The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Eels' Daisies Of The Galaxy. After his previous cheery album, Electro-Shock Blues, E manages to almost sound not completely suicidally depressed on Daisies:
Comodo has introduced vulnerability scanning for internal networks in the cloud on the newest release of its HackerGuardian.
Evidently -- First Coffee didn't know this, but is glad it's true -- merchants who accept payment cards such as credit cards are required to scan their networks at certain periods, checking for breaches in security. "Previously, internal network scans required dedicated hardware, run by an on site employee," Comodo officials explain.
Comodo has introduced vulnerability scanning for internal networks in the cloud on the newest release of its HackerGuardian.
Evidently -- First Coffee didn't know this, but is glad it's true -- merchants who accept payment cards such as credit cards are required to scan their networks at certain periods, checking for breaches in security. "Previously, internal network scans required dedicated hardware, run by an on site employee," Comodo officials explain.
Comodo sells security software and services, including digital certificates, PCI scanning, desktop security, online faxing, and computer technical support services.
HackerGuardian lets businesses run remote scans of their internal and external networks using the same software -- "a lightweight bootable agent installed on one of the local network nodes can be activated by an employee" who can be physically located anywhere, company officials say.
Merchants required to meet level 1, 2, or 3 of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards can use the product to "centralize the administration of their vulnerability scans," company officials say, adding that it works to scan both internal and external networks.
The product's internal scanning feature lets CI DSS-compliant merchants run vulnerability scans for computers on a local area network, typically inside the company's private network, protected by a perimeter firewall or other network security device.
The product's internal scanning feature lets CI DSS-compliant merchants run vulnerability scans for computers on a local area network, typically inside the company's private network, protected by a perimeter firewall or other network security device.
The Comodo family of companies is committed to continual innovation, core competencies in PKI, authentication, and malware detection and prevention. As a catalyst in eliminating online crime, the companies' mission is to establish a Trusted Internet.
Comodo's US headquarters "overlook Manhattan on New Jersey's waterfront," according to company officials, and have "global resources" in the United Kingdom, China, India, Ukraine, and Romania. Having lived in Comodo CEO Melih Abdulhayoglu's ancestral land of Turkey, First Coffee is sure they could use it there as well.
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Pearson has announced the launch of Pearson Test of English Academic, the company's computer-based academic test of English language proficiency.
It measures the English language skills of non-native English speakers who are seeking admission to institutions where English is the language of instruction, and will be available to test takers from October 26.
Why limit it to "non-native" English speakers? First Coffee knows plenty of people who learned English as a second language who speak it better than a healthy slice of America's high school graduates do. On a related note, ever seen the civics test applicants for American citizenship have to take? My wife embarrassed me when she asked me to help her study for it, your kid in college would flunk it. Okay, I'll shut up now.
The test, which Pearson officials say "has been already recognised, or is in the process of being recognised, by more than 770 programmes around the globe," uses Pearson's automated scoring technologies to measure the English-language listening, reading, speaking and writing abilities of non-native speakers. First Coffee's sure the mistakes spelling "recognized" and "programs" are merely typos, old chap, ey wot? Blimey.
Evidently there's "a mounting number of test takers from China and India," Pearson officials say, noting that the test was developed through field tests involving more than 10,400 international students.
PTE Academic will be delivered through the company's global network of "secure testing centers," and during the launch period, the test will be available in a minimum of 20 territories including China, Taiwan, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, India and Canada for about $150 to $210.
PTE Academic will be delivered through the company's global network of "secure testing centers," and during the launch period, the test will be available in a minimum of 20 territories including China, Taiwan, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, India and Canada for about $150 to $210.
Aussies may need to study particularly hard.
Pearson's other English-language teaching activities include textbooks and online material published under the Longman brand, Penguin Readers to introduce learners to classic literature and other works -- which First Coffee used when teaching English in Istanbul and found to be well worth it -- and two chains of English-language schools in China, which operate under the Wall Street English and Longman Schools brands.
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SAS, a vendor of business analytics software and services, has been placed in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Operational Risk Management Software for Financial Services by Gartner.
Pearson's other English-language teaching activities include textbooks and online material published under the Longman brand, Penguin Readers to introduce learners to classic literature and other works -- which First Coffee used when teaching English in Istanbul and found to be well worth it -- and two chains of English-language schools in China, which operate under the Wall Street English and Longman Schools brands.
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SAS, a vendor of business analytics software and services, has been placed in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Operational Risk Management Software for Financial Services by Gartner.
First Coffee's seen "The Magic Quadrant" bandied about quite often, and feels and explanation is in order: It's not anything out of Harry Potter, it's the copyrighted name for graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period, showing Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner.
Just so it's all clear, Gartner officials say they do not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and don't advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. Company officials say it's intended "solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action."
As First Coffee's friend and informal SAS advisor Boadicea Rose would say, "All that settled? Good."
According to the report, the Leaders quadrant "tends to be occupied by vendors with software applications that are addressing qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of risk management of ORM." These vendors have, in Gartner's eyes, achieved a certain level of market acceptance and "enable a consistent view of operational risk across the organization as compared to separately designed and implemented risk calculation engines or audit, control and compliance reporting tools."
In other words, Gartner thinks such vendors approach operational risk "more comprehensively and holistically" across the enterprise and link operational risk to CPM.
David Rogers, SAS Global Product Marketing Manager for Risk, said SAS "understands that customers need an overall enterprise-wide product to address different types of risks including operational, regulatory and market."
SAS OpRisk Management is a product built on the SAS Business Analytics Framework, a blend of data integration, analytics and reporting capabilities, and billed as a tool to help institutions "optimize capital allocation while mitigating risks in all areas of their organizations."
David Rogers, SAS Global Product Marketing Manager for Risk, said SAS "understands that customers need an overall enterprise-wide product to address different types of risks including operational, regulatory and market."
SAS OpRisk Management is a product built on the SAS Business Analytics Framework, a blend of data integration, analytics and reporting capabilities, and billed as a tool to help institutions "optimize capital allocation while mitigating risks in all areas of their organizations."
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Oracle has announced the availability of an integration combining the capabilities of Oracle CRM On Demand with InQuira's On Demand Web self-service applications.
Oracle has announced the availability of an integration combining the capabilities of Oracle CRM On Demand with InQuira's On Demand Web self-service applications.
Company officials say it's designed to let customers go from self-service to live agent-assisted service: "Service agents receive overall view of customer issues and actions taken, providing a consistent experience across Web, phone and community-based channels."
InQuira was selected by Oracle as Oracle's preferred tool for Knowledge Management for Siebel CRM last year.
The move was described by Oracle officials as a way to "expand the companies' collaboration to include Oracle CRM On Demand," resulting in Oracle an "integrated enterprise multichannel CRM service" product for both on demand and on premise delivery.
With InQuira knowledge management available on demand and embedded in the Oracle CRM On Demand desktop, customer service agents can "access answers right from within their normal service flow," company officials say, describing the service as "fully integrated and available for both on demand and on premise delivery," allowing joint customers to extend on premise deployments with on demand.
InQuira's On Demand Web Self-Service application is designed to let users find answers for issues, using community forums to use "the entire customer base to contribute to knowledge creation."
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SprinxCRM has announced the introduction of their second offering in the SprinxCRM suite of Google Apps business products: SprinxCRM Google Apps GmailSync, with data synchronization with Google Mail.
Overall, the app "provides integration of CRM data with e-mail correspondence," says Radko Jelinek, Sprinx' Director of Sales. "More specifically, it focuses on consolidating customer communications along with CRM data, and presenting it in an easy-to-access, easy-to-act-on format."
The SprinxCRM Google app lets users download e-mail from their IMAP-accessible mail server to corresponding contacts in SprinxCRM, company officials say, thereby creating a history of customer communications, meetings and activities, "all visible on one CRM page."
"With so many businesses gravitating towards value-based systems, SprinxCRM Google Apps GmailSync provides companies and their management with an approach towards both customer retention and sales growth,"says Jelinek.
Sprinx Systems was founded in 1996 in the Czech Republic and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
SprinxCRM has announced the introduction of their second offering in the SprinxCRM suite of Google Apps business products: SprinxCRM Google Apps GmailSync, with data synchronization with Google Mail.
Overall, the app "provides integration of CRM data with e-mail correspondence," says Radko Jelinek, Sprinx' Director of Sales. "More specifically, it focuses on consolidating customer communications along with CRM data, and presenting it in an easy-to-access, easy-to-act-on format."
The SprinxCRM Google app lets users download e-mail from their IMAP-accessible mail server to corresponding contacts in SprinxCRM, company officials say, thereby creating a history of customer communications, meetings and activities, "all visible on one CRM page."
"With so many businesses gravitating towards value-based systems, SprinxCRM Google Apps GmailSync provides companies and their management with an approach towards both customer retention and sales growth,"says Jelinek.
Sprinx Systems was founded in 1996 in the Czech Republic and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
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Sydney-based contact center provider IPscape has announced IPscape for Prosper CRM, a contact center module for Prosper CRM.
IPscape for Prosper CRM was developed to deliver call center functionality, including customer information screen pops for inbound calls and automated dialer, for outbound calling from a Prosper customer record.
Generally with such products, the upfront cost of dedicated lines into the call center tends to limit the number of inbound lines -- "effectively limiting the maximum number of callers talking to agents or on hold to the number of inbound lines," IPscape officials say.
"With IPscape you can theoretically have every one of your customers calling simultaneously and every last call would be answered by the IPscape IVR system," says IPscape CEO Simon Burke, while admitting that "thousands of simultaneous calls is unlikely to happen."
The Prosper CRM integration lets customers enter their customer number while in the IVR queue so the call center agent has complete customer details onscreen when the call is answered. The integration with Prosper CRM "alleviates manual customer lookups after answering the call," says Burke.
Sydney-based contact center provider IPscape has announced IPscape for Prosper CRM, a contact center module for Prosper CRM.
IPscape for Prosper CRM was developed to deliver call center functionality, including customer information screen pops for inbound calls and automated dialer, for outbound calling from a Prosper customer record.
Generally with such products, the upfront cost of dedicated lines into the call center tends to limit the number of inbound lines -- "effectively limiting the maximum number of callers talking to agents or on hold to the number of inbound lines," IPscape officials say.
"With IPscape you can theoretically have every one of your customers calling simultaneously and every last call would be answered by the IPscape IVR system," says IPscape CEO Simon Burke, while admitting that "thousands of simultaneous calls is unlikely to happen."
The Prosper CRM integration lets customers enter their customer number while in the IVR queue so the call center agent has complete customer details onscreen when the call is answered. The integration with Prosper CRM "alleviates manual customer lookups after answering the call," says Burke.
First Coffee dearly hopes this puts an end to the agent asking you to repeat all the information you've already entered. We have no idea why that happens, we've been in this business a long time and haven't heard a good explanation for that yet.
According to Fred Grebenshikoff, Manager, Business Services at Qantas Staff Credit Union, and a guy who would probably be pretty easy to locate on Facebook, as opposed to First Coffee's old high school friend Chris Jones, who remains unlocated, "the depth of features provided by IPscape is impressive."
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