4/03/06
issue
Next due date to submit stories: 4/05/06 to [email protected]
IBM takes collaboration
on iSeries education to deepest level yet
Intermec resolves patent dispute with
HP
ASCDI Inside
ASCDI Director Jeff
Klein addresses Equipment Leasing Association (ELA): Proclaims ‘ASCDI End
User Bill of Rights’ Jeff Klein, an ASCDI Director, presented the ASCDI
‘End-User Bill of Rights’ at the annual Equipment Management Conference held
in Tampa, FL. Klein’s message was targeted at helping industry professionals
understand how OEM policies can potentially undermine the value of well
maintained technology assets. Klein’s address was also the first speech made
by an ASCDI leader in front of another industry group as part of a larger
effort to garner support for ASCDI’s vision of improved rights for enterprise
technology owners. The ASCDI adopted the End-User Bill of Rights in September
2004. Klein is President of KCI, Inc. a company specializing in
leasing, selling and maintaining used mainframe and peripheral equipment. You can read more about his remarks here. Consumer markets
Maturing digital camera
market expected to show growth in new worldwide regions According to a new study from InfoTrends, the worldwide
digital camera market continues to demonstrate a strong year-over-year unit
growth rate. 2006 sales are expected to reach nearly 89 million units, representing
a 15% increase over 2005. Even though worldwide unit and revenue figures are
on the rise, shipments are expected to peak soon in North America and Western
Europe. Growth in the Asia-Pacific region, Eastern Europe, and Latin America
will offset these declines and continue to drive growth through 2010. In
fact, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to become the leading region for
digital cameras by the end of the forecast period. The maturation of the
Japanese, North American, and Western European digital camera markets will
likely set off a chain reaction of other trends, such as an industry vendor
shakeout, an increased number of repeat buyers and the practice of designing
and marketing digital cameras for late adopters. Lower camera profit margins
will prompt many digital camera vendors to seek monetary opportunities after
the point of capture, sparking additional interest in viewing, editing,
sharing, preservation and printing. Visit www.infotrends.com. Education market
IBM takes collaboration
on iSeries education to deepest level yet HP
HP and industry experts
partner to reduce warranty costs for manufacturers HP introduced an initiative designed to help reduce
warranty costs by streamlining the entire warranty chain management process for
discrete manufac-turers, those that produce distinct items such as
automobiles, appliances or computers. Using its own experience as a guide, HP
leveraged the warranty chain management expertise of four solution providers
-- Microsoft, PolyVista, iTAC Software and 4CS -- to deliver a "closed
loop" solution that spans manufacturing and parts traceability to
warranty claims and customer satisfaction. The solution identifies early
product reliability issues and provides information to manufacturing divisions
to correct the problem. That information is then passed to design and
engineering divisions to help correct the problem in future products.
Finally, the information flows to vendors and suppliers to help improve
long-term product reliability. From 2001 to 2003, HP saved hundreds of
millions of dollars in warranty costs by streamlining its warranty chain; it
also reduced the time it takes to detect problems in many product areas from
120 days to 24 hours. Visit www.hp.com/go/manufacturing/warranty. Intermec
Intermec system
provides secure ID credentialing Intermec Inc. of Everett, Wash. and Intelli-Check Inc. of
Woodbury, New York have created one of the first identification and
verification systems that meets the credentialing requirements of Federal
Information Processing Standards 201 (FIPS 201), which requires identity
verification of Federal employees and contractors. By June 27, 2006, all those affected by Federal credentialing
require-ments must comply with the ID verification process. Additionally, by
January 2008, the U.S. Government has mandated that all first responders to
national emergencies, such as the National Guard, military and medical
personnel, carry common identification cards encoded with vital information
such as the carrier's certifications and security clearances. Intelli-Check
software, combined with the Intermec 700, can read and verify the carrier
identity of these and many other types of ID cards. Intelli-Check's patented
soft-ware, used with Intermec 700 mobile computers, allows immediate,
on-the-spot personnel identifi-cation across jurisdictional boundaries. The
Intermec 700 rugged mobile verification handheld can read magnetic stripe,
bar code and smart card technologies within one device. This allows
responders to read and verify the data encoded on U.S. and Canadian driver
licenses, state and provincial non-driver IDs and military IDs. Visit www.intermec.com
or www.intellicheck.com. Intermec resolves patent dispute with HP Intermec Inc. announced a positive resolution to a patent
dispute with HP regarding patents owned by Intermec. Intermec's patents
involve its smart battery management technology in which a portable computer
incorporates a rechargeable battery that uses a processor chip to communicate
data to the portable computer so that the computer can monitor and regulate
battery use. Intermec Inc. develops, manufactures and integrates technologies
that identify, track and manage supply chain assets. Visit www.intermec.com. iSeries
Wanted: iSeries experts Glenn Bandoly, IT manager at Atlanta-based PBD Worldwide
Fulfillment Services, has been looking to fill an iSeries position for about
four months now. The company manages inventory fulfillment for companies --
dealing with front-end Web storefronts to warehousing and accounting. Bandoly
is looking for a fairly common skill set -- someone with experience on the
AS/400 and a background in J.D. Edwards software. But he has run into
problems. "We don't see the resumes we want to see, and the kinds of
folks we want to see are all represented by a recruiter," Bandoly said.
"The [cost] of the recruiter affects the hiring decision tremendously
for a small company." A lot of people that Bandoly does know in AS/400
positions are happy on the job. Search400.com has been reporting on the iSeries job market
over the last few weeks and has found a disconnect
between hiring managers and iSeries pros. There also seems to be a
lack of entry-level iSeries workers -- but an overabundance of displaced
mid-career professionals. But most indicators point to the economy ramping up
and the job market improving. Bandoly attended a recent meeting of the
Atlanta Software Process Improvement Network SPIN group, and at the end of
the meeting when representatives from hiring companies stood up to mention
open positions, he said companies were all looking for full-time employees.
"If the economy was flat, they would have been looking for contract
positions," Bandoly said. Market news
GST, Inc. selects Bull
Escala for Unix server solutions Visit www.gstinc.com
or www.bull.com.
Security
Stonesoft introduces
internal firewall/VPN solution for IBM eServer zSeries mainframes Stonesoft Corp., an innovative provider of integrated
network security and business continuity solutions, announced the
availability of its StoneGate firewall and VPN with active-active cluster
functionality for the IBM eServer zSeries. This new release extends
Stonesoft's award-winning firewall load-balancing technology to StoneGate for
zSeries mainframes by offering the industry's first fully clustered internal
enterprise firewall and VPN solution with load-balancing capabilities. This
latest enhancement of StoneGate for zSeries was developed in response to the
demand in the marketplace for active-active firewall clustering and
transparent connection fail over in these environments. StoneGate for zSeries
fully utilizes z/VM 5.1 layer 2 functionality in order to provide
active-active clustering. With StoneGate for zSeries, cluster nodes can even
reside in separate mainframes and traffic can be load-balanced between them.
This is useful when building hot disaster recovery sites. Additionally, this
feature is of particular importance to companies that require always-on
services and for whom disruptions in connectivity are not an option. Visit www.stonesoft.com. Services for customers
Mycom Group and SkyView
Partners, Inc. provide security software and services to iSeries customers Mycom Group, Inc., a software sales and professional
technology services company whose stock is traded on the over the counter
market, announced the formation of a business partner alliance with SkyView
Partners, Inc., the leading provider of OS/400 & i5/OS security
assessment and compliance software & services for the IBM iSeries. Mycom
will market SkyView's Risk Assessor and Policy Minder security assessment and
compliance software to IBM iSeries customers throughout North America.
Mycom's Chairman, CEO Rob Bransom stated, "We are pleased to move into
this new technology market. With Risk Assessor we give our customers a
product to allow them to see how their system stacks up versus security best
practices. With SkyView's new Policy Minder our customers can manage and fix
their security configuration automatically without spending hours on that
task." Visit www.mycom.com or
www.skyviewpartners.com. Return to
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