Upcoming Meeting Notice

The Association of Service and Computer Dealers International (ASCDI) is a 30 year old, worldwide non-profit organization made up of companies who provide technology solutions, technical support or value added services to the business community.

Members and non-members are invited to learn how to grow your business, find new business opportunities, hear from industry representatives and enjoy some fabulous networking events at our conferences:

FALL CONFERENCE: October 7 - 9, 2009
New York City

Click here for more information on ALL ASCDI MEETINGS, to view the agendas, lodging details, attendee lists and to REGISTER AT THE EARLY BIRD RATE.

Meet the new members
Cisco
HP
IBM
Intermec
Power
Printers
Sun

Meet the new members

MicroMark Computers LLC
MicroMark Computers LLC of Scottsdale, Arizona was formed in 2004 by Robert Schoenlank and is in the business of wholesale trading of IT Storage, Servers and Switches. Products most often purchased and distributed by MicroMark are those manufactured by IBM, Brocade and Cisco. MicroMark specializes in the customized configuring and structuring of IT Solutions that provide the most competitive offerings for front line retail sales executives who work for IBM business partners.
Visit www.micromarkcomputers.com.^Back To Top

Cisco

Cisco CEO sees FY1Q sales down
Cisco Systems Inc. expects fiscal first-quarter sales to fall 15% to 17% over a year ago, Chief Executive John Chambers said recently. The San Jose networking titan saw sales fall 18% in the fiscal fourth quarter. During fiscal fourth quarter, Cisco exceeded its annual target of cost savings of $1.5 billion. This included job cuts, which Chambers said exceeded the high end of the 1,500 to 2,000 range it previously gave. For the period, Cisco saw the smallest decline from government spending. In particular, the U.S. and Japanese local and federal governments saw revenue rise from a year ago. Overall, however, revenue shrank in all of its segments. Chambers said he expects potential positive trends in Asia-Pacific, U.S., emerging markets and Japanese markets. He said he saw share gains in the router and switch business. Cisco saw declines in most of its business, including a large drop in its router business. Its services business, however, saw a 5% gain in the period. Cisco also plans to be aggressive in the use of its cash over the next six to 18 months, according to Chambers. The company ended the fiscal year with $35 billion in cash.
Visit www.cisco.com.
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HP

HP tries telecom
HP has signed a massive alliance with telecom equipment giant Alcatel-Lucent. The agreement is binding for 10 years and will have more than 1,000 Alcatel-Lucent employees transferring over to HP. Through a series of partnerships, the two companies will offer joint telecommunications and information technology solutions to customers worldwide. The companies each hope to pull in "multibillion euros in net revenues" over the life of the contract. This creates something much like what Cisco is today: a multifaceted titan with deep expertise in networking technologies that can design, build and manage large networks -- using its own hardware products. HP looks like the dominant partner in this marriage, yet the alliance seems more important for Alcatel-Lucent. The pan-Atlantic telecom specialist is in debt, losing money and fighting for survival. The huge and profitable HP, on the other hand, is dipping a toe into the telecom waters to see whether the temperature's nice. If it's not, no big deal. HP is a market leader in other fields, such as PC systems and IT services.
Visit www.hp.com or www.alcatel-lucent.com.
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IBM

Nuance and IBM expand speech recognition alliance
Speech recognition software vendor Nuance Communications and IBM have formed a partnership to provide advanced speech recognition applications for enterprises, consumers and partners. The alliance builds on a technology and IP collaboration between the companies announced earlier this year. The companies will collaborate on the development of automated customer self-service and agent optimization, as well as customer care, unified messaging and mobile search. They will also combine Nuance's advanced speech technologies and related professional services with IBM's Global Business Services organization and web application server capabilities for traditional and VoIP network infrastructures. IBM has named Nuance as its preferred business partner for speech technologies and related professional services.
Visit www.ibm.com or www.nuance.com.



Big Blue bundles pound down mainframe prices
IBM wants to get more workloads running on more mainframes, and is willing to slash prices to do so - but shops will have to put new workloads designated by IBM as "solution editions" to get cheaper iron. To create a solution edition, IBM sets up a preconfigured system aimed at supporting a particular stack of application and systems software, tunes up a few variants with a few different pricing options, and cuts the price to entice customers to buy this setup rather than build their own stack in a piecemeal fashion. The goal is not just to sell a bundle (of hardware and software) and make a bundle (of profit because the cost of sale is lower), but to compete against Windows, Linux or Unix machines that compete with IBM's proprietary midrange and mainframe platforms.

Karl Freund, who is in charge of System z strategy and marketing (and had previously held that similar post in IBM's AIX server business), revealed some numbers on how the System z Solution Editions are expected to stack up: they come with all of the hardware, software and maintenance costs for a three-year or five-year term, and customers pay a single price for a mainframe that's set up for application development, data warehousing, disaster recovery or risk mitigation. Other bundles allow the mainframe to act as a security hub for the entire enterprise, or run WebSphere middleware or an SAP ERP suite. The total cost of acquisition is calibrated to be within 20 per cent of the cost of a comparable setup running on an HP Integrity server running HP-UX. This puts the System z within spitting distance of a Unix box.
Visit www.ibm.com. ^Back To Top

Intermec

Intermec signs distribution agreement with BlueStar
Intermec announced that it has entered into a distribution agreement with BlueStar, a leading global solutions-based distributor for Auto ID, Point-of-Sale, Mobility and RFID products. The partnership significantly strengthens Intermec’s Latin American reseller network and broadens the footprint of its complete product portfolio including the new CN rugged mobile computers and PB label and receipt printers. BlueStar will distribute Intermec solutions to customers in Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Puerto Rico. The partnership will focus on Transportation & Logistics (T&L), Government, Direct Sales Delivery (DSD), Field Service, Healthcare, Manufacturing and distribution, and Retail industries.
Visit www.intermec.com.
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Power

New models with “green” features added to Minuteman EnSpire series UPSs
Para Systems, Inc. announced the availability of two new additions to their successful Minuteman EnSpire series of uninterruptible power supplies.  The EN750 and EN900 provide new "green" features and are ideal for home office and small to medium-sized businesses that are seeking value-priced power protection for their mission-critical devices. When the internal battery is fully charged, the charger goes into "rest mode," thus saving energy. Additionally, the units are designed to operate at over 90% efficiency while in AC Normal mode. When the "Green Mode" LCD is illuminated, the user will know the UPS is operating in its maximum efficiency and energy-saving mode.  Along with higher capacity capabilities and more battery power, the two new micro-processor-based models have an LCD display that informs the user of various power conditions, including input voltage, battery runtime, connected load consumption and other operating information.
Visit www.minutemanups.com/enspire.
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Printers

Toshiba launches MFP lease program
Toshiba America Business Solutions unveiled a leasing program dubbed "Back in the Black." Customers who lease an eligible Toshiba MFP through Toshiba Financial Services between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31, 2009 will be eligible to receive up to one year of free monochrome prints and copies. Customers that lease a new color product will get up to one year of free black pages, or the maximum number designated, whichever comes first. The eligible color models include the e-STUDIO2830c, e-STUDIO3530c, e-STUDIO4520c, e-STUDIO5520c, e-STUDIO6520c, e-STUDIO6520ct, e-STUDIO6530c and e-STUDIO6530ct. Customers that lease a monochrome product can receive up to six months, or the maximum number designated, whichever comes first. Eligible monochrome models include the e-STUDIO305, e-STUDIO455 and the e-STUDIO555/655/755/855 series.
Visit www.toshiba.com.
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Sun

Open-source users revolt over OpenOffice.org ribbon-esque UI
The open-source faithful are lambasting a proposed overhaul of OpenOffice.org's user interface, with critics saying it would "ape" Microsoft Office's controversial Ribbon layout. Design of the new UI has been going on for the past nine months, led by OpenOffice.org's main contributor, Sun Microsystems Inc.  According to an update by Sun in July, the still-rough overhaul aims to "create a user interface so that OpenOffice.org becomes the users' choice not only out of need but also out of desire." Judging by the vast majority of the 500-odd comments at Sun's blog recently, the new UI caused many to recoil at its strong association with Microsoft.  OpenOffice.org has long consciously emulated Microsoft Office, from the features and apps it offers to the interface, with drop-down menus and even the same keyboard shortcuts. That's designed to shorten the learning curve for users moving from Office to the free open-source productivity suite. Controversy aside, OpenOffice.org appears more popular than ever. The latest version 3.1 passed the 20 million download mark recently, just three months after its release.
Visit www.openoffice.org or www.sun.com.
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