BearingPoint, Inc. (OTCBB:BGPTE), a management and technology consulting firm, today announced that the sale of a significant portion of its North American Commercial Services business, including its Financial Services segment and associated Global Delivery Centers, to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been approved by the Court overseeing its previously announced restructuring. Under the terms of its winning bid at an auction concluded earlier today, PwC will acquire the majority of BearingPoint’s Commercial Services unit for $44 million, subject to contractual adjustments.
BearingPoint and PwC are working together to help ensure a seamless transition for clients and employees, including the continuity of existing engagement teams, to provide uninterrupted, world-class consulting services. Tom DeGarmo, executive vice president of Commercial Services, and his management team will join PwC to help provide leadership stability and continuity to aid in successful integration. Subject to customary closing conditions, the sale is expected to be finalized by the end of June.
About BearingPoint, Inc.
BearingPoint, Inc. (OTCBB:BGPTE) is a provider of management and technology consulting services to commercial and public sector organizations around the world. BearingPoint professionals have built a reputation for knowing what it takes to help clients achieve their goals, and working closely with them to get the job done. The Company’s service offerings are designed to help its clients generate revenue, increase cost-effectiveness, manage regulatory compliance, integrate information and transition to next-generation technology. For more information, visit the Company's Web site at www.BearingPoint.com.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Column 5 Consulting Adds Strength in Profitability and Cost Management
Column 5 Consulting, a global leader in Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) consulting, today announced the addition of Steve Wofford to the Column 5 team as Director of Profitability Solutions.
Mr. Wofford has more than 20 years experience in the area of financial analysis and corporate risk analytics. During that time he has been a user, software developer and consultant for profitability, planning, risk and treasury solutions. Over the past decade he has held numerous leadership positions with both SAP and Oracle in their software development and consulting areas, assisting customers of all sizes with multi-dimensional profitability analytics. Prior to joining Column 5, Steve led the largest and most experienced SAP Profitability and Cost Management implementation practice in United States.
Already a leading provider of EPM consulting services focusing on SAP’s market leading suite of products, Column 5’s addition of Mr. Wofford brings strength particularly to the area of the practice that supports the SAP BusinessObjects Profitability and Cost Management (PCM) solution.
“We are thrilled to have Steve Wofford on board at Column 5,” says David Den Boer, founder of the company. “There is no one in the country more experienced in supporting profitability solutions than Steve. We pride ourselves on hiring the top talent in every aspect of enterprise performance management solutions, and Steve certainly fits that mold. We’re very excited about what this means in terms of our ability to help customers understand their cost drivers and optimize their financial performance.”
About Column 5 Consulting
Column 5, one of the fastest growing consulting organizations in the EPM market, is a full service consulting firm that equips finance managers and CFOs to dramatically improve how they plan and manage their businesses. The company is one of SAP’s leading Enterprise Performance Management partners, supporting solutions such as BPC, PCM, SSM, S&OP, and BusinessObjects BI. Column 5 consultants have helped more than 350 organizations use these leading EPM tools to develop planning, budgeting, reporting, consolidation, and other management applications. Headquartered outside Phoenix, Arizona, Column 5 has presence in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and London. More information is available at www.column5.com or by emailing info@column5.com.
Mr. Wofford has more than 20 years experience in the area of financial analysis and corporate risk analytics. During that time he has been a user, software developer and consultant for profitability, planning, risk and treasury solutions. Over the past decade he has held numerous leadership positions with both SAP and Oracle in their software development and consulting areas, assisting customers of all sizes with multi-dimensional profitability analytics. Prior to joining Column 5, Steve led the largest and most experienced SAP Profitability and Cost Management implementation practice in United States.
Already a leading provider of EPM consulting services focusing on SAP’s market leading suite of products, Column 5’s addition of Mr. Wofford brings strength particularly to the area of the practice that supports the SAP BusinessObjects Profitability and Cost Management (PCM) solution.
“We are thrilled to have Steve Wofford on board at Column 5,” says David Den Boer, founder of the company. “There is no one in the country more experienced in supporting profitability solutions than Steve. We pride ourselves on hiring the top talent in every aspect of enterprise performance management solutions, and Steve certainly fits that mold. We’re very excited about what this means in terms of our ability to help customers understand their cost drivers and optimize their financial performance.”
About Column 5 Consulting
Column 5, one of the fastest growing consulting organizations in the EPM market, is a full service consulting firm that equips finance managers and CFOs to dramatically improve how they plan and manage their businesses. The company is one of SAP’s leading Enterprise Performance Management partners, supporting solutions such as BPC, PCM, SSM, S&OP, and BusinessObjects BI. Column 5 consultants have helped more than 350 organizations use these leading EPM tools to develop planning, budgeting, reporting, consolidation, and other management applications. Headquartered outside Phoenix, Arizona, Column 5 has presence in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and London. More information is available at www.column5.com or by emailing info@column5.com.
TSE Consulting Launches New "Event Appraisal" Business Line
TSE Consulting, the international sports consultancy, is creating a new business line on “Event Appraisal” and can now offer its public sector clients a full service related to preparing and conducting a full scale cost/benefit analysis of sports events.
This new business line will be headed up by Jorgen Hansen, who joints TSE Consulting as a Senior Consultant, having previously worked as the CEO of the Danish Badminton Federation and as a Senior Consultant for the Nordic management consultancy Ramboll.
Jorgen Hansen will be coordinating the provision of these services for cities, regions and countries wishing to analyse a complex picture of all the related costs and benefits when planning or evaluating a sporting event. He will be based at the TSE Consulting Scandinavia office in Copenhagen, which is headed by Director of TSE Consulting Scandinavia, Susanne Hedegaard.
Lars Haue-Pedersen, Managing Director of TSE Consulting: “We have often discussed with our public sector clients about the need for providing an alternative to the narrow focus of impact analysis of sporting events. With someone with the expertise of Jorgen Hansen on board we can now offer our clients full scale cost-benefit analyses with even more measurements of welfare changes by also including various opportunity costs and intangibles into this complex equation. We are very excited about the opportunities that this new business line offers and we are delighted that Jorgen has chosen TSE for the next steps in his career.”
Jorgen Hansen, Senior Consultant, TSE Consulting Scandinavia: “I think that my many years of experience in management consulting combined with my recent experience in the sports world provide me with a strong background for heading this new business line within TSE. I very much look forward to assisting TSE clients around the world to achieve a much more complete economic picture of the impact of a sporting event hosted within their city or region. I firmly believe that the whole area of appraisal of sporting events can be developed much further and I look forward to doing that within TSE”.
This new business line will be headed up by Jorgen Hansen, who joints TSE Consulting as a Senior Consultant, having previously worked as the CEO of the Danish Badminton Federation and as a Senior Consultant for the Nordic management consultancy Ramboll.
Jorgen Hansen will be coordinating the provision of these services for cities, regions and countries wishing to analyse a complex picture of all the related costs and benefits when planning or evaluating a sporting event. He will be based at the TSE Consulting Scandinavia office in Copenhagen, which is headed by Director of TSE Consulting Scandinavia, Susanne Hedegaard.
Lars Haue-Pedersen, Managing Director of TSE Consulting: “We have often discussed with our public sector clients about the need for providing an alternative to the narrow focus of impact analysis of sporting events. With someone with the expertise of Jorgen Hansen on board we can now offer our clients full scale cost-benefit analyses with even more measurements of welfare changes by also including various opportunity costs and intangibles into this complex equation. We are very excited about the opportunities that this new business line offers and we are delighted that Jorgen has chosen TSE for the next steps in his career.”
Jorgen Hansen, Senior Consultant, TSE Consulting Scandinavia: “I think that my many years of experience in management consulting combined with my recent experience in the sports world provide me with a strong background for heading this new business line within TSE. I very much look forward to assisting TSE clients around the world to achieve a much more complete economic picture of the impact of a sporting event hosted within their city or region. I firmly believe that the whole area of appraisal of sporting events can be developed much further and I look forward to doing that within TSE”.
IDC Continues to Rank Neoris Among the Largest IT Consulting and Systems Integration Companies in Latin America
Neoris announced today that it has been ranked among Latin America's top IT consultancies by IDC. According to IDC's study, "Latin America Semiannual IT Services Tracker 2008," Neoris remained in the number two spot, both in IT consulting and Systems Integration, outperforming more than 100 other IDC-ranked companies and improving on its ranking in several countries in the region.
Neoris is ranked the largest IT Consulting and Systems Integration firm in Mexico, one of Latin America's biggest markets. In Argentina, Neoris maintained its top spot for Custom Application Development and reached second position in IT Consulting. Neoris' operation in Colombia is ranked as the third largest IT Consulting Company in the country in 2008.
"In spite of the current economic crisis, we have maintained our position in IDC's Latin American rankings by doing what we do best: working closely with our clients, building trust and sharing risk in order to seek new opportunities for them," said Claudio Muruzabal, CEO of Neoris. "Neoris' expertise is to provide customized solutions that focus on delivering outstanding results. Today's news confirms our business model is paying dividends as Neoris continues strengthening its position as the largest regionally-born IT consulting company in Latin America."
According to IDC's report, in 2008, Latin America's IT Consulting Market grew 17.5% and the Systems Integration market grew 16.6%, compared to the same period in 2007. The same study reported that the Latin American IT services market represents 30% of the overall IT market in Latin America.
"We are proud to be recognized for our achievements," said Claudio Muruzabal. "Our regional capabilities have allowed us to maintain our well established leadership in Latin America. This presence in Latin America, combined with our global delivery model strategy, places us on par with our international competitors and increasingly accelerates our global expansion."
About Neoris
Neoris is a global business and IT consulting company that specializes in nearshore outsourcing, value-added consulting, and emerging technologies. Neoris is the largest IT consulting and systems integration company in Mexico and the second in Latin America. Neoris offers systems integration, custom application development, IT consulting, and software deployment and support solutions. The company is a leading provider of nearshore outsourcing services through a global delivery model leveraging six worldwide software development centers. In 2009, Neoris was ranked the Best IT Service Provider in Latin America by Global Services. Headquartered in Miami (FL), Neoris has operations in the US, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.neoris.com.
Neoris is ranked the largest IT Consulting and Systems Integration firm in Mexico, one of Latin America's biggest markets. In Argentina, Neoris maintained its top spot for Custom Application Development and reached second position in IT Consulting. Neoris' operation in Colombia is ranked as the third largest IT Consulting Company in the country in 2008.
"In spite of the current economic crisis, we have maintained our position in IDC's Latin American rankings by doing what we do best: working closely with our clients, building trust and sharing risk in order to seek new opportunities for them," said Claudio Muruzabal, CEO of Neoris. "Neoris' expertise is to provide customized solutions that focus on delivering outstanding results. Today's news confirms our business model is paying dividends as Neoris continues strengthening its position as the largest regionally-born IT consulting company in Latin America."
According to IDC's report, in 2008, Latin America's IT Consulting Market grew 17.5% and the Systems Integration market grew 16.6%, compared to the same period in 2007. The same study reported that the Latin American IT services market represents 30% of the overall IT market in Latin America.
"We are proud to be recognized for our achievements," said Claudio Muruzabal. "Our regional capabilities have allowed us to maintain our well established leadership in Latin America. This presence in Latin America, combined with our global delivery model strategy, places us on par with our international competitors and increasingly accelerates our global expansion."
About Neoris
Neoris is a global business and IT consulting company that specializes in nearshore outsourcing, value-added consulting, and emerging technologies. Neoris is the largest IT consulting and systems integration company in Mexico and the second in Latin America. Neoris offers systems integration, custom application development, IT consulting, and software deployment and support solutions. The company is a leading provider of nearshore outsourcing services through a global delivery model leveraging six worldwide software development centers. In 2009, Neoris was ranked the Best IT Service Provider in Latin America by Global Services. Headquartered in Miami (FL), Neoris has operations in the US, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.neoris.com.
L.E.K. Consulting's New Survey Finds Despite Recent Optimistic Reports, Consumer Buying Habits Likely to Continue to Have Significant Negative Impact
Despite the recent rash of optimism trumpeted by numerous economists and some of the media, a new survey just released by L.E.K. Consulting shows that U.S. consumers are actually more negative now than they were when a similar survey was conducted in October 2008.
Of the demographically representative set of more than 3,000 consumers surveyed:
Our study finds that consumer spending has declined across all categories over the past 12 months – including such staples as groceries which were stable in our October survey.
Views towards personal finances have also continued to decline. While the recent jump in household savings rates to 4.2% has been highly touted, it is still well below the 7% average over the past 60 years. In fact, one-fifth of the consumers surveyed said they plan to save “a lot more” than they have historically after the recession is over.
“One key finding of the study is that there are indications of seismic shifts occurring in how U.S. consumers plan to behave in both the near-term and long-term,” says Andrew Rees, VP and Head of L.E.K.’s Retail Practice.
According to the study, 45% of consumers are now actively trading down to less expensive brands and an additional 30% report that they are mixing in less expensive brands with their traditional purchases. This means that 75% of consumers are buying less expensive brands.
50% of consumers are buying items at the same price, but buying fewer of them. 50% of consumers said they are buying lower priced items this year compared to last and of this group, approximately 70% are saying that when they buy, they also buy fewer items.
In addition, about 40% of consumers said that they are actively shopping at less expensive stores and an additional 25% of consumers said they have been mixing in some shopping at less expensive stores with their traditional stores. This means that about two-thirds of consumers have migrated to less expensive stores. This is a significant shift of consumers moving from traditional channels to lower price channels.
Perhaps most worrisome for retailers and consumer goods manufacturers in the longer-term, 40% of consumers also said they would continue to spend less even when the economy recovers.
Dan McKone, VP and co-author of the study added "Retailers and consumer goods manufacturers would do well to look beyond the recent fluctuations in consumer sentiment (which still remains at historic lows) and recognize that not only have consumers made fundamental changes in their buying behaviors, but that many of these changes could be much more long-lasting than they’d hoped.”
For full details of this study or to schedule an interview with authors Andrew Rees or Dan McKone, please contact Sandra Riel at 617-951-9507 or s.riel@lek.com
About L.E.K. Consulting
L.E.K. Consulting is a global strategy consulting firm that specializes in corporate strategy, transaction services, and performance improvement. Founded in 1983, L.E.K. currently employs over 900 professionals in 20 offices worldwide. Global clients include Fortune 500, FTSE 100, Eurotop 300, and many of the largest firms in Asia-Pacific. With a reputation for solving the most complex issues, L.E.K. collaborates with business leaders to accelerate the pace and precision of strategic decision-making.
Of the demographically representative set of more than 3,000 consumers surveyed:
- About 75-80% said they were concerned about either losing their job or someone in their immediate family losing a job;
- About 50% feel the economy will not recover for at least two years;
- Consumers estimated that their overall decline in spending was 8.8% versus a year ago – approximately twice as much as they reported last October;
- About 60% of consumers said they plan to spend less over the next six months.
Our study finds that consumer spending has declined across all categories over the past 12 months – including such staples as groceries which were stable in our October survey.
Views towards personal finances have also continued to decline. While the recent jump in household savings rates to 4.2% has been highly touted, it is still well below the 7% average over the past 60 years. In fact, one-fifth of the consumers surveyed said they plan to save “a lot more” than they have historically after the recession is over.
“One key finding of the study is that there are indications of seismic shifts occurring in how U.S. consumers plan to behave in both the near-term and long-term,” says Andrew Rees, VP and Head of L.E.K.’s Retail Practice.
According to the study, 45% of consumers are now actively trading down to less expensive brands and an additional 30% report that they are mixing in less expensive brands with their traditional purchases. This means that 75% of consumers are buying less expensive brands.
50% of consumers are buying items at the same price, but buying fewer of them. 50% of consumers said they are buying lower priced items this year compared to last and of this group, approximately 70% are saying that when they buy, they also buy fewer items.
In addition, about 40% of consumers said that they are actively shopping at less expensive stores and an additional 25% of consumers said they have been mixing in some shopping at less expensive stores with their traditional stores. This means that about two-thirds of consumers have migrated to less expensive stores. This is a significant shift of consumers moving from traditional channels to lower price channels.
Perhaps most worrisome for retailers and consumer goods manufacturers in the longer-term, 40% of consumers also said they would continue to spend less even when the economy recovers.
Dan McKone, VP and co-author of the study added "Retailers and consumer goods manufacturers would do well to look beyond the recent fluctuations in consumer sentiment (which still remains at historic lows) and recognize that not only have consumers made fundamental changes in their buying behaviors, but that many of these changes could be much more long-lasting than they’d hoped.”
For full details of this study or to schedule an interview with authors Andrew Rees or Dan McKone, please contact Sandra Riel at 617-951-9507 or s.riel@lek.com
About L.E.K. Consulting
L.E.K. Consulting is a global strategy consulting firm that specializes in corporate strategy, transaction services, and performance improvement. Founded in 1983, L.E.K. currently employs over 900 professionals in 20 offices worldwide. Global clients include Fortune 500, FTSE 100, Eurotop 300, and many of the largest firms in Asia-Pacific. With a reputation for solving the most complex issues, L.E.K. collaborates with business leaders to accelerate the pace and precision of strategic decision-making.
KOHR Group Human Capital Management and Consulting Launches New Web Site
The newly redesigned web site of KOHR Grou Human Capital Management and Consulting went live last week on the World Wide Web. Through this new site KOHR Group aims to extend the reach of their programs for small and mid-size businesses.
"Our online visitors will now be able to access a more simplified and easier to navigate site, showcasing the value added services we provide to small and mid-size businesses." stated Jared Koesten, President at KOHR Group. "I am pleased that we are able to provide HR services that are not often available to smaller organizations due to lack of resources or budgetary constraints. Through our flexible service delivery model we offer both project based and outsourced HR services that meet any organizations unique needs and budget."
KOHR Group
KOHR Group, LLC is a provider of professional human capital management & consulting services. KOHR Group provides solutions that help organizations align their human capital and business objectives, and promote organizational efficiency, sustainability and growth. Our custom tailored solutions include: On-Demand & Outsourced HR Administration, Training & Organizational Development, HR Audit & Compliance, Performance Management Programs, Policy/Procedure, Recruitment & Staffing Services, and Payroll & Employee Benefits Services.
"Our online visitors will now be able to access a more simplified and easier to navigate site, showcasing the value added services we provide to small and mid-size businesses." stated Jared Koesten, President at KOHR Group. "I am pleased that we are able to provide HR services that are not often available to smaller organizations due to lack of resources or budgetary constraints. Through our flexible service delivery model we offer both project based and outsourced HR services that meet any organizations unique needs and budget."
KOHR Group
KOHR Group, LLC is a provider of professional human capital management & consulting services. KOHR Group provides solutions that help organizations align their human capital and business objectives, and promote organizational efficiency, sustainability and growth. Our custom tailored solutions include: On-Demand & Outsourced HR Administration, Training & Organizational Development, HR Audit & Compliance, Performance Management Programs, Policy/Procedure, Recruitment & Staffing Services, and Payroll & Employee Benefits Services.
Convergys Presents at National Association of Outsources Seminar
At the National Association of Outsourcers Seminar in London, Convergys, a provider of relationship management solutions, presented on how the service experience has become as important as the product being sold, and more important than brand or price.
Speaking on the "Customer Experience in a Relationship Economy," Convergys' Frank Sherlock discussed the rising importance of the service experience, the role channel preferences have in delivering service experience, and why many companies are failing to deliver a service experience for each customer. He also discussed five solutions that would help companies address their customer service challenges, including hosted on-demand solutions.
Sherlock is a senior VP and managing director at Convergys, where he is responsible for aligning resources to drive growth of the company's customer management business.
According to Sherlock, a proprietary research study by Convergys on the customer experience scorecard reveals that the quality of the customer service experience provided by a company now ties the quality of the product that the company sells as the top competitive differentiators, both at 27 percent. The price of the product was rated by consumers at 24 percent, with brand name and corporate reputation trailing considerably, at 9 percent each.
Convergys' presentation online:
http://convergys.com/company/news-events/events.php.
Speaking on the "Customer Experience in a Relationship Economy," Convergys' Frank Sherlock discussed the rising importance of the service experience, the role channel preferences have in delivering service experience, and why many companies are failing to deliver a service experience for each customer. He also discussed five solutions that would help companies address their customer service challenges, including hosted on-demand solutions.
Sherlock is a senior VP and managing director at Convergys, where he is responsible for aligning resources to drive growth of the company's customer management business.
According to Sherlock, a proprietary research study by Convergys on the customer experience scorecard reveals that the quality of the customer service experience provided by a company now ties the quality of the product that the company sells as the top competitive differentiators, both at 27 percent. The price of the product was rated by consumers at 24 percent, with brand name and corporate reputation trailing considerably, at 9 percent each.
Convergys' presentation online:
http://convergys.com/company/news-events/events.php.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
CastleBay Consulting Earns High Marks in Novarica ACE Rankings
CastleBay Consulting Corporation, a consulting services firm specializing in providing high impact consulting services to the Property & Casualty insurance market, today announced that it has received impressive scores in the Novarica Average Customer Experience (ACE) Ranking Report™ published in May 2009. In addition to earning a score of 95 out of a possible 100 for “overall customer satisfaction,” CastleBay also received a score of 92 for “overall staff,” and 93 for “overall organization.”
The Novarica ACE Rankings™ were based on an online survey of senior technology and operational executives at five insurer clients who have had direct experience with the CastleBay services and organization. ACE Rankings provide a transparent, un-edited picture of how well a solution or provider meets its users' needs.
“We are pleased to include CastleBay Consulting in our Novarica ACE Rankings report as the first consulting firm to be ranked,” said Matthew Josefowicz, director of insurance practices, Novarica, and lead researcher for the Novarica ACE Rankings effort. “We asked those insurers surveyed to rank his or her experience with CastleBay, resulting in an impressive score of 95 for overall customer satisfaction.”
“We are extremely pleased to have received such high marks from our client family and to be the first consulting firm to be included in the Novarica ACE Rankings. On behalf of the CastleBay team I’d would like to thank Novarica for the recognition and our clients for their support,” said George Grieve, CastleBay’s CEO. “Our high scores are very gratifying and we will continue our commitment to provide only the highest quality services to our clients.”
To download a copy of the Novarica ACE Ranking on CastleBay please visit: http://www.castlebayconsulting.com.
About Novarica ACE Rankings
Novarica ACE Rankings are produced independently and are not sponsored by vendors. Novarica solicits rankings directly from its own network of insurer contacts as well as offering vendors the opportunity to direct clients to the survey. Vendors have no input into the results of the survey other than the opportunity to direct clients to the survey. Individual client responses are kept confidential from the referring vendor. For more information on Novarica and on the ACE Rankings, please visit http://www.novarica.com/acerankings.shtml.
About CastleBay Consulting Corporation
Austin, Texas based CastleBay Consulting was founded in 1998 to provide high impact consulting services to the Property & Casualty insurance market. Services include strategic systems planning and acquisition; quality management; program and project set up, management and assessment; business process and requirements analysis; and related software implementation services.
CastleBay’s consultants average more than 25 years of insurance industry experience and represent a wealth of experience as executives and officers from world-class vendor and insurance carrier companies.
To learn more about CastleBay Consulting’s services, call 512.329.2619 or visit the website at www.castlebayconsulting.com.
The Novarica ACE Rankings™ were based on an online survey of senior technology and operational executives at five insurer clients who have had direct experience with the CastleBay services and organization. ACE Rankings provide a transparent, un-edited picture of how well a solution or provider meets its users' needs.
“We are pleased to include CastleBay Consulting in our Novarica ACE Rankings report as the first consulting firm to be ranked,” said Matthew Josefowicz, director of insurance practices, Novarica, and lead researcher for the Novarica ACE Rankings effort. “We asked those insurers surveyed to rank his or her experience with CastleBay, resulting in an impressive score of 95 for overall customer satisfaction.”
“We are extremely pleased to have received such high marks from our client family and to be the first consulting firm to be included in the Novarica ACE Rankings. On behalf of the CastleBay team I’d would like to thank Novarica for the recognition and our clients for their support,” said George Grieve, CastleBay’s CEO. “Our high scores are very gratifying and we will continue our commitment to provide only the highest quality services to our clients.”
To download a copy of the Novarica ACE Ranking on CastleBay please visit: http://www.castlebayconsulting.com.
About Novarica ACE Rankings
Novarica ACE Rankings are produced independently and are not sponsored by vendors. Novarica solicits rankings directly from its own network of insurer contacts as well as offering vendors the opportunity to direct clients to the survey. Vendors have no input into the results of the survey other than the opportunity to direct clients to the survey. Individual client responses are kept confidential from the referring vendor. For more information on Novarica and on the ACE Rankings, please visit http://www.novarica.com/acerankings.shtml.
About CastleBay Consulting Corporation
Austin, Texas based CastleBay Consulting was founded in 1998 to provide high impact consulting services to the Property & Casualty insurance market. Services include strategic systems planning and acquisition; quality management; program and project set up, management and assessment; business process and requirements analysis; and related software implementation services.
CastleBay’s consultants average more than 25 years of insurance industry experience and represent a wealth of experience as executives and officers from world-class vendor and insurance carrier companies.
To learn more about CastleBay Consulting’s services, call 512.329.2619 or visit the website at www.castlebayconsulting.com.
Eastbridge Consulting Group Announces a New Report on Voluntary Term Life Products
Voluntary life insurance is historically the most offered voluntary product. And, according to Eastbridge research, it is still the most commonly offered product by carriers today. Life insurance is also the most frequently owned voluntary product by employees. Today, voluntary term plans out sell UL/WL plans by a margin of two to one, with term accounting for 68 percent of the voluntary life sales.
The Voluntary Term Life Products 2009 Spotlight Report is designed to help carriers better understand today’s competitive landscape around term life plans sold at the worksite. The report provides data from 16 different carriers active in the market including:
The cost of the report is $3,000. More information, including a table of contents for the report, is available on our website at: http://eastbridge.com/spotlight/archives/p_2009voltermlife.htm.
To purchase the report, call the company at (860) 676-9633 or email info@eastbridge.com.
The Voluntary Term Life Products 2009 Spotlight Report is designed to help carriers better understand today’s competitive landscape around term life plans sold at the worksite. The report provides data from 16 different carriers active in the market including:
- Product features (product type, minimum/maximum face amount, available riders, etc.)
- Underwriting guidelines/eligibility parameters
- Pricing
- Commissions
The cost of the report is $3,000. More information, including a table of contents for the report, is available on our website at: http://eastbridge.com/spotlight/archives/p_2009voltermlife.htm.
To purchase the report, call the company at (860) 676-9633 or email info@eastbridge.com.
Denison Consulting to Address Critical Leadership Issues at ASTD
Denison Consulting, the world's leader in organizational leadership and culture assessment solutions, today announced that it will be co-presenting with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the largest government agency that provides logistics support to the U.S. Department of Defense, on business coaching and leadership, at the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) annual conference, www.astd.org, June 1-3, 2009, in Washington, DC, Booth #2023.
Denison Research Associate Ryan Smerek, PhD., will co-present a session entitled "Smoke and Mirrors or the Real Deal? Leadership Development with Results" on June 1,, 2009, from 4:00-5:30 pm, Room #206. Smerek will be joined by the following presenters:
The ASTD session will address the impact of leadership development in the DLA from four different perspectives: business leader, program manager, lead coach, and research associate. Information discussed will include:
* how leadership development can be implemented into a highly-demanding, fast-paced global organization, like the DLA;
* how improvements in leadership were assessed using the Denison Leadership Development Survey; and
* the measureable changes in leadership behavior that document real evidence and impact to DLA's bottom line.
The DLA is one of the largest government agencies that provides an annual $40 billion of logistics support to the U.S. Department of Defense and has assisted relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina, the 2007 California fires, and other natural disasters around the globe.
About Denison Consulting
Denison Consulting provides the world's best research-based tools and assessment solutions designed to improve the bottom-line performance of leaders, teams, and organizations. Used by more than 5,000 organizations globally, Denison's organizational culture, leadership, and team surveys allow organizations, leaders, and teams to identify strengths and weaknesses that impact sales profitability, quality, innovation, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. Based in Ann Arbor, MI, Denison has offices worldwide in North America, Europe and Asia, as well as a global network of licensed distributors, consultants and researchers.
Denison Research Associate Ryan Smerek, PhD., will co-present a session entitled "Smoke and Mirrors or the Real Deal? Leadership Development with Results" on June 1,, 2009, from 4:00-5:30 pm, Room #206. Smerek will be joined by the following presenters:
- Edward Visker Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.), Deputy Commander, Defense Logistics Agency
- Paula Kluczynski, manager of the DLA's centralized new leader development program
- Linda Shaffer-Vanaria , president and founder of Enterprise Coaching of Carlsbad, CA
The ASTD session will address the impact of leadership development in the DLA from four different perspectives: business leader, program manager, lead coach, and research associate. Information discussed will include:
* how leadership development can be implemented into a highly-demanding, fast-paced global organization, like the DLA;
* how improvements in leadership were assessed using the Denison Leadership Development Survey; and
* the measureable changes in leadership behavior that document real evidence and impact to DLA's bottom line.
The DLA is one of the largest government agencies that provides an annual $40 billion of logistics support to the U.S. Department of Defense and has assisted relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina, the 2007 California fires, and other natural disasters around the globe.
About Denison Consulting
Denison Consulting provides the world's best research-based tools and assessment solutions designed to improve the bottom-line performance of leaders, teams, and organizations. Used by more than 5,000 organizations globally, Denison's organizational culture, leadership, and team surveys allow organizations, leaders, and teams to identify strengths and weaknesses that impact sales profitability, quality, innovation, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. Based in Ann Arbor, MI, Denison has offices worldwide in North America, Europe and Asia, as well as a global network of licensed distributors, consultants and researchers.
IASIS Healthcare and Precyse Solutions Sign Two-Year Consulting Agreement
Precyse Solutions, a leading provider of clinical documentation software, workflow tools and consulting services, has signed a two-year consulting and training agreement with IASIS Healthcare. The agreement between Precyse and IASIS includes peer-to-peer training regarding quality clinical documentation for IASIS physicians.
Precyse was awarded the contract based on its ability to utilize physician trainers to conduct high-level education for the IASIS medical staff. Most other firms in the clinical documentation improvement space do not have the resources to offer this type of peer-to-peer consulting and training. "Our training requirements and range of services needed for clinical documentation vary across our 16-facility system," said IASIS Healthcare Director of Health Information Management Operations Kyle McElroy, MS-HAS, RHIA. "Therefore, it was important for us to partner with a single vendor who could not only tailor its training to meet our various needs, but could do so while providing an underlying consistency in both the messaging and quality of service."
Jeffrey S. Levitt, Precyse founder and chief executive officer, reports that Precyse clients have realized significant benefits from implementing clinical documentation programs. "Our clients have realized two distinct benefits from these programs. First, many report additional billing potential of up to $10,000 per bed annually from implementing our enriched documentation and advanced coding education programs as coders have more documentation in the charts to more appropriately assign codes. In addition, because the level of documentation in the charts is enhanced under these programs, others report that they are able to make better clinical decisions based upon the enriched level of documentation leading to both more informed care delivery decisions and better patient outcomes," said Levitt. "However, results like this don't come automatically; they require a coordinated team approach that includes the medical staff, HIM professionals and case managers blended with industry experts. IASIS' decision to use Precyse as its 'go to' vendor will guarantee that all of its programs leverage our best learning opportunities and have the IASIS staff prepared to realize top results."
About Precyse Solutions
Precyse Solutions is a leading provider of clinical documentation software, workflow tools and services used by over 850 health systems, hospitals, and large physician practices across the U.S. Precyse's technology-enabled solutions and consulting services ensure that medical coding and transcription functions are completed with the highest level of data quality, accuracy and timeliness. By deploying Precyse's technologies and solutions, Precyse's clients realize improvements in operating cost efficiencies, cash flow, patient care and regulatory compliance. For more information, please visit www.precysesolutions.com.
About IASIS Healthcare
IASIS Healthcare, located in Franklin, Tennessee, is a leading owner and operator of medium-sized acute care hospitals in high-growth urban and suburban markets. The company operates its hospitals with a strong community focus by offering and developing healthcare services targeted to the needs of the markets it serves, promoting strong relationships with physicians and working with local managed care plans. IASIS owns or leases 15 acute care hospital facilities and one behavioral health hospital facility with a total of 2,796 beds in service and has total annual net revenue of approximately $2.2 billion. These hospital facilities are located in six regions: Salt Lake City, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida; three cities in Texas, including San Antonio; Las Vegas, Nevada; and West Monroe, Louisiana. IASIS also owns and operates a Medicaid and Medicare managed health plan in Phoenix that serves over 167,000 members. For more information on IASIS, please visit the company's Web site at www.iasishealthcare.com.
Precyse was awarded the contract based on its ability to utilize physician trainers to conduct high-level education for the IASIS medical staff. Most other firms in the clinical documentation improvement space do not have the resources to offer this type of peer-to-peer consulting and training. "Our training requirements and range of services needed for clinical documentation vary across our 16-facility system," said IASIS Healthcare Director of Health Information Management Operations Kyle McElroy, MS-HAS, RHIA. "Therefore, it was important for us to partner with a single vendor who could not only tailor its training to meet our various needs, but could do so while providing an underlying consistency in both the messaging and quality of service."
Jeffrey S. Levitt, Precyse founder and chief executive officer, reports that Precyse clients have realized significant benefits from implementing clinical documentation programs. "Our clients have realized two distinct benefits from these programs. First, many report additional billing potential of up to $10,000 per bed annually from implementing our enriched documentation and advanced coding education programs as coders have more documentation in the charts to more appropriately assign codes. In addition, because the level of documentation in the charts is enhanced under these programs, others report that they are able to make better clinical decisions based upon the enriched level of documentation leading to both more informed care delivery decisions and better patient outcomes," said Levitt. "However, results like this don't come automatically; they require a coordinated team approach that includes the medical staff, HIM professionals and case managers blended with industry experts. IASIS' decision to use Precyse as its 'go to' vendor will guarantee that all of its programs leverage our best learning opportunities and have the IASIS staff prepared to realize top results."
About Precyse Solutions
Precyse Solutions is a leading provider of clinical documentation software, workflow tools and services used by over 850 health systems, hospitals, and large physician practices across the U.S. Precyse's technology-enabled solutions and consulting services ensure that medical coding and transcription functions are completed with the highest level of data quality, accuracy and timeliness. By deploying Precyse's technologies and solutions, Precyse's clients realize improvements in operating cost efficiencies, cash flow, patient care and regulatory compliance. For more information, please visit www.precysesolutions.com.
About IASIS Healthcare
IASIS Healthcare, located in Franklin, Tennessee, is a leading owner and operator of medium-sized acute care hospitals in high-growth urban and suburban markets. The company operates its hospitals with a strong community focus by offering and developing healthcare services targeted to the needs of the markets it serves, promoting strong relationships with physicians and working with local managed care plans. IASIS owns or leases 15 acute care hospital facilities and one behavioral health hospital facility with a total of 2,796 beds in service and has total annual net revenue of approximately $2.2 billion. These hospital facilities are located in six regions: Salt Lake City, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida; three cities in Texas, including San Antonio; Las Vegas, Nevada; and West Monroe, Louisiana. IASIS also owns and operates a Medicaid and Medicare managed health plan in Phoenix that serves over 167,000 members. For more information on IASIS, please visit the company's Web site at www.iasishealthcare.com.
Deloitte Consulting to Present at SOA World Conference, June 22-23 in NYC
SYS-CON Events announced today that Greg Lomow, Specialist Leader in the Solution Architect Group of Deloitte Consulting, will be presenting at the upcoming SOA World Conference & Expo 2009 East www.soaworld2009.com) June 22-23, 2009, in New York City.
His session will be entitled "Business-Driven SOA Governance"
Dr Greg Lomow is a Specialist Leader in the Solution Architect Group at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He has 20 years of experience as an information technology professional and 10 years experience design and developing SOA-based solutions. Dr. Lomow completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Calgary, Canada. He co-chaired all 5 "SOA for eGovernment" conferences from 2004 to 2008.
Business-Driven SOA Governance
This session presents a SOA Governance framework for creating, communicating and enforcing SOA policies, processes and standards in a business-driven manner, while at the same time providing stakeholders and business managers with greater management visibility and control over all aspects of a SOA program. The session will discuss how to launch your SOA Governance program and maximize its effectiveness.
15th International SOA World Conference & Expo
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is actively enabling component reuse today and helping companies leverage their existing IT investments.
In these recessionary times when every IT dollar must be made to count, the 15th International SOA World Conference & Expo (June 22-23, 2009, in New York) will be about showing attending delegates how their business or organization can start doing the same, and offering them resources, ideas and examples they can apply immediately.
This June's SOA World, which is the world's number one longest-running SOA event, will feature parallel content-rich tracks reflecting the worldwide adoption of the distributed computing paradigm, in which web services are deployed through specific service-oriented architectures and in which reusable components are core to the overall vision.
The technical program in June in New York City will provide a framework about how to understand policies, composites, lifecycle governance, loose coupling, heterogeneous distributed systems, adaptability vs. stability, service portfolio management - every relevant aspect of SOA as a framework for constructing and interlinking a company's back-end systems with the overall goal of lowering cost and adding flexibility.
Many organizations have already adopted SOA development models to deliver flexible and agile application components, but SOA is about people as much as technology, which is why so many companies send delegates to SOA World to accelerate their journey toward becoming SOA-enabled enterprises.
Architects, developers and managers making SOA design decisions will learn about CIO-pleasing governance principles and much more. There's simply no other conference like it.
Come join us in New York's midtown Manhattan in June!
Delegates Will Learn How SOA Can:
Receive a Week's Worth of Education in Two Information-Packed Days!
"Golden Pass" registration provides full access to all general sessions, breakout sessions, presentations, industry discussion panels, and the Expo Floor, together with a Welcome Reception and various other Special Events during the course of the show.
Co-located with AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo
The big winners in the world of online commerce are those that make the quality of the user experience (UX) the centerpiece of their overall online strategy.
In the current economic climate, IT managers are under continuous pressure to justify spending time and money on user-experience research and design. What does that mean to developers, architects, business users, and value?
Click here to register today and save!
Click here to submit papers!
Click here to sponsor or exhibit at AJAX World!
At the 7th International AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo in New York City this June, the conference theme is "Driving Profitability Through the User Experience" - there will be the year's top keynotes, general sessions, breakout sessions, and industry panels that explore and explain how simple, rich interfaces that don't get in the way of the user's experience but enhance it are increasingly becoming tied to value creation, profitability and staying-power in the marketplace.
IT professionals of every stripe will come away with an enhanced understanding of what it takes to effectively evaluate, design and build online experiences that are compelling, usable, and profitable. Our organizing principle is that attending delegates should leave the Conference with abundant resources, ideas and examples they can apply immediately to leveraging the technologies they see on display and hear under discussion.
SOA / WOA Technology Contributors of 2009
/n Software, Aberdeen Group, Abovo Group, AccelTree, activePDF, ActiveServers, Actuate, AdventNet, AgentWare, Agilent Technologies, AgilePath, Altova, AmberPoint, AMD, Amentra, American Coders, Amyuni, AppSense, Apptricity, Aprimo, Arbortext, Attachmate, Autodesk, Azul Systems, BEA Systems, B-hive, Black Hat, BlackDuck Software, BlueNote Networks, BMC Software, Borland, BroadVision, Business Objects, CA, CalAmp, CapGemini, Catalyst Systems, CheckFree, ClearApp, Codagen, COGNOS, ComponentSource, Composite Software, CSC, Compuware, Covalent, DevelopMentor, DigitalAssets, Eclipse.org, Embarcadero Technologies, EnterpriseDB, Fair Isaac, Farata Systems, Fiorano, Forum Systems, Fuego, Fujitsu, Gartner Group, Gizmox Systems, Global Knowledge, Gluecode Software, GT Software, Gutenberg Communications, HP, HiT Software, Hitachi, HP Bluestone, Information Builders, Interwoven, Ipedo, iTKO, J9 Technologies, Jacada, JustSystems, Layer 7 Technologies, LogicLibrary, LogiXML, MacroVision, Maestro CMS, Magoo Software, McAfee.com, Mellanox, Micro Focus, Mindreef, MKS / Mortice Kern Systems, NASTEL Technologies, NEON Systems, NetIQ, OMG, Object Management Group, ObjectBuilders, ObjectFocus, Objective Solutions, Open Text, OpenLogic, OpenMake, OpenSpan, OpTier, Optika, Oracle, PaperThin, PerfectXML, Perficient, Inc, preEmptive Solutions, Progress Software, Prolifics, Rackspace, Red Hat / JBoss, Rogue Wave, RSA Security, SAP, Sapiens, Seagull Software, Seapine Software, ServerLogic, SOALogix, SOAMatrix, Sonic Software, SpikeSource, StrikeIron, Sybase, Telelogic, Teradata, Thinstall, Thoughtworks, TIBCO Software, Tidal Software, VeriSign, Versant, Versata, Vertigo Software, Visual Numerics, Vitria, Vordel, Wakesoft, Web Age Solutions, WebLayers, Webmetrics, Websense, Wily Technology, WinMill Software, WSO2, XMethods, XMLCities, ZapThink, and Zend Technologies.
His session will be entitled "Business-Driven SOA Governance"
Dr Greg Lomow is a Specialist Leader in the Solution Architect Group at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He has 20 years of experience as an information technology professional and 10 years experience design and developing SOA-based solutions. Dr. Lomow completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Calgary, Canada. He co-chaired all 5 "SOA for eGovernment" conferences from 2004 to 2008.
Business-Driven SOA Governance
This session presents a SOA Governance framework for creating, communicating and enforcing SOA policies, processes and standards in a business-driven manner, while at the same time providing stakeholders and business managers with greater management visibility and control over all aspects of a SOA program. The session will discuss how to launch your SOA Governance program and maximize its effectiveness.
15th International SOA World Conference & Expo
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is actively enabling component reuse today and helping companies leverage their existing IT investments.
In these recessionary times when every IT dollar must be made to count, the 15th International SOA World Conference & Expo (June 22-23, 2009, in New York) will be about showing attending delegates how their business or organization can start doing the same, and offering them resources, ideas and examples they can apply immediately.
This June's SOA World, which is the world's number one longest-running SOA event, will feature parallel content-rich tracks reflecting the worldwide adoption of the distributed computing paradigm, in which web services are deployed through specific service-oriented architectures and in which reusable components are core to the overall vision.
The technical program in June in New York City will provide a framework about how to understand policies, composites, lifecycle governance, loose coupling, heterogeneous distributed systems, adaptability vs. stability, service portfolio management - every relevant aspect of SOA as a framework for constructing and interlinking a company's back-end systems with the overall goal of lowering cost and adding flexibility.
Many organizations have already adopted SOA development models to deliver flexible and agile application components, but SOA is about people as much as technology, which is why so many companies send delegates to SOA World to accelerate their journey toward becoming SOA-enabled enterprises.
Architects, developers and managers making SOA design decisions will learn about CIO-pleasing governance principles and much more. There's simply no other conference like it.
Come join us in New York's midtown Manhattan in June!
Delegates Will Learn How SOA Can:
- Help their businesses respond more quickly and cost-effectively to changing market conditions
- Promote the goal of separating users (consumers) from the service implementations
- Let them achieve the optimum balance between business needs, technology potential, and IT costs
Receive a Week's Worth of Education in Two Information-Packed Days!
"Golden Pass" registration provides full access to all general sessions, breakout sessions, presentations, industry discussion panels, and the Expo Floor, together with a Welcome Reception and various other Special Events during the course of the show.
Co-located with AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo
The big winners in the world of online commerce are those that make the quality of the user experience (UX) the centerpiece of their overall online strategy.
In the current economic climate, IT managers are under continuous pressure to justify spending time and money on user-experience research and design. What does that mean to developers, architects, business users, and value?
Click here to register today and save!
Click here to submit papers!
Click here to sponsor or exhibit at AJAX World!
At the 7th International AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo in New York City this June, the conference theme is "Driving Profitability Through the User Experience" - there will be the year's top keynotes, general sessions, breakout sessions, and industry panels that explore and explain how simple, rich interfaces that don't get in the way of the user's experience but enhance it are increasingly becoming tied to value creation, profitability and staying-power in the marketplace.
IT professionals of every stripe will come away with an enhanced understanding of what it takes to effectively evaluate, design and build online experiences that are compelling, usable, and profitable. Our organizing principle is that attending delegates should leave the Conference with abundant resources, ideas and examples they can apply immediately to leveraging the technologies they see on display and hear under discussion.
SOA / WOA Technology Contributors of 2009
/n Software, Aberdeen Group, Abovo Group, AccelTree, activePDF, ActiveServers, Actuate, AdventNet, AgentWare, Agilent Technologies, AgilePath, Altova, AmberPoint, AMD, Amentra, American Coders, Amyuni, AppSense, Apptricity, Aprimo, Arbortext, Attachmate, Autodesk, Azul Systems, BEA Systems, B-hive, Black Hat, BlackDuck Software, BlueNote Networks, BMC Software, Borland, BroadVision, Business Objects, CA, CalAmp, CapGemini, Catalyst Systems, CheckFree, ClearApp, Codagen, COGNOS, ComponentSource, Composite Software, CSC, Compuware, Covalent, DevelopMentor, DigitalAssets, Eclipse.org, Embarcadero Technologies, EnterpriseDB, Fair Isaac, Farata Systems, Fiorano, Forum Systems, Fuego, Fujitsu, Gartner Group, Gizmox Systems, Global Knowledge, Gluecode Software, GT Software, Gutenberg Communications, HP, HiT Software, Hitachi, HP Bluestone, Information Builders, Interwoven, Ipedo, iTKO, J9 Technologies, Jacada, JustSystems, Layer 7 Technologies, LogicLibrary, LogiXML, MacroVision, Maestro CMS, Magoo Software, McAfee.com, Mellanox, Micro Focus, Mindreef, MKS / Mortice Kern Systems, NASTEL Technologies, NEON Systems, NetIQ, OMG, Object Management Group, ObjectBuilders, ObjectFocus, Objective Solutions, Open Text, OpenLogic, OpenMake, OpenSpan, OpTier, Optika, Oracle, PaperThin, PerfectXML, Perficient, Inc, preEmptive Solutions, Progress Software, Prolifics, Rackspace, Red Hat / JBoss, Rogue Wave, RSA Security, SAP, Sapiens, Seagull Software, Seapine Software, ServerLogic, SOALogix, SOAMatrix, Sonic Software, SpikeSource, StrikeIron, Sybase, Telelogic, Teradata, Thinstall, Thoughtworks, TIBCO Software, Tidal Software, VeriSign, Versant, Versata, Vertigo Software, Visual Numerics, Vitria, Vordel, Wakesoft, Web Age Solutions, WebLayers, Webmetrics, Websense, Wily Technology, WinMill Software, WSO2, XMethods, XMLCities, ZapThink, and Zend Technologies.
Consulting Firm EMB Identifies Top Shortfalls in Risk Management Programs
EMB, a global property and casualty (P&C) consulting firm, today identified the top three shortfalls in insurer risk management programs: inconsistent or poorly executed models, inadequate enterprise-wide collaboration, and contagion impact among human capital risks and underwriting risk. The current economic downturn is motivating insurers to improve risk management programs but many organizations are still overlooking one or more of these critical areas in their enterprise risk management (ERM) programs.
While many insurers are adept at identifying and prioritizing risks, they often lack the understanding of how these risks can interact and affect an organization’s entire risk profile. To take an ERM framework one step further, leaders from the C-suite to individual departments must make aggregate risk assessments and reduce the uncertainty or unknowns associated with a risk at any given time.
Models are key scenario-testing tools in measuring risk. However, their effectiveness requires consistency in data and use that can be difficult to achieve between departments with differing goals. Closely related is the need for company-wide collaboration in risk management decisions. Companies must achieve the best combination of risk taking, risk mitigation and risk avoidance to optimally achieve organization objectives and goals. To assure this mix will be achieved, a key organizational leader – ideally a Chief Risk Officer – should be appointed who can make risk decisions in the best interests of the entire enterprise, as opposed to an individual department or business unit. All areas of a business must fully support these key risk decisions to ensure an ERM program is effective.
Human capital risk, including employee skills shortages and turnover, also poses a danger to an organization’s risk profile, especially in terms of the contagion impact it can have on other risks the company faces. For example, to properly manage an insurance company’s underwriting risk, often one of the biggest risks faced by insurance companies, the proper number of qualified agents and employees must be on hand to design and implement an effective risk underwriting process. Properly trained and experienced employees translate into better business practices and reduced costs while helping organizations maintain appropriate risk levels. When good employees are lost, it has the potential to significantly impact an organization’s risk exposure.
“While it is reasonable to prioritize some risks over others at any given time, insurers simply cannot ignore everyday risks, like employee turnover, and how they can increase the potential of major business risks,” said Tom Hettinger, Managing Director, EMB North America. “Poorly designed or executed models, the lack of enterprise-wide collaboration, and inadequate human capital management can affect bottom-line numbers in major ways if overlooked. Organizations must understand the interactions between all the risks they face to understand the magnitude and importance of individual risks. Creating company-wide risk profiles is essential in order for senior leadership to steer their organizations strategically to deliver optimal value to their stakeholders.”
About EMB in North America
Established in 1993, EMB is a rapidly growing international consulting firm specializing in property and casualty (P&C) insurance. Its services cover personal lines, commercial insurance and reinsurance, which includes the London Market and Bermuda. EMB offers C-Counsel Business Consulting, Actuarial Consulting, Professional Development, Marketing Sciences and Software. Additionally, EMB pioneered the development and use of high-performance actuarial software, which allow businesses to perform tasks that would otherwise be impossible, impractical or hugely time-consuming. EMB employs more than 300 people around the globe covering Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East & Africa and clients include 28 of the top 30 P&C companies in the world.
While many insurers are adept at identifying and prioritizing risks, they often lack the understanding of how these risks can interact and affect an organization’s entire risk profile. To take an ERM framework one step further, leaders from the C-suite to individual departments must make aggregate risk assessments and reduce the uncertainty or unknowns associated with a risk at any given time.
Models are key scenario-testing tools in measuring risk. However, their effectiveness requires consistency in data and use that can be difficult to achieve between departments with differing goals. Closely related is the need for company-wide collaboration in risk management decisions. Companies must achieve the best combination of risk taking, risk mitigation and risk avoidance to optimally achieve organization objectives and goals. To assure this mix will be achieved, a key organizational leader – ideally a Chief Risk Officer – should be appointed who can make risk decisions in the best interests of the entire enterprise, as opposed to an individual department or business unit. All areas of a business must fully support these key risk decisions to ensure an ERM program is effective.
Human capital risk, including employee skills shortages and turnover, also poses a danger to an organization’s risk profile, especially in terms of the contagion impact it can have on other risks the company faces. For example, to properly manage an insurance company’s underwriting risk, often one of the biggest risks faced by insurance companies, the proper number of qualified agents and employees must be on hand to design and implement an effective risk underwriting process. Properly trained and experienced employees translate into better business practices and reduced costs while helping organizations maintain appropriate risk levels. When good employees are lost, it has the potential to significantly impact an organization’s risk exposure.
“While it is reasonable to prioritize some risks over others at any given time, insurers simply cannot ignore everyday risks, like employee turnover, and how they can increase the potential of major business risks,” said Tom Hettinger, Managing Director, EMB North America. “Poorly designed or executed models, the lack of enterprise-wide collaboration, and inadequate human capital management can affect bottom-line numbers in major ways if overlooked. Organizations must understand the interactions between all the risks they face to understand the magnitude and importance of individual risks. Creating company-wide risk profiles is essential in order for senior leadership to steer their organizations strategically to deliver optimal value to their stakeholders.”
About EMB in North America
Established in 1993, EMB is a rapidly growing international consulting firm specializing in property and casualty (P&C) insurance. Its services cover personal lines, commercial insurance and reinsurance, which includes the London Market and Bermuda. EMB offers C-Counsel Business Consulting, Actuarial Consulting, Professional Development, Marketing Sciences and Software. Additionally, EMB pioneered the development and use of high-performance actuarial software, which allow businesses to perform tasks that would otherwise be impossible, impractical or hugely time-consuming. EMB employs more than 300 people around the globe covering Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East & Africa and clients include 28 of the top 30 P&C companies in the world.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Leading Oracle Consulting Firm Rolta's iPerspective(TM) Drives Business Value From SOA Investments
The Rolta SOA Center of Excellence, a software division of Rolta and leading provider of agile service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions, today announced the availability of iPerspective(TM), a software toolkit that automates the creation and management of web services. Delivered as a part of Rolta's SOA solutions, this software enables fast demonstration of new services capabilities, empowering the essential IT to business communications needed to drive business value from SOA investments. As IT and business stakeholders build service-oriented environments, Rolta's iPerspective(TM) technology quickly adapts existing systems for business users and applications to access standard service interfaces, including Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Representational State Transfer (REST).
By combining iPerspective(TM) with Rolta's SOA Today(TM) consulting services, companies are given a balanced combination of software, training, consulting and customization techniques to execute a successful SOA implementation for their organization. Rolta advocates an agile approach to SOA that is incrementally implemented, guided by the organization's business strategy. This approach assures the ability to change as business conditions or organizational needs change. It also accommodates situations where most of the information needed for successful SOA is not known up front, but is learned during the building of the SOA.
"Historically, service-oriented architecture implementations have been laborious, expensive, and do not show quick enough return on investment," said Brad Brown, general manager, Rolta SOA Center of Excellence. "Often the projects are deemed failures because the approach was either too monolithic or too large to succeed. With iPerspective(TM) and the incremental approach, IT departments can develop services faster, achieving business application delivery with few new skills required."
Rolta's incremental approach also enables "SOA Federation," a term used to describe an environment where autonomous stakeholders interface and share key elements of technology and data in synergistic ways. iPerspective(TM) makes possible the collection of metrics that facilitate conversations between these stakeholders to improve the measurably productive use of SOA.
iPerspective(TM) features a point-and-click interface allowing IT professionals to create business services in minutes, with minimal effort and without writing any code. They can use these business services to deploy new or existing business applications or prototyping tools quickly, then review the result with the intended business users to ensure the new services meet the business needs.
Additionally, iPerspective(TM) automates the governance and management of services by providing the ability to release auditable groups of related services. For example, versioning or management with security through authentication and authorization is achieved at the data source, service, release and operation levels. iPerspective(TM) also offers the unique Universal Dynamic Query Service. This patent pending technology allows users to issue any authorized query of one or more gateways, through the business services consumer application. This capability provides a versatile, yet secure way for business applications to call one another without having to specify the exact nature of queries to be used up front.
For more information on SOA Today and the Rolta SOA Center of Excellence, please visit www.SOA-Today.com.
About the Rolta SOA Center of Excellence
The Rolta SOA Center of Excellence was born out of Rolta's January 2008 purchase of TUSC. Building on TUSC's 20 years of leadership in Oracle consulting, the SOA Center of Excellence delivers value and reduces customer costs through service oriented solutions.
Rolta is a multinational organization that has executed projects in over 40 countries. For over 25 years the Company has been a strong player in the Defense, Government, Infrastructure and Security markets. Rolta serves these markets by providing innovative solutions in Enterprise Information & Communications Technology (EICT), which includes Software Development, Advanced Security, Network Management, Oracle Apps, ERP Consulting and Business Intelligence; Geospatial Information Systems (GIS); and Engineering & Design Services (EDS). Rolta, headquartered in Mumbai, employs over 5,000 professionals with international subsidiaries across the globe. Forbes Global has ranked Rolta amongst the "Best 200 Under a Billion" for four times in six years. The Company is listed on the NSE in cash and F&O segment and forms part of CNX IT, NIFTY Midcap 50 and CNX 500 indices. The Company is also listed on BSE 'A' group and forms part of BSE Midcap, BSE 200, BSE 500, BSE IT and BSE TECK indices. The Company's GDR is listed on the Main Board of London Stock Exchange and its FCCB's are listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
By combining iPerspective(TM) with Rolta's SOA Today(TM) consulting services, companies are given a balanced combination of software, training, consulting and customization techniques to execute a successful SOA implementation for their organization. Rolta advocates an agile approach to SOA that is incrementally implemented, guided by the organization's business strategy. This approach assures the ability to change as business conditions or organizational needs change. It also accommodates situations where most of the information needed for successful SOA is not known up front, but is learned during the building of the SOA.
"Historically, service-oriented architecture implementations have been laborious, expensive, and do not show quick enough return on investment," said Brad Brown, general manager, Rolta SOA Center of Excellence. "Often the projects are deemed failures because the approach was either too monolithic or too large to succeed. With iPerspective(TM) and the incremental approach, IT departments can develop services faster, achieving business application delivery with few new skills required."
Rolta's incremental approach also enables "SOA Federation," a term used to describe an environment where autonomous stakeholders interface and share key elements of technology and data in synergistic ways. iPerspective(TM) makes possible the collection of metrics that facilitate conversations between these stakeholders to improve the measurably productive use of SOA.
iPerspective(TM) features a point-and-click interface allowing IT professionals to create business services in minutes, with minimal effort and without writing any code. They can use these business services to deploy new or existing business applications or prototyping tools quickly, then review the result with the intended business users to ensure the new services meet the business needs.
Additionally, iPerspective(TM) automates the governance and management of services by providing the ability to release auditable groups of related services. For example, versioning or management with security through authentication and authorization is achieved at the data source, service, release and operation levels. iPerspective(TM) also offers the unique Universal Dynamic Query Service. This patent pending technology allows users to issue any authorized query of one or more gateways, through the business services consumer application. This capability provides a versatile, yet secure way for business applications to call one another without having to specify the exact nature of queries to be used up front.
For more information on SOA Today and the Rolta SOA Center of Excellence, please visit www.SOA-Today.com.
About the Rolta SOA Center of Excellence
The Rolta SOA Center of Excellence was born out of Rolta's January 2008 purchase of TUSC. Building on TUSC's 20 years of leadership in Oracle consulting, the SOA Center of Excellence delivers value and reduces customer costs through service oriented solutions.
Rolta is a multinational organization that has executed projects in over 40 countries. For over 25 years the Company has been a strong player in the Defense, Government, Infrastructure and Security markets. Rolta serves these markets by providing innovative solutions in Enterprise Information & Communications Technology (EICT), which includes Software Development, Advanced Security, Network Management, Oracle Apps, ERP Consulting and Business Intelligence; Geospatial Information Systems (GIS); and Engineering & Design Services (EDS). Rolta, headquartered in Mumbai, employs over 5,000 professionals with international subsidiaries across the globe. Forbes Global has ranked Rolta amongst the "Best 200 Under a Billion" for four times in six years. The Company is listed on the NSE in cash and F&O segment and forms part of CNX IT, NIFTY Midcap 50 and CNX 500 indices. The Company is also listed on BSE 'A' group and forms part of BSE Midcap, BSE 200, BSE 500, BSE IT and BSE TECK indices. The Company's GDR is listed on the Main Board of London Stock Exchange and its FCCB's are listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
Consulting Firm Primitive Logic Ranked 2nd in The Business Times "Best Places to Work"
Primitive Logic, the San Francisco based employee owned, premier business consulting and technology services firm, was ranked 2nd in The San Francisco Business Times "Best Places to Work in the Bay Area" survey; in which employees complete an anonymous survey to qualify for the nomination.
This is Primitive Logic's fourth consecutive year in the top fifteen and third consecutive in the top two best places to work. Primitive Logic received high rankings for work/life balance, management's commitment to integrity and respect, teamwork, leadership development and mentoring programs, and employee retention in these tumultuous times, said Jill Reber, Primitive Logic's Chairman and CEO.
Primitive Logic's core values of integrity, trust, respect and diversity lead to a sense of ownership, belonging and pride in individual and team accomplishments, said Kevin Moos, COO.
"The energetic, sharp, and polished people that work here are clearly our largest asset. We solve problems on a daily basis and lean on each other for various areas of expertise. Primitive Logic truly reflects that as a whole team we are greater than the sum of our individual people," shared Anisha Weber, VP of People and Operations.
Jill Reber, Primitive Logic's Chairman and CEO, stated in her internal memo: "I was very proud to accept this award last night on behalf of all of you at Primitive Logic. This award is particularly meaningful in this challenging economic environment and is a testament to the incredibly valuable team that makes up Primitive Logic. I remain honored to work with each of you."
About Primitive Logic
Founded in 1984, Primitive Logic is the premier business consulting and technology services firm developing and implementing solutions that create value for market-leading corporations. Based in San Francisco, Primitive Logic provides full life-cycle management from strategy and planning through design, development and implementation.
Primitive Logic is a strategic advisor and trusted partner to leading Fortune 500 companies in the financial services, retail, energy, distribution, healthcare, life sciences and technology sectors.
Primitive Logic's world class partnerships with leading technology providers lead to wide recognition for its execution excellence, including IBM's designation as the 2007 Business Partner Beacon Award Winner for "Best Consultant and System Integrator in the Americas Region." Primitive Logic is privately held, employee-owned, and attracts and retains top industry talent.
This is Primitive Logic's fourth consecutive year in the top fifteen and third consecutive in the top two best places to work. Primitive Logic received high rankings for work/life balance, management's commitment to integrity and respect, teamwork, leadership development and mentoring programs, and employee retention in these tumultuous times, said Jill Reber, Primitive Logic's Chairman and CEO.
Primitive Logic's core values of integrity, trust, respect and diversity lead to a sense of ownership, belonging and pride in individual and team accomplishments, said Kevin Moos, COO.
"The energetic, sharp, and polished people that work here are clearly our largest asset. We solve problems on a daily basis and lean on each other for various areas of expertise. Primitive Logic truly reflects that as a whole team we are greater than the sum of our individual people," shared Anisha Weber, VP of People and Operations.
Jill Reber, Primitive Logic's Chairman and CEO, stated in her internal memo: "I was very proud to accept this award last night on behalf of all of you at Primitive Logic. This award is particularly meaningful in this challenging economic environment and is a testament to the incredibly valuable team that makes up Primitive Logic. I remain honored to work with each of you."
About Primitive Logic
Founded in 1984, Primitive Logic is the premier business consulting and technology services firm developing and implementing solutions that create value for market-leading corporations. Based in San Francisco, Primitive Logic provides full life-cycle management from strategy and planning through design, development and implementation.
Primitive Logic is a strategic advisor and trusted partner to leading Fortune 500 companies in the financial services, retail, energy, distribution, healthcare, life sciences and technology sectors.
Primitive Logic's world class partnerships with leading technology providers lead to wide recognition for its execution excellence, including IBM's designation as the 2007 Business Partner Beacon Award Winner for "Best Consultant and System Integrator in the Americas Region." Primitive Logic is privately held, employee-owned, and attracts and retains top industry talent.
Composite Software, Inc. Expands Consulting Services
Composite Software, Inc., the data virtualization leader, today announced it has recruited industry veteran, Marc Breissinger, as executive vice president to lead Composite’s new, enterprise-level consulting practice.
In this newly created role that reports to Composite Software’s CEO Jim Green, Breissinger will establish an enterprise-level consulting practice that covers enterprise data virtualization strategy and architecture, low-latency data strategy and architecture, services-based data sharing strategy and architecture, and data Integration Competency Center (ICC) strategy and implementation.
The new services team will complement the company’s existing Professional Services group that provides traditional project-level services such as planning, architecture, installation, design, development and operation consulting, as well as Composite’s SI partners who offer a wide range of IT strategy and implementation services in and around the company’s data virtualization technology.
“As our larger customers transition from project-basis to enterprise-wide data virtualization deployments, their use cases naturally require a large-scale approach that addresses more complex organizational, architectural and technology issues,” said Green. “Marc’s high-caliber experience with integration technologies in both the commercial and government arenas perfectly matches our customers’ needs for a strong vision and practical architecture.”
In addition to defining the new services, Breissinger will also guide customer engagements from planning to delivery; coordinate customer, partner and Composite teams; and ensure successful Composite technology deployments.
“Composite’s data virtualization offerings let enterprises share data easily, which can result in significant increases in revenue and productivity, and significant decreases in costs and risks,” said Breissinger. “My job will be to marshal the technology, partners and architecture required, so customers achieve these benefits quickly and at a scale that makes a significant difference.”
The expanded enterprise-level consulting practice will architect large-scale solutions using Composite’s award-winning data virtualization middleware including:
“We have worked with Composite’s services team to successfully implement Composite’s products in enterprise-scale settings since 2006, and we understand the transformation challenges customers face,” said Tony Bishop, founder and CEO of Adaptivity, a Composite SI partner headquartered in Charlotte, N. C. “Adding Marc and his team further strengthens Composite’s offerings, and our mutual ability to provide IT solutions that meet business needs.”
Breissinger recently served as CTO at SPADAC, a McLean, Va.-based technology and government services firm specializing in geospatial predictive analytics, where he led a team implementing an enterprise-collaborative workflow system to improve the missions of the US DOD and Intelligence Community. As CTO at webMethods, Breissinger designed the award-winning Fabric product suite that includes data integration, business process management (BPM), business activity monitoring (BAM), composite application development, and SOA infrastructure and governance components. Breissinger began his career as a consultant for Chicago’s ZS Associates and spent a number of years as a senior manager at Anderson Consulting (now Accenture). Breissinger is a graduate of Yale University.
About Composite Software, Inc.: Composite Software, Inc. is the leading independent provider of data virtualization software. Global organizations including 10 of the top 20 banks, five of the top ten pharmaceuticals, leading energy, media, and technology companies along with U.S. Defense and Intelligence agencies, use Composite's technology to integrate disparate data--regardless of location or source format--and fulfill critical information needs, faster with fewer resources. Composite’s platform scales from individual business applications to enterprise-wide Information-as-a-Service architectures, automating the entire data virtualization life cycle, while complementing traditional data warehousing investments. Founded in 2002, Composite Software is a privately held, venture-funded corporation based in Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit www.compositesw.com.
In this newly created role that reports to Composite Software’s CEO Jim Green, Breissinger will establish an enterprise-level consulting practice that covers enterprise data virtualization strategy and architecture, low-latency data strategy and architecture, services-based data sharing strategy and architecture, and data Integration Competency Center (ICC) strategy and implementation.
The new services team will complement the company’s existing Professional Services group that provides traditional project-level services such as planning, architecture, installation, design, development and operation consulting, as well as Composite’s SI partners who offer a wide range of IT strategy and implementation services in and around the company’s data virtualization technology.
“As our larger customers transition from project-basis to enterprise-wide data virtualization deployments, their use cases naturally require a large-scale approach that addresses more complex organizational, architectural and technology issues,” said Green. “Marc’s high-caliber experience with integration technologies in both the commercial and government arenas perfectly matches our customers’ needs for a strong vision and practical architecture.”
In addition to defining the new services, Breissinger will also guide customer engagements from planning to delivery; coordinate customer, partner and Composite teams; and ensure successful Composite technology deployments.
“Composite’s data virtualization offerings let enterprises share data easily, which can result in significant increases in revenue and productivity, and significant decreases in costs and risks,” said Breissinger. “My job will be to marshal the technology, partners and architecture required, so customers achieve these benefits quickly and at a scale that makes a significant difference.”
The expanded enterprise-level consulting practice will architect large-scale solutions using Composite’s award-winning data virtualization middleware including:
- Composite Information Server™ 5.0 (newly upgraded and released in May 2009; features tandem design environments for XML/Java/Web services and SQL development as well as contract-first Web services development),
- Composite Discovery™,
- Composite Active Cluster,
- Composite Application Data Services for popular packaged applications, and
- Composite BI Accelerator™.
“We have worked with Composite’s services team to successfully implement Composite’s products in enterprise-scale settings since 2006, and we understand the transformation challenges customers face,” said Tony Bishop, founder and CEO of Adaptivity, a Composite SI partner headquartered in Charlotte, N. C. “Adding Marc and his team further strengthens Composite’s offerings, and our mutual ability to provide IT solutions that meet business needs.”
Breissinger recently served as CTO at SPADAC, a McLean, Va.-based technology and government services firm specializing in geospatial predictive analytics, where he led a team implementing an enterprise-collaborative workflow system to improve the missions of the US DOD and Intelligence Community. As CTO at webMethods, Breissinger designed the award-winning Fabric product suite that includes data integration, business process management (BPM), business activity monitoring (BAM), composite application development, and SOA infrastructure and governance components. Breissinger began his career as a consultant for Chicago’s ZS Associates and spent a number of years as a senior manager at Anderson Consulting (now Accenture). Breissinger is a graduate of Yale University.
About Composite Software, Inc.: Composite Software, Inc. is the leading independent provider of data virtualization software. Global organizations including 10 of the top 20 banks, five of the top ten pharmaceuticals, leading energy, media, and technology companies along with U.S. Defense and Intelligence agencies, use Composite's technology to integrate disparate data--regardless of location or source format--and fulfill critical information needs, faster with fewer resources. Composite’s platform scales from individual business applications to enterprise-wide Information-as-a-Service architectures, automating the entire data virtualization life cycle, while complementing traditional data warehousing investments. Founded in 2002, Composite Software is a privately held, venture-funded corporation based in Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit www.compositesw.com.
Guidant Group Vice President of Consulting Services to Appear on Conference Discussion Panel
Guidant Group VP of Consulting Services, Arjen ‘AJ’ Althuis, will appear on a discussion panel with several other key industry leaders at an upcoming conference hosted by the Human Capital Institute (HCI). The conference will take place June 16-17, 2009 in Boston and is entitled “Strategic Workforce Planning: Incorporating Contract Talent.”
This conference is the second of a series hosted by the Human Capital Institute and will be attended by expert advisers in the field of contract labor. In this session, an expert panel of thought leaders and senior practitioners will discuss holistic workforce planning that includes the increasingly important contract workforce. All session participants will receive HCI's recent research into the effective management of the contract workforce.
Guidant Group is a managed services and consulting company dedicated to helping clients achieve greater efficiency in sourcing and managing human capital. Our solutions deliver effective cost and vendor management, risk mitigation and process efficiency.
This conference is the second of a series hosted by the Human Capital Institute and will be attended by expert advisers in the field of contract labor. In this session, an expert panel of thought leaders and senior practitioners will discuss holistic workforce planning that includes the increasingly important contract workforce. All session participants will receive HCI's recent research into the effective management of the contract workforce.
Guidant Group is a managed services and consulting company dedicated to helping clients achieve greater efficiency in sourcing and managing human capital. Our solutions deliver effective cost and vendor management, risk mitigation and process efficiency.
Spyker Consulting/Spyker Metals Expands Operations
Spyker Consulting Inc., an international precious metals bullion brokerage firm, and Spyker Metals Inc., the company's precious metals brokerage service, announced today that it is expanding its home office at 1100 S Federal Highway in Deerfield Beach, Florida. The move will increase not only the amount of space the company is occupying, but with the addition of a series of private office suites and expansive conference room, better accommodate the level of quality customer service the company is dedicated to delivering to the investing public.
"Precious metals, especially Silver and Gold are a great place for investors seeking safety against economic fluctuations as well as price appreciation, "said JM Schuler, Director of Research/Chief Analyst for Spyker. Continuing, "With the popularity boom in Silver and Gold investing, we are experiencing growth not only in our business model, but the type of client we are serving. Our new 35,000 sq. ft facility reflects this quite well."
Spyker Consulting Inc. seeks to become the premiere force in the National and International precious metals markets. Currently it offers services to individual, corporate and trust accounts, as well as IRA programs for investors seeking gold, silver, platinum and or palladium in bullion form.
Schuler added, "We are witnessing a dramatic increase in local interest. Our new facilities will enhance the client and prospective client partner experience, as well as allow for larger local seminars and business meetings. The new facilities will also include state of the art information technology, giving our broker/advisors every tool they need to perform at the highest levels of our client's expectations."
Spyker Consulting/Spyker Metals, after a successful venture with the Money Show in Orlando, Florida has embarked on a program designed to further increase its place in the local investment community.
Company contact information: email: Jeff@spykermetals.com or call 888-779-5374 or, visit www.spykermetals.com or www.spykermetalsnews.com.
Spyker Consulting Inc. is an international bullion brokerage firm specializing in gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The company, with Spyker Metals Inc., clears through Certified Inc. All metals are stored physically on deposit at COMEX, NYMEX and London Exchange approved depositories.
"Precious metals, especially Silver and Gold are a great place for investors seeking safety against economic fluctuations as well as price appreciation, "said JM Schuler, Director of Research/Chief Analyst for Spyker. Continuing, "With the popularity boom in Silver and Gold investing, we are experiencing growth not only in our business model, but the type of client we are serving. Our new 35,000 sq. ft facility reflects this quite well."
Spyker Consulting Inc. seeks to become the premiere force in the National and International precious metals markets. Currently it offers services to individual, corporate and trust accounts, as well as IRA programs for investors seeking gold, silver, platinum and or palladium in bullion form.
Schuler added, "We are witnessing a dramatic increase in local interest. Our new facilities will enhance the client and prospective client partner experience, as well as allow for larger local seminars and business meetings. The new facilities will also include state of the art information technology, giving our broker/advisors every tool they need to perform at the highest levels of our client's expectations."
Spyker Consulting/Spyker Metals, after a successful venture with the Money Show in Orlando, Florida has embarked on a program designed to further increase its place in the local investment community.
Company contact information: email: Jeff@spykermetals.com or call 888-779-5374 or, visit www.spykermetals.com or www.spykermetalsnews.com.
Spyker Consulting Inc. is an international bullion brokerage firm specializing in gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The company, with Spyker Metals Inc., clears through Certified Inc. All metals are stored physically on deposit at COMEX, NYMEX and London Exchange approved depositories.
Is There a Meaningful Difference Between Healthcare IT Consulting Firms for Staff Augmentation?
maxIT Healthcare LLC (maxIT), a leading professional services company for healthcare providers, scored the highest results in the staff augmentation category of a recent report published by KLAS, one of the healthcare industry's leading associations.
According to an independent report from healthcare executives and professionals published in February of 2009 by KLAS entitled "Maximizing Your Consulting Investment: A Report on Healthcare IT Consulting Services," there is a growing demand for clinical application specialists. "Clinical application specialists are in high demand. Seventy-four percent of those interviewed were using consulting firms for clinical application specialists," according to the KLAS report.
In the Staff Augmentation section of the healthcare IT consulting services report, KLAS stated, "Of the four firms with enough engagements for clinical application consultants to be rated (CSC, CTGHS, maxIT Healthcare, and Vitalize), maxIT Healthcare scored the highest, receiving especially high marks for the quality of their consultants."
The KLAS report continued, "The bottom line is that Staff Augmentation is all about finding the right people to match the provider's needs. Beacon Partners and Hayes Management have done a great job providing quality GE specialists, whereas maxIT Healthcare has shown to be the most successful in providing qualified resources for a wide range of applications. CTGHS, Vitalize Consulting, and ACS also have solid application specialists. Providers should look for firms that can quickly deliver high-quality, experienced resources who are a good fit for their internal IT team."
According to KLAS, "As one of the larger staff augmentation firms outside the full-service firms, maxIT Healthcare is vendor neutral and excels when it comes to integrating with the clients' teams and providing trustworthy, well-screened consultants. This firm has consultants that have hospital experience and strong product knowledge. In this report, maxIT Healthcare is one of the top three firms in the Staff Augmentation category." KLAS also said, "Staff augmentation work is a sweet spot for this high-performing firm. As one of the larger staff augmentation firms in the healthcare industry, maxIT Healthcare has experienced consultants, works with a number of different vendor products, and does a good job of matching consultants to opportunities."
"With today's shrinking budgets, hiring freezes, and tomorrow's increasing need for technology-based efficiency, healthcare providers are looking closely at outsourced IT support. maxIT is one of the leading firms providing quality consultants and lower costs than other firms. We are delighted to see these kinds of results that validate what we have known all along - healthcare organizations need to see value. These results show that maxIT is answering those needs," says Parker Hinshaw of maxIT Healthcare.
About KLAS
KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS' mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors and vendors. Working together with executives from more than 4,500 hospitals and over 2,500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures the performance of software, professional services and medical equipment vendors.
For more information about KLAS:
KLAS Website: www.KLASresearch.com
KLAS Email: marketing@KLASresearch.com
Phone: 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative.
About maxIT Healthcare
maxIT Healthcare has been completely focused on Healthcare Information Technology since its inception 8 years ago. maxIT Healthcare employs over 300 full-time consultants who have functional and technical implementation expertise deploying leading commercially available healthcare software solutions from major Healthcare Information Technology companies. maxIT's key goals are to contribute to our client's success and to provide a supportive culture for our professional consultants and associates.
maxIT Healthcare is a portfolio company of Riordan, Lewis & Hayden | Equity Partners, a leading private equity firm based in Los Angeles, CA.
For more information, visit our website www.maxithc.com.
According to an independent report from healthcare executives and professionals published in February of 2009 by KLAS entitled "Maximizing Your Consulting Investment: A Report on Healthcare IT Consulting Services," there is a growing demand for clinical application specialists. "Clinical application specialists are in high demand. Seventy-four percent of those interviewed were using consulting firms for clinical application specialists," according to the KLAS report.
In the Staff Augmentation section of the healthcare IT consulting services report, KLAS stated, "Of the four firms with enough engagements for clinical application consultants to be rated (CSC, CTGHS, maxIT Healthcare, and Vitalize), maxIT Healthcare scored the highest, receiving especially high marks for the quality of their consultants."
The KLAS report continued, "The bottom line is that Staff Augmentation is all about finding the right people to match the provider's needs. Beacon Partners and Hayes Management have done a great job providing quality GE specialists, whereas maxIT Healthcare has shown to be the most successful in providing qualified resources for a wide range of applications. CTGHS, Vitalize Consulting, and ACS also have solid application specialists. Providers should look for firms that can quickly deliver high-quality, experienced resources who are a good fit for their internal IT team."
According to KLAS, "As one of the larger staff augmentation firms outside the full-service firms, maxIT Healthcare is vendor neutral and excels when it comes to integrating with the clients' teams and providing trustworthy, well-screened consultants. This firm has consultants that have hospital experience and strong product knowledge. In this report, maxIT Healthcare is one of the top three firms in the Staff Augmentation category." KLAS also said, "Staff augmentation work is a sweet spot for this high-performing firm. As one of the larger staff augmentation firms in the healthcare industry, maxIT Healthcare has experienced consultants, works with a number of different vendor products, and does a good job of matching consultants to opportunities."
"With today's shrinking budgets, hiring freezes, and tomorrow's increasing need for technology-based efficiency, healthcare providers are looking closely at outsourced IT support. maxIT is one of the leading firms providing quality consultants and lower costs than other firms. We are delighted to see these kinds of results that validate what we have known all along - healthcare organizations need to see value. These results show that maxIT is answering those needs," says Parker Hinshaw of maxIT Healthcare.
About KLAS
KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS' mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors and vendors. Working together with executives from more than 4,500 hospitals and over 2,500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures the performance of software, professional services and medical equipment vendors.
For more information about KLAS:
KLAS Website: www.KLASresearch.com
KLAS Email: marketing@KLASresearch.com
Phone: 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative.
About maxIT Healthcare
maxIT Healthcare has been completely focused on Healthcare Information Technology since its inception 8 years ago. maxIT Healthcare employs over 300 full-time consultants who have functional and technical implementation expertise deploying leading commercially available healthcare software solutions from major Healthcare Information Technology companies. maxIT's key goals are to contribute to our client's success and to provide a supportive culture for our professional consultants and associates.
maxIT Healthcare is a portfolio company of Riordan, Lewis & Hayden | Equity Partners, a leading private equity firm based in Los Angeles, CA.
For more information, visit our website www.maxithc.com.
RSA Selects Detica NetReveal® to Beat Insurance Claim Cheats
Detica, the business and technology consultancy, today announced that RSA, the FTSE 100 global insurance group, has purchased a Detica NetReveal®licence, together with related professional services, to complement and enhance its existing portfolio of fraud detection systems.
RSA will be using Detica NetReveal® for the detection of claims fraud across its personal and commercial motor insurance and home insurance business in the UK. The groundbreaking technology may also be extended to cast an even wider net across the insurance group’s liability and commercial property lines of business.
John Beadle, UK Counter Fraud Manager at RSA, comments: “We chose Detica NetReveal® following an extensive review of potential providers plus the successful completion of a ‘live’ trial that resulted in substantially improved fraud detection rates.”
Andy Cobb, Director of Business Development for Detica NetReveal®, comments: “We are delighted that RSA, one of the world’s leading insurance groups, has chosen our solution. Using the latest version of Detica NetReveal® we will not only accelerate offline investigations but also take fraud prevention a step further by performing live screening of new claims against pre-scored criminal networks. We are delighted to continue to offer our commercial clients the fruits of over thirty years of developing solutions to some of the most complex security problems.”
RSA will be using Detica NetReveal® for the detection of claims fraud across its personal and commercial motor insurance and home insurance business in the UK. The groundbreaking technology may also be extended to cast an even wider net across the insurance group’s liability and commercial property lines of business.
John Beadle, UK Counter Fraud Manager at RSA, comments: “We chose Detica NetReveal® following an extensive review of potential providers plus the successful completion of a ‘live’ trial that resulted in substantially improved fraud detection rates.”
Andy Cobb, Director of Business Development for Detica NetReveal®, comments: “We are delighted that RSA, one of the world’s leading insurance groups, has chosen our solution. Using the latest version of Detica NetReveal® we will not only accelerate offline investigations but also take fraud prevention a step further by performing live screening of new claims against pre-scored criminal networks. We are delighted to continue to offer our commercial clients the fruits of over thirty years of developing solutions to some of the most complex security problems.”
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Engel & Volkers Forges Strategic Partnership with PCMS Consulting in Florida
PCMS Consulting announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with Engel & Volkers Florida. Engel & Volkers delivers a unique franchise model for luxury residential real estate brokerages with their boutique-style property shop concept, the company states. As one of the leading real estate brokerage firms in Europe, franchisees benefit from an international network of nearly 500 shops in 25 countries including 24 in Florida. The Engel & Völkers brand provides exceptional service tailored to the lifestyle needs of their high end clientele.
Timo Khammash, managing partner for Engel & Völkers Florida states, “We are very excited about our arrangement with PCMS because their team has deep rooted relationships with hundreds of real estate brokers locally and throughout the U.S. They will be able to introduce us to brokers that fit our internationally-focused model and give us the ability to immediately leverage those relationships as we work towards our goal of becoming a market leader in luxury real estate in Florida.
“We deliver a portfolio of cost-efficient consulting services and related products that leading real estate companies require to maintain and enhance their market position and profitability.” says PCMS president, Jose Perez. “By aligning ourselves with the best consultants and the most innovative product vendors and franchises we can really help brokerages ‘reinvent’ themselves so they can begin to prosper again.”
For more information, visit www.pcmsconsulting.com or www.engelvoelkers.com/florida.
Timo Khammash, managing partner for Engel & Völkers Florida states, “We are very excited about our arrangement with PCMS because their team has deep rooted relationships with hundreds of real estate brokers locally and throughout the U.S. They will be able to introduce us to brokers that fit our internationally-focused model and give us the ability to immediately leverage those relationships as we work towards our goal of becoming a market leader in luxury real estate in Florida.
“We deliver a portfolio of cost-efficient consulting services and related products that leading real estate companies require to maintain and enhance their market position and profitability.” says PCMS president, Jose Perez. “By aligning ourselves with the best consultants and the most innovative product vendors and franchises we can really help brokerages ‘reinvent’ themselves so they can begin to prosper again.”
For more information, visit www.pcmsconsulting.com or www.engelvoelkers.com/florida.
Skyline Technologies Hires Shelley Johnson to Help Grow Firm's IT Business Consulting Practice
Skyline Technologies, Inc. is pleased to announce the addition of Shelley Johnson, PMP, as senior project manager in its IT Business Consulting practice. Johnson will help grow Skyline’s IT Business Consulting service by providing the project management expertise to deliver superior business consulting that makes a strategic difference for Skyline Technologies’ clients.
“Shelley will be instrumental in building the IT Business Consulting practice, as well as positioning Skyline as the project management consulting firm of choice in the NEW North,” said Tom Burzinski, director of IT business consulting services. “Shelley has excellent leadership, management and mentoring skills, as well as a unique ability to translate business strategies and goals into process improvements and system requirements.”
Johnson, a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in project management in overseeing multimillion-dollar projects in a variety of industries including retail, logistics and energy. Johnson is also well versed in both traditional waterfall and agile software development lifecycle methodologies. She has worked on large enterprise projects with budgets ranging from $8 million to $250+ million and teams of 100 or more members.
“Shelley will be instrumental in building the IT Business Consulting practice, as well as positioning Skyline as the project management consulting firm of choice in the NEW North,” said Tom Burzinski, director of IT business consulting services. “Shelley has excellent leadership, management and mentoring skills, as well as a unique ability to translate business strategies and goals into process improvements and system requirements.”
Johnson, a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in project management in overseeing multimillion-dollar projects in a variety of industries including retail, logistics and energy. Johnson is also well versed in both traditional waterfall and agile software development lifecycle methodologies. She has worked on large enterprise projects with budgets ranging from $8 million to $250+ million and teams of 100 or more members.
Management Consultancy SingerLewak's Enterprise Risk Management Services (ERMS) Practice Selects AverQ's On Demand Collaborative Engagement Platform
AverQ is pleased to announce that SingerLewak, a full service accounting and management consulting firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California, has chosen AverQ's On Demand Collaborative Engagement Platform for delivering added value for its ERMS practice. Serving California since 1959, SingerLewak is established as the industry leaders with the talent, expertise and forward-thinking that addresses the growing and ever-changing needs for enterprise risk management. AverQ's Engagement Platform integrates SingerLewak's ERMS with their clients in an on-demand setting to provide SAS 70, internal audit, and process assessment services for various clients.
SingerLewak has been a strong proponent aligning with AverQ's vision for collaboration to provide value-added services to their clients. Troy Snyder, Lead Partner, SingerLewak's Enterprise Risk Management Services practice, commented "To address the complex challenging needs of ERMS engagements, we have complimented our deep technical expertise with an innovative technology platform from AverQ for an outstanding client experience. With AverQ, we can quickly engage with our clients and leverage best practices across all of our engagements."
Renuka Shankar, Founder and CEO, AverQ, Inc. added, "With companies increasingly considering software as a service (SaaS) platforms for various business processes, having independent attestation from leading firms like SingerLewak is critical for higher confidence and assurance, which ultimately will lead to accelerating the adoption of such services. AverQ also applauds SingerLewak for offering a forum for CFOs, in which to dialogue the trend of SaaS adoption and cloud computing services. We are very excited to participate in their upcoming ERMS Thought Leadership Panel on May 27th, 2009; which addresses SaaS and cloud computing services.
About AverQ, Inc.
AverQ delivers improved efficiencies and assurances to companies and firms, by bringing them together in the industry-first, Integrated Engagement platform, powered by remarkably affordable and accessible on-demand services. Corporations can measure up to increased regulations with a comprehensive system of record, have relevant disclosure visibility, reduce time needed to support the audit effort, and lower audit costs through collaboration and a leveraged audit effort. Professional services firms can streamline collaboration with their clients, streamline their internal quality control process, and, with a rapid rollout, achieve an immediate and compelling return on investment.
For more information about AverQ, visit www.averq.com.
About SingerLewak
SingerLewak LLP is a leading accounting services provider headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Orange County, Woodland Hills, Monterey Park, San Diego and Silicon Valley. Serving California since 1959, SingerLewak has established a reputation for excellence by providing the services of a national firm within a blended environment of services and industry specializations.
SingerLewak is an active community partner, working in many sectors of the business world. Whether it's auditing, accounting, tax preparation, business management, SEC filings and transactions, SOX compliance, or enterprise risk management, forensic accounting, business valuation, litigation support, consulting, and entrepreneurial business services, SingerLewak delivers results.
SingerLewak has been nationally ranked as one of the top 100 accounting firms for over 10 years and is the recipient of numerous industry honors, including Practice Innovation Awards in 2006, 2007 and 2008. For two consecutive years SingerLewak has been named as one of the Best Places to Work in Los Angeles for 2007 and 2008 by the Los Angeles Business Journal. For more information please contact marketing(at)singerlewak.com or visit www.singerlewak.com.
SingerLewak has been a strong proponent aligning with AverQ's vision for collaboration to provide value-added services to their clients. Troy Snyder, Lead Partner, SingerLewak's Enterprise Risk Management Services practice, commented "To address the complex challenging needs of ERMS engagements, we have complimented our deep technical expertise with an innovative technology platform from AverQ for an outstanding client experience. With AverQ, we can quickly engage with our clients and leverage best practices across all of our engagements."
Renuka Shankar, Founder and CEO, AverQ, Inc. added, "With companies increasingly considering software as a service (SaaS) platforms for various business processes, having independent attestation from leading firms like SingerLewak is critical for higher confidence and assurance, which ultimately will lead to accelerating the adoption of such services. AverQ also applauds SingerLewak for offering a forum for CFOs, in which to dialogue the trend of SaaS adoption and cloud computing services. We are very excited to participate in their upcoming ERMS Thought Leadership Panel on May 27th, 2009; which addresses SaaS and cloud computing services.
About AverQ, Inc.
AverQ delivers improved efficiencies and assurances to companies and firms, by bringing them together in the industry-first, Integrated Engagement platform, powered by remarkably affordable and accessible on-demand services. Corporations can measure up to increased regulations with a comprehensive system of record, have relevant disclosure visibility, reduce time needed to support the audit effort, and lower audit costs through collaboration and a leveraged audit effort. Professional services firms can streamline collaboration with their clients, streamline their internal quality control process, and, with a rapid rollout, achieve an immediate and compelling return on investment.
For more information about AverQ, visit www.averq.com.
About SingerLewak
SingerLewak LLP is a leading accounting services provider headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Orange County, Woodland Hills, Monterey Park, San Diego and Silicon Valley. Serving California since 1959, SingerLewak has established a reputation for excellence by providing the services of a national firm within a blended environment of services and industry specializations.
SingerLewak is an active community partner, working in many sectors of the business world. Whether it's auditing, accounting, tax preparation, business management, SEC filings and transactions, SOX compliance, or enterprise risk management, forensic accounting, business valuation, litigation support, consulting, and entrepreneurial business services, SingerLewak delivers results.
SingerLewak has been nationally ranked as one of the top 100 accounting firms for over 10 years and is the recipient of numerous industry honors, including Practice Innovation Awards in 2006, 2007 and 2008. For two consecutive years SingerLewak has been named as one of the Best Places to Work in Los Angeles for 2007 and 2008 by the Los Angeles Business Journal. For more information please contact marketing(at)singerlewak.com or visit www.singerlewak.com.
C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd. Selected as Intuit Solution Provider
C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd. announced today that it has been selected as an Intuit® Solution Provider. C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd. offers a full range of value-added consulting services for Intuit QuickBooks® Enterprise Solutions (www.enterprisesuite.com) developed by Intuit Inc., a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, consumers and accounting professionals.
The Intuit Solution Provider Program will enable C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd. to better serve regional clients and build their business through the sale, implementation and service of integrated solutions. The program’s lead offering, Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, is a flexible and affordable business management solution designed specifically for growing businesses. The software helps businesses efficiently input, organize and access the information they need to manage finances, inventory, sales, purchasing and employees, and make key decisions for growth.
"We are very excited to have C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd. as an Intuit Solution Provider,” said BJ Schaknowski, Intuit’s director of sales. "Their expertise in reselling and supporting mid-market business software solutions and their track record for customer satisfaction make them a valuable addition to our Solution Provider network."
“Our clients need more than entry-level accounting solution” said Craig Boyers, President of C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd. “They need the software features found in traditional mid-market solutions, but at a better price point and offering an actual return on their investment.”
“QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions fills that need with the power and flexibility to meet their needs as they grow, and at a price that is thousands below competitive products,” he said. “It bridges the gap between off-the-shelf accounting software and the high cost of ownership with traditional mid-market accounting packages.”
C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd., in association with its CPA firm affiliate, C. S. Boyers, PC, provides a wide variety of payroll, accounting, tax, financial management, business advisory and accounting software services personalized to meet the needs of each client.
About Intuit Inc.
Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax® software, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation software suites for professional accountants. The company’s financial institutions division, anchored by Digital Insight, provides on-demand banking services to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.
Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.1 billion in its fiscal year 2008. The company has approximately 8,000 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.
The Intuit Solution Provider Program will enable C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd. to better serve regional clients and build their business through the sale, implementation and service of integrated solutions. The program’s lead offering, Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, is a flexible and affordable business management solution designed specifically for growing businesses. The software helps businesses efficiently input, organize and access the information they need to manage finances, inventory, sales, purchasing and employees, and make key decisions for growth.
"We are very excited to have C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd. as an Intuit Solution Provider,” said BJ Schaknowski, Intuit’s director of sales. "Their expertise in reselling and supporting mid-market business software solutions and their track record for customer satisfaction make them a valuable addition to our Solution Provider network."
“Our clients need more than entry-level accounting solution” said Craig Boyers, President of C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd. “They need the software features found in traditional mid-market solutions, but at a better price point and offering an actual return on their investment.”
“QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions fills that need with the power and flexibility to meet their needs as they grow, and at a price that is thousands below competitive products,” he said. “It bridges the gap between off-the-shelf accounting software and the high cost of ownership with traditional mid-market accounting packages.”
C. S. Boyers Consulting, Ltd., in association with its CPA firm affiliate, C. S. Boyers, PC, provides a wide variety of payroll, accounting, tax, financial management, business advisory and accounting software services personalized to meet the needs of each client.
About Intuit Inc.
Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax® software, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation software suites for professional accountants. The company’s financial institutions division, anchored by Digital Insight, provides on-demand banking services to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.
Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.1 billion in its fiscal year 2008. The company has approximately 8,000 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Information Consulting Firm InOutsource Finalist for Green Leadership Award
InOutsource, a leading provider of records retention and information management consulting to law firms, announced today that NJBIZ, New Jersey's weekly business journal, named the company a finalist in the journal's Green Leadership Awards in the category of Green Education.
An independent panel of judges agreed that InOutsource's environmental educational program showed achievement and initiative. Last August 2008, InOutsource began educating the legal industry on the top practices for environmentally friendly records management. With new technology and new electronic-based processes, corporations had started to demand that their law firms follow environmentally friendly practices. InOutsource saw an opportunity to educate these law firms on best practices in records management to help them comply with client demands; these practices lead to reduced paper usage, reduced resource usage, decreased storage needs, increased recycling and more.
Launching the campaign at the International Legal Technology Association annual conference, InOutsource distributed a list to show attendees - printed on recycled paper and designed to be posted on a bulletin board at work -- of the top 10 environmentally friendly records management practices, and also contributed $1 for every person who visited their booth to The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees campaign. At the show, they spoke with hundreds of attendees about environmentally friendly records management practices. The company posted the same list to their corporate Web site so every visitor can see the link when they visit. This top 10 list generated interest from legal industry publications for more information so Nancy Beauchemin, President of InOutsource, began contributing articles on the use of best practices in records management that lead naturally to environmental consciousness. These articles reached more than 92,000 readers.
In addition to reaching large audiences through educational trade shows and articles, the consultants at InOutsource continually strive to improve awareness on a one-on-one basis with their clients. Through their consulting practices, InOutsource designs systems and processes for law firms to efficiently manage and store information that comply with federal and state regulatory requirements, satisfy client needs, and consider environmental demands.
The winners of the Green Leadership Awards will be announced June 2nd.
InOutsource experts provide records management consulting and project management services to help law firms and corporate legal departments ensure information is properly retained and protected to mitigate risk, and preserve client confidentiality. The company provides consultation and support for: analysis of a firm's current systems, processes and staff; the development of retention policies and procedures that are legally compliant and fit the unique needs of a firm; and implementation of conflicts, workflow, docketing, document and records management systems. In addition, through the company's Merger Readiness Consulting Services, the experts at InOutsource help firms establish the framework they need to perform conflicts due diligence and address issues as they arise during the process of merging, acquiring other firms, or hiring lateral attorneys.
About InOutsource
InOutsource was founded by Nancy Beauchemin in 2002 to provide law firms with strategic records and information consulting and project management services. Through the company's Merger Readiness Consulting Services, the company helps firms establish the framework necessary to perform conflicts due diligence and address issues in a systematic and practical way as they arise during the process of merging, acquiring other firms, or hiring lateral attorneys. Most of InOutsource's clients are among the top 200 law firms in the United States. For more information about InOutsource, visit www.inoutsource.com or www.mergerreadiness.com.
An independent panel of judges agreed that InOutsource's environmental educational program showed achievement and initiative. Last August 2008, InOutsource began educating the legal industry on the top practices for environmentally friendly records management. With new technology and new electronic-based processes, corporations had started to demand that their law firms follow environmentally friendly practices. InOutsource saw an opportunity to educate these law firms on best practices in records management to help them comply with client demands; these practices lead to reduced paper usage, reduced resource usage, decreased storage needs, increased recycling and more.
Launching the campaign at the International Legal Technology Association annual conference, InOutsource distributed a list to show attendees - printed on recycled paper and designed to be posted on a bulletin board at work -- of the top 10 environmentally friendly records management practices, and also contributed $1 for every person who visited their booth to The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees campaign. At the show, they spoke with hundreds of attendees about environmentally friendly records management practices. The company posted the same list to their corporate Web site so every visitor can see the link when they visit. This top 10 list generated interest from legal industry publications for more information so Nancy Beauchemin, President of InOutsource, began contributing articles on the use of best practices in records management that lead naturally to environmental consciousness. These articles reached more than 92,000 readers.
In addition to reaching large audiences through educational trade shows and articles, the consultants at InOutsource continually strive to improve awareness on a one-on-one basis with their clients. Through their consulting practices, InOutsource designs systems and processes for law firms to efficiently manage and store information that comply with federal and state regulatory requirements, satisfy client needs, and consider environmental demands.
The winners of the Green Leadership Awards will be announced June 2nd.
InOutsource experts provide records management consulting and project management services to help law firms and corporate legal departments ensure information is properly retained and protected to mitigate risk, and preserve client confidentiality. The company provides consultation and support for: analysis of a firm's current systems, processes and staff; the development of retention policies and procedures that are legally compliant and fit the unique needs of a firm; and implementation of conflicts, workflow, docketing, document and records management systems. In addition, through the company's Merger Readiness Consulting Services, the experts at InOutsource help firms establish the framework they need to perform conflicts due diligence and address issues as they arise during the process of merging, acquiring other firms, or hiring lateral attorneys.
About InOutsource
InOutsource was founded by Nancy Beauchemin in 2002 to provide law firms with strategic records and information consulting and project management services. Through the company's Merger Readiness Consulting Services, the company helps firms establish the framework necessary to perform conflicts due diligence and address issues in a systematic and practical way as they arise during the process of merging, acquiring other firms, or hiring lateral attorneys. Most of InOutsource's clients are among the top 200 law firms in the United States. For more information about InOutsource, visit www.inoutsource.com or www.mergerreadiness.com.
BrandPartners Forms Strategic Alliance With Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists
BrandPartners Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BPTR), a leader in delivering retail environment solutions to the financial services industry, announced that it has formed a strategic alliance with Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists, a firm that specializes in identifying and implementing strategic growth opportunities for clients across a broad range of industries.
“With the Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists’ expertise in identifying opportunities for value creation and laying out specific pathways for growth, and BrandPartners’ experience translating these strategies into a compelling retail customer experience, this alliance creates a seamless end-to-end offering for companies having a growth imperative,” said David Vazdauskas, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, BrandPartners. While BrandPartners focuses its environmental design solutions on the financial services industry and the Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists serves a broader array of vertical industries, the alliance will initially focus on the tremendous growth opportunities it sees for institutions of all sizes in the financial sector.
BrandPartners has twenty-five years of experience designing retail environments and retail communications programs for more than 2,000 clients at 30,000 retail locations worldwide. Prior to founding Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists the principals have had extensive experience with Macy’s, Citi, Pizza Hut, Pepsico, JWT and Madison Square Garden. “Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists can bring fresh insights to the task of helping financial organizations unlock new sources of growth,” said Bob Raleigh, CEO, Rockefeller Group/Insight Capitalists. “BrandPartners has a keen ability to translate visionary strategies into a compelling customer experience, one that drives revenues and loyalty,” he added.
Through this exclusive partnership, the two companies will create integrated engagement teams that deliver a complete strategy-to-translation solution to clients . “With this alliance, clients do not have to choose and separately manage a traditional management consultancy, an advertising agency, and a branding and design firm,” said Bob Raleigh. “Our one integrated team approach provides one point of contact for the client, and it ensures that the strategy anticipates the execution, and vice versa,” he added.
The alliance will also integrate and leverage rigorous analytic tools proprietary to the two firms. The Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists’ eDNA framework works to identify the opportunities that exist to drive value creation and helps align every business function within an organization with the needs of the customer. The BrandPartners’ Retail Health Index analyzes each building block of the customer experience, and identifies opportunities to more closely align these elements to specific growth opportunities. “Like all other retailers, financial institutions grow by either attracting new customers or increasing share of wallet from current customers – or ideally, both,” said James Brooks, President and CEO, BrandPartners. “This alliance is laser focused on helping financial institutions grow deposits, and setting clear pathways to that growth,” he added.
About BrandPartners Group
BrandPartners Group, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BPTR), through its wholly owned subsidiary BrandPartners Retail, Inc. provides an integrated approach to customer environments through brand translation, business strategy, design/build services, retail displays and in-branch communications products and services, from concept and design through implementation and training. BrandPartners installations are in more than 2,000 companies at more than 30,000 retail locations. The company serves its clients from its Rochester, New Hampshire home office and regional U.S. offices.
About Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists
Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists is a firm that was created in partnership with Mark Rockefeller to help organizations drive revenue growth. Built upon a commitment to values, integrity, innovation and discipline, the company introduces a unique model that fills the white space between traditional management consulting and branding agencies. Rockefeller Consulting Group is an enterprise founded by Mark Rockefeller that extends the Rockefeller legacy of visionary business acumen and combines proven business practices with leading-edge technologies to accelerate growth and create sustainable value for its clients.
“With the Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists’ expertise in identifying opportunities for value creation and laying out specific pathways for growth, and BrandPartners’ experience translating these strategies into a compelling retail customer experience, this alliance creates a seamless end-to-end offering for companies having a growth imperative,” said David Vazdauskas, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, BrandPartners. While BrandPartners focuses its environmental design solutions on the financial services industry and the Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists serves a broader array of vertical industries, the alliance will initially focus on the tremendous growth opportunities it sees for institutions of all sizes in the financial sector.
BrandPartners has twenty-five years of experience designing retail environments and retail communications programs for more than 2,000 clients at 30,000 retail locations worldwide. Prior to founding Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists the principals have had extensive experience with Macy’s, Citi, Pizza Hut, Pepsico, JWT and Madison Square Garden. “Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists can bring fresh insights to the task of helping financial organizations unlock new sources of growth,” said Bob Raleigh, CEO, Rockefeller Group/Insight Capitalists. “BrandPartners has a keen ability to translate visionary strategies into a compelling customer experience, one that drives revenues and loyalty,” he added.
Through this exclusive partnership, the two companies will create integrated engagement teams that deliver a complete strategy-to-translation solution to clients . “With this alliance, clients do not have to choose and separately manage a traditional management consultancy, an advertising agency, and a branding and design firm,” said Bob Raleigh. “Our one integrated team approach provides one point of contact for the client, and it ensures that the strategy anticipates the execution, and vice versa,” he added.
The alliance will also integrate and leverage rigorous analytic tools proprietary to the two firms. The Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists’ eDNA framework works to identify the opportunities that exist to drive value creation and helps align every business function within an organization with the needs of the customer. The BrandPartners’ Retail Health Index analyzes each building block of the customer experience, and identifies opportunities to more closely align these elements to specific growth opportunities. “Like all other retailers, financial institutions grow by either attracting new customers or increasing share of wallet from current customers – or ideally, both,” said James Brooks, President and CEO, BrandPartners. “This alliance is laser focused on helping financial institutions grow deposits, and setting clear pathways to that growth,” he added.
About BrandPartners Group
BrandPartners Group, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BPTR), through its wholly owned subsidiary BrandPartners Retail, Inc. provides an integrated approach to customer environments through brand translation, business strategy, design/build services, retail displays and in-branch communications products and services, from concept and design through implementation and training. BrandPartners installations are in more than 2,000 companies at more than 30,000 retail locations. The company serves its clients from its Rochester, New Hampshire home office and regional U.S. offices.
About Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists
Rockefeller Consulting Group/Insight Capitalists is a firm that was created in partnership with Mark Rockefeller to help organizations drive revenue growth. Built upon a commitment to values, integrity, innovation and discipline, the company introduces a unique model that fills the white space between traditional management consulting and branding agencies. Rockefeller Consulting Group is an enterprise founded by Mark Rockefeller that extends the Rockefeller legacy of visionary business acumen and combines proven business practices with leading-edge technologies to accelerate growth and create sustainable value for its clients.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Avecto and Vistorm, an EDS Company, Team up to Help Businesses Accelerate Adoption of Least Privilege Management
Avecto Ltd, the most trusted name in Least Privilege Management for corporate desktops, today announces the launch of the Avecto Solution Provider Program with Vistorm, an EDS Company, its first member.
Avecto has found that users with either too many or too few access rights on their desktops and laptops dramatically raise the total cost of ownership, a problem solved by Avecto Privilege Guard. Vistorm, an EDS Company, the market leader in complete information security, will provide consulting and support services to organizations implementing Avecto Privilege Guard through-out Europe, the Middle-East and Africa. “We are delighted to partner with Vistorm because of their outstanding pedigree in information security and infrastructure services. Vistorm has one of Europe’s largest and most sophisticated practices specializing in the area of information assurance”, said Tony Bolland, Avecto CEO.
“Implementing least privilege ensures that organizations mitigate the security risks and costs associated with users having inappropriate rights over their desktops and laptops. By partnering with Avecto we can help our customers achieve improved desktop security and reduce overall desktop management and support costs”, said Dan Turner, CTO at Vistorm, an EDS Company. “We are excited to be the first to join the Avecto Solution Provider Program and take a lead role in desktop privilege management”.
The Solution Provider Program is targeted at global system integrators and security consulting organizations that are looking to improve the security of their customer’s desktop estates. Avecto’s Privilege Guard technology provides an enterprise class solution to manage user and application privileges, which is delivered through Active Directory Group Policy. Solution providers will assist customers in defining suitable policies for their environment, enabling them to realize the benefits of least privilege.
About Avecto
Avecto is a pioneer in least privilege technology, helping organizations to deploy secure and compliant desktops. With its innovative Privilege Guard technology, organizations can now empower all desktop users with the privileges they require to perform their roles, without compromising the integrity and security of their systems.
Customers of all sizes rely on Avecto to reduce operating expenses and strengthen security across their desktop environment. Our mission is to enable our customers to remove admin rights from their entire user base and implement least privilege. Avecto is building a worldwide channel of partners and system integrators and is headquartered in Manchester, UK. For more information, visit www.avecto.com.
About Vistorm
Vistorm is the Complete Information Security company. Our Professional and Managed services are underpinned by best-of-breed solutions, consultancy and support, and are delivered as “Out-of-the-box” or bespoke solutions. Our unique Delivery Platforms enable both real time and summary reporting, optimising the visibility, accuracy and auditability of security information for operations and compliance reporting. In April 2008, EDS, an HP company, acquired Vistorm, significantly expanding our resource capability and strengthening our geographic and delivery scale for our clients.
Avecto has found that users with either too many or too few access rights on their desktops and laptops dramatically raise the total cost of ownership, a problem solved by Avecto Privilege Guard. Vistorm, an EDS Company, the market leader in complete information security, will provide consulting and support services to organizations implementing Avecto Privilege Guard through-out Europe, the Middle-East and Africa. “We are delighted to partner with Vistorm because of their outstanding pedigree in information security and infrastructure services. Vistorm has one of Europe’s largest and most sophisticated practices specializing in the area of information assurance”, said Tony Bolland, Avecto CEO.
“Implementing least privilege ensures that organizations mitigate the security risks and costs associated with users having inappropriate rights over their desktops and laptops. By partnering with Avecto we can help our customers achieve improved desktop security and reduce overall desktop management and support costs”, said Dan Turner, CTO at Vistorm, an EDS Company. “We are excited to be the first to join the Avecto Solution Provider Program and take a lead role in desktop privilege management”.
The Solution Provider Program is targeted at global system integrators and security consulting organizations that are looking to improve the security of their customer’s desktop estates. Avecto’s Privilege Guard technology provides an enterprise class solution to manage user and application privileges, which is delivered through Active Directory Group Policy. Solution providers will assist customers in defining suitable policies for their environment, enabling them to realize the benefits of least privilege.
About Avecto
Avecto is a pioneer in least privilege technology, helping organizations to deploy secure and compliant desktops. With its innovative Privilege Guard technology, organizations can now empower all desktop users with the privileges they require to perform their roles, without compromising the integrity and security of their systems.
Customers of all sizes rely on Avecto to reduce operating expenses and strengthen security across their desktop environment. Our mission is to enable our customers to remove admin rights from their entire user base and implement least privilege. Avecto is building a worldwide channel of partners and system integrators and is headquartered in Manchester, UK. For more information, visit www.avecto.com.
About Vistorm
Vistorm is the Complete Information Security company. Our Professional and Managed services are underpinned by best-of-breed solutions, consultancy and support, and are delivered as “Out-of-the-box” or bespoke solutions. Our unique Delivery Platforms enable both real time and summary reporting, optimising the visibility, accuracy and auditability of security information for operations and compliance reporting. In April 2008, EDS, an HP company, acquired Vistorm, significantly expanding our resource capability and strengthening our geographic and delivery scale for our clients.
Superior Consulting Services Purchases Shares of ATI Petroleum
Superior Consulting Services, the Houston-based energy industry investment group, has announced the purchase of 1.8 million shares of ATI Petroleum (Euronext: MLATP), the petroleum exploration management and operations company. The shares are common stock and were purchased at current market price.
Vanessa Karkabi, CEO of Superior Consulting Services, commented: “Having done extensive research into ATI Petroleum, its holdings, operations, and management team, we felt this was an ideal time to invest.”
The volume of MLATP shares on average has increased nearly tenfold over the past three months from 4,600 to 43,000.
About ATI Petroleum
ATI Petroleum is an exploration management and operations company engaged in negotiating and managing production sharing contracts for petroleum and other natural resources. The company evaluates, performs, and/or purchases geological and geophysical data regarding exploration sites throughout South East Asia and Africa, including offshore and onshore prospects. ATI Petroleum holds production sharing contracts for oil and gas exploration, as well as mining of precious minerals such as uranium and titanium, in locations including Vietnam, Niger, Tunisia, and the Ivory Coast. The company is a member of ATI Group and is listed on the French Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris. Visit www.ati-petroleum.com for more information.
About Superior Consulting Services
Superior Consulting Services is dedicated to investing in companies that work to ensure the continuity of energy resources for today and tomorrow.
Vanessa Karkabi, CEO of Superior Consulting Services, commented: “Having done extensive research into ATI Petroleum, its holdings, operations, and management team, we felt this was an ideal time to invest.”
The volume of MLATP shares on average has increased nearly tenfold over the past three months from 4,600 to 43,000.
About ATI Petroleum
ATI Petroleum is an exploration management and operations company engaged in negotiating and managing production sharing contracts for petroleum and other natural resources. The company evaluates, performs, and/or purchases geological and geophysical data regarding exploration sites throughout South East Asia and Africa, including offshore and onshore prospects. ATI Petroleum holds production sharing contracts for oil and gas exploration, as well as mining of precious minerals such as uranium and titanium, in locations including Vietnam, Niger, Tunisia, and the Ivory Coast. The company is a member of ATI Group and is listed on the French Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris. Visit www.ati-petroleum.com for more information.
About Superior Consulting Services
Superior Consulting Services is dedicated to investing in companies that work to ensure the continuity of energy resources for today and tomorrow.
Faye, Pollack & Associates Named a Top IT Consulting Firm in San Fernando Valley
Faye, Pollack & Associates, Inc. (FPA), a pioneer in providing technology consulting services to mid-market companies, was recognized as one of the top IT Consulting Firms in the San Fernando Valley by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal this year. The Journal ranked local IT companies by 2008 revenue and released the full report in a recent print publication.
"Since 1991, regardless of the economy, we've maintained an unwavering focus on taking care of our clients. This focus, combined with having a highly experienced and educated staff, allows us to achieve recognition like this during these challenging times. We're honored to receive this notoriety from the Business Journal," remarked David Faye, CEO and co-Founder. FPA's 2008 revenue exceeded the company's 2007 figures despite the hurdles presented by the past year. "The widespread impact and effect of our current economic situation cannot and should not be overlooked, but what these challenging times teach us is that sticking to our values will help keep our organization successful," noted Craig Pollack, COO and co-Founder.
FPA adds this success to a list of recent honors and accomplishments such as being named a finalist in the Stevie Awards Sales and Customer Service Competition, making Accounting Technology magazine's VAR100 list, being named one of the Best Places to Work by the Los Angeles Business Journal, and making the San Fernando Valley Business Journal's 50 Fastest Growing Companies list.
About Faye, Pollack & Associates, Inc.
Faye, Pollack & Associates, Inc., has provided outsourced IT services to growing businesses since 1991. As a single source for all the technology services an organization may need, FPA offers technology consulting; network implementation, management, and support; Sage MAS 90 and 200 Accounting Software implementation, support, and training; custom programming; website design and development; CRM implementation and support; and related IT services for growing companies. By providing a "one-stop-shop" of IT services to organizations, FPA is able to effectively handle all of a company's IT needs, allowing client management to focus on their business.
For more information, please contact FPA at (818) 501-3390 or visit the FPA website.
"Since 1991, regardless of the economy, we've maintained an unwavering focus on taking care of our clients. This focus, combined with having a highly experienced and educated staff, allows us to achieve recognition like this during these challenging times. We're honored to receive this notoriety from the Business Journal," remarked David Faye, CEO and co-Founder. FPA's 2008 revenue exceeded the company's 2007 figures despite the hurdles presented by the past year. "The widespread impact and effect of our current economic situation cannot and should not be overlooked, but what these challenging times teach us is that sticking to our values will help keep our organization successful," noted Craig Pollack, COO and co-Founder.
FPA adds this success to a list of recent honors and accomplishments such as being named a finalist in the Stevie Awards Sales and Customer Service Competition, making Accounting Technology magazine's VAR100 list, being named one of the Best Places to Work by the Los Angeles Business Journal, and making the San Fernando Valley Business Journal's 50 Fastest Growing Companies list.
About Faye, Pollack & Associates, Inc.
Faye, Pollack & Associates, Inc., has provided outsourced IT services to growing businesses since 1991. As a single source for all the technology services an organization may need, FPA offers technology consulting; network implementation, management, and support; Sage MAS 90 and 200 Accounting Software implementation, support, and training; custom programming; website design and development; CRM implementation and support; and related IT services for growing companies. By providing a "one-stop-shop" of IT services to organizations, FPA is able to effectively handle all of a company's IT needs, allowing client management to focus on their business.
For more information, please contact FPA at (818) 501-3390 or visit the FPA website.
JMT Consulting Group Announces Partnership With ClientTrack
JMT Consulting Group, a leading consulting firm serving nonprofits, today announced their new partnership with ClientTrack. With over ten years of service, ClientTrack offers the social service industry's leading case management software platform. This alliance will provide nonprofit organizations and agencies a complete technology solution that combines integrated nonprofit accounting and fundraising software with web based case management software.
"This alliance marks an auspicious milestone for our company," said Carl Champagne, Chairman and CEO of ClientTrack. "Together, JMT and ClientTrack offer a social service solution that can truly change the world. The vision of a technology package that transforms social service organizations and the impact they deliver within our communities is now a reality."
This partnership represents a unique, progressive fusion of technology that enables social service organizations to succeed in these challenging economic times.
"For almost 20 years, we've worked to support the back office and development functions of the most important nonprofit organizations in the US and Canada," said Jacqueline Tiso, founder and Chief Executive Officer of JMT. "Aligning with ClientTrack allows us to offer our clients a new product which is a critical solution to many of our organizations current needs."
To launch the partnership, JMT and ClientTrack are offering a web seminar series over the coming weeks. This one hour presentation will focus on features of ClientTrack that deliver operational efficiencies for organizations, satisfy myriad, complex compliance requirements, and quantify and broadcast social impact. Visit www.clienttrack.com for web seminar dates/times, to register or learn more.
About JMT Consulting Group
Since our founding in 1991, JMT Consulting Group has specialized in supporting nonprofit organizations exclusively. JMT was founded on the vision that superior client support is the most important service we can provide. Whatever technology nonprofit organizations need, JMT takes the time to understand the current systems and processes and where that organization can benefit from a new solution before a recommendation is even made. Learn more about JMT at www.jmtconsulting.com.
About ClientTrack(TM)
ClientTrack is the Leading Solutions Provider of Social Impact Technology, Expertise, and Services (SITES). ClientTrack helps social mission organizations, including state and local governments, non-profits, foundations, and others, transform themselves and their communities by integrating people, processes, and technology. ClientTrack is a property of Data Systems International, a privately-held firm incorporated in 1983. ClientTrack currently serves over 1,000 organizations representing more than 10,000 users. Learn more about ClientTrack(TM) at www.clienttrack.com.
"This alliance marks an auspicious milestone for our company," said Carl Champagne, Chairman and CEO of ClientTrack. "Together, JMT and ClientTrack offer a social service solution that can truly change the world. The vision of a technology package that transforms social service organizations and the impact they deliver within our communities is now a reality."
This partnership represents a unique, progressive fusion of technology that enables social service organizations to succeed in these challenging economic times.
"For almost 20 years, we've worked to support the back office and development functions of the most important nonprofit organizations in the US and Canada," said Jacqueline Tiso, founder and Chief Executive Officer of JMT. "Aligning with ClientTrack allows us to offer our clients a new product which is a critical solution to many of our organizations current needs."
To launch the partnership, JMT and ClientTrack are offering a web seminar series over the coming weeks. This one hour presentation will focus on features of ClientTrack that deliver operational efficiencies for organizations, satisfy myriad, complex compliance requirements, and quantify and broadcast social impact. Visit www.clienttrack.com for web seminar dates/times, to register or learn more.
About JMT Consulting Group
Since our founding in 1991, JMT Consulting Group has specialized in supporting nonprofit organizations exclusively. JMT was founded on the vision that superior client support is the most important service we can provide. Whatever technology nonprofit organizations need, JMT takes the time to understand the current systems and processes and where that organization can benefit from a new solution before a recommendation is even made. Learn more about JMT at www.jmtconsulting.com.
About ClientTrack(TM)
ClientTrack is the Leading Solutions Provider of Social Impact Technology, Expertise, and Services (SITES). ClientTrack helps social mission organizations, including state and local governments, non-profits, foundations, and others, transform themselves and their communities by integrating people, processes, and technology. ClientTrack is a property of Data Systems International, a privately-held firm incorporated in 1983. ClientTrack currently serves over 1,000 organizations representing more than 10,000 users. Learn more about ClientTrack(TM) at www.clienttrack.com.
Blue Spoon Consulting Publishes White Paper: Pharmaceutical Industry Strategy for a Global Economic System
Blue Spoon Consulting Group, LLC, today published a white paper that provides context for the pharmaceutical industry to reorient itself strategically. As momentum grows for performance-based contracting and bulk buying pools, drug companies will need new kinds of strategic ideas that simultaneously create markets and improve health outcomes. Available for download through the Blue Spoon Consulting website, this white paper helps develop perspective and approach.
Blue Spoon is a strategy and marketing consultancy for the pharmaceutical industry. We are at the leading edge with a framework to help clients innovate their tactics, differentiate their strategies, and create at a system level. Simply put, Blue Spoon is different. We deliver an evolutionary leap in solutions for growth and competitive advantage. Visit: www.bluespoonconsulting.com.
Blue Spoon is a strategy and marketing consultancy for the pharmaceutical industry. We are at the leading edge with a framework to help clients innovate their tactics, differentiate their strategies, and create at a system level. Simply put, Blue Spoon is different. We deliver an evolutionary leap in solutions for growth and competitive advantage. Visit: www.bluespoonconsulting.com.
Leading Green Building Consultant Warns: Green Jobs are Not an Automatic Fix for Either Economy or Environment
In the current uncertain economic climate, it's easy to accept the logic of investing in green technologies as the ultimate tonic for both an ailing planet and a sick economy. But the sweeping claims being made about this solution to the nation's current economic problems merits closer scrutiny, says Jerry Yudelson, author of eight books on corporate sustainability and green building.
"The idea that green jobs can solve both climate change and the current recession is a tall order," says Yudelson, as he explains that both of these issues are incredibly complicated problems that require thoughtful, carefully calculated solutions. "Green investment is certainly a remedy for hard times," he adds, "but it may not be a cure."
Yudelson's analysis of the impact of green investment and green job creation is contained in a new white paper "Green Jobs: Separating Hype from Reality," published by his firm, Yudelson Associates, and co-authored with Jaime Galayda, PhD. The report investigates the job definitions, growth forecasts, and investment projections that paint a more complete picture of the relationship between green jobs, government action to address climate change, and the health of the nation's economy.
In order to separate hype from reality, the authors first attempt to clarify the definition of what constitutes a "green economy" job. They quote Van Jones, special advisor to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and author, who posits that these are either jobs related to blue-collar employment that has been upgraded to better respect the environment or family-supporting, career track, vocational or trade-level employment in environmentally-friendly fields.
Examples of these types of jobs would include solar panel and solar hot water installers, farmers engaged in biofuel production, renewable energy power station technicians, and construction workers who build energy-efficient buildings.
But how many of these jobs can be tied to economic recovery? According to the Yudelson white paper, green employment in the U.S. will be turbocharged by the passage of The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, a.k.a. the "stimulus package," in February, 2009. The bill provides $75 billion for energy efficiency, renewable energy and the smart grid. In addition, the Obama administration's 2010 budget includes significant revenues from proposed carbon cap and trade rules, with as much as $150 billion in carbon reduction revenues targeted for clean energy programs and tax incentives by 2018.
These aggregate spending programs and tax cuts will create an enormous number of environment-oriented jobs over the next several years, but how large a number? The Conference of Mayors' green jobs report forecasts 1.5 million green jobs by 2018 in power generation, retrofits for buildings, and renewable fuels- plus another 846,000 jobs in related engineering, legal, research, and consulting positions.
Another forecast from the The Center for American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts estimate that $100 billion invested in green economic recovery programs over the next two years could create 2 million green jobs in renewable energy, advanced biofuels, "smart grid" improvements, expanding mass transit and freight rail lines, and energy efficient building retrofits.
But this new employment will only partially offset the loss of five million jobs already suffered in the nation's recession. Likewise, the president's Council of Economic Advisors estimates that the stimulus spending will create or save 3 million jobs by the fourth quarter of 2010. Many of these jobs - but certainly not all - will be "green."
Bottom line, according to the Yudelson white paper, government spending, including on green job creation, will have an enormous impact on job creation overall, but federal and state environmental initiatives will not replace every lost job with a green one. Says Yudelson, the leading green building consultant, "What's really at issue here is how we can invest productively to create the maximum number of new jobs."
He suggests that retrofitting existing buildings for energy efficiency is the best place to start, because reductions in energy costs will have a more immediate effect than investments in renewable energy. As far as he's concerned, "that's job one in the current economic downturn."
For access to the Yudelson "Green Jobs: Separating Myth from Reality" white paper, go to: http://www.greenbuildconsult.com/books/#greenjobs
To view a 90-second YouTube video clip entitled: "Green Building & Green Jobs: Where's the Beef?" featuring highlights of Jerry Yudelson's perspective on green jobs, please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9fNJTETWBE
About Yudelson Associates
Yudelson Associates is a leading international firm in sustainability planning and green building consulting. The founder, Jerry Yudelson, is widely acknowledged as one of the nation's leading experts on green building and green development. He is the author of eight green building books and serves as Research Scholar for Real Estate Sustainability for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a 70,000-member international trade organization. He is a frequent green building speaker at industry and professional conferences and chaired the industry's largest annual show, Greenbuild, from 2004 through 2009.
For more information on Yudelson Associates please visit http://www.greenbuildconsult.com.
Individuals may also use this site to subscribe to Yudelson's green building blog and/or his Green Build Bulletin E-Newsletter.
"The idea that green jobs can solve both climate change and the current recession is a tall order," says Yudelson, as he explains that both of these issues are incredibly complicated problems that require thoughtful, carefully calculated solutions. "Green investment is certainly a remedy for hard times," he adds, "but it may not be a cure."
Yudelson's analysis of the impact of green investment and green job creation is contained in a new white paper "Green Jobs: Separating Hype from Reality," published by his firm, Yudelson Associates, and co-authored with Jaime Galayda, PhD. The report investigates the job definitions, growth forecasts, and investment projections that paint a more complete picture of the relationship between green jobs, government action to address climate change, and the health of the nation's economy.
In order to separate hype from reality, the authors first attempt to clarify the definition of what constitutes a "green economy" job. They quote Van Jones, special advisor to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and author, who posits that these are either jobs related to blue-collar employment that has been upgraded to better respect the environment or family-supporting, career track, vocational or trade-level employment in environmentally-friendly fields.
Examples of these types of jobs would include solar panel and solar hot water installers, farmers engaged in biofuel production, renewable energy power station technicians, and construction workers who build energy-efficient buildings.
But how many of these jobs can be tied to economic recovery? According to the Yudelson white paper, green employment in the U.S. will be turbocharged by the passage of The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, a.k.a. the "stimulus package," in February, 2009. The bill provides $75 billion for energy efficiency, renewable energy and the smart grid. In addition, the Obama administration's 2010 budget includes significant revenues from proposed carbon cap and trade rules, with as much as $150 billion in carbon reduction revenues targeted for clean energy programs and tax incentives by 2018.
These aggregate spending programs and tax cuts will create an enormous number of environment-oriented jobs over the next several years, but how large a number? The Conference of Mayors' green jobs report forecasts 1.5 million green jobs by 2018 in power generation, retrofits for buildings, and renewable fuels- plus another 846,000 jobs in related engineering, legal, research, and consulting positions.
Another forecast from the The Center for American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts estimate that $100 billion invested in green economic recovery programs over the next two years could create 2 million green jobs in renewable energy, advanced biofuels, "smart grid" improvements, expanding mass transit and freight rail lines, and energy efficient building retrofits.
But this new employment will only partially offset the loss of five million jobs already suffered in the nation's recession. Likewise, the president's Council of Economic Advisors estimates that the stimulus spending will create or save 3 million jobs by the fourth quarter of 2010. Many of these jobs - but certainly not all - will be "green."
Bottom line, according to the Yudelson white paper, government spending, including on green job creation, will have an enormous impact on job creation overall, but federal and state environmental initiatives will not replace every lost job with a green one. Says Yudelson, the leading green building consultant, "What's really at issue here is how we can invest productively to create the maximum number of new jobs."
He suggests that retrofitting existing buildings for energy efficiency is the best place to start, because reductions in energy costs will have a more immediate effect than investments in renewable energy. As far as he's concerned, "that's job one in the current economic downturn."
For access to the Yudelson "Green Jobs: Separating Myth from Reality" white paper, go to: http://www.greenbuildconsult.com/books/#greenjobs
To view a 90-second YouTube video clip entitled: "Green Building & Green Jobs: Where's the Beef?" featuring highlights of Jerry Yudelson's perspective on green jobs, please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9fNJTETWBE
About Yudelson Associates
Yudelson Associates is a leading international firm in sustainability planning and green building consulting. The founder, Jerry Yudelson, is widely acknowledged as one of the nation's leading experts on green building and green development. He is the author of eight green building books and serves as Research Scholar for Real Estate Sustainability for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a 70,000-member international trade organization. He is a frequent green building speaker at industry and professional conferences and chaired the industry's largest annual show, Greenbuild, from 2004 through 2009.
For more information on Yudelson Associates please visit http://www.greenbuildconsult.com.
Individuals may also use this site to subscribe to Yudelson's green building blog and/or his Green Build Bulletin E-Newsletter.
QueBIT Consulting Presented with Mid-Market Achievement Award
QueBIT Consulting LLC was presented with the IBM Cognos Mid-Market Achievement Award at the Cognos Partner Summit held in Orlando, FL on May 12, 2009.
This is the first time this honor has been given to a partner for demonstrating superior client service performance in the Small and Mid-Sized market segments. This award recognizes excellence in sales, pre-sales, and deployment capabilities in both the Business Intelligence and Financial Performance Management sectors.
This award continues the ongoing recognition of QueBIT as a valuable IBM Cognos partner, following their Platinum Reseller Achievement Award in 2007 for outstanding sales, and the Sales Excellence Award in 2008.
Gary Quirke, CEO of QueBIT said, "We are honored to be recognized with this award, and QueBIT will continue to strive for excellence in this key business segment of IBM Cognos products."
The recent acquisition of Creeth Richman Associates further strengthened the QueBIT platform, ideally positioning QueBIT to provide the full complement of Unified Performance Management solutions.
About QueBIT
Specializing in providing Unified Performance Management solutions throughout North America, QueBIT empowers companies to make intelligent decisions faster. To find out more information on how QueBIT can work with your organization to achieve results, please contact us at 1 800-QUEBIT1, email us at contact @ quebit.com, or visit our website: www.quebit.com
This is the first time this honor has been given to a partner for demonstrating superior client service performance in the Small and Mid-Sized market segments. This award recognizes excellence in sales, pre-sales, and deployment capabilities in both the Business Intelligence and Financial Performance Management sectors.
This award continues the ongoing recognition of QueBIT as a valuable IBM Cognos partner, following their Platinum Reseller Achievement Award in 2007 for outstanding sales, and the Sales Excellence Award in 2008.
Gary Quirke, CEO of QueBIT said, "We are honored to be recognized with this award, and QueBIT will continue to strive for excellence in this key business segment of IBM Cognos products."
The recent acquisition of Creeth Richman Associates further strengthened the QueBIT platform, ideally positioning QueBIT to provide the full complement of Unified Performance Management solutions.
About QueBIT
Specializing in providing Unified Performance Management solutions throughout North America, QueBIT empowers companies to make intelligent decisions faster. To find out more information on how QueBIT can work with your organization to achieve results, please contact us at 1 800-QUEBIT1, email us at contact @ quebit.com, or visit our website: www.quebit.com
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