Auburn will be switching from Blackboard to a new system named Canvas in 2012 

It is hard to take a class at Auburn and not have to use Blackboard to look at grades or turn in assignments. Professors depend on it, and students check it often.

Soon though, Blackboard will not be a common word heard on campus.

Auburn has begun the process to replace Blackboard for a new learning management system, Instructure Canvas, and the University Senate recently approved the recommended replacement.

Because Auburn’s license with Blackboard Vista ends in 2013, the University decided it will not renew its contract with Blackboard.

Instead, a group was created to search for a replacement. The Learning Management System Working Group began searching in December and has done its homework to find the best system for the University.

After narrowing the search down to five learning management systems, LMSWG found the one it thought was best and recommended to switch to Canvas at the recent Senate meeting.

“We need to replace the current managing system,” said Kathy McClelland, chairwoman of LMSWG.

McClelland said the change needed to be made because Blackboard was no longer supporting Vista, which is the operating system the University runs on.

The recommendation was approved, and McClelland said everyone involved in the evaluation process supported the transition to Canvas.

“Overwhelmingly, the faculty liked Canvas,” McClelland said. “It’s a product I think everyone will come to love.”

McClelland said Canvas is a learning management system that was created as a class project by two students who were fed up with Blackboard.

Students will quickly notice that this learning management system is geared toward their needs, with many of its key features including Facebook notifications and video chat.

“It was developed with the students’ perspective,” McClelland said.

McClelland said the transition should startimmediately.

This means professors and administrators will start using it as soon as fall semester, and McClelland said that by fall 2012 everyone on campus should be using Canvas.

The main concern is how easy the transition will be.

It may be hard for students to understand the change in systems, because many believe the current system is fairly proficient. LMSWG representatives assured the Senate the system would be worth the time and effort.

“I just don’t like change,” said Noel Eason, senior in English education. “Blackboard is not rocket science.”

Eason said she loves Blackboard, but she wouldn’t mind changing systems as long as the new system wouldn’t be too hard to learn because Blackboard is a system she heavily depends on for her classes.

“Blackboard is something I use daily,” said Takaila Spence, senior in pre-pharmacy. “It is easy to navigate, especially the discussion boards.”

For students like Eason and Spence who have no complaints with Blackboard, LMSWG wants to make sure any new system Auburn decides to start using is easier than what is already in place.

LMSWG knows this is one of the biggest concerns for everyone and chose to recommend Canvas on because of its easy-to-understand format.

“I have found the conversion was pretty seamless,” said Jane Kuehne, LMSWG faculty member. “Canvas is a nice change, and it has a lot to offer.”

This recommendation is one of the first steps in the process of adopting a new system, but Auburn is making sure every step has plenty of feedback from faculty and students to make sure the best choice is made.

Until the transition to Canvas begins, students and faculty can learn more about it through information on its website and also by talking to any of the LMSWG members who have worked to find the best system fit for Auburn.

Intronis realizes the ever-present concern regarding natural disasters, especially with the devastation that has occurred in the past couple of months. Unexpected natural disasters are something we all need to be prepared for because recovering quickly is not only important, it’s imperative.

We at Intronis appreciate how difficult and important disaster recovery is for our partners’ businesses. In the event of a natural disaster occurring in June or July 2011, Intronis will provide a secure hard drive with all of the customers’ files at no charge. Intronis CEO, Kent Plunkett, stated, “Intronis realizes how imperative it is to recover critical business data reliably and as soon as possible. Our partners who are in a crisis need every assistance to get their clients’ businesses up and running quickly. Rest assured, here at Intronis, we are always here for our partners’ not only during disasters but every day.”

For partners who are interested in participating, please contact your account manager or email us at: accountmanager(at)intronis(dot)com.

Interested in Being a Partner? Check out our Free Trial !

About Intronis
Intronis is a cloud provider of backup and disaster recovery services for the IT channel. Intronis utilizes 256-bit AES security and multiple data centers located on opposite coasts to ensure data protection and availability. Intronis offers IT service providers a secure data solution combined with a robust partner program, the efficiencies of full web-based account management, and an industry leading technical support team. http://www.intronis.com.

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A new study by Forrester Consulting finds 48 percent of interactive marketing executives rank understanding customers’ cross-channel interactions as one of the top challenges facing marketing today.

“As a result, marketers are unable to deliver optimized, relevant, and customized digital experiences for customers.”

The June 2011 study commissioned by Forrester Consulting on behalf of ExactTarget entitled “The New Campaign Management Mandate”, finds the lack of cross-channel insights result in brands interacting through disconnected channels that fail to deliver seamless brand experiences and the real-time, relevant dialog consumers expect.

“Interactive marketers are adept at planning and executing campaigns across each individual interactive channel, but continue to grapple with creating a unified view of customer interactions across channels,” states the study. “As a result, marketers are unable to deliver optimized, relevant, and customized digital experiences for customers.”

Based on a survey of nearly 160 marketers, the study identifies the key challenges marketers face to meet the new reality of cross-channel engagement and includes persona-based recommendations to help marketers evolve their interactive campaign management capabilities.

Key recommendations include:

• Enable real-time management – Employ technology to enable real-time multichannel messaging, data analysis and monitoring.
• Enhance relevance and personalization – Use data to create and deliver unique brand experiences with the help of marketing technologies such as Web analytics, customer data hubs and campaign management suites.
• Improve data and process integration – Manage and understand data in real-time from all channels to develop a single view of the customer and their cross-channel interactions.

“Marketers have long relied on multiple channels to drive engagement, but today marketing requires a new approach – one built on a single view of the customer that puts real-time interaction over static channel-focused campaigns,” said Tim Kopp, chief marketing officer, ExactTarget. “We believe the ExactTarget Interactive Marketing Hub provides the solution organizations need to plan, manage and engage in real-time across all online channels.”

Unveiled in September 2010, the Interactive Marketing Hub is a cross-channel interactive marketing platform that enables marketers to engage in real-time marketing, consolidate all data to create a common view of the consumer and deliver targeted, permission-based interactions across email, mobile, social media and the Web. Currently in beta with more than 500 of the world’s leading brands, the Interactive Marketing Hub is an online marketing suite that provides a platform for marketers and technology providers to connect disparate data sources to power more relevant real-time cross-channel marketing. The Interactive Marketing Hub and suite of applications for content creation, real-time segmentation, reporting and automation will be generally available later this year.

To download “The New Campaign Management Mandate” study, visit www.ExactTarget.com/Mandate.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and interactive marketing solutions. The company’s Interactive Marketing Hub ^TM technology provides organizations a single solution to connect with customers via email, integrated text messaging, landing pages and social media. Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget powers permission-based multichannel communications for thousands of organizations around the world including Expedia.com, Best Buy, Aurora Fashions, Papa John’s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co., Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.

Microsoft Corp. today announced at the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Institute 2011 that 14 health plans, including Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, have implemented or are planning to deploy Microsoft Dynamics CRM based on the Health Plan Sales Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The strategic sales and service-enabled customer relationship management (CRM) platform will enable these health plans to gain share in the current individual and small-group market today, while preparing to take advantage of the short window of growth created by health insurance exchanges.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)

“With the changing health insurance environment comes the need for greater integration. This includes sales automation, online enrollment, e-billing and data collection on your customers and potential customers so that you are best able to work quickly and efficiently to satisfy their needs,” said Kent Davidson, vice president of sales, Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a vital component to Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s overall strategy to deliver health insurance solutions to our current and future customers.”

The Health Plan Sales Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is pre-integrated with an ecosystem of health plan independent software vendor (ISV) solutions. Since the solution was first launched last June at AHIP Institute 2010, partner adoption has increased by 225 percent. To date, 13 system integrators and ISVs are supporting the framework, including Adapx, Aspect, Avanade, CIBER Inc., Colibrium Partners LLC, Connecture Inc., CosmoCom, Customer Effective, ExactTarget, PowerObjects, Sonoma Partners and VUE Software.

“Hypercompetitive market pressures are driving health plans to seek simple solutions to decrease costs and points of failure in the sales process and improve member retention by executing a companywide CRM strategy,” said Dennis Schmuland, worldwide managing director, Health Insurance Industry, Microsoft. “By implementing the Health Plan Sales Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, our customers gain a real-time, 360-degree view of their customer sales interactions today while laying tomorrow’s foundation for a companywide CRM strategy that spans from customer acquisition to service, to care and wellness management, to retention and renewal.”

The Health Plan Sales Solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an interoperable framework that allows for seamless integration with existing systems and applications. Spanning acquisition, retention, health and care management, the Microsoft Dynamics platform is also being used by health plans in the areas of grievances and appeals, application, provider credentialing, legal matter management, provider contract, and contact management.

More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/healthplansales.

About Microsoft in Health

Microsoft is committed to improving health around the world through software innovation. Over the past 13 years, Microsoft has steadily increased its investments in health with a focus on addressing the challenges of health providers, health and social services organizations, payers, consumers, and life sciences companies worldwide. Microsoft closely collaborates with a broad ecosystem of partners and delivers its own powerful health solutions, such as Amalga, HealthVault, and a portfolio of identity and access management technologies acquired from Sentillion Inc. in 2010. Together, Microsoft and its industry partners are working to deliver health solutions for the way people aspire to work and live.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Cloud-based social collaboration platform Central Desktop (news, site) has recently added new features to its collaborative suite. New features include presence detection and polling, which will enhance the way collaborators engage with each other online.

Social Engagement for Enterprises

Central Desktop’s basic feature set involves managing projects from a central location. With data located in the cloud, businesses would need not worry about infrastructure costs, security and maintenance. The service lets colleagues from different teams collaborate and share content, as well as connect with clients. Isaac Garcia, Central Desktop CEO and founder says the new features will help “provide users with functionality they need to work smarter and faster.”

The features in the latest version will improve collaboration, with enhanced presence indicators and a new user status.

• Polling adds a new dimension to discussions. Rather than simply relying on qualitative input, users can now quantify the opinions in discussion threads. These come with email notifications and the ability to take polls manually.
• Who’s Online lets users see who from the team are currently available, and this will also include quick links to each member’s public profile.
• My Collaborators involves a list of select and frequently contacted persons from within the team. This is conveniently displayed right on the dashboard for easy access.
• Workspace Observers is a feature that lets users see other members of the team who are currently viewing, but are not participating in an active capacity. Central Desktop says this permission level is ideal for situations in which members of the team will be watching, but who don’t necessarily need to contribute.

Improving Collaboration Among Teams and Clients

Central Desktop is holding a webinar tomorrow which will highlight the latest features and how these play along with existing features. Central Desktop targets businesses of all sizes, although Garcia says their aim is to be a SharePoint alternative that’s “available to the masses.” Central Desktop also tailor-fits its services to specific niches and markets, such as SocialBridge, which provides a collaborative system for marketing companies.

In 1998, I received a request from the CEO of Putnam Investments to lead an Internet strategy project. Amazon.com had gone public in 1997, and there was a concern within most companies that the Internet would disintermediate their distribution channels similar to what was happening in the book retail industry.

From a financial services perspective, E-Trade appeared to be outflanking the industry by offering trading over the Internet, and many of the senior investors at Putnam thought that we should be doing the same thing (Putnam historically sold its investment products through financial advisors).

The broader issue at the time was how Putnam could capitalize on the Internet.

As a former McKinsey & Company consultant, I was well trained on fact-based analysis, so I led a team to sort out what was going on with the Internet and how it could be used strategically. We did deep analysis on each of the major Internet companies and created and evaluated several scenarios for how Putnam could incorporate the Internet into its strategies.

Our conclusions were that the Internet was a powerful new interactive communications channel, but the fundamental economics of the Internet were being dramatically outpaced by the valuations that were being paid for the “dotcom” companies. We even did some analysis that showed what the future would need to look like in order to support those valuations.

In essence, most companies were chasing “eyeballs,” but the eyeballs weren’t paying the bills.

Our strategy work led some Putnam initiatives to better use the Internet to automate workflow and communicate with Putnam’s financial advisors and end-customers. But dramatic strategy changes like copying E-Trade quickly died on the vine: they made no sense for Putnam.

A few months later, in early 1999, the head of Equity Investments at Putnam asked me to speak to the Growth Investment team at their annual offsite. I thought that this would be a pretty interesting conversation given my strong point of view.

The basic points I made at the meeting were:

– Some of the economic models of the “dotcom” companies were attractive, but many were not economically viable.
– The valuations for the companies could not be supported by the fundamental economics and there were no reasonable projections that we could come up with that would support the valuations.
– The potential for increased valuations would probably rest on the “greater fool” theory of investing (in essence, the price would go up if there was a fool that would purchase the stock at a greater price).

The growth investors at Putnam clearly did not agree with me. We had a raging debate for an hour that I had great fun with, as I knew all the facts and had a really strong conviction that I was right. They had similar facts and were equally convinced that the world was different — that the Internet revolution was fundamentally going to change things. It was one of the best raging debates I have ever had, and it was 25 really smart and successful investors versus me.

For the next year, I pretty much looked wrong. The valuations continued to go up, the growth investors continued to go long beta (some had returns of over 100% for the next year), and I started to wonder if I was missing something. I actually ended up leaving Putnam in early 2000, right around the time of the market peak, to find out.

Of course, everything ended badly, with the peak valuations taking place in early 2000 and then the bubble deflating over the next couple of years.

The growth investment group at Putnam (and everywhere else) lost their investors a lot of money. The Putnam team is no longer there, the assets under management of Putnam have fallen dramatically, and their reputation in the market suffered for many years.

E-Trade had a stock adjusted valuation of $577 in April 1999 and is now trading in the low double digits. Amazon.com had a stock adjusted valuation of $105 in April 1999 and, post crash, did not get back to that level for over 10 years.

Is it different this time?

In the private equity markets, there are many signs that a new bubble is developing. One of the biggest signs is that more and more market participants think things are different this time around.

And things are different this time. There are more people using the Internet, more transactions online, and more sophisticated products and teams that continue to innovate at an increasing pace. Things are very clearly different, but are they different enough to support the increasing valuations?

My sense is that the more people that think so and believe the increased valuations are fair, the more the bubble will grow. There simply won’t be anyone left throwing buckets of cold water on the over-exuberant investors.

My thoughts this time are similar to last time, although it is still too early to tell. The data is not easily available since the valuation bubble seems to be forming in more private companies than public ones. That said, I suspect the following points could turn out to be true (note the similarity to last time):

– Some of the economic models of the Web 2.0 companies are attractive (particularly Facebook, Zynga and Groupon from what I understand), but many are not economically viable as they have limited or no sources of revenue.
– The valuations for the companies are not supportable by the fundamental economics and there may not be reasonable projections that would support the valuations.
– The potential for increased valuations could rest on the “greater fool” theory of investing.

If valuations continue to grow at a greater pace than the underlying economic fundamentals, it will clearly lead to a bubble. It could change, but my sense is that we are moving in this direction and that the bubble will grow and then pop. The last bubble kept growing for a year after my meeting with the Putnam growth investors, and this one could go on for a year or longer as well.

The question is, where will you be when the bubble pops?

EDITOR’S NOTE: We reached out to Putnam Investments for this piece, and this is what they had to say: “Given the references are well over a decade old, we are not in a position to corroborate accuracy, validity or context.”

Scott Maxwell founded OpenView Venture Partners in 2006 and has worked in venture capital for over 11 years. For more insight from Scott, you can visit his blog and follow him on Twitter @scottsnews. Opinions expressed here are entirely his own.

When natural disasters occur, such as the unfortunate tornado in Joplin, Missouri, it is such a relief to have organizations who assist with disaster response and recovery. Hands that Give is one organization that has all hands on deck when individuals and businesses need help due to natural and personal traumatic incidents, which cause dire situations for those involved.

Intronis is proud to be a sponsor for such a worthy cause, especially after Missouri went through such a difficult time this past May. Intronis believes that although disasters are unfortunate, it is important to be prepared for them, have a plan set to recover, and have organizations such as Hands that Give willing and ready to help in those times of need.

As Arlin Sorensen, the CEO of HTG Peer Groups states, “HTG is happy to have this incredible way to help those in need, especially when such hardship has occurred. We are fully prepared to help wherever needed and are grateful to Intronis for its generous donation. We will continue to seek further assistance from people who want to be a part of our Hands that Give mission: that no HTG member will ever have to face business or life disruptions alone.”

With our donation to this cause, our team at Intronis gives a great big “high five” and hopes that our joint involvement will contribute even more in future times of disaster recovery.

About Intronis
Intronis is a cloud provider of backup and disaster recovery services for the IT channel. Intronis utilizes 256-bit AES security and multiple data centers located on opposite coasts to ensure data protection and availability. Intronis offers IT service providers a secure data solution combined with a robust partner program, the efficiencies of full web-based account management, and an industry leading technical support team. http://www.intronis.com.

About Hands That Give
Hands That Give is the technology industry’s first emergency response operation, uniting HTG Peer Group (HTG) members during times of personal crises or natural disaster. HTG member-led business continuity teams, aided by the IT industry’s leading vendors, mobilize immediately following a catastrophe to provide disaster-response support to those affected by devastating hardships and business interruptions. Funded through member and corporate contributions and managed by an oversight committee, Hands That Give provides a rich and meaningful opportunity to help restore hope and dignity following times of crisis. To learn more, visit http://www.handsthatgive.net.

About HTG Peer Groups
Established in 2000 by Arlin Sorensen as a business and personal development community, today HTG Peer Groups is an international organization of leading IT solution providers. HTG has more than 250 member companies throughout North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia/New Zealand. Each peer group consists of 10-12 IT company executives who work together and share resources and information to formulate and meet business goals such as strategic planning, process improvement and tools, and life-work excellence. HTG offers CEO Forums, vendor peer groups and other educational events, quarterly meetings, and an annual summit that attracts hundreds of attendees, vendor exhibitors and strategic partners. Visit http://www.htgpeergroups.com or call 712-744-3619 for more information.

With hurricane season upon us, it is increasingly important for businesses to back up their data assets to maintain continuity that can weather any storm. According to a recent survey by Acronis¹, approximately one-third of U.S. businesses reported having no backup and disaster recovery strategy in place. Acronis, a leading provider of easy-to-use disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, has issued five tips to help businesses ensure all their critical data is fully protected and can be recovered quickly in the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster.

1. Opt into disk imaging. To ensure that companies can be up and running quickly, make images of computers and servers so full copies of data and applications are safely tucked away. You can either store on different machines, in different locations or reach for a cloud solution. In the event that something happens, the images can be loaded onto new hardware in hours rather than days.

2. Jump to the cloud for business continuity. Onsite backups are great for day-to-day recovery, but if they are destroyed too, you need to consider off-site data storage solution. Another alternative is to contract with a cloud service provider to not only back up to the cloud, but also recover onto virtual machines.

3. Recover to dissimilar hardware. Hardware-agnostic software can recover from the backup image of the failed system onto any available hardware and replace the old machine’s hardware drivers with the new ones, a process that takes only about 15 minutes. Virtualization users can opt to recover mission-critical machines even more quickly by recovering either a physical or virtual machine disk image to a standby virtual machine. It can then be launched immediately with a mouse click.

4. Include both your physical and virtual environments. Use a backup and recovery solution that takes care of backups and recoveries of all your machines. For ease of management consider a solution that protects all the platforms you’re using. Then, if disaster strikes, your organization can much more easily coordinate a recovery that will minimize or eliminate the potential for lost productivity.

5. Make a plan and follow it. Make sure if disaster does strike, you know how to get your data back quickly. Look for data protection and disaster recovery solutions that provide a step by step guide to recover your systems and files. It is rare that the person who made the backup is the same person on hand to recover when disaster does strike!

“Any data loss, through natural disaster or simple human mistake can spell success or failure for businesses,” said Izzy Azeri, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Americas. “Our tips are a trusted set of best practices that can help businesses, small and large, develop comprehensive backup and recovery plans that minimize the financial and productivity impacts that occur after unplanned disruptions.”

Acronis provides backup and recovery software that helps small and large businesses ensure not only the preservation of digital assets, but also the rapid recovery of those assets after a storm has passed. For more information, go to www.acronis.com.

Notes to Editors:
¹Acronis Disaster Recovery Index: www.acronisinfo.com

About Acronis
Acronis is a leading provider of easy-to-use disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments. Its patented disk imaging technology enables corporations, SMBs and consumers to protect their digital assets. With Acronis’ disaster recovery, deployment and migration software, users protect their digital information, maintain business continuity and reduce downtime. Acronis software is sold in more than 90 countries and available in up to 14 languages. For additional information, please visit www.acronis.com. Follow Acronis on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acronis.