HP Introduces Financial Solution Analysis to Help Businesses Free Up Funds Trapped in Operations

HP today announced a customized HP Financial Solution Analysis for enterprise clients to analyze both direct and indirect costs associated with IT solutions.


The information is used to help clients make better financial decisions and gain maximum value from their IT investment strategies.

Offered through HP Financial Services, the company’s leasing and life cycle asset management services division, HP Financial Solution Analysis develops data for chief financial officers (CFOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) to use in evaluating the merits of competing IT investment approaches and methodologies. To accomplish this, the solution analyzes the full spectrum of costs related to a client’s IT investment, including expenses for hardware, software, maintenance, training, energy (power and cooling), applications development, downtime and end-of-life disposition.

“Organizations need to remove the guesswork from how their capital dollars can be most effectively invested,” said Arindam Chandra, Country Manager, HP Financial Services, HP India. “Working with HP, clients gain valuable insights into refocusing IT investments to support innovation and business growth, versus investing in the operations of an aging infrastructure.”

For enterprise clients, HP Financial Solution Analysis offers a deep dive into their company’s existing infrastructure. This includes cataloging the quantity and type of in-place IT assets, evaluating the remaining book value, identifying internal IT users and their needs, as well as benchmarking IT-related expenses.

Through the HP Financial Solution Analysis, organizations can find ways to reclaim funds that are trapped in operations and shift resources and expense from operations to innovation.

“IT investment is a major piece of most enterprise companies’ budgets,” said David Mitchell, senior vice president for IT Research at Ovum, a leading global technology research firm. “Identifying hidden costs and false economies associated with maintaining older IT equipment can help CFOs and CIOs prioritize competing demands for capital. For example, while companies usually fund IT acquisition from a centralized source, ongoing costs – power and cooling costs, maintenance, software updates, among others – are decentralized and typically never seen at the corporate level.”

Upon completion of the analysis, HP Financial Services works closely with clients to develop and deploy a technology solution that best meets their needs. As an asset management services company, HP Financial Services enables clients to intelligently and economically manage their business technology investment across the full IT portfolio – from planning and acquiring technology to replacing and retiring it.

ETEN CA launches its VSAT based Coaching Centre in Bangalore

Affordable and high quality coaching through satellite link was today launched in Bangalore. ETEN CA (Educomp Tele-Education Network for CA prep) from IndiaCan Education, India’s largest network of technology based satellite coaching centers for Chartered Accountancy prep, today formally inaugurated its centre in Bangalore located at No. 14/1, 4th Cross, Sampige Road, Malleshwaram.


ETENCA is a pioneering Tele Education initiative aimed to help CA aspirants get advanced, scientific and personalized coaching from acclaimed faculties, at their home town and at a lower cost compared to what they would have incurred if they took in-person classes from the same faculty.

In less than 2 years, ETEN CA has set up over 100 centres across north, central and eastern India and benefited over 20000+ students. ETEN CA is now looking to expand its presence in South India with a view to enable students across cities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu access to high quality CA coaching from nation’s best teachers without leaving their city.



Buoyed by unprecedented success of North India centres and recognizing the need for a specific program for Southern states, ETEN CA is launching a separate program for CA prep for the four South India states. The ETEN CA South India Program (SIP) students will receive coaching from eminent faculties like CA Kapileshwar Bhalla, CS B. Ravi, Dr. T S Deendayalan, CA P. Satish Kumar, Mr. N. S Govindan, Mr .R. Murali, CS Sangeet Kedia, Mr. R. D. Maheshwari, Mr. BVN Rajeshwar and other eminent and experienced faculty.

ETEN CA’s North India Program (NIP) faculty CA Parveen Sharma , Dr. Girish Ahuja , CA Sanjay Aggarwal, CA Raj Kumar, CA Rajiv Singh, CA Pankaj Garg and others may also enrich the ETEN CA SIP initiative at various stages.


Elaborating on the benefits and scope of satellite education Mr. Puneet Jhingan, Senior VP, IndiaCan Education Pvt Ltd said “The objective of satellite education is to help students get advanced, scientific and personalized coaching right in their home town. CA being a professional and competitive course requires skilled and qualitative coaching which is exactly what ETEN CA is doing by assembling the best teachers in the field, under one roof, for students across India. It allows a student to study all subjects at his/her home town without migrating to metropolitan cities. The study is closely managed by ETENCA staff and affiliates and supplemented by advanced Learning Management System, Smart Assessment System, Video Archives and such other unique and beneficial features”

“In Southern India, ETEN CA will shortly open centres across states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala covering cities like Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mangalore, Mysore, Cochin, Salem, Erode, Guntur and other major towns. We hope to have close to 20 centres across the southern states by the end of this financial year. By then, we should have around 125 centres across India”.

Among the highlights of the ETEN CA program are India’s leading faculty; Structured assessment; Well equipped classrooms; E-Learning support and Video Archives.

An amazing feature of ETEN CA is that it allows students to access and view the lectures they may have missed or want to review through unique video archive system. Recognizing the special needs of CA aspirants who need to balance their CA prep sessions with demands of frequent travel arising from mandatory Arcticleship, ETEN CA has conceived and implemented a unique Video Archive Access system wherein students have the facility to view their missed lectures on the net. They can also revise a limited number of sessions online closer to their exams and are effectively able to study anytime and anywhere as per their need.


Moreover a student at ETEN CA is monitored and regular assessments are conducted through Mock test, sample paper’s and regular tests which helps a student to perform and prepare better for the CA exams.

Since its launch, ETEN CA has already helped many students in smaller cities to score well in their exams. A student of ETEN CA recently scored 100% marks in IPCC Accounts, creating a history. This is the first time any student has scored 100% marks in IPCC Accounts. Besides this, ETEN CA has produced many Rank Holders in its previous batches.

MCAFEE, INC. PROVIDES INCREASED PROTECTION AGAINST MALWARE AND BOTNETS

McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE) today announced the release of McAfee® Web Gateway version 7 in response to the overwhelming increase in Web-borne malware and botnets. As the reliance on Web 2.0 applications increases, so does the risk to organizations that need flexible access to “Web 2.0 ready” security. The new platform enables secure end-user access to today’s Web 2.0 applications. By extending its lead in proactive malware scanning and further integrating with McAfee Labs’ cloud-based global threat intelligence, McAfee provides unmatched protection for enterprises and service providers with its scalable platform and virtual appliance offerings.



The use of targeted attacks leveraging Web-borne malware are becoming more sophisticated and prevalent. Most of these attacks are “zero day” and are used to capture resources for ever-expanding botnets or to steal business information including personal or customer information, records, financial transactions and intellectual property. McAfee Web Gateway platform enables employee access to authorized Web 2.0 applications, while greatly reducing risk by combining local and cloud-based protection, powered by McAfee Labs.


“Today’s most prevalent threat to enterprises is from zero-day, Web-borne malware,” said Dan Ryan, executive vice president and general manager of the Network Security business unit at McAfee. “McAfee provides protection at every stage of an attack, as demonstrated during Operation Aurora, which targeted Google and dozens of other companies. Reputation management is an essential part of that protection.”


McAfee Web Gateway takes a bi-directional hybrid security approach that includes a new intent-based anti-malware scanning engine, along with several cloud-based technologies. Integration with real-time McAfee® Artemis™ technology protects organizations against viruses, provides mobile filtering for remote users and expands Web reputation capabilities. Through Web reputation and Global Threat Intelligence, the platform blocks access to infected websites, stops malicious content from downloading and prevents back-channel communication of infected machines.


“Our experience with McAfee Web Gateway version 7 is extremely positive. It allows for additional flexibility and granular control over the polices that we create,” said Tristan Hoar, Technical Analyst for Service Birmingham, a provider of internet service for more than 185,000 users. “This will ultimately allow us to achieve enhanced performance from the existing infrastructure as we can tune our polices to ensure the filtering decision is made in fewer steps.”


With this release, McAfee offers the following enhancements:

· Advanced Security: New, patent-pending approach to behavior analysis performs real-time content inspection to unveil any embedded code, buffer overflows or exploits. Cloud-based technologies offer mobile filtering for remote users, and expanded Web reputation capabilities including geo-location and URL categorization.



· Enhanced Performance and Scalability: McAfee Web Gateway version 7 is highly scalable with robust performance on existing appliances. Additional deployment capabilities include support for VMware and transparent proxy options for added flexibility and control.

· Full content security: Companies can realize increased security and cost savings from integration of McAfee® Web and Email Gateways with McAfee® Network Data Loss Prevention and the McAfee® ePolicy Orchestrator® platform. These integrations help organizations achieve a significant return on their investments while leveraging the benefits of Web 2.0 enabled applications.

Availability: McAfee Web Gateway version 7 is available today and licensed per user. Exact pricing depends on customer requirements and selected deployment method which include appliances or VMware

Mahindra Satyam BPO secures five year contract with GlaxoSmithKline

Mahindra Satyam, the new brand identity of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (NYSE:SAY), a leading global consulting and IT services provider, announced today that its business process outsourcing arm, Mahindra Satyam BPO has renewed its existing contract for a further period of five years with its customer, GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. Mahindra Satyam BPO ’s relationship with GSK is five years old, and it currently provides high end artwork and design services to the pharmaceutical company. The Regional Service Center ( RSC ) at Mahindra Satyam BPO will provide creative logo, production and promotional graphic artwork services to a global customer base of GSK.

Speaking about the achievement, Vijay Rangineni, CEO, Mahindra Satyam BPO said, “This contract renewal is a reaffirmation of the faith placed by GSK in Mahindra Satyam BPO . Our focus on high-end services and our ability to leverage knowledge of the customer’s business have enabled us to offer services that are at the core of the customer organization. Mahindra Satyam BPO provides GSK with a fully integrated cost effective scalable model within the high-end Artwork and Design services space.”

Mahindra Satyam BPO ’s integrated partnership approach and a continued focus on productivity, quality performance and the rapid ability to scale up were cited as the main reason for the contract renewal.

Mahindra Satyam BPO serves over 100 countries in the customer’s global footprint. Currently, Mahindra Satyam BPO has a dedicated RSC in Hyderabad and manages Design and Artwork Shared Services, Supply Chain Management and Logistics Support. Mahindra Satyam BPO also offers multilingual services to the customer in French, Spanish and Arabic besides English.

Lenovo Enhances Focus on India's Fast-growing Youth Segment

Lenovo today announced two exciting offers specially designed for consumers who like to stay connected on the go. The offers are ‘Fun on Campus’ for students and ‘Fun Online’ for the general consumer.


Announcing the new offers, Mr Alex Li, Vice-President HSB (Home & SMB), Lenovo India, said: “India’s youth segment offers enormous potential for PC companies—we are significantly expanding our focus in this category. Given the fact that youth typically prefer quality yet affordable products, these offers provide them full value for money. As we witness a healthy demand in this category, we hope customers make the most of these wonderful offers.”

“The Lenovo products powered by the Tata Photon Plus heralds a new era in versatile computing access, and is in keeping with TTSL’s endeavor to provide affordable and ubiquitously accessible high-speed Internet access,” Mr Lloyd Mathias, President & Chief Marketing Officer, Tata Teleservices Limited, said. “The unique advantages of our HSIA service get compounded by the feature-rich and attractively-priced Lenovo products, which are designed to bring the best of both worlds to the market. We are pleased to collaborate with Lenovo and to bring to Indian consumers innovative solutions that offer a world-class computing experience and ubiquitous broadband connectivity,” he added.


Fun on Campus offer:

Goody Pack includes a Sling Bag, Lenovo Optical Mouse, a Multimedia Headset and One-year Protection of McAfee Anti-Virus.

Lenovo G Series and Lenovo IdeaPad S Series customers can avail of a goody pack worth Rs 2,660 at a discounted price of just Rs 499 plus taxes

Lenovo IdeaPad Y Series customers can avail of a goody pack worth Rs 4,459 at a discounted price of just Rs 749 plus taxes
The offer is valid from 15 May 2010 to 15 June 2010.

Fun Online Offer:

Customers purchasing Lenovo Notebooks (S,G,U & Y series), Desktops (H, K series) or All-in-ones (A,B,C series) get a Tata Photon Plus device at a discounted price of just Rs 750. Additionally, get 2GB data free.

Note: In locations where High-Speed Internet Access service is not offered by Tata Teleservices Ltd, customers can avail of Tata Photon Whiz/Plug2 Surf at a discounted price of just Rs 750. They are also entitled to free access to the Internet for one month.

The offer is valid from 1 May to 31 July 2010.

Lenovo has been at the forefront introducing exciting offers for its customers, and these two new offers are another example of Lenovo’s numerous customer-friendly initiatives in India.

SIFY launches On-demand cloud services using HP Converged Infrastructure

HP and Sify Technologies Limited, a leading Data Center player (NASDAQ, Global Markets: SIFY) today jointly announced an agreement to power SIFY’s On-Demand cloud services using HP’s Converged Infrastructure. This will allow Sify to provide demand based computing services on a pay per use or flexible contract model. Customers using the new service will be able to accelerate time to market and reduce cost by leveraging IT services on the fly, without making substantial capital investments in technology.

Established in1998, Sify is India’s first Private Internet Service Provider (ISP). In 2000, Sify built India’s first Tier III Internet Data Center at Vashi, Navi Mumbai. The company today provides data center hosting services, corporate connectivity services, managed network, voice services, applications and system integration services. Continuing the journey to simplify computing access for businesses and organizations, Sify wanted to expand its offering with new cloud based services. To build and secure an agile cloud infrastructure, it required a robust, integrated, flexible but simplified platform that would significantly minimize the time to provision new users or application infrastructure. In addition, the model demanded instant capacity augmentation and scalability of computing resources.

Using HP’s Converged Infrastructure, Sify is now launching new cloud services including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for select applications under its On-Demand Hosting Platform. To enable this, the Blade System Matrix a product of HP’s converged infrastructure, pools together Sify’s IT resource into a highly automated and virtualized resource pool. Specific application templates have been developed to automatically provision resources for every new business requirement. Businesses users will be able to request IT services on the fly by using a self service portal powered by the HP Insight Orchestration tool, within the Blade System Matrix.

Raju Vegesna, Chairman and Managing Director, Sify Technologies Limited, said “We are excited and energized by the launch of On-Demand platform, as it extends our commitment to our customers of “keeping them ahead” by bringing innovative, business centric, services oriented approach to their connectivity, hosting, and communications needs. We will continue to invest and innovate in building “Information Communication Technology- ICT”-as-a-service model, which will enable our customers in India and beyond, to leverage technology on the TAP.”

“A number of industries are experiencing spiraling growth in data services. They are now looking for new ways to source technology and avoid upfront costs. Sify’s new cloud service will enable our customers to source IT-as-a-Service without compromising on performance, security and control,” said P J Nath, Executive President, Enterprise Business, Sify. “HP’s technology delivers a highly resilient and elastic computing infrastructure that will enable Sify to deploy computing resources in the scale and durations dictated by our customers”.

He added, “The launch of our On-Demand Hosting Services is a momentous beginning as it integrates Sify’s expertise in data center, network, security, enterprise applications and professional support services and gives unique advantage to our enterprise customers to leverage fully integrated Cloud infrastructures under single window solution”

“Customers are looking at cloud technologies to minimize cost, improve efficiency and be adaptive to market changes,” said Som Satsangi, Director, Enterprise Server, Storage and Networking, HP India. “Using converged Infrastructure, Sify is able to deliver a highly scalable and expandable cloud platform that significantly reduces the time and cost of deploying new IT services. Sify’s customers will be able to scale up or down resources by leveraging the full potential of virtualization, cloud and intelligent management in the converged infrastructure.”

As part of the agreement HP and Sify will also leverage their network to promote these services in the SMB segment. Sify will also leverage HP’s network of ISV partners to offer applications on the cloud model

Four Indian students shine at Intel ISEF (Intel Science and Engineering Fair)

Celebrating the world’s brightest student entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists, Intel Corporation and Society for Science & the Public announced the top winners of the world's largest pre-college science competition: the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Four Indian students were recipients of the prestigious Intel Science and Engineering Fair 2010 at San Jose, California.


Three students from South Point High School, Kolkata emerged as winners - Anarta Roy, Manosij Ghosh Dastidar and Aritra Chowdhury. Manosij and Anarta Roy received $1000 each for winning the Third Place Grand Award, Team projects for their project on the designing of a Novel; Low-cost, Easy to Use, Auto-disposable Syringe - Aritra Chowdhury was awarded an Honorable Mention award for his project on extraction of Natural Carbonaceous Nanomaterials from Soil Sources: Exploration of Properties and Applications. He also won the Fourth place Grand award, Chemistry receiving $500.


Kaushik Srivatsan Krishna Swamy, a student of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Mandya won the Second Award of $500 U.S. savings bond, AVASC-Ashtavadhani Vidwan Ambati Subbaraya Chetty Foundation and Third Place Grand Award, Plant Sciences for investigation of Antimicrobial Property of Ervatamia coronaria Flower, receiving $1,000. Amy Chyao, of Richardson, Texas received $75,000 and the Gordon E. Moore Award, given for the first time in honor of the Intel co-founder and retired chairman and CEO.

“The 1,600 youths from around the world who attended last week’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair showed me that the next generation of scientific and technological innovation is exciting and thriving,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. “I hope that the energy these high school students exhibit about math and science will inspire yet another generation of innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs which will improve our world.”

Dr. Praveen Vishakantaiah, President Intel India said, “As a global technology company, Intel is proud of the work that we do to help shape the global youth community for the future technology revolution. All eight students who represented India at ISEF this year demonstrate the capabilities of our country in the field of Math and Science. Aritra, Manosij, Anarta and Kaushik are winners at a global platform like ISEF and make us all very proud. We wish them all the very best for a bright and prosperous future. All participating students are high scholastic achievers and looking at their capabilities and potential we are convinced that India represents a 21st century knowledge economy nurturing the next generation innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs”

This year, competition consisted of 1,611 young scientists from 59 countries, regions and territories. In addition to the three top prizes, the Intel Foundation awarded $8,000 to each of 19 "Best of Category" winners and also provided $1,000 grants to the winners’ schools and the affiliated fairs they represent. More than 600 additional awards and prizes were provided by dozens of other corporate, academic, government and science-focused sponsors for their groundbreaking work.

Logica announces India winner of the Global Innovation Venture Partner Programme 2010

Logica, a leading business and technology service company, today announced that ConnectM Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd., an end–to-end solutions provider for the energy, transportation, utilities, industrial and enterprise markets, is the winner of the Global Innovation Venture Partner (GIVP) Programme in India.


The winning initiative ‘Energy Management Solution’ by ConnectM – is a solution that ensures savings in energy bills for commercial buildings and telecom cell sites. The solution delivers savings of up to 10% in electricity bills, significant savings in fuel consumption, and overall optimisation of energy operations. The solution effectively leverages wireless technology for retrofit solutions, provides for energy management services remotely comprising of comprehensive analytics reports for enhanced decision making.

ConnectM received its award from Abhay Gupte, CEO, Logica in India and GBS Bindra, Global Innovation Director, Logica. Congratulating Connect M, Abhay Gupte said, “The IT industry is extremely dynamic and innovation plays an important role. Innovation is a core value at Logica and we are delighted to be able to collaborate with ConnectM. Their energy management solution has a practical approach which has the potential to make a significant impact through usage and we look forward to working with them.”

ConnectM, a Sasken & IDG Ventures Company will compete with eight other country winners, and will present before a global panel for its chances to win the Global Winner position. The global winner will be announced on May 17th 2010 during an Analyst event in Stockholm.

Mr. Murali Ramalingam, Managing Director, ConnectM said, “The GIVP Programme is an encouraging platform for companies to showcase their innovative ideas at a global level. We are pleased to collaborate with Logica on innovation for the customer. We are extremely pleased to have won the India part of the programme.”

Now in its third year, the GIVP Programme is a successfully running programme. This year, in India alone, the programme received 120 nominations of which six were shortlisted by the panel. The shortlisted companies underwent a rigorous evaluation by the panel to finally arrive at the India winner. The programme is hosted in nine countries- UK, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Portugal, US and India after which the global winner is announced.

HP Enables Clients to Drive Business Growth, Innovation through Applications Transformation

HP Enterprise Services today announced new initiatives to help clients create a self-funded journey that transforms their applications portfolios.


The initiatives include a client modernization experience and options for financing their technology infrastructure transformation.

Many organizations face business constraints caused by limitations of older technology infrastructure. Technologies such as mainframes, legacy midrange platforms and outdated applications are causing environments that are rigid and resistant to change. Through applications transformation, clients can align their portfolios with business services, driving innovation for the business while reducing overall operating costs.

HP has the tools and expertise to help organizations determine the best approach for upgrading legacy systems by identifying exactly which applications do not support business priorities. By applying HP’s innovative approach based on analysis of hundreds of client engagements, clients can improve business performance while reducing application and infrastructure costs.

“Clients are struggling to shift technology spending away from operations to further drive innovation and grow their business,” said Kallol Hazra, Director Application Services, HP Enterprise Services, HP India “Leveraging HP’s expertise and technology portfolio, we help clients create a customized modernization roadmap and determine self-funding options to break through the ‘innovation gridlock.’”

The first step is the HP Applications Modernization Transformation Experience, a one-day, in-person session that helps clients understand their current situations, explore funding options and identify business outcomes. The session outlines various modernization methodologies, such as applications retirement, that free up funds to be reinvested in projects with strong business implications.

HP is currently offering clients an Application Modernization Transformation Experience. Built on more than 40 years of managing and modernizing client applications as well as infrastructure, the HP Applications Modernization Transformation Experience demonstrates HP’s approach and summarizes the results HP has achieved for other clients. This interactive experience shows how other organizations have approached similar modernization challenges, highlighting what proven solutions and architectures are currently available.

As a result, clients can identify self-funding options, as well as realize the scope, scale and critical success factors necessary for their own transformations. Specifically, clients can quickly identify wins that generate momentum, help create stakeholder buy in, locate projects to free up funds, and lay out the next steps for their own journey.

A modernized applications portfolio will enable organizations to:

— Increase responsiveness to business priorities and changing customer demands by eliminating the complexity inherent to legacy systems and server sprawl.

— Improve productivity for employees and reduce maintenance costs by streamlining complex, legacy systems to more modern, efficient technologies.

— Achieve faster speed to market with modernized infrastructure and applications.

— Self-fund the modernization journey with projects such as retiring old applications and reducing the overall expense of maintaining overprovisioned, older systems.

Additionally, the experience enables clients to explore different ways to fund the modernization journey. For example, HP Modernization Funding Options provide clients with access to capital based on the value of existing systems, which helps them to fund investments in new technology.(1) The program enables clients transitioning to new environments to free up investment dollars and reallocate them to more strategic initiatives.
The experience is part of the HP Applications Modernization Services portfolio, which includes applications assessments, applications transformation and applications management to help clients achieve the full value of their modernized environment. The solutions are available for clients across all industries, including government, manufacturing and financial services.

More information is available at www.hp.com/go/applications-initiatives.

Over 100 Indian business interested in expanding to US

More than 150 business leaders today attended a forum designed to help Indian companies explore options for expansion into the United States . At the event, titled “Indo-US Alliance: US Business Opportunities for Indian Companies in ICT, Defence and Homeland Security,” executives heard from representatives of Fairfax County EDA and several Indian companies including Grintex and Rolta International that are using Fairfax County, Virginia, as a US touchdown point and base for further global expansion.

The Governor of Karnataka, Sri H.R. Bhardwaj, was the Chief Guest and addressed the event at the Lalit Ashok Hotel about Indian-US business relationships. Ms. Rebecca A. Seweryn, the US Vice Consul General, addressed bilateral trade and business issues.

The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) in Virginia and its Bangalore office organized the event. Partners were Grintex, the US law firm of Patton Boggs LLP, Tata Communications, HSBC Global Banking and Markets, and the Grant Thornton consultancy. The Indo- American Chamber of Commerce, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Services Export Promotion Council created by the Government of India supported the event.

It was announced that Newgen Software, a leading provider of BPM, ECM and DMS solutions, Grintex which provides technical solutions, infrastructure support and logistical services in defence, aerospace and satellite technology markets & Vasu Exports, a company that specializes in supplying Furniture worldwide are setting up their operations in Fairfax County .

Describing how his company decided to expand overseas and why they chose the Fairfax County area for a US location, Mr. H. Gautam, Director, Grintex India Ltd. He said: “Grintex views a strategic location in Fairfax County as a very important step for being close to the US customers and exploring the market. Setting up Grintex in Fairfax County was a well considered decision for us due to its vast concentration of companies with high end technology solutions and the business prospects in the federal, provincial and local government agencies.”

The conference also included a Panel Discussion on “The business opportunities in the US market-ICT, Defense, Aerospace, Homeland Security” participated by Mr. MKHH Jeelani, CEO, Winconsulting, Channel Partner - HSBC Commercial Banking, Mr. Klaas Oskam, Associate Director - Transaction Advisory Services, E&Y, Mr. Rajesh Sharma, Director General, SEPC- Govt.of India and Brig. (Retd.) Ashok Gakhar, Rolta India Ltd. Mr. Anurag Verma of US based Patton Boggs LLP was the moderator for this discussion which discussed how to take advantage of the US business opportunities and role of various agencies, eco-system and the process involved.

"Our mission was to pack this event with substance and vision from beginning to end, so that the leaders of Indian technology companies wanting to spread their wings in the US, particularly in the Washington DC region, will walk away, informed and inspired,” said Mr Narendra Sarawgi, Director of the FCEDA India office and Founder Director of Innoversant Solutions. He added “This was a unique opportunity for Indian companies with global ambitions to gain insights into what the Fairfax County in the US has to offer and particularly the oft ignored opportunities of doing direct or indirect business with the US federal government, world’s largest buyer of products & services with annual purchase in excess of USD 500 billion.”

Ms. Srividya CG, Partner, Grant Thornton, delivered a presentation on the Strategic Acquisitions and Partnerships between India and US. Speaking on the occasion, she said “From a strategic M&A perspective, the largest volume of transactions can be attributed to US, for both inbound and outbound deals with Indian companies over the last 6 years. The inbound as well as outbound acquisitions between India and US are bound to grow in the near future. We hope to see several more Indian businesses capitalise on the synergies that the combination of the two economies offer.”

Rolta, which provides geospatial, GIS and engineering services, was the featured company in a panel discussion that described market-entry strategies surrounding international expansion. Panelists from HSBC, SEPC, and Ernst & Young discussed the legal, financial, operational and taxation issues involved in expansion in the US .

Mr.Alok Bardiya, Global Head (Strategy & Marketing), Enterprise Segment at Tata Communications, delivered a presentation on the importance of communications services for globalised companies.Speaking on the occasion, he said, “We are pleased to be a part of this event. Communications is the lifeline of today’s globalized world and we, at Tata Communications, continue to enable Indian and international companies doing business with the US . As a global telecom company, we see the United States as an increasingly important market for our enterprise services as well.”

Mr. Siddharth Sarawgi, director of Fairfax County EDA in India and CEO of Innoversant Solutions informed “Besides the commercial segments, Fairfax County offers USD 22 billion plus opportunity from the US federal government, a major part of which is cornered by the technology companies in ICT, defense & homeland security. More than 15 Indian companies are in active discussions with us to set up in Fairfax County in the near future.”

The growing trade relation between India and the US is driving greater opportunities for multinational Indian companies to invest and expand their business in the US . The seminar highlighted Fairfax County , just outside Washington DC , as “ground zero” in areas of defense, homeland security and ITC services where Indian companies can leverage their resources and advantages. More than 20 Indian companies (along with more than 330 companies from other countries) have an office in Fairfax County . The FCEDA’s marketing office in Bangalore opened in 2004. The Bangalore based management consultancy firm Innoversant Solutions Pvt. Ltd. represents FCEDA in India .

Many Indian companies are a part of the dynamic, diverse and cosmopolitan business community in Fairfax County , the business and technology centre of the Washington , D.C. , area. Some of the Indian companies present are Tata Communications, TCS, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Satyam Computers, TCS, Wipro, etc

In addition to its office in Bangalore , the FCEDA has offices in the important technology centers of Frankfurt, London ; Seoul and Tel Aviv.

HP Helps Organizations Break IT Innovation Gridlock

HP today announced products, solutions and services that help organizations shift their IT spending from operations to innovation.


New research conducted on behalf of HP(1) reveals that one out of every two business executives feel their companies suffer from “innovation gridlock,” in which IT organizations are blocked from driving new business innovation because the majority of their funding is consumed by operating the current environment. More than one out of every two business and technology executives feel this gridlock is preventing their organizations from keeping up with the competition.

This gridlock also carries inherent costs. Ninety-five percent of respondents said innovation gridlock cost them lost opportunities; 93 percent indicated it cost them in terms of lost effort from resources; and 99 percent said it cost them lost time.

HP’s new offerings allow organizations to break the IT innovation gridlock by:

— Creating self-funding projects that allow transformation within current budgetary constraints and offer quick paybacks.

— Architecting new solutions for change so IT organizations can quickly and easily add new functionality as the business requires it. This ensures that today’s innovation does not become tomorrow’s legacy.

— Freeing up funds trapped in operations. Organizations should find ways to drive a continual reduction in operating costs through best practices and technology. This lowers the steady-state costs of operations and reclaims funds for innovation.

“In this era of constant change, breaking the innovation gridlock can mean the difference between being a market maker or a follower,” said Kamal Dutta, Director, Software & Solutions, HP India. “With HP, CIOs can capitalize on change by reclaiming funds locked in operations to drive new innovation projects.”

Self-fund the journey

HP is offering clients a, hands-on HP Applications Modernization Transformation Experience session, which enables organizations to experience modernization and its benefits. By retiring legacy applications and eliminating complexity in technology environments, organizations are able to self-fund their modernization journeys.
In addition, new HP Modernization Funding Options provide clients with access to capital based on the value of existing systems, helping to fund investments in new technology and innovation.(2)

Architect new solutions for change

The HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) solution enables clients to architect their IT environments for change by accelerating the deployment and automated management of private and public cloud initiatives.

With the new HP CSA solution, clients can improve efficiency, free up resources and lower the risks associated with the adoption and management of cloud services. This allows them to capitalize on new cloud-based services to quicken time to market. HP CSA is part of the company’s initiative to combine its software portfolio with consulting expertise to help clients successfully adopt and manage the entire life cycle of cloud services.

Free up funds trapped in operations

New services from HP help companies create cost-efficient technology infrastructures that are consistently reliable, readily scalable and totally secure. HP delivers people, process and technology improvements that identify the root causes of unplanned downtime in complex environments.

— An expanded HP Mission Critical Services portfolio delivers multilevel support for the entire virtualized environment including hardware, operating systems and hypervisors. As part of this expansion, the HP Mission Critical Partnership now delivers support for multivendor x86 environments.

— Available through the updated line of HP Proactive Services, new HP IT Service Management Assessment for Virtualized Environments increases the operational efficiency of virtualized environments and frees up operational costs through expert recommendations and priority improvements.

Additional resources

More information about HP’s new offerings, including a video from Thomas E. Hogan, is available at www.hp.com/go/breakthegridlock2010

Mothers’ sets the ramp on fire at Forum Value Mall

Forum Value Mall had a perfect plan for this Mothers’ Day to pamper that one special person with special moments which can bring in smile on her face. Ten lucky mothers got selected for the finals of “My Lovely Mom” competition which took place at Forum Value Mall on Sunday 9th May 2010


My Lovely Mom was a fun filled competition which commenced on 2nd of May. The contestants had to go through a set of three challenges - “My lovely Mom” – Make over & Pageant, Mom and Child Look Alike and My Lovely Mom drawing contest.

The ten contestants who have won their way to the finals was a mix of home-makers & working women.
The grand finale witnessed the 10 contestants competing against each other for 3 categories.

Mrs. Zina Ray took the honor of being the winner, followed by Mrs. Ritu Bhat runner–up and Mrs. Radha Jhah winning the most glamorous mom.

Mrs. Kalpana Shah Mom of three and who has a grandson won the most experienced mother award.

Mahindra Satyam signs deal with BASF IT Services

Mahindra Satyam, the brand identity of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (NYSE:SAY), a leading global consulting and IT services provider announced today the signing of an off-shoring deal with BASF IT Services. BASF IT Services, a BASF Group company and 100 percent subsidiary of the world’s leading chemical company BASF, is among the leading IT service providers for the process industry in Europe . The contract, awarded following a competitive bidding process, is to enhance BASF’s capacity to provide managed services for the company’s extensive installed base of SAP, messaging and groupware as well as user administration.


BASF IT Services conducted an extensive RFP process and selected Mahindra Satyam against strict evaluation criteria and following exhaustive due diligence. The contract, based on a 100% outcome oriented model, is for three year period with a two times one year extension option.

Virtusa Launches Media Convergence Solution Accelerator

Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ: VRTU), a global IT services company that offers a broad spectrum of business consulting and outsourcing services, today introduced its new enterprise content management (ECM) offering, the Media Convergence Solution Accelerator. Modeled after Virtusa’s success implementing interactive Web platforms for the world’s leading media brands, the new service combines best practices consulting with proven technology components to ensure a consistent, branded user experience that optimizes revenue generation opportunities.


As content channels proliferate, consumers become increasingly migratory yet expect a unified and interactive engagement experience with companies. Media organizations often struggle to align their brand across channels, both from a content perspective and at the technical level. Misalignment in a converged world hurts the customer experience, and can diminish advertising revenue and increase support costs.


“As difficult as it is to manage content and technologies across disparate customer portals, it’s an opportunity for IT to directly impact the customer experience, branding and revenue generation – and these are precisely the kind of business results that Virtusa focuses on,” said Behzad Ilchi, Vice President for Virtusa’s Media and Entertainment segment. “Our Media Convergence Solution Accelerator is a truly proven approach that packages the best practices we’ve developed with some of the biggest media companies and gives customers more than 20 practical tools to replicate that success.”


“Virtusa played a significant role as a strategic partner for the re-launch of our www.travelchannel.com website,” said Drew Frederick, Senior Director of IT Technology and Operations at Travel Channel, which produces popular shows like No Reservations and Man V. Food. “Virtusa's Vignette expertise and flexible engineering approach enabled us to adhere to the challenging timeline and deliver a high quality website with enhanced social media features. Virtusa’s technical and operational expertise helped us overcome significant infrastructure and technical challenges during the course of development, coordinating both on-shore and offshore resources to manage schedule and timeline. The end result was a new and improved user experience on a site that has been streamlined for ease of use and is rich with multimedia content.”



Virtusa’s new Accelerator includes consulting services, technology implementation and ongoing support and maintenance. Focused business consulting ensures the development of a media convergence roadmap, Web 2.0 strategy, user experience strategy and globalized content. With a technology-agnostic approach and deep experience with a variety of ECM vendors, Virtusa’s consultants guide customers through ECM technology selection and customize the Media Convergence offering accordingly.



Virtusa’s Media Convergence Solution Accelerator employs more than 20 pre-configured technical components that align with the following best practices:



•Multi-Channel Publishing – allows dynamic and consistent content sharing across multiple channels, including online, mobile Web, mobile applications and print media.

•Site Revenue Model – drives exposure and revenue with a branding strategy that is flexible enough to adapt to advertisers’ needs.

•Social Media Integration – facilitates engagement by integrating internal and external interactive features such as blogs, wikis, rating/ranking options and social bookmarking.

•User Experience Enhancement – consistent meta-data customizes the navigation experience based on user preferences while clear and conceptual content hierarchies and consistent branding ensure an intuitive experience.

•Ad Server Integration – unifies portal with multiple ad servers to improve revenue generation.

•Video Platform Integration – enables streaming and embedding capabilities while integrating systems and data for improved consistency.

•Internationalization and Localization – ensures website and content offer value to consumers in a globalized environment independent of location.

•Search Optimization – increases search engine rankings with federated search, keyword-rich URLs and site-specific search capabilities.


Virtusa has deep expertise in the media industry and was recently named a Best 10 leader for Entertainment and Media by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) in a sub-list of the 2010 Global Outsourcing 100 list. In 2009, Virtusa won Information Management’s 2009 Enterprise Content Management Innovative Solutions Award for its implementation of an ECM Center of Excellence for National Geographic. The project reduced website support costs by over 60 percent and improved content management usability by 50 percent.



This announcement of the Media Convergence Solution Accelerator comes on the heels of Virtusa’s recent introduction of its Enterprise 2.0 Services Suite. In addition to enterprise content management solutions, Virtusa offers a range of IT consulting capabilities in the business process management (BPM), data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) disciplines. Recognized for its innovative and efficient approach to enterprise solutions, Virtusa drives business results for customers through hands-on consulting and customized technology implementations.

CSS Corp announces EDGE, a Web 2.0 framework, enabling community based support models for the enterprise

CSS Corp, a leader in technology operations management, today announced the availability of the CSS EDGE Portal, an integrated knowledge management platform based on collaborative social media workflows for optimizing enterprise support and services delivery in a Cloud-based world. EDGE has been architected using open source components, configured to handle specific enterprise workflows addressing access control, content management, intellectual property and security requirements. EDGE enables the enterprise to harness the power of Web 2.0 to drive customer loyalty, drive marketing and product management, as well as provide collaborative environments for promoting ideas that drive continuous innovation.


Web 2.0 has transformed the way we look at online community behaviour and the possible implications of collective, collaborative knowledge management models. The power of the Web 2.0 model has been universally recognized, however, the implications for enterprise adoption suffer from a lack of immediate consensus. The CSS EDGE platform creates a working model for transforming the enterprise support function by providing a governance model for integrating internal and external communities or groups.

The CSS EDGE knowledge management platform would be available, both as SaaS and on-premise deployments, along with managed services bundles for technology vendors and enterprise IR including:

· Design of Social CRM platform, data modelling, reporting, and analytics

· Implementation services, Cloud enablement

· Community management and user support

Key continuous improvement metrics that CSS would deliver include customer loyalty measures like the Net Promoter Score (NPS), support agent productivity, activity measures for online community participation, search engine performance (SEO), and support costs as a percentage of revenue.

“As a leader in Technology Operations Management, CSS continues to build out frameworks and best practices that help technology providers optimize their support delivery systems, as well as address fundamental changes in the technology consumption model itself,” said Nick Sharma, CEO of CSS Corp. “The EDGE platform will bring the Web 2.0 revolution closer to the enterprise.”

CSS will be exhibiting the EDGE social media management framework and services at Booth 2 at the Technology Services World, Santa Clara being held at Santa Clara Convention Center in San Jose, CA from May 2 to 5, 2010.

IET to host Global Engineering and Technology Leadership Summit on May 6-7, 2010 in Bangalore

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), a world leading professional society for engineering and technology, is hosting a Global Engineering and Technology Leadership Summit in Bangalore.


Date: May 6 & 7, 2010
Venue: The Chancery Pavilion Hotel, Bangalore

The impact of technology on economy cannot be denied. Technology creates economic opportunities. People who recognize technology trends in advance are able to reap rich benefits by harnessing these trends to create wealth. The Global Engineering and Technology Leadership Summit creates a platform for CXOs and senior level people to recognize the technology trends of tomorrow and create leadership opportunities for their organizations and themselves by accurately having the ability to read these trends.



Over the two days of the summit there are some thought provoking sessions in store, which include experts from various domains like Healthcare, Aerospace, simulation practice and satellite. The objective is to explore how leadership in science and technology is changing the world that we live in.

The key spokespeople confirmed for the event are:

1. Prof. Christopher Snowden, President, The IET

2. Nigel Fine, Chief Executive, The IET

3. Ashish Shah, General Manager, GE Healthcare

4. K.T. Rajan, Director – Operations, IS & Projects, Allergan

5. Sudarshan Boosupalli, Country Head, Ruckus Wireless

6. Ashok Kumar J. G.,CEO & CTO, Binary Spectrum

7. Madhavan Nair, Ex-Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation

8. Dr. Surendar Pal, Former Distinguished Scientist & Associate Director, Indian Space Research Organisation

9. V. R. Venkatesh, Sr. Vice President, Product Engineering Services, Wipro

10. Dr. J. S. Rao, Chief Science Officer, Altair India

11. Anoop Kurup, Director - Innovation Management, Inolyst Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

12. Jonathan Read, Senior Manager, Boeing International Corp. India Pvt. Ltd.

13. Shanthi Mathur, CEO, Asian Heart Institute,

14. Dr. Latha Chukki, Senior Scientist, Ployclone Bioservices Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra takes charge as ISA Chairman for 2010-11

Dr. Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra, President & Managing Director, Texas Instruments India is the new Chairman and Dr. Pradip K Dutta, Corporate VP & Managing Director, Synopsis India has been elected as the Vice Chairman of India Semiconductor Association (ISA) for the year 2010-11. Ms. Poornima Shenoy is the President of ISA.


Widely acknowledged for his leadership in the industry, Dr. Mitra takes charge at a time when ISA is poised to play a key role in driving rapid growth of the Indian electronics industry.

“Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) is a huge opportunity for India. It also has the potential to change our country. Through strong acceleration by the ISA member community, we aim to fast-forward the growth across multiple verticals, driven by the electronics system design and manufacturing companies. We will also intensify our focus on green energy leadership and inclusive growth,” Dr. Mitra said.

“We have strong ISA membership from 130 companies in the semiconductor ecosystem today. Moving forward, we expect to have several more OEMs in ISA who are engaged in systems design and manufacturing in India. These OEMs will propel our industry’s future electronics growth,” Dr. Mitra added.

The members of the Executive Council of ISA for 2010-11 are:

• Dr. Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra, President & Managing Director, Texas Instruments

India (ISA Chairman)

• Dr. Pradip K Dutta, Corporate VP & Managing Director, Synopsis India (ISA Vice

Chairman)

• Mr. Rajesh Mishra, VP, SEMI & Peripherals Practice, Wipro Technologies (ISA

Treasurer)

• Mr. B V Naidu, Adviser, ISA and Chairman, Sagitaur Ventures

• Ms. Poornima Shenoy, ISA President

• Dr. Satyanarayan Gupta, CEO, Concept2Silicon Systems.

• Mr. Ganesh Guruswamy, VP & Country Manager, Freescale Semiconductor.

• Dr. Praveen Vishakantaiah, President, Intel India

• Mr. Raghu Panicker, Sales Director, Mentor Graphics India

• Mr. Vivek Sharma, EMR VP & Director, India Design Center, ST Microelectronics

• Mr. Sanjay Nayak, CEO, Tejas Networks

IMRS Advisory to expand its footprint in SE Asia with new entity

IMRS Advisory Pvt. Ltd., India’s fastest growing marketing research company, has tied up with BMI Research of Southeast Asia a leading market research and consultancy company, to simultaneously launch services across countries like India, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Singapore and Hongkong.

AZ Research has been founded by industry veterans with a mission to go beyond traditional research and provide complete solution to marketing information needs of companies. For this, apart from market research, AZ Research offers a wider range of services like Marketing consultancy, Business category analysis with benchmarking of best practices, workshops on new research techniques and their applications for Brand managers and other company executives.

Additionally, AZ Research also organizes brand workshops with all stake holders to analyse the current brand identity and strategise to create the desired identity which stretch limits for brands. As a completely new activity AZ Research will now also provide to their clients a unique service of conceptualizing and designing of Brand identity elements. Continuous feedback from the new online consumer panel would give the company a cutting edge to raise early warning signals for clients in case there is any brand identity crisis brewing in the market place.

Speaking at the press conference, Mr. Sujay Misra, MD, AZ Research Partners Pvt. Ltd. said, “With Indian companies growing beyond the Indian border, there is a need for Indian agencies providing market research consultancy across markets. BMI have traditionally had a strong presence across SE Asia while IMRS has been the fastest growing market research agency in India over the last 10 years. With the launch of AZ Research we strengthen our commitment towards the Southeast Asian market by offering a wider range of services.”

Mr Misra added that AZ Research had developed many innovative tools, which are designed for the non routine requirements like Kids Kanvas, which helps in identifying emergent themes with kids, Shelf Monitor to track shelf space share of FMCG brands and aging of stocks, Brand LEQ to assess the loyalty and emotional quotient of brand, Crictrac – to track audience reaction and feedback to sponsors during cricket series like IPL, ICC World Cup Twenty 20, etc.

Mr. Inu Machfud R, Director A Z Research Partners, who is an expert on Social psychology, spoke about the new emerging social reality in Indonesia with increasing role of virtual community, mobile society etc and its implications for marketing and market research. Mr. Sujay Misra spoke about how along with involvement of Mr. Inu Machfud, AZ Research is developing research tools for the new virtual community that is more on net and mobile than in the mall nearby. As part of this exercise, AZ Research Partners is launching the largest online panel in India, starting with a size of 10000 respondents India. In affiliation with BMI, we would have a panel size of 100,000 across South East Asia. This online panel will be accessible to brands which want to conduct surveys with bonafide consumers. AZ Research is also launching research using social networking in a formal manner for the first time in India.

AZ Research Partners will now have one of the largest networks in the industry with 35 offices in the region. This places them uniquely to service both single country and regional clients. Apart from catering to all forms of qualitative and quantitative research the team at AZ Research Partners particularly specializes in social/ psychological and communication research.

Commenting on the tie-up Mr. Abhijit Mazumdar, Member of the Board, AZ Research Partners Pvt. Ltd. said, “AZ Research has been launched with a global vision. While we are offering our services only across SE Asia in the launch phase, the vision is to convert the company into a global brand with operations across the world. Also, the core team at AZ Research now has experience ranging across diverse industries thus allowing the company to cater to a wider set of clients. More importantly the company will now be able to offer marketing consultancy with a focus on developing entry strategies in emerging markets, new product development, corporate strategy, designing of Brand Logos and Corporate manuals, development of packaging designs etc.

He further added that research findings are always integral to the ultimate solution. Going forward AZ Research hopes to play a vital role in assisting clients in finding solutions to problems facing their brands.