Aberdeen Announces Data Protection Survey

November 30, 2006 9:30 AM
 
AberdeenGroup is undertaking a survey on the “value of Data Protection to control and monitor endpoint security in an organization.”
 
According to the opening page of the research survey, “Users access, manipulate, download and store sensitive data constantly on their desktops and laptops. The availability of cheap high-capacity portable media, including CD-R disks, USB thumb drives, and firewire hard disks, make unauthorized copying of large amounts of data a trivial task. Even legitimate users can have a laptop stolen or lose a media storage device containing critical data. This second study in Endpoint Security will explore the approaches organizations are using to protect data accessed and stored on the endpoint.”
 
AberdeenGroup will send a free copy of the final report to those who complete the survey.
 
The report authors hope to identify
 
  • The business and security drivers that press for adoption of endpoint data protection solutions.
  • The types of solutions being adopted to address end-point data protection security risks.
  • The impact of these solutions on risk management and business operations.
  • Key aspects of functionality that technology managers seek in their endpoint data protection solutions.
 
In the end, AberdeenGroup believes the successful completion of this research will yield the findings that provide insights into:
 
  • The risks to endpoint security.
  • The business and financial impact of these risks.
  • The types of solutions that are in use and the impact these solutions have on increasing security as well as improving operational efficiency.
  • The types of solutions that are being considered to address new risk.
  • The types of solutions that are not being considered to address risk, and why.
  • The technologies and processes that are being used by best in class organizations.
 
The research will target an end-user audience including CIOs, CSOs, privacy officers, CTOs, CFOs risk managers, and corporate executives.
 
To access the Endpoint Security Benchmark Survey Part II: Data Protection simply click here.
According to research from Compuware, 73% of European IT executives are still worried about the quality and reliability of voice over IP.
 
The survey addressed 300 IT directors representing large enterprises across Europe.
 
Essentially, researchers noted that the bulk of this negative perception is fueled by a lack of knowledge of network performance before implementing VoIP.
 
It sounds like there’s a big opportunity for companies in the network monitoring space and for folks who do pre-deployment network assessments.

Tehrani Turns the Page on Zultys

November 17, 2006 12:46 PM
Rich Tehrani has written an interesting article on the subject of Zultys. The article is titled Zultys Saga Concludes — For Now, and it comes across as part cautionary tale, part confession on the part of former Zultys owner Iain Milnes.
 
If we are to take away any positives from this whole sordid affair it’s that the engineers at Zultys who orchestrated the buyback of the company at auction, backed by Telrad Connegy, truly believe in their creation.
 
At any rate, Rich’s article is a wonderful summation of the situation.
Russell Shaw joined the TMCnet family of contributors today, with the launch of a new blog entitled “RSS: Regulations, Statutes and Standards.”
 
Shaw’s blog will cover the always compelling subject of regulations, and now, in the wake of the recently concluded election, the subject takes on an ever-greater level of importance -- for consumers, service providers and enterprise customers of all sizes.
 
Said Shaw, “It is my pleasure to join the cast of bloggers on the leading technology Web site in the world. Given all the political changes in DC — including new committee chairs for regulatory areas which we cover — I think we are in a very suitable time frame for this launch.”
Integrated Research has announced plans to port Prognosis, its software for managing large scale Cisco VoIP networks, to three other leading vendors, effectively tripling its addressable market.
 
The company says that, over the next 12 months Prognosis will be extended to work on Avaya, Alcatel and Nortel installations. It says that the impetus for this initiative comes from current users of Prognosis who are looking to: eliminate the need to procure and maintain multiple, IP-PBX specific management tools; reduce the time and expense involved in training network operations staff to use differing solutions; give operations staff a single, consistent view across all their disparate VoIP environments.
 
According to Frost & Sullivan’s 2005 enterprise telephony systems market report, Avaya and Nortel’s combined share of the North American market is 38.8 percent. IPI notes that, if added to Cisco’s 19.8 percent share this represents a total of 58.5 percent across all three vendors.

Colorado-based IP5280 Communications announced that it has acquired GoXpand's commercial business VoIP customers, expanding IP5280's VoIP venture in the Colorado market. Check it out:

Colorado's business VoIP specialists, and GoXpand, a broadband services provider delivering connectivity to in-building fiber, announced today the transfer of ownership of GoXpand's commercial business VoIP customer base to IP5280. This is IP5280's third acquisition of assets since the beginning of the year, furthering its expansion plan of business customers across the Colorado market.

IP5280 is Colorado's VoIP specialist in offering enterprise-class IP services for small and medium-sized businesses. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the new convenient way that uses a high-speed Internet connection to make and receive phone calls with more manageability and functionality, and at a significant savings than compared to traditional phone service.

"We welcome GoXpand business VoIP customers to IP5280," said John Scarborough, managing partner of IP5280. "They join more than 100 businesses in Colorado, like Denver's Dutch Flower Market, Lion Financial Corporation and Omni Capital Group, who have already made the switch to IP5280 and are realizing huge monthly savings over the phone company."

IP5280 offers a range of unlimited local and long distance VoIP calling packages and data solutions that include Hosted VoIP and IP Business Trunking services offering full user mobility, unlimited local and long distance calls, and email integration. Advanced features include sending voicemail to your email inbox, simultaneous ring on multiple phones, automatic logging of calls, auto attendant that greets callers and delivers calls to different employees, and traditional features such as conference call and three-way calling.

Incuity & IDS to Host Business Intelligence Workshop on How to Optimize Manufacturing Productivity, Profitability. Check it out:
SEATTLE --(Business Wire)-- Incuity Data Solutions and Incuity Software, Inc. announced today they will conduct a joint workshop for manufacturing executives in Seattle on Oct. 18, 2006, to help them learn how to make better business decisions that can optimize their companies' productivity and profitability.



"This free workshop is ideal for both decision makers and decision implementers in any manufacturing company, including people in production, operations, plant management, engineering and IT management," said Jason Brickner, IDS Systems Sales Engineer. "There will be two sessions per workshop, one covering the business problems that the Incuity EMI software can help people solve and one covering the more technical aspects of how to configure applications to do that."

"Anyone in the business of manufacturing knows the roadblocks encountered in attempting to link plant floor systems with enterprise applications," said Gary Wilson, Incuity Vice President of Sales. "The first half of the workshop will cover how users can resolve issues such as leveraging legacy historians; compliance management; downtime/OEE analysis and reports; product analysis and reporting; key performance indicator (KPI) support and dashboards; manufacturing integration with ERP systems; and enhanced supply chain visibility.

"The second half will explain how to access, correlate, analyze, visualize and act on manufacturing and business data from all the systems in a manufacturing enterprise," he added.

The IDS-Incuity workshop will be held on Oct. 18 at the Doubletree Hotel Seattle Airport (18740 International Blvd.). The workshop begins with a continental breakfast, registration and networking at 9:00 a.m. The first half of the program, starting at 10:00 a.m., will cover the enterprise issues involved with truly linking plant floor manufacturing operations with enterprise computing applications. Following lunch, the second session, at 1:00 p.m., will provide an overview of web services, data source connectivity, databases, advanced trending, X-Y plotting tools, Excel reports, web portals, dashboards and a unified production model.

Anyone interested in attending the seminar should go directly to the Incuity Software web site at www.incuity.com to get more details on the workshop and to register online. Seating is limited for these special events, so people are urged to sign up early so they don't miss out.

About Incuity Data Solutions

Based in Albany, Oregon, and with offices in Boise, Idaho and San Francisco, California, Incuity data Solutions provides software, professional services and comprehensive support for creating business intelligence for manufacturing solutions for a wide variety of industries such as food and beverages, metals, discrete parts manufacturing, and water and wastewater treatment. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.incuitydatasolutions.com.

About Incuity

Incuity Software, based in Mission Viejo, California, is a pioneer in the creation of data management systems for reporting, analysis and business intelligence applications in manufacturing and process companies. More than 45,000 seats of the company's products have been installed since 1998, in 13 languages and in more than 40 countries. In addition to its headquarters operations in California, Incuity has regional offices in Nevada and Massachusetts in the U.S. as well as in Sydney, Australia; Duesseldorf, Germany; and Johannesburg, South Africa. The company also maintains a Professional Services group in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

For additional information about the company and Incuity products, or for a complete list of value-added resellers around the world, please visit the company's web site at http://www.incuity.com.

Fitch Upgrades Aquila, Inc's Ratings

October 3, 2006 12:34 AM
Fitch Upgrades Aquila, Inc's Ratings. Check it out:
CHICAGO --(Business Wire)-- Fitch has upgraded Aquila, Inc.'s (ILA) ratings as follows:

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'B' from 'B-';

--Senior Secured to 'BB/RR1' from 'BB-/RR1';

--Senior Unsecured to 'B+/RR3' from 'B-/RR4'.

Approximately $1.1 billion of debt is affected. The Outlook is Stable.

The upgrade reflects the utility's improved credit profile and improved recovery prospects as a result of ILA's debt reduction and restructuring efforts during the past year. Using proceeds from utility and non-utility asset sales, ILA has reduced debt and debt equivalents by approximately $720 million. Fitch's recovery methodology uses a distressed multiple to determine enterprise valuation. This methodology also considers debt equivalents, like tolling agreements, on a net present value basis.



The Stable Rating Outlook reflects Fitch's expectation that ILA's credit metrics will remain within parameters for the 'B' rating category over the next year. Cash flow from operations should benefit from lower working capital needs due to lower commodity prices, lower interest expense due to the retired debt, and lower extraordinary tax payments from the gain on sale of assets.

Further debt reductions are possible using proceeds from the sale of ILA's Kansas electric utility, offset by higher capital spending for the Iatan facility funded by a secured bank line. The Kansas utility sale is expected to close for approximately $255 million, exclusive of any working capital adjustments. ILA recently filed in Missouri for an increase in base rates and the implementation of a fuel cost recovery mechanism. The filing also includes a request for recovery of a generation facility like the Aries power project that ILA recently announced it would purchase from Calpine for $158.5 million. Further debt reductions or a favorable outcome in the rate case would improve credit metrics and could result in a ratings upgrade.

ILA is a regulated electric and gas utility serving more than 460,000 electric and 900,000 natural gas customers in five Midwestern states.

Fitch's Recovery Ratings (RR), introduced in 2005, are a relative indicator of creditor recovery on a given obligation in the event of a default. A broad overview of Fitch's RR methodology as it relates to specific sectors, including a Case Study webcast, can be found at www.fitchratings.com/recovery.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.
EDITORIAL: Marketing starts to pay: Buffalo Niagara Enterprise report shows return from careful preparation. Check it out:
(Buffalo News, The (NY) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 2--Eight years into the effort to consolidate regional business marketing into the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise effort, the BNE is claiming progress and a number of "wins." But the best review of all came from a corporate economic development expert who works with, not for, the agency: The real gain, she said, comes not in a count of recruiting successes but in the agency's completion of the "grunt work" that makes it easier for companies to consider this region.



That hasn't always been the case, and that assessment is a critical one. Buffalo Niagara has enough regulatory and taxation hurdles to clear without making it difficult for potential job-providers to quickly evaluate local sites. It's good news that Buffalo Niagara Enterprise has pulled together the data and studies to offer businesses before they have to ask for them. That's a competitive edge, because it's not done everywhere.

The BNE's integrated Web site, www.buffaloniagara.org, brings information together for site selectors. Its regional portal now is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese and soon Japanese, providing for a much wider global reach.

Started years ago with an unrealistically high promise of new job creation, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise has refocused on job retention as well as job creation, and has become the "marketer" for the business-development "product" of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. While some may dispute the level of involvement in some of the 38 "wins" the group claimed for fiscal year 2006, which ended June 30, without Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, companies considering this region would be betting on a hodgepodge of facts and figures with less help in harnessing that information and helping push through deals.

The 38 wins, according to the group, represent a 5.5 percent increase over the previous year's 36 victories. That fiscal 2005 total was more than twice the number of "wins" for Kansas City, Phoenix, Richmond or St. Louis.

In hard numbers, that means last year's work meant $258.2 million in new capital investment in the region, a 12.7 percent increase from the previous year, with the creation or retention of 3,436 jobs -- 1,384 that remained and 2,052 added.

The BNE now focuses on speed, predictability and shovel-ready sites. As it increases the comfort level for potential investors in this region, it can help build momentum; companies notice where other companies are starting to relocate, and a good marketing agency can help them quickly find out why.

The good news here is that there is far more teamwork in that region-selling effort than there once was, and that Buffalo Niagara Enterprise is working to be ready with immediate and detailed information that companies need to know.

Copyright (c) 2006, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Incuity & Control Associates to Host Business Intelligence Workshop on How to Optimize Manufacturing Productivity, Profitability. Check it out:
ALLENDALE, N.J. --(Business Wire)-- Control Associates Incorporated and Incuity Software, Inc. announced today they will conduct a joint workshop for manufacturing executives, on October 19, 2006, to help them learn how to make better business decisions that can optimize their companies' productivity and profitability.



"This free workshop is ideal for both decision makers and decision implementers in any manufacturing company, including people in production, operations, plant management, engineering and IT management," said Terry Spaeth, Control Associates Senior Vice President. "There will be two sessions per workshop, one covering the business problems that the Incuity EMI software can help people solve and one covering the more technical aspects of how to configure applications to do that."

"Anyone in the business of manufacturing knows the roadblocks encountered in attempting to link plant floor systems with enterprise applications," said Gary Wilson, Incuity Vice President of Sales. "The first half of the workshop will cover how users can resolve issues such as leveraging legacy historians; compliance management; downtime/OEE analysis and reports; product analysis and reporting; key performance indicator (KPI) support and dashboards; manufacturing integration with ERP systems; and enhanced supply chain visibility.

"The second half will explain how to access, correlate, analyze, visualize and act on manufacturing and business data from all the systems in a manufacturing enterprise," Wilson added.

The Control Associates-Incuity workshop begins with a continental breakfast, registration and networking at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19, at the Control Associates offices (20 Commerce Drive) in Allendale. The first half of the program, starting at 10:00 a.m., will cover the enterprise issues involved with truly linking plant floor manufacturing operations with enterprise computing applications. Following lunch, the second session, at 1:00 p.m., will provide an overview of web services, data source connectivity, databases, advanced trending, X-Y plotting tools, Excel reports, web portals, dashboards and a unified production model.

Anyone interested in attending the seminar should go directly to the Control Associates web site at www.control-associates.com to get more details on the workshop and to register online. Seating is limited for these special events, so people are urged to sign up early so they don't miss out.

About Control Associates

Founded in 1933, Control Associates is based in Allendale, New Jersey, and serves industrial customers throughout the northern New Jersey, greater New York City and central and western Connecticut region. The company offers a broad range of expertise in the process industries, such as specialty chemicals, life sciences, natural gas distribution, power generation, hydrocarbon processing, food and beverage, water treatment, and pulp and paper. Among its major customers are well-known companies including Akzo-Nobel, Amerada Hess, American Sugar Refining, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Con Edison, ConocoPhillips, Hercules, Merck, New Jersey Natural Gas, PSE&G and Wyeth. For more information about the company, please visit its web site at: http://www.control-associates.com.

About Incuity

Incuity Software, based in Mission Viejo, California, is a pioneer in the creation of data management systems for reporting, analysis and business intelligence applications in manufacturing and process companies. More than 45,000 seats of the company's products have been installed since 1998, in 13 languages and in more than 40 countries. In addition to its headquarters operations in California, Incuity has regional offices in Nevada and Massachusetts in the U.S. as well as in Sydney, Australia; Duesseldorf, Germany; and Johannesburg, South Africa. The company also maintains a Professional Services group in Burlington, ON, Canada.

For additional information about the company and Incuity products, or for a complete list of value-added resellers around the world, please visit the corporate web site at http://www.incuity.com.

Open Text paying $489M for Hummingbird

October 3, 2006 12:34 AM
Open Text paying $489M for Hummingbird. Check it out:
(UPI Business News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Canadian software maker Open Text Corp. is paying about $489 million to buy Hummingbird Ltd., a smaller domestic rival.

The cash-and-debt deal results in the formation of the world's largest independent provider of enterprise content management software, Open Text said Monday.

The deal was financed with about $58 million in cash from Hummingbird, $25 million in cash from Open Text and a $390 million term loan under new $465 million senior secured revolving and term credit facilities. The $75 million committed revolving term credit facility replaces a smaller revolving credit facility that was terminated.



The seven-year term loan may be prepaid and the revolving credit facility has a five-year term.

Hummingbird's chairman, Fred Sorkin and its chief executive, Barry Litwin, have left the combined company.

Copyright 2006 United Press International
CorasWorks(R) Advances Enterprise Application Design on SharePoint(R). Check it out:
RESTON, Va. --(Business Wire)-- CorasWorks Corporation, the leading provider of workplace application software on the Microsoft(R) platform, today announced the release of the CorasWorks Workplace Suite(TM) - Summer 2006 edition. With this latest release, CorasWorks advances the ability of enterprise application architects to design robust applications that are inter-connected as part of an integrated workplace running on the Microsoft SharePoint platform - all without any custom development.



For many CorasWorks customers the investment in the CorasWorks Workplace Suite is easily justified by the lower total cost of ownership for the applications they build using its modular architecture. On average, organizations see an 80% cost savings compared to building their applications using custom development. Yet, for many enterprise organizations, their application designs continue to be constrained by the lack of skilled resources within their in-house development teams.

CorasWorks' Summer 2006 release breaks this constraint and advances application design within the enterprise by delivering:

-- Parent-Child Relationships for better data organization: CorasWorks' new Cross-Connect(TM) module allows users to create parent-child relational joins from two lists or libraries and relate them on a common field or data. The lists can be stored in separate locations throughout the workplace.

-- A familiar and flexible application interface with more power to take action and get work done: With the new release, application designers can create actions that allow end users to enter information and make decisions whenever an action is run. Also, users can do data entry to add or change information across their workplace without needing to jump from one application to another.

-- Support for role-based dashboards: Role-based dashboards or "personas" allow application architects to design optimized role-based interfaces providing the information and functionality required for a given role and interaction with information located throughout the workplace.

-- Distributable, reusable Workplace Features: Application designers can distribute commonly used features from an application to any location throughout the workplace, enabling users to do their work from where they work.

-- Ability to centrally define scopes of information that may be consumed throughout the workplace in dashboards, portals, personas, and individual views.

-- Centralized workplace configuration management: Allow application architects to define and connect distributed elements of information and functionality across a workplace.

-- Centralized component configuration management: Enable administrators to establish global or regional policies for how the distributed, end-user components of the workplace behave.

"Empowering organizations to create an inter-connected workplace of robust, enterprise-wide applications without custom development or extensive technical skills or knowledge is the driving objective of every release of the Workplace Suite," said William Rogers, CEO of CorasWorks "The Summer 2006 releases greatly advances the potential of workplace application designers to create a more powerful set of applications, while vastly increasing the ease, convenience, and relevance to end-users. With great cost effectiveness, it continues to drive forward the value proposition of modular software architecture over custom development or off-the-shelf point solutions."

To further help application architects leverage the advanced capabilities and technologies of the Summer 2006 release, CorasWorks also greatly enhanced the Solution Set included in the product. The CorasWorks Workplace Suite now includes 51 templated solutions comprised of Workplace Foundation elements and Business Solutions. Workplace Foundation elements are templatized core building blocks for designing and deploying elements of a collaborative workplace. The included Business Solutions are segmented into four categories: Project Oriented, Classic Line of Business, Departmental, and Approval Processes. They can each be used as is or easily customized to meet the needs of the organization.

Visit our new CorasWorks Showroom (http://solutions.corasworks.net/) to learn more about the Summer 2006 release of the CorasWorks Workplace Suite. For details on accessing or upgrading to Summer 2006, please contact [email protected] or 1-866-580-3115 (toll free) or 1-703-797-1881 (for local or international).

About CorasWorks

CorasWorks Corporation is the leading worldwide provider of workplace application software on the Microsoft SharePoint collaboration platform. CorasWorks products are being used every day by more than 700 customers and 500,000 deployed users. Enterprise, corporate, non-profit, and government organizations in more than 20 countries around the world use CorasWorks software to build powerful and flexible integrated business workplaces, without custom development. The CorasWorks Partner Program no has more than 70 partners certified to assist customers in implementing, designing and building their workplaces on SharePoint. For more information, visit www.corasworks.net.
FreedomWorks Supports the First Amendment at FCC Field Hearing ; Grassroots Activists to Attend Oct. 3 FCC Public Hearing in Los Angeles. Check it out:
(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) WASHINGTON, Oct 2, 2006 (U.S. Newswire via COMTEX) --The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a field hearing in Los Angeles on Tuesday to discuss media ownership. FreedomWorks is showing up to protect the first amendment and the free enterprise system.



Today's communications market is thriving. Cable, satellite and broadband providers compete directly with incumbent broadcasters for programming. This competition benefits consumers through more choices in programming with a wide variety of media outlets.

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented, "Broadcast media is not the dominant source of news and information it used to be, and new broadband technologies will do even more to challenge incumbent broadcasters. But for anti-market advocates, it represents their last viable opportunity to use the power of government to force us to listen to them. The government can take positive steps to help all viewers and listeners, by not by taking control of the airwaves. The government can move to increase competition and choice by removing archaic laws that are out of step with the fundamental changes occurring in the marketplace."

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe added, "The opponents of the free market are calling for new restrictions and government intervention in the media that will ultimately reduce the choices available to American families. Proponents of more regulation argue that media consolidation constrains the free flow of information to Americans, yet they practice a very sophisticated form of democratic activism with only a minimal use of mainstream media. The irony speaks volumes for their position."

-----

FreedomWorks is a grassroots organization with over 800,000 members nationwide, dedicated to lower taxes, less government and more freedom.

http://www.usnewswire.com

Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks, 202-942-7698, or
[email protected]

Copyright (C) 2006, U.S. Newswire
Business Objects Completes Acquisition of Armstrong Laing Limited. Check it out:
SAN JOSE, Calif. & PARIS --(Business Wire)-- Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced it has closed the acquisition of privately-held Armstrong Laing Limited (ALG Software), a leading provider of profitability management and activity based costing solutions.



"The acquisition of ALG Software demonstrates our commitment to bringing a complete range of enterprise performance management solutions to our customers," said John Schwarz, CEO of Business Objects. "Our customers have told us that the ability to generate improved profitability and control costs is fast becoming one of their top priorities. By adding the leading provider of these solutions to our portfolio, we significantly broaden and deepen our EPM capabilities for our customers, and particularly, for the CFO and finance departments."

The acquisition was an all-cash transaction of approximately 30 million GBP (approximately $56 million USD) for all outstanding shares of ALG Software by Business Objects (U.K.) Limited, a Business Objects wholly owned U.K. subsidiary, and will be accounted for under the purchase method of accounting. Total revenue for ALG Software was approximately $19 million for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2006.

With the addition of ALG Software, Business Objects expands its enterprise performance management (EPM) software portfolio with solutions for profitability management, activity based costing, predictive planning, and strategic business performance measurement. ALG Software's profitability management and activity based costing solutions represent a fast-growing segment of the EPM market and complement the existing Business Objects EPM solutions. Today, more than 400 customers worldwide use ALG Software's solutions, including American Express, British Airways, British Telecom, Heineken, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, US Department of Labor, and WHSmith.

Business Objects plans to announce further details on the integration of ALG Software in November, from the Business Objects Insight Americas 2006 User Conference in San Francisco.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company, with more than 39,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500. Business Objects helps organizations of all sizes create a trusted foundation for decision making, gain better insight into their business, and optimize performance. The company's innovative business intelligence suite, BusinessObjects(TM) XI, offers the BI industry's most advanced and complete solution for performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis, and enterprise information management. BusinessObjects XI includes the award-winning Crystal line of reporting and data visualization software. Business Objects has also built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, and offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.

Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, France. The company's stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (BOBJ) and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 - BOB) stock exchanges. More information about Business Objects can be found at www.businessobjects.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This document contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Business Objects' products and services, ALG Software's EPM solutions, the benefits to customers from the acquisition, Business Objects' position in the EPM market, and impact of the transaction on Business Objects' financial results. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others: the tax impact of the acquisition on Business Objects, Business Objects' ability to retain ALG Software's employees, and Business Objects' ability to realize other financial benefits from the proposed acquisition. More information about potential factors that could affect Business Objects' business and financial results is included in Business Objects' Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 and Business Objects Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Business Objects is not obligated to and does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document.

The Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Intelligent Question, and Xcelsius are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
MetTel First National CLEC to Integrate With UCN Network and Offer On-Demand inContact Application Services. Check it out:
SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 2 -- UCN, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: UCNN) , a provider of on-demand contact handling software and business telecommunication services delivered over the UCN national VoIP network, today announced a partnership with MetTel (Metropolitan Telecommunications), a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) based in New York City. Under the terms of the signed agreement, the two companies will interconnect their respective networks, enabling MetTel to sell UCN's inContact(TM) application services into its customer base.



With this announcement, MetTel customers gain access to leading edge, hosted contact handling capabilities that improve customer contact quality and rep productivity, without having to take on the costs associated with the installation, integration and maintenance of onsite software and hardware.

This is not the first relationship between the two companies. In June 2005 UCN announced that MetTel had selected inContact to support its own internal customer care operation, located in two geographically dispersed offices. The inContact system provides MetTel with a unified set of contact handling and management tools, helping the customer care teams hit their target service level numbers while decreasing overall operational costs. Again, in December 2005, UCN and MetTel were in the news, when MetTel avoided a business interruption situation due to the New York City transit strike. The morning of the strike, inContact enabled MetTel to implement its disaster recovery plan and seamlessly route service calls to the homes of 50 percent of the customer care team who knew they would be stranded at home by the strike.

MetTel serves over 16,500 consumer and business clients, with more than 185,000 phone lines nationwide. The company specializes in serving multi-state, multi-location enterprise accounts.

Said MetTel CEO, Marshall Aronow: "The inContact system complements our suite of services by providing an enterprise class solution for our customers. This combination enhances the total value of MetTel's competitive offerings."

Kevin Childs, UCN president of sales, marketing and support said: "With this new connectivity model, MetTel customers can have both their existing long distance and local numbers managed by the intelligent contact handling services of inContact. They don't have to change a thing. From a business perspective, by partnering with an established, trusted CLEC such as MetTel, UCN gains access to a nationwide market of existing business accounts. As many of these accounts are multi-location operations, they are uniquely positioned to benefit from the unifying reporting, monitoring and management functions inherent in inContact."

About MetTel
Founded in 1996, MetTel (Metropolitan Telecommunications) is a privately held nationwide integrated communications provider serving customers from coast-to-coast. MetTel provides a comprehensive portfolio of local, long distance and advanced business and data services, including Internet Access and VoIP solutions to the business market, specializing in multi-state, multi-location enterprise customers. MetTel's innovative and proprietary operations support systems provide leading edge electronic bonding, provisioning, customer care, agent support and billing system capabilities, which have fueled its rapid expansion. Web site: http://www.mettel.net/

About UCN, Inc.
UCN (BULLETIN BOARD: UCNN) is the leading provider of inbound and blended, hosted contact handling services that improve the customer contact experience and the productivity of those handling the contacts. In addition to the integrated suite of advanced contact handling applications, inContact provides reporting, monitoring, recording, administration and workforce management tools. InControl(TM) is a unique, rapid application development tool that enables inContact customers to develop highly flexible, customized business contact handling processes in record time. To learn more about UCN visit http://www.ucn.net/.

Safe Harbor Statement: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for forward-looking information made on the Company's behalf. All statements, other than statements of historical facts which address the Company's expectations of sources of capital or which express the Company's expectation for the future with respect to financial performance or operating strategies, can be identified as forward-looking statements. Such statements made by the company are based on knowledge of the environment in which it operates, but because of the factors previously listed, as well as other factors beyond the control of the Company, actual results may differ materially from the expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements.

UCN, Inc.

CONTACT: Jan Johnson, VP of Marketing of UCN, +1-801-320-3263,[email protected]; or investors, Scott Liolios, [email protected], or RonBoth, of Liolios Group Inc, +1-949-574-3860, for UCN; or Sue Salmansohn,Marketing Director of MetTel, +1-212-607-2012, [email protected]

Web site: http://www.mettel.net/
Web site: http://www.ucn.net/
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