Archive for August, 2009

Pittsburgh Hosts Press Tours Beginning September 9, 2009 in Preparation for G-20 Summit – Tours Highlight Numerous Technological, Environmental and Cultural Achievements

Published August 31, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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In preparation for its role as host city for the Pittsburgh Summit 2009 (G-20), the region is hosting a variety of press tours intended to illustrate Pittsburgh’s remarkable transformation story and help reporters prepare for on-location coverage. The tours are scheduled from September 9-11 and September 21-23, and showcase numerous technological, environmental and cultural achievements spanning a variety of industry sectors and public and private entities.

Reporters from around the world are encouraged to explore how a city once described in the 1800s as “hell with the lid off” has been transformed into “America’s Most Livable City.” Tour highlights include medicine and robotics, higher education and culture, green building and advanced technology.

Bill Flanagan, spokesperson for newly formed Pittsburgh G-20 Partnership, says, “Corporate leaders, our university community, and cultural and political leaders are collaborating to welcome reporters to Pittsburgh. These tours are a community-wide effort to showcase the best and the brightest in Pittsburgh, and the many things which make the area unique.”

For tour details and to register, members of the media are encouraged to visit the organization’s online newsroom, www.g20pittsburghsummit.org. Special media rates for accommodations are available to reporters interested in advance G-20 stories. In addition, reporters are encouraged to call for interviews relevant to their individual areas of interest.

A sampling of the widely-varying tours (more than 15, in all) include “Robotics & Technology,” “Creative Industries,” “Outdoor Adventures,” “Life Sciences and Health Care Advances,” “G-20 Pittsburgh Summit Venues,” and many others. Tours are being organized by VisitPittsburgh, the official marketing and promotion agency for the Pittsburgh region, and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, a private sector leadership organization with more than 300 regional investors.

Concurrent Technologies Corporation Awarded Competitively-Bid Armament, Research, Development, and Engineering Center Contract

Published August 31, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) recently won a competitively-bid contract to participate in the support of the Army Armament, Research, Development, and Engineering Center (ARDEC) Rapid Prototyping and Technology Initiative (RPTI) Program.  The contract is a multi-award (i.e., four other companies won contracts) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract valued at $300 million over five years. The ARDEC RPTI program is intended to assist ARDEC’s mission to rapidly respond to the warfighter’s need for armament-related products and services.

 The CTC Team consists of CTC and 31 other companies including large businesses, small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, and universities.  CTC Team members in Western Pennsylvania include Enterprise Ventures Corporation (EVC), Catalyst Connection, DSN Innovation, Dynacom, Penn State Electro-Optics Center, and Gautier Steel.  This contract provides the CTC Team with the opportunity to bid on Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) and Firm Fixed Price (FFP) orders for the processing, supply, and development of armament-related materials, equipment, processes, and products.  

 Headquartered at Picatinny, New Jersey, the ARDEC is the Army’s principal researcher, developer, and sustainer of current and future armament and munitions systems.  ARDEC’s overall mission is to improve already fielded items, develop new ones, maintain a strong armament technology base in government, industry and academia and provide technical support to the Soldier in the field.  In this way, the Center achieves its vision of “Innovative Armaments Solutions for Today and Tomorrow.”

 

According to Edward J. Sheehan, Jr., CTC’s President & Chief Executive Officer, “Since this is a multiple award IDIQ contract, task orders and delivery orders will be competed among the prime contractors.  Our efforts will be managed by a virtual Program Management Office with personnel at several locations: Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Johnstown, Pennsylvania; and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.”  Sheehan added, “Being selected as one of the prime contractors for the ARDEC RPTI contract is a significant accomplishment for CTC and our teammates, and it signifies CTC’s reputation of providing quality products and services to our clients.  With our team’s extensive experience, we look forward to making considerable contributions through this contract.”

 

CTC’s Gary Wallace will be the Program Manager for the new ARDEC contract.  About the new contract, he said, “The most rewarding aspect of this award for me is that this contract is intended to increase ARDEC’s responsiveness to meet the Soldier’s immediate field requirements.  Having the opportunity to help make Soldiers more effective or keep them safe in the field is a way we can serve our military men and women who selflessly serve our nation every day.”

In City of Fast Growing Tech Stars, TeleTracking Shines Again

Published August 31, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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 TeleTracking Technologies, one of the fastest growing companies in the healthcare technology sector, was recently named to the Pittsburgh Business Times “Top 100 Companies” for the sixth consecutive year, based on a continuing growth rate which has established them as market leader in hospital patient flow solutions.

In a city rich with technology companies, TeleTracking ranked 14th in that category and 74th overall. From 2006 through 2008, TeleTracking’s sales grew by 57 percent, while employment growth topped 35 percent.

 ”TeleTracking’s growth, despite the recession, underscores the hospital industry’s great need for patient flow solutions,” said TeleTracking president and CEO Anthony Sanzo. “As the population ages, this need will become even more acute. That’s why we’re committed to providing ‘best-of-breed’ solutions to the complex problems which affect patient flow.”

Sanzo said while several competitors have been acquired by larger healthcare companies, or have imposed layoffs, TeleTracking has made acquisitions and continues to hire at a steady rate.

Vivisimo Velocity Enterprise Search Platform Named Trend-Setting Product of 2009

Published August 28, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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 Vivisimo, a leader in enterprise search, recently announced that its Velocity Enterprise Search Platform was named “Trend-Setting Product of 2009″ by KMWorld Magazine. This is the fifth consecutive year that Velocity has received this award.

“We are honored to be on this impressive list selected by the staff and editors of KMWorld Magazine,” said John Kealey, CEO of Vivisimo. “The need for enterprises to quickly find and harness information has never been greater, especially given today’s fast paced ‘on demand’ business environment. We take tremendous pride that our recent innovations in social and conceptual search continue to be recognized for helping enterprises meet these demands.”

KMWorld’s “Trend-Setting Products” awards began in 2003, and represent the software and systems innovations that have expanded the reach and effectiveness of information management. This year, more than 800 products were assessed by the judging panel, which consists of editorial staff, analysts, system integrators, vendors, line-of-business managers, and users. The products selected all demonstrate clearly identifiable technology breakthroughs that serve the vendors’ full spectrum of constituencies, especially their customers.

“The KMWorld ‘Trend-Setting Products’ awards represent the leaders in software and systems innovations,” said Hugh McKellar, editor-in-chief at KMWorld magazine. “The products selected deliver customer value and are most likely to be embraced by the marketplace and gain wide adoption.”

Vivisimo Velocity 7.0, which followed the company’s industry-leading social search release, introduced conceptual search to enterprises and provided customers a new interface to empower their users with explicit control to fine tune queries and personalize search to meet specific information goals. In addition to Velocity 7.0, Vivisimo also released Velocity for OEM, which leveraged the platform’s superior architecture and inherent flexibility into a highly modular design for easy deployment in a variety of markets and applications.

Breakthrough Book Teaches OLAP Analysis Principles and Programming for Oracle Business Intelligence Developers

Published August 28, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Multidimensional analysis lies at the heart of modern business intelligence systems.  The multidimensional approach to working with data yields user interfaces to slice-and-dice summarized data­ and to navigate up and down hierarchies. This translates into the ability to display business performance as a function of key variables and to view results at selectable levels of detail.   The Multidimensional Data Modeling Toolkit: Making your Business Intelligence Applications Smart with Oracle OLAP is the only book that takes the developer under the covers to show exactly what happens inside of Oracle’s analytic workspaces where the multidimensional magic occurs. 

 Business intelligence developers who want in-depth understanding and expert skill levels with OLAP will find that the book takes them significantly beyond product documentation and a wizard-based exposure to the technology. The book puts the reader on a learning path beginning with a definition and explanation of the benefits of OLAP, and ending with a comparison of multidimensional analysis techniques to other the analytical approaches used in business intelligence applications: data mining and statistics.  On this path the reader learns syntax and programming techniques, and discovers the information analysis principles that motivate its use.

 The reader will gain a detailed knowledge of the Oracle OLAP DML programming language, they will see a plethora of analytical devices specific to the OLAP approach, they will learn the relationship between the tables in a relational data warehouse and the storage devices employed by OLAP cubes, the Oracle OLAP metadata will be examined. The presentation is couched in terms of practical examples that will benefit any application area, including sales and marketing, finance, customer analysis, and manufacturing.

 The content of the book is based on the Oracle 10g database, however, most of the programming statements shown will work with other editions of the database, such as Oracle 9i and 11g, and even earlier editions of the technology found in stand-alone products such as the Express database, Oracle Financial Analyzer, and Oracle Sales Analyzer. So if you are developing business intelligence systems in Oracle or porting from one of these platforms this book gives you helpful information you will use to get the job done.

 The analysis principles presented are universal and can be applied to any OLAP system, for example Essbase, Cognos, Business Objects, and Microsoft Analysis Services. So whether you are new to business intelligence or a seasoned practitioner, you should find The Multi-dimensional Data Modeling Toolkit with plenty of valuable insights to offer. The book is available on Amazon or directly from the publisher’s website at www.Learn-Oracle-OLAP.com.

Source: John Paredes, Author, OLAP World Press

Sonovision-ITEP, France Selects Inmedius® to Support Aerospace and Defense Clients

Published August 27, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Inmedius, Inc. announces the selection and implementation of its S1000D Publishing Suite™ by Sonovision-ITEP of France to support the design and production of S1000D™ technical documentation for its aerospace and defense projects worldwide.  Europe’s leading technical information processing group, Sonovision-ITEP employs 1,200 people across 11 technical centers in France, seven subsidiaries across Europe, and in Canada.  The company services an impressive roster of clients representing both manufacturers and operators, including; Air France, Alstom, the Paris Transit Authority (RATP), and Airbus France, where 400 Sonovision authors are based. 

 “The flexible deployment capability of the Inmedius S1000D Publishing Suite is what set it apart from the other software vendors and programs we evaluated,” stated Laurent Gautret, Managing Director, Sonovision-ITEP.   “Another key factor in our selection decision was the fully integrated, thin client, S1000D editor that is incorporated into the comprehensive project setup and management support of the S1000Dmanager™ software module.” 

Initially, the Inmedius solution will be deployed at the Sonovision-ITEP locations in Paris and Montigny, France, with the option to rollout the S1000D Publishing Suite to all 19 of the company’s sites worldwide.  Sonovision-ITEP is one of the first Inmedius clients to implement the firm’s robust new WYSIWYG editor, S1000DauthorPro™ XE. 

“Inmedius’ domain expertise and leadership in S1000D demonstrates our commitment to deliver software and services that address the real-world technical documentation production challenges and issues our clients face,” explained Michael Ingledew, Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Inmedius, Inc.  “The S1000D editor functionality of browser-based AuthorPro XE helps to reduce deployment costs.  This clearly demonstrates the value-add of our solution, with its significantly lower total cost of ownership, to companies like Sonovision-ITEP, who normally spend a great deal of their annual software budget on maintaining costly, desktop editing tools.”

Sales Tax Expansion to Include Computer Services – Contact your Legislator Today

Published August 27, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Pennsylvania’s sales tax on computer services was repealed in 1997, but some Pennsylvania lawmakers may be eyeing this exemption as an opportunity to balance Pennsylvnaia’s 2009-2010 budget.
 
Though no legislation has been introduced to date, the Council’s government affairs team has learned that back-room discussions have included discussions about expanding the applicability of the sales and use tax to a broad array of service-oriented industries.
 
The computer services sales tax, which was levied for the first time in 1991, but repealed  in 1997 after intensive industry lobbying, would increase taxes on Pennsylvania technology firms by more than $349 million in the upcoming budget year.  
 
To be sure, once a new tax is enacted, it is extremely difficult to have it repealed. With this in mind, its imperative that we stop this tax before its gets a chance at a second life in Pennsylvnaia.  Please use the Capwiz Tool to communicate your opposition to your Pennsylvania legislators!  Access it here: http://capwiz.com/pghtech/issues/alert/?alertid=13915646&PROCESS=Take+Action

For more information or if you are willing to play a more active role in efforts to prevent this tax expansion, contact Brian Kennedy, Vice President of Government Affairs at the Council, immediately at bkennedy@pghtech.org or 412-918-4297.

PTC CEO Offers Unique Perspective on Pittsburgh and G-20

Published August 26, 2009 General , Knowledge Center Leave a Comment
Welcome to the city of firsts – Some things that will make you go “hmm…”
By Audrey Russo, President and CEO, Pittsburgh Technology Council
There are many lurking hypotheses about why Pittsburgh has “emerged” as one of the most stable and lucrative cities in the US. Many think that our resurgence began just a few years ago, conversely, we were leaders, and always have been leading, even during the steel industry’s “fallout,” but no one took notice. Unfortunately, all of the negative press about Pittsburgh became its calling card. The region’s people fled, taking the opportunity to look for more “lucrative” careers and moved to sunny cities defined by rapid and unchecked growth. Hmm…

The special G-20 issue of TEQ is just now coming off the presses and readying itself for delivery to your mailbox. The Pittsburgh Technology Council is excited about the issue’s coverage detailing how the local technology industry plays a vital role in the region’s renaissance. Council CEO, Audrey Russo has some unique insights into the Pittsburgh region. We all know that we’re home to a number of “firsts.” However, Russo points some of the not-so-obvious ones. Some that will make you go “Hmm…” Give it a read right here.

ShowClix Secures Series-A Funding from Pittsburgh Equity Partners

Published August 26, 2009 News , PTC Member Leave a Comment
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It doesn’t get any fresher off the grill than this. The folks at ShowClix leaked the announcement of their series A funding to the Techburgher yesterday afternoon for your enjoyment first thing this morning. ShowClix, a Pittsburgh-based event ticketing company,secured an undisclosed sum of Series A funding from Pittsburgh Equity Partners (PEP). The funds will be used to make several key hires, strengthen the company’s sales and marketing efforts and expand customer support to meet the fast-growing demand for its ticketing services. 

“While the funding provided by Pittsburgh Equity Partners will play a key role in helping us accelerate and support growth, the knowledge and experience that its Managing Partners, Steve Robinson and Ed Engler, bring to the table are equally as valuable,” said ShowClix President Joshua Dziabiak. “We’re excited and honored to be the first portfolio company of a very exciting fund.”

Pittsburgh Equity Partners is a venture capital fund, focused on high-growth, early stage information technology and life sciences companies in Southwestern Pennsylvania.  Ed Engler, Managing Partner of Pittsburgh Equity Partners said, “We are very excited to be working with ShowClix.  The company has proven that their solution works well across a number of large market segments and can scale dramatically over the next few years.”

Prior to receiving financing from Pittsburgh Equity Partners, ShowClix received several rounds of funding from Innovation Works, one of the nation’s most active investors in seed-stage technology companies.

Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors Changes Name to GlobalPittsburgh

Published August 25, 2009 News Leave a Comment
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The Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors (PCIV) changed its name to GlobalPittsburgh. The newly named organization will continue and expand the PCIV’s hosting and programming functions for international delegations to the Pittsburgh region, which it has performed for 50 years already.

The new GlobalPittsburgh, which will retain PCIV’s not-for-profit status, plans to increase the number of international delegations to Pittsburgh, and increase revenues and sustainability for the new organization and enhance global economic growth in the Pittsburgh region.

“The outcome of this decision will be to combine the highly respected hosting activities of the PCIV with the existing and also respected brand of GlobalPittsburgh, which was founded eight years ago to highlight the region’s international connections and bring together its many international communities,” Board Chairman James S. Wolf said.

Roger O. Cranville, former Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary for International Business Development, and former Senior Vice President – Global Marketing at the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, who will serve as president of the organization. Joining Cranville will be Gail Shrott, vice president – programming services, who previously was PCIV’s executive director. Also remaining on the staff will be Tim Allen, director – programming services. New staff will include Thomas Buell, Jr., vice president – communications, and Pat Fustich, director – operations.

“During the next 12 months, GlobalPittsburgh will focus on spreading the word about Pittsburgh internationally, and energizing the region’s many followers around the world, both during the months leading up to the G-20 Economic Summit, and, perhaps more importantly, beyond the G-20,” Cranville said.

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