The University of Maryland will adopt Instructure® Canvas® as its new enterprise learning management system (ELMS), an online learning platform that facilitates teaching, learning, and collaboration among faculty and students.

A pilot will begin in fall 2012, and Canvas will be fully deployed by January 2013.

A faculty-led procurement committee recommended Canvas, and Maryland’s Division of Information Technology is working with the university community and Instructure to orchestrate the transition to the new platform.

“As Maryland’s academic quality continues its upward trajectory, the central IT organization will do its part to build upon Maryland’s academic strengths. The selection of a new, next-generation ELMS increases the university’s capacity to educate students for work and life in the 21st century,” said Brian D. Voss, Maryland’s Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer.

“When ELMS powered by Canvas is launched in 2012, faculty and students will encounter a university-wide learning environment that uses modern Web technologies; is easy to use, intuitive, and accessible; contains features for teaching, learning, collaborating, and evaluating academic performance; and integrates multimedia, e-portfolios, social media tools, and Web conferencing,” said Chris Higgins, the Division of IT Director of Learning Technologies and Environments.

University officials issued a Request for Information in 2010 for enterprise learning management systems, and a faculty-led committee began exploring systems on the market. In an extensive evaluation process that spanned the 2010-2011 academic year and included representation from every college, the Graduate Student Government, and the Student Government Association, faculty and students pilot tested five systems.

Armed with a better understanding of today’s ELMS market and faculty and student system requirements, the university joined a procurement process under the Maryland Educational Enterprise Cooperative (MEEC) with other educational institutions also seeking to acquire learning management systems. Once the state-wide MEEC contract was complete and the university’s procurement process progressed, a small faculty committee with assistance from technical and support staff conducted a thorough examination of the available tools, and the committee recommended that Canvas by Instructure become the University of Maryland’s next-generation ELMS.

“The committee considered Canvas to be a cutting-edge platform that integrates all existing e-learning tools into a modern, yet interactive, virtual learning environment,” said Dr. Marcio A. Oliveira, Assistant Chair of the Department of Kinesiology in Maryland’s School of Public Health and member of the faculty procurement team.

“We built Canvas to be intuitive to faculty and students, so they can focus on learning instead of configuring technology,” said Brian Whitmer, co-founder and Vice President of Product Management at Instructure.

About Instructure Inc.

Instructure is a technology company committed to improving education. We provide instructors and students with modern tools and resources to empower the learning experience. Founded by graduate students in collaboration with educational institutions, Instructure provides Canvas – the open, easy-to-use, cloud-native learning platform. For more information about Instructure, visit www.instructure.com.

About the University of Maryland

The University of Maryland is the state’s flagship university and one of the nation’s preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship, and innovation, Maryland is ranked No. 18 among public universities by U.S. News & World Report, has 32 academic programs in the U.S News Top 10 and 73 in the Top 25. The Institute of Higher Education (Jiao Tong University, Shanghai), which ranks the world’s top universities based on research, puts Maryland at No. 36 in the world and No. 12 among U.S. public universities. The university has produced six Nobel laureates, seven Pulitzer Prize winners, more than 40 members of the national academies, and scores of Fulbright scholars. The university is recognized for its diversity, with underrepresented students comprising one-third of the student population. For more information about the University of Maryland, visit www.umd.edu.

Media Contacts: 

Phyllis Dickerson Johnson, Director of Communications and Marketing, Division of Information Technology, University of Maryland, 301.405.4491, [email protected]

Devin Knighton,Director of Public Relations, Instructure Canvas, 801.722.8187, [email protected]

Acronis, a leading provider of disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, today announced that it has been awarded two honors by the International Quality and Productivity Center‘s (IQPC) Call Center Excellence Awards.

Acronis Chief Information Officer & Chief Customer Officer, Ed Benackhas been named 2012 Call Center Leader of the Year and Acronis Customer Central was named runner up in Best in Class Small Call Center.

The IQPC recognizes the most innovative call center solutions and individuals, honoring superior thinking, creativity and execution across the full gamut of call center functions. The IQPC is deemed as one of the most prestigious organizations in the contact center industry, providing insight and solutions into industry challenges in the form of conferences, tradeshows, workshops, seminars, webinars and other resources.

Ed Benack has led the customer support organization at Acronis for over 4 years. Holding two titles, Chief Customer Officer & Chief Information Officer, Benack has driven an “err on the side of the customer” culture not only throughout the customer support organization, but Acronis as a whole.

“Everything we develop and deliver is done with the objective of providing a better service to our customers, and a better service than our competitors. We see great customer support as a key differentiator and it remains at the core of our values. I am honored that our team’s efforts to develop and drive industry best practices, were recognized as part of the Call Center Excellence Awards,” said Benack. “I have been privileged to work with a talented support team, and we look forward to providing market-leading support to our customers for individuals and organizations of all sizes in the years to come.”

IQPC’s panel evaluated Call Center Excellence Award nominees on the call center’s expertise in delivering a superior customer experience. Call Center Leader of the Year nominees are judged on topics such as leadership qualities, the ability to leverage trends, and consistency in delivering the highest customer support in a multichannel environment. Best in Class Call Center nominees were judged on topics such as overall strategy, call center culture and innovativeness.

About Acronis

Acronis is a leading provider of next generation data protection and disaster recovery solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments. With Acronis’ backup, disaster recovery, deployment and migration software, users can better protect and maintain availability of critical servers and data to achieve recovery point (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO) while reducing total cost of ownership. With over a decade of investment in research and development, 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

Acronis^® is a registered trademark of Acronis International GmbH. in the United States and/or other countries

Contact Information

Press Inquiries
U.S.
Meredith L. Eaton
March Communications
Tel: +1 617-960-9877
Email: [email protected]
www.marchpr.com

C.TRAC, a 40-year old marketing solutions provider, announces today that they have achieved ExactTarget’s Platinum Reseller Certification.

Platinum is the highest possible tier in ExactTarget’s partner network, and C.TRAC is now one of 14 reseller partners to obtain this level status across the globe.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120711/CL37916LOGO )

ExactTarget certifications categorize partners as Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum depending on their number of clients, sales revenue and demonstrated expertise with the ExactTarget platform. Selection is also based upon the growth of clients serviced.

“C.TRAC joins an elite group of our top marketing service provider partners around the world who have earned Platinum status by demonstrating excellence in helping marketers achieve greater return on their ExactTarget investment across email, mobile, social media and the Web,” said Patrick McCue, ExactTarget’s Vice President of Channels.

ExactTarget’s marketing service provider partner network consists of more than 500 agencies worldwide.

With dozens of interactive engagements, C.TRAC is continuing to grow by helping clients implement and optimize ExactTarget solutions. In addition, the practice includes data entry, cleansing, and reporting services that provide clients actionable results and increased revenue.

“This Platinum certification has been a goal since we began in the interactive space three years ago.  We have been able to accomplish it quickly by leveraging the expertise of our client-centric business and ExactTarget’s best-in-class technology and support.  We are honored and excited to be joining this elite group of partners,” says C.TRAC’s President, Susan Williamson.

About ExactTarget
– 

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of email marketing and cross-channel interactive marketing software-as-a-service solutions that empower organizations of all sizes to communicate with their customers through email, mobile, social media and websites. ExactTarget’s powerful suite of integrated applications enable marketers to plan, automate, deliver and optimize data-driven interactive marketing and real-time communications to drive customer engagement, increase sales and improve return on marketing investment. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana with offices across North America and in Europe, South America and Australia, ExactTarget trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ET.” For more information, visit www.ExactTarget.com.

About C.TRAC – 

C.TRAC specializes in interactive marketing, database management, and related supporting services. We empower our client marketing organizations to Compile, Communicate, Comprehend using technology and best practices.  For more information visit www.ctrac.com or find us on Twitter @CTRAC.

Media Contact:

Lauren Richards
440.268.2526
[email protected]

AtTask, an industry leader in Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) project management solutions and of Collaborative Work Management, has been named to the “Leaders” quadrant in the Gartner Inc., 2012 Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Based Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Services.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120710/LA37295LOGO)

AtTask provides best in class on-demand PPM tools that solve project management problems the right way by making work about people and giving executives visibility they can trust. AtTask’s focus on social work-collaboration results in dramatically increased adoption rates and encourages team member engagement.

“Real-time cross communication is critical in the work that we do. We have seen increased engagement with users and they stay logged into the product longer,” states Chuck Huntley, a Project Manager at Appalachian Regional Healthcare Systems. “AtTask allows our directors to organize work, and ensure we we’re focusing on the right things. As a result, more people quickly adopted AtTask, which helped us accomplish the goals of our company.”

Gartner states that “Leaders share many attributes with technology providers rated as Visionaries and Challengers, but they are also differentiated by comparatively higher ratings in many areas, not just a few, with overwhelming customer references supporting their claims submitted as evidence. Consistency between a provider’s stated strategy and product direction, and its execution (that is, integrity) is important, along with demonstrated vision, enabling the provider to address emerging and often vaguely defined market requirements.”

“Being positioned within the ‘Leaders’ quadrant by Gartner confirms the work we have been doing within the PPM and IT space to establish ourselves as market leaders and project management innovators,” said Eric Morgan, CEO of AtTask. “We have gained input from a tremendous group of global clients while rapidly incorporating social and collaborative capabilities into our offering, enabling us to provide a solution better suited to help organizations successfully understand and manage their work. It’s an honor to be recognized by Gartner as a leader in the space.”

Gartner evaluates vendors on 15 weighted criteria based on their relative strengths in the market, including: core goods and services; product capabilities, quality, feature sets and skills; product innovation, customer experience, product execution, marketing responsiveness, organizations business model, and financial stability.

To download the report, visit: http://www.attask.com

About AtTask

AtTask is the SaaS leader in project management solutions and Collaborative Work Management. AtTask helps organizations empower knowledge workers by leveraging the combined power of social collaboration, increased engagement, accountability, visibility, and recognition—making it possible for people to take ownership of their work and perform at a higher level—ultimately creating an environment that fosters productivity, motivation, and results. AtTask’s collaborative work management approach solves critical business issues for a broad range of customers including Forbes Global 2000 brands such as Nike, Cisco, ABC, ESPN, 3M, REI, Trek, Kellogg’s.

Gartner Disclaimer

Gartner does not endorse any vendor; product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Contact:

Shelbi Gomez
[email protected]
801-477-9813

Intronis, the world’s leading cloud backup and recovery solution for the IT Channel, today announced that the company won its seventh Best Revenue Generator Award at the ASCII Success Summit in Washington D.C.

Members of the ASCII Group, the world’s largest IT solution-provider community, voted Intronis their selection for Best Revenue Generator at the conclusion of their regional summit in Washington D.C. It’s the second year in a row that the D.C. Summit chose Intronis as Best Revenue Generator. Intronis, the ASCII 2011 Vendor of the Year, garnered awards for Best Customer Support earlier this year at Orlando and Orange County.

“We’re a proud partner of many ASCII members and play an integral role in helping them grow their business,” said Ted Roller, vice president of channel development at Intronis. “That’s why we’re so honored to be recognized as a top revenue generator for MSPs and IT service providers; finding effective paths to generate additional revenue is among the main reasons ASCII members gather and network. We’re committed to continue our investment in innovation and will enjoy being part of the ASCII community for years to come.”

About the ASCII Group

The ASCII Group, Inc., headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, was established in 1984, with additional offices in Canada and the UK. ASCII is the largest paying community of independent computer solution providers in the world with more than 2,000 members and system wide end-user sales of approximately $10.5 billion. ASCII provides technology tools, products and services to assist independent information technology resellers increase profits, reduce costs, and grow their respective businesses. For more information, please visithttp://www.ascii.com or http://www.asciievents.com for more information on the ASCII 2012 Success Summits.

About Intronis

Intronis Cloud Backup and Recovery is a world-class cloud backup solution for the IT channel. Intronis provides the industry’s easiest to use secure data solution for offsite and local backup, which generates a monthly recurring revenue stream to add to your business. Intronis offers the best, deepest Exchange and SQL backup on the market, U.S.-based customer support, and is also integrated to major solutions in the MSP ecosystem. The solution has been field tested by thousands of MSPs and the industry spoke by awarding Intronis the 2011 Vendor of the Year from ASCII. http://www.intronis.com.