Monetate Publishes Ultimate Guide to Reaching Tablet Shoppers

by OpenView

Monetate, the leader in online marketing technology, today published an eBook that provides tips for brands to optimize the website experience for tablet shoppers.

Free to download, the 25-page eBook provides strategic insight and best practices for brands to deliver a better and more relevant tablet website experience, and to improve conversions, average order value, and other key performance metrics. The informative guide illustrates best practices for reaching tablet shoppers in the following ways:

  • Identify activity and volume to execute a website audit.
  • Highlight key website elements such as the browser bar and search capabilities.
  • Optimize website features by identifying opportunities to update content, account for touch and swipe functionality, and support navigation flyout.
  • Increase accessibility by using larger buttons and highlighting site search.
  • Streamline product detail pages to ensure the effectiveness of page real estate.
  • Utilize alternative payment options to help simplify the checkout process and boost conversions.

“We strive to be at the forefront of tablet innovation by offering marketers educational resources like our new eBook, the recent webinar on increasing tablet ROI, and more,” said Monetate CMO Kurt Heinemann.

“With tablet shoppers converting at a rate of between 4-5%*, devising and deploying an effective tablet strategy has become an essential area of focus for digital marketers.”

Monetate LiveTarget, part of the company’s Agility Suite of website optimization products, provides marketers unparalleled segmentation abilities allowing them to identify tablet users and engage them in more effective ways. By connecting with this key segment of website traffic in real time, marketers can change the website experience for their visitors who use devices like iPads and Kindle Fires and deliver a relevant customer experience.

  • Source: Forrester Research, Why Tablet Commerce May Soon Trump Mobile Commerce:

http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/why_tablet_commerce_may_soon_trump_mobile/q/id/59096/t/2

About Monetate

Monetate drives billions of dollars of revenue every year for some of the best-known brands in the world, including Best Buy, QVC, Urban Outfitters, Aeropostale, The Sports Authority, and PETCO. The company’s comprehensive product suite and conversion expertise enable marketers to deliver a more relevant customer experience with unprecedented agility.

Leading marketers rely on Monetate’s cloud-based browser technology to achieve a new level of speed and control, allowing them to run 16 times more optimization campaigns compared to industry averages.

The Monetate Agility Suite includes advanced products for testing, merchandising, targeting, and cross-channel consistency, providing an opportunity to bypass IT restraints and react in real time to customer demands.Monetate also helps marketers implement best practices and drive online revenue through its expert strategic services and content publishing teams.

For more information visit http://monetate.com/ and follow us on Twitter @Monetate.

CeBIT: BOSTON Showcases Certified Storage Solutions

by OpenView

Storage specialist Boston offers a variety of industry leading solutions at CeBIT 2012. A special highlight is the Boston Igloo E-Storage platform certified by software  developer Open-E which will be presented in Hall 2 at stand E51 of Supermicro.

The Igloo Open-E Storage Appliance is the core of an integrated and consolidated network  storage infrastructure. By combining the Adaptec 6805Q RAID Controller and STEC’s enterprise -class MACH16 SATA Solid-State Drive, data transfer rates can be increased up to 12 times compared to conventional hard drive-based RAID configurations in combination with the MaxCache 2.0 SSD caching software.

The system uses the storage management software DSS V6 by Open-E, which enables flexible network connections for NAS and iSCSI as well as for NDMP and WORM. For use in high availability scenarios the solution additionally offers software features for data security as well as complementary hardware equipment like redundant RAID controllers and power  supplies.

Janusz Bak, CTO of Open-E, about the Igloo E-Storage: “Our lab tests showed that we can have a 12 times higher IO/s with this SSD Cache solution — which means an excellent performance at a relatively low financial investment.”

“STEC’s enterprise-class MACH16 Solid-State Drives are ideally suited to bring the raw performance, required for implementations like those from Open-E,” said Kim Gardner, STEC’s senior sales director for EMEA. “We recognize that high-throughput solutions like Open-E Storage Software on the Boston Igloo E-Storage platforms can take advantage of advanced STEC CellCare(TM) Technology features to bring the endurance and reliability to the platform.”

“The Storage Management Software from Open-E complements our Igloo Storage Systems perfectly. Through our co-operation with Open-E we can offer our customers Storage Appliances which can be instantly implemented and are best-in-class at price, performance, flexibility and security,” states Wolfgang Walter, CEO of Boston Server & Storage Solutions GmbH.

Visitors of CeBIT can learn more about Igloo E-Storage at stand E51 and attend live demonstrations. Moreinformation  about the system can be found here.

About Open-E

Open-E, Inc. is a pioneering leader and developer of IP-based storage management software with headquarters in the United States and Europe. Founded in 1998, the company sells its line of storage management software exclusively through a world -wide network of system integrators and reseller partners.

The Open-E DSS V6 line of products are aimed at the SMB  and SME markets and enjoy a reputation for best-in-class performance, flexibility, reliability, scalability and return-on-investment.

With an extensive network of Open-E certified partners, customers have the flexibility to work with the hardware solution provider of their choosing, allowing Open-E to focus on its core competency of storage software development. With over 23,000 customer  installations since 2003 in over 90 countries, Open-E Data Storage Software is used by Fortune 500 customers world-wide.

For further information about Open-E, its products and partners, visit http://www.open-e.com/.

About Boston Limited

With nearly 20 years of trading within the distribution and OEM marketplace, Boston continues to lead the way in providing the latest high-performance, power-optimized technologies into the data centre, HPC, ISP, Military, VFX, Enterprise and Broadcast markets with multi-award winning server, storage, workstation and clustered solutions. Since the successful launch of Boston IT Solutions (India) Private Limited in 2009, we announced the launch of Boston Server & Storage Solutions GmbH in 2010.

Expansion into both regions has been driven purely by market demand for alternate vendors providing high-performance and high value-add systems. As our global reach continues to expand we plan on opening further global facilities to improve and expand the services we offer. For more information about Boston, please visit www.boston.co.uk.

For more information and review samples please contact James Gorbold, Technical Product Marketing Manager, [email protected]

About STEC

STEC, Inc., The SSD Companyâ„¢, is a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and solutions tailored to meet the high-performance, high-reliability needs of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). With headquarters in Santa Ana, California and locations worldwide, STEC leverages almost two decades of solid-state knowledge and experience to deliver the most comprehensive line of SSDs to the storage industry. For more information, visit the company’s web site at www.stec-inc.com.

 

ShareFEST 2012 Highlights Collaboration and Compliance in the Life Science Enterprise

by OpenView

ShareFEST, the premier Microsoft SharePoint conference for life sciences, returns to Philadelphia this year to address the collaboration and compliance challenges life sciences companies are facing.

NextDocs, the leading provider of SharePoint-based document and quality management software solutions for life sciences organizations, will host ShareFEST 2012, with executives from Microsoft and top global life sciences companies headlining the event. The conference will be held on April 19 and 20, 2012 at The Loews Philadelphia Hotel.

“This year’s event has shaped up to be even better. I’m already registered and am looking forward to learning a lot, seeing old acquaintances, and making many new ones.”

“Through ShareFEST, we have developed a compelling and engaging event that delivers real business value to life sciences companies,” says Zikria Syed, CEO and Co-founder of NextDocs.

“The escalating regulatory and compliance demands put on life sciences companies have strained enterprises and complicated business processes. ShareFEST delivers an opportunity to learn from industry leaders SharePoint solutions that help overcome those challenges and enable productivity, compliance, and efficiency. From the quality of our speakers to the camaraderie with hundreds of life sciences professionals, ShareFEST provides a great community for developing and understanding how to apply SharePoint solutions.”

During the conference, executives from Microsoft, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, and other global companies will headline sessions detailing how Microsoft SharePoint solutions are driving innovation within the enterprise and optimizing business process management.

NextDocs’ Ken Lownie, Vice President Global Services, will also deliver a keynote, exploring the new breed of SharePoint business applications and how they enable enterprise collaboration and accelerate the time to market.

“ShareFEST has become an indispensable forum for learning how Microsoft SharePoint solutions can effectively optimize collaboration and drive compliance within the life sciences industry,” says Andrea McGonigle, National Managing Director, Life Sciences.

“Global enterprises, specifically life science companies, are constantly facing new regulatory pressure and challenges to coordinating business processes among globally dispersed teams. The benefit of this conference is gaining valuable insight into the proven methods for leveraging SharePoint solutions designed specifically for life sciences to drive efficiency, improve collaboration, and overcome the rigors of escalating regulatory demands.”

The conference will feature over 25 sessions, including case studies, strategies, quality management, and industry best practices. Thirty of the industry’s leading solution providers will be there to demonstrate their life sciences focused SharePoint solutions including NextDocs, Microsoft, K2, HighPoint Solutions, and many more.

ShareFEST 2012 is a conference focused exclusively on optimizing compliance and meeting regulatory requirements through the use of Microsoft SharePoint solutions in the life sciences industry, including pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, contract researchers, service providers, and biotechnology firms around the world.

Past speakers have focused on how SharePoint can help handle masses of documents without the need for a complex, customized platform, and how to meet complex regulatory and compliance needs.

“I had a blast as both a presenter and attendee at ShareFEST 2010! The event boasted informative presentations, networking opportunities, and a great venue,” says Barry Peters, VP Corporate Quality and Compliance, Telerx Marketing.

“This year’s event has shaped up to be even better. I’m already registered and am looking forward to learning a lot, seeing old acquaintances, and making many new ones.”

To find out more information about ShareFEST, visit the conference website: http://sharefestconference.com/. To register, visit the registration page: http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=987038.

About NextDocs Corporation

NextDocs is the global leader in providing Microsoft SharePoint-based Compliance Software Solutions including Quality Management Software, Regulatory Document Management, and Clinical Portals. Our solutions enable businesses in regulated industries to achieve compliance with FDA and other agencies while automating processes, improving efficiency and dramatically reducing costs.

NextDocs customers include Pharmaceutical companies, Bio-Techs, Medical Device companies, and CROs. For more information on NextDocs Corporation and the software solutions visit www.nextdocs.com.

Contacts

for NextDocs
Matt McLoughlin, 610-228-2123
[email protected]

Agile Management Tools Promote Successful Agile Projects According to Survey

by OpenView

The results of the 6th Annual State of Agile Development survey, sponsored by VersionOne, reveal several interesting trends among the agile community.

Based on more than 6,000 responses, the survey findings show that software tools purpose-built for agile management are in high-demand among respondents with multiple agile projects, and their use promotes more successful agile projects.

“The results of our annual survey revealed several interesting trends. Among them is evidence that project management tools built specifically for agile are highly effective at enabling success with agile projects”

Agile Projects Benefit from Agile Management Tools

According to survey results, there is a notable correlation between the number of agile projects and the use of, and benefits from, a project management tool built specifically for agile. Organizations with 25 percent or fewer agile projects tend to rely on spreadsheets or other traditional project management tools to manage their projects.
However, as the number of agile projects increases, organizations are more likely to use a purpose-built agile management tool like VersionOne. Accordingly, for organizations managing 75-100 percent of their projects through agile processes, almost three-quarters do so with a management tool built specifically for agile.

Agile Management Tools Support SuccessIt’s no surprise to existing users of agile management tools, but now there’s proof that using agile management tools to manage projects makes a successful agile team even more effective. According to the survey, organizations that use agile management tools report higher-quality software with more predictable product delivery and success across 12 project metrics than those who do not. Top-three findings:

  • 92 percent said agile management tools improved their ability to manage changing priorities
  • 85 percent said agile management tools improved their project visibility
  • 77 percent said using agile management tools enhanced software quality

“The results of our annual survey revealed several interesting trends. Among them is evidence that project management tools built specifically for agile are highly effective at enabling success with agile projects,” said Robert Holler, President and CEO, VersionOne.

“Survey respondents have discovered that as projects become more complex, spreadsheets and other traditional project management tools become less effective. Specialized tools like VersionOne are designed to easily handle today’s accelerated, rapidly changing software development processes. Unlike traditional project management tools, VersionOne provides real-time project status and insight, empowering organizations to take multiple projects from idea to delivered product in a very short time-frame.”

The sixth annual “State of Agile Development” survey was conducted between July 22nd and November 1st, 2011. Sponsored by VersionOne, respondents were recruited from a variety of software development industry channels. The data was analyzed and prepared into a summary report by Analysis.Net Research. A total of 6,042 responses were received.

Supporting Assets:

About VersionOne

VersionOne is recognized by agile practitioners as the leader in agile project management tools. By simplifying the planning and tracking of agile projects, we help teams deliver better software faster. Since 2002, companies such as Adobe, Boeing, bwin, NASDAQ, Lilly, Lockheed Martin, AAA, Qualcomm, Sabre and Siemens have turned to VersionOne. Today more than 30,000 teams from over 170 countries use VersionOne. Agile Made Easier @ VersionOne.com.

 

Contacts

PerkettPR for VersionOne
Crystal Macaulay, 781-871-8860
[email protected]

T-System Announces Licensing Agreement With Prognosis Health Information Systems

by OpenView

T-System, Inc. today announced an agreement to license its clinical terminology, a component of its gold-standard emergency medicine content, to Prognosis Health Information Systems.

This non-exclusive licensing agreement permits Prognosis HIS to incorporate into its ChartAccess® Comprehensive EHR the more than 200,000 T-System chief complaint-based emergency department clinical phrases.

The industry leader in clinical, business and IT solutions for emergency medicine, T-System content has been used in more than 1,700 EDs, or 40 percent of U.S. hospitals, during the past 15 years.

It has been tested and honed across more than 250 million ED visits and remains the most in-depth, industry validated content to support premier emergency care. T-System content encompasses six primary elements: design and presentation; clinical terminology; clinical decision support rules; order sets; the clinical phrase builder; and encoding support for ICD and CPT codes.

“We are pleased to offer T-System’s clinical terminology to our rural and critical access hospital clients because it is the most comprehensive and refined emergency medicine terminology available,” said Ramsey Evans, Prognosis HIS president and chief executive officer.

“This knowledge will strengthen our solution because it supports the ED care process with emergency medicine content, and using market leading content — rather than building it from the ground up — will help us expand capabilities faster to better meet the needs of our target market.”

Under the licensing contract, T-System will provide updates, both routine and as-needed, to its clinical terminology to ensure continued regulatory compliance and the use of industry best practices involving medical safety and provider efficiency.

“We’re thrilled to expand T-System’s market presence by incorporating our clinical terminology into Prognosis EHR solutions,” said Sunny Sanyal, T-System chief executive officer.

“This agreement promotes our mission to integrate T-System everywhere emergency medicine is practiced, and it upholds the Prognosis HIS mission to help providers improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care.”

About Prognosis Health Information Systems 

Prognosis Health Information Systems (PHIS), Houston, is committed to utilizing advanced, 21st-Century technologies to help healthcare providers significantly improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care while also achieving better financial results.
PHIS enables rural and community hospitals to utilize pure browser-based electronic health record (EHR) and financial systems designed to be fully operational in less than six months at a predictable, affordable cost. For more information, visit www.prognosisHIS.com. Follow us on Twitter (@PrognosisHIS).

About T-System

T-System, Inc. sets the industry standard for clinical, business and IT solutions for emergency medicine, with approximately 40 percent of the nation’s emergency departments using T-System solutions. To meet the individual needs of hospitals, T-System offers both paper and electronic systems.

These tools help clinicians provide better patient care, while improving efficiency and the bottom line. Today, more than 1,700 emergency departments rely on T-System’s gold-standard content and workflow solutions. For more information, visitwww.tsystem.com. Follow us on Twitter (@TSystem), or become a T-System fan on Facebook.

Contact Information

Corinne Tso
Director of Marketing for T-System
T-System, Inc.
469-791-5540
Email Contact
Angela Jenkins
Amendola Communications
for T-System, Inc.
720-859-6930

At CASRO, uSamp Announces TheWhiteboard, an Invite-Only B2B Panel – Effective Alternative for Business-to-Business Sampling Needs

by OpenView

uSamp (www.uSamp.com), a leader in providing targeted audiences for global consumer insights and innovative SaaS technologies for audience engagement and business intelligence, today announced “TheWhiteboard” (http://www.thewhiteboard.com/), its invite-only, exclusive panel aimed at the business-to-business sector.

The company made the announcement on the eve of the CASRO Online Research Conference, here March 1-2.

“We are excited that uSamp is creating a closed-recruitment panel partnering with top loyalty reward programs. We look forward to having more competition and choice in the B2B sample marketplace.”

TheWhiteboard is an online panel that engages business decision makers in market research studies. Targeting hard-to-reach business audiences, TheWhiteboard enlists panelists in insightful online business surveys for market research companies and the like.

“There is an ever-increasing demand for premium, high-quality B2B respondents,” said Jon Penn, President, Media, Entertainment & Internet, Penn Schoen Berland.

“We are excited that uSamp is creating a closed-recruitment panel partnering with top loyalty reward programs. We look forward to having more competition and choice in the B2B sample marketplace.”

TheWhiteboard employs a variety of recruitment tactics that promote exclusivity through partnerships with loyalty reward programs in the hotel, airline and travel industry. The panel leverages additional business sources outside of the loyalty space, to generate the broadest levels of representation and balance.

TheWhiteboard delivers breadth and depth, capturing unique data for rich profiling. The panel’s scope extends from financial service professionals to IT directors, from C-level executives to human resources specialists and small business owners. TheWhiteboard’s registration variables adhere to an established business taxonomy and certification structure, which affords clients with extensive targeting options.

The panel site incorporates uSamp’s proprietary reward engine, a proprietary platform, which offers more than 200 electronically fulfilled rewards such as airline miles, virtual Visa cards and many other attractive options for business professionals.

“After much anticipation, uSamp is pleased to offer our clients a quality business solution,” said Gregg Lavin, President and Co-Founder, uSamp. “We pride ourselves in providing high-quality respondents, and look forward to expanding this program.”

About uSamp

uSamp (uSamp.com), the Answer Network, is a premier provider of technology and survey respondents used to obtain consumer and business insights. uSamp’s solutions and SaaS platform transform the way companies gain intelligence to make better, faster decisions about their products and services by tapping into uSamp’s 6.5 million global panel of survey respondents.

Through uSamp’s proprietary technologies for self-serve survey authoring, self-survey sampling, and private-label panel management, companies have on-demand access to millions of profiled survey respondents. uSamp is based in Los Angeles, with five offices throughout the United States, Europe and India.

The company has more than 185 team members worldwide, led by serial entrepreneurs Matt Dusig and Gregg Lavin. uSamp ranked #11 in the 2011 Forbes America’s Most Promising Company List, was named one of the fastest growing private companies in Los Angeles by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and one of the best places to work in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Contacts

Edge Communications, Inc.
Ken Greenberg, 818-990-5001
[email protected]

Zmags Transforms the Tablet, Smartphone and Web Consumer Experience

by OpenView

News Facts:

  • Zmags, the leading provider of rich media mobile and social merchandising, today introduced a groundbreaking consumer shopping user interface (UI) dubbed “Zmags Convergence.“
  • This new, visual environment completely redefines and streamlines a consumer’s shopping experience on tablets, smartphones, the Web, and in Facebook.
  • Using Zmags Convergence, retailers, brands, multi-level marketers and agencies can create a new class of engaging and immersive shopping experiences that propel merchandising and commerce from today’s search-and-purchase model to a more profitable strategy of discovery and inspiration.
  • Built to harness the iPad’s user interface and browsing appeal – while also highly engaging via Facebook, smartphones and PC-based browsers – Zmags Convergence helps retailers and brands quickly appeal to the growing numbers of tablet, mobile and social shoppers, as defined in a recent report about the behaviors of connected consumers.
  • Zmags Convergence lets retailers present a consistent brand experience for retailers across all channels while adapting to and taking advantage of specific strengths of each unique channel and device. It is completely customizable and flexible to the retailers’ specifications.
  • Retailers including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Kenneth Cole, Lenovo, Celebrating Home and Pearson have been actively providing input and validating Zmags Convergence.
  • Features of Zmags Convergence include:
    • Creation of content rich pages with dynamic imagery that pops, can be intuitively explored, shared socially and, with a quick tap or click, moved into a shopping cart, all without requiring page reloads or refreshes.
    • A moveable and collapsible action bar that follows shoppers as they browse so they never have to leave the page to shop, purchase, or share.
    • Easy inspiration with “buy-the-collection” capabilities so that shoppers can view all the items in any given scene and, with one touch, discover and purchase items individually or collectively.
    • Enhanced audio capabilities that let retailers add music and voice to the experience.
  • Zmags Convergence will be available in spring 2012, and will be the customer user interface offered with both Zmags Professional and Zmags CommercePro.
  • To view a demo please visit: http://www.zmags.com/blog/zmags-convergence.

Supporting Quotes:

“Consumers’ appetite for tablet, smartphone and social shopping is escalating. Retailers must be ready to implement new kinds of commerce strategies in 2012 or miss the boat,” said Van Baker, Research VP, Gartner, Inc.

“It will be important to design natural shopping experiences that mirror the way consumers like to browse and shop rather than forcing them down non-intuitive paths. New forms of engaging commerce experiences that harness the unique user interfaces of each channel while presenting a consistent brand image will be key to maximizing revenue potential.”

“We know that social and mobile commerce are converging. That’s no longer a prediction; it’s a fact, and retailers have to be ready to sell to the highest value consumers, those who are connected on many devices, and through many different channels,” said W. Sean Ford, COO and CMO of Zmags.

“The fact that these channels are converging into one core ecommerce ecosystem allows retailers to maximize the revenue potential of every touch point, engaging with and delighting consumers where they are, and how they want to shop. This is a huge opportunity.”

About Zmags

Zmags helps thousands of the world’s most progressive global retailers and brands design brilliant and consistent marketing and merchandising campaigns across social, mobile, tablet, and e-commerce platforms, driving product discovery and inspiring purchases. Using the Zmags on-demand rich media merchandising platform, leading brands have measurably and dramatically increased customer engagement, conversion rates, order size and brand loyalty without the burden of IT constraints.

Zmags is among the fastest growing technology companies in North America, ranking #70 on the Deloitte 2011 Technology Fast 500.  Zmags is headquartered in Boston, MA. with European offices in London and Copenhagen. For more information about Zmags, please visit www.zmags.com.

CONTACT:

Samantha McGarry,

+1-781-966-4107,

[email protected]

Exinda takes in $9M in new fund raise

by OpenView

The Boston-based provider of wide area network (WAN) optimization tools made its first sale on Feb. 7, 2012.

The filing comes five years after Exinda received a $6 million, Series A round of funding from OpenView Venture Partners to expand into the United States.

The fundraise also comes less than a year after the Exinda appointed Robert Scott as chairman of its board of directors.

Exinda’s software and hardware products enable technology administrators to see what applications are being used, who is using the application and what strain, if any, applications are causing over the wide-area network.

Founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2003 as Exinda Networks, the company expanded into Boston in January 2007 under the direction of the then CEO Con Nikolouzakis.  The company is now led by Michael Sharma.

That same year, Exinda was awarded the $1.1 million contract by the Malaysian government to deploy wide area network optimization appliances at more than 700 government sites in Malaysia.