SAMPLE CLIENT COVERAGE

At the Nexus of Grid, Cloud and HPC - by Dennis Barker

Date: October 17, 2008
Client: Parabon
Summary: What’s the big difference between cloud computing and grid computing? The goal of cloud computing is to put system administrators out of work.

That’s one way of looking at it, at least. Steve Armentrout, CEO of Parabon Computation, says that was the perspective tossed out by a couple of Google and IBM reps at a panel discussion in which he recently participated. Armentrout suggests a less Dickensian way of looking at it: cloud computing is about “providing a datacenter that is fully automated.” (More on cloud versus grid later.)

Parabon has been around since 2000, when it introduced “the first commercial grid,” Armentrout says. Customers include not just scientific researchers, but also financial analysts, commercial enterprises with high-end analytical demands, bioinformatics, traditional HPC users and government agencies. “Our customers are doing modeling and simulation with very large models, immense data sets,” he explains. “We enable them to run not just one complex scenario but 10,000 scenarios. With Frontier you can explore an entire space of possibilities at once instead of running one simulation, then another, then another.”

MASKED INTENTIONS - by Michael Vizard

Utility Computing Comes to Disaster Recovery

Date: September 29, 2008
Client: DS3 DataVaulting
Summary: One of the primary problems with most approaches to disaster recovery is that it has historically required IT organizations to invest in a whole set of duplicate infrastructure to make sure data is available at any given moment.

But the advent of virtualization is now allowing IT organizations to take a slightly different tack when it comes to disaster recovery by relying more on third-party services. For example, DS3 DataVaulting has launched a Disaster Recovery Solution that leverages a virtualization infrastructure to give customers an approach to disaster recovery that they only pay for based on how much they use.

Planning a Wedding and a Business - by David Schultz

Date: September 16, 2008
Client: Weddzilla
Summary: As any first-time entrepreneur will tell you, starting a business can be one of the most time, effort and sanity-consuming experiences of your life. But getting a fledgling dot-com business off the ground is just one of Kristen Carter’s many concerns.

Hall and Carter, both residents of Arlington, are partners in the Weddzilla.com venture. Their site allows future brides and grooms to request services from wedding vendors, such as florists, DJs, caterers and others. Those vendors can then bid for their services to guarantee the lowest price. The site features wedding vendors from across the country.

Arlington Couple Launches Weddzilla.com to Simplify Wedding Planning

Date: August 28, 2008
Client: Weddzilla
Summary:Arlington, Va. -- The strenuous and often frustrating process of planning their own wedding has led an Arlington-based couple to launch a new web site aimed at helping brides-to-be more easily find appropriate vendors. Founded by Aaron Hall and Kristen Carter, Weddzilla.com, allows brides to post what they need, then invites vendors -- such as photographers, wedding planners, caterers, videographers, florists and event venues -- to compete for their business. "I asked myself after dozens of unanswered phone calls and passed deadlines while planning my wedding, 'Why can't the vendors come to me?'" said Carter, whose wedding is scheduled for October. Prior to Weddzilla, Hall founded social network Stuffable.com.

Weather service prepares for disasters with online data backup service - by Dave Raffo

Date: August 22, 2008
Client: DS3 DataVaulting
Summary:Mario Valverde, chief of the Systems Integration Branch of the National Weather Service's Southern Region, knows all too well the role weather can play in forcing companies to implement a disaster recovery plan.

However, meteorologists also realize other events besides weather can make companies scramble to secure critical data. Valverde said his office in Fort Worth, Texas, switched from tape to using DS3 DataVaulting's online backup service in 2005 because it frees up IT staff and makes his data safer and recovery more reliable.

Slackers Beware!

Date: August 5, 2008
Client: NaturalInsight
Summary:The days of Homer Simpson sleeping on the job would be over if Mr. Burns hired Sterling-based NaturalInsight to oversee his nuclear power plant's daily workflow management via its unique Software-as-a-Service. We met CEO Stefan Midford, who says his two-year-old start-up helped a national staffing service working for Gillette stock 18,000 stores in just five days following the Super Bowl.

The staffing company listed each task on a site and let employees pick the ones they wanted, seeing results in real time. "With two clicks the company could see which employees didn't do their job on time and hold them responsible," Stefan says.

Couple find way to tame Bridezilla - by Whitney Stewart

Date: August 3, 2008
Client: Weddzilla
Summary:When Aaron Hall, 29, proposed to Kristen Carter a year ago, neither expected their approaching union would produce a monster. Weddzilla.com, the brainchild of the engaged couple from Arlington, is scheduled to launch at the end of August, and 2,200 vendors from across the country have already signed up to participate in the online forum where brides can solicit vendors to court for their business. "There are a lot of ideas out there that try to help the bride or the vendor, but not both," said Jackie Achekian, who owns Eleganza Intima, a Centreville wedding planner, and is organizing Weddzilla's Aug. 27 launch party at the Clarendon Ballroom in Arlington. "Weddzilla is trying to make it mutually beneficial for everybody." Vendors face difficulty targeting advertising, and brides often feel bombarded by the number of wedding vendors at bridal shows, Ms. Achekian said. With Weddzilla's "Weddifieds" - the Web site's classified section - brides and vendors will be able to better identify good fits based on budget, category and wedding date, she said.

Read All About It

Date: August, 2008
Client: PLP Digital Systems
Summary:The book I recommend most often is The Ultimate Question by Fred Reichheld. Reichheld’s book is about measuring customer loyalty, and he nails it. Reichheld has spent his career working for Bain & Company on customer satisfaction and loyalty projects. The result is an approach that is elegant in its simplicity.

-- John Cronin, CEO, PLP Digital Systems

KUDOS: High Five

Aaron Hall & Kristen Carter

Date: July 21, 2008
Client: Weddzilla
Summary: "Planning a wedding is a long, tedious process. It can turn normal, calm people into crazy, stressed-out maniacs." - Aaron Hall

The couple's idea for a business was born. They are now preparing the debut of Weddzilla.com, a wedding planning website. The concept is for brides and grooms to fill out requests with very specific parameters of what they're looking for in a vendor, and suppliers can use a searchable database to figure out what customers best suit their offerings.

Richmond, Va., Police Deploy Mobile Tactical Command System

Date: July 18, 2008
Client:Ordia Solutions
Summary: The Richmond, Va., Police Department (RPD) is using a mobile tactical collaboration system (MTCS) and a global positioning system devices to enhance police operations.

In addition to supplying the collaborative command and control software and GPS trackers, Ordia Solutions will provide the department with training, support, system customization, and additional services to integrate MTCS with existing technologies including CAD and AVL systems.

Richmond Implements Ordia Solutions For Police Operations

Date: July 16, 2008
Client:Ordia Solutions
Summary:Ordia Solutions announces the successful deployment by the Richmond Police Department (RPD) of Ordia Solutions' next-generation Mobile Tactical Collaboration System (MTCS) and AdvanTraq GPS to enhance police operations.

"The Richmond Police Department has had a rich history of aggressively exploiting innovative technologies and processes to enhance its community policing mission," said Joe E. Ordia, Chairman and CEO, Ordia Solutions.

People pleasers: Human capital management systems track the ever-changing workforce

Date: June 24, 2008
Client:NaturalInsight
Summary: Workforce management specialist NaturalInsight also has new services said to strengthen remote management of people, places, and projects—including work validation and tracking components for better managing large-scale projects in different job locations.

Specifically, a “Check-In” utility enables real-time monitoring of workers as they arrive onsite for time-critical projects. Workers dial into a user-friendly telephone system that recognizes their mobile phone number and requests the worker confirm their location. This new component also serves to notify a company when a worker is late or has not arrived to their specified location.

The Tailoring of Software-as-a-Service - by Michael Vizard

Date: June 2, 2008
Client:Adaptive
Summary: The conventional wisdom surrounding software-as-a-service is that it is a cost effective method for providing a relatively simple set of applications as long as they don't require much in the way of customization.

Another place where we are seeing the software-as-a-service model expand is into the area of data governance. Adaptive has launched a new on-demand service that is based on a framework that customers can customize.

All things related to data governance tend to be time consuming and most customers don't really know where to get started. What Adaptive has created is a series of template that customers can use to create a model that can be audited. A series of wizards are then called upon to walk customers through the set up process. None of this will take the pain out of the auditing process but it does allow customers to leverage software-as-as-service infrastructure to create a launch pad for creating an approach to data governance.

PLP Delivers Product Upgrades - by DE Editors

Enhanced color, job preflight, digital work orders, and facilities management based on a scalable web architecture.

Date: May 29, 2008
Client:PLP
Summary:PLP Digital Systems, Inc. upgraded its PlotWorks and OpCenter product lines to increase productivity by unifying monochrome and color workflows, integrating with digital job submission and online ordering applications, and extending workflow to include onsite services. Plus, DigitalGateway Technology provides a common interface for incoming digital work orders.

Risk software bulks up for bulging compliance market

Date: April 28, 2008
Client: BWise
Summary: As finance executives have painfully discovered, risk comes in many forms. Indeed, the inability to accurately access enterprise risk is at the heart of the credit woes currently bedeviling many corporations.

Coming to grips with enterprise risk is no small feat, though. For assistance, some are turning to a new breed of applications known as governance, risk and compliance software.

The good news is that the latest programs are big improvements on earlier versions, particularly when it comes to ease of use. What's more, top vendors such as OpenPages, SAP, Oracle, Axentis and BWise have rolled out true GRC platforms that can host a number of targeted applications. Companies can run a variety of GRC programs on such platforms, and purchase additional modules as new requirements come up.

Virginia-based Naturallnsight buys Atlanta's Cogent Tech

Date: April 10, 2008
Client: NaturalInsight
Summary: NaturalInsight, a provider of Web-based workforce management solutions, has acquired Cogent Technologies, an innovative provider of Internet and mobile enterprise software solutions.

The acquisition extends NaturalInsight’s growing Web-based platform for managing people, places and projects. The move also expands NaturalInsight availability into the United Kingdom, with the mutual acquisition of Cogent Technologies customers within that market.

Cogent Technologies absorbed into NaturalInsight

Date: April 10, 2008
Client: NaturalInsight
Summary: NaturalInsight has bought Atlanta-based Cogent Technologies for an undisclosed amount.

As part of the deal, Sterling, Va.-based NaturalInsight gets Cogent's MobileDataPro, software that lets remote workforce data get collected from the field using handheld devices.

"When an organization thinks of workforce management, NaturalInsight is the leader," said Christopher Swann, CEO for Cogent Technologies. "It was a natural fit for Cogent and NaturalInsight to come together as we looked at the best way to optimize the MobileDataPro technology in the marketplace."

Q & A With a GRC Software Selector - by Eric Krell

Date: April 1, 2008
Client: BWise
Summary: Steven Kelly, IT sourcing manager at Navistar Inc., recently answered questions about his company's selection of a GRC application from BWise.

What were the primary needs for this type of (GRC) application at this point in time in your organization?
We needed a solution that would help us strengthen our internal SOX reporting capabilities corporatewide. Timely financial data collection is challenging, especially when you have locations globally. Navistar needed the capability to integrate reporting operations using consistent format with the goal of providing both shareholders and government regulatory agencies with current and accurate information.

Recalls Require Fast & Accurate Responses

Date: March 2008
Client: NaturalInsight
Summary: When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined the presence of dangerous bacteria in food products, the agency ordered that the products be pulled from store shelves immediately.

When RMX received the urgent assignment late on a Friday evening, the company went to work quickly assembling, instructing, and communicating with their workforce. By Sunday, RMX staff were deployed at sites across the country and, within 10 days, shelves at more than 18,000 retail sites had been cleared.

Because of its urgency and rapidly developing scope, the recall project would have been impossible to manage with phone calls and faxes. By connecting with its workforce through the web-based NaturalInsight solution, RMX enabled its workers to accept specific store assignments, log in with activity reports and respond to real-time planning changes as needed, while allowing the FDA to easily monitor the situation.

Finally, a Clear Business Connection to ERM - by Steve Marlin

Companies are starting to see the need to bring ERM into their business reporting

Date: February 2008
Client: BWise
Summary: Thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley’s new Auditing Standard 5 (AS5), which fosters a top-down, risk-based approach to compliance, enterprise risk management (ERM) solutions are likely to see a surge in interest in coming months. By providing insights into the multiple risks a company faces, ERM technology enables top management to dig through the morass of organizational layers to gain a holistic view of risk.

The provider ranks are heavily populated by vendors that once lumped themselves in the GRC space. A partial list of best-of-breed vendors offering specific ERM technology includes Axentis, BWise, Cura, OpenPages, Paisley, Qumas and Strategic Thought.

Military Health System to enhance medical imaging retrieval - by Peter Buxbaum

Date: January 28, 2008
Client: Apptis
Summary: The Military Health System will be introducing new imaging capabilities in the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA), MHS’ system of electronic medical records, in the next few months.

The new imaging capabilities will be added by deploying a Web-based front end to the Documentum enterprise content management platform, according to Barclay Butler, senior vice president at Apptis, a technology integrator based in Chantilly, Va., and the prime contractor on the imaging project.

Apptis recently awarded the document-viewing component of the project to AccuSoft, an imaging software developer in Northborough, Mass. AccuSoft tools will enable manipulation, such as rotation and colorizing, of the images.

Marine Corps seeks bids on major computer contract - by Bob Brewin

Date: January 16, 2008
Client: Apptis
Summary: The Marine Corps is in the midst of a procurement valued at about $150 million for a mix of more than 80,000 laptop, desktop, and tablet computers and servers for users outside the Navy Marine Corps Intranet, including those in tactical units deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The procurement will make it easier for users to choose from a variety of computer resources that can be configured to their needs and shipped quickly, Marine officials said. Vendors said the Marines will gain economies of scale and lower prices by bundling all these requirements into one contract.

MCHS (the Marine Corps Common Hardware Suite) has attracted a wide range of interested bidders who attended an industry day last month. Resellers and manufacturers there included Apptis, CDW-Government, Dell, GTSI, Hewlett-Packard, General Dynamics Itronix and Panasonic.

Congress again does nothing to fix unjust tax law - by Jay Hancock

Date: January 4, 2008
Client: Coalition for Tax Fairness
Summary: The trick with congressmen isn't merely stopping them from passing bad legislation. It's getting them to fix the terrible laws they've already enacted.

For years, thousands of victims of a bizarre booby trap in the tax code have been pleading for help from Congress and the Internal Revenue Service. Their situation is so pitiful -- and the law so contrary to decency and common sense -- that Genghis Khan would have granted relief and apologized. Congress won't do either.

Nobody knows how many Marylanders and Americans are in a similar spot. But the Coalition for Tax Fairness, a grass-roots group organized to seek a remedy, figures ISO-AMT victims number in the thousands. Because stock options often went to lower-level employees, many families owe three and four times their annual income, says Tim Carlson, the coalition's president. Dozens have lost their homes. At least two people have killed themselves.

The Emergence of Convergence - by John Goff

The effort to combine governance, risk, and compliance into a single software platform marches on.

Date: January 1, 2008
Client: BWise
Summary: Rather than inquire about Sarbox-only software, vendors say clients now routinely issue RFPs for programs that can handle an array of mandates, including Basel II and sustainability reporting. In addition, prospective buyers appear to be zeroing in on software that offers a range of functions (such as risk modeling and survey publishing). "The Sarbanes-Oxley market has almost disappeared," confirms Luc Brandts, chief technology officer at compliance-software publisher BWise. "But convergence is hot."

Vendors like BWise, Qumas, 80-20, OpenPages, and Paisley have created impressive GRC platforms — that is, portals where managers can access and monitor information about governance, risk, and compliance.

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