Archive for June, 2013

New Irish Software Company launches Accounting package built for today’s commercial challenges

Friday, June 21st, 2013
  • Specifically designed to meet the needs of recession-hit economy
  • Provides the operational insight and financial transparency for profitable decision-making
  • Optimised for small to medium sized companies
  • Available as a standalone package
  • Launch offer makes upgrading from out of date software or manual systems even more affordable
  • Also launching today, the InBusiness Construction Suite

Improving financial control at small to medium sized companies took a leap forward today with the launch of the Comss InBusiness Accounting Suite. This new software package is a lean financial management system that enables fitter, more profitable businesses. Data entered just once is available to all other parts of the financial management system. And, all the unnecessary functions that clog up other financial software have been removed to deliver a streamlined accounts package that is much easier to use and low cost to run.

The InBusiness Accounting Suite meets the needs of small and medium enterprises in a broad range of sectors. It integrates Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, Distribution and Accounting into a single powerful business management application. As a result, it delivers increased operational and financial visibility for less effort and at less cost. It provides all the financial rigour required to run a profitable business.

It can scale from a single location to support multi-company, multi-location, multi-branch and department businesses. It includes multi-currency functionality and uses streamlined processes to deliver financial management functionality that enables businesses to be more efficient and more productive.

InBusiness has been developed by an Irish software company called Comss that was formed specifically to deliver new software solutions that are optimised for the post financial-meltdown world of today.

Profitability designed-in
The InBusiness Accounting Suite enables increased competitiveness, lower cost and more efficient operations as well as smarter, more informed decisions. It can be run by fewer staff and requires less time and cost to implement than traditional accounting software. It is optimised to deliver enhanced profitability because it has been built with these goals in mind:

  • Thinking Lean – Comss removed any feature or function that was not essential to the success of the business and as a result has created streamlined workflows for greater efficiency and effectiveness
  • Eliminating repetition – Comss enabled all the modules to draw on a common record so that data only has to be entered once – saving users – and the business significant time and money
  • Improving financial and operational visibility – Comss built in alerts to warn of potential risks and, functions to capture data at key points in a project so that decisions can be taken more quickly and with greater certainty.

Flexible subscription model
The InBusiness Accounting Suite is available immediately. It can be purchased as a perpetual license or on an annual basis. Subscription licensing removes the need for any upfront payment for licenses and a fixed annual license fee eases cash flow.

Additional modules can be added to the license at any time during the subscription period. That means no more software sitting on the shelf unused.

The annual subscription includes the use of Comss Support Services and entitles you to all major and minor releases that become available during the subscription period.

Launch offer gives early movers even lower subscription cost
Although the InBusiness Accounting Suite is already  priced to be affordable for small and medium sized companies, Comss is offering a further 20% of subscription pricing for the first two years to the first 20 companies that purchase it before September 30, 2013.

 -END-

 

About Comss
Comss Limited was set up in 2010 to provide breakthrough software applications that enable small to medium sized construction companiesto run lean businesses in lean times. Comss knew survival required lower cost, more efficient operations AND smarter, more informed decisions.  But when it reviewed what was available, it saw over-engineered, expensive to operate software with the most important functions clogged-up with non-essential features.   As a result Comss has developed  a suite of applications that not only deliver functional value but can be run by fewer staff and that require less resources, time and cost to implement.

Comss development centre is based in Longford, Ireland. It is a Microsoft BizSpark company and its Construction Suite is endorsed by the Construction Industry Federation of Ireland. www.comss.org

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New Irish Software Company launches breakthrough software solution to help unlock profit for Irish construction industry

Friday, June 21st, 2013
  • Specifically designed to meet the needs of recession-hit construction industry
  • Endorsed by Construction Industry Federation of Ireland (CIF)
  • Provides the operational insight and financial transparency for profitable decision-making
  • Integrated suite manages full lifecycle of construction projects
  • Affordable replacement for mix of manual and old software systems used by most small/medium construction companies
  • Special launch price available for first movers
  • Also launching today, the InBusiness Accounting Suite

Making a profit from construction projects may have gotten a little easier today with the launch of the Comss InBusiness Construction Suite. This new software package contains five integrated modules that cover the entire construction project lifecycle: Estimating; Job Costing; Accounting; Subcontractor Management and Plant Management.

InBusiness has been developed by an Irish software company – called Comss – that was formed specifically to deliver new software solutions to the hard-pressed Irish construction industry. At the heart of the software package is a very powerful Accounting Suite that is designed to provide construction companies the financial visibility and operational insight to ensure profitable construction projects.

This breakthrough solution is a result of creative collaboration between Brian Loughran, a veteran of the Irish construction industry with 40 years experience, and a young Irish software talent, John Tallon. The combination has produced a powerful tool designed to help reinvigorate the construction sector in Ireland.

Profitability designed-in

The InBusiness Construction Suite enables increased competitiveness, lower cost and more efficient operations as well as smarter, more informed decisions. It can be run by fewer  administrative staff and requires less time and cost to implement than traditional software. It is optimised to deliver enhanced profitability because it has been built with these goals in mind:

  • Thinking Lean – Comss removed any feature or function that was not essential to the success of the business or the construction project and as a result has created streamlined workflows for greater efficiency and effectiveness
  • Eliminating repetition – Comss enabled all the modules to draw on a common record so that data only has to be entered once – saving users – and the business significant time and money
  • Improving financial and operational visibility – Comss built in alerts to warn of potential risks and, functions to capture data at key points in a project so that decisions can be taken more quickly and with greater certainty
  • Improving project profitability – Comss designed all the modules to integrate and work with the same user interface and developed an incredibly powerful accounts package at the heart of the InBusiness Construction Suite so that the financial implications of every project transaction could be seen automatically.

Flexible subscription model

The InBusiness Construction Suite is available immediately. It can be purchased as a perpetual license or on an annual basis. Subscription licensing removes the need for any upfront payment for licenses and a fixed annual license fee eases cash flow.

Additional modules can be added to the license at any time during the subscription period. That means no more software sitting on the shelf unused.

The annual subscription includes the use of Comss Support Services and entitles you to all major and minor releases that become available during the subscription period.

Launch offer gives early movers even lower subscription cost

Although the InBusiness Construction Suite is already priced to be affordable for small and medium sized construction companies, the company is offering a further 20% off subscription pricing, for the first two years, to the first 20 companies that purchase it before September 30, 2013.

-END-

About Comss

Comss Limited was set up in 2010 to provide breakthrough software applications that enable small to medium sized construction companiesto run lean businesses in lean times. Comss knew survival required lower cost, more efficient operations AND smarter, more informed decisions.  But when it reviewed what was available, it saw over-engineered, expensive to operate software with the most important functions clogged-up with non-essential features.   As a result Comss has developed  a suite of applications that not only deliver functional value but can be run by fewer staff and that require less resources, time and cost to implement.

Comss development centre is based in Longford, Ireland. It is a Microsoft BizSpark company and its Construction Suite is endorsed by the Construction Industry Federation of Ireland. www.comss.org

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ExaGrid Adds Dana Prestigiacomo as Senior VP of Marketing

Monday, June 17th, 2013

Marketing and communications veteran brings vision and experience to guide team through major phase of growth and development

London, June 17, 2013 – ExaGrid Systems, Inc. (www.exagrid.com), the leader in scalable and cost-effective disk-based backup solutions with data deduplication, announced today that it has hired Dana Prestigiacomo as Senior Vice President of Marketing.

Prestigiacomo_Dana

Prestigiacomo joins ExaGrid during an exciting phase of growth and development as the company continues to expand both product offerings and global market reach. ExaGrid’s recent growth, fuelled by increasing demand for grid-based, scalable disk backup systems with deduplication, has prompted the company to build out its executive management team with proven industry leaders. She will take the lead on ExaGrid’s worldwide marketing and communications functions.

Prestigiacomo comes to ExaGrid with experience embodying a mix of small, midsize and large technology companies, including IBM, CA Technologies, Thomson Reuters, Acronis, IntraLinks, and more. She has led teams in developing cutting-edge marketing lead generation capabilities, metrics, partner programs, and complete company re-branding.

About ExaGrid Systems, Inc.:
ExaGrid offers the only disk-based backup appliance with data deduplication purpose-built for backup that leverages a unique architecture optimised for performance, scalability and price. ExaGrid is the only solution that combines compute with capacity and a unique landing zone to permanently shorten backup windows, eliminate expensive forklift upgrades, achieve the fastest full system restores and tape copies, and rapidly restore files, VMs and objects in minutes. With offices and distribution worldwide, ExaGrid has more than 6,500 systems installed at more than 1,700 customers, and more than 320 published customer success stories.

For more information, contact ExaGrid at 800-868-6985 or visit www.exagrid.com. Visit “ExaGrid’s Eye on Deduplication” blog: http://blog.exagrid.com/.

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ExaGrid is a registered trademark of ExaGrid Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

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ExaGrid Appoints Richard Pearce as VP of Business Development

Friday, June 14th, 2013

Seasoned strategic relationship-builder to focus on growing disk backup company’s worldwide industry vendor partner program

London, June 14, 2013 – ExaGrid Systems, Inc. (www.exagrid.com), the leader in scalable and cost-effective disk-based backup solutions with data deduplication, announced today that it has expanded its leadership team with the hiring of Richard Pearce to fill the newly-created position of Vice President of Business Development.

Richard Pearce_Image

Pearce will focus on growing ExaGrid’s technology alliance program and adding more strategic industry vendor partners to help ExaGrid reach more customers.

Pearce joins ExaGrid from Hitachi Data Systems where he was the VP of Business Development for the company’s File & Content Solutions. Prior to that, Pearce was the VP of Business Development & Alliances at BlueArc, a high-performance NAS storage vendor that was acquired by Hitachi Data Systems. He has held many business development roles in his career, including leading business development for Symantec’s Security, Compliance, Archiving and Managed Services businesses. In addition, he has led teams at start-up and multi-national companies in Europe, Asia and the US, and earned a Ph.D. in data networking from the University of Durham in the UK.


About ExaGrid Systems, Inc.:
ExaGrid offers the only disk-based backup appliance with data deduplication purpose-built for backup that leverages a unique architecture optimised for performance, scalability and price. ExaGrid is the only solution that combines compute with capacity and a unique landing zone to permanently shorten backup windows, eliminate expensive forklift upgrades, achieve the fastest full system restores and tape copies, and rapidly restore files, VMs and objects in minutes. With offices and distribution worldwide, ExaGrid has more than 6,500 systems installed at more than 1,700 customers, and more than 320 published customer success stories.

For more information, contact ExaGrid at 800-868-6985 or visit www.exagrid.com. Visit “ExaGrid’s Eye on Deduplication” blog: http://blog.exagrid.com/.

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ExaGrid is a registered trademark of ExaGrid Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

 

 

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ExaGrid Named ‘Disk Based Product of the Year’ at Annual Storage Awards 2013

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

ExaGrid named ‘Disk Based Product of the Year: Small/Midrange’ and nominated in several other categories at annual awards ceremony

London – June 12, 2013 – ExaGrid Systems, Inc. (www.exagrid.com), the leader in scalable and cost-effective disk-based backup solutions with data deduplication, announced today that it has been named ‘Disk Based Product of the Year: Small/Midrange’ at the Annual Storage Awards 2013 ceremony on June 6th 2013 in London, reinforcing its world class technology and performance. Winners were determined by a public vote, proving that the industry recognises the performance and scalability of ExaGrid’s solution. This award follows the issuance of a U.S. patent for ExaGrid’s unique Zone-level deduplication technology as well as publication of a review by Enterprise Strategy Group, showing the ExaGrid-Veeam integration has transformed the recovery of VMs thanks to ExaGrid’s unique landing zone technology.

EXAGRID2 - Copy

(from left to right) Chris Cowdrey, Andy Palmer, Graham Woods and
Stuart Leigh at the Annual Storage Awards 2013

Customer Praise for the ExaGrid System
ExaGrid, with more than 6000 systems installed across more than 1,700 customers worldwide has over 320 real-world customer success stories detailing customers’ first-hand experiences with the ExaGrid disk backu
The award for the ‘Disk Based Product of the Year: Small/Midrange’ category extended ExaGrid’s 3-year winning streak in the Annual Storage Awards competition. ExaGrid was also a finalist in the following categories in 2013:p system. The success stories are available via the ExaGrid website and include case studies from leaders across different industries like Bird & Bird, Celestica-Valencia, Concur, Conwy & Denbighshire NHS Trust (UK National Health Service), Dublin City University, Four Seasons Resort, Ipswich BC, International SOS, Moto, Kingston Technology, Konica Minolta, Prestige Brands, the Salvation Army, and Schibsted IT.

  • Editor’s Choice
  • Storage Magazine “One to Watch” Award – Product
  • Storage Magazine “One to Watch” Award – Company
  • Storage Magazine “Value for Money” Award.


About ExaGrid Systems, Inc.:
ExaGrid offers the only disk-based backup appliance with data deduplication purpose-built for backup that leverages a unique architecture optimised for performance, scalability and price. ExaGrid is the only solution that combines compute with capacity and a unique landing zone to permanently shorten backup windows, eliminate expensive forklift upgrades, achieve the fastest full system restores and tape copies, and rapidly restore files, VMs and objects in minutes. With offices and distribution worldwide, ExaGrid has more than 6,000 systems installed at more than 1,700 customers, and more than 320 published customer success stories.

For more information, contact ExaGrid at 800-868-6985 or visit www.exagrid.com. Visit “ExaGrid’s Eye on Deduplication” blog: http://blog.exagrid.com/.

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ExaGrid is a registered trademark of ExaGrid Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

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Plumbing entrepreneur signs first licensee

Tuesday, June 11th, 2013

London  – June 11, 2013 – Jo Lawrence – founder of Pink Plumbers – saw her dream of creating a national female-only plumbing brand become reality today by the signing of the first Pink Plumbers licensee, Gemma Lawrence-Davis, who will trade under the Pink Plumbers brand in the Aylesbury area.

Jo is on a mission to help other female plumbers set up their own business and realise their dreams by providing them with the necessary support. She has therefore created a low-cost route to help them set up their own business under the Pink Plumbers label.

Any woman inspired by Jo Lawrence and who would like to know more about the opportunities to become a Pink Plumber, or would like to speak to Jo please contact Setareh Bidar at setareh@onva.co.uk

Gemma Lawrence-Davis (left) and Jo Lawrence (right) celebrating

Gemma Lawrence-Davis (left) and Jo Lawrence (right) celebrating

Jo Lawrence, the founder of Pink Plumbers, with her Pink Plumbers van

Jo Lawrence, the founder of Pink Plumbers, with her Pink Plumbers van

Gemma fitting a bathroom for a client

Gemma, the first Pink Plumbers Licensee,
fitting a bathroom for a client

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ExaGrid Issued US Patent for Unique Zone-level Deduplication Technology

Friday, June 7th, 2013

Patented Technology for Highly Efficient Deduplication Enables Fast Grid-Scalable Backups for Widest Range of Backup Applications and Utilities

London – June 7, 2013 – ExaGrid Systems, Inc., the leader in cost-effective and scalable disk-based backup solutions with data deduplication, today announced that it received US Patent no. 8,412,848, building on the company’s history of innovation to solve data protection problems for its customers. The patent covers ExaGrid’s unique Zone-level deduplication method, a core component of ExaGrid’s deduplication technology.

ExaGrid’s zone-level deduplication enables customers to benefit from a unique combination of seamless scalability, support for the widest range of backup applications, and faster backup and restore performance.

  • Seamless scalability: Zone-level deduplication is a key technology that enables ExaGrid’s disk backup solution to scale seamlessly in a scale-out architecture – with full servers in a grid – by reducing deduplication metadata by a factor of 1000-times or more over all other deduplication solutions. ExaGrid offers the only scale-out disk-based backup system where as data grows, additional capacity is accompanied by compute resources to maintain performance and scalability. Competing solutions that scale by only adding disk shelves as data grows are performance-challenged and burden customers with costly forklift upgrades.
  • Extensive backup application support: Zone-level deduplication also allows ExaGrid to deliver its deduplication capability for the widest possible range of backup and archiving applications. Historically, when customers have looked for faster, more reliable backups and restores along with seamless scalability in a disk backup with deduplication solution, they have faced a tradeoff decision. They previously have had to choose either the scalability and performance of byte-level deduplication with limited backup application support, or the generic approach offered by block-level deduplication, which can support a wide range of backup applications but has performance and scalability challenges. The unique Zone-level deduplication eliminates this tradeoff by making ExaGrid’s deduplication technology available with a broad range of backup applications, while also delivering the highest performance and scalability. Customers benefit from generic and content-aware methods of deduplication, along with GRID-scalability all in a single product from a single vendor. ExaGrid is the first and only to offer this approach.
  • Faster backup and restore performance: Zone-level deduplication technology enables faster backups and restores due to much more efficient processing of data streams. By processing larger chunks – from 2MB to 50MB zones – ExaGrid achieves the same or better deduplication rates versus competing technologies that use 4KB to 8KB (average) chunks, and create large and unmanageable hash tables which force these systems to use a front end controller with disk shelves.

ExaGrid’s disk backup system with data deduplication supports the industry’s leading backup applications and utilities, including Acronis, CA ARCserve, Bridgehead, CommVault Simpana, Dell/Quest vRangerPro, HP Data Protector, IBM iSeries/Laservault, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Idera SQL Safe, Linux/Unix dumps, Microsoft SQL dumps, Oracle RMAN dumps, PHD Virtual, Redgate, Symantec Backup Exec, Symantec NetBackup, Unitrends, Veeam Backup and Replication, VMware Backup and many others.

About ExaGrid Systems, Inc.:
ExaGrid offers the only disk-based backup appliance with data deduplication purpose-built for backup that leverages a unique architecture optimised for performance, scalability and price. ExaGrid is the only solution that combines compute with capacity and a unique landing zone to permanently shorten backup windows, eliminate expensive forklift upgrades, achieve the fastest full system restores and tape copies, and rapidly restore files, VMs and objects in minutes. With offices and distribution worldwide, ExaGrid has more than 6,500 systems installed at more than 1,700 customers, and more than 320 published customer success stories.

For more information, contact ExaGrid at 800-868-6985 or visit www.exagrid.com. Visit “ExaGrid’s Eye on Deduplication” blog: http://blog.exagrid.com/.

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ExaGrid is a registered trademark of ExaGrid Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

 

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Increasing IT complexity and need for data security drive growth in outsourcing as companies shift to the Cloud

Tuesday, June 4th, 2013
  • IT_Outsourcing640x1300Cloud based infrastructures now dominant – 60% use hybrid or cloud only
  • Outsourcing now used by 53% of companies
  • UK seeing growth in outsourcing to dodge cost of keeping pace with IT complexity

 

London – June 4th, 2013 – New global research released today shows that the cost of keeping pace with IT complexity and the increasing need for data security is driving companies to embrace outsourcing. These were the top two challenges in managing an IT infrastructure identified by senior IT staff in 330 businesses in the UK, US and the Netherlands.

Cloud approaching dominance

The research, which was carried out by Censuswide on behalf of Jitscale, also uncovered some key trends in outsourcing business critical IT infrastructures and the increasing role of the Cloud. In fact, 60% of businesses are using cloud infrastructures – 31% hybrid and 29% solely cloud infrastructures. In the USA, the Cloud is now the largest single infrastructure with 36% of companies having already moved to a complete cloud based approach. This compares to just 24% in the UK who have a cloud only infrastructure.

The cost of keeping pace with new technologies such as the Cloud, and the security issues this raises, seems to be fuelling a move to outsourcing.  However, while outsourcing is now represented in the majority of companies (53%), 41% are using a blend of partly in-house / partly outsourced IT. About one in eight of companies have completely outsourced their IT. Another contributor to the growth of outsourcing may be the challenge in motivating, retaining and up-skilling IT staff in an increasingly complex IT environment. This was the third priority for respondents.

Outsourcing growing in the UK as belts continue to tighten

Even though outsourcing is not as strong in UK and USA as it is in Holland, in the UK the combination of partly in-house and partly outsourced methods is now seen in 42% of respondents – whereas the USA in-house IT is still the largest segment (54%).  Although only (9%) of companies in UK have already completely outsourced – over half (51%) have some form of outsourcing in the mix.

 

About Jitscale

Jitscale is an IT management organization that specializes in organizing, managing, and optimizing business-critical IT platforms. With an independent view on technology and infrastructure combined with 24/7 management Jitscale is positioning itself as an outsourcing partner of new technologies for multinationals as well as for SME. Jitscale serves its customers from offices in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Jitscale provides fully managed and tailored services, perfectly suited to customer needs and supported by a comprehensive service level agreement.

Jitscale has obtained ISO/IEC 27001, 14001 and 9001 certification for all of its worldwide services and offers its services in physical, cloud and hybrid infrastructures on the Jitscale Management Layer (JML). Using the JML Jitscale automates the manual management tasks, thus minimizing incidents and time to market while maximizing quality, dynamic scaling and cloud-over-cloud capabilities.

Jitscale serves a variety of customers worldwide, among others: Achmea, Mercer, Sanoma Media, Albelli, Allianz, AMBER Alert and Unigarant. For more information on Jitscale, visit www.jitscale.com.

– ENDS-

 

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