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:


2010 WINTER CONFERENCE:
March 10 - 12, 2010
Orlando, FL - Walt Disney World Swan Resort


2010 EUROPEAN CONFERENCE:
June 23 - 25, 2010
Dublin, Ireland - Radisson Blu Royal Hotel


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.

Upfront
Book review
IBM
Legal
Mobility
Power
Storage

Upfront

IBM announces new partner initiatives for mid-market
IBM announced significant new and expanded initiatives to strengthen IBM Business Partners in the mid-market, which will include turning the mid-market fully over to partners and restructuring IBM's own staff in this segment to work with partners rather than sell to customers. "We put in place a mid-market plan, with our goal being to evolve the go-to-market approach and offerings for this space," said Marc Dupaquier, IBM's Global Mid Market General Manager. "Now we are into the next phase of this, where we are able to graduate and move to the next level." IBM will have a small sales force in the segment, but it will be for the purpose of assisting partners with complex projects. This change is part of the response to recommendations from both IBM customers and partners. Their mid-market advisory council, representing 130 customers, wanted solutions with more IBM content, requiring the partner to implement full IBM solutions. The Business Partner Advisory Council wanted IBM to help partners reduce their SG&A. IBM hopes to accomplish these objectives by providing increased support of local partners through Territory Business Partner Representatives (TBPR) who will help manage opportunities. The TBPR system will be rolled out in stages, starting in the U.S., Canada and a few large countries in Europe, and then expanding to more countries later in July.
Visit www.ibm.com.
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Book review

PM Crash Course for IT Professionals
Reviewed by Danica Richard
PMP certified project manager, Waypoint Ventures, LLC
[email protected]

PM Crash Course for IT Professionals is well-written in familiar project management terminology, yet the authors thoughtfully provide explanations of key terms. They also include tricks of the trade, stories contributed by ‘real’ PMs and quotes from ‘real world’ IT professionals. This book is very informative without being overly technical and is laid out in a manner that allow will appeal to and benefit new and experienced PMs alike. Supplementing the book is an interactive Web site where readers can share experiences, seek solutions to problems and access printable templates and forms.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to brush up on their project management skills or who is new to the industry and wants a better understanding of the project management processes and how they can be applied in the IT world.

Authors: Rita Mulcahy and Martha L. Young
Publisher: Cisco Press (October, 2009)
ISBN-10: 158720259X
ISBN-13: 978-1587202599
List Price: $59.99
Digital Guru Price: $44.99^Back To Top

IBM

S4i Systems offers limited time pricing for IBM System i disk management software
S4i Systems announced reduced pricing for their disk management software for the month of January. “iSeries shops find the Chart module especially valuable in forecasting, something everyone does in January,” said Susanne States, S4i’s director of sales and client services. “Users simply enter the number of days forward they want the disk utilization forecast to address, and S4i’s product will predict future capacity requirements based on current growth trends.” Promotion pricing is $2010 per system serial number for any one of the three DASD-plus modules. Products included in the promotion are DASD-Plus, DASD-Plus Alert and DASD-Plus Chart. DASD-Plus focuses on diagnostics, analytics, reporting for disk including iASP. System i shops with S4i’s suite can monitor disk resources with automatic and continuous disk spike monitoring, IFS management, cleanup, file reorgs and manage temp files. In this limited time offer, orders must be invoiced by midnight January 31, 2010.
Visit www.s4isystems.com/diskmanagement.



Simplicity – the IBM Sametime 8.5 formula for delivering results
“Simplicity,” but with rich functionality, is the central theme of the IBM Sametime team’s latest release, Sametime 8.5. The key element is that IBM Sametime 8.5 delivers unified communications functionality in a single client – a new and improved Sametime Connect. Previously, users had two interfaces to do their job, the Sametime Connect client for presence, instant messaging, and click to call and the Sametime Meeting client for meetings and web conferences. In Sametime 8.5, the two user interfaces are combined into one interface. The Sametime Connect client now features a meeting control panel to show the user all the Meeting Rooms she owns, who the participants are and where related meetings are in the calendar. Sametime delivers new Meeting Room functionality, including meeting persistence, meaning that for repetitive meetings such as weekly project status reviews, the Meeting Room will remain available to all invitees and users will be able to revise and upload the most current documents to the library. Audio and video controls are also unified and simplified. Sametime’s user interface manages both its own A/V capabilities and provides a front-end integration point to other conferencing systems in the enterprise, enabling Sametime users to join essentially any conference directly from their desktop client. IBM added improved H.264 video codecs, support for High Definition video conferencing, and SIP-based interoperability with third party audio and video conferencing systems.
Visit www.ibm.com.
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Legal

VAR pleads guilty in overbilling scheme
An Irvine, Calif., solution provider has pleaded guilty to helping defraud two customers out of nearly $3 million and could face up to five years in prison, according to court documents. Mitchell Kleinman, president and CEO of Ryjac Computer Solutions, allegedly collaborated with two other individuals to overbill two customers and then split the profits, according to a filing with the United States District Court, Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division. He pleaded guilty to counts of conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Two other individuals were named in the complaint: William Hagood, who was director of IT services for Hickory Springs Manufacturing Co. and later information technology director for Georgia Pacific (the two companies allegedly defrauded in the scheme) and Allan Bellanca, who was a sales representative with U.S. Bancorp, which helped provide lease financing. From about 2000 to 2005, the scheme allegedly defrauded Georgia Pacific by about $970,000 in invoices paid to bank accounts for two shell companies, Pyramid Software Services and Systems Software Group, controlled by Hagood. Kleinman and Hagood allegedly arranged for Hickory Springs to overpay Ryjac and Recovery Solutions Inc. (a dba for Ryjac) through invoices that "grossly inflated and were entirely fictitious in order to provide kickbacks to the conspirators," according to the complaint.
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Mobility

Acer enhances acclaimed Aspire One netbook line
Acer America announced the next generation of its acclaimed line of Aspire One netbooks. These new Aspire One AO532h netbooks, designed for all day mobility and connectivity, feature the Intel Atom N450 processor, 10 hours of battery life, fast Wi-Fi connectivity, a 10.1-inch LED-backlit TFT LCD and a large keyboard with a Multi-Gesture touchpad. This comes in a package that is only 1-inch thin and weighs just over 2-1/2 pounds. To further support power savings and longer battery life, the netbooks’ 10.1-inch LED-backlit TFT LCD saves 22.2 percent power compared with other netbook displays. The new Aspire One netbook line offers many configurations to fit a wide range of consumer needs. Batteries are one component that have several options, including a high-density, six-cell Li-ion (5600 mAh) battery that delivers up to 10 hours of battery life or a 6-cell Li-ion (4400 mAh) for up to 8 hours battery life. Additionally, the batteries give a slight tilt to the netbook for a more comfortable typing experience.
Visit www.acer-group.com.
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Power

Emerson Network Power introduces a row-based precision cooling system
Emerson Network Power has introduced the Liebert CRV, a precision cooling unit that fits seamlessly within a row of racks to deliver cooling close to the server heat source. The rack-sized Liebert CRV is designed for cooling rows of rack equipment of all heat densities in data centers of virtually any size. It continually adjusts to changing operating conditions based on real-time temperature and humidity readings, delivering energy-efficient, effective cooling close to the heat source. The Liebert CRV contains a digital scroll compressor and electrically commutated (EC) fans that use the latest technology to deliver precise operation and enhanced efficiency. The compressor adapts to capacity changes from 20 to 100 percent without cycling on and off, while the EC fan speed is based on the IT load to provide the most efficient cooling possible. The system features integrated Liebert iCOM controls to provide advanced monitoring and environmental management, eliminating “dueling” cooling units.
Visit www.liebert.com.
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Storage

DataCore appoints ACW Distribution to deliver cost-efficient storage virtualization solutions in Asia
DataCore Software announced the appointment of ACW Distribution Pte Ltd (“ACW”) as a distributor in Singapore and Indonesia. Under this agreement, ACW will market through its extensive channel partners DataCore’s SANmelody and SANsymphony suites of storage virtualization and storage management software to help organizations optimize, manage and safeguard their storage, providing alternatives for large scale storage consolidation. SANmelody caters to small and midsize companies as well as business units and branches of larger enterprises that want to overcome the high cost barrier and complexity of traditional SAN storage and achieve better performance and manageability of their existing storage assets. SANsymphony is an open storage management software platform that fundamentally improves the way enterprises manage, purchase and scale their storage infrastructure.     
Visit www.datacore.com or www.acw-group.com.sg.



Bocada and IBM managed storage services expand relationship
Bocada, Inc. announced that it has significantly expanded its contract with IBM to help provide advanced data protection, backup and recovery services for IBM clients. Under the expanded agreement, Bocada will continue to provide solutions that help enable backup reporting and analysis for IBM storage solutions. The latest agreement results from a long-term relationship between Bocada and IBM and reflects the value of Bocada software which is designed to deliver data protection services that improve backup and recovery success rates, enhance SLA delivery and increase customer satisfaction and retention. IBM currently uses Bocada Enterprise to manage thousands of backup clients across its customer base.
Visit www.bocada.com.

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