinical NLP technologies into the public domain. The site http://www.ohnlp.org will allow the approximately 2,000 researchers and developers working on clinical language systems worldwide to contribute code and further develop the systems.

"We are inviting our international colleagues to help continue development of these valuable tools," says Christopher Chute, M.D., Dr.P.H., Mayo Clinic bioinformatics expert and senior consultant on the project. "By making it an open-source initiative, we hope to enable wide use of these NLP tools so medical advancements can happen faster and more efficiently."

"The recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act promises to accelerate the adoption of electronic medical records," said Dan Pelino, IBM's general manager, Global Healthcare & Life. "Because the success of such reform rides on delivering interconnected and intelligent information to health care professionals everywhere, Mayo and IBM are tapping into the collaborative power of the open-source community to speed the development of Natural Language Processing (NLP). Adoption of this technology will provide physicians with insights into each patient's condition, allowing them to electronically retrieve the exact knowledge they seek from patient health records rather than reading through every record provided, as they must do today." Patient privacy is a main concern and consideration; all current and any future required safeguards and regulations will be adhered to strictly.

NLP is a relatively new and specialized area within computer science dealing with computational methods for understanding human language. In medicine, clinical NLP systems process the vast repositories of text generated by patient-clinician interactions. Such systems categorize and structure it according to standard nomenclature -- in this case focusing on terms used in a range of medical specialties -- that will ultimately speed data searches for both diagnoses and medical research. These NLP platforms or "pipelines" aid indexing and searching electronic medical records within institutions to quickly find similar cases or conditions, so physicians are not reliant solely on their own clinical experience in analyzing a problem. Researchers may also use these tools to aid retrospective epidemiological studies or do groundwork for new clinical trials.

"Large-scale information extraction from the clinical narrative is a vital component in advancing translational research and patient care," adds Guergana Savova, Ph.D., medical informatics specialist and Mayo's NLP lead on the project. "It 'unlocks' the clinical textual data that resides in huge repositories. Such technology would allow for large-scale data aggregation, analyses and usage -- just imagine the power of data from millions of patients."

"There is a treasure trove of historical unstructured data that provides essential information for the study of disease progression, treatment effectiveness and long-term outcome which NLP systems make available to clinicians and researchers," states Anni Coden Ph.D., IBM's NLP principal on the project. "Such data can provide guidance for prospective studies and furthermore facilitate the integration of data from multi-modal data sources."

As an increasing percentage of health care and academic medical centers adopt electronic medical records, searching and extracting information from them in an automated fashion becomes essential. Mayo Clinic and IBM jointly developed a system for extracting information from more than 25 million free-text clinical notes based on IBM's open-source Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA). As part of the system, developers build strings of "annotators" that become a pipeline, allowing physicians to mine the text for references of specific conditions, drugs, diseases, signs and symptoms; anatomical areas or organs; or treatment procedures. IBM and Mayo Clinic also developed a system to extract cancer disease characteristics from unstructured pathology reports to facilitate "consistent retrieval and transmission of cancer cases." The system extracts tumor characteristics, lymph node status and metastatic disease information enabling the automatic computation of cancer stage, which is critical to determine optimal treatment.

The two clinical text solutions released open-source by Mayo Clinic and IBM aim at processing two specific types of notes. Clinical notes describe patient-physician encounters, while pathology reports center around tissue findings. Both options are already adding value for Mayo and its patients:

• Physicians can research past records to examine earlier cases of rare conditions, thereby "conferring" with their colleagues across time to aid diagnosis and treatment decisions.
• Retrospective studies of tissue samples can propel new research findings, as happened with a major breast cancer finding at Mayo in 2008.
• Enhanced ability to mine data and determine potential study factors or participants has already enabled individualized medicine treatments in psychiatric care.

Mayo's open-source solution, clinical Text Analysis and Knowledge Extraction System (cTAKES), focuses on processing the patient-centric clinical notes. Its low level components, for example the software that discovers sentence and word boundaries, assigns word part-of-speech tags and forms phrases out of the words, are "trained" to understand clinical language. The higher-level information extraction components, for example the ones that determine which textual spans are highly relevant to the clinical meaning of a note, are specifically designed for this domain.

cTAKES has the functionality to recognize whether a clinical concept is negated, relevant to the patient or to the patient's family, which are attributes critical to understanding patient-centered medical language.

IBM's medKAT systems (medical Knowledge Analysis Tool) is a UIMA-based, modular and flexible system that uses advanced NLP techniques to extract structured information from unstructured data sources, such as pathology reports, clinical notes, discharge summaries and medical literature. medKAT/P is a version customized for the pathology domain, based on a representation of cancer, its characteristics and disease progression. The system recognizes concepts such as primary tumor and its associated attributes (e.g. histology, anatomical site, etc.) or lymph node status and its associated attributes (e.g. number of positive and excised nodes) by identifying mentions (e.g. histology or anatomical sites) and their relations (including negation). medKAT can be viewed as a development platform that is adaptable to user and domain requirements. It has been designed to operate within institutional systems or databases of any size.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year.

IBM and NASCO Formalize Commitment to More Efficient and Smarter Healthcare

National Account Service Company LLC today announced it has awarded IBM (NYSE: IBM) a seven-year, $184 million extension to its existing information technology (IT) services contract. IBM will continue to support NASCO's systems infrastructure and applications, helping NASCO process claims more efficiently as a benefit for Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, while increasing performance and lowering costs.

As part of the agreement signed on March 31, 2009, IBM will supply application maintenance and development services and will modernize NASCO's application environment using IBM WebSphere software to take full advantage of a service oriented architecture (SOA) platform. IBM will continue providing data center services including storage, server services and off-hour help desk support. IBM will also upgrade NASCO's system to IBM's System z10 mainframe for increased computing power and energy efficiency to support NASCO's growth and continued processing reliability. In addition, IBM global delivery centers and data centers will support NASCO's IT operations with a focus on cost and process optimization, productivity and scalability for future growth.

"NASCO is committed to helping our Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan customers differentiate themselves in today's rapidly changing healthcare market," said John Ladaga, President and Chief Executive Officer, NASCO. "We are confident that with IBM, NASCO and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans we serve will have the expertise and scalable resources to aggressively compete in the healthcare arena."

"People have growing expectations from health systems, and they want to make better health and wellness choices," said Dan Pelino, IBM General Manager, Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry. "It is IBM's view that improved efficiency across health enterprises can be achieved through innovative IT delivery models. The savings can then be funneled back into new innovation or application modernization and smarter healthcare processes, which is exactly what we are doing with NASCO. We are delighted to expand our long standing relationship with NASCO by providing IT services that create more interconnected and intelligent healthcare systems."

In a separate initiative, IBM's collaboration with NASCO to make healthcare smarter includes exploring the application of leading-edge research to solve major industry problems. IBM Research is working with NASCO on a unique first-of-a-kind project to develop tools that will spur the modernization of today's claims systems and enable automation of the processes for setting up new customers, a major pain point in the health insurance industry. The team hopes to lower the cost and complexity of benefit plan customization to enable increasingly patient-centric, personalized healthcare.

About NASCO
NASCO got its start in Atlanta over 20 years ago when it partnered with several Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association to introduce an integrated membership and claims processing system for national accounts. Today, NASCO's capabilities extend to include support for individual, local and government business while its multitude of performance-based services help its Plan customers improve their operational efficiencies and reduce costs. Having processed over 1 billion claims, the NASCO Processing System is unsurpassed in the market for reliability, flexibility, scalability and operational performance.

"Smart" Sense: OMRON, IBM Collaborate on "Green" Transportation Solutions

Japanese sensor and control equipment maker OMRON Corporation and IBM are working together to provide "smart" solutions that lower energy use, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and increase efficiency in transportation operations.

The solutions will help clients decide which types of shipping and transportation to use and the best travel routes for reducing costs and CO2 emissions in the delivery of packages, parts, supplies and finished goods.

The companies will combine OMRON's sensor capabilities and experience in traffic control, vehicle weight measurement, and transportation distance and loading ratios systems with the advanced mathematic calculation technologies of IBM's Virtual Routing Planner and Modal-Shift Transportation Planner offerings.

The two companies will work together to assist clients in addressing anticipated regulatory restrictions and penalties for CO2 emissions. The collaboration is consistent with IBM's "smarter planet" initiative, which envisions a world where everything is instrumented, interconnected and intelligent. This can provide greater understanding that allows better decision making, leading to increased efficiency, improved performance, lower costs and reduced environmental impact.

IBM and OMRON will provide these solutions initially for Japanese clients, primarily in the manufacturing and transportation industries -- globally, those industries account for more than half of all energy use and corresponding CO2 emissions. The solutions could later be expanded for additional countries and industries.

IBM's Modal-Shift Transportation Planner analyzes timetables of various shipping services, such as ship, air, train and truck, taking delivery date of goods into consideration, to choose the best shipping method for reducing costs and CO2 emissions.

Virtual Routing Planner plans the best routes for trucks to use to minimize CO2 emissions, based on digitalized road map information and accounting for various conditions such as delivery, collection, time frame and vehicle type.

Both IBM solutions use high-performance optimization algorithms developed by IBM's Tokyo Research Laboratory.

Modal-Shift Transportation Planner and Virtual Routing Planner join a growing portfolio of consulting services from IBM to help clients address sustainability issues. Those offerings include: the CSR Assessment and Benchmarking Utility, the Carbon Tradeoff Modeler, Green Sigma, Environmental Product Lifecycle Management, the Supply Chain Network Optimization Workbench (or SNOW), Strategic Carbon Management, and the Public Sector Energy and Environment Diagnostic.

About OMRON
Headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, OMRON Corporation is a global leader in the field of automation. Established in 1933 and headed by President & CEO Hisao Sakuta, OMRON has over 35,000 employees in 38 countries working to provide products and services to customers in a variety of fields, including industrial automation, electronic components, social systems (ticket gate machines, ticket vending machines, and traffic control), and healthcare.

Automotive Giant Continental Chooses IBM Lotus Software for Unified Messaging and Collaboration

When automotive manufacturer Continental AG acquired Siemens VDO, the new combined organization selected IBM Lotus Notes and Domino software as their common messaging platform.

Over a four-month period, 40,000 Microsoft Outlook and Exchange software users were moved to the IBM platform. Continental also decided to deploy IBM Lotus Quickr and Sametime software as their collaboration and unified communications platform. The reasons for choosing IBM over Microsoft included lower licensing and operating costs as well as greater platform independence.

Continental's acquisition of Siemens VDO brought with it a big question. In addition to its 37,000 IBM Lotus Domino and Notes software users, the company now had 40,000 new Microsoft Exchange and Outlook users from the company it acquired. The evaluation considered several migration scenarios: immediately switching the entire group to the Lotus platform; gradually switching to the Exchange platform; or migrating to third party open source products or hosted services.

"Our strategy is focused on minimizing software interdependencies and, likewise, taking control over license related costs," says Dr. Bernhard Thomas, head of IT Infrastructure Strategy at Continental AG. "We didn't see major differences between Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook with regard to client functionality, but the IBM software was more open and flexible and it also had lower infrastructure costs. That's why we chose it."

Continental is also now planning to expand its use of Lotus Quickr and Lotus Sametime unified communications and collaboration software. Lotus Quickr will become the company's new default platform for all uses in team and project collaboration. Lotus Quickr was chosen primarily because it provided a simpler, more direct integration with Lotus Notes, access to directories and calendars, integration with Lotus Sametime, which Continental uses for conferencing and instant messaging, plus lower infrastructure and licensing costs. Continental intends to use Lotus Quickr and Lotus Sametime to further expand on-line and real time collaboration within the company, as well as to employ new Enterprise 2.0 functions such as tagging and alerting.

Paul Schwefer, Chief Information Officer at Continental added, "IBM Lotus software fits in well within Continental's strategy of permanently optimizing the flexibility, productivity and cost of our IT." Continental is one of the world's leading automotive suppliers, with revenue of more than EUR 24 billion in 2008. As a supplier of brake systems, power train and chassis systems and components, instrumentation, "infotainment" solutions, vehicle electronics, tires and engineering elastomers, the company contributes to enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also a partner in networked automobile communication. The company currently employs nearly 140,000 people at around 190 locations in 35 countries.

Campbell's Extends Technology Services Agreement With IBM

IBM today announced that the Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB) has signed a 65-month agreement for information technology (IT) outsourcing services. Campbell and IBM have been IT services partners since 1994.

As part of the agreement, IBM will provide IT infrastructure services, network support, application maintenance services and security services from IBM Internet Security Systems. IBM will offer infrastructure services on demand for enhanced cost efficiency and increased flexibility. IBM's global delivery centers will support Campbell's operations in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.

"IBM's ability to deliver quality services that help us achieve our business goals is the main reason for our long-term, successful relationship," said Joe Spagnoletti, CIO, Campbell Soup Company. "In a competitive environment, it is important to have a partner that understands our business and provides added value."

"The current market is driving companies of all industries to aggressively manage their operations," said Justin Dragoo, IBM Global Technology Services, Vice President of Consumer Products. "By leveraging IBM's applications management, dynamic infrastructure and industry expertise, Campbell Soup Company will be able to reduce costs and adapt quickly to this challenging global economy."

The agreement was signed on March 3, 2009.

About Campbell Soup Company
Campbell Soup Company is a global manufacturer and marketer of high-quality foods and simple meals, including soup, baked snacks, and healthy beverages. Founded in 1869, the company has a portfolio of market-leading brands, including "Campbell's," "Pepperidge Farm," "Arnott's," and "V8."

IBM Delivers Cloud Social Networking and Collaboration Service for Business

At the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Conference today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced LotusLive Engage, an integrated social networking and collaboration cloud service designed for businesses of all sizes. LotusLive Engage will become available on April 7, 2009.

In a challenging economy, companies no longer have all the resources they need. Finding ways to work with customers and partners in new ways is a matter of survival. LotusLive Engage enables companies to communicate and collaborate in new ways without increasing the resources in their IT departments.

LotusLive Engage gives any business the tools they need to work smarter with clients, partners and suppliers. It helps businesses connect and work with each other easily -- outside the firewall. Designed for business, the easy to use, security-rich services of LotusLive Engage include profile and contact management, online meetings, file sharing, instant messaging, and lightweight project management capabilities. These capabilities are tightly integrated to provide one of the richest communication and collaboration experiences available in the market today.

Integration between services is key to the design of LotusLive. The services are built using open, Web-based standards and an open business model. LotusLive services will enable "Click to Cloud" -- the seamless integration of the LotusLive online services with existing on-premise Lotus solutions. "Click to Cloud" will help customers extend the value of their existing investments by making it easy to bridge solutions inside the firewall to the cloud.

"Due to the economy, we don't travel as much. But it doesn't mean we have to stop business," said Leslie Moore, Colgate-Palmolive. "Using the collaboration tools allows us to communicate quicker, more effectively, and actually be more proficient working with our employees, and also reaching out to our customers."

Designed for business use, LotusLive Engage will be priced on a subscription model, not an advertising model. Pricing will be comparable with other offers in the market today. Businesses of every sector and every major industry, from construction to communications, have already formed their own business networks by connecting and working with clients, partners and suppliers via LotusLive.

"In a challenging economic environment, it's more valuable than ever for companies to come together in the cloud quickly and easily, using powerful communication and collaboration tools that integrate with their existing applications," said Sean Poulley, Vice President, IBM Online Collaboration & Cloud Services.

Using tools beyond simply email can help companies collaborating on a project work more smoothly and efficiently. For example, a construction company could use LotusLive Engage to work with various vendors. The developer, job site managers, architects and others could use LotusLive tools such as an online Meeting to review design changes; File Sharing to store the design documents and updates to those designs; and an Activity to keep track of various components of the project -- such as tasks associated with electrical, plumbing and landscaping. All of this information is easily accessible by anyone working on the project, at any time.

EnergyAustralia and IBM Unite for Large-Scale Smart Grid Implementation

EnergyAustralia, Australia's largest electricity distribution network, today announced an agreement with IBM for the implementation of an energy network monitoring and control solution.

A key project within EnergyAustralia's overall intelligent network program, the Distribution Monitoring and Control (DM&C) project involves the roll-out of 12,000 sensing devices throughout the electricity distribution network, creating a smart grid. The project will enable EnergyAustralia to deliver energy more efficiently and reliably, and allow a greater number and range of environmental solutions to be integrated into the electricity network such as renewable energy.

Under the agreement signed in the first quarter of this year, IBM will design and build the system IT architecture to support the project, in which sensing devices will connect with EnergyAustralia's operational systems using a combination of fourth generation and existing technologies. This world-class intelligent network will carry the necessary data for EnergyAustralia to reduce outages through faster fault location and preventative maintenance and, to work towards managing distributed energy sources such as solar and storage devices.

EnergyAustralia's Managing Director George Maltabarow said the project was an important part of the company's initial investment of $170 million in its smart network rollout.

"This project will help us stay at the forefront of the global intelligent network transformation," Mr. Maltabarow said. "It will give us an instant picture of the electricity network which will help shorten power interruptions by allowing us to quickly locate and repair faults.

"It will also mean preventative maintenance can be better targeted so we can avoid faults and outages in the first place."

In addition to consulting, systems integration and IT services expertise, IBM has invested heavily in solutions such as Tivoli Netcool and Websphere Datapower to assist utilities in realizing their intelligent network visions.

"IBM is delighted to bring its infrastructure, systems integration and project management expertise to bear on this ground-breaking transformation project," said David Murray, General Manager, IBM Communications Sector, Australia.

"Only through the creation of a smart grid that can sense, communicate, analyze and respond, can Australia build the energy infrastructure it needs to meet the challenges of climate change, globalization, and changing consumer demand."

The Carphone Warehouse Selects IBM for IT Infrastructure Services

IBM and The Carphone Warehouse (CPW), Europe's leading independent retailer of mobile phones and services, today announced a multi-year information technology (IT) infrastructure services agreement.

Under the terms of the agreement, IBM has been appointed to manage Carphone Warehouse's IT requirements and deliver its future infrastructure services across its service desk, servers, storage, desktop, network and data center environments.

The contract with IBM will assist CPW in generating cost efficiencies while providing improved business flexibility and committed service levels, through deploying IBM's leading service delivery and management processes, tools and expertise.

Simon Post, Chief Technology Officer of The Carphone Warehouse, said, "IBM has a long and successful track record in the infrastructure area, and I am confident that this alliance will offer lasting benefits such as increased service levels and efficiency improvements to our business."

Bruce Ross, General Manager, IBM Global Technology Services in the UK and Ireland, said, "The Carphone Warehouse will leverage IBM's global leadership in technology innovation and delivery. As organizations face an accelerating pace of change, innovation is becoming a critical factor in the drive to deliver customer value. This agreement will help Carphone Warehouse to continue to expand their core business and drive cost efficiencies."

The contract was signed in March 2009.

IBM Brings Future of Voice Collaboration to Legacy IT Systems

IBM showcased the future of enterprise voice collaboration with new software, services and an array of business partner offerings. Designed to help businesses use unified communications (UC) to work smarter and save money, these offerings help accelerate the transition to UC by using a company's existing infrastructure.

IBM believes the future of voice collaboration is rooted in openness and the ability to connect with people and avoid costly and frustrating missed connections. The center piece of IBM's UC portfolio is IBM Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony. Sametime Unified Telephony works with a business' new and legacy telephony systems from a variety of vendors to bring voice communications into the business applications people use most.

In response to widespread industry support for Sametime Unified Telephony, IBM has launched an interoperability validation program for the product. This first of its kind UC program, allows IBM and key Business Partners to test a product's capabilities with Sametime Unified Telephony. This testing helps ensure that millions of people will be able to easily implement Sametime Unified Telephony into their existing IT environment.

Participants in the Sametime Unified Telephony Validation Program include, IP PBX service providers Alcatel Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, NEC, Nortel, Mitel and Siemens, media gateway vendors Dialogic and NET, and enhanced voice quality providers GN Netcom, Plantronics, Polycom and Psytechnics. Additional partners will be announced in the coming months.

Concurrent with the availability of Sametime Unified Telephony, IBM announces the availability of a new service designed specifically to enable clients to readily reap the benefits of Sametime Unified Telephony. IBM Converged Communications Services for Sametime Unified Telephony builds on IBM's extensive experience in IP telephony and partnership with telephony vendors across the industry and was developed working closely with the Sametime Unified Telephony development teams and beta customers. The global service provides strategy, assessment, architecture, design, integration and implementation for the new solution.

"With a unique combination of expertise and early experience, IBM will work with clients to build robust unified communications environments using almost any telephony equipment," said Laurence Guihard-Joly, vice president integrated communications services, IBM global technology services. "As a result, they can minimize costs and protect their investments in existing communications equipment, a benefit that is critical in today's economy."

Regardless of the voice vendors a company has selected, Sametime Unified Telephony brings all of their IP and legacy telephony systems together. This allows businesses to use existing investments to accelerate the adoption of UC. IT and telecom departments benefit from being able to insulate people from upgrades and changes, providing employees new UC features within a familiar desktop environment.

"Sametime Unified Telephony does not hold businesses captive to one vendor's vision of unified communication, it works with what you already have, preserving your IT and telephony investments," said Bob Picciano, general manager IBM collaboration. "Now, IBM is applying our nearly three decades of experience in how people work collaboratively to voice communications, helping businesses save money and work smarter."

Sametime Unified Telephony helps people make smarter and faster decisions by putting them in contact with the right people, at the right time, on the right device. Sametime Unified Telephony makes missed connections a thing of the past, allowing people to see who is on the phone before they make a call. Incoming calls can be automatically sent to the device best suited to the situation based on presence, location and personal preferences. People can also turn a personal computer into a virtual telephone allowing them to talk with a colleague through VoIP directly from their desktop, which can result in significant savings, especially when traveling.

The advanced click-to-call features in Sametime Unified Telephony allow people to click on a person's name to start a voice conversation, IM chat session or video conference. People can also drag and drop names from their IM client to add colleagues to a conference call. In addition, with one click a person can transfer a call from their office telephone to a mobile device without interrupting the call.

Sametime Unified Telephony is expected to be available in July of 2009.

Palm Extends webOS Early Access Program for Developers

Here at the Web 2.0 Expo, Palm, Inc. today revealed additional details regarding its developer program for the new Palm? webOS platform. In a keynote address, Palm's senior vice president of Application Software and Services, Michael Abbott, said that Palm is expanding its early access program for the Palm Mojo Software Development Kit (SDK), and discussed the company's plans for integrating cloud services into the new platform. Palm also today announced an application from MotionApps that will allow legacy Palm OS applications to run on webOS devices.

The Mojo SDK, previously available only to a select group of partners, will be provided to a broader set of interested developers that apply for access to the program at the Palm Developer Network website. Access to the program initially will be limited as the tools and systems continue to be refined and improved, with general availability scheduled for later this year.

"Developers are an incredibly important part of the webOS ecosystem, and we're eager to get the SDK into their hands," said Michael Abbott, senior vice president, Application Software and Services, Palm, Inc. "Now that the SDK will be available to a broader base of developers, we think the enthusiasm for webOS will only grow and accelerate. We're very excited to work with developers to make this unique development environment even better."

With Mojo, developers have the ability to integrate their applications into core webOS functionality, such as linked contacts, layered calendars, multitasking, notifications and GPS capabilities. webOS applications run natively on the device. They don't depend on any server connection to run and can cache data locally. Providing developers with the freedom to integrate unique webOS functionality and services into their applications paves the way for a rich catalog of innovative offerings for webOS users.

Palm webOS is a new kind of mobile platform. Standard web technologies, such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS, are deeply integrated into the webOS architecture, enabling a much broader developer community to easily create compelling applications. The ability to customize webOS applications will appeal to developers and ultimately benefit consumers with a unique and differentiated user experience.

"webOS makes mobile application development incredibly easy - we were able to get a version of Pandora running in no time," said Tom Conrad, chief technology officer, Pandora. "And because webOS has true multitasking capabilities, Pandora runs elegantly in the background while you're using other applications. The unobtrusive notification bar lets you know what's currently playing, and allows you to pause and play without having to go back into the application. It's an incredibly powerful and flexible platform."

"The webOS functionality and integration opportunities provide a richer experience for moviegoers on the go," said Ted Hong, chief marketing officer for Fandango. "With Fandango's webOS application, you can watch trailers and buy tickets, pick your showtime, which is automatically added to your calendar, then get directions to the theatre, and easily forward the showtime to friends or family. You can even create a reminder to let you know when a specific movie is opening so that you can buy tickets in advance on Fandango. The webOS technology helps further our goal of making moviegoing experience as convenient as possible."

Integrated Cloud Services

Palm also announced that it would deploy its first Palm branded cloud service. Cloud services are software resources provided over the Internet. These services can deliver direct benefits to the end user, such as giving them access to their favorite web applications, or can be incorporated by developers into their applications to enhance the end-user experience.

When the Mojo SDK is broadly released later this year, it will include a developer-facing offering called the Mojo Messaging Service, an XMPP publish/subscribe service. The Mojo Messaging Service is an elegant, standards-based way to exchange information over the Internet. When new information is available, it is "published" to the cloud and all interested parties who are subscribers are notified that new information is available. This will allow developers to push live content to their applications or services. The Mojo Messaging Service initially will have a limited feature set and service level that will evolve over time.

Palm OS Emulator Application

Palm also announced that MotionApps (www.motionapps.com) is creating an emulator application that will allow most Palm OS applications to run on webOS devices. The application, called "Classic," will be available for purchase when the Palm Pre phone becomes available from Sprint in the first half of 2009, and gives users peace of mind as they transition to Palm's new webOS.

Since Palm OS applications running in Classic won't be able to leverage core webOS functionality, Palm is working with partners to ensure that popular Palm OS applications are made available on the webOS platform and are optimized to take advantage of everything it has to offer. In the meantime, the MotionApps Classic application will allow customers who have invested in the Palm OS platform to use Palm OS applications they've grown to love and depend upon on their new webOS devices.

BlackBerry Storm

BlackBerry products and services have changed the way we communicate and interact, making businesses more productive and consumers better connected.

Available Features

• Camera (3.2 MP)


• Built-in GPS


• Media Player


• Video Recording


• BlackBerry Maps


• Wireless Email


• Organizer


• Browser


• Phone


• Corporate Data Access


• SMS/MMS

Size and Weight

Height:
4.43 inches (112.5 mm)

Width:
2.45 inches (62.2 mm)

Depth:
0.55 inches (13.95 mm)

Weight:
5.5 ounces (155 grams)

Display

• High resolution 480 x 360 pixel color display


• Transmissive TFT LCD


• Font size (user selectable)


• Light sensing screen


• Supports over 65,000 colors


• Screen Size: 3.25 inches (diagonally measured)

Camera & Video Recording

• Camera: 3.2 MP camera with auto flash, auto focus, 2x digital zoom


• Video Camera: Depending on the amount of built-in memory available for use, a third-party microSD card may need to be properly inserted into the BlackBerry smartphone to enable the video recording feature

Battery & Battery Life

• Standby time: 15 days (356 hours)


• Talk time: 6 hours


• 1400 mAhr removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell

Dell Introduces Complete Refresh of PowerEdge Servers with Energy Efficient Designs and Embedded Systems Management

Dell today introduced five new blade, rack and tower PowerEdge servers based on the new Intel Xeon 5500 Series processors. Dell designed its 11th generation of servers with input from IT professionals worldwide to help companies do more with less by simplifying data center operations, improving performance and, energy efficiency and lowering total cost of ownership.

• Five new blade, rack and tower servers with latest Intel Xeon 5500 series processors are designed for power efficiency and leading virtualization performance
• Industry’s first and only embedded systems management eliminates data center complexity with Dell Unified Server Configurator powered by Lifecycle Controller
• Dell ProManage offers ImageDirect for servers to automate deployment and help save IT staff time

The new Dell PowerEdge servers are available today on dell/PowerEdge starting at $1,599 or through any of Dell’s more than 40,000 Global PartnerDirect Channel Partners.

The News:

The new Dell PowerEdge servers include the M610 and M710 blade servers for the M1000e chassis, the R710 and R610 rack servers and the T610 tower server. Dell will roll-out PowerEdge additions to its two-socket portfolio – the T710, R410 and T410 – in the coming months.

The latest PowerEdge servers help companies enhance IT efficiency with:

• Embedded Systems Management: Dell Unified Server Configurator powered by LifeCycle Controller is embedded on 11th generation PowerEdge servers. This new systems management technology radically simplifies many common IT processes such as deployment, diagnostics, update, and configuration. Unified Server Configurator has “Instant On” integrated manageability with zero media deployment through a single access point. The Dell PowerEdge R710 server is 43 percent faster than the HP ProLiant DL385 G5p at pre-Operating System server configuration.
• Power and Thermal Efficiency: Dell 11th generation PowerEdge servers are available with Energy Smart technologies that are designed to reduce power consumption while increasing performance capacity. Enhancements include efficient power supply units optimized for system requirements, improved system-level design efficiency, policy-driven power and thermal management and highly efficient standards-based Energy Smart components.

Dell PowerEdge servers with Energy Smart design architecture can save customers up to 48 Watts in energy consumption compared to previous generation PowerEdge over the lifecycle of the product. Each Dell PowerEdge server can save customers $200 in energy cost over the expected lifecycle of the product.

Dell PowerEdge 11th generation servers expect to achieve the industry’s highest performance per watt, according to SPECpower_ssj2008 results to be published on March 30, 2009.

The Dell PowerEdge M710 server and Dell EqualLogic storage has a 47.5 percent performance-per-watt advantage over competitor’s blade server and storage.

Virtualization Performance: Featuring Intel’s Nehalem-based architecture, embedded hypervisors, up to 125 percent increased memory footprint and more integrated I/O, PowerEdge 11th generation servers offer better overall system performance and virtual machine per server capacity compared to previous generations. Dell provides a smart path to virtualization with the choice of hypervisor from VMware, Citrix and Microsoft.

The Dell PowerEdge R710 server and Dell EqualLogic storage supported 25 percent more Microsoft Exchange 2007 virtual machines than a competitor’s rack server and storage.

Inspired Design: Dell PowerEdge servers have system and image commonality across platforms to enable lower deployment and management costs. The logical layout of components and power supply placement allows for straight forward installation and redeployment. The new PowerEdge servers have inspired design enhancements including all steel construction cable management arm, new metal hard drive carriers, single pull fan module and quick release rack latching. The servers allow unprecedented system management from the aisle with multi-layer LCD and KVM access. The industrial design of the PowerEdge R610 and R710 was recognized as winners of the 2009 iF Germany Product Design Award.

Lower total cost of ownership: In TCO comparisons by rack, by chassis and by blade, the Dell PowerEdge M710 blade solution had a lower TCO and yielded significant cost savings over the HP ProLiant BL685c G5 blade solution. The Dell M710 had 40% lower TCO per chassis over 3 years compared to HP ProLiant BL685c G5 blade solution.

System performance: Dell 11th generation PowerEdge servers have achieved up to 50 percent increase in performance over previous generation servers allowing companies to run more compute intensive databases and applications more efficiently.

Image Management Service for PowerEdge Servers

• To help simplify image management for the new 11th generation servers, Dell will now offer ImageDirect, an online solution that enables organizations to securely create, deploy and manage virtual and physical images on new Dell servers. Provisioning servers with ImageDirect can save IT staff time. Companies can now create and manage server images online and have them factory-installed, enabling image consistency and quality while eliminating time consuming on-premise manual configuration and reducing deployment and IT staff time. Companies can rapidly stabilize new servers into their production environment with ready to deploy optimized configurations and minimize unwanted drift from desired configuration states at the time of deployment.
• With Dell ProConsult Dell analyzes all aspects of a customer’s data center needs, and provides them with specific actions to simplify and help save costs in their data center through virtualization of servers and storage and consolidation of data centers. Dell analyzes their power and cooling capacity and practices to find inefficiencies, and provides recommendations for getting the most out of their hidden data center. New systems management consulting [link] and tools can improve data center operations from server provisioning and maintenance to availability monitoring and service-level management through asset retirement.

Quotes:

“CEOs don’t wake up in the middle of the night worrying about what the servers in their data center are doing, and they shouldn’t have to. Dell is creating technology that greatly simplifies IT throughout its entire lifecycle to make our customers more efficient. The new Dell 11th generation PowerEdge servers were designed to lead the industry in price/performance, virtualization and power/thermal efficiency to reduce complexity and cost and let our customers focus on creating business value.” -- Brad Anderson, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Product Group, Dell.

“Getting maximum utilization of existing datacenters can drive constraints placed by overall infrastructure power and cooling demands, limiting business agility. Dell‘s 11th generation PowerEdge servers with the new Intel Xeon processor 5500 series give companies unprecedented performance and intelligent power consumption that can dynamically adapt to application workloads and business demands. With this refresh, customers can enhance business agility, extend the life of their data centers, and have additional room for growth.” --Kirk Skaugen, Vice President and General Manager, Server Platforms Group, Intel

“The Dell PowerEdge R610 server and PowerEdge M610 blade server will help us reduce overall power consumption and get the most out of what we do use. These systems give us five times the processing capacity for the same amount of power as servers we acquired only three years ago.” -- Gary Jung, Manager, Scientific Cluster Support Group, IT division, UC Berkeley Laboratory

“The sheer volume of transactions we need to process every day, makes it necessary that our servers are highly reliable and optimized for high performance computing. Dell's new 11th generation PowerEdge servers meet our performance goals, are highly scalable and easier to manage. It made it an easy choice for our data center.”-- Anna Ewing, Chief Information Officer at NASDAQ OMX.

Dell Selected to Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises for 2008

Dell has been selected by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) as one of America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises (WBEs) for 2008.

The annual listing of America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises is the only award honoring corporations for world-class programs that break down barriers that impede WBEs from gaining fair access to procurement opportunities.

In Fiscal Year 2008, Dell’s spending with women, small and minority-owned suppliers reached over $2.4 billion — a significant increase over the past five years.

Quote:

"We are proud to be selected for this award and recognized for our supplier diversity programs and results. As our customers and workforce become more diverse, it makes smart business sense to grow our relationship with diverse supply chain partners. We have seen that diverse suppliers bring amazing assets and innovative ideas to our corporation." -- Jens Gruenkemeier, Director General Procurement & Global Supplier Diversity.

Background:

• Dell’s procurement spend with women-, small- and minority-owned suppliers gave the organization a seat at the prestigious Billion Dollar Roundtable – and Dell far exceeded the $1 billion threshold for entry.
• Diverse supplier development is an important focus for Dell and it is supported by strong programs such as the Executive Mentor Program. Under this program CEOs of women suppliers are mentored by Dell executives in order to expand their capabilities and partnerships with Dell and other companies.
• This is Dell's first year on the WBENC list, which has 19 organizations on it for 2008.
• WBENC is the leading advocate for, and authority on, Women's Business Enterprises as suppliers and vendors to the nation's corporation. It is also the nation's leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women.

Michael Dell: IT-Driven Innovation a Key to Economic Recovery

Strategic use of information technology streamlines businesses and governments and makes them more effective, especially in the midst of economic weakness, Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell told members of the international news media here today. Mr. Dell was in Japan and is visiting China this week, meeting with customers, business leaders and government officials.

• Strategic, Focused Investment in IT Carries Additional ‘Green’ Benefit
• High-Performing, Energy-Efficient Technology Can Help Define Post-Recession Leaders

“Leaders will continue to tap into IT for innovation and efficiency, and doing so now will help organizations set themselves apart as the global economy inevitably improves,” said Mr. Dell. “We’ve seen that many times before, including in the 1980s and following softness in 2001.”

IT a Common Thread for Winning

Mr. Dell said many of the most successful organizations will share three approaches:

• Increasingly standardizing IT in part by applying virtualization, a highly efficient technology that allows one server to do the work of many.
• Employing IT to unlock innovation, freeing resources that in the past have been consumed by maintaining technology.
• “Forward-looking businesses are using IT to target unnecessary cost and complexity,” said Mr. Dell. Unlocking time, money, and human resources, he said, enables organizations to create new and higher levels of customer value;
• Creating a competitive advantage even as their organizations become greener. Dell, for example, is currently saving approximately $3 million annually and avoiding 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide through facility improvements and a global power-management initiative that turns computers off when not in use.

Driving Innovation

• Dell is helping small and medium businesses, large enterprises and public-sector organizations worldwide achieve improved performance and increased efficiency. Mr. Dell today made reference to a breakthrough portfolio of next-generation enterprise products and services that enable businesses to be more efficient and maximize people, time and money.
• The company’s new 11th Generation PowerEdge servers and Dell Precision workstations give customers outstanding performance, world-class management capabilities and thermals that can help them make the most of their IT infrastructure. The new PowerEdge portfolio offers optimal virtualization, system management and usability capabilities while providing exemplary power and thermals for overall energy efficiency.
• Last week, Dell introduced the world’s thinnest laptop, the first product from the new Adamo by Dell brand. Adamo is the flagship in a range of beneficially disruptive computer systems that combine leading design aesthetics, personalization and technologies.
• By listening to customers, Dell is also setting the standard for environmentally-responsible IT. Since 2005, Dell has enabled customers using Dell OptiPlex desktop systems to save an estimated $3 billion in energy costs and avoid more than 32 million tons of carbon dioxide through power management and energy-efficient features. Last September, Dell announced that all of its new notebooks would come with energy-efficient, mercury-free LED displays within 12 months.

Dell Eliminates IT Complexity with a Single View Into IT Infrastructure and a Standards-Based Integration Program

Dell introduced Dell Management Console (DMC) and Dell ISV Partner Program in PartnerDirect. Dell Management Console (DMC) software unites systems management across IT environments through a single console, reducing or eliminating manual systems management processes and allowing businesses to save time, money, and resources that can be redirected to strategic projects.

• Dell Management Console, powered by Altiris from Symantec, unifies monitoring and management for Dell servers, storage, clients and third party vendor hardware through a single browser window
• Dell Management Console is non-proprietary and seamlessly integrates with existing systems management solutions
• Dell ISV Partner Program enhances manageability through integration of third party systems tools

Dell challenges the proprietary management framework approach from other vendors by delivering a simple, open-standards, modular approach that includes tight integration with industry leading systems management solutions. The Dell ISV Partner Program enables ISVs (Industry Software Vendors) by offering systems management toolkits, technical documentation, integration guides and engineering support.

The News:

Dell Management Console Simplifies Systems Management

• DMC provides total infrastructure management functionality for client, servers and storage – from basic hardware management to more advanced functions like asset and security management – in a single console.
• A comparable solution from HP requires up to 9 consoles and greater than 50 percent more back-end hardware than DMC.
• DMC’s flexible framework is designed to work with customers existing environments as well as other vendors’ hardware to provide a truly heterogeneous solutions to reduce management time.
• DMC service enabled connectors can easily cover new technology implementations and can share data with existing management tools.
• DMC pulls data from other systems management software allowing all infrastructure management to be represented in a single, intuitive user interface.

Dell ISV Partner Program Increases Management Functionality without Adding New Tools to Manage

• The Dell ISV Partner Program maintains a development environment for system management vendors to integrate their tools with Dell’s platform manageability to help reduce IT complexity.
• Customers value integration in a standards-based systems management framework. Currently Dell has 12 ISV Certified Partners, including the industry’s most recognized vendors, certified on 20 systems management applications with over 100 Registered ISVs and 20 additional IT management products in the certification pipeline.
• Dell empowers customers to get the most out of their IT environment by tightly integrated third- party systems management tools with toolkits to deploy, monitor and update Dell platforms.

Quotes:

“Dell is committed to simplifying IT so customers can save time, reduce expenses, and focus on their core business. The new Dell Management Console improves systems management with a single view of the entire infrastructure. In addition, our approach to open-standards and partnering with systems management vendors mean that our mutual customers get more management functionality with fewer management tools.” -- Sally Stevens, Director, PowerEdge Platform Marketing, Dell.

Symantec and Dell have a close collaboration to develop open systems management solutions that reduce complexity to let companies focus on their business needs. Dell Management Console, powered by Altiris from Symantec, allows companies to manage other leading systems management solutions with a single view of their total IT environment.” -- Greg Hughes, Group President, Enterprise Product Group, Symantec

"BMC Software is proud to be a Dell ISV Advanced Certified Partner and a preferred solution for managing large IT infrastructures built on Dell PowerEdge Servers. Dell uses our Business Service Management platform in their data centers and the results Dell has recognized with BMC are now available to Dell customers looking for enterprise-class IT management and automation solutions. It's clear why BMC is a leader for managing highly complex IT environments, including the virtualized, cloud-based IT infrastructures of the future.” -- Jim Grant, BMC's senior vice president of strategy and corporate development.

“Customers need to reduce IT costs while also aligning IT with business needs and new opportunities,” “Customers now have a winning combination of Dell’s new 11G servers running Windows Server 2008 Hyper-v and Microsoft System Center management suite. Dell’s consulting services can help simplify and accelerate the deployment of this powerful and high-value solution for customers.” -- Simon Witts, corporate vice president, Enterprise and Partner

“Dell Management Console will help us automate a full range of IT processes so our IT group can spend less time fighting fires and more time working on ways to improve the business. Dell Management Console shows that Dell is listening to its enterprise customers and applying feedback directly into products that will help increase IT efficiency.” -- Dennis Von Burg, network manager, LSI, Inc. “To get a complete view of our infrastructure today, we need to manually combine reports from three different systems. Dell Management Console will eliminate that process, which will help streamline our IT management.” -- Kevin Jones, project manager, CSX.