|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Open Data Institute
Announces Five New International Nodes The Open
Data Institute (ODI) yesterday announced five new international ODI Nodes
including the first two from the Asia Pacific region: Each Node
has agreed to adopt the ODI Charter, which is a open source codification of
the ODI itself, and embodies principles of open data business, publishing,
communication, and collaboration. The creation of ODI Nodes around the world
highlights how people are using the power of open to combine expertise and
resources. Each Node will catalyse open data culture across commercial, public
sector, and developer communities, and communicate open data success stories
globally. City and regional Nodes will identify open data collaboration
projects, and publish data relating to themselves and their work using open
standards such as the ODI Open Data Certificate. The ODI is an independent,
non-profit, non-partisan, Limited by Guarantee company founded by Professor
Sir Nigel Shadbolt and Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee. It has secured £10
million (US$ 15.9 million) over five years via the From http://www.futuregov.asia
A Citizen’s
Guide to Open Government, E-Government, and Government 2.0 Engaged citizens want clear, credible information from the
government about how it’s carrying on its business. They don’t want to thumb
through thousands of files or wait month after month or go through the rigors
of filing claims through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). They want
government information, services, and communication to be forthcoming and
swift. The Open Government, Government 2.0, and E-Governance movements fill
the need of connecting citizens with the government and each other to foster
a more open, collaborative, and efficient public sector through the use of
new technology and public data. Open Government is defined by the OECD
(Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) as “the transparency
of government actions, the accessibility of government services and
information, and the responsiveness of government to new ideas, demands and
needs.” E-Government is defined by the World Bank as “the use by
government agencies of information technologies that have the ability to
transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.
These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of
government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and
industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more
efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less
corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth,
and/or cost reductions.” Government 2.0 is defined by Gartner Research as
“the use of Web 2.0 technologies, both internally and externally, to increase
collaboration and transparency and potentially transform the way government
agencies relate to citizens and operate.” Open Government and E-Government paved the way for Government
2.0, a collaborative technology whose mission is to improve government
transparency and efficiency. How? Gov 2.0 has been called the next generation
of government because it not only utilizes new technologies such as social
media, cloud computing, and other apps, it is a means to increase citizen
participation. While some question the logistics of funding, implementing,
managing, and securing Open Government, E-Government, and Government 2.0
projects, advocates—from single-source bloggers to large well-funded
groups—don’t show any signs of slowing down. Plans for summits, conferences,
new applications, and publications suggest that Open Government, along with
all its emerging technology, is here for the long haul. We have compiled a
list of organizations, blogs, guides, and tools to help citizens and public
service leaders better understand the Open Government, E-Government, and
Government 2.0 movement. From
https://onlinempa.unc.edu/
10 IT
Outsourcing Trends to Watch in 2014 2014 could be the year customers - and a few robots - take
greater control of the IT outsourcing space In 2013, the IT services industry saw customers doing more of
their own IT services deals, testing the service integration model, and
continuing to struggle with outsourcing transitions. CIO.com asked
outsourcing observers to tell us what they think is in the cards for the year
ahead. And if they're right, 2014 could be the year customers - and a few robots
- take greater control of the IT outsourcing space. 1. The rise of the machines Say hello to the latest IT services professional: the robot.
"2014 will see significant growth in the development and implementation
of robot-like technologies that will automate many tasks currently performed
by full-time employees in [outsourcing] deals," says Shawn C. Helms,
partner in the outsourcing and technology transactions practices at K&L
Gates. "Given the rise of robots replacing people in manufacturing and
logistics, it is not a stretch to predict that robots will move up the
intellectual value chain as artificial intelligence continues to
develop." "The rise of smart machines will have a radical effect on
the IT and outsourcing environments," says Jonathan Crane, chief
commercial officer for IPsoft. "What is still unclear is what either of
these industries will look like in the end. Will these tumultuous changes
have a lasting effect? Could this be the beginning of the end of the labor
arbitrage era?" At the very least, expect an increase in automation generally.
"With the cost benefits of labour arbitrage being largely harvested and
labour costs inevitably on the rise, CIOs will need to look for alternative
opportunities to reduce or contain operating costs," says Joe Nash,
principal in Pillsbury's global sourcing group. "That means looking for
ways through automation to reduce the amount of work it takes to complete an
IT function or service, not the cost of the labor to do it." Process
automation will become integrated with service provider solutions this year,
says Chip Wagner, CEO of IT outsourcing consultancy Alsbridge. 2. Hybrid offshoring heats up "In 2014, offshoring to a supplier will not be the
default," says Atul Vasithsha, chairman of outsourcing consultancy
NeoGroup. Rather, a hybrid model, combining insourced and outsourced offshore
services, will gain attention as an alternative. "Companies are starting
to invest more in global business services models, [which combine] the best
of shared services and outsourcing under a common governance model. This is
seeing processes being offshored in captives by industries that have
traditionally been reluctant, such as media and entertainment," says
Vasithsha. Indeed, this year will see a mix of outsourcing models overall.
"Most companies need to get the right combination of best talent and
most-cost-effective IT services," says Scott Staples, president of 3. An increase in insourcing "Of the IT services historically outsourced, 20 to 30
percent will be brought back in-house as buyers are more comfortable to
create retained organizations that not only govern the services, but start to
move more into operational control of the services," says Stan Lepeak,
global research director for KPMG Advisory. Companies will rely on IT service
management frameworks like version three of the Information Technology
Infrastructure Library to manage the increased insourcing. But expect the
industry press to make a bigger deal about such backsourcing than it
deserves, says Wagner of Alsbridge. 4. Service integration comes home IT leaders have given third parties a shot managing their
multi-sourced environments in recent years. In 2014, they'll take on service
integration themselves. "Following a period of experimentation with
various outsourced models, client organizations will increasingly focus on
service integration as an integral core competency and take key functions
back in-house," says Lois Coatney, director with outsourcing consultancy
Information Services Group (ISG). "In outsourced models, clients have
found they lose visibility and direct control of service management
effectiveness, and that they become too remote and unable to fill their
fiduciary responsibility. Clients are recognizing that a solid internal
service integration capability provides better flexibility and knowledge of
the business required to onboard new and specialty service providers,"
says Coatney. 5. The cloud gets grounded There's little doubt that cloud computing is here to stay, but
businesses have struggled to managed such IT services effectively. "In
2014, we expect clients and service providers to further define their
strategic objectives for cloud services, applying consistent metrics to
quantify their return on investment and navigate a rapidly evolving
contracting environment," says Scott Feuless, principal consultant with
ISG. "One key will be progress towards normalized measurement frameworks
that enable meaningful comparisons of alternative solutions."
Ultimately, companies will be able to perform apples-to-apples comparisons of
different cloud options, as well as comparisons of cloud vs. traditional
solutions. "The result will be significant progress in reaping the
benefits of cloud services, as buyers avoid the mistakes of early
adopters," Fueless says. "Service providers will adjust their
offerings to meet the needs of a more cautious and educated market." 6. Contracts compel inter-provider cooperation Why can't they all just get along? This year, they'll be legally
required to. "As organizations continue to implement a multi-sourcing,
best-of-breed strategy customers need to find a way to force competitive
service providers to work together to achieve common goals," says Helms
of K&L Gates. In 2013, some outsourcing customers implemented outsourcing
"cooperation agreements" that contractually obligated service
providers to cooperate at an operational level. "I predict that 2014
will see an increased use of outsourcing cooperation agreements," Helms
says. 7. A lower cost consulting model emerges This year, an increasing number of experienced IT outsourcing
customers decided to forego the pricey third party consultants and set up
their IT services deals on their own. Look for outsourcing consultants to
adjust their approach in the year ahead. "In 2014, we'll start to see
more consultants offer light-touch services for clients, often on annuity
subscriptions, to service clients wanting ongoing relationships with less
intense financial commitments," says Phil Fersht, CEO of outsourcing
analyst firm HfS Research. 8. India Inc. made its reputation on application development and
business process outsourcing. This year, they'll increase focus on
infrastructure deals. "It would have been unheard of 10 years ago for an
India-based provider to beat out an IBM, EDS, or CSC in an IT infrastructure
deal in the 9. Big deals get smaller, small deals get bigger Multi-sourcing continues to be the name of the game. "Prior
mega-deals will continue to be disaggregated and resourced in smaller
pieces," says Wagner of Alsbridge. At the same time, however, many
smaller deals will be rolled up into midsize deals as customers seek more
leverage with their vendors, Wagner says. 10. Governance gets harder "With increased adoption of global business services and
the growing complexity and diversity of vendor portfolios, the governance
function will become an even more critical capability that enables
organisations to manage performance, risk and compliance," says KPMG's
Lepeak. "However, most organisations will face challenges in recruiting
and hiring skilled resources due to a talent shortage in the governance
arena." From
http://www.cio.com.au/
The EU Benchmark report compares and analyses over 2600 mobile
packages across eleven European countries ( From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
LATIN
AMERICA: Mobile Value-added Services and This study focuses on analyzing what mobile carriers in Key Findings •Mobile enterprise value-added service (VAS) is on the radar of
information and communication technologies (ICT) companies as one of the most
promising revenue streams in the next years. •VAS such as location-based services, voice virtual private
network (VPN), mobile office, mobile cloud computing, application-to-person
(A2P) short message service (SMS), and other mobile enterprise services are
being improved and expanded to increase average revenue per line (ARPL) and
improve customer experience. •Telcos want to offer integrated solutions to optimize the
adoption of mobile enterprise services by small, medium, and large
businesses. These solutions also drive an increase of data services and voice
services of carriers' infrastructure, thus providing a base to preserve the
traditional telecom business. •The Latin American application ecosystem is being developed,
and the availability of different mobile applications is expected to increase
heavily in the coming years. Companies are likely to adopt applications under
mobile device management (MDM) solutions to guarantee security and to handle
the phenomenon of consumerization as personal smart device adoption in
enterprises continues to grow. •Frost & Sullivan estimates that the mobile enterprise
services market revenue for •Major regional telcos such as Movistar/Vivo, Claro, Oi,
TIM/Personal, and Nextel have a strategy to foster the development of VAS for
mobile enterprise services. This strategy is often designed to add mobility to
data communications network solutions such as Internet protocol (IP) VPN
multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) and to engage the clients in the whole
portfolio of an integrated convergent telco. •However, many solutions are still tailor-made for special projects.
For further adoption, it is important that off-the-shelf products are
provided by telcos with easy contract options by clients as a few telcos have
been implementing cloud services applications stores. •Frost & Sullivan expects that with the evolution of •For the client, the return on investment (ROI) needs to be
calculated for large projects. However, the as a service model provides easy
access for small and medium enterprises to adopt applications and services.
The evolution of this model creates an increase of productivity and
efficiency in this segment as users make real-time decisions. Even if users
are away from their physical locations, they still have access to systems
that allow for the better management of operations such as customer
relationship management (CRM), accounting, and supply chain management (SCM). •However, there is still a lack of awareness of the benefits
that enterprise mobile solutions can deliver. The challenge, therefore, is to
educate customers and make the service more tangible. Other key industry
barriers that need to be addressed are consumers' trust and the low penetration
of data-capable devices. Research Objectives, Scope, and Methodology Objectives This study focuses on analyzing what mobile carriers are doing
regarding mobile enterprise services. The key focus areas of the research are
as follows: • •Market assessment and forecast •Types of services by carriers Scope •Geographic Coverage: •Forecast Period: 2013 to 2018 •Base Year: 2012 •Monetary Unit: US dollars Research Methodology •Primary research was conducted, and secondary research included
the Frost & Sullivan online database, market participants' financial
reports, and regulators' web sites. Table of Contents Executive Summary 4 Introduction 7 Key Definitions 9 Market Assessment 12 Appendix 50 The Frost & Sullivan Story 53 From
http://www.reportlinker.com/
From phone-tracking devices to giving kids the ability to delete
online posts, here are a few pieces of technology legislation you should keep
an eye on next year. As technology continues to permeate everyday lives, it
naturally has wormed its way into many topics considered by state
legislatures and the U.S. Congress. A plethora of bills steeped in complex
tech issues landed on the desks of lawmakers in 2013 -- a trend that should
continue next year. Government Technology has identified five proposals of
note that public-sector technologists should keep tabs on as the calendar
flips to 2014. Right to Remove Online Posts The bill also may be unnecessary. Many social media platforms
and discussion forums already have functions that enable people to delete
their posts. And the advertising aspect of S0318 may encounter First
Amendment problems. In an email to Government Technology, Turner said there
had been little movement on the bill since it was introduced. She admitted
S0318 was "not perfect," but believes it can help initiate broader
discussion regarding protecting children using the Internet and social media.
"We need to figure out how best to protect our children from spur of the
moment judgments that can harm them immediately and later in life,"
Turner wrote. "Additionally, with the Internet being so readily
accessible to children, parents have a harder time monitoring the information
to which their children are exposed.
We need to protect children from being exposed to advertisements for
harmful products." "I hope to resolve the issues with the bill as
the bill moves through the public vetting process," she added. Revamping the Universal Service Fund New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte has introduced a bill to ensure
rural states get a better share of federal communications services. A
percentage of the Universal Service Fund – created by the FCC in 1997 to help
support telecommunications services in public areas such as libraries and
schools, and ensure equitable access to quality communications technology –
is distributed back to states using a complex formula. The USF Equitable
Distribution Act., S. 1766, would alter the formula and require that a rural
state be given back 75 cents for every dollar it contributes to the USF. It
would also define a “rural state” as having less than 200 people per square
mile. According to a press release from Ayotte’s office, Limiting Use of Phone Tracking Devices A group of The Extinction of Landline Phones Legislation is rolling through the Michigan Legislature that
would amend the Michigan Telecommunications Act to streamline the process
companies have to go through to discontinue basic local exchange or toll
service. It passed through the Michigan Senate and is now being evaluated by
the state’s House of Representatives. Sponsored by Sen. Mike Nofs, R-Battle
Creek, Senate Bill 636 is touted by supporters as something that protects
landlines for those that need them, at the same time giving companies the
flexibility to transition to a more cellular-based platform of services, or
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems. But opponents cite concerns over
reliable access to While license plate readers can be helpful to police, privacy advocates
are up in arms over the data collected and stored by license plate readers.
For example, the ACLU of Southern California and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) sued the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles
County Sheriff’s Department in November over records collected by license
plate readers over the last several years. According to the Journal Sentinel,
Craig had plans to alter the bill after getting feedback from local police
chiefs and is willing to extend the storage time from the proposed 48 hours.
Government Technology called Craig’s office multiple times this month seeking
comment on whether those changes were made and the current status of the
legislation, but the messages were not returned. From
http://www.govtech.com/
Technology
is changing the way governments think, and one of the most crucial areas of
change is in information management. How do governments leverage these
technologies to improve information management and ultimately promote open,
transparent governance? FutureGov spoke to Professor John McMillan,
Australian Information Commissioner, on how the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (OAIC) is leveraging Big Data and promoting open
government, to bring new opportunities to Government information management.
“What is really driving the cultural change in government nowadays is
technology. It is transforming the way we collect, use, share, store and
protect information. Technology opens up new threats but also wonderful new
opportunities for information management.” "Good privacy is good business" “The laws
that we administer — the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts — were
created in a world of hard copy records. But today’s world of digital records
completely changes the agenda. You realise that you can extract extraordinary
value from assembling all the data. Particularly with Big Data, there are
enormous resources we can consolidate, and better analyse and evaluate,”
Professor McMillan said. With the increasing volume of government-held data,
privacy is gaining even greater importance: “A high proportion of the data
connects in someway to individual, personal information. This is at the heart
of the data collected by tax, health, immigration offices,” he remarks. “So
while you’re rolling out an information sharing strategy, you also need to
use technology more effectively to filter out the personal information and
reassure the public that their data is secured.” The OAIC strongly advocates
the principle that “good privacy is good business” — it is very much in the
interest of both government and industry to have strong privacy practices,
Professor McMillan says. “Agencies also have immense security and privacy
worries about data integration when sharing with other agencies. One of the
challenges we have is encouraging information sharing while ensuring that
those concerns are addressed.” A coherent national plan for open government Professor
McMillan adds that while drawing value from Big Data is in the interest of
government, the value of the data is fully realised if it is made available
to others in the community. Professor
McMillan believes that strong leadership is crucial for From http://www.futuregov.asia
China started a two-and-a-half-year process of drafting a
comprehensive e-commerce law on Friday as its e-commerce market expands at
full speed.A drafting group for the legislation was set up on Friday during a
meeting by the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People's
Congress (NPC)."Booming e-commerce has become a growth point for
national economic development and a focal point for adjusting its
structure," said Lyu Zushan, head of the drafting group."As a
result, it is in urgent need to tease out, replenish, revise and improve
existing laws and regulations," he said, adding that a comprehensive law
could promote sustainable and healthy development of e-commerce.According to
a preliminary timetable set at Friday's meeting, the drafting group will
embark on research of the subject and submit a report by the end of 2014, and
actual drafting of the law should be completed by June 2016.The transaction
value of China's e-commerce industry reached about 8 trillion yuan (about 1.32
trillion U.S. dollars) in 2012, up 30.8 percent year on year. From http://www.news.cn/
The number of Internet users in From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin launched, earlier
this week, a national policy document that outlines The directive outlines six main principles in dealing with a
cyber crisis. These are: 1.National Cyber Crisis Management Structure 2. National Cyber Threat Level 3. Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) 4. Cyber Security Protection Mechanism 5. Response, Communication and Coordination procedure 6. Readiness Programme “I suggest that all agency heads fully understand and comply
with what is contained in this directive so that the effort and strategies formulated
can be effectively implemented,” Muhyiddin said. “Furthermore, I also
encourage all agencies to set up a Computer Emergency Response Team to boost
internal capabilities in handling cyber incidents.” From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The French government has tasked the Strategic Committee for the
Digital Sector (Comite strategique de filiere numerique) to draft two
proposals in 2014 to help develop From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
Dutch Govt
Presents Policy Vision on Internet Ecosystem The Dutch government plans to monitor and where needed intervene
in a number of issues in the telecom sector in the medium term. These include
competition on and between networks and the relationship between existing
providers and newcomers, according to a joint paper by the economic affairs,
justice and culture ministries presented to parliament. The paper outlines
the cabinet's vision for the "internet value web", which includes telecom,
media and internet as part of the same economic sector. The internet is
driving changes in the traditional telecom and media sectors, also impacting
associated legislation and regulations. However, the government is hesitant
to extend existing rules to the internet, for fear of holding back innovation
and harming the sector's development, which is largely driven at an
international level. It prefers to work at an EU level to address any needed
changes in the law, and five issues play a central here. The first is
competitive strength. The Dutch government is concerned the European
Commission's legislative proposals could reduce competition between networks
and wants to ensure access regulation remains in place for third parties.
Future could regulation could be based on the Open Network Provision from
1998-2002, which saw access regulations take effect as soon as an operator
reached a certain market share. Second, the Dutch government wants a stronger foundation to net
neutrality rules, with these also extended to other 'gatekeepers', such as
businesses that filer or aggregate information, like search engines,
operating systems and app ecosystems. Third, the rise of OTT and on-demand
services may require regulation of the audiovisual sector to be relaxed. The Dutch
government said it's ready to take the lead on this in EU discussions. In
addition, issues such as integrity, continuity and privacy are increasingly
the domain of 'new' players, and not just market incumbents, and these new
players should face the same responsibilities, both towards public
authorities and end-users. The fifth point is an extension this, namely the
rise of profiling based on increased access to personal data. The Dutch
government is working on various projects surrounding the above issues, both
at home and the EU level. They will be addressed further when the From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
Russian federal telecommunications agency Rossvyaz has proposed
the extension of public telecom services licenses to 31 March, reports
Tdaily.ru. The proposal is valid for operators with contract which expired at
the end of last year or which will expire in the first quarter of this year,
or 695 contracts out of a total of over 900. The agency has contracts for
public services with 21 operators. Rossvyaz signed a cooperation framework
agreement in September with Rostelecom to develop public telecom services.
Rostelecom provides 90 percent of publice services volume. From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
A non-profit group of Internet supporters is trying to bring
standards to North American data centre interconnection facilities called
Internet exchanges to lower costs and improve resiliency. The Open-IX
Association said Thursday it is now accepting applications for all data
centre and Internet exchanges to join its group. The move was welcomed by
Keven Blumberg, chief technical officer of the Toronto Internet service provider
called TheWire.ca, a former board member of the not-for-profit TorIX (the
Toronto Internet Exchange) and an Open-IX supporter. The idea, he said “is to
pull back the commercialization that has gone on with IX’s” mainly in the “If new exchanges came into “We’ve had situations in From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
The significant troubles with the rollout of HealthCare.gov have
put IT management issues front and center. In all my years in federal IT, I
do not remember a president addressing the need for us to improve the way we
buy and manage IT. Although born of crisis, it is refreshing to see this
issue being addressed at the most senior levels of government. So what is the
appropriate response, and in particular, would IT reform legislation be of any
real value? The Clinger-Cohen Act has been a bomb, so how can we ensure that
this time it will be different? Legislation alone will not fix all that is
wrong with government IT management, but I am very supportive of legislation
that would address fundamental structural problems. I appreciate the
leadership of Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) in
co-sponsoring the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act. This bipartisan effort
in the House is encouraging, and it has produced a bill that addresses key
issues in IT management and acquisition. The FITARA language is good, but there are a couple of areas
that should be strengthened to ensure the legislation has maximum positive
impact in supporting needed changes in IT management. In my previous column
on IT infrastructure, I laid out four obstacles to government’s ability to
migrate to a modern, standard and appropriately consolidated IT
infrastructure. That infrastructure would create the foundation for enabling
IT to be more efficient and effective in supporting timely delivery of new
capabilities for agencies’ mission and business customers, and it would
improve the government's overall IT security posture. How can legislation
help? First, to help overcome these four obstacles, it is imperative that the
agency CIO be given complete control over all IT infrastructure at his or her
agency. It would be very helpful to have that authority codified in
legislation. In addition, to address other areas of significant duplication
and inefficiency as pointed out in multiple Government Accountability Office
reports, the agency CIO should have control over standard collaboration
systems, such as email, and business systems, including finance, human
resources and other administrative functions. That would enable agency CIOs
to aggressively consolidate duplicative business systems. Overall, the combination of IT infrastructure, standard
collaboration systems and business systems has been given the label
“commodity IT.” The term is a misnomer because much of the expertise needed
to modernize IT infrastructure or consolidate business systems is anything
but commodity work. That does not, however, invalidate the need for agency
CIOs to have authority over the infrastructure and business systems. It is best
practice today and necessary for effective IT management. Second, legislation
should explicitly state that the agency CIO has the responsibility and
authority to ensure that best practices in IT program management are being
used throughout the agency on all IT programs, including mission-oriented IT.
The agency CIO does not need to own all the programs, but he or she must
ensure proper management of them. That approach would have helped to avert
some of the critical failings of HealthCare.gov’s program management.
Finally, with regard to FITARA, the bill should specify what constitutes an
IT acquisition cadre. Many in government think it just includes the program
manager, contracting officer and contracting officer’s representative. For
small, commodity IT acquisitions, that might be sufficient, but for large,
complex programs, the IT acquisition cadre must be viewed much more
expansively. Dan Gordon, former administrator of the Office of Federal
Procurement Policy, said it well in a July 13 2011 Office of Management and
Budget memo regarding IT acquisition cadres: “This will include government
staff with expertise in program management, resource management, procurement,
systems architecture and engineering, security, requirements analysis, test
management, configuration management, and other disciplines, as necessary, to
act in the best interest of the government, evaluate all aspects of the
project, and ensure delivery of promised functionality.” The most critical
contributor to IT program success is the expertise and experience of the
government team members who are running the program. IT management reform
legislation should explicitly address that essential component. Given the
current focus on IT issues in government, now is the time for Congress to act
and aggressively pursue legislation that can pass and be sent to the
president. Given the president’s recent statements regarding the need for IT
procurement reform, I hope he would be predisposed to support such
legislation. From
http://fcw.com/
California
Lt. Governor Wants Cloud and Open Data Policies Gavin Newsom thinks Although Newsom didn't say he'd sign the orders, it is within
his authority do so when Brown is out of the state. He said executive orders
are meant to spur the state into action, and added that California has
dragged its feet regarding the cloud, lagging behind Colorado, Idaho,
Michigan, New York and a number of other states in that area. “We're not
seeing the kind of change to make things move,” Newsom said in an interview
with Government Technology. “I don't say it as a threat, I mean the fact is
there are simple things that don't need to be legislated that can be done at
the executive level.” Newsom, however, isn't convinced that the state is making enough
progress and has doubts whether the agency will be successful. He stressed
the need for more progressive technology leadership in the state. He told
Government Technology that the internal system being used to develop CalCloud
was “set up to fail” and “classic big government.” The lieutenant governor
also noted that various state technology projects have failed, been canceled
or not met expectations, including the state controller's payroll system and
the benefits system of the Employment Development Department. “I've never
failed to be mesmerized by our inability to do things right when it comes to
IT,” Newsom said. In regard to open data, Newsom said what little progress Over the past year, Newsom's office and the California State
Lands Commission have been working together to prove that point on the state
level. The commission contracted with cloud-based OpenGov.com to publish
budget information on the agency's website, transitioned to a cloud-based
email archiving solution, migrated file servers to the California Natural
Resources Datacenter virtual environment and is in the midst of transitioning
lease databases to a solution that will soon allow citizen access to lease
information. Carlos Ramos, director of the California Department of
Technology and state CIO, was also on hand at #Innovate. He agreed with
Newsom that government needs to change its business model. He said Ramos had this to say, via email, in reaction to Newsom's
remarks at the event: "The Lieutenant Governor laid out some
observations which challenge everyone in the public sector to rethink the way
we serve constituents," adding that "21st-century consumers
leverage technology in all aspects of their daily lives. And they bring those
21st-century expectations to their interactions with government."
Pointing to the state's progress to date on mobility and open data, Ramos
also cited the CalCloud project as evidence of From
http://www.govtech.com/
5 Tech
Policy Issues to Watch in 2014 From phone-tracking devices to giving kids the ability to delete
online posts, here are a few pieces of technology legislation you should keep
an eye on next year. As technology continues to permeate everyday lives, it
naturally has wormed its way into many topics considered by state
legislatures and the U.S. Congress. A plethora of bills steeped in complex
tech issues landed on the desks of lawmakers in 2013 -- a trend that should
continue next year. Government Technology has identified five proposals of
note that public-sector technologists should keep tabs on as the calendar
flips to 2014. Right to Remove Online Posts The bill also may be unnecessary. Many social media platforms
and discussion forums already have functions that enable people to delete
their posts. And the advertising aspect of S0318 may encounter First
Amendment problems. In an email to Government Technology, Turner said there
had been little movement on the bill since it was introduced. She admitted
S0318 was "not perfect," but believes it can help initiate broader
discussion regarding protecting children using the Internet and social media.
"We need to figure out how best to protect our children from spur of the
moment judgments that can harm them immediately and later in life,"
Turner wrote. "Additionally, with the Internet being so readily
accessible to children, parents have a harder time monitoring the information
to which their children are exposed.
We need to protect children from being exposed to advertisements for
harmful products." "I hope to resolve the issues with the bill as
the bill moves through the public vetting process," she added. Revamping the Universal Service Fund New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte has introduced a bill to ensure
rural states get a better share of federal communications services. A
percentage of the Universal Service Fund – created by the FCC in 1997 to help
support telecommunications services in public areas such as libraries and
schools, and ensure equitable access to quality communications technology –
is distributed back to states using a complex formula. The USF Equitable
Distribution Act., S. 1766, would alter the formula and require that a rural
state be given back 75 cents for every dollar it contributes to the USF. It
would also define a “rural state” as having less than 200 people per square
mile. According to a press release from Ayotte’s office, Limiting Use of Phone Tracking Devices A group of The Extinction of Landline Phones Legislation is rolling through the Michigan Legislature that
would amend the Michigan Telecommunications Act to streamline the process
companies have to go through to discontinue basic local exchange or toll
service. It passed through the Michigan Senate and is now being evaluated by
the state’s House of Representatives. Sponsored by Sen. Mike Nofs, R-Battle
Creek, Senate Bill 636 is touted by supporters as something that protects
landlines for those that need them, at the same time giving companies the
flexibility to transition to a more cellular-based platform of services, or
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems. But opponents cite concerns over
reliable access to While license plate readers can be helpful to police, privacy
advocates are up in arms over the data collected and stored by license plate
readers. For example, the ACLU of Southern California and the Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los
Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in November over records collected by
license plate readers over the last several years. According to the Journal
Sentinel, Craig had plans to alter the bill after getting feedback from local
police chiefs and is willing to extend the storage time from the proposed 48
hours. Government Technology called Craig’s office multiple times this month
seeking comment on whether those changes were made and the current status of
the legislation, but the messages were not returned. From
http://www.govtech.com/
Law
Struggles to Adapt to High-Tech Gadgets The technology world is reshaping how people live far faster
than the legal world can adapt. When ‘Science Fiction' Personal cellphone use transformed social interaction over the
past decade, yet two of the major cases that allow the government to search
phones were decided in 1969 and 1979, the year the first cell network
activated — in Tokyo. In 1979, the Supreme Court ruled that police did not
need a warrant to see whom a person dialed because phone companies, not
individuals, kept that information. But in the cellphone age, calls include
more than numbers; they include location data. “From that information,
(police) can figure out whether you go to a church on Sunday, a mosque on
Friday, a synagogue on Saturday. Did you go to an AA meeting? A gay bar?”
said Hanni Fakhoury, lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which
advocates greater privacy protection. That 1979 case dealt with a few calls
over a few days from one person, yet the National Security Agency used it to
justify a program that vacuums up and stores for five years much of the call
data in the NSA analysts can see every number a person called in the past
five years, check all the calls of those people over the same five years and
then check all the people those people called as well, according to a lawsuit
challenging the program in the Prying Eyes Privacy advocates worry that devices such as Google Glass — a
computer worn like glasses that includes a tiny screen and a video camera —
will make it impossible to know when someone is being watched and recorded.
But they've raised a problem for law enforcement, too. A Unplanned Obsolescence A case the Supreme Court decided in 2012 — Driving the Debate “There's always going to be some kind of technology frontier
that gets out ahead of where the legal system is,” A state police spokeswoman told the Tribune-Review then that no
laws govern computer-driven vehicles, and she wondered whom police would cite
if the driverless car broke a speed limit or rear-ended someone. “We're not
going to have a good sense of that until we have a lot more of them,” From
http://www.govtech.com/
What You
Need to Know About the New Internet Rules A federal court on Tuesday overthrew federal rules to enforce
what is known as network neutrality, the principle that all Internet traffic
should receive free and equal service. Now, with those rules on ice, Internet
carriers such as Verizon and Comcast can charge websites for faster
service—or even block some data from entering all together. So what does that
mean for your surfing? For now, not much. The ruling mostly affects the scope
of the Federal Communication Commission's authority to regulate the Internet.
It won't be until if and when Internet providers begin to experiment with new
pricing schemes that the changes start—and even then it will be websites, and
not individual users, that absorb most of the impact. But make no mistake, if
the FCC's rules really are gone and stay gone, Internet users will feel it. Take Netflix. The website is a bandwidth glutton, as its
streaming service requires massive amounts of information to pass through the
Web. That could prove pricey now that Internet providers are permitted to
charge more, and that bill would likely be passed on to consumers when it
came time to pay their monthly subscription fees. Netflix, like other
video-streaming services, is particularly vulnerable because not only does it
use significantly more data than other websites, it competes directly with
Internet providers' cable offerings. "The way to think about [Internet]
providers is that they own the driveway to your house," said John Blevins,
associate professor of law at the Loyola University New Orleans College of
Law. "What this decision does is, it effectively enables a provider to
act like a bouncer and dictate what data [go] into your house." In the long run, net-neutrality advocates worry that
charge-for-speed arrangements will stifle innovation. Consumers might miss
out on the next Google, the advocates say, because Internet fledglings that
lack the cash to pay for faster service are at a disadvantage. "Strong
enforcement of the Commission's Open Internet principles is the least
Congress can do to preserve a free and open Internet, ensuring that networks
remain a robustly competitive engine for innovation and economic
growth," said Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo, whose district includes a large
portion of Silicon Valley. "I will utilize every arrow in my quiver,
including legislation, to make sure the FCC can carry out this critical
mission effectively." Others, however, believe that the lack of
regulation is what built the Internet as we know it, and they say less
regulation will produce new technologies. Referring to the FCC's decision to
classify the Internet as an information service rather than a
telecommunications service, Republican Reps. Fred Upton and Greg Walden said
in a joint statement Tuesday: "In the Internet's infancy, the commission made the right
decision to leave it free from the interference of government regulators.
Today's ruling vacates the commission's attempt to go back on this policy and
to smother the Internet with rules designed for the monopoly telephone
network." Although Verizon said in a statement Tuesday that users'
Internet experience will not change post-ruling, the company's attorney said
during the oral argument in September that Verizon will explore charging
websites for faster service if the open Internet rules are overturned.
Net-neutrality advocates got some solace Tuesday, however. The court left
intact one piece of the FCC's rule that requires service providers to
disclose which traffic they speed up, slow down, or block altogether. So,
yes, your Internet provider could block access to your favorite site, but it
would at least have to tell you that it did. From
http://www.nextgov.com/
White House
Calls for Major Changes to DATA Act The White House wants major revisions to the Senate's version of
the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014. Among the biggest
changes is the decision to move away from standards and toward open data
structures to publish information, according to a marked up version of the
DATA Act obtained by Federal News Radio. OMB gave the bill to agencies Friday
midday to comment on with a deadline of 5 p.m. that day. OMB's Barbara
Menard, the assistant director for legislative reference, wrote in a memo to
other legislative affairs officers that they should share the marked up bill
with their agency's CFO, chief information officer, budget, procurement and
grant/financial assistance components. "We specifically would like to
know your sense of the effort required to meet the amended requirements in
the longer timeframes culling obligations by object class by fund symbol from
your financial systems, and culling obligations by program by fund symbol assuming
program corresponds to an allotment or sub-allotment of agency choosing in
consultation with RMOs," Menard wrote. "Your views on the pilot
program and specifically that it will touch the grants and financial
assistance, procurement, and financial reporting communities; and your views
on the debt collection provisions at the end of the bill." The original bill, sponsored by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), called
for the Treasury Department, the Office of Management and Budget, the General
Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management to establish
governmentwide financial data standards for all federal funds and include
common data elements for financial payment information. The legislation also
called for the standards to be maintained by a voluntary consensus standards
body, federal agencies with the authority over contracting and financial
assistance and accounting standards organizations. But the White House's
marked up bill shows major changes, including requiring OMB in consultation
with Treasury to "review and, if necessary, revise standards to ensure
accuracy and consistency through methods such as establishing linkages
between data in agency financial systems." Push to open data, not standards Additionally, the administration suggested OMB and Treasury
would "clarify and standardize definitions on grants and contracts used
by agencies and entities that receive federal funds," and "shall
prescribe the use of open data structures to publish information." The
administration also wants to remove all the subsections under requirements
for data and implementation, and just require agencies to have a standard
method of reporting the data. And where the data resides is another sticking
point. Warner wanted agencies through the USASpending.gov site to make all
financial, procurement and grant data public and to offer the ability to
download in bulk. But OMB makes two major changes, including not calling out
USASpending.gov, but saying the information should be posted to "a site
determined by the director of OMB, the amount of budget authority
appropriated, other budgetary resources, obligations and unobligated balances
for each appropriations account, both expires and unexpired." OMB does
call on agencies to use USASpending.gov to post data obligated and outlayed
for each program as well as for each object class. Additionally, OMB wants
agencies to update the data quarterly and not monthly as called for in
Warner's version. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
passed an amended version of DATA Act in November. But the new version of the
bill never got time on the Senate floor for debate or a vote. "The Obama
administration talks a lot about transparency, but these comments reflect a
clear attempt to gut the DATA Act," Warner said, in a statement.
"DATA reflects years of bipartisan, bicameral work, and to propose
substantial, unproductive changes this late in the game is unacceptable. We
look forward to passing the DATA Act, which had near universal support in its
House passage and passed unanimously out of its Senate Committee. I will not
back down from a bill that holds the government accountable and provides
taxpayers the transparency they deserve." The White House said its
markup of the Senate's version also seeks to address concerns they have
received over the House's version of the bill. The House passed its version
of the DATA Act in November. "The Administration believes data
transparency is a critical element to good government, and we share the goal
of advancing transparency and accountability of federal spending," a
White House spokesman said. "We will continue to work with Congress and
other stakeholders to identify the most effective and efficient use of
taxpayer dollars to accomplish this goal." Concerns over the markup Hudson Hollister, the founder and executive director of the Data
Transparency Coalition, said the basic purpose of the DATA Act is gone from
OMB's markups because it hampers the two basic steps needed for data
transparency: data standardization and online accessibility in one place.
"Unfortunately, OMB's revisions imperil both steps," he said.
"OMB has rewritten the data standards provision so it's not really about
data standards at all. The word 'standards' is still in there but nothing
else is. What do we mean when we talk about data standards, we mean that
there has to be consistent, governmentwide identifiers for grants and
contracts, grantees and contractors. In the revised version from OMB, there
is none of that specificity. Instead of anyone being required to set data
standards governmentwide for spending, the draft now says 'OMB shall review
and revise if necessary the standards for the consistency of data.' That
requirement could be met with an OMB memo. There's no requirement for consistent
identifiers. There's no requirement for consistent formats anymore." Hollister added OMB removed the requirement in the Senate's
version for agencies to follow the standards, which is a major change. He
said the Government Accountability and Transparency Board (GAT Board) said in
December 2011 that transparency can't happen unless there are governmentwide
standards for grants and contracts. OMB's decision to remove the requirement
for consistent formats flies in the face of the GAT Board's recommendations.
Another significant suggested change to Warner's bill is around the pilot
program run by OMB and Treasury to test out these concepts of a common
approach, to eliminate duplication and to reduce compliance costs. Instead,
OMB wants to "develop and oversee" the pilot program. Warner also
wanted OMB guidance to come out 90 days after agencies completed the pilot
program. The White House changed that timetable to one year after agencies
finished testing the new approach. A third section that saw major changes was
on funding. Originally, the bill called for Treasury to use money in its
franchise fund to pay for the act's implementation. But OMB took out that
provision and changed the section heading to reporting requirements. Reporting requirements moved to one year In the new section, the administration said one year after the
bill becomes law, OMB will submit a report to Congress describing "the
review of, and any revisions to, standards to ensure accuracy, consistency
through methods such as establishing a linkage between data in agency
financial systems and information reported to taxpayers, and describes any
actions taken to clarify and standardize definitions on grants and contracts,
with a follow up report due one year later providing timeframes when guidance
was or will be revised and implemented." Hollister said if Warner
accepts many of these recommendations the coalition would withdraw its
support for the bill. "We don't believe this is consistent with the
President's own policy," Hollister said. "The open data policy sets
the seven characteristics of open data. Those characteristics include
information should be fully accessible using open data standards, information
should be fully published to citizens and whoever needs it. The Executive
Order President Obama issued with the open data policy called on his White
House staff to make sure these principles get implemented in the federal
grants and in the federal procurement arena, which are a major subset of the
information covered in the DATA Act. But with these comments on the DATA Act
OMB seems to have moved backwards in this position." From
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/
UNESCO Reveals
Successful ICT-Pedagogy Integration Project UNESCO
Bangkok in From http://www.futuregov.asia/
OECD Delivers New Single Global Standard on Automatic Exchange of
Information Offshore tax evasion remains a serious
problem for countries and jurisdictions worldwide, with vast amounts of funds
deposited abroad and sheltered from taxation when taxpayers fail to comply
with obligations in their home countries. Responding to a mandate from G20
leaders to reinforce action against tax avoidance and evasion and inject
greater trust and fairness into the international tax system, the OECD has
unveiled today a new single global standard for the automatic exchange of
information between tax authorities worldwide. Developed by the OECD together
with G20 countries, the standard calls on jurisdictions to obtain information
from their financial institutions and exchange that information automatically
with other jurisdictions on an annual basis. It sets out the financial
account information to be exchanged, the financial institutions that need to
report, the different types of accounts and taxpayers covered, as well as
common due diligence procedures to be followed by financial institutions. The OECD will formally present the standard
for the endorsement of G20 finance ministers during a 22-23 February meeting
in The new standard draws extensively on
previous OECD work on the automatic exchange of information. It incorporates
progress made in this area within the European Union and ongoing efforts to
reinforce global anti-money laundering standards. It also recognises the
catalytic role that implementation of the USForeign Account Tax Compliance
Act (FATCA) has played in the G20 move towards automatic exchange of
information in a multilateral context. More than 40 countries have committed
to early adoption of the standard. The Global Forum on Transparency and
Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, hosted by the OECD, brings together
121 jurisdictions worldwide. It has been mandated by the G20 to monitor and
review implementation of the standard. The OECD is expected to deliver a
detailed Commentary on the new standard, as well as technical solutions to
implement the actual information exchanges, during a meeting of G20 finance
ministers in September 2014. From http://www.oecd.org/ Open Data Institute
Announces Five New International Nodes The Open
Data Institute (ODI) yesterday announced five new international ODI Nodes
including the first two from the Asia Pacific region: Each Node
has agreed to adopt the ODI Charter, which is a open source codification of
the ODI itself, and embodies principles of open data business, publishing,
communication, and collaboration. The creation of ODI Nodes around the world
highlights how people are using the power of open to combine expertise and
resources. Each Node will catalyse open data culture across commercial,
public sector, and developer communities, and communicate open data success
stories globally. City and regional Nodes will identify open data
collaboration projects, and publish data relating to themselves and their
work using open standards such as the ODI Open Data Certificate. The ODI is
an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, Limited by Guarantee company
founded by Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt and Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee. It
has secured £10 million (US$ 15.9 million) over five years via the From http://www.futuregov.asia
ICT
Priorities in the Middle East - This report presents the findings from a survey of 137 Middle
Eastern enterprises regarding their Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) investment priorities. The survey investigates the core technologies
which Middle Eastern enterprises are investing in, including the likes of
enterprise applications, security, mobility, communications and
collaboration, and Cloud Computing. Introduction and Landscape Why was the report written? In order to provide deeper insights into Middle Eastern
enterprises' ICT investment priorities and strategic objectives. What is the current market landscape and what is changing? Enterprises in the What are the key drivers behind recent market changes? Organizations across the What makes this report unique and essential to read? Kable Global ICT Intelligence has invested significant resources
in order to interview CIOs and IT managers about their IT investment
priorities. Very few IT analyst houses will have interviewed 130+ ICT
decision makers in the Key Features and Benefits Recognize Middle Eastern enterprises' strategic objectives with
regards to their ICT investments. Identify Middle Eastern enterprises'
investment priorities based on their budget allocations across core technology
categories such as enterprise applications, security, mobility,
communications and collaboration, and Cloud Computing, etc. Learn about the
drivers that are influencing Middle Eastern enterprises' investments in each
technology category. Establish how Middle Eastern enterprises' IT budgets are
currently allocated across various segments within a technology category.
Gain insight into how Middle Eastern enterprises plan to change their IT
budget allocations across various segments within a technology category. Key Market Issues Enterprises in the Key Highlights With the increasing adoption of applications such as customer
relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM), 91% of
enterprises are favouring investments in enterprise applications in the next
two years. The demand for virtualization technologies is expected to rise
with 51%, 48%, 46%, and 41% of enterprises planning to invest in server,
network, desktop, and storage virtualization respectively through to the end
of 2014. Mobility is slowly gaining acceptance in the Middle Eastern
enterprise market, as 74% of enterprises are currently using this technology,
and 85% are planning to invest in this area in the next two years. The survey
shows that with the increasing need of enterprises to reduce travel and
operational costs and connect with employees/clients who are geographically
dispersed, 69% of Middle Eastern enterprises are planning investments in
web/video conferencing systems in the next two years. The survey shows that enterprises' investments in private cloud
and hybrid cloud are relatively low. Nevertheless, investments in these areas
are expected to grow as 62% and 60% of enterprises are planning to invest in
them respectively in the next twenty-four months. 1 Enterprise ICT investment trends 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Survey demographics 1.3 ICT budget changes 1.4 Strategic objectives 1.5 Core technology investment priorities 2 Detailed ICT investment priorities 2.1 Introduction 2.2 2.3 Business intelligence 2.4 Security 2.5 Content management 2.6 Mobility 2.7 IT systems management 2.8 Communications and collaboration 2.9 Green IT and virtualization 2.1 Cloud computing solutions 3 Summary 3.1 Middle Eastern enterprises are planning to increase their
spending on advanced technologies such as mobility and cloud computing 4 Appendix 4.1 Definitions 4.2 Further reading 4.3 Contact the authors List of Tables Table 1: Middle Eastern enterprise ICT survey geographical
breakdown Table 2: Middle Eastern enterprise ICT survey industry breakdown Table 3: Middle Eastern enterprise ICT survey breakdown by size
band (number of employees) Table 4: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among Middle
Eastern enterprises Table 5: Current strategic objectives of Middle Eastern
enterprises Table 6: Current and future investment priorities of Middle
Eastern enterprises across core technologies Table 7: Table 8: Business intelligence - Middle Eastern enterprises'
current and future investment priorities Table 9: Security - Middle Eastern enterprises' current and
future investment priorities Table 10: Content management - Middle Eastern enterprises'
current and future investment priorities Table 11: Mobility - Middle Eastern enterprises' current and
future investment priorities Table 12: IT systems management - Middle Eastern enterprises'
current and future investment priorities Table 13: Communications and collaboration - Middle Eastern
enterprises' current and future investment priorities Table 14: Green IT and virtualization - Middle Eastern
enterprises' current and future investment priorities Table 15: Cloud computing solutions - Middle Eastern
enterprises' current and future investment priorities List of Figures Figure 1: Middle Eastern enterprise ICT survey geographical
breakdown Figure 2: Middle Eastern enterprise ICT survey industry
breakdown Figure 3: Middle Eastern enterprise ICT survey breakdown by size
band (number of employees) Figure 4: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among Middle
Eastern enterprises Figure 5: Current strategic objectives of Middle Eastern
enterprises Figure 6: Current and future investment priorities of Middle
Eastern enterprises across core technologies Figure 7: Figure 8: Business intelligence - Middle Eastern enterprises'
current and future investment priorities Figure 9: Security - Middle Eastern enterprises' current and
future investment priorities Figure 10: Content management - Middle Eastern enterprises'
current and future investment priorities Figure 11: Mobility - Middle Eastern enterprises' current and
future investment priorities Figure 12: IT systems management - Middle Eastern enterprises'
current and future investment priorities Figure 13: Communications and collaboration - Middle Eastern
enterprises' current and future investment priorities Figure 14: Green IT and virtualization - Middle Eastern
enterprises' current and future investment priorities Figure 15: Cloud computing solutions - Middle Eastern
enterprises' current and future investment priorities From
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/
|
|
|
|
|
|
China will cut the price of From http://www.news.cn/
China started a two-and-a-half-year process of drafting a
comprehensive e-commerce law on Friday as its e-commerce market expands at
full speed.A drafting group for the legislation was set up on Friday during a
meeting by the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People's
Congress (NPC)."Booming e-commerce has become a growth point for
national economic development and a focal point for adjusting its
structure," said Lyu Zushan, head of the drafting group."As a
result, it is in urgent need to tease out, replenish, revise and improve
existing laws and regulations," he said, adding that a comprehensive law
could promote sustainable and healthy development of e-commerce.According to
a preliminary timetable set at Friday's meeting, the drafting group will
embark on research of the subject and submit a report by the end of 2014, and
actual drafting of the law should be completed by June 2016.The transaction
value of China's e-commerce industry reached about 8 trillion yuan (about
1.32 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2012, up 30.8 percent year on year. From http://www.news.cn/
China.com Jumpstarts Global Internet Expansion
Plans More than a decade after the website sunk into oblivion, the new
owners of the China.com domain name are hoping an international revival will
grab users back to the site.Guoguang Global Media Holdings Limited, the
industrial management platform of China Radio International, recently
announced growth plans for its acquired business, China.com. Founded in May
1999, China.com is one of the earliest portal websites in For the mobile sector, they will focus on the development of
news and forum client products and as a content provider they will cooperate
with more devices. For the regional sector, they will adopt the franchising
model to establish portals in over 20 cities in From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
National Poverty Information System to Be Established An accurate poverty relief information system will be
established to better manage poverty reduction measures, according to a new
guideline from the central authorities published on Saturday.Under this
system, each poor village and family will have their own file to identify
poverty relief targets. It will connect poverty reduction and development
with the minimum living standard security system in rural areas. Detailed
poverty relief measures should be joined with poverty identifications, according
the guideline.In-depth analysis will be conducted on individual poverty
cases, which will help implement targeted measures for each family.Liu
Yongfu, head of the State Council's poverty alleviation office, vowed to
establish a strict managing system to ensure poverty-relief fund allocations
for the poor. A feasibility study on poverty-relief funds information
disclosure system above the county level is on the way, People’s Daily
reported.The guideline also specified a number of prominent problems that
should be solved in poor regions, including village-level roads, drinking
water safety, the electricity supply, renovation of run-down houses,
education and health care. From http://www.news.cn/
China's securities regulator said on Friday that it would work
with other agencies to issue a set of rules to govern the burgeoning Internet
finance industry.Despite being "generally supportive" of Internet
finance, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said the nascent
sector still needs proper regulation and guidance."Internet finance has
some unique features and we need targeted regulations," a commission
representive told a press conference.The sector's growth has shaken up the
financial community, and the comment comes as media reports suggest the
central bank is readying a set of Internet finance rules.The charge has been
led by Jack Ma's e-commerce giant, Alibaba. The company's personal online finance product, Yu'E Bao
(Leftover Treasure),has attracted a lot of attention since it was launched
last June. Yu'E Bao allows customers to invest any balance on their account
in a money market fund. Less than nine months later, at the end of 2013, the scheme
had attracted 43 million investors with aggregate deposits of 185 billion
yuan (30.3 billion U.S. dollars) making it the the single biggest public fund
in China.The potential of this market has not gone unnoticed by other
Internet superstars like Tencent and Baidu. Both are now pushing similar
financial products.Alibaba's latest move to attract investors was an offer of
financial products worth 880 million yuan. They were snapped up within three
minutes.While investors are delighted by the new investment choices, analysts
advise caution. From http://www.news.cn/
Nikkei reported the Japanese government had planned to introduce
consumption tax to foreign online suppliers of music and e-books. According
to the news report, transaction of buying foreign e-books is currently
exempted from consumption tax in From
http://www.aastocks.com/
Kim Min-sun, a mother of two (also obviously in support of the
bill), was quoted by AP News as saying online games take children away from
real life. “Without online games, kids would talk to their mother and play,”
she said. A top lawmaker from South Korea’s ruling party, Hwang Woo-yea, has
also been quoted as saying there is a need to “create a clean Korea free from
the four addictions,” one of those being gaming. The South Korean
government’s latest annual study apparently shows that two percent of South
Koreans aged between 10 to 19 – about From
http://sg.news.yahoo.com
From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Gov’t
Announces Long-term ‘Culture Technology’ R&D Plan Combining culture and technology, the catchphrase "culture
technology" was coined in 2001 to describe one of the government’s six
main future-oriented technologies, along with the likes of information
technology, biotechnology and nano technology. As the content industry
converges with IT, so-called "culture technology" can now be
applied to the entertainment, education, medical, national defense,
manufacturing, robotics and automobile sectors, all of which now put a much
higher emphasis on "culture technology." Currently, the Korean
government considers itself as having 72.5 percent of the technological
capability of some other advanced countries. Part of the goal of this new
plan is to increase that to 85 percent by 2017. Concurrently, and also by
2017, the government plans to increase the country's "culture, leisure
and happiness index" (unofficial translation) to more than 30 percent by
carrying out more R&D into the creative industries. Finally, the
government also plans to increase the number of commercialized technologies
from 1.1 cases per KRW 100 million of government investment to 1.3
cases by 2017. From
http://www.korea.net
Park Calls
for Ceaseless Efforts for Technological Innovations President Park Geun-hye urged scientists and
information-communication technology (ICT) experts Friday to work harder to
develop new technologies and innovate, saying From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Park Makes
Pitch for Greater IT Cooperation with South Korean President Park Geun-hye held a series of meetings
with information technology experts and other business leaders of From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mayor of Pekalongan, Dr. Mohamad Basyir Ahmad, shared with
FutureGov that the Indonesian city of 323,911 has already seen great success
in its transformation and is well on its way to becoming a Smart City by
2015. Pekalongan’s Smart City journey has been guided by its E-Development
Framework since 2008 with five areas of focus - infrastructure development;
e-literacy and digital divide; strengthening institutions; regulation, policy
and governance; and applications, said Mayor Ahmad. The City Government plans
to go paperless with a digital office and empower communities at the lowest
level with ICT by 2015. In the last five years, the city has developed its
infrastructure network connecting all local government units, health service
units, and public junior and senior high schools. By 2015, it plans to
virtualise and integrate its data centre, and strengthen its disaster
recovery centre and cloud-based applications. The city has built Broadband
Learning Centres where 4000 citizens receive ICT training free of charge
every year, says Ahmad. It has also developed a Mobile Community Access Point
which allows the government to conveniently deliver early ICT education to
residents. Moreover, it has built telecentres as internet access points in
villages and other communities. In order to strengthen institutional support for these initiatives,
the city has setup an ICT Committee and appointed the Mayor as CIO of
Pekalongan City Government. In 2011, the city’s two ICT organisations were
combined to form one ICT Department for the City Government in order to
better coordinate ICT expenditure. The City Government departments have
migrated to free open source software in order to standardise platforms for
applications. The Mayor notes that the next steps for the city are to further
interoperability, integrated applications and database. It also aims to
migrate health and government service applications to open source software by
2015. The city has been nationally recognised for its ICT initiatives in
government, education and health through a number of awards over the years,
including From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin launched, earlier
this week, a national policy document that outlines The directive outlines six main principles in dealing with a
cyber crisis. These are: 1.National Cyber Crisis Management Structure 2. National Cyber Threat Level 3. Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) 4. Cyber Security Protection Mechanism 5. Response, Communication and Coordination procedure 6. Readiness Programme “I suggest that all agency heads fully understand and comply
with what is contained in this directive so that the effort and strategies
formulated can be effectively implemented,” Muhyiddin said. “Furthermore, I
also encourage all agencies to set up a Computer Emergency Response Team to
boost internal capabilities in handling cyber incidents.” From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) launched
the pilot trial of its Project Information Management System, a database that
tracks all anti-poverty initiatives in the country by using a built-in
geo-tagging feature. According to DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman,
PIMS will help make project implementation more efficient, as the information
is now integrated for all units at different levels – from the central
government agencies down to the barangays (villages). Aside from data
storage, the system can also be used for map production, geo-tagging
application, and spatial analysis. It also has web and Short Message Service
(SMS) applications. She highlighted its geo-tagging feature as a key tool
that can help local authorities ensure transparency in project
implementations. Geo-tagging involves attaching location-specific information
such as geographical coordinates to pictures, videos and even SMS messages.
By incorporating geo-tagging, in project management, DWSD can easily track,
validate and confirm the roll out of government projects and whether they
have achieved their desired goals. “The PIMS helps ensure the integrity of
the project by making the data transparent at all levels. Since more eyes
will now be looking into the progress of the projects the possibility of
committing fraud is minimised even more,” Soliman said. She added that
through PIMS, lead agencies will now be able to better track the progress of
the projects, allowing them to better respond to issues and concerns that may
be flagged by any of the staff. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Philippine
Supreme Court Declares Law on Online Libel Constitutional The Philippine Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday declared
constitutional several provisions in Republic Act 10175 or Cybercrime Law
including the one that penalizes online libel. Supreme Court spokesman
Theodore Te told reporters in a press briefing that the online libel
provision in the Cybercrime Law is constitutional with respect to the
original author of the post. The High Court, however, did not allow penalties
for those who simply receive the post or react to it. The SC also declared constitutional
a provision on aiding or abetting in the commission of cybercrime such as
illegal access, computer-related fraud, computer-related identity theft, and
cybersex. The High Court, however, declared unconstitutional the power of the
Department of Justice to take down computer data. Other provisions that were
ordered scrapped by the SC for being unconstitutional are those that pertain
to penalties for posting of unsolicited commercial communications and that
which authorizes the collection or recording of traffic data in real-time. Te
said petitioners are allowed to file a motion for reconsideration before the
SC. With the ruling, Te said the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by
the SC against the implementation of Cybercrime Law is automatically lifted.
The SC extended indefinitely the TRO on the implementation of the Cybercrime
Law before the 120-day TRO lapsed on Feb. 6 last year. From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
The Ministry of Education Thailand
reveals five key strategies in its Technology Master Plan for Education,
after a meeting last week presided by Minister of Education Chaturon
Chaisaeng. The strategies, designed to improve the use of technology in
learning, include: 1.To increase the performance and
capabilities of ICT teachers and staff 2.To develop standard, content, and
electronic learning media 3.To develop ICT infrastructure 4.To develop ICT system for
supporting management and services 5.To promote research and development
of innovative technology for education The Ministry has been working with From http://www.futuregov.asia/
Leaders of the Centre for Information Technology and
Communications under the Department of Information and Communications of Dien
Bien Province gathered last week to review this year’s achievements and priorities
for 2014. Dien Bien is one of the smaller provinces in From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
|
|
|
|
|
|
The government has decided to sell the
unused bandwidth of the country's lone submarine cable to generate more
revenue.On Sunday, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication took the
decision, which is to be carried out by retaining enough bandwidth to meet
the country's projected needs up to 2021, Post and Telecommunication Secretary
Abu Bakar Siddique told bdnews24.com after a meeting of the ministry. From http://newsfrombangladesh.net/ As per the existing tariff framework, tariff for
telecommunication access services is under forbearance except for National
Roaming and Rural Fixed Line Services. Service providers offer tariff schemes
which are beneficial for different consumer classes depending on their usage
profile. Giving this information in written reply to a question in the Rajya
Sabha, Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications and Information
Technology, said that there may be several factors which influence a
potential consumer to choose a particular network like the availability of
tariff schemes suited to his usage profile and his perception about the
quality of service of any particular service provider etc. Regulation of
tariff for providing telecom services in From
http://pib.nic.in/ For the Rural populace of (i) Rural PLI processing work has been decentralized to
Divisional level:- Bringing
decision making closer to the common man thereby expediting sanction of
loans, revival of lapsed policies and
maturity claims. This
allows contingent needs of the people to be met easily. (ii) Facilitating payment of premia through Post Offices anywhere
in the country regardless of where the policy was issued without any transfer
of policy being required. (iii) Facility for payment of premium online through
www.epostoffice.gov.in. (iv) (v)Higher Sum Assured:- For providing opportunity for financial
security in line with increasing requirements of the people, the maximum sum
assured limit has been raised for
RPLI from Rs. 3 lacs to Rs. 5 lacs.
(vi)A Toll free number (18001805232/ 155232) has been
operationalized and publicized for inquiries and grievance settlement. People
from anywhere in the country can call and get their problems settled. (vii)Training to Rural PLI marketing staff i.e. GDS staff,
Direct Agents and Departmental employees is being imparted to improve their
marketing skills. (viii) Facility of Payment of outstanding premia of policy on
installments basis. (ix)Technology/IT initiative:- The technological initiatives being
undertaken for Rural Postal Life Insurance are : (a)Development of Centralized software for improved after sales
service for all RPLI customers. (b)Development of Web and mobile portal for customers to allow
seamless issue of insurance policies and making online payments under
Financial Services Integration plan of the Department. (c)Call centre for handling customer services. (d)Real time updating of premium payments. (e) Centralized monitoring of grievances. (f) Setting up of 809 Central Processing Centres (CPCs) at all
Head Post Offices in the country for providing single window for handling of
insurance proposals, service requests and claims for RPLI customers. From
http://pib.nic.in/ IT Signals the Beginning of a Nationwide Initiative Aimed at
Providing Government Services Through Mobile Devices The ‘Mobile Seva’ (the
national mobile-governance initiative of DeitY) was dedicated to the citizens
here today by Shri J. Satyanarayana, Secretary, Department of Electronics and
Information Technology (DeitY), at a function organized at DeitY, Electronics
Niketan. The logo for ‘Mobile Seva’ too was unveiled at the function. Mobile
Seva aims to provide government services to the people through mobile phones
and tablets. It has been developed as the core infrastructure for enabling
the availability of public services through mobile devices. Mobile Seva
enables the integration of the mobile platform with the common e-Governance
infrastructure consisting of State Data Centers (SDCs), State Wide Area
Networks (SWANs), State and National Service Delivery Gateways (SSDGs/NSDG).
It enables a government department to integrate both web and mobile based
services seamlessly and enhances the access to electronic services
tremendously leveraging the very high penetration of mobile phones,
especially in rural areas. Availability of government‐wide shared
infrastructure and services enables rapid development and reduced costs for
the departments in rolling out mobile based services. As on date, 833 Central and State Govt. Departments are using
Mobile Seva for providing SMS-based services, and over 55.25 Crore SMS
notifications have been sent to citizens for various mobile based services.
Citizens can now directly interact with Government Departments through SMS.
As on date, 254 public services have been made available to the citizens. A
Mobile Applications Store (m-App Store) has also been developed by DeitY as
part of Mobile Seva. The Mobile Governance Portal and the m-App Store can be
accessed at http://mgov.gov.in/. The m-Appstore currently hosts over 240 live
mobile applications. The live applications can be downloaded and installed
free of cost on a mobile phone by any person. A Mobile Applications Store
(m-App Store) has also been developed by DeitY as part of Mobile Seva. The
Mobile Governance Portal and the m-App Store can be accessed at
http://mgov.gov.in/. The m-Appstore currently hosts over 240 live mobile
applications. The live applications can be downloaded and installed free of
cost on a mobile phone by any person. Citizens can visit http://mgov.gov.in/
for more information. From
http://pib.nic.in/ Scheme
for Operationalization of Power System Development Fund The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal of the Ministry of
Power for operationalization of the Power System Development Fund (PSDF) and
the scheme formulated for utilization of funds deposited therein based on the
procedure laid down in the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC)
Power System Development Fund Regulations. The Power System Development Fund
will be utilized for the following purposes : i)Creating necessary transmission systems of strategic
importance based on operational feedback by Load Dispatch Centers for
relieving congestion in Inter-State Transmission Systems (ISTS) and
intra-state system which are incidental to the ISTS. ii)Installation of shunt capacitors, series compensators and
other reactive energy generators for improvement of voltage profile in the
grid. iii)Installation of standard and special protection schemes, pilot and
demonstrative projects, and for setting right discrepancies identified in protection
audits on regional basis. iv)Renovation and Modernization (R&M) of transmission and
distribution systems for relieving congestion. v)Any other scheme / project in furtherance of the above
objectives, such as, conducting technical studies and capacity building, etc.
The PSDF will be operationalized within three months. From
http://pib.nic.in/ NABARD
Initiates a Slew of Measures for Promoting Rural Credit and Rural
Infrastructure NABARD has initiated a slew of measures for improving rural
credit and rural infrastructure particularly warehousing as decided at the
198th Meeting of the Board of Directors chaired by Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala,
Chairman, NABARD, held here yesterday.The Board has approved the launch of
three crop specific Pilot Projects with production and post-production
interventions to be implemented through Primary Agriculture Co-operative
Society (PACS). The three Pilot Projects include business models for potato
in Hooghly district, West Bengal, tomato in Karnal district, Haryana, and
onion in The Pilot Projects envisage crop-specific market surveys,
identification of specific market players and marketing support through
establishment of Project Market Facilitation Centres (PMFCs). The Projects
will provide for productivity enhancing measures and post-harvest
interventions. These measures include support for irrigation particularly
micro-irrigation, scientific storage facility, cold storages and setting-up
of agro-service centres. The pilots will also support promotional
interventions including field demonstrations, crop and activity specific
training and capacity building of farmers, exposure visits, etc. for ensuring
technology adoption by them. NABARD has sanctioned 548 warehousing projects
in seven states amounting to Rs 1,046 crore under the NABARD Warehousing
Scheme (NWS). These projects on completion will create an additional storage
scientific space of 11.30 lakh MT for agriculture commodities and also help
in better price discovery for farmers. NABARD Warehousing Scheme 2013-14 has
been formulated as per the announcement made in the Union Budget with a
corpus of Rs 5,000 crore. The scheme envisages financial support for
construction of warehouses, godowns, silos, cold storages and cold chain
infrastructure to store agriculture produce, both in public and private
sectors. As decided by its ALCO, NABARD has revised the rate of interest
on refinance provided to banks for investment credit with effect from January
7, 2014. The refinance rate has been reduced by 20 basis points, and the
revised rate of interest on refinance for a period of five years for
Commercial Banks, State Cooperative Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Primary
Urban Cooperative Banks will be 9.70%. The revised rate of interest for
refinance for a period of three to five years will be 9.90%. Further, banks
drawing refinance of Rs 500 crore and more in a single drawal will be allowed
further reduction of 10 basis points, making the effective rate 9.60% and
9.80% respectively. However, for State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural
Development Banks (SCRDBs), 10 basis points reduction is allowed for a single
drawal of Rs 200 crore and above. These measures are expected to give a boost
to banks for extending investment credit and creation of much-needed
warehousing infrastructure for agricultural commodities in the country. From
http://pib.nic.in/ |
|
|
|
|
|
From
http://en.trend.az/
Minister: Internet Tariff Reduction Plan
Prepared in The Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry has prepared a
plan to reduce the tariffs for Internet services, Communications and IT
Minister Ali Abbasov told the media on Monday. "The tariffs for the
Internet are not regulated by the country. However, its role in this issue is
undeniable," he said. "In general, the cost of the Internet in the
country is being declined," he said. "Our plan on reducing this
cost will soon be available. This will allow Internet service providers to
make their services even more affordable for the end user." The minister
also discussed the issue of getting income for the Azerbaijani first
satellite programme. "The proceeds from From
http://en.trend.az/
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes has launched a pilot project
for applying e-accounting to municipal taxes and payments. Taking into
account that within the development concept of 'Azerbaijan 2020: Looking to
the Future', one of the priority issues is the use of ICT in state and local
government bodies. This is in addition to the strengthening of information
security in accordance with the minister's order (Dec. 25, 2013) and the Ministry
of Taxes will start the implementation of the pilot project for applying
electronic registration of individuals including payers of local taxes
including municipal and payments. Three municipalities - Binaqadi in From
http://en.trend.az/
"Electronic Court" Information
System to Be Created in President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed an Order on
creation of " From
http://en.trend.az/
A national mobile operator will be created in Uzbekistan between
2014 The mobile communication network is planned to cover the city of
From
http://en.trend.az/
|
|
|
|
|
|
How do · Telstra:
Has a number of roaming options. The International Casual Traveller Data
Packs has a one-off charge (up to $350 for 1.5GB) on a post-paid phone or
tablet. The pre-paid International Roaming Browse Plus Packs offers just
600MB of data for $160. They last for 30 days. · Optus: For
$ · Vodafone:
For $ Corbin
believes these prices are still too high. “The recent changes are a step in
the right direction but there is now a confusing array of roaming offers from
data packs, to pay as you go to $5 and $ The
newspaper also quoted Telstra’s Scott Whiffin: “Any move to impose further
regulation and cost on industry must take into account the fact the mobiles
market is already highly competitive. “The joint Australian and New Zealand
Government report into roaming last year concluded the quality of service is
high, prices have been trending down and new service options are being introduced
for consumers.” The CEO of industry body AMTA (Australian Mobile
Telecommunications Association) Chris Althaus, said the industry had
responded to market forces with simpler and more affordable roaming products
and plans. He also said AMTA and the industry was working with the Department
of Communications and the ACMA to provide consumers with enhanced information
on roaming products and charges. “Clearly the market has responded with a
significant downward shift on international mobile roaming charges.
Market-based outcomes are by far the preferred result as opposed to
regulatory intervention, which runs the risk of adding unnecessary burden to
industry via compliance costs and excessive red tape. “To maintain the highly
competitive nature of the mobile industry regulation needs to be minimised to
provide the flexibility necessary for industry to adapt to the rapid pace of
technological change and the continual evolution of business models in mobile
markets. “We believe that Vodafone, Optus and Telstra have responded to the
market with competitive new offerings in the international roaming market
that show there is no need to further regulatory intervention.” From http://www.itwire.com
The Office
of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) today released the
Australian Privacy Principles (APP) guidelines, an important step toward
preparing public and private sectors for major changes in privacy law to be
implemented in March this year. “March 12 will see the biggest change in
privacy law in 25 years, and the APP guidelines are an essential tool for the
implementation of this change,” shared Australian Information Commissioner,
Professor John McMillan. The introduction of the APPs is one of the
significant changes under the new laws. The APPs are a single set of
principles that will cover both public and private sectors when the
amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 come into place. Currently, Australian
Government agencies are covered by the Information Privacy Principles, while
the private sector is covered by the National Privacy Principles. The APP
guidelines will be a key resource for entities covered by the Privacy Act in
assessing their compliance with the new laws. “We have put a lot of work into
producing the APP guidelines, including extensive public consultation, so
that we can maximise their usefulness to business and government,” said
Professor McMillan. “The APP guidelines not only outline minimum compliance
requirements, they also provide practical examples of best practice.” The new
privacy laws from 12 March will mean that Australians can more easily ask an
organisation where they collected their personal information from and find
out if it will be sent overseas. They will also be able to request access to
their personal information held by an organisation or government agency or
request a correction to their information held. In addition to the APP guidelines,
the OAIC will also be producing a practical tool for organisations to review
their privacy policy, that will be ready in March. From http://www.futuregov.asia
Channa
Jayasinha was appointed CIO to the Wellington City Council a year ago,
bringing with him a fresh perspective to how ICT was being run in the
organisation and how it supported the business. Catching up with FutureGov,
he says, “I realised that we were running a complex IT environment. We didn’t
have a good understanding of the data and information needed to run the
business.” Jayasinha shares the drivers, strategies and technologies behind
the Council’s ongoing business and ICT transformation programme. “We were
working in a fragmented information environment with siloed databases. We
didn’t have a good understanding of the business processes and how they lined
up across the organisation. On top of that, we were running a high-cost ICT
environment.” The approach Jayasinha and his team have taken to plan this
transformation is: if Wellington City Council were being built today, what
information, data and technology would be needed to run the Council? Supporting
business as usual There was a
significant legacy environment to deal with. The integration of IT systems
meant a huge business change to the way the Council worked. Jayasinha needed
to make sure that his team supported a business-as-usual environment while
they ran through the IT programme. The Council is running a 3-5 year
programme of work to manage the business and IT change along with the
business and ICT transformation. In addition to the rationalisation of core
council business systems, the Council is deploying a new desktop environment
and migrating to a new Electronic Document and Records Management System by
Open Text. To save costs the Council is buying off-the-shelf systems and
delivering the functions that business needs through configuration, and not
customisation, according to Jayasinha. “We’re not going to do any physical
development or customisation of software. This is a significant change to how
the organisation has worked in the past and shows a change in people’s
mindset.” Mapping out
business processes The
Council’s IT team has also done a current state assessment of all the
business processes and created an enterprise architecture portal. On the
portal, they’re able to look at the current state of business processes, what
data and applications the processes are using, how complex they are and where
improvements can be made. This feeds into what the future state will look
like and helps the Council map out how to move towards that. Delivering
services on-demand In terms of revamping
its frontline services, the Council wants to deliver services online,
on-demand and also through mobile applications. “For this, we need to make
sure that we have a well-integrated backend system in place, and high quality
data and information that we can use with those systems. We’re looking at a
local government ICT platform here,” Jayasinha noted. One of the first moves
was to do a security audit of the environment to make sure that when the new
platform is introduced, there is a solid foundation upon which to implement
this new system. Jayasinha is also considering cloud-based services including
Infrastructure-as-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and
Software-as-a-Service. The streamlining of IT also supports an initiative by
the Council to move to a flexible workspace with open plan offices, more
space for collaboration, and newer technologies for collaboration and
communication. From http://www.futuregov.asia
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EUROPE: The government is teaming up with businesses and universities on
a new Smart Cities Forum that is being set up to help develop plans for the
next generation of BIS claims that smart cities could enable businesses to plan
efficient routes to transport goods, allow local authorities to create
effective public health services and provide the public with access to real
time data so they can plan their daily activities. Willetts said: "The
new Smart Cities Forum will bring the best minds together on a regular basis
to establish a clear plan to exploit the exciting technologies that we have
at our disposal." "There is huge potential for the From
http://news.idg.no/
NORTH
AMERICA: A 12-step protocol from Industry The documents, obtained through the Access to Information Act,
show such a high level of control that arrangements are made days in advance
to have other government agencies re-tweet forthcoming Industry The resulting tweets read like stiff public service
announcements, such as this October example: "Browse the Mobile
Protection Toolbox to learn facts & find #tips to protect yourself.
#GetCyberSafe," with a link to the department's website. Sometimes the
well runs dry, and bureaucrats borrow tweets from other departments. "We
are short tweets for the next two weeks and I really don't see a harm in
tweeting the attached as it's info that is found on the IC (Industry "There are so many levels of bureaucracy, as we can see in
this example, and so much fear and control," said consultant Mark
Blevis, president of FullDuplex.ca in From
http://www.thecanadianpress.com/
I'm the Director of Digital Engagement for a Federal Agency, the
National Archives and Records Administration. We're talking about how we
evolve our social media plan into something bigger, broader, and more like
what we have implemented on the ground. And then to give that thing more of a
name. Personally I tend to like the informal approach. Whatever you are
doing, it's an animal that's moving in time. It's already got an energy. But
every now and then it's good to give things a name, a structure, to
articulate the method. Let's start with what I absolutely abhor: 1. We do not, cannot, and should never be doing propaganda,
because we're not Coca-Cola and we're not allowed to do it. It is not about
pushing a story that makes us look good. 2. We should not be wasting taxpayer money on pointless babble.
Even if we aren't killing a tree, it is a misappropriation of taxpayer
dollars. So what is digital engagement then? What are the factors that
make an approach "great"? Here are my top 10: 1. It clearly promotes the mission. At 2. It saves the Agency money. We favor lower-cost, higher-impact
tools that get our holdings before the public (and employees) in places they
tend to congregate. We start at the pilot level, keep what works and discard
what doesn't. We welcome opportunities to work with partners who can share
and display content, as well as opportunities to talk with people who may be
writing stories that have a historical aspect to them. 3. It provides a window into Agency operations. The public has a right to know what
we're doing. Great engagement facilitates the flow of information about the
agency from within, to without. This can take the form of sharing open data
sets, providing narrative that contextualizes Agency decisions, or both. 4. It gets people looking, sharing and talking, online and off.
We start meaningful conversations, and join them as the real human beings
that we are - not as phony abstractions. And we make information available in
the 5. Its goals are method-agnostic. We are not enamored with this
tool or that. We don't care if engagement happens using this social media
tool or that. We're happy to cross-pollinate with TV, newspapers, radio, or
any medium. 6. It bridges the internal and the external. We promote
conversations within the Agency itself, and between the Agency and the
outside world. We believe that the more conversation takes place, the smarter
we become and the more effective at doing our jobs. 7. It broadens the roster of speakers to include everyone. Our
approach is decentralized. We don't designate one or two people and restrict
the tools to them. We make clear when we're speaking as part of the Agency,
and when we're sharing our own opinions. The goal is to get information out there,
to make sure that those who would benefit from it have it. 8. It is feedback-hungry. Of course not everything can be
shared. But we don't shy away from discussion, debate, complexity and even
controversy. Rather, we constructively support a wide-ranging conversation
that respects appropriate bounds of confidentiality. 9. It is predicated on supporting creativity and innovation by
all. Nobody knows what the next big tool will be, or how it will impact our
efforts. We support our employees in trying new things, we congratulate noble
failures instead of bashing them, and we partner openly to get the best
result possible. 10. It evolves from close collaboration with Agency
counsel. Digital engagement
requires careful and close examination of communication methodology,
especially in the early stand-up phase. We engage counsel early and
collaboratively so that we are working in a framework that complies with law,
regulation and guidance. What else should a federal digital engagement strategy include?
What are your thoughts on this? Looking forward to reading your comments. From
http://www.govloop.com/
Shawn McCarthy of Government Computing News outlines a few
trends for federal government spending for While a 2010 Industry From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
Report:
Administration Mulls New Federal IT Unit Fallout from the botched rollout of the HealthCare.gov website
could include major changes to the way the federal government hires IT
personnel and manages large scale IT projects, according to a Jan. 3 report
in the Wall Street Journal. The Obama administration is considering
streamlining the process for hiring IT specialists to match the velocity of
the private sector, and using executive branch authority to do it. Another
proposal would have government IT workers get private sector experience
through rotations at various companies – a reversal of the current White
House innovation fellows program. Among the more radical changes under
consideration is the creation of a one-stop tech shop inside the government
to work on high profile public-facing websites like HealthCare.gov, rather
than having each agency responsible for its own procurement, design, and
production. An unnamed federal official is quoted in the article saying there
is “fierce urgency to tackle the problem,” of IT procurement, and the
government planned to take a hard look at 50 IT projects under development.
"I can definitely narrow that list down to a point where I can actually
take a look at it in a much more in-depth way," the official told the
Wall Street Journal. It’s not clear what changes will be made, but officials
cited in the article say moves could be coming as early as the first quarter
of 2014. The government tracks spending and scheduling for high-profile IT
projects through the IT Dashboard, a website maintained by the Office of
Management and Budget. The dashboard data is updated infrequently -- the site
is current to Aug. 30, 2013, about a month before the launch of
HealthCare.gov, and isn’t due for a refresh until next month. From
http://fcw.com/
Open
Data - Good for Citizens & Government Freely accessible government data helps the public stay more
engaged with their communities and keeps government more accountable.
Governments and citizens across the country and around the world are
demonstrating the powerful benefits that can be created by making government
data available and accessible to the public. We see it in the form of
increased fiancial transparency in states such as Social data: treasure trove for citizen engagement The integration of open government and social media data has
created new opportunities for agencies to provide better services and engage
more meaningfully with citizens. The Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), the City of The social economics of open data Open government data provides an open invitation for
entrepreneurs and companies to create tools that uncover otherwise unknown
trends and use the data to improve services. Hackathons are an increasingly
popular way to bring together data junkies, coders, developers, and designers
to find new ways to deliver citizen services. The City of From
http://www.informationweek.com/
Federal
Technology Performance Info Should Be Public All the Time A government auditor called on the White House on Monday to end
its practice of freezing the main outlet for public information about federal
technology performance during budget reviews. That practice has resulted in
the IT Dashboard not being updated for 15 of the past 24 months, the
Government Accountability Office said, making it extremely difficult for
watchdogs and others to effectively review government performance on technology
issues. Information currently posted to the dashboard dates back more than
four months to Aug. 30, 2012. At that point, as an example, the Obama
administration’s troubled online health insurance marketplace HealthCare.gov
had not yet launched publicly and had a 3 out of 5 rating, which equates to
“moderate risk.” Agencies are required to post information about their most
expensive information technology investments on the dashboard, including cost
and scheduling information and the agency chief information officer’s
assessment of the project's risk of going over budget or past deadline. GAO independently reviewed 80 investments on the IT Dashboard,
including 10 each from eight agencies. The office found that 53 agency
ratings were consistent with GAO’s own evaluation based on the agencies’
supporting documents, while 20 were partially consistent and seven were
inconsistent. Ratings were often inconsistent because of delays in updating
the dashboard rather than genuine disagreements about the level of risk associated
with the investments, GAO said. All of the inconsistent investments were at
the Veterans Affairs Department. The risk ratings for those investments were
never updated during the period of GAO’s review, the office said, largely
because VA opted to build a system to automatically update the dashboard
rather than buying commercial technology to perform that task. VA has now
resumed updating the dashboard, GAO said. From
http://www.nextgov.com/
Government
and Industry Meet on Cloud Procurement Group will hold continuing discussions on making public
purchasing more services-friendly. Representatives from 10 states and
localities met with some of the technology industry’s biggest service providers
last week to start bringing government purchasing rules in line with an
increasingly cloud-based world. In many cases, procurement laws haven’t kept
pace with the rapid emergence of hosted applications and platforms, making it
difficult for public agencies to adopt these solutions. Among issues targeted
by the group were mitigating the risks associated with cloud implementations
in a way that balances the needs of agencies and contractors, and insuring
that hosted deployments comply with state and local data protection and
privacy laws. The meeting, held Jan. From
http://www.govtech.com/
Global
Government Cloud Market Report 2013 – 2018 Cloud Computing is being readily adopted by
the governments across the globe, as a means to offer fundamental changes in
the way public sector adopts and operates ICT. The cloud market in the government
sector mainly focuses on SaaS, PaaS and IaaS services. These services are
being offered and managed directly by agencies or by the system integrators,
which run the private clouds on behalf of the government agencies. In the
government sector, cloud platforms help in reducing the costs and transforms
the business processes completely, improving the flexibility and security at
a large scale. With the implementation of government cloud, there is more
collaboration and transparency in data analytics and information sharing
capabilities between the various departments in the government sector. Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Executive Summary 3 Market Ecosystem And Dynamics 4 Government Cloud: Market Size And Forecast,
By Agencies 5 Government Cloud: Market Size And Forecast,
By Deployment Models 6 Government Cloud: Market Size And Forecast,
By Delivery Modes 7 Government Cloud: Market Size And Forecast,
By Applications 7.1 Overview And Introduction 7.2 Server And Storage 7.3 Collaboration 7.4 Business Operations 7.5 Disaster Recovery/Data Backup 7.6 Health And Safety 7.7 Security And Compliance 7.8 Mobility 7.9 Analytics 7.10 Cloud Gaming 7.11 Content Management 8 Government Cloud: Market Size And Forecast,
By Regions 8.1 Overview And Introduction 8.2 8.3 8.4 Asia-Pacific (APAC) 8.5 Middle East And 8.6 9 Government Cloud: Competitve Landscape 9.1 Venture Capital (VC) Funding Analysis 9.2 Mergers And Acquisitions (M&A) 9.3 Social Reach 10 Company Profiles From
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/
A
Citizen’s Guide to Open Government, E-Government, and Government 2.0 Engaged citizens want clear, credible information from the
government about how it’s carrying on its business. They don’t want to thumb
through thousands of files or wait month after month or go through the rigors
of filing claims through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). They want
government information, services, and communication to be forthcoming and
swift. The Open Government, Government 2.0, and E-Governance movements fill
the need of connecting citizens with the government and each other to foster
a more open, collaborative, and efficient public sector through the use of
new technology and public data. Open Government is defined by the OECD
(Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) as “the transparency
of government actions, the accessibility of government services and
information, and the responsiveness of government to new ideas, demands and
needs.” E-Government is defined by the World Bank as “the use by
government agencies of information technologies that have the ability to
transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.
These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of
government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and
industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more
efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less
corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth,
and/or cost reductions.” Government 2.0 is defined by Gartner Research as
“the use of Web 2.0 technologies, both internally and externally, to increase
collaboration and transparency and potentially transform the way government
agencies relate to citizens and operate.” Open Government and E-Government paved the way for Government
2.0, a collaborative technology whose mission is to improve government
transparency and efficiency. How? Gov 2.0 has been called the next generation
of government because it not only utilizes new technologies such as social
media, cloud computing, and other apps, it is a means to increase citizen
participation. While some question the logistics of funding, implementing,
managing, and securing Open Government, E-Government, and Government 2.0
projects, advocates—from single-source bloggers to large well-funded
groups—don’t show any signs of slowing down. Plans for summits, conferences,
new applications, and publications suggest that Open Government, along with
all its emerging technology, is here for the long haul. We have compiled a
list of organizations, blogs, guides, and tools to help citizens and public
service leaders better understand the Open Government, E-Government, and
Government 2.0 movement. From
https://onlinempa.unc.edu/
More
Governments Want Twitter User Data As with other technology companies, the number of requests for
Twitter users' data from governments worldwide has continued to rise, it
reported Thursday in a report showing that it complies with requests from Twitter does not say anything about the numbers of national
security-related orders it receives, if any. The company says it is taking
this route because of the restrictions put in place by the DOJ. As it stands
now, companies are allowed to break out data requests coming from the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court versus national security letters
(NSLs), but only in ranges of 1,000. "Allowing Twitter, or any other
similarly situated company, to only disclose national security requests
within an overly broad range seriously undermines the objective of
transparency," said Jeremy Kessel, Twitter's manager of global legal
policy, on Thursday. But that hasn't stopped Google, Facebook and Microsoft
from saying more. On Monday, Microsoft made a surprising disclosure when it
said that for the first half of 2013, it received between 0 and 999 FISA
orders seeking user content. For the requests that Twitter does disclose,
which usually involve criminal law enforcement, the company often complies in
the U.S., providing some users' information nearly 70 percent of the time
during the latter half of 2013, a compliance rate that has stayed roughly the
same since at least 2012, when Twitter first started releasing its
transparency reports. In Each year EFF releases its "Who Has Your Back" report,
which grades companies' data protection practices based on whether they
require a warrant for content, or publish law enforcement guidelines, among
other factors. Last year, Twitter ranked among the top performers in the
survey, tying with Sonic.net, an Internet service provider. The real mystery
might be Twitter's policies around how long it holds on to users' data, which
may include IP address records, Higgins said. The EFF advocates for
"data minimization procedures," to limit the amount of potentially
sensitive user data that companies might hold on to. Often companies don't
review their policies in this area as much as they should, he said. Twitter
did not reply to a request for comment about its report. From
http://news.idg.no/
|
|
|
|
|
|
A quarter of China's government ministries and 31 percent of
provincial-level governments have developed software applications that run on
smartphones or other mobile devices, according to figures released by a ministry
research institute on Thursday.As of Nov. 15, 13 out of 52 government
ministries and departments had developed such mobile applications to provide
information for the public, said the China Software Testing Center (CSTC),
operated under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.Local
governments on the municipal and township-level are less "mobile,"
with only 11 percent and 3.8 percent respectively having such applications,
the CSTC report showed.But the center noted most applications are limited to
providing news and basic information. About half of the ministries and two-thirds of the local
governments have failed to provide inquiry service or have no interactive
communication with the public via their mobile applications.Some applications
are also susceptible to software code tampering, user information leakage and
other security problems, the center added.China has made various moves to
reform its government administrative system this year, including stepping up
information transparency and streamlining government approval procedures.The
increasing use of mobile applications in government services is expected to
better cater to China's 1.22 billion mobile phone users. From http://www.news.cn/
Chinese Courts to
Publish Judgements Online Courts across China will have to publish judgements online
within seven days after judicial decisions, the Supreme People's Court (SPC)
said on Thursday.Judgement documents should be published on
www.court.gov.cn/zgcpwsw from Jan. 1, 2014, according to a SPC regulation
issued after a meeting on judicial transparency held in the city of Shenzhen
in south China's Guangdong Province.The regulation stipulates that the published
documents should not be amended, replaced or withdrawn. Exceptions for
publication should go through strict examination and approval
procedures."The publishing of judgement documents online will regulate
and limit the discretionary power of judges and prevent illegal judicial
intervention," said He Xiaorong with the SPC. Real names of parties involved in a lawsuit should be made
public in the documents to ensure authenticity, according to the
regulation.The SPC also specifies exceptions. Cases involving state secrets,
individual privacy or juvenile delinquency, lawsuits settled through
mediation or other situations unsuitable for publication are allowed not to
be published on the Internet, said the regulation.To protect the right of
privacy, the regulation requires that parties and their legal representatives
should be kept anonymous in civil cases concerning marriage and family
disputes, or succession disputes. Victims, their legal representatives and
witnesses in criminal cases should also be kept anonymous in the
documents.Personal information including home addresses and contact
information, information about juveniles, or trade secrets should be deleted
from the online judgement documents, according to the regulation. From http://www.news.cn/
More court cases, especially corruption trials, will make
increased use of social media, a spokesman for the Supreme People's Court (SPC)
said on Wednesday.Microblogs of real-time information will become a common
practice for Chinese courts, said Sun Jungong, the SPC spokesman, when asked
if the handling of the trial of Bo Xilai had set a precedent for other graft
cases.Bo, the 64-year-old former secretary of the Communist Party of China
(CPC) Chongqing Municipal Committee and a former member of the CPC Central
Committee Political Bureau, was sentenced to life imprisonment for bribery,
embezzlement and abuse of power.In August, the Jinan Intermediate People's
Court posted live reports from Bo's trial, including audio and video files of
evidence, transcripts and pictures, on a microblog account at Sina Weibo.
Many of the items were reposted tens of thousands of times. Sun said that while such practices will become more standard,
they may not be applied to every case involving corrupt officials."We
will consider different situations of different cases and try to find the
best way to keep the public informed," said Sun, at a briefing with media
and citizens invited to visit the SPC on Wednesday morning.In a major move to
promote judicial transparency, courts will use both traditional and new media
to publish trial information, whenever convenient and easy to access for the
public, he said."A courtroom can not hold every citizen who wants to
hear a trial. Through new media like microblogs and WeChat, we can all
observe without being present. If someone does not have time to follow the
live updates, our video documents will be available online indefinitely,"
Sun said. Last month, the SPC opened official accounts on Sina Weibo and
WeChat, two leading social media tools, and now has about 240,000 followers
on Weibo.Last week, the SPC broadcast an appeal case on monopolies and unfair
practices between Internet giants Qihoo 360 and Tencent through TV, radio and
microblog.Dec. 4 is a national day to promote rule of law in From http://www.news.cn/
Chinese Government
Website Opens Microblog Accounts The official website of the Chinese government, www.gov.cn,
created two more microblog accounts on Wednesday, following its previous
entry into social networks in October.The website, which is run by the
General Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, started microblog
accounts on Sina Weibo and people.com.cn.Since Oct. 11, the website has
operated two microblog accounts at xinhuanet.com and qq.com, as well as an
account on WeChat, a hugely popular Chinese messaging app with over 400
million users.The website will publish important government information
through these online platforms, according to a statement from the website.The
Chinese government website has been in operation since January 2006 and
publishes information about the activities of senior officials of the State
Council, important cabinet meetings, as well as policies and
regulations.These attempts are a display of the central government's
willingness to approach the public and improve transparency in the age of the
Internet. From http://www.news.cn/
UN Report
Introduces Korean Government’s Cloud Use The Korean government’s use of cloud computing was introduced as
an excellent example in a UN report. The Information Economy Report
2013, published on December 3 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),
highlighted From
http://www.korea.net
From
http://www.korea.net/
Grab Useful
Data at Public Data Portal A smartphone app called “Weather Here” (unofficial translation)
provides daily and weekly weather information for the user’s current
location. If people set a location of interest, the app will also provide weather
information for that place. Another app, “Smart Parcel” (unofficial
translation), uses Korea Post’s parcel tracking service. It informs users
where their parcels are, when they will be delivered and at which stage of
the process they’re currently at. These apps and more were all developed
by start-ups using publically released data collected by the government and
published on its Public Data Portal website (www.data.go.kr). Recently,
more and more people in the private sector have been making use of data at
this website. It was launched in October 2013 when the government enforced
its so-called Public Data Law, designed to promote the use and provision of
data to the public. The government said it would publicize a total of 3,395
sets of data collected by 1,547 public organizations, including central and
local government bodies. By 2017, it plans to further extend the data-opening
to 9,470 sets of data. Developed by SweetTracker, the “Smart Parcel” app
relies on Korea Post’s public parcel-tracking service. It hit as many as 5
million downloads on Google Play. Since the passing of the Public Data Law, the average monthly
number of applications submitted by the private sector to use the data showed
a four-fold increase, from 574 up to 2,066, according to the Ministry of
Security & Public Administration. These applicants wish to use the data
to create smartphone apps or to create new added–value projects, as well as
to create more jobs. The average monthly number of dataset downloads at the
Public Data Portal website also showed an increase, growing 12-fold from 118
to 1,465 cases. Under the new law, the number of new apps for mobile
phones based on public data rose from 42 to 244, showing a nearly six-fold
increase every month. In the earlier stages, firms were mostly developing
mobile services or online programs showing bus information, but the range
programs so far developed has greatly broadened these days. It now ranges
from tourism services, to weather information, parcel delivery and performing
arts information. Some of the more popular apps include “Travel Note,”
“Weather Here” and “Smart Parcel.” These apps have recorded more than 100,000
downloads each. From
http://www.korea.net Science
Ministry to Launch Special ICT Commission A special law went into
effect Friday that creates a new commission to oversee the country's policies
on the information, communication and technology sectors, the science
ministry said. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said the
commission, to be headed by the prime minister, will function as the
"control tower" of From http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr South
Korea’s Conundrum: More Open, Less Freedom If technology makes governments more open and accountable, Last year, However, the Ministry of Security and Public Administration, the
body that oversees From
http://blogs.wsj.com
The federal government has contracted the Korea International
Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to develop an e-Government master plan as part of
the global best practices obtained world over. This was disclosed by the
minister of communication technology, Omobola Johnson, during a strategy
workshop on master plan for e-government in From
http://allafrica.com/
|
|
|
|
|
|
The World Bank has approved funding to From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
“We are now in the smart government phase compared to
e-government earlier, and this is in line with how communication technology
is being used and the higher demand for information by the people,” says the
Malaysian Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Joseph Entulu
Anak Belaun. He highlighted the need to ensure that information is useful and
eases transactions between government and citizens. He urged government
agencies and ministries to regularly update their websites so that the latest
information is displayed. The Minister was speaking at the opening of the
Malaysia CIO and Malaysian Open Source Software Conference organized by the
Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit. Smart
government represents the next level of government-to-citizen interaction, he
believes, and demands a shift in focus on how technology is used. The
Malaysian Government had mapped out 69.97 per cent of its 12,051 services
currently offered online as of September. It plans to achieve 70 per cent by
the end of the year. The conference was themed ‘Charting the Next Level of
SMART Government’, where ‘SMART’ stands for Social, Mobility, Analytics,
Readiness and Trust. The conference looks to raise awareness of and promote
sharing of best practices on ‘Next Level of SMART Government’. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) recently
conducted an orientation and hands-on training on Google Cloud computing in a
bid to facilitate effective collaboration between the local governments in From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and the ICT-Office of the
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is calling on the reconstitution
of the COMELEC Advisory Council (CAC) to provide recommendations on the
Automated Election System (AES) for the upcoming 2016 National and Local
Elections. The CAC will be made up of nine members from the academe,
non-government electoral reform organisations, ICT professional organisations
and select government agencies. They will be tasked with providing
recommendations on the most appropriate, secure, applicable and
cost-effective technology to be applied in the AES. Previous CAC members were
composed of senior decision makers from agencies such as the Department of
Education, DOST, Philippine Computer Society, University of the From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Philippine
Customs Agency Launches Transparency Portal The Bureau of Customs (BOC) unveiled a new website called
“Customs ng Bayan” (Customs of the Nation) as part of newly-appointed Customs
Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla’s initiatives to “uproot” the agency from
its long history of institutionalised corruption. “We are publishing reports
of almost every importation into the The Bureau of Customs, for the past years, has been one of the
country’s most prominent faces of corruption in the government. According to
Sevilla, all of that is about to change as they make drastic shifts in leadership,
personnel and processes. In particular, he highlighted the importance of
leveraging ICT to support the administration’s reform agenda. “We need to
improve the capacity of our IT systems to comply with needed reforms,” he
said, adding that the Bureau is now studying the feasibility of implementing
a single IT platform for all transactions, which involves improving the
planned Php 442.3 million (US$9.8 million) National Single Window (NSW)
project. The NSW will facilitate trade through efficiencies in the Customs
and authorisation processes. It will allow single submission and accelerated
processing of applications for licenses, permits and other authorisations
required prior to undertaking a trade transaction. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio
Abad underscored the importance of the Government Integrated Financial
Management System (GIFMIS), a program at the center of the Aquino
administration’s goal to integrate fiscal oversight and reporting systems in
the Philippine bureaucracy. “As part of the agency’s budget reforms, the
GIFMIS is geared towards providing reliable, accurate, and updated financial
and performance information. The system will collect and organise financial
information in a central database which will support budget preparations,
management, accounting and financial reporting initiatives across the DBM,
Commission on Audit and the Department of Finance,” Abad said. In addition,
GIFMIS is expected to reduce the administrative costs such as paper
documentation and various IT systems, resulting in more savings more the
government. Now that public bidding for the consulting services has begun,
DBM is looking to secure the best service possible to ensure that fiscal
automation requirements are properly met. “We cannot emphasise the importance
of GIFMIS enough. For the longest time, fiscal management across the
bureaucracy was composed of disparate systems, without a single unifying
program supporting a whole body of related processes. Once we have GIFMIS in
place, we can expect improved efficiency in the way we manage public funds,
from budget planning all the way to auditing and financial reporting. It’s
really a program that strikes at the heart of transparency and openness
issues in the country’s fiscal processes,” he said. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The
The Department of Budget and Management recently rolled out an
Online Budget Execution Documents (BEDs) System for government agencies, as
part of the current administration’s public financial management reforms. The
Online BEDs is a web-based system which will simplify the preparation of
various budget execution documents in government agencies. It aims to lessen
the forms to be manually accomplished and give agencies a more convenient and
easier way to prepare and promptly submit budget execution documents
containing the agencies’ physical and financial plans, targets and monthly
disbursement programme. According to an official statement, the system is
crucial for the efficient cash programming and timely issuance of cash
allocations to fund the implementation of government programmes and projects.
Furthermore, the system will also enable agency Central Offices to generate
consolidated reports of the BEDs of their attached agencies, regional offices
and operating units. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The President Benigno Aquino III launched
the Philippine government’s official transparency portal called “Open Data
Philippines” as part of his administration’s ongoing reforms towards
instituting good governance. Open Data Philippines is a website for publicly
available, up-to-date national data on categories such as economics and
labour, transport and traffic, environment, geospatial data, health,
education and many more. During his speech at the Good Governance Summit held
in From http://www.futuregov.asia/
REACH, From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
|
|
|
|
|
|
The government has merged the Ministry
of Posts and Telecommunications with the Ministry of Information and
Communication Technology.The fresh nomenclature for it would be the Ministry
of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology. From http://newsfrombangladesh.net/ Directorate of Information Technology (DIT), has announced names
of employees selected for the Virtual IT cadre scheme of Government of
Maharashtra. Project Implementation Committee (PIC) has approved selection of
six employees from different line departments, to be inducted into
Maharashtra Virtual Cadre from December 1, 2013. Maharashtra would be the
first state in Virtual IT Cadre initiative of Government of Maharashtra aims to
create a team of eGovernance champions within line-department. Government of From
http://egov.eletsonline.com/ From
http://pib.nic.in/ Indian
Govt to Invest in Cloud e-Government Infrastructure The Indian government has announced the MeghRaj project to
develop a cloud computing infrastructure for government services and optimise
state IT spending. Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications and Information
Technology, said the national cloud project, to be implemented by the
National Informatics Centre, aims to speed up the development and deployment
of e-government applications. The cloud computing platform will be spread
across multiple locations, built on existing or new infrastructure, following
a set of common protocols, guidelines and standards issued by the government.
Two policy reports, ‘GI Cloud Strategic Direction Paper’ and ‘GI Cloud
Adoption and Implementation Roadmap’, have been prepared by the Department of
Electronics & Information Technology to guide the project. The Meghraj
services will help state departments procure ICT services on demand, rather
than investing upfront in new capital equipment. This will include platforms
for self-service portals, secure VPNs and software as a service. From
http://www.i-policy.org/ Odisha
Govt. Asked to Integrate ‘ The Union ministry of communications and information technology
has urged the Odisha government to integrate ‘Mobile Seva’ scheme in various
e-governance projects of the state. ‘Mobile Seva’ is a countrywide initiative
on mobile governance that aims to enable all government departments and
agencies to provide services on various mobile channels such as short message
service (SMS), integrated voice response system (IVRS), unstructured
supplementary service data and mobile applications. To encourage early
adoption of ‘Mobile Seva’, it has been decided that SMS services will be
offered free of cost to government departments during the current duration of
the ‘Mobile Seva’ project. I request you to take this opportunity to fully
integrate ‘Mobile Seva’ in the Mission Mode projects and other projects in
various departments of your state for offering various citizen centric
services through mobile phones and tablets, informed Rajendra Kumar, joint
secretary, Union ministry of communication & information technology
stated in a letter to the Odisha IT secretary. Over 790 departments/ agencies across central, state and local
governments have adopted ‘ From
http://egov.eletsonline.com/ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Technology
is changing the way governments think, and one of the most crucial areas of
change is in information management. How do governments leverage these
technologies to improve information management and ultimately promote open,
transparent governance? FutureGov spoke to Professor John McMillan,
Australian Information Commissioner, on how the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (OAIC) is leveraging Big Data and promoting open
government, to bring new opportunities to Government information management.
“What is really driving the cultural change in government nowadays is
technology. It is transforming the way we collect, use, share, store and
protect information. Technology opens up new threats but also wonderful new
opportunities for information management.” "Good privacy is good business" “The laws
that we administer — the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts — were
created in a world of hard copy records. But today’s world of digital records
completely changes the agenda. You realise that you can extract extraordinary
value from assembling all the data. Particularly with Big Data, there are
enormous resources we can consolidate, and better analyse and evaluate,”
Professor McMillan said. With the increasing volume of government-held data,
privacy is gaining even greater importance: “A high proportion of the data
connects in someway to individual, personal information. This is at the heart
of the data collected by tax, health, immigration offices,” he remarks. “So
while you’re rolling out an information sharing strategy, you also need to
use technology more effectively to filter out the personal information and
reassure the public that their data is secured.” The OAIC strongly advocates
the principle that “good privacy is good business” — it is very much in the
interest of both government and industry to have strong privacy practices,
Professor McMillan says. “Agencies also have immense security and privacy
worries about data integration when sharing with other agencies. One of the
challenges we have is encouraging information sharing while ensuring that
those concerns are addressed.” A coherent national plan for open government Professor
McMillan adds that while drawing value from Big Data is in the interest of
government, the value of the data is fully realised if it is made available
to others in the community. Professor
McMillan believes that strong leadership is crucial for From http://www.futuregov.asia
Australian Minister Calls for Innovation in
Digital Government Highlighting
the potential of digital government to transform the public sector,
Australian Minister of Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, says digitisation
makes it easier for citizens and businesses to interact with government. In
order to derive the full benefits, there needs to be a change in attitude
towards digital engagement. Addressing more than 300 government leaders and
technology experts, the Minister opened the fourth annual FutureGov Summit
Australia Looking to
provide better direction and coordination in e-government, the Coalition
released a comprehensive digital economy and e-government policy in September
this year. “It set the goal that all services with more than 50,000
interactions per year should be made available online by 2017 with internet
as the default option for most services,” the Minister shared. “The biggest
barriers to innovation in digital engagement is not technology, but culture
and lack of imagination,” he highlighted. While in the private sector the
element of competition drives innovation, strong leadership plays a key role
in driving innovation in government. A policy of the government is to provide
all citizens with a free unique digital address as the destination for all
government correspondence. The Department of Human Services and Australia
Post have already taken significant steps in this direction with their
initiatives in myGov and digital mailbox, respectively. Another area of
policy commitment of the Minister is in open data. Recognising the potential
of open data in providing “enormous productivity benefits right across the
economy”, the Minister said there is room for improvement here in From http://www.futuregov.asia
Employees of
the Department of State Development Business and Innovation (DSDBI) at the
Victoria State Government in The solution
searches through all data repositories regardless of its format - including
audio, video, images, social media, email, and web content. A more
sophisticated search feature is also introduced so users can do advanced
filtering, relevant and contextual search results, and concept cloud
visualisation. According to DSDBI’s Chief Information Security Officer Dr
Suresh Hungenahally, the new search solution has changed the way users are
working. Instead of searching a number of different but important sources,
users now have quick single access to all the information they need at their
fingertips. “This is a classic example of what HP IDOL can do for modern
organisations,” said Rohit de Souza, General Manager, Information Analytics,
HP Autonomy. “Dealing with a multitude of distributed data siloes is
challenging for both administrators and end users—HP IDOL tackles that
frustration head on.” From http://www.futuregov.asia
Governments to Favour Cloud over In-house IT
Deployments Public cloud
offerings are predicted to grow and eventually account for more than 25% of
government business services in domains other than national defence and
security, according to newly released research. In its latest global report
on government IT and transformation to digitalised business models, analyst
firm Gartner says that governments will increasingly favour cloud computing
over long-running in-house IT deployments to contain costs and increase
predictability. “Nevertheless, the heightened sensitivities of many
governments, particularly in Europe, will act as the limiting factor on the
speed of take up as new, more stringent policies, and possibly legislation on
cloud adoption, are developed and implemented,” said Rick Howard, research
director at Gartner. According to Howard, government CIOs should “insert
themselves into public cloud sourcing decisions, lead discussions of
available sourcing strategies with political leadership in the wake of higher
levels of concern, and review current cloud migration activities in light of
potential legislative changes. “It’s essential for CIOs to recognise that
they have a proactive role in ensuring that public confidence in government
data handling is maintained by ensuring that data protection policies,
contractual arrangements and practices are sound and aligned.” In its
report, Gartner says that, faced with “relentless pressure to reduce costs
and improve the performance of government agencies,” CIOs must choose between
maintaining current operations or transforming government services with fully
digitalised business models. According to Gartner, in this environment,
government CIOs are uniquely positioned to assume a critical leadership role
in cultivating the necessary digital knowledge, competencies and expertise to
place technology at the core of every government process. “Governments at all
tiers and in all regions of the globe continue to operate in the long shadow
cast by the global financial crisis, negotiating growing demands for public
services with economic uncertainty and a perpetual state of austerity,”
Howard said. “There remains an acute need to reduce the overall cost of
providing government services while remaining responsive to citizen
expectations. However, the need to manage risk while taking steps to fix
broken models with new digital innovations is equally important. CIOs will
need to make the case to invest in digital capabilities by recapitalising
stressed IT budgets and optimising technology portfolios to provide more
stable operations at a lower cost.” In another
prediction for the government sector, Gartner forecasts that by 2016, at
least 25% of government software development positions will be eliminated to
fund the hiring of business intelligence and data analysts. According to
Gartner, cloud economies dramatically reduce the need for internal software
development and Howard says that “while the conversion to private and public
cloud is growing more slowly in government than in the private sector, the
need for internal custom software development is being eradicated.”
“Information availability is exploding to make data analysis the priority
skill. Without analysts and business intelligence, the tidal wave of big data
will lead to overload rather than progress,” Howard cautions. Howard says
CIOs need to evaluate cloud cost-effectiveness, and that the focus should be
on “identifying where cloud offerings provide superior service at low risk
and alerting and supporting staff in preparing for new skill sets and job
classifications. The key is to use the new tools to solve business problems
and to use improved productivity to fund priority innovations. CIOs and their
staff can use the productivity made possible by cloud and business
intelligence to fund the transitional work required to make the new
capabilities operational. They must prepare and sell the business cases
required for this progress.” Howard stresses that Gartner’s 2014 predictions
for government highlight the “logical consequences and impacts that flow from
the adoption of cloud computing, mobile devices, social media and
accessibility to new sources of information. “By embracing and not
obstructing these disruptive technological changes, government CIOs can
pursue opportunities to transform their agency into a digital business.” In other
predictions for the next few years Gartner forecasts: • By 2017,
more than 60% of government open data programs that do not effectively use
open data internally will be downscaled or discontinued Externally
focused government open data programs have sparked some interesting
application development and transparency initiatives, but have not delivered
sustainable value for government itself in terms of improved business
performance or outcome management. Open data is considered a nice-to-have
activity or a compliance exercise that is often delegated to a specific role
(such as chief data officer), but has yet to become an essential element of
routine business processes. Most open data programs are narrowly approached
as an end in itself rather than a means to an end, with benefits that are too
indirect or intangible for the agencies that own and publish their business
data. • By 2017,
as many as 35% of government shared-service organisations will be managed by
private sector companies As private
sector sourcing options become more attractive for governments due to cost
and service-level advantages, government agencies will increasingly find
themselves paying a premium for IT services unless they become more adept in
their contract and vendor management abilities. Public-private partnership
arrangements have started with infrastructure as a service and will
eventually move to integration and software as a service. Initially, cost and
service advantages will be clear, but only governments that are able to
structure favourable agreements will see continued cost and service
advantages. Exit clauses and credible alternatives will support government
negotiations and governmental ability to form whole-of-government coalitions
will also support contract negotiations. “CIOs and
shared-service executives must seek to preserve the relevancy of their
service by maintaining or enhancing investment in the enterprise's skills and
service offerings, developing multi-sourcing capabilities and regularly
evaluating their sourcing decisions,” said Mr. Howard. “It’s essential to
develop the dialogue with existing agency leaders and program managers
concerning which services are inherently governmental and need to be
maintained internally for reasons of security, mission sensitivity or other
factors.” From http://www.itwire.com
Understanding and Extracting Value from Govt
Data Big Data and
information management are being given far higher priority in the Australian
public sector that has been historically, says Bryan Stibbard, Area Vice
President, Australia and New Zealand at CommVault. At the FutureGov Summit
Australia From http://www.futuregov.asia
From http://www.futuregov.asia
New South
Wales (NSW) in From http://www.futuregov.asia Services
include document and records management, workflow and collaboration tools,
and efficient access to information through mobile devices. MacDonald added
that privacy was a key consideration during the procurement process. “EMCS
allows agencies to set and control who has access to information stored in
the ECMS. This information can be audited by each agency.” The Ministry of
Primary Industries led the procurement process, working closely with the
Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), Department of Conservation, Ministry of
Social Development and NZ Police. DIA will be responsible for the ongoing
management of the supplier panel. MacDonald cited this as a “great example of
agencies working together for the good of the entire State sector”. The ECMS
is part of a range of cloud-based solutions that the New Zealand Government
is employing to simplify ICT management in agencies, enable collaboration,
and make the agencies more efficient and effective. A whole-of-government desktop
management service was announced last year, and an office productivity
service to standardise the approach to email is expected early this year. From http://www.futuregov.asia
Health
Minister Tony Ryall has named a group of seven innovative GPs who will lead
the way in a national rollout of patient portals this year. “A patient portal
is an online service which allows a patient to securely log in and do things
like check their latest laboratory test results, order a repeat prescription,
or send a message directly to their GP – all from the convenience of their
home,” explains the Minister. “This gives patients much greater access to
their own health information and the ability to manage more aspects of their
own care. The portals also offer huge benefits for doctors, and I’ve already
received great feedback from GPs about the benefits of having this service in
their practice.” The newly appointed eHealth Ambassadors are: Dr Richard
Medlicott, a Wellington GP; Dr Bev Nicolls, a Nelson/Marlborough GP; Dr
Damian Tomic, a Hamilton GP; Dr Brendon Eade, a Te Aroha GP; Dr Karl Cole, an
Auckland GP; Dr Andrew Miller; a Whangarei GP; and Dr Sue Wells, University
of Auckland. The
abovementioned eHealth Ambassadors are all either using a patient portal or
are in the process of introducing one. They will work closely with the
National Health IT Board to encourage more GPs to establish patient portals
in their practices this year. “Between 15 to 20 percent of general practices
have, or are in the process of implementing these portals. By the end of the
year we want at least half of all general practices in From http://www.futuregov.asia
Solomon
Islands has taken another step forward in improving its services to citizens
with the official launching of its new Electronic Civil Registration Database
System, replacing the previous paper- based system, on Friday 7th February in
Honiara. This new system guarantees a much more secure, centralized, reliable
and transparent system of storing and maintaining records of all births in
Solomon Islands, as well as capturing and maintaining data on other key vital
events such as deaths, causes of deaths, changes of names, and eventually
other functions including marriages and adoptions. During the launch, the
Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo, the Deputy Prime Minister Manasseh
Maelanga, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs Fred
Fakarii, together with Fiona Misake, 11 year old girl from Malaita province,
had their births registered and were presented with their birth certificates.
The Prime Minister opened his official remarks at the launch of the system
emphasizing how it marks a very significant milestone in the development of
the country. In explaining to the audience what birth registration is, the
Prime Minister highlighted that, “a birth certificate is the most tangible
proof that a Government legally recognizes a child as a Member of society”
and that a child who is not registered at birth is invisible in the eyes of
the authorities.” Chief of
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Among the
key efforts to strengthen birth registration coverage in Solomon Islands
since 2010, the partnership with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of
Health to facilitate direct registration at birth through selected health
facilities across the country (currently in Honiara, Western Province,
Choiseul Province and Guadalcanal), as well as the establishment of the
centralized electronic database to strengthen accuracy and reliability of
Civil Registration data and processes. “It is our hope that the Government
will fully integrate this system into the Ministry of Home Affairs plan,
including future allocation of human and financial resources, to ensure sustainability”.
Kang also acknowledged the partnership with the Solomon Islands Government,
Development partners, particularly WHO and SPC, together with funding support
from the European Union, Australian Government, and the New Zealand
Government. Birth Registration and Civil Registration services are currently
available in From UNICEF
PACIFIC/PACNEWS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Microsoft co-founder also discussed the NSA, his investment
in the nuclear company TerraPower, and cloud computing during his Reddit
"Ask Me Anything." Bill Gates took to Reddit on Monday for his second
“Ask Me Anything” (AMA), just one week after Microsoft announced the
appointment of CEO Satya Nadella. The Microsoft Co-Founder used his time in
the AMA to (again) voice his approval of the company’s direction toward cloud
services that Nadella’s elevation represents. “I am excited about how the
cloud and new devices can help us communicate and collaborate in new ways,”
Gates wrote. “The [new operating system] won’t just be on one device and the
information won’t just be files … I was thrilled Satya asked me to pitch in
to make sure Microsoft is ambitious with its innovation.” Gates fielded
questions about a host of topics, including digital currency systems like
Bitcoin. Gates expressed his belief that it could ultimately improve the
lives of the poor in places like From
http://www.govtech.com/
EUROPE:
U.K. - Government IT Contracts to Be Limited to ￡ Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has announced that going
forward no IT contract will be allowed to be worth over ￡100 million in value -
unless there is an exceptional reason to do so. A number of "red
lines" for IT contracts have been published for departments to follow,
in a bid to increase competition in the sector and free departments from
longstanding inflexible contracts with IT providers. The announcement follows
a string of procurement reforms introduced by the Cabinet Office that aim to
squeeze out the 'oligopoly of suppliers' that have dominated central
government IT in recent years, following a series of high profile failures.
It is hoped that departments will begin to work with more SMEs and reduce
costs as a result. Some recent reforms include a commitment to introduce fewer
frameworks going forward (with three being cancelled as a result) and the
introduction of more agile, competitive frameworks, such as the G-Cloud and
the Digital Services framework. Both these frameworks have a high number of
companies signed up that have never done business with government before, as
well as a high proportion of SMEs listed. The Cabinet Office also created the
Crown Commercial Service, which will be responsible for all common
departmental spend, and aims to restore the government's poor track record of
negotiating good value for money deals for departments. "Big IT and big
failure have stalked government for too long; that is why this government is
radically rethinking the way it does business," said Maude. "We are
creating a more competitive and open market for technology that opens up
opportunity for big and small firms. These red lines will ensure the
government gets the best technology at the best price and we will be
unashamedly militant about enforcing them to provide value for hard-working
taxpayers." The other "red lines" published include: Companies with a contract for service provision will not be
allowed to provide system integration in the same part of government There will be no automatic contract extensions; the government
won't extend existing contracts unless there is a compelling case New hosting contracts will not last for more than two years The Office of Fair Trading is also conducting an investigation
into the supply of ICT goods and services to the public sector and is
engaging with IT suppliers, central and local government and other public
sector organisations, trade bodies, academics and business organisations. The
government has said that "smarter purchasing" delivered savings of ￡3.8 billion in 2012 to
2013 and a drive to digitise services has saved a further ￡500 million. Liam
Maxwell, the government's CTO, said: "To create the efficient and
responsive services that the public demands, government must have access to
the most innovative, most cost-effective digital solutions. "That means
going to the widest range of suppliers, and giving ourselves every
opportunity to renegotiate and reassess contacts. It rarely makes sense to
simply extend a contract based on yesterday's technology and prices and these
red lines make clear that we are doing business in a different way." From
http://news.idg.no/
U.K.
Government Unveils ￡ Universities and Science minister David Willetts is expected to
announce that four UK research councils will receive new funding totalling ￡73 million to work on
their big data projects. The government has designated big data as one of the
eight "great technologies of the future" that support A second tranche of funding, ￡4 million, is going to the Arts and Humanities
Research Council (AHRC), for 21 new open data projects. The council will make
large datasets usually only accessed by academics available to the public.
For example, Meanwhile, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is
spending ￡4.6 million
on 24 projects to help UK researchers take advantage of existing
environmental data. For example, one project will digitise images of the
solar disc dating back as far as the 1900s, to help scientists understand
severe space weather risks. "Big data is one of the eight great
technologies of the future and a priority for government. It has the
potential to transform public and private sector organisations, drive
research and development, increase productivity and innovation and enable
market-changing products and services," Willetts is expected to say.
"This funding will help the From
http://news.idg.no/
LATIN
AMERICA: Mobile Value-added Services and This study focuses on analyzing what mobile carriers in Key Findings •Mobile enterprise value-added service (VAS) is on the radar of
information and communication technologies (ICT) companies as one of the most
promising revenue streams in the next years. •VAS such as location-based services, voice virtual private
network (VPN), mobile office, mobile cloud computing, application-to-person
(A2P) short message service (SMS), and other mobile enterprise services are
being improved and expanded to increase average revenue per line (ARPL) and
improve customer experience. •Telcos want to offer integrated solutions to optimize the
adoption of mobile enterprise services by small, medium, and large
businesses. These solutions also drive an increase of data services and voice
services of carriers' infrastructure, thus providing a base to preserve the
traditional telecom business. •The Latin American application ecosystem is being developed,
and the availability of different mobile applications is expected to increase
heavily in the coming years. Companies are likely to adopt applications under
mobile device management (MDM) solutions to guarantee security and to handle
the phenomenon of consumerization as personal smart device adoption in
enterprises continues to grow. •Frost & Sullivan estimates that the mobile enterprise
services market revenue for •Major regional telcos such as Movistar/Vivo, Claro, Oi,
TIM/Personal, and Nextel have a strategy to foster the development of VAS for
mobile enterprise services. This strategy is often designed to add mobility
to data communications network solutions such as Internet protocol (IP) VPN
multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) and to engage the clients in the whole
portfolio of an integrated convergent telco. •However, many solutions are still tailor-made for special
projects. For further adoption, it is important that off-the-shelf products
are provided by telcos with easy contract options by clients as a few telcos
have been implementing cloud services applications stores. •Frost & Sullivan expects that with the evolution of •For the client, the return on investment (ROI) needs to be
calculated for large projects. However, the as a service model provides easy
access for small and medium enterprises to adopt applications and services.
The evolution of this model creates an increase of productivity and
efficiency in this segment as users make real-time decisions. Even if users
are away from their physical locations, they still have access to systems
that allow for the better management of operations such as customer
relationship management (CRM), accounting, and supply chain management (SCM). •However, there is still a lack of awareness of the benefits
that enterprise mobile solutions can deliver. The challenge, therefore, is to
educate customers and make the service more tangible. Other key industry
barriers that need to be addressed are consumers' trust and the low penetration
of data-capable devices. Research Objectives, Scope, and Methodology Objectives This study focuses on analyzing what mobile carriers are doing
regarding mobile enterprise services. The key focus areas of the research are
as follows: • •Market assessment and forecast •Types of services by carriers Scope •Geographic Coverage: •Forecast Period: 2013 to 2018 •Base Year: 2012 •Monetary Unit: US dollars Research Methodology •Primary research was conducted, and secondary research included
the Frost & Sullivan online database, market participants' financial
reports, and regulators' web sites. Table of Contents Executive Summary 4 Introduction 7 Key Definitions 9 Market Assessment 12 Appendix 50 The Frost & Sullivan Story 53 From
http://www.reportlinker.com/
NORTH
AMERICA: Cellphone customers will get caps on their excess data and
roaming fees and other new rights starting today, under the CRTC's new
Wireless Code of Conduct. The code, which will apply to all new contracts
signed starting Monday and to all contracts by June 3, 2015, allows customers
to cancel contracts at no cost after a maximum of two years. - New wireless
code could hike smartphone price It will allow individual or small business wireless customers
to: - Cancel a new contract and return the phone at no cost
(provided customers stay within usage limits) within 15 days if they are
unhappy with the service. - Refuse changes to key terms and conditions of their contract,
including changes to services and prices for those services, for the duration
of their contract. - Get a plain language summary of their services, including
information on when and why they may be charged extra. - Receive a notification when they are roaming in a different
country, with rates for voice services, text messages and data usage. - Cap excess data charges above their plan limits to $ - Cap roaming fees at $ - Get their phone unlocked after 90 days if it was discounted in
exchange for a fixed-term contract or immediately if the device was paid for
in full. - Have service suspended at no cost if the phone is lost or
stolen. - Pay no extra charges for a service described as “unlimited.” The code also limits cancellation fees less than two years into
the contract: - For customers who received a discount on their device from
their carrier in exchange for a fixed contract, the maximum cancellation fee
is the value of the discount, and the cancellation fee should be reduced an
equal amount for every month of their contract they have already completed. - For those who did not receive a subsidized device, the maximum
is $50 or 10 per cent of the minimum monthly charge for the remaining months
of the contract. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
has launched a cancellation fee calculator on its website to help customers
figure out allowable cancellation costs for their circumstances. Customers
concerned about whether their carrier is abiding by the wireless code should
first try to resolve the issue with their wireless provider, the CRTC says.
If that doesn't work, they can complain to the Commissioner for Complaints
for Telecommunications Services. Higher prices possible During a live online chat with CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais,
organized by the CRTC Monday, some participants expressed concern that
wireless providers were hiking prices to compensate for the fact that
three-year contracts are no longer allowed. Blais responded that the CRTC
believes that letting customers renegotiate their contract at least every two
years will have a positive effect on competition. In the past, consumer
advocates and smaller wireless carriers had argued that competition was being
stifled because many customers were locked into three-year contracts and
faced huge cancellation fees if they broke those contracts to switch to
another carrier. A group of carriers is appealing part of the wireless code, but
the CRTC says the entire code will nevertheless apply to consumers for now.
Rogers, From
http://www.cbc.ca/
E-commerce
Growth Slowing in E-commerce growth is slowing in While many of Canadian shoppers who visit the websites of According to another Ipsos poll, a global survey commissioned by
coupon site RetailMeNot.ca, 27 per cent of Canadians said they wouldn't do
any online shopping this holiday season, which was third highest among the 11
countries surveyed. Just 10 per cent of Canadians said they'd do the majority
of their holiday shopping online, compared to 44 per cent of the Brits
surveyed, 40 per cent of Chinese respondents and 33 per cent of German
shoppers. Compared to G8 nations and other similarly sized markets, Canada is
just about last when it comes to e-commerce sales and sophistication,
Petkovic said. "The closest equivalent is "We know Canadian consumers are a highly engaged online
audience, where we fall behind is when it comes to e-commerce as a proportion
of total retail sales relative to those other G8 markets.... Certainly when
it comes to e-commerce as a proportion of retail sales, ( From
http://www.canada.com/
Top
6 Most Popular ITBusiness.ca Stories of the Year The year 2013 was one that saw the mobile technology trends
accelerate more quickly than perhaps most anyone ever imagined, punctuated by
signs of the winners of losers that were either riding that wave or cast
asunder by it. Samsung Corp. continued to amaze us with its new hardware
devices that had ever-larger screens with more impressive displays and
features packed in like you’d stuff candy canes into a stocking and claimed
the smartphone throne from Apple. BlackBerry kept us wondering as it released
new devices, then made overtures towards going private or selling the farm,
only to go back to the drawing board with a new CEO and restructuring effort.
Microsoft made efforts to improve the less-than-rapid adoption of Windows 8
by offering a major update and a refresh of its Surface tablet hardware.
Apple didn’t give us the iWatch, but refined its premium mobile products to
be even sleeker and faster, with a new user interface look in iOS 7. The top
five most popular stories on ITBusiness.ca reflect the mobile technology
trend. Readers were most interested in the stories about new products, the
decline of PC use, and staying secure while making the move to mobile tech. 6 most popular: Tablets surpass smartphones as mobile browser of choice: report If you’re looking to market your business to people browsing on
mobile devices, a new study from Adobe says tablets are where it’s at.
According to Adobe’s new report, The State of Mobile An Adobe study reveals that tablet users consume far more web
content than smartphone users. While we may carry our smartphones around with
us more often, we spend less time using them per session. When it comes to
the more luxurious screen size on tablets though, we dive in deeper and are
willing to explore more content. In 5 most popular: Symantec updates mobile suite for BYOD age Symantec Corp. announced updates to its Mobile Management Suite
that attempt to strike a balance between a preferred user experience and
better security controls, at its Symantec Vision conference in From its Las Vegas-based Symantec Vision conference, the
security vendor unveiled the new version of its security suite that balances
user convenience with security. To address the trend of more workers bringing
their personal mobile devices to the office, Symantec has released an app to
keep enterprise data safe – from e-mail, to cloud storage, to third-party
apps of all kinds. 4 most popular: PC sales continue to free fall – Gartner PC sales took another hit in the second quarter of 2013, with
global sales falling to 76 million units, or being slashed 10.9 per cent
compared to the same period last year. Around No surprise that with all those smartphones and tablets we’re
using, we just feel less need to buy a new PC. Whether people are opting to
wait longer to refresh hardware or just going without them entirely, the PC
category is dipping down to the tune of 10 per cent year over year. When the
PC market hit its fifth consecutive quarter of declining sales, it was the longest
run of decreasing sales in its history. 3 most popular: Judging Microsoft Surface 2 beyond its cover: 3 problems You can't fault Microsoft Corp. for creating hype around the
launch of its second-generation of tablet hardware since entering the market
one year ago. A Toronto-based unveiling event put the tablets and accessories After ITBusiness. editor Brian Jackson (hey that’s me) got a
first look at Microsoft’s Surface 2 unit, he praised its performance and user
interface, but raised three problems that may get in the way of sales: a
limited channel program, lack of Windows Store apps, and the size and price
of the units. Many readers voiced their opinion to the contrary, that the
Surface 2 would be a hit and stated intentions to run out to the store and
buy one. 2 most popular: Multitouch multimedia laptops highlight Toshiba’s new lineup Toshiba of Canada refreshed its consumer lineup of laptops and
tablets this week, highlighted by a new laptop series that promises sleek
style that doesn’t compromise multimedia performance. The premium offering in
Toshiba’s From a tablet to a gaming laptop to a touchscreen desktop PC,
Toshiba’s new line of products showed how flexible devices running Windows 8
can be. 1 most popular: 4 ways to use Microsoft Office on iPad and Android right now Microsoft Corp.'s code-name for its future release plan for
Office products is "Gemini" according to ZDNet blogger Mary Jo
Foley. While Foley doesn't reveal her sources for the information, she has a
pretty Ahead of its official Office 365 app released for the iPhone,
many couldn’t wait for their favourite productivity suite to become available
from tablets or smartphones. This article that gives four alternative options
to access Microsoft Office using third party apps and websites was our
most-viewed article of the year. The desire to access a tried-and-true
software suite from new hardware form factors demonstrates that the more
things change, the more they stay the same. From
http://www.itbusiness.ca/
Canadian
Online Shopping Slows Down as Consumers Clue in to Better Bargains Elsewhere E-commerce growth is slowing in While many of Canadian shoppers who visit the websites of According to another Ipsos poll, a global survey commissioned by
coupon site RetailMeNot.ca, 27 per cent of Canadians said they wouldn’t do
any online shopping this holiday season, which was third highest among the 11
countries surveyed. Just 10 per cent of Canadians said they’d do the majority
of their holiday shopping online, compared to 44 per cent of the Brits
surveyed, 40 per cent of Chinese respondents and 33 per cent of German
shoppers. Compared to G8 nations and other similarly sized markets, Canada is
just about last when it comes to e-commerce sales and sophistication,
Petkovic said. “The closest equivalent is “We know Canadian consumers are a highly engaged online
audience, where we fall behind is when it comes to e-commerce as a proportion
of total retail sales relative to those other G8 markets…. Certainly when it
comes to e-commerce as a proportion of retail sales, ( “While e-commerce sales may not be that great in this market
we’re certainly seeing mobile influence in-store purchasing.” Seventy-six per
cent of the consumers polled in the Google survey said they would use the web
to help them decide which stores to shop at this holiday season and the
brands of products to purchase. About half said they’d use their mobile phone
as a shopping tool. Tellingly, almost 80 per cent of those consumers who
commonly use their phone while shopping said they’ve left a store without
making a purchase because of information they found on their mobile device.
“Everyone’s walking around with mobile phones, super-computers, in their
pockets … people’s path to purchase has forever changed,” Petkovic said. From
http://o.canada.com/
3
Predictions for B2B E-commerce in 2014
For any businesses doing commerce with other businesses, 2014 is
the year to get fully engaged – at least, that’s according to Basware Corp.,
a company providing software to organizations that want to track their
invoices and spending. Basware has looked into the e-commerce crystal ball
and made a few predictions, based on where it believes the space is headed
this year. From seeing more businesses take advantage of social media, mobile
devices, and cloud computing, to more companies jumping into data analytics,
Basware says e-commerce between businesses is poised to keep growing and
changing. 1) Business users expect to do more with their social, mobile,
and cloud-based environment in 2014. If you’re in the e-commerce space, you
probably already know what this is all about – business users want to be able
to access their data and process tasks in seconds or minutes, rather than
have to wait. That means we’re going to see a rise in the number of
e-invoicing, e-ordering, and e-payment services out there. What will
differentiate the good services from the less compelling is the kind of
digital experience they offer, as well as how easy they are for users to pick
up. For example, companies might link to e-commerce networks, allowing their
employees to get easy access to customers, suppliers, and partners to drive
sales. 2) Smart buyers and suppliers will make sure they free up their
cash flow. In 3) Businesses will rely even more heavily on analytics to make
decisions. While companies in many industries are already embracing data
analytics, Basware predicts this will only become more import in the
e-commerce space. This year, companies will need to capitalize more on their
data, not just during the purchase-to-pay process, but also across their
network of buyers and suppliers. Using that data will make it easier for B2B
e-commerce companies to know where they can save money on the bottom line,
and where they can do better in terms of sales. From
http://www.itbusiness.ca/
Digital
Marketing Talent Gap Exposed Companies have been publishing websites and dabbling in digital
marketing for 20 years now, with 2013 marking the Internet’s 20th
anniversary. Since that time, the world’s Internet user population has grown
to 2.4 billion and customers have moved their buying cycle online. ClickZ
identified a digital marketing talent gap in their web-based survey conducted
in August 2013 with some 750 organizations who have a need for digital
marketing talent. This talent gap undermines organizational achievement and
threatens revenue growth. Organizations who commit to ramp up internal skills
or outsource skills will gain market share and realize top line business
benefits— while others will not survive. The upside for professionals and job seekers with training and
experience is they will obtain well-paid, rewarding career opportunities.
Following are some of the survey’s key findings: There is a pervasive, deeply running digital marketing talent
gap. Employers perceive spotty levels of knowledge, skill level and
experience. There is a need for solid, measurable and accurate digital
education. Significant challenges in locating talent result in a lack of
consistency without any industry standards. There is a sense of entitlement among young employees
interfering with the ability of organizations to generate results. Are you surprised? While 84 per cent of Canadians are online, 20 per cent of
Canadian companies with 10 or more employees don’t even have a website; and
only 17 per cent of Canadian businesses sell online according to Business
Development Bank of From
http://www.itbusiness.ca/
Large Firms
Taking on Digital Disruptor Roles Digital technologies are rapidly becoming part of the fabric of
enterprise companies’ operating DNA, according to Accenture. For years the
common wisdom was that small technology start-ups were the nimbler
organizations able to adapt and innovate faster that their larger
counterparts. However, six new trends are turning the tables on them and
enabling many enterprise companies to take on the role of digital disruptors,
according to a report from management and technology consulting firm
Accenture. These trends, according to Accenture’s Technology Vision 2014
report, are enabling big companies to pursue digital strategies that take
advantage of mobility, analytics and cloud technologies to enhance business
processes, leverage real-time intelligence and improve workforce efficiency.
“Digital is rapidly becoming part of the fabric of their operating DNA and
they are poised to become the digital power brokers of tomorrow,” said Paul
Daugherty, chief technology officer at Accenture, of enterprise organizations
that are using digital technologies to transform their culture and the way
they do business. The six trends are: Digital-physical blur - Wearable devices, smart objects and
machines as taking the real world online. This new layer of connected
intelligence augments workforce capabilities, automates processes, and
incorporates machines into people’s lives. For organizations, getting
real-time, relevant data means both machines and employees can act and react
faster and more intelligently in virtually any situation. In healthcare, for
example, Koninklijke Philips N.V. is running a pilot Google Glass application
that allows physicians wearing the display to simultaneously monitor a
patient’s vital signs and react to surgical procedural developments, without
needing to turn away from the patient or procedure. From workforce to
crowdsource –Technology now allows organizations to tap into vast pools of
resources around the world, just as companies like General Electric (GE),
MasterCard Incorporated, and Facebook Inc. do through organizations such as
Kaggle Inc., a global network of computer scientists, mathematicians, and
data scientists who compete to solve problems ranging from finding the best
airline flights to optimizing retail-store locations. The opportunity is enormous: tapping an immense, agile workforce
that is not only well-suited to solving some of today’s toughest business
problems, but also, in many cases, is motivated enough to do it for free.
Data supply chain - Currently, just one in five organizations integrates data
across the enterprise. To truly unlock data’s potential value, companies must
start treating it more as a supply chain, enabling its easy and useful flow
through their entire organizations, and eventually throughout their
ecosystems, too. Companies such as Google Inc. and Walgreens Co. have adopted
this approach by opening up APIs; more than 800,000 websites now use Google
Maps data. Harnessing hyperscale – Advances in areas such as power
consumption, processers, solid state memory, and infrastructure architectures
are giving enterprises new opportunities to massively scale, increase
efficiency, drive down costs, and enable their systems to perform at higher
levels than ever before. As companies digitize their businesses, more and
more will see hardware as essential to enabling their next wave of growth. Business of applications – According to Accenture research, 54
per cent of the highest-performing IT teams have already deployed enterprise
app stores. This allows the shift towards simple, modular apps for employees.
IT leaders and business leaders must establish who plays what role in app
development in their new digital organizations, as pressure for change is
driven by the business. Architecting resilience – In the digital era,
businesses are expected to support the non-stop demands placed on their
processes, services and systems. Companies such as Netflix, Inc., which uses
automated testing tools to deliberately attack its systems as a means to
increase resiliency, are among today’s IT leaders. These companies ensure
that their systems are designed and built for failure, taking advantage of
modular technologies and advanced testing processes rather than designing to
specifications. “Last year, we declared that every business is a digital
business, whether its leaders acknowledged that or not,” say Daugherty. “Now,
we see that digital technologies run through every facet of the
highest-performing businesses.” From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
Tech start-ups across the country offer new ways for payment,
which could make carrying credit cards a thing of the past. The future of
money has arrived, and it's called Coin. It looks like a credit card. It's
the size of a credit card. It swipes in credit card machines. But it holds
the information of up to eight of your debit, credit, rewards, or gift cards.
And you can switch between cards by simply pressing a button. The new
product, launched recently, promises to change the way consumers spend money
in a secure and efficient way. The key technology is a Bluetooth signal. To
load information from your different cards, just swipe them on a card reader
into your Apple or Android phone and take a picture of the card. If you're
too far from your card—like, say, you leave it at the restaurant—your phone
gets a notification. And the Coin's battery lasts up to two years. So, what
does it cost someone to fundamentally change the way they pay for dinner?
$100.Pre-ordering has already started (at the reduced price of $50), and Coin
will ship out next summer. But this Cash is dead, haven't you heard? In recent years, Americans have used less and less physical
money when purchasing items. Several don't use it in stores, and many more
don't keep bills and coins in their pockets. The "cling" of stray
pennies hitting the counter at your local coffee shop may soon become a
distant memory. According to a survey by Walker Sands, a Chicago-based public
relations firm, nearly 1-in-5 consumers do not carry any cash on them. In
total, more than 60 percent of consumers carry $20 or less in cash. Surprisingly,
about 1-in-20 people say they don't use cash and refuse to go to places that
accept only physical currency. (The survey was conducted over the last year
among 1,046 consumers across the The end of the George Costanza wallet is near. People use cash
less. Receipts are redundant with online banking. And products like Coin
allow people to pay digitally, instead of with a physical credit card. Could
the George Costanza wallet be a thing of the past? Christine Pietryla, the
senior vice president of public relations for Walker Sands, said she was
immediately drawn to Coin. It's a product that fits into her firm's research:
People want their consumer experience to be simpler, easier, and more
efficient. "It's definitely a challenge to find an application or a
solution that puts everything all in one place," she said. "This is
unique in that it does do that." Consumers are starting to prefer
digital options in payments: According to the same research from Walker
Sands, 28 percent of consumers are more likely to use a digital gift card,
rather than a plastic gift card. It only makes sense that services like
PayPal, a business that allows people to make payments and money transfers
through the Internet, have taken off. Similarly, Google Wallet, launched in 2011, allows users to
store information for their debit cards, credit cards, reward cards, or gift
cards on their mobile phone. For participating stores, someone can just tap
their phone to a PayPass terminal to pay for a product. Google Wallet users
can all send money through Gmail attachments. Additionally, Google announced
last week that it was introducing prepaid debt cards that can be used in
ATMs. And in the same survey, 95 percent of people say they've purchased
something from Amazon in the last year. PayPal, in fact, last week just made
a deal with another digital start-up, Uber—a car service company that uses a
mobile application to hail rides. Other start-ups, like It's not just how you pay, but how businesses get paid. The
future of retail goes well beyond Coin or PayPal. It's also about how stores
are processing your payments. Any person who works in Store owners are also turning to digital companies to get around
traditional credit card companies that charge too much to process payments.
Des Moines, Iowa-based Dwolla is a payment network that allows people to
transfer money—either to friends or businesses—more efficiently through a
mobile application and its website. And it saves merchants money by charging
only 25 cents for transactions over $10—and charging nothing if it's less.
Thousands of companies and consumers have already signed up for the service,
which started in 2009. Dwolla has even launched a credit feature, which could
compete with credit cards. This is all well and good, but… Many of these
start-ups are just that: start-ups—small outfits of techies who had a vision
of a product that challenges the industry to think differently and move in
radical directions. For one, it costs a lot of money to change the game. That's why
companies like these rely on crowd-funding. Coin is looking to raise $50,000
beyond what some of its investors have put in. It can also cost a lot of
money to buy these new products. Coin is $100—not steep, but not cheap. Other
modern payment services, like PayPal or Google Wallet, are free.
Additionally, with any new product, there are risks for security breaches.
Coin notifies consumers when they might have left it at a restaurant, but
their information is still just as much at risk as with a plastic credit
card. And no product is guaranteed to catch on. Most consumers are looking
for three major qualities in any product: increased security, a tremendous
amount of customer service, and a consistent visual experience. In other
words, consumers want to know that when they walk into a store or log in to
the product's website or mobile application, it's all going to look the same,
be easy to use, and be visually appealing. If these start-ups lack these qualities, consumers won't buy
into the idea. With Coin, consumers will have to replace their card every two
years—shorter than with a normal credit card. And lest we forget a simple
truth: Credit cards are already easy to use. Coin is new. It's unfamiliar.
It's dangerous, to some. But every idea from a start-up company is at least a
little risky. "Start-ups are there to disrupt and be innovative,"
Pietryla said. "It's either going to take off or it's not." Two
years ago, people might have thought paying with an iPad was crazy. As the
technology catches up, consumers get more confident in it. Coin might be just
that. From
http://www.nextgov.com/
What's Next
for Many American are braving the crowds this Thanksgiving weekend -
trying to avoid (or ignore) the masses as they shop for holiday deals. Or
perhaps you’re sitting quietly at home next to a nice warm fire while shopping
online with coupons for free shipping and more. Either way, you have probably
used one or more traditional credit or debit cards in the checkout process.
But according to many experts a few years back, it wasn’t supposed to be this
way in late 2013. In fact, experts predicted that the smartphone would
replace the wallet. The charts and trends listed are impressive. The trouble
is, many of these predictions missed the mark. From the Google Wallet to
Microsoft’s Passport, mobile payments continue to evolve and struggle to gain
widespread appeal and adoption. Keep pulling out your plastic According to a study last year, the average American has 3.5
credit cards. A few years back, there were predictions that new mobile
payments using smartphones and Near Field Communication (NFC) would replace
paying with cash or the need for our traditional plastic forms of credit
payment. For example: “This post is about emerging technology that I see
making inroads in education, training, and informal learning by the end of
2012—Near Field Communication (NFC).” Even predictions from last year
described a near-term surge in mobile payments with NFC. But mobile payment adoption has been slowed by a number of
factors - the major reason being a lack of standards for in-store end-point
devices: …A huge number of companies are involved in turning smartphones
into credit card killers. …In fact, many of these players are carving out standards and
alliances that prevent any mobile payments system from being usable by all
consumers at all stores. …So if you embrace a mobile payments solution and try to pay
with things with your phone, most stores won't accept it. For consumers, the whole mobile payments scene is a confusing
mess. So they're sticking with credit cards. And that's why credit cards and
credit-card like devices are experiencing a renaissance. The new, improved
credit card? So where to next? The old adage, “If you can’t beat them, join
them,” may apply. Coin, a recent startup company from It has only been two weeks since Coin, a startup that aims to
become your credit card-sized digital wallet, hit its initial pre-sale goal.
The Coin card is designed to replace credit, bank, gift, and loyalty cards by
letting users scan them into a single device that syncs with a smartphone. As
a Coin user, you have the ability to scan-in all of your cards, and then flip
through them with a single button. While this new innovation seems intriguing,
will the credit card companies support this approach or try and torpedo this
new all-in-one holder of credit cards? What are the problems with Coin? “If
major credit cards see Coin as a liability or ripe for fraud -- after all,
the actual issued card isn't being presented -- Coin would be sunk.” I
suspect the credit card “big guns” like Visa and Mastercard will try and
throw water on the Coin fire – at least initially. Later, they will probably
cut a deal. New predictions on mobile payments So what’s next for mobile payments as we head into 2014?
According to this report from digitaltrends.com back in 2012, don’t give up
on smartphones just yet. The Keep security in mind One thing is for sure… security remains the top consumer
concern, regardless of what process or technology is used for mobile
payments. The survey reports, “More than three-quarters of respondents
(77.7%) listed security as their most serious concern.” What’s the moral of
the story? I think Bill Gates was right when he said, “We always overestimate
the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change
that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”
Especially when is comes to your wallet. From
http://www.govtech.com/
Telecoms in
2013: Barking Up the Right Tree Time once again to evaluate the accuracy of Total Telecom's
annual industry forecasts; Nokia, AT&T and others did just what we
predicted this year. Predicting the future is a tricky business, but
year-after-year we at Total Telecom make it look easy, by foretelling with a
worrying degree of accuracy – in most cases anyway – what the upcoming 12
months has in store for the industry. So when the end of another year
beckons, we like to take some time to review exactly how precise the
predictions we made this time last year were. Read on to find out. THE GOOD Leap of faith What we said would happen: "More consolidation will take place in the What actually happened: Sure enough, AT&T in July agreed to acquire Leap Wireless
for roughly $1.2 billion in cash, in order to accelerate its move into the
low-cost mobile market. Meanwhile, satellite TV provider Dish gave up on its
attempt to snatch Sprint away from Softbank and instead turned its attention
to beleaguered LTE wholesaler LightSquared in a bid to land some valuable
mobile spectrum. How accurate were we? Pretty darn accurate, if you don't mind me saying so. Double your Steve What we said would happen: "Microsoft will consider making a move for Nokia.
Admittedly, while an acquisition is not out of the question, provided the
price is right, there are a number of potential obstacles that could prevent it.
One way or another though, hardware will be higher on the agenda for
Microsoft." What actually happened: To the dismay of How accurate were we? The aforementioned obstacles, namely, Finnish national pride and
the fact that Nokia has a sizeable networks division that Microsoft wasn't
interested in, did not stop Microsoft getting its hands on what it wanted. Spectrum on the cheap What we said would happen: "The U.K. LTE auction will raise less than the ￡3.5 billion the
government is hoping for. Reports of a prospective new entrant, such as BT,
will come to nothing and the process will be less fiercely contested than it
could have been." What actually happened: Concluded in February, Ofcom's auction raised ￡2.37 billion,
substantially less than the Treasury wanted. While BT did surprise us by
forking out ￡201.5
million for 2.6-GHz spectrum, it said at the time it has no intention of
becoming a fully-fledged mobile operator, and will instead use the frequencies
to augment its fixed and wireless broadband offerings. How accurate were we? Unless new BT chief Gavin Patterson wakes up one morning with
the ambition of taking on EE et al in mobile, our prediction was pretty much
spot on. Russian around What we said would happen: "There will be consolidation in What actually happened: In March, state-run investment bank VTB acquired Tele2 Russia
for $3.55 billion. In October, VTB said it planned to offload a 50% stake in
the operator in a deal thought to be worth $2 billion. How accurate were we? Not far off. Tele2 may not have disappeared from Nuthin' but a What we said would happen: "China Mobile will regain some lost ground in the What actually happened: By April, it became clear that China Mobile was no longer being
impeded by having to use a proprietary TD-SCDMA How accurate were we? Apart from the whole iPhone bit, we were pretty accurate. What we said would happen: " What actually happened: Not a fat lot. Indian authorities, trapped between trying to
attract willing participants and raising enough cash from the auction to help
plug the government's yawning budget deficit, have spent 2013 trying to set a
reserve price. According to local press reports, the process for selling off
airwaves in the 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands is expected to begin in January. How accurate were we? We were spot on, but let's face it: predicting that THE NOT SO GOOD Adiós What we said: "We will hear more from ambitious Mexican operator America
Movil as it makes its presence felt at both KPN and Telecom What actually happened: America Movil did make its presence felt, helping to orchestrate
a pan-European wholesale deal between KPN and Telekom How accurate were we? This one looked like it was going to be a dead cert but at the
time of going to press it felt like America Movil was anything but interested
in No adiós What we said: "TeliaSonera will sell Spanish business Yoigo to one of What actually happened: By April, Sweden-based TeliaSonera had not received any
satisfactory offers for its Spanish arm and opted instead to scrap the sale
and pursue a controversial network-sharing pact with Telefonica. How accurate were we? TeliaSonera tried hard to offload Yoigo, but whichever way you
slice it, Yoigo is still part of TeliaSonera. Patently un-true What we said: "Google will seek to acquire more patents." What actually happened: The Internet giant bought some patents relating to its Google
Glass project from Foxconn in August, but it was hardly as high-profile as
deals that had gone before. How accurate were we? Not completely off the map, but fairly close to the edge. AND FINALLY... What we said: "Attendees at Mobile World Congress in February will
complain bitterly about the new What actually happened: The Fira Gran Via was easy to navigate and large enough to
accommodate some huge stands, plus the media village was a marked improvement
upon the old Fira. However, rose-tinted spectacles seemed to be a must-have
accessory among the assembled press, myself included, who pined for the
old-world charm and easy-to-reach-by-metro location of the Fira de Montjuic.
Some of the really old telco hacks still haven't shut-up about How accurate were we? Not far off, but we were fools to think we could be organised
enough to book our accommodation for next year's Mobile World Congress 11
months in advance. That's it for this week, stay tuned though because next
week our last Total Telecom+ of the year comes out, which will reveal our
2014 telecoms predictions. If this year's performance is anything to go by,
you can be confident enough to bet the farm on them. Not a real farm of
course. A toy one. That you never really liked anyway. From
http://www.totaltele.com/
The
Globalization of E-Commerce in 2014 E-commerce players of all types continued to build out their
global footprint in 2013. Asos launched new sites for Brands will embrace new channels and approaches to global
expansion. In 2014, it will be less common for brands to take a single
approach to selling their products online. A growing number of brands will
supplement their traditional retail relationships with new direct-to-consumer
websites around the world, offering global online shoppers more immersive
brand experiences and new opportunities to buy. Brands selling online will
increasingly embrace international shipping as a way to reach consumers in
markets where they do not yet have local operations. Brands will also launch
new stores on global marketplaces to take advantage of these marketplaces’
sizeable audiences and understanding of local consumers’ needs. Online
retailers will need to plan for key online shopping dates in every market.
The next year will see a growing number of retailers rallying around key
online shopping dates in every market across the globe. Although originally
tied to Thanksgiving in the New market entry will get easier rather than harder. One of the
biggest developments in recent years has been the degree to which new market
entry is increasingly streamlined. In the past, retailers would often have to
build relationships with dozens of different partners to get an online
offering off the ground. At a minimum, eBusinesses had to identify partners
to assist with website development and operations, fulfillment, marketing,
and customer care in each market. Increasingly, however, new and existing
players are building out their own offerings and expanding their partner
networks to reduce the complexity of new market entry for brands. Vendors are
also extending their global footprints, making it easier to leverage existing
partnerships across borders. Profitability will remain elusive. Finally, in
2014, e-commerce players around the globe will struggle with profitability.
In emerging e-commerce markets, a common refrain among industry executives is
that “everyone here is still losing money.” Indeed, the number of e-commerce
players with wildly profitable businesses in these markets tends to be very
limited — with the successful few making headlines as a result. We’ve often
cautioned eBusiness leaders against building ROI scenarios that are too
aggressive and require payback in just one to two years. In 2014, these
leaders will need to heed the same advice. What global e-commerce trends do
you expect to see in 2014? From
http://www.internetretailer.com/
ICT Budget
and Staffing Trends in Retail Banking - Product Synopsis This report presents the findings from a survey of 131 retail
banks regarding their Information & Communication Technology (ICT)
budgets and staff allocation. The survey investigates how retail banks
currently allocate their ICT budgets across the core areas of ICT spend,
namely hardware, software, IT services, communications and consulting. Introduction and Landscape Why was the report written? In order to provide a depth of insight into ICT vendors' and
service providers' potential customers. What is the current market landscape and what is changing? ICT expenditure is a significant portion of operational spending
in the retail banking industry. With business process streamlining a key
priority, retail banks are increasing their ICT spending to improve their
operational efficiency and customer service by making investments in the
likes of enterprise applications. What are the key drivers behind recent market changes? Trends such as online banking, mobile banking, and personalised
services are primarily influencing the ICT investments in this sector.
Increasing compliance regulations are also compelling retail banks to invest
in content management and IT security solutions. What makes this report unique and essential to read? Kable Global ICT Intelligence has invested significant resources
in order to interview CIOs and IT managers about their IT Budgets. Very few
IT analyst houses will have interviewed 130+ ICT decision makers in the
retail banking industry in H2 2012. Key Features and Benefits Understand how ICT budgets are set to change in Key Market Issues As large volumes of transactional content generated on a daily
basis, retail banks will continue to allocate the largest proportion of their
total ICT budgets to their data centres in 2013. Retail banks' ICT budget
allocation for internal development and maintenance is expected to remain
high in 2013 and 2012, with most banks strengthening their internal ICT
infrastructure in order to improve and automate their business processes.
Retail banks are also allocating a significant proportion of their hardware
budgets to security in order to deal with the growing incidences of
cybercrime and prevent the loss of business critical data as well as
customers' crucial financial information. Kable's survey shows that retail
banks are planning to increase their software budget allocations in order to
improve their business efficiency and customer service functions. Retail
banks' spending on application development and integration services largely
revolves around using IT services providers to make key architectural changes
and upgrade their core banking platforms. Key Highlights Kable's survey shows that retail banks' hardware budgets are
dominated by spending on clients, with average allocation of 16% to this
category. Retail banks are gradually moving towards a cloud environment,
which is evident from the survey with respondents allocating 21% of their
software budgets to software as a service (SaaS). A large proportion of
retail banks' software budgets was spent on enterprise applications in 2012,
signifying huge demand for IT vendors offering such solutions in the banking
sector. Retail banks are allocating 35% of their IT consulting budgets to
systems planning & design consulting, creating decent opportunities for
IT services firms offering such services. According to Kable's survey, fixed
voice communications still receive the largest share of retail banks'
telecommunications budgets, driven by services such as tele-banking and help
desks. 1 Trends in ICT budgets 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Survey demographics 1.3 ICT budget changes 1.4 ICT budget allocation by core technology area 1.5 ICT budget allocation by function 1.6 ICT spending by entity 1.7 IT staff distribution 2 Detailed ICT budget allocations 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Hardware budget breakdown 2.3 Software budget breakdowns 2.4 Third party IT services expenditure 2.5 Telecommunications budget 3 Summary 3.1 Retail banks' ICT investments are being driven by their
efforts to modernise and automate their business operations 4 Appendix 4.1 Definitions 4.2 Further reading 4.3 Contact the authors List of Tables Table 1: Retail banking - enterprise ICT survey geographic
breakdown Table 2: Retail banking - enterprise ICT survey breakdown by size
band (number of employees) Table 3: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among retail
banks Table 4: Retail banks' (external) ICT budget allocation, 2012
and 2013 Table 5: Retail banks' ICT budget allocation by function, 2012
and 2013 Table 6: Retail banks' (external) ICT budget allocation by
entity, 2012 and 2013 Table 7: Average allocation of full-time IT staff members in
retail banks Table 8: Retail banks' average hardware budget allocation Table 9: Average allocation of software budgets in retail banks Table 10: Retail banks' average software budget allocation by
technology Table 11: Retail banks' average IT services budget allocation Table 12: Retail banks' average IT consulting services budget
allocation Table 13: Retail banks' average telecommunications budget
allocation List of Figures Figure 1: Retail banking - enterprise ICT survey geographic
breakdown Figure 2: Retail banking - enterprise ICT survey breakdown by
size band (number of employees) Figure 3: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among retail
banks Figure 4: Retail banks' (external) ICT budget allocation, 2012
and 2013 Figure 5: Retail banks' ICT budget allocation by function, 2012
and 2013 Figure 6: Retail banks' ICT budget allocation by entity, 2012
and 2013 Figure 7: Average allocation of full-time IT staff members in
retail banks Figure 8: Retail banks' average hardware budget allocation Figure 9: Average allocation of software budgets in retail banks Figure 10: Retail banks' average software budget allocation by
technology Figure 11: Retail banks' average IT services budget allocation Figure 12: Retail banks' average IT consulting services budget
allocation Figure 13: Retail banks' average telecommunications budget
allocation From
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/
ICT Priorities in Financial Markets - Product Synopsis This report presents the findings from a
survey of X financial market institutions regarding their Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) investment priorities. The survey investigates
the core technologies which financial market institutions are investing in,
including the likes of enterprise applications, security, mobility,
communications and collaboration, and Cloud Computing. Introduction and Landscape Why was the report written? In order to provide deeper insights into
financial market institutions' ICT investment priorities and strategic
objectives. What is the current market landscape and
what is changing? The survey shows that the adoption of
cloud computing is relatively low, owing to concerns relating to security and
reliability. What are the key drivers behind recent
market changes? Financial market institutions are
planning to increase their investments in cloud computing in the future,
primarily driven by benefits such as increased agility and scalability and
lower total cost of ownership (TCO). What makes this report unique and
essential to read? Kable Global ICT Intelligence has
invested significant resources in order to interview CIOs and IT managers
about their IT investment priorities. Very few IT analyst houses will have
interviewed 150+ ICT decision makers in financial markets in H2 2012. Key Features and Benefits Recognize financial market institutions'
strategic objectives with regards to their ICT investments. Identify
financial market institutions' investment priorities based on their budget
allocations across core technology categories such as enterprise
applications, security, mobility, communications and collaboration, and Cloud
Computing, etc. Learn about the drivers that are influencing financial market
institutions' investments in each technology category. Establish how
financial market institutions' IT budgets are currently allocated across
various segments within a technology category. Gain insight into how
financial market institutions plan to change their IT budget allocations
across various segments within a technology category. Key Market Issues Kable's survey shows that financial
market institutions are placing high levels of importance on the strategic
objective of improving security and privacy, with the highest average ratings
of X on a scale of 1 to 4. Financial market institutions are investing in
enterprise applications which enable risk and compliance management, performance
and profitability management, marketing and business intelligence, HR
management, and front office management to streamline their business
operations. Amidst continuously evolving regulations
and a highly competitive market there is a growing need for financial market
institutions to respond quickly to changes and make decisions in order to
increase business efficiency and productivity. Therefore, institutions are
adopting business intelligence (BI) tools to transform data and information
into meaningful insights. Content management solutions enable financial
market institutions to mitigate legal and regulatory risk by classifying and
storing information in an organised manner and making it accessible for
compliance purposes. Therefore, a large proportion of financial market
institutions are planning to invest in these solutions in the next two years.
Financial market institutions are putting a lot of emphasis on deploying
various IT systems management solutions and minimising their ICT infrastructure
complexity, as the majority (X%) of institutions are operating in either a
very complex or a somewhat complex ICT environment. Key Highlights In the next two years, financial market
institutions are relatively keen on CRM application expenditure, as 63% of
these firms are planning investments in this domain. CRM solutions offer
functionality that enables institutions to better manage client opportunities
and relationships, while helping institutions' sales, trading, and research
functions. The adoption of real-time BI is expected to gain momentum as
institutions need to take proactive decisions depending on price swings or
breaking news relating to relevant holdings. Not surprisingly therefore, the
highest percentage of financial institutions are planning to invest in
real-time BI in the next two years. In the next two years, 59% of
respondents are planning to invest in customer facing applications to improve
customer satisfaction. The demand for tablet computing is also expected to
increase as 53% of financial market firms are planning investments in this
space in the next two years. Server virtualization is the most widely
deployed green IT solution by financial market institutions, with a
penetration rate of 66%. Kable's survey finds that server virtualization is
expected to receive higher investments, as X% of institutions are planning to
deploy these solutions in the next two years. Kable's survey finds that
private and hybrid cloud are expected to bring in greater investments in the
next twenty-four months, as 58% and 59% of institutions are planning to
invest in these cloud computing models over this timeframe. 1 Enterprise ICT investment trends 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Survey demographics 1.3 ICT budget changes 1.4 Strategic objectives 1.5 Core technology investment
priorities 2 Detailed ICT investment priorities 2.1 Introduction 2.2 2.3 Business intelligence 2.4 Security 2.5 Content management 2.6 Mobility 2.7 IT systems management 2.8 Communications and collaboration 2.9 Green IT and virtualization 2.1 Cloud computing solutions 3 Summary 3.1 Financial market institutions are
making notable investments in enterprise applications to increase
competitiveness and streamline operations 4 Appendix 4.1 Definitions 4.2 Further reading 4.3 Contact the authors List of Tables Table 1: Financial markets - enterprise
ICT survey geographic breakdown Table 2: Financial markets - enterprise
ICT survey breakdown by size band (number of employees) Table 3: Recent and expected ICT budget
changes among financial market institutions Table 4: Current strategic objectives of
financial market institutions Table 5: Current and future investment
priorities of financial market institutions across core technologies Table 6: Table 7: Business intelligence -
financial market institutions' current and future investment priorities Table 8: Security - financial market
institutions' current and future investment priorities Table 9: Content management - financial
market institutions' current and future investment priorities Table 10: Mobility - financial market
institutions' current and future investment priorities Table 11: IT systems management -
financial market institutions' current and future investment priorities Table 12: Communications and
collaboration - financial market institutions' current and future investment
priorities Table 13: Green IT and virtualization -
financial market institutions' current and future investment priorities Table 14: Cloud computing solutions -
financial market institutions' current and future investment priorities List of Figures Figure 1: Financial markets - enterprise
ICT survey geographic breakdown Figure 2: Financial markets - enterprise
ICT survey breakdown by size band (number of employees) Figure 3: Recent and expected ICT budget
changes among financial market institutions Figure 4: Current strategic objectives
of financial market institutions Figure 5: Current and future investment
priorities of financial market institutions across core technologies Figure 6: Figure 7: Business intelligence -
financial market institutions' current and future investment priorities Figure 8: Security - financial market
institutions' current and future investment priorities Figure 9: Content management - financial
market institutions' current and future investment priorities Figure 10: Mobility - financial market
institutions' current and future investment priorities Figure 11: IT systems management -
financial market institutions' current and future investment priorities Figure 12: Communications and
collaboration - financial market institutions' current and future investment
priorities Figure 13: Green IT and virtualization -
financial market institutions' current and future investment priorities Figure 14: Cloud computing solutions -
financial market institutions' current and future investment priorities From http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/ ICT Priorities in
Pharmaceuticals - Product Synopsis This report presents the findings from a survey of 102 pharmaceutical
regarding their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) investment
priorities. The survey investigates the core technologies which
pharmaceutical companies are investing in, including the likes of enterprise
applications, security, mobility, communications and collaboration, and Cloud
Computing. Introduction and Landscape Why was the report written? In order to provide deeper insights into pharmaceutical companies' ICT
investment priorities and strategic objectives. What is the current market landscape and what is changing? Kable's survey finds that apart from investing in core technologies
(such as security, enterprise applications, and IT systems management), many
pharmaceutical companies are looking to adopt green IT and virtualization,
cloud computing, mobility, and business intelligence solutions. What are the key drivers behind recent market changes? Demand for such advanced technologies are increasing amongst
pharmaceutical companies as these solutions will help them to reduce their
costs, enhance operational efficiencies, achieve sustainability, and improve
customer experience. What makes this report unique and essential to read? Kable Global ICT Intelligence has invested significant resources in
order to interview CIOs and IT managers about their IT investment priorities.
Very few IT analyst houses will have interviewed 100+ ICT decision makers in
pharmaceutical industry in H2 2012. Key Features and Benefits Recognize pharmaceutical companies' strategic objectives with regards
to their ICT investments. Identify
pharmaceutical companies' investment priorities based on their budget allocations
across core technology categories such as enterprise applications, security,
mobility, communications and collaboration, and Cloud Computing, etc. Learn about the drivers that are influencing pharmaceutical companies'
investments in each technology category.
Establish how
pharmaceutical companies' IT budgets are currently allocated across various
segments within a technology category.
Gain insight into
how pharmaceutical companies' plan to change their ICT budget allocations
across various segments within a technology category. Key Market Issues The demand for security solutions is set to continue, with 87% of
survey respondents planning investments in this area in the next two years,
owing to the increasing adoption of enterprise mobility and rising data
security threats in pharmaceutical companies.
Companies in the
pharmaceutical sector are keen to deploy a cost effective supply chain
solution in order to streamline their operations.
In order to curb
the impact of competition and regulatory changes pharmaceuticals companies
are looking to adopt various predictive analytics and modelling tools in
order to make smarter business decisions by understanding the latest market
trends and customer preferences. Managing and
monitoring the ever increasing volumes of information across a global
organisation is a complex task, which is driving the adoption of various
enterprise content management (ECM) solutions.
The increasing
complexity of enterprise ICT infrastructure is consequently driving the
demand for IT systems management to manage ICT assets effectively and keep
them running efficiently, while at the same time removing any redundancies
and wastage of resources. Key Highlights With 60% of respondents planning investments in this solution through
to the end of 2014, the demand for PLM solutions is set to gain momentum in
the coming months. Kable's survey finds that social
sentiment analysis is set to receive increasing investments, as 53% of
pharmaceutical companies are planning to invest in this technology through to
the end of 2014. The demand for tablet computing is set
to increase in the near future, with 53% of pharmaceutical companies planning
to invest here through to the end of 2014.
Web/video
conferencing and IP-contact centres occupy the top two positions on survey
respondents' priority lists. While web/video conferencing has a penetration
rate of 65% among pharmaceutical companies, 63% already operate IP-contact
centres. Kable expects high levels of investment
in hybrid clouds in the near future, as an increasing number of
pharmaceutical companies are planning to make investments in these solutions
through to the end of 2014. 1 Enterprise ICT investment trends 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Survey demographics 1.3 ICT budget changes 1.4 Strategic objectives 1.5 Core technology investment priorities 2 Detailed ICT investment priorities 2.1 Introduction 2.2 2.3 Business intelligence 2.4 Security 2.5 Content management 2.6 Mobility 2.7 IT systems management 2.8 Communications and collaboration 2.9 Green IT and virtualization 2.10 Cloud computing solutions 3 Summary 3.1 Intense competition among pharmaceutical companies is driving the
adoption of advanced technologies such as cloud and tablet computing 4 Appendix 4.1 Definitions 4.2 Further reading 4.3 Contact the authors List of Tables Table 1: Pharmaceuticals - enterprise ICT survey geographic breakdown Table 2: Pharmaceuticals - enterprise ICT survey breakdown by size
band (number of employees) Table 3: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among pharmaceutical
companies Table 4: Current strategic objectives of pharmaceutical companies Table 5: Current and future investment priorities of pharmaceutical
companies across core technologies Table 6: Table 7: Business intelligence - pharmaceutical companies' current and
future investment priorities Table 8: Security - pharmaceutical companies' current and future
investment priorities Table 9: Content management - pharmaceutical companies' current and
future investment priorities Table 10: Mobility - pharmaceutical companies' current and future
investment priorities Table 11: IT systems management - pharmaceutical companies' current
and future investment priorities Table 12: Communications and collaboration - pharmaceutical companies'
current and future investment priorities Table 13: Green IT and virtualization - pharmaceutical companies'
current and future investment priorities Table 14: Cloud computing solutions - pharmaceutical companies'
current and future investment priorities List of Figures Figure 1: Pharmaceuticals - enterprise ICT survey geographic breakdown Figure 2: Pharmaceuticals - enterprise ICT survey breakdown by size
band (number of employees) Figure 3: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among pharmaceutical
companies Figure 4: Current strategic objectives of pharmaceutical companies Figure 5: Current and future investment priorities of pharmaceutical
companies across core technologies. Figure 6: Figure 7: Business intelligence - pharmaceutical companies' current
and future investment priorities Figure 8: Security - pharmaceutical companies' current and future
investment priorities Figure 9: Content management - pharmaceutical companies' current and
future investment priorities Figure 10: Mobility - pharmaceutical companies' current and future
investment priorities Figure 11: IT systems management - pharmaceutical companies' current
and future investment priorities. Figure 12: Communications and collaboration - pharmaceutical
companies' current and future investment priorities Figure 13: Green IT and virtualization - pharmaceutical companies' current
and future investment priorities. Figure 14: Cloud computing solutions - pharmaceutical companies'
current and future investment priorities From http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/ Global IT Service Management (ITSM) Market 2012-2016 TechNavio's analysts forecast the Global
IT Service Management (ITSM) market to grow at a CAGR of 7.30 percent over
the period 2012-2016. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth
is that an increasing number of employees are using personal technology
devices in workplace. The Global IT Service Management (ITSM) market has also
been witnessing the increasing popularity of ITSM among SMEs. However, the
lack of transparency in service level agreements could pose a challenge to
the growth of this market. TechNavio's report, Global IT Service Management
(ITSM) market 2012-2016, has been prepared based on an in-depth market
analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Key questions answered in this report: What will the market size be in 2016 and
what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market
growth? Who are the key vendors in this market
space? What are the market opportunities and
threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of
these key vendors? You can request one free hour of our
analyst's time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided
within the report. Methodology Research methodology is based on
extensive primary and secondary research. Primary research includes in-depth
interviews with industry experts, vendors, resellers and customers. Secondary
research includes Technavio Platform, industry publications, company reports,
news articles, analyst reports, trade associations and the data published by
Government agencies. 01. Executive Summary 02. Scope of the Report 02.1 Market Overview 02.2 Product Offerings 03. Market Research Methodology 03.1 Market Research Process 03.2 Research Design 03.3 Research Methodology 04. List of Abbreviations 05. Introduction 06. Market Landscape 06.1 Market Overview 06.2 Market Size and Forecast 06.3 Five Forces Analysis 07. Market Segmentation by Application 07.1 Global ITSM Market by Application
2012-2016 07.2 Global Configuration Management
Market 07.3 Global IT Service Desk Market 07.4 Global IT Asset Management Market 07.5 Global Application Performance
Management Market 07.6 Global Availability and Performance
Management Market 07.7 Global Network Management Market 07.8 Global Job Scheduling Market 07.9 Global DBMS Management Market 08. Market Segmentation by End-users 09. Geographical Segmentation 10. Key Leading Countries 10.1 10.2 10.3 11. Buying Criteria 12. Market Growth Drivers 13. Drivers and their Impact 14. Market Challenges 15. Impact of Drivers and Challenges 16. Market Trends 17. Trends and their Impact 18. Vendor Landscape 18.1 Competitive Scenario 18.2 Market Share Analysis 2012 18.3 Other Prominent Vendors 19. Key Vendor Analysis 19.1 BMC Software Inc. 19.2 CA Technologies Inc. 19.3 IBM Corp. 19.4 Hewlett-Packard Co. 20. Other Reports in this Series List of Exhibits Exhibit 1: Market Research Methodology Exhibit 2: Global ITSM Market 2012-2016
(US$ billion) Exhibit 3: Global ITSM Market
Segmentation by Application 2012 Exhibit 4: Global ITSM Market
Segmentation by Application 2012 & 2016 Exhibit 5: Global Configuration
Management Market 2012-2016 (US$ billion) Exhibit 6: Global IT Service Desk Market
2012-2016 (US$ billion) Exhibit 7: Global IT Asset Management
Market 2012-2016 (US$ billion) Exhibit 8: Global Application
Performance Management Market 2012-2016 (US$ billion) Exhibit 9: Global Availability and
Performance Management Market 2012-2016 (US$ billion) Exhibit 10: Global Network Management
Market 2012-2016 (US$ billion) Exhibit 11: Global Job Scheduling Market
2012-2016 (US$ billion) Exhibit 12: Global DBMS Management
Market 2012-2016 (US$ billion) Exhibit 13: Global ITSM Market by
End-user Segmentation 2012 Exhibit 14: Global ITSM Market by
Geographical Segmentation 2012 Exhibit 15: Global ITSM Market by Vendor
Segmentation 2012 Exhibit 16: Business Segmentation of BMC
Software Inc. Exhibit 17: Business Segmentation of CA
Technologies Inc. Exhibit 18: Business Segmentation of IBM
Corp. Exhibit 19: Business Segmentation of
Hewlett-Packard Co. From http://www.reportbuyer.com/ IT Shares Fall
on Cognizant Revenue Outlook Shares of IT companies fall after global rival Cognizant
Technology Solutions Corp (NSQ:CTSH - News) forecast 2014 revenue below
analysts' expectations on Wednesday, raising concerns about the sector's
growth prospects, dealers say. Infosys (NSI:INFY.NS - News) falls 0.5 percent
while Tata Consultancy Services (NSI:TCS.NS - News) is down 0.9 percent.
Cognizant said it expected revenue to grow at least 16.5 percent this year,
the slowest growth since 2009 and lower than the 20.4 percent growth in 2013.
Analysts on average were expecting Cognizant revenue to grow by 17-20 percent
in 2014 due to higher demand from From
http://finance.yahoo.com/
Strategic Opportunity Analysis of the Global The research service sets the stage for
visionary thinking by identifying and analyzing one of the significant Mega
Trends, Smart is the New Green. 'Smart' as a value proposition has been
increasingly replacing 'Green' concepts. This presentation would highlight
examples of projects, companies and technologies that will invade and change
the smart city space globally in the next decade. It also provides
information on the total addressable smart city market size opportunity and
discusses smart city business models, funding mechanisms, and stakeholder
analysis. It also provides an analysis of macro-to-micro implications of
smart cities on various industries in driving convergence of competition. Key Topics Covered: Executive Summary Definition of Smart Cities Key Findings of the Study Summary of Key Conclusions and Future Outlook Associated Multimedia Research Scope, Objective and
Methodology Research Scope Research Aims and Objectives Research Background Research Methodology-From Macro to Micro Introduction and Definition Introduction to Definition of a Smart City-Key
Parameters Smart Energy-Smart Grid the Future
'Energy Internet' Smart Buildings-The Triple Zero
Architecture of the Future Smart Mobility-Technology on Wheels Smart Healthcare-Health in a Greener
Economy Smart Infrastructure-Digital Management
of Infrastructure Smart Governance and Smart
Security-Governance-on-the-Go Smart Citizen-The Digizens of the Future Definitions Used in the Study Global Smart Cities in 2025 Regional Snapshots of Smart Cities Smart Cities in Smart Cities in Smart Cities in Global Convergence of Competition Smart Convergence Section Slide Numbers Next Game Changers in Smart Cities: The Future Services,
Technology and Connectivity Future of Technology Future of Connectivity Case Studies of IBM-Smarter Planet Siemens AG-Infrastructure and Cities GE-Ecomagination ABB-Smart Grid Solutions Cisco-Cisco Smart + Connected
Communities for Cities Accenture-Building an Intelligent City Case Studies of Key Smart Cities in 2025 Sustainable Cities-Eco-friendly Urban
living Understanding the Difference Between Global Snapshot of Sustainable or
Eco-Cities in 2025 Case Studies of Sustainable Cities:
Future Green Cities Macro To Micro Implications of Smart
Cities on Key Industries Impact of Smart Cities on the Automotive
Industry Impact of Smart Cities on the Energy
Industry Impact of Smart Cities on ICT Impact of Smart Cities on the Healthcare
Industry Impact of Smart Cities on the Security
Industry Impact of Smart Cities on the Logistics
Industry Smart Cities: Key Conclusions and Future
Outlook Appendix Companies Mentioned: •ABB •Accenture •Cisco •Ericsson •GE •IBM •Siemens AG From http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/ AT&T Positioned as a Leader in IDC MarketScape in Asia/Pacific
Telecommunications Market AT&T* strengthened its position as a
leader in the Asia-Pacific next-generation telecom services market in IDC
MarketScape's annual study, MarketScape: Asia Pacific Next-Generation Telcos
– ICT Services 2013-2014 Vendor Analysis. The IDC MarketScape study said that
AT&T continued to grow its presence and showed good execution in
delivering connectivity and ICT services in Asia Pacific, taking advantage of
its network and data center presence in the region. The study evaluates
global and regional telecom services providers that have a strong presence
and a suite of managed services, along with large client base requiring
international ICT services. The report assesses network service providers on
their managed services and network portfolio, cloud capabilities, enterprise
mobility solutions, strong service delivery and integration skills, as well
as ability to deliver business benefits and customer life-cycle management. "We are glad to be recognized as a
leader in the MarketScape: Asia Pacific Next-Generation Telcos – ICT Services
2013-2014 Vendor Analysis report. AT&T continued to build its presence in
the region, widened its enterprise solutions capabilities and demonstrated
its strong service delivery and network integration skills in the past year.
We will further drive our leadership position by continuing to invest in our
global infrastructure, and provide a globally consistent set of robust and
highly-secure services to multinational corporations in Asia Pacific," said
Bernard Yee, vice president, AT&T Asia Pacific. *AT&T products and
services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T
Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc. About IDC MarketScape IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is
designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of IT,
telecommunications, or industry-specific suppliers in a given market. The
research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both
qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical
illustration of each vendor's position within a given market. IDC MarketScape
provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings,
capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of
IT, telecommunications, or industry-specific vendors can be meaningfully
compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a transparent
foundation to allow companies to independently compare the strengths and
weaknesses of current and prospective vendors. About AT&T AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier
communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the
world in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating
companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the From http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/ APAC Telcos Must Transform The instruments for success in the ICT
industry have always been threefold: conviction, innovation, and having an
explicit sense of what your customers want. Telcos across Asia-Pacific are in
an enviable position given their large installed base of both consumer and
enterprise customers; this base is second to none in the ICT world. There is
also a fine line that separates enterprise and consumer solutions. The trail
that telcos can blaze in this increasingly converged marketplace will
essentially define who and what they are as the second half of this decade
approaches. However, it continues to be disheartening to witness so many
telcos across Asia-Pacific harbor self-doubt as they strive to transform
themselves. Telcos across the region and globally (BT, Orange, AT&T, Verizon,
SingTel, NTT, and Telstra) that have painfully stuck to their
transformational convictions are so much fitter now than they were five years
ago, and the progress they have made has vindicated early doubters. This
cohort has embraced their new ICT identity irreversibly. But there is now an
ever-widening gap between the leaders and others in the region. Ovum believes
the window of opportunity for many telcos is getting smaller and 2014 is the
year that they must adopt a transformation strategy that is worthy of its
name. Pick your battles and invest accordingly The burning question facing most telcos is
how far down the lCT road they should travel. For the vast majority it will
be an insurmountable task to become a fully fledged ICT provider despite the
prospect of faster growth. Wholesale transformation of their business models
will not work for many of them because they do not have the infrastructure
for it. This journey is also definitely not for the faint-hearted. For many
telcos, picking the right battles in order to play to individual strengths
and unique local market conditions will be key; this includes “everything
cloud and mobile/M Telcos should provide options from pure
public cloud services but also dedicated private cloud services wrapped
around stringent service-level agreements (SLAs) and top security. The latter
should command a premium as public cloud services are experiencing a race to
the bottom in terms of pricing in some markets, and this is squeezing
margins. For mobility, the issue of security still tops the agenda,
especially for regulated industries. Asia-Pacific telcos should be at the
forefront in helping their enterprise customers build that secure mobile and
“cloudified” workplace. Device management is now a minimum requirement in
most mobility engagements, especially in a bring-your-own or choose-your-own
device environment, so the next opportunity for telcos will be application
management and possibly development and customization. Channels and partnerships are critical to
scale One of the biggest challenges for telcos as
they move into adjacencies is scaling quickly to ensure margins that can
quickly deliver returns on investments. Pure public cloud has scored a
distinction of being a technology that is moving towards a highly
commoditized stage even before the industry matures, which only underlines
the challenges for service providers. Price points for MDM solutions are also
experiencing massive erosion. Extending channel reach or even managing a
channel ecosystem for many telcos in the region is completely alien. A
complete and immediate change in mindset towards the channel is required, as
telcos’ direct salesforces will not suffice in the region. The way forward
for telcos is to leverage some of their cloud partners’ channel ecosystems,
forming new alliances with integrators and consulting partners and building
B2B Is there a regional leadership vacuum? For telcos in the region that started their
transformational journey early, namely SingTel, Telstra, NTT, and Tata
Communications, the region is essentially their oyster. Asian enterprises are
expanding across the region in a dynamic fashion and are looking for
Asian-centric service providers to support this momentum. These telcos have regional
ambitions but still have some credibility issues with CIOs on their ICT
capabilities, with some CIOs believing that telcos should stick to being
network providers. The first challenge for these telcos is to raise their
brand awareness among technology buyers and change the perception of them.
Many of these telcos have very robust ICT capabilities (although these may
not yet be available across the region). The second big challenge is that
many of the new battles they face will involve going head on with IT
vendors/integrators such as IBM, CSC, and HP that have the brand and command
the respect of many technology buyers. From http://www.telecomasia.net/ |
|
|
|
|
|
Chinese Internet giants Qihoo 360 and Tencent on Wednesday
argued their cases over unfair practices, according to the Supreme People's
Court (SPC).The feud between Qihoo 360 and China's leading Internet company,
Tencent, began in 2010, when Qihoo 360 accused Tencent of invading the
privacy of its users through a security program bundled with Tencent's
popular QQ instant messaging service.Following the complaint, Qihoo 360
released its own security software, claiming it would speed up QQ and offer
better privacy.Tencent sued Qihoo 360 for unfair competition, accusing it of
interfering with and judging Tencent's software in violation of honesty,
credibility and commercial ethics.The Guangdong Higher People's Court ruled
in favor of Tencent in April 2013, demanding Qihoo desist, apologize and pay
five million yuan (820,000 U.S. dollars) of compensation. Qihoo has now turned to the SPC for a re-trial.In a Wednesday
statement, the SPC noted plenty of evidence in the case, multiple hotspots in
the conflict and complicated issues, adding that the case is overseen by SPC
vice president Xi Xiaoming.Wednesday's trial went through court
investigation, debate, final statements from both sides and court mediation.
The ruling will be announced at a time yet to be determined.According to the
SPC, it is the most expensive and influential unfair practices case in
China's Internet industry to date, and the outcome will have a significant
impact on Internet competition rules.Wednesday's hearing followed a two-day
trial in late November where Qihoo accused Tencent of monopolistic actions.
The verdict will be announced later. From http://www.news.cn/
China established a nationwide alliance of chief information
officers (CIO) on Sunday, aiming to introduce this position to major Chinese
enterprises to strengthen the role of information in corporate management.The
alliance is a non-profit organization jointly founded by the Chinese
Institute of Electronics, the Electronic Industry Press and Renmin
University, under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology (MIIT).A plan released by the ministry this year said it will
promote the system of CIOs in large and medium-sized Chinese enterprises in
the next five years as part of an effort to deepen the role of information
technology and resources in industrial development.CIO is a concept born in the
United States in the 1980s and was introduced to China in the 1990s. It
refers to a senior executive responsible for information technology and
systems.According to the MIIT, only one-third of Chinese companies have
started the building of a CIO system, with fewer having set up the
position.The alliance will draft standards for CIO authentication and be in
charge of CIO training. From http://www.news.cn/
Private Firms Granted
Telecom Licenses China issued telecommunications service licenses to 11 private
firms yesterday, the latest move to open up the state-controlled industry in
the world’s biggest phone market.The firms, or virtual carriers, will be
allowed to offer mobile services directly to consumers through purchasing
bandwidth from China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.“It will make the
telecommunications market more open and market-oriented. Users can enjoy
enriched and customized services through the new players,” the Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology said in a statement.The firms named
yesterday included online retailer 360buy.com, handset distributor Tianyin
and BusAP, a media provider on public transport.The firms will be able to
offer mobile communications services directly with their own brands and
packages. Telecom carriers have to provide bandwidth at “fair or
favorable” prices, the ministry said. Previously, the ministry said it was
proposing a two-year trial to allow companies to repackage and rebrand
services to consumers.The new policy is also an opportunity for companies
such as Tencent, retail giants such as 360buy.com and media groups to
penetrate the mobile Internet sector, analysts said.Suning and Alibaba were
not on yesterday’s list. The virtual carrier partners of China Mobile were
not included in the list, which meant it was still possible for firms like
Suning to get licenses, the ministry said.Applications for licenses are open
until July, the ministry added.The move marks China’s latest bid to attract
private funds to the telecom industry to enhance competition and service
quality, analysts said. From http://www.news.cn/
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has
issued the first batch of virtual operator licenses to 11 enterprises.Virtual
operators are qualified enterprises who operate certain basic telecom
businesses by leasing the basic networks of telecom operators. The virtual
operator business sector opened this time is the mobile reselling business.
Only Chinese-owned businesses may apply for these licenses.Companies gaining
the first batch virtual operator licenses included Telling Telecommunication,
Zhejiang Lianlian Technology, FunTalk, Huatone, JD.com, Bewinner
Communications, Wanwang Zhicheng, D.Phone, Soshare Network Technology,
Telephone World Digital Chain Group, and Busap.On January 8, 2013, MIIT
published a mobile communications reselling business pilot program, which
means China would open its long-closed virtual operating license. After a
year of testing and preparation, the licenses have now been issued. With the
issuance of the licenses, private companies will enter the Chinese telecom
sector for the first time. For the next step, MIIT will continue to enhance
private companies' participation in the basic telecom industry.China From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
From http://www.news.cn/
Chinese Travelers Can
Now Use Alipay Wallet for Mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong can tote their mobile
phones to make point-of-sale retail purchases at hundreds of retail
outlets.Chinese third-party Internet payment company Alipay.com announced
that the company has launched its Alipay Wallet service, mobile payment with
QR codes, in 336 OK convenience stores, 90 Bonjour cosmetics stores and 10
Giordano apparel retail stores in Hong Kong.This move marks the beginning of
Alipay's O2O expansion to overseas markets. Prior to this, the company
actively expanded its offline payment services in the Chinese domestic
market. It implemented cooperation with department stores, apparel chain
stores, and vending machine makers to realize offline payment in various
sectors.Liang Mingjun, Alipay's director for small and micro financial
service international business unit, said that when Chinese mainland tourists
travel to From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
Sina, UnionPay Team for
Chinese Internet Payments Just as the hectic Chinese Lunar New Year holiday shopping and
travel season peaks, two of China's business titans have joined forces to
make online shopping faster and easier.China UnionPay, Sina.com, and Sina's
payment subsidiary jointly announced that the three parties have reached a
deal to further improve Internet payment services by integrating their
products, customers, and channels.The cooperation will reportedly cover
various sectors such as payment products, value-added services, and marketing
and promotion. In addition, after obtaining the payment license issued by the
People's Bank of China, Sina's payment service formally joined China
UnionPay's network. Sina Weibo users who hold UnionPay cards will be able to
enjoy the Internet and mobile payment services directly via CUP.Prior to this
deal, Sina Weibo and the company's reading and video channels had already
joined the online payment service of CUP. With this new agreement, they two
parties further improved their online payment cooperating range and depth.The
cooperation with UnionPay will help Sina compensate for its insufficient
payment ability and improve its overall online payment strength as it battles
Alibaba. For UnionPay, it will help enlarge its influence in the online
payment sector.The financial terms of the deal were not reported by either
party. From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
E-Commerce, the Fuel
Driving As As the macroeconomic balance swiftly moves East, an insular mix
of arrogance and ignorance still depicts the Chinese economy as a sort of
mass counterfeiter. Yet the nuances are often overlooked and a notion of
so-called opportunist idealism is deployed to justify or cover up the real
reasons behind these "misconceptions."Nothing illustrates this
better than the dispute that some years ago erupted between And so the legend continued.Funnily enough, talks of the Chinese
Internet as being a shady web of anti-democratic conspiracies vanished into
thin air as soon as Edward Snowden dropped the news-bomb regarding the NSA
and its Orwellian surveillance system. From the day Snowden blew his whistle,
almost no one seemed to show any more concern about Internet freedom in From http://www.news.cn/
Smartphone Sales
Decline in Smartphone sales in China declined in the fourth quarter of last
year, for the first time in two years, according to a new market report.From
the start of October to the end of December, China's smartphone shipments
reached 90.8 million sets, 4.3 percent fewer than the 94.8 million sets in
the third quarter of 2013, said the report released by International Data
Corporation (IDC) on Thursday.Smartphone sales experienced explosive growth
in the first nine months of last year, leading China to become the world's
largest smartphone market in terms of sales, the report said.IDC attributed
the decline to China Mobile's launch of its next-generation Tablet PCs also contributed to the decline, with more people
turning to these as alternatives to smartphones, according to the market
researcher."The market focus now shifts from winning first-time
smartphone users to persuading old users to upgrade their models," said
Melissa Chau, senior researcher at IDC.The corporation estimated that market
growth will slow down in the future while the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan)
market is mostly saturated.However, growth will be seen in emerging markets
such as India, which became the third-largest smartphone market in 2013.As a
result of this situation, Chinese smartphone manufacturers such as OPPO, Vivo
and Xiaomi, currently little known to international consumers, will bid to
accelerate their overseas expansion, said IDC. From http://www.news.cn/
Alibaba's two wholly-owned subsidiaries in From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
Global smartphone sales will top one billion for the first time
this year, and keep growing at a steady pace for the next four years, a
market tracker said Tuesday. The forecast by International Data Corporation
showed smartphone growth of 39.3% this year over 2012, a pace that will
moderate in the next few years. One key factor in the marketplace is the
decline in smartphone prices, according to IDC. The average sales price this
year is estimated at $337, down 12% from a year ago. And IDC predicts it will
drop further to $265 by 2017. “The key driver behind smartphone volumes in
the years ahead is the expected decrease in prices,” said IDC analyst Ramon
Llamas. “Particularly within emerging markets, where price sensitivity and
elasticity are so important, prices will come down for smartphones to move
beyond the urban elite and into the hands of mass-market users. Every vendor
is closely eyeing how far down they can price their devices while still
realizing a profit and offering a robust smartphone experience.” IDC expects
the smartphone shipments to hit 1.7 billion by 2017, with the growth rate
easing to an average of 18.4% in the coming year. “The game has changed quite
drastically due to the decline” in prices, said IDC analyst Ryan Reith. “Just
a few years back the industry was talking about the next billion people to
connect, and it was assumed the majority of these people would do so by way
of the feature phone. Given the trajectory of (prices), smartphones are now a
very realistic option to connect those billion users.” The fastest growth in
smartphones will be in the Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions, each
expected to see increases of around 23% in the next four years. North
America, which already has a large number of smartphones, will see growth
slow to a 7.8% pace and From
http://www.japantoday.com Retail
Giants Step Up Online Strategies to Increase Sales Major retail corporations are stepping up efforts to combine
services in-store and online to rival such fast-growing online retailers as
Rakuten and Amazon. The move is aimed at utilizing the advantages of online
shopping to attract a wide range of customers and using brick-and-mortar
store retailing as a gateway to direct customer services, according to
analysts. One of those retailers is Aeon Co., which will start new services
using smartphones at a new store that formally opened in the Makuhari
Shintoshin area in Seven & i Holdings Co. announced on Dec. 2 that it will
invest in major catalog retailer Nissen Holdings Co. Customers will be able
to pick up items bought through Nissen at about 16,000 Seven-Eleven stores
across the nation. Noritoshi Murata, the president of Seven & i Holdings
Co., said, “When Nissen’s techniques of catalog retailing and the Internet
are combined with the advantage of actual stores, it will create a new
synergistic effect.” J Front Retailing Co. also started a pick-up service for
items bought through the website of an apparel company, and the retailer
hopes it will encourage incidental shopping by customers who use the service.
Although retail giants have worked to develop their own online stores, they
trail behind major online retailers Rakuten and Amazon who are able to offer
products at lower prices because of reduced costs by not operating
brick-and-mortar stores. Kazunori Tsuda, a chief analyst of Daiwa Securities
Co. said: “If retail giants gain know-how of selling online through corporate
acquisitions and personnel exchange, the pleasure of shopping at an actual
store will be added to the convenience of the Internet, which will lead to a
synergistic effect.” From
http://the-japan-news.com
Japanese
Smartphones Making Headway Overseas Japanese smartphone makers have struggled to compete with
foreign companies such as U.S.-based Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone, but
some have found success in overseas markets by loading novel technologies in
their products. Fujitsu Ltd. and Kyocera Corp. have developed untapped
overseas demand from elderly consumers and users at construction sites by
boosting audio and other fundamental functions. In June last year, Fujitsu
began selling smartphones targeted at older users in Kyocera has used the company’s distinctive applied ceramic
technologies to create a smartphone that is easier to hear. The phone,
released in the From
http://the-japan-news.com As the Japanese government intends to raised the sales tax from
5% to 8%, ECONTEXT ASIA (01390.HK) 's Chief Executive Officer Takashi
Okita said at the press conference that the Japanese consumption model has
gradually shifted from offline to online, which has lower consumption cost,
so the advantages of the tax hike will outweigh its disadvantages. From
http://www.aastocks.com
The country's No. 2
telecom firm, KT Corp., said Wednesday it was appraised as having the highest
brand value in From http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/ The growth of From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Newcomers to
Lead Electronics Market in 2014: Report The size of the market for new trend-setting devices such as 3D
printers and Ultra HD (UHD) TVs is expected to grow twice as large in 2014, a
report showed Tuesday, casting a new possibility in the saturated global
electronics market. The market size for newcomers in the industry, such as
wearable devices and Bluetooth speakers, is expected to grow 107 percent
on-year this year to US$6 billion, the report by the U.S. Consumer
Electronics Association (CEA) said. From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Ad Spending
by IT Firms Surges in 2013: Data Spending on advertising by information technology (IT) firms
soared last year, driven by telecom firms and smartphone makers such as
Samsung Electronics Co., a report showed on Sunday. The country's tech firms
spent a combined 607 billion won (US$571 million) on advertisements last
year, up 14.4 percent from 531 billion won a year earlier, according to the
report by AC Nielsen. From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
S. Korea's The local market for mobile advertisement nearly doubled on-year
in 2013, a government report showed Tuesday, amid soaring number of
smartphone users in the country. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future
Planning said the size of From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/
|
|
|
|
|
|
Securities Commission (SC) Chairman Datuk Ranjit Ajit Singh and
Sabah Rural Development Minister Datuk Radin Malleh launched recently a
mobile application especially designed to provide on-hand assistance to
investors. The mobile app, which was launched in an exclusive event in From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Department of Budget and Management
Secretary Florencio Abad, announced the forthcoming pilot trial of the
Cashless Purchase Card System, which will allow the government to shift from
using petty cash and checks to a more efficient electronic purchase cards for
public procurement. The pilot trial will be implemented across the Department
of Budget and Management (DBM), the Department of National Defense (DND), and
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the first quarter of the year.
During a FutureGov meeting last year in Manila, an official from DND said
that since battalion commanders are authorised to purchase the individual
requirements of their respective troops, this privilege often provides a
“window of abuse” every time a small value procurement of less than Php
10,000 (USD 242) pesos is made. By having the Cashless Purchase Card in
place, the government can efficiently track purchases and quickly identify
financial discrepancies once they occur. It will function in much the same way
as corporate credit cards, and will be linked to an online system that
controls and monitors actual spending in real time. Furthermore, items
eligible for purchases include procurement of medical supplies, meals,
transportation of official documents, airline tickets, and construction
supplies for minor repairs. “We’ve always been keen on improving the speed
and efficiency of the government’s financial transactions. The implementation
of the Cashless Purchase Card system will be critical in this respect, as the
electronic purchase cards will significantly reduce human intervention and
error in tracking and monitoring government purchases,” the Budget Secretary
said. “Because of its automated nature, however, the Cashless Purchase Card
will not just allow us to prevent bribery, graft, and corruption in the
procurement process; it will also help us spot possible irregularities as
they’re happening, as well as make accounting and auditing a much quicker
process. Altogether, it’s a landmark achievement in the Administration’s
drive for transparent and accountable public spending,” Abad said. From http://www.futuregov.asia/
THE STRONG growth of m-commerce and online payments is among the
key trends of e-commerce this year, Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, founder and
managing director of Rakuten Tarad.com, said yesterday. As a pioneer of
e-commerce, who has seen the industry evolve over the years, Pawoot looks for
strong growth in m-commerce. Smartphones accounted for half of all mobile
phones sold last year and the momentum will continue into this year, when
mobile phones will be the main device that people use to access the Internet.
Rakuten recorded an increase of 158 per cent in m-commerce sales as people
became more familiar with using their mobile device to shop online, in
addition to their regular habits of checking the news and social media.
Mobile chat and social media will help merchants boost sales. People love to
chat online and mobile chat applications such as Line are hugely popular,
reaching almost 20 million users last year. In December, Rakuten set up a
Line account to speak directly to customers and share special event updates
and merchant product promotions. After only three months, the account has
over six million fans and has plans to help merchants reach even more
customers. The e-commerce market is getting more competitive as international
and local players race to establish e-commerce platforms here. Businesses
have to work harder to up their game and provide better service. Rakuten would launch a platform this year that would make buying
and selling online even easier, benefitting both merchants and consumers. The
online marketplace is growing rapidly, as more merchants with physical stores
realise that they can save costs and reach their key customers more easily
online. The e-commerce landscape has also seen growth in specialty stores,
especially for mothers and babies, pets, kitchens and the gay community.
Buying digital software, applications, e-books and online services will rise
in popularity this year. People are already used to buying digital products,
but they are mostly produced overseas. This presents a good opportunity for
Thais to create digital products or contents and sell locally through
e-commerce. There are many advantages to selling digital products. Merchants
can reduce delivery costs and inventory, respond quickly to customer requests
and access customers around the world more easily. Online marketing helps
merchants serve their customers better and identify the right tools to
approach their target audience. It also helps to reduce marketing budgets and
boost sales. Some advance online marketing techniques include marketing via
re-targeting, which focuses on approaching customers through every channel
consumer's visit in order to persuade them to buy. Another example is
targeted marketing, which sets target customers of specific products in a bid
to increase sales. Convenience is essential for consumers More are choosing to pay via their debit or credit card, whether
online or through mobile. Nowadays, better security means people are more comfortable
making payments online, and they also enjoy the ease and speed of completing
their transactions. More payment channels also offer greater choices to
consumers, with payments available via the banking system or other avenues
like ThaiEpay.com or Paysbuy.com, giving people even more reasons to choose
e-commerce. Managing a growing business can be difficult, especially if sales
are booming. If you are dealing with 50-100 orders per day, managing and
delivering the products as well as communicating with your customers in a
timely manner can be challenging. Rakuten plans to make available a
fulfilment system that helps merchants pack, arrange and send their products
to their customers with ease. All that merchants have to do is provide their
orders and fulfilment will support the rest of the process. Conversion is another trend The most important metric for merchants is conversion (CVR),
which shows the rate of site visitors becoming buyers. As an example, your
shop can have 10,000 visitors per day but it means nothing if no one is
buying your product. The CVR number becomes an important business tool for
merchants to keep an eye on. CVR is calculated by diving total orders by
visitor numbers, giving merchants a CVR percentage. From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
The growth of e-commerce and the upcoming Fifa World Cup soccer
tournament in Thailand Post president Anusara Chittmittrapap said it would
launch a new subsidiary, Thailand Post Distribution, in the second quarter to
provide a delivery service to corporate customers. "Our strength is we
have the biggest network in distribution and logistics nationwide, so we're
setting up a new company to serve logistics, warehouse and distribution
services by targeting corporate companies nationwide," she said. The
Cabinet approved the subsidiary's formation with registered capital of Bt350
million on January 9. The subsidiary also aims to serve the growth of
logistics across the Asean Economic Community. On Monday Thailand Post will
launch a new parcel-delivery service, focusing on small packages that will be
sold at 7-Eleven convenience stores. The service will be run on a trial basis
at 24 7-Eleven stores, mostly in From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
As many as 57 percent of Vietnamese Internet users have involved
in e-commerce, however the value of online shopping is still modest with an
average of 120 U.S. dollars a person per year, a senior executive said here
Wednesday. Vietnamese people also spend more time using the Internet, said Vu
Hoang Lien, president of the Vietnam Internet Association, while marking the
Vietnam Internet Day. Up to 62 percent of Vietnamese Internet subscribers
using the web more than three hours a day, he added. According to statistics
from the association, the number of websites with online payment function
increased 17 percent year-on- year in 2012, comparing to 7 percent in 2011. From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
"This year, about 15 million out of 55 million users have
used smartphones. The figure will soon increase to 30 million or 40
million," he said. Tai told Viet Nam News that this year smartphone
sales had exceeded sales of basic mobilephones. He also said that smartphones
accounted for 80 per cent of his company's total sales. An expert from a
research company told Viet Nam News that the smartphone market had developed
well but had not reached its peak. She said that basic phones make about 60
per cent of the market, and smartphones 40 per cent. Next year, it is
expected to be 50-50, she added. Smartphones have become popular with young
people because of the access to games, music, photos and applications.
Moreover, the price of smartphones have fallen. For about US$100, customers can
buy a smartphone with many features, Tai said. The most wanted smartphones
are those with large screens that sell under VND10 million ($480). Samsung
and Nokia are bestsellers. GfK said that in the first three quarters of 2013,
consumers from From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
New Rules
Govern E-Commerce Firms Enterprises and individuals operating electronic commerce
businesses will be fined if they have not registered their businesses with
the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). According to Decree No 185 of the
Government, which came into effect on January 1, 2014, unregistered firms and
individuals will be fined VND10-100 million (US$475-4,760) and VND10-50
million ($475-2,380), respectively. The penalties can also be applied in
other cases, such as companies and individuals that do not report changes of
information on their registered websites or who take advantage of their
e-commerce business to illegally attract capital. Along with payments,
websites providing e-commerce services will be suspended from operating from
six to 12 months. Management agencies are to confiscate evidence of
violations, withdraw domain names ".vn", ask owners to resolve
problems they caused and pay for illegal profits. MoIT's From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
The import of used personal computers and phones has been
prohibited as of yesterday, according to Circular 04 issued in January by the
Ministry of Industry and Trade. Personal computers include laptops,
notebooks, sub-notebooks, mini laptops and personal digital assistants
(PDAs). The ban is also applicable on other electronic products such as
mobile phones, pocket-sized cassette players, digital cameras and personal
watches. From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
Southeast
Asia Startup Investments 2013: It’s All About E-Commerce, Fashion, and Women Click for full-sized version. Note that categories are not
mutually exclusive, which means a deal can belong to multiple categories at
the same time. As the candle snuffed out on 2013, deals were still being
announced even just before the arrival of Christmas. While it has been a busy
year for the startup scene in All in all, we followed 151 deals in Limitations The dataset does not cover deals that have not been disclosed to
the public. This is especially true in angel rounds where investors prefer to
stay out of the spotlight. Some sectors, like medtech, have traditionally not
been a focus of our coverage, so that field may have been neglected as well.
We do not know, or cannot publicly disclose, the money involved in 42 percent
of the deals in our dataset. Categorizing startups and determining a study’s
scope is more of an art than a science, which means care must be taken when
comparing our data with that of Crunchbase or Dow Jones, for example. For
this initial release, we’ve only looked at data for 2013. In the future, we
could compare data across years to spot trends and add more context to our
findings. Tech in 1.
E-commerce dominated, and the money is mostly
going to fashion. If you’ve been tracking the startup scene, you don’t need to
crunch numbers to figure this out. Mobile commerce, in particular, has been a
major theme in the tech scene in 2013, and given its initial successes, looks
set to dominate headlines again in 2014. But visualizing the data gives a
better sense of the scale: Out of the $645 million plowed into internet
companies, a massive $593 million, or 92 percent, has something to do with
e-commerce. Here, we’ve segmented e-commerce into several categories,
including online retail, payments, C 2. Rocket Internet’s total investments were about five times
larger than the startup scene’s combined. The figures above include money thrown into Rocket Internet,
which accounted for $505 million of the investments into internet companies,
while the rest came from venture capital firms, early stage funds, and angel
investors. But even if we remove Rocket Internet, e-commerce is still huge,
taking up $88.4 million out of $140 million, or 65.2 percent. This hints at how capital-intensive and complicated e-commerce
ventures are. Besides creating the front-end experience, startups are
building infrastructure like logistics, payments, and inventory management
tools. While a lot of it are in-house and closed systems (think Rocket
Internet and RedMart), several startups including Anchanto in 3. Besides being far smaller than the While there’s a lot of hype about how Asia is the next great
land of opportunity, it seems that venture capitalists and angels have mostly
held back in 4. Hardware and Bitcoin made a tiny blip in 2013. A couple of other investment areas have also gotten attention,
though in small drips. Hardware startups have gotten at least $4.26 million,
and many of them, like Pirate3D and Vibease, are doing so through
crowdfunding via Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The success of these pioneering
companies in the years to come could determine whether crowdfunding will
become significant source of funding in 5. Other major investment themes Looking at the rest of the field, travel startups have gotten at
least $18.1 million in 2013, while enterprise software, financial services,
and SaaS are the other themes that have received more than $10 million each. From
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/
|
|
|
|
|
|
Indian store-owners got together this week to offer three days
of discounted shopping - but only for those buying via the internet. Shilpa
Kannan met some of the 200 retailers involved in the annual online shopping
festival in From
http://www.i-policy.org/ Opera
Mobile Store Passes 100 Million Users * The top-three countries based on the number of Opera Mobile
Store users were India, the United States (jumping five positions up to no.
2) and Indonesia, showing not only the Opera Mobile Store's popularity in
Southeast Asia, but also growth in the United States. * The Opera Mobile Store forged several strong partnership
agreements with mobile carriers in * The Opera Mobile Store signed a cross-app store publishing
partnership with Yandex, the 4th-largest search engine worldwide and leading
search engine in * Android users showed strong growth during 2013, nearly
reaching the level of Java-based downloads. Android app downloads are
currently 42.7 per cent of total downloads - up 16.8 per cent in one year. * The number of page views and downloads in the Opera Mobile
Store each grew 250 per cent year over year. In 2013, the Opera Mobile Store
acquired 1.7 times more new users than in 2012. Also, the visit-to-downloads
ratio increased 20 per cent. The improved visits-to-downloads ratio shows
that users are spending more time finding and downloading more content. "The Opera Mobile Store was launched in September 2011,
based on the technology from the acquisition of Handster. In just over two
years, the Opera Mobile Store has shown strong growth - from 18 million
monthly visitors to 100 million, and has seen a fivefold increase in the
number of apps offered," says Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software."The
compression technology in Opera's browsers, combined with the broad portfolio
of apps in the Opera Mobile Store across many different platforms, have
resulted in massive adoption of the store worldwide," added Boilesen. From
http://www.i-policy.org/ |
|
|
|
|
|
Azerbaijani
Bank Technique Expands Its Branch Network in Five new branches of JSC Bank Technique began operating in From
http://en.trend.az/ Azericard
Offers SMS Information Service When Roaming Azerbaijan bank cards processing centre AzeriCard announced that
it has introduced its 'SMS-Notification' service to customers during their
stays abroad, reports Trend. The service has become accessible on the networks
of 800 mobile operators in 190 states worldwide. 'SMS-Notifications' forms a
part of the Mobilbank service and informs bank card holders of transactions
performed using their cards. The service can be activated at ATMs and is
accessible on the networks of From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
Azerbaijani
Nar Mobile continues to bring more joy to the users of mobile
communication. Mobile operator reminds that each subscriber will get
immediately AZN 3 and 100 Mb to the balance gifted regardless of the value of
the new acquired Nar number, the company said today. The amount offered as a
gift will be automatically loaded on the balance as a new number is
activated. It can be used for domestic calls, SMS and Internet, as well as
for joining to any tariff or campaign. More detailed information can be obtained
at our Internet page: http://www.narmobile.az/en/private/WelcometoNarMobile/ From
http://en.trend.az/
Electronic
Payments in The volume of electronic payments in From
http://en.trend.az/
Azerbaijani
E-Commerce Market Increases 1.7 Times The volume of electronic commerce in From
http://en.trend.az/
Some $258
Million Invested in As of 2013, some 202.2 million manat was invested in the
Azerbaijani sector of information and communication technologies (ICT) and
postal services which is one percent of the total investment volume in the
country's economy, the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry told Trend
on Feb. 14. From
http://en.trend.az/
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Internet
tax will not happen soon, but it may still happen. Australia’s state
treasurers all agree that they want to reduce the GST threshold on online
purchases from overseas from $1000 to as little as $20, but they can’t agree
on how this can be done cost-effectively. Consumer group CHOICE, and many
others, have pointed out that the cost of collecting the tax will be higher
than the revenues obtained from it, because Australia Post and courier
companies would have to effectively act as tax collectors and add their
administration costs to their delivery charges. CHOICE has pointed out that
this could raise the cost of a $20 item to as much as $35, as well as slowing
down delivery, for a net revenue gain of only $2 to the Government. The state
treasurers met yesterday, with the so-called ‘Internet tax’ on their agenda,
but it was not discussed in detail. Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey said the
states had been "provided with the material they had previously
requested on the costs of any changes to the online threshold. They will now
consider that advice. There was no agenda item to discuss any changes to the
base or rate of the GST." Because GST
revenues go to the states, they are all keen to lower the threshold. So is
the retailing industry, which believes it is harming local sales, even though
most online purchases are from local web sites. NSW Treasurer Mike Baird said
various scenarios had been presented to the state treasurers. “It was a very
positive discussion, it is clear there are a lot of consensus across the
room. We need to do this. “If there is an agreement, we will come together –
that is, the states and the federal government will work though every line of
that business case. We’ll ensure that whatever model is considered it will be
done in the most cost-effective way.” The treasurers will meet again in
March. Critics have pointed out the many problems lowering the threshold
would cause. The administrative overheads aside, it would need to rely on the
cooperation of the delivery companies, and would be difficult to police. Of
particular concern is the purchase of electronic goods such as music, videos
and eBooks, a tax it which it would be virtually impossible to enforce. From http://www.itwire.com
Overseas Web
Sales Haunt Shops This Christmas Overseas
online shopping continues to be a drain on stores in While the
bulk of spending will be happening at bricks-and-mortar stores, she said
domestic retailers will suffer from a shift to overseas-owned websites.
Domestic retailers were disappointed to face another Christmas with no change
to GST charges for overseas spending, she said. "This week alone more
than $A1.1 billion is estimated to head offshore to overseas online
retailers, with shoppers finalising purchases to ensure gifts are delivered
before December 25," she said. The ANRA expects most women will have
finished their Christmas shopping by the end of next week, while men will
just be starting. "This is the week where we really start to see some
serious action, but it is usually the week before Christmas where we get the
bulk of the spend," she said. From http://www.radionz.co.nz
Online
Shoppers Urged to Know Their Rights Shoppers are
being urged to be aware of their rights this Christmas, particularly as today
is the Christmas shipping cut off for many online retailers. The Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission has told consumers they face some big risks when
shopping online, and that they should read up on what rights they may not be
aware of. “Online shopping can bring consumers many benefits such as wider
choice, savings in time, and potentially savings in costs as well. But it can
also be confusing as consumers navigate unfamiliar selling platforms such as
online auctions, figure out which reviews to trust, and try to pay securely,”
ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said. “All of your usual rights and
obligations under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) apply when you shop with
an Australian online business, including your right to a repair, replacement
or refund. These rights may also apply when you buy from an overseas online business
however you may experience difficulties enforcing them.” Rickard said that
the ACCC and ACL regulators have produced a video to help consumers
understand their rights, check it out below. ACCC also
sent iTWire a list of tips that shoppers can follow to shop smart online: # Research
and shop around – have you compared products and prices for sale on other
sites? Do you know the total price including delivery charges? How long will
it take to receive your purchase? Do they provide FAQs and other tips on
safety requirements or other purchase issues? # Know who
you’re dealing with – is the business trusted and reliable? What do other
consumers say about the business or the product/ service? Does the business
provide legitimate contact details? # Make sure
you choose what’s right for you – price alone should not be the driving
factor in making a decision about which business to buy from. There are many
factors to keep in mind – is the quality ok? Does it meet Australian
standards? How easy will it be to return if something goes wrong? What’s the
business’ customer service like? # Keep your
personal details private and secure – does the business have a privacy policy
in place? Only pay via secure payment methods such as a credit card or
similar secure method - when you go to make a purchase, does the web address
start with ‘https’ and can you see a closed padlock symbol? # If the
only way to pay for something is via a money order or wire transfer, think
twice as there is chance that you are being scammed. # If a
problem arises – how easy will it be to right a wrong? What do you have to do
to return the product if it’s unsafe, doesn’t meet its intended purpose or is
not what you expected? Does the business have a good complaints resolution
process in place? From http://www.itwire.com
New Year's Tips for
SMEs Are In 2014 is a
new year and accounting software firm MYOB has devised a list of tips in a
bid to help SMEs come up with New Year’s resolutions for business success. In
sending the list to iTWire MYOB CEO Tim Reed said there were a few key
messages he had for businesses looking to plan ahead for the year to come.
“January is the ideal time to reflect and to give new strategies and goals
the green light, instead of taking a ‘business as usual’ approach. Operators
who commit to clarifying their priorities early in the piece will likely reap
the rewards. It can mean the difference between flourishing and floundering.
When setting New Year’s resolutions, big or small, the first step is to plan.
Set some specific and inspiring goals around key areas of your business that
you wish to develop. Begin by asking yourself what you will stop doing as
well as start doing in 2014. Whatever your business goals, such as driving
efficiencies, harnessing the power of cloud technology, or finessing your
finances, establishing your New Year’s resolutions can help you approach the
year with renewed vigour.” MYOB’s
suggested New Year’s resolutions for SMEs: 1. Learn
from last year’s hits and misses Place the
previous 12 months’ trading under the microscope. Analyse the strategies that
worked, those that didn’t, and work out the ‘whys’. Why did some products or
services succeed when others flopped? What changes could you make in 2014 to
ensure mistakes aren’t repeated, and opportunities aren’t missed? Get the
ball rolling with a SWOT analysis – a useful technique for understanding your
business strengths and weaknesses and for identifying the opportunities open
to you and the threats your business may face. 2. Stay on
the business track A solid
business plan will help you make better business decisions about the
strategies you need to continue to operate and grow. If you’re looking for
annual growth of 100%, you will need a different strategy to one that shoots
for 10% growth. Then, to ensure you tick off your to-do list in 2014, make
strategic planning a weekly or fortnightly task. Ongoing strategic thinking
is great for defining goals and objectives within a timeframe, helping to
ensure you and your team have a consensus about where the business is going
and how to stay on track. 3. Don’t try
to be all things to all people Are you the
director, IT person, admin manager and salesperson in your business? Wearing
multiple hats can be exhausting. Avoid micromanaging if you are lucky enough
to have employees. Delegate intelligently. It can be challenging letting go,
but if you don’t delegate, growing your business could become a pipe dream.
Why not outsource tasks you loathe, so you can spend more time on growing the
business? 4. Grow to
love your numbers Many
business owners consider themselves too busy to check or understand their
financial statements. Learn about profit and loss statements, balance sheets
and cash flow statements and don’t shy away from the numbers. Making time to
understand your financial documents will give you greater control and a
clearer picture of your business and its performance. It can help you make
smarter decisions and improve your ability to communicate productively with
your accountant and other advisers. With cash flow ranking as the second
highest pressure point for SMEs in the latest MYOB Business Monitor report,
it’s time to add cash flow expertise to your toolbox. Ask your trusted
accountant or bookkeeper to guide you. 5. Don’t be
afraid to embrace technology Cloud-based
accounting software, convenient mobile apps, online business management
tools…today’s business technologies can save you time and drive significant
efficiencies. For example, SMEs utilising MYOB’s bank feeds - a service that
automatically feeds bank transactions into cloud accounting solutions MYOB
LiveAccounts or AccountRight Live - say it saves them an average of 10 hours
per month. The average value they put on this time saving is $713. From http://www.itwire.com
More than
$140 million has been earmarked to go to 31 Grant
winners • 4RF • ARANZ Geo •
Biodiscovery New Zealand • • Dynamic
Controls • Enatel • Endace
Technology • Fisher
& Paykel Appliances • Fisher and
Paykel Healthcare • • Formway
Furniture • Gallagher
Group • HSAGlobal
(formerly Healthphone Solutions) • ikeGPS • Jade
Software Corporation • Kakapo
research and development • Magic
Pulse (trading as Kitomba) • Orchestral
Developments • Quantec • Rakon • Rocket Lab • Scott
Technology • Simcro
(formerly SimcroTech) • Skope
Industries • Tait • Tandarra
Engineering •
Trans-Tasman Resources • Unlimited
Realities • • Wynyard
(NZ) • Zelam From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
PAPUA NEW More than
K100 million (US$39 million) has been spent to upgrade the telecommunications
sector to make it more competitive in the 21st century market, Papua New
Guinea's Independent Public
Business Corporation (IPBC) managing director Wasantha Kumarasiri said.
According to an Oxford Business Group publication, Kumarasiri said in its
(IPBC) effort to revolutionise the telecommunication sector, Telikom PNG Ltd,
a state-owned-enterprise, had undergone changes worth K123 million (US$58.7
million) to make it more competitive in the current market. “The company is
upgrading its antiquated equipment to deliver a more reliable service for its
customers,” Kumarasiri said. He said access to wireless communication solutions
and high-speed broadband were also being improved through a new fibre optic
network worth K71 million. “And an additional capacity valued at US$88
million is being installed as part of the PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG)
project,” Kumarasiri said. He said these initiatives had to be a solution,
which also includes extending GSM (global system for mobile) and CDMA (code
division multiple access)
coverage. Meanwhile,
Kumarasiri said upcoming projects included significant expenditure in
telecommunication sector and other sectors, including development of port
infrastructure and improving power supplies. Among them include the
relocation of From THE
NATIONAL/PACNEWS A From MATANGI
TONGA/PACNEWS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NORTH
AMERICA: Technology is squeezing the post office so much that a familiar
service has to disappear. Email, social media and video conferencing are
prompting Canada Post to end door-to-door mail delivery service in urban
areas. Facing mounting deficits the federal Crown corporation announced plans
Wednesday to overhaul its system which will include a shift from home to
delivery to the use of community mail boxes, increase in postal rates
effective March 31, 2014, let up to 8,000 jobs go unfilled when postal
workers retire or leave and step up the use of technology to streamline
processes. A statement released by Canada Post cited rising cost and advances
in digital communication as the main reasons for the changes. “Canada Post
has a mandate to fund its operations with revenues from the sale of its
products and services, rather than become a burden to taxpayers,” a statement
in the corporation’s Web site said. “With the increasing use of digital
communications and the historic decline of lettermail volumes, Canada Post
has begun to post significant losses.” From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
Ideation Nation, a technology brainstorming competition for
civic solutions, announces its 25 top ideas for government technology
projects. It could be said that community improvement has always started with
community. It’s an idea -- close to a campaign slogan and with a touch of
idealism -- that holds true for Ideation Nation, a national competition to
promote community engagement through civic technology projects. The five-week
competition — sponsored by citizen tech organizations Code for “A big part of this (competition) is breaking down the
perception that government doesn't listen or that communities don't listen to
the individual,” said Nick Bowden, CEO of MindMixer, a community engagement
platform company based in Jones, an avid cyclist who belongs to a local club called “The
Crank Maidens,” said bikers struggle to schedule rides with each other for
recreation, for the morning commute, for companionship or for just simple
motivation. Her solution turned into a pitch for a Bike Pool App, a mobile
phone app that would allow cyclists to form bike-pool groups based on a
specific city or town and with mobile access to routes, and meet-up and
drop-off locations. “There really isn't a single tool that incorporates all
of those things.” Jones said. “It’s really complicated to try to get a group
of us together.” “So far everybody has been saying that ‘the idea is so cool,’ or
‘I wish something happens like this,’” Jones said of the initial feedback.
Another notable submission comes from Derek Homann, a finalist from Top 25 Ideas 1. Allow police officers to
accept mobile payments for violations 2. Recycling tracker and
educator for the city 3. Mapping software for
efficient yard waste collection 4. Volunteer exchange 5. Zoning iPhone app 6. Gift card remainder
charity website 7. Electricity monitoring
device rentals 8. Integrated discovery
website for camping, hiking, outdoor recreation 9. Use the Internet to create a more
direct democracy at all levels
10. Lodge a complaint, get
connected on civic issues
11. Creativity Crowd
12. Gaming volunteerism
and rewarding impact creation
13. Location-based app for
public recycling
14. Creating an online
community map of underutilized spaces
15. Install on-demand
street lighting
16. Create a bike share
app like AirBnB
17. Renaissance CSA
18. Create a resource
center to share collaborative projects 19. A citizen’s board of developers
20. My place: Our World, a
civic engagement app
21. App for food transfer
22. Create a social
networking platform for volunteers and NPOs
23. Communitywide sharing
application
24. Common permit application
25. Bike-pool app 2013 Judges 1. Jeff Friedman, co-director of the Philadelphia Mayor's Office
of New Urban Mechanics 2. Stephen Goldsmith, former deputy mayor of 3. Mitch Silver, immediate past president of the American
Planning Association (APA) and chief planning & development officer of
Raleigh, N.C. 4. Sly James, mayor of 5. Marci Harris, CEO of PopVox 6. Abhi Nemani, co-executive director of Code for From
http://www.govtech.com/
Big Data
Gives a Boost to Health and Human Services Data mining and predictive analytics will make social service
agencies more effective. No single area of innovation promises as much public
value as the rapidly evolving areas that allow government officials to
utilize data across agency and IT silos. These technologies, whether data
mining or sophisticated middleware, produce three transformative changes —
they can improve the ease with which citizens can access services, facilitate
field worker problem solving and produce a foundation for answering big,
predictive questions through data analytics. Five years ago, Yet this first step should quickly facilitate further actions
that make government benefits easier to obtain for those who qualify and more
difficult for those whose actions produce waste, fraud and abuse. Data mining
and predictive analytics will help overburdened social service agencies
detect fraud and better provide and target services. In Big data also allows governments to target their social services
to those most in need, a crucial goal as budgets have grown tighter amid the
economic downturn. From
http://www.govtech.com/
ITU
to Leverage M-health to Fight Chronic Non-communicable Diseases The
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is working together with
healthcare company Bupa on a global m-Health initiative called ‘Be Healthy,
Be Mobile’. The partnership will leverage the mobile technologies to fight
chronic non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular
and chronic respiratory diseases in low and middle income countries.
“Non-communicable diseases are the single greatest factor contributing to
mortality and the overall disease burden in developed countries and emerging
economies alike. Where m-Health is concerned, ITU works with the World Health
Organisation to share our long-standing experience and our competence in
mobile technologies and healthcare as well as our network of partners. We are
truly excited about the potential of this new partnership with Bupa to help
us accelerate the adoption of mobile health interventions worldwide,” said
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré. Meanwhile, Bupa CEO Stuart Fletcher
said: “Of the 36 million people who died from chronic disease in 2008, nine
million were under the age of 60; and 90 per cent of these premature deaths
occurred in low- and middle-income countries. m-Health is a cost-effective
and accessible way to get health information and tools to people so that they
can keep well and we can reduce the impact of chronic diseases worldwide.
Through this partnership we will be at the heart of a systemic intervention
in healthcare and will help millions of people to live longer, healthier,
happier lives, fulfilling our purpose.” In its first phase, the initiative
will focus on deploying mobile health interventions in areas such as
diabetes, smoking cessation, hypertension, wellness and training of health
workers. More than 25 countries have already expressed interest in
participating. A smoking cessation programme via mobile phones is currently
underway in From http://www.futuregov.asia/
Worldwide
Internet Users to Surpass 2.7bn in 2013 The total number of people connected to the Internet worldwide
is expected to surpass 2.7 billion in 2013, while the total number of
applications downloaded over all types of devices will exceed 50 billion, a
new report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has said. The
2013 edition of ITU's flagship regulatory report `Trends in Telecommunication
Reform', highlights the increasingly global nature of information and
communication technology (ICT) regulation and the crucial link between
effective regulation of the ICT sector and the range, quality and
affordability of ICT services available to consumers and business users
alike, CBC News Reported. Focusing on `Transnational Aspects of Regulation in
a Networked Society', this year's report confirms continued rapid expansion
of tech markets worldwide. "Rapid growth of broadband has seen global IP
traffic skyrocket from around one petabyte 20 years ago to an estimated
44,000 petabytes (44 exabytes) at end 2012. As an indicator of the sheer volume this represents, that amount
of data would take 1,100 years to download over a 10Mbps broadband link or
more than 200,000 years over a dial-up connection. In 2013 alone, IP traffic
is expected to grow by around 14 exabytes per month the monthly equivalent of
twice total cumulative global traffic for the whole decade from 1994 2003.
"Traffic volumes are being driven by the ever-growing number of
connected people and connectable devices, the trend toward multiple device
ownership, an abundance of highly diversified and mostly free online content,
and increasingly widespread consumer access to fixed and mobile broadband
networks capable of supporting high-bandwidth services like streaming video. From
http://www.brecorder.com/
Digitisation's
Labour Reduction Effect Will Cause Social Unrest: Gartner Analyst IT's disruptive influence will have major social repercussions
in the coming years. According to Brian Prentice, VP of Gartner Research, one
of the top future trends is the increasing effect of digitisation on labour.
"By 2020, the labour reduction effect of digitisation will cause social
unrest," he said in a presentation today in This trend will not only affect the jobs of blue collar workers
(industrial workers), it will also affect the careers of knowledge workers.
"The rise of smart machines will impact jobs of knowledge workers in
both positive and negative ways," said Prentice. He gave the example of
Siri as a positive aid. However, a technology like Bitcoins might threaten
jobs in the credit card industry (finance). In his predictions, Prentice
covered areas such as the digital industrial revolution, digital business,
smart machines and the Internet of Things and how all these could disrupt the
realities of our world. 3D printing One of the major disruptions will come from 3D printing.
"3D printing will determine most of our future," he said. "It
will disrupt the supply chain dynamics." By 2016, there will be many
legal issues around the question of bioprinting (3D printing of tissues and
human organs). One of the side-effects of 3D printing will be an increase in
counterfeiting of goods. "Counterfeit goods are inevitable," he
said. "By 2018, 3D printing will result in the loss of at least US$100
billion per year in intellectual property globally." Some of the other predictions by Gartner are as follows: - Digital business and crowdsourcing: By 2017, 75 percent of
consumer innovation will come from crowdsourcing solution - Business of personal data: By 2017, 80 percent of consumers
will trade or barter their personal data for cost savings or convenience. - Digital security gets more difficult to guarantee: By 2020,
enterprises and governments will fail to protect 75 percent of sensitive data - The rise of learning machines - By 2017, 20 percent of
computers will be learning (like IBM's Watson) rather than processing. - The Internet of Things will take off - 15 billion to 1
trillion things will be connected to 2020 - Wearable Technologies will also take off An ICT market worth US$4.2 trillion According to Andy Rowsell-Jones, Vice President at Gartner
Research, the world's ICT market will be worth US$4.2 trillion by 2017. He
was discussing business model innovation and how to unleash digital value in
companies at the same event. He unveiled his five golden rules to find digitiasation
opportunities: - For every business issue or opportunity, you must ask
yourself: how digital will affect you? - Address issue of business cannibalisation (by competitors) quickly
and courageously - Think of digital and physical in combination - Focus on the evolution of your digital ecosystem - Embed digital execution in multi-disciplinary teams From
http://news.idg.no/
IDC
Cuts Global IT Growth Forecasts on Renewed Emerging Market Fears IDC has cut its worldwide IT market growth forecast for 2014 on
the back of renewed fears regarding the performance of emerging markets. The
company had previously said that a rebound in IT spending in major emerging
markets including Latin American countries have so far been among the hardest hit
by currency devaluations against the dollar in the first month of this year.
Meanwhile, some areas of IT spending are picking up in mature markets, with
servers and storage each expected to grow by 3%, and the PC market showing
tentative signs of stabilization. Businesses in mature markets are beginning
to feel more confident about the economy, and there is significant pent up
demand in the From
http://www.bnamericas.com/
Global Market for Healthcare IT Is Expected to Reach
USD 103.0 Billion by 2020, According to a New Study by Grand View Research,
Inc The global market for healthcare IT is
expected to reach USD 103.0 billion by 2020, according to a new study by Grand
View Research, Inc. Growing demand for point of care diagnostics, home
healthcare and the growing global base of geriatric population are two of the
most significant drivers of this market operating at a macro-environmental
level. Moreover, improvement in the market penetration rates of internet
witnessed over the last decade (2000 to 2010) has created a strong platform
for an expedited implementation of healthcare IT across the globe. Some of
the other drivers of this market include increasing prevalence of chronic
diseases such as asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and the
presence of high unmet medical needs in Asia Pacific and Latin American
countries coupled with constantly improving healthcare and information
technology infrastructures. The implementation of healthcare reforms such as
the 12th Five Year Plan in Further key findings from the study
suggest: The global electronic prescribing systems
market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24.8% from 2014 to 2020 to reach an
estimated value of USD 1.24 billion by 2020. For the purpose of this study, Grand View
Research has segmented the global healthcare IT market on the basis of
product, end-user and region: Healthcare IT Application Outlook (Market
Revenue in USD Million, 2012 – 2020) •
Electronic Health Records •
Computerized Provider Order Entry Systems •
Electronic Prescribing Systems •
PACS •
Lab Information Systems •
Clinical Information Systems •
Telemedicine and Telehealth •
Others Healthcare IT Regional Outlook (Market
Revenue in USD Million, 2012 – 2020) • • • •
RoW From http://www.prweb.com/ Smart Homes in Asia-Pacific - A CEO's 360-Degree
Perspective Building Homes Beyond Green Residential buildings in Asia-Pacific
will continue to evolve and it will be directly affected by the growth in
population and urbanization rate, as well as development of new cities and
new economic zones. Smart homes will emphasize on eco-friendly building
materials in addition to the deployment of energy saving devices and
information and communications technology (ICT), as well as advanced
technologies such as home fuel cells. Favorable factors such as the need to
reduce energy consumption, are positively influencing the adoption of smart
homes in Asia-Pacific. Market participants in the synergistic smart home
value chain will face competition at both intra-industry and inter-industry
level. Executive Summary—CEO 360 Perspectives Mega Trends • The buildings industry is expected to
be directly affected by the mega trends related to population and
urbanization rate. • The rise in population in Asia Pacific
is likely to push the demand for new residential houses, especially in • Emergence of new cities or satellite
cities and new economic zones will spur construction of residential
buildings. • Increasing energy consumption with
rise in construction is likely to give way to high-tech (smart or green)
innovations, introducing various green technologies in future buildings,
including residential. Industry Convergence • Asia-Pacific is a heterogeneous
market, with smart homes at different stages of evolution. • Smart homes will emphasize on
eco-friendly building materials in addition to the deployment of energy
saving devices, and information and communications technology (ICT). • ICT platform integration gives
property developers a complete lifecycle approach to the construction of new
houses. Technology • Cost efficient LED lamps would
eventually replace traditional light bulbs in the near future. • Home-based miniature fuel cell
technology would boost the market for 'zero energy' homes. • Remotely controlled building
automation systems will increasingly become a necessity in the future. • Integration of IT with waste removal
system will be common and it will be used to gauge, manage, and minimize the
volume of household waste. Economic • Although the smart home market is
still in its infancy, favorable factors such as the need to reduce energy
consumption are positively influencing the adoption of smart home. • Inadvertently, new buildings in
Asia-Pacific will increase the demand for electricity and push up the
consumption of oil and gas in turn. Competitive and Best Practices • The building industry of Asia-Pacific
is dominated by major foreign companies, with smaller local participants
having a marginal share. • The competition within the Smart Home
ecosystem is both intra-industry and inter-industry. • Two likely scenarios could occur in
the smart home market, either a consolidated industry standard will emerge or
a fragmented marketplace having multiple standards exists. Customers • Asia-Pacific's target demographics are
middle-class, younger, and tech-savvy home owners. • Market participants should invest in
developing more efficient and cost-competitive devices and systems to cater
to the emerging middle-class population who are price sensitive. Executive Summary—Key Takeaway 1. Continuous innovation is expected in
lighting and heating, ventilation and conditioning (HVAC), as such equipment
consume maximum energy in the homes. 2. Cost and resource optimization
benefits would pressure companies to have a complete plan of the construction
before embarking on the actual task. 3. Developed Asia-Pacific markets
provide key opportunities, especially those with highly-wired cities such as 4. Financial pressures may result in the
decrease or abolishment of government subsidies, but tax rebates may be
introduced to encourage adoption and development of green technologies. 5. Respective Governments are currently
embracing sustainable economic growth and have introduced grants for both
commercial and residential applicants for adopting green practices and
technologies. Definitions Homes of the Future Home is defined as residential
buildings, such as apartments, condominiums, and landed-houses (terrace,
bungalow, semi-detached). In this document, future homes will
incorporate current and future trends that have shaped the demand for
residential homes. The homes of the future may be referred as smart homes in
the study. Market Size Unless otherwise indicated in this
study, market size refers to sales revenue of products or services within
mentioned markets. It excludes book revenue or uncollected revenue from
current and future sales or contracts. CAGR Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is
the year-over-year growth rate of a market or investment over a specified
period of time. Geography Unless otherwise indicated in this
study, the region is Asia-Pacific, which includes countries such as Characteristics of Homes of the Future Economical Must be affordable to the masses for the
benefits to be seen. Neutral Being energy efficient is no longer
enough, carbon neutral is the new fad. Automated So that optimal settings could be set
even when the occupants are out. Connected Integration of information and
communications technology (ICT) into our daily lives have made this a
necessity. Aesthetic Consumers are getting demanding, and
want both functionality and style. Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 2. Introduction 3. Building Construction Market Overview 4. Mega Trends 5. Industry Convergence 6. Technology 7. Economic 8. Competitive and Best Practices 9. Customer 10. Conclusion 11. The Frost & Sullivan Story From http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/ |
|
|
|
|
|
China is taking steps to reform its decades-old civil
petitioning system, including diverting cases to courts and improving ways of
lodging complaints online, so that citizens’ grievances can be resolved more
efficiently and social tensions alleviated.Details of the new policy were
announced at a news conference in Beijing yesterday.Zhang Enxi, a deputy director
with the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, told reporters that the
government will do more to refer the kinds of complaints that can be resolved
through litigation to the courts.He said the bureau had set up an online
platform to accept complaints and will work to improve its transparency,
while urging local officials to be more proactive in addressing
grievances.China’s top authority for handling complaints and suggestions from
the public began accepting submissions on its official website on July 1.A
nationwide online platform will be the main access for the public to petition
authorities after it is completed, Zhang said. The bureau will spare no efforts in handling the public’s
reasonable appeals in an effective manner and put the protection of their
legal rights and interests at the center of its work, he added.However, he
said that petitions regarding the country’s legal and judicial systems should
be left for judicial remedies and would not be accepted.Such complaints
should be made and solved through judiciary agencies according to specific
procedures, added Li Gao, another deputy head of the bureau, affirming that
the bureau will not accept, give instructions or mediate in such cases, but
will give explanations and tell petitioners to respect the authority of
judicial decisions and pursue judicial solutions.As of Monday, the bureau had
received more than 130,000 online comments and complaints, with nearly 40,000
petitions settled by relevant departments, Li said.Zhang said the bureau had
received 6.04 million complaint letters and calls in the first 10 months of
the year, with complaints filed above county level dropping 2.1 percent year
on year. Every year, millions of complaints are filed about what
petitioners see as injustices or incompetence by their local officials,
covering issues such as land expropriation, forced home demolitions and labor
disputes, or the failure of local authorities to prosecute crimes.When they
fail to get satisfactory answers, the petitioners often go to Beijing to
appeal directly to the central government.If their grievances are still
ignored, many camp out in Beijing in what is known as the petitioners’
village.It is estimated that at least 100,000 petitioners from far afield
would camp out in the country’s capital, with many more making short trips
from home.The petitioning system has long been criticized as ineffective, and
local officials often try to prevent petitioners from going to the capital,
using methods that include detaining them in illegal “black jails.”Li told
the news conference that any attempt to constrain the public from legal
petitioning is prohibited, and acts to intercept, detain or take revenge on
petitioners will be investigated and punished.Li said that the central
government will no longer rank local governments based on the number of
petitions filed in Beijing, in the hope of deterring efforts by local
officials to stymie petitioners. Li said that in order to reduce abnormal petitions to the
central government, the bureau used to calculate repeated and abnormal
appeals filed by local petitioners, and made lists based on the figures to be
related to the assessment of local officials.“In February, the SBLC stopped
making such lists and now reports abnormal complaints only to relevant local authorities,
so as to improve petitioning work,” Li said.The moves came after China’s top
leadership said the government must innovate to improve its management so
that it can better prevent and resolve social conflicts. From http://www.news.cn/
The country's first smart city open service platform
Icity365.com has launched in From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Wednesday
issued In Shanghai, more than 1,600 people have been invited to test From http://www.news.cn/
The number of Chinese microblog accounts had exceeded 1.3
billion by the end of November, making this a major channel for disseminating
information, according to the State Internet Information Office.Media institutions'
microblogs are developing fast and about 37,000 such accounts have been
opened via popular websites including weibo.com and t.qq.com, Liu Zhengrong,
a senior official with the office, told the People's Daily.Chinese
authorities have also opened microblog accounts as they consider it as an
effective channel for disclosing information, communicating with the public
and providing services.Official statistics show that China had more than
170,000 government microblogs by the end of last year, an increase of almost
2.5 times from the previous year. And disciplinary authorities across China
have opened nearly 1,000 microblog accounts.The country's Supreme People's
Court also created official accounts on Sina Weibo and WeChat late last month
in an effort to promote judicial transparency. From http://www.news.cn/
Websites Told to Focus
on Responsibility, Not Click Rates Websites should focus more on their social responsibilities
instead of the pursuit of high click rates, a Chinese Internet official said
on Friday.Facts are the lifeline of online news and the stronger a website
grows, the greater influence it has, the more responsibility it should assume
to ensure the truth and objectiveness in a news event it publishes, said Ren
Xianliang, vice director of State Internet Information Office.Ren made the remarks
at a forum attended by major Chinese websites' representatives on prevention
of online false reports and promotion of online media's credibility. It
follows a recent online rumor about a Chinese woman's trick to blackmail a
foreign passer-by trying to offer help.Online reports went viral after an
Internet user posted a picture of a dispute between a middle-aged Chinese
woman and foreign young man in The reports claimed the woman was attempting to bluff the
foreigner into compensation for an injury.The report ignited public fury
because similar cases in China have led to a reluctance to help strangers in
trouble for fear of being blackmailed.However, the news was later proved to
be untrue as police found that the man did hit the woman while riding his
motorbike, causing minor injuries. Also, the man did not have a driver's
license and a relevant working permit in Beijing.Participants of Friday's
forum agreed that news organizations should deeply reflect on the blind
enthusiasm in eyebrow-raising events, according to a statement issued after
the forum.An official from a local Internet authority in Beijing criticized
that some websites negligently or intentionally ignore some key elements in a
news event out of a rush for high click rates and such practices reflect a
lack of professional quality and ethics. Online media should not only focus on releasing news in a timely
manner, but should also work to ensure the information is true, objective,
balanced and accurate, the statement said.It urged websites to cling to their
professional integrity and pass positive messages to the public.The statement
said a website should verify the credibility of a news item before releasing
or reposting it, and should be held responsible for the information it has published.It
also urged news organizations to enhance management of their journalists and
editors to improve their professional skills. From http://www.news.cn/
Telecom Operators
Construct Cloud Computing Parks China Mobile and China Unicom announced on Monday the beginning
of construction on two cloud computing parks with investment totaling 7
billion yuan (1.15 billion U.S. dollars) in southwest China's Guizhou Province.The
two cloud computing parks will be located in Gui'an new area of Guizhou
Province, where China Telecom already began construction of a similar park in
October.China Unicom, one of China's basic telecom operators, plans to invest
5 billion yuan in the park, which will cover 500 mu (about 33.3 hectares) of
land.China Mobile, China's largest telecom operator, plans to build a cloud
computing park covering an area of 275 mu with 2 billion yuan in
investment.The Gui'an new area includes land in Guiyang, the provincial
capital, and the neighboring city of Anshun. It is one of five key new areas
marked off in the country's 12th five-year plan for 2011-2015 to promote
development in western regions.Cloud computing generally refers to services,
including software and storage, accessed by users through the Internet. From http://www.news.cn/
Chinese Social Networks
Coming Up Fast With the increasing number of Chinese netizens and their growing
appetite for online networks, China is taking over that space with three of
the country's social networks among the world's largest, said a report from
Business Insider, a United States-based business and technology
website.According to the report, Qzone, a social network launched by Internet
giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, Sina Weibo, one of China's most popular
micro-blogging sites, and WeChat, a mobile chat app from Tencent, ranked
third, fourth and 10th, respectively, in the list of the world's largest
social networks.The list, which was released on Tuesday, compared the world's
most popular social networks and generated a ranking based on their reported
or estimated number of monthly active users.Facebook Inc ranked first with
1.15 billion monthly active users as of Oct 30, followed by YouTube's 1
billion monthly users. Apart from the three Chinese social networks in the top 10,
Tencent's Weibo, a micro blog service, Youku and Tudou, which are both online
video platforms, and Renren, a social networking service, ranked between the
11th and 16th places.Weibo has about 220 million monthly users, while Renren
has 54 million monthly users.The report also pointed out that the Asia Pacific
region has more active social media users than any other region in the
world.The majority of the world's largest social networks were created by
tech companies in the US, but they have gradually expanded around the globe.
However, the main user base of the seven largest Chinese social networks is
still inside The combined monthly active users of the seven-largest social
networks in From http://www.news.cn/
Better Broadband
Connects Broadband now connects 91 percent of Chinese village and more
than 5,000 schools in remote, generally impoverished, settlements should be
online within the year.Coverage has increased from 88 percent at the beginning
of 2013 with 19,000 more villages being caputred in net this year, according
to the Industry and Information Technology Ministry.The three major telecom
operators, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, have invested more
than 6 billion yuan (almost a billion U.S. dollars) this year in villages.In
terms of telephones, 95.6 percent of villages with at least 20 households now
have coverage, up from 95.2 percent at the start of 2013.Chinese Internet
users hit 604 million as of the end of September this year, according to the
State Internet Information Office. From http://www.news.cn/
A Jiji Press opinion poll has found that 43.7 percent of
Japanese are using smartphones. Meanwhile, 40.7 percent said they do not want
to use smartphones, according to the survey. The penetration rate stood at
84.7 percent among respondents in their 20s, 70.9 percent among those in
their 30s and 60.3 percent among those in their 40s. The rate was 7.8 percent
among people in their 60s or older. The survey also showed that 64.6 percent
of respondents in their 20s use social networking services such as Facebook,
Twitter or Line. The proportion was low, at 1.8 percent, for those aged 60 or
over. The survey was conducted under an interview format with adults
nationwide on Dec. 6-9, with 1,261 people giving valid answers. From
http://the-japan-news.com Cloud
Computing to Be Used in Schools from FY14 The communications ministry and the education ministry will test
a new system in which students will be able to access teaching materials on
the Internet using tablet computers and other electronic devices both at home
and at school, beginning in late fiscal 2014, ministry sources said. In its
early stages, the cloud computing-based learning system will target certain
primary, middle and high schools as well as a dozen schools for children
requiring special care and support. In fiscal 2016, the two ministries plan
to start implementing the system nationwide while also hoping to extend the
system overseas. The new system is being studied by the Internal Affairs and
Communications Ministry and the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology Ministry. Cloud computing enables people to control and access data
via the Internet. The ministries will store electronic teaching materials for
five subjects—English, mathematics, Japanese, science and social studies—on
servers. This will not only make it possible for students to use online
teaching materials during class but they will also be able to access these
materials at home, using them to prepare for and review school lessons. The
electronic learning materials are expected to provide schoolchildren with a
more effective way to study by providing materials with images and sound as
well as text. The education system will make it possible for teachers to
identify problem areas in which students tend to make mistakes, by analyzing
students’ study records. In doing so, it will also allow teachers to improve
teaching materials and methods. In the event students move to a new school,
their study records can be transferred. The government and local
municipalities have already conducted education utilizing tablet devices and
electronic blackboards. However, such methods have been implemented on a
school-by-school basis. Therefore, the issue of cost has been raised as a
potential problem, as nearly ¥10 million is needed every year for such
expenses as placement and maintenance of servers and production of learning
materials. Utilization of cloud computing systems will reduce the cost of
operation because servers and learning materials are shared with other
schools. A total of about ¥670 million was allocated for the education system
in the budget for fiscal 2014 by the ministries. However, the question over
who will pay for tablet devices and other equipment remains undecided and
such issues will need to be addressed in the future. From
http://the-japan-news.com Tokyo-based Smart Education, a developer of educational
mobile apps for kids, announced yesterday that it has raised 550 million yen
($5.4 million) from CyberAgent’s Fujita Fund and Infinity Venture Partners.
This follows their previous funding worth 75.3 million yen (approximately
$750,000) from Shinsei Corporate Investment, secured back in May of last
year. CyberAgent also invested in the startup’s series B round in April last
year. Speaking about this latest funding round, Smart Education’s CEO Daigo
Ikeya explains: When looking at our users, we found characteristics
very close to those of Ameba users (CyberAgent’s blog platform). So we
thought that partnering with CyberAgent could create a synergistic
relationship in the future. But more importantly, this partnership lets us
benefit from the advice of CyberAgent. Ikeya previously worked at CA Mobile,
a mobile app development arm ofCyberAgent (TYO:4751).
He told us how Fujita got involved in this investment: I think their
investment was possible because of Fujita’s decision. Our business sector is
not bad but it can’t make a bunch of money. It may require some time to reach
any successful milestone, but he has been encouraging us to keep going,
saying that the sector will grow enormously in five to ten years. Fujita Fund
is an investment initiative by CyberAgent, its name derived from the
company’s CEO, Susumu Fujita. It’s focused on mid/late-stage startups in Smart Education has been working on global expansion with the
Gocco series of apps (see one in the video above). The startup’s apps are
showing good numbers in terms of overseas user acquisition. They have
surpassed 6.4 million total downloads and will reach seven million very
shortly. The company expects to reach 10 million downloads, with an eventual
domestic/international ratio of 50/50. But it’s not clear how many are active
gamers. It has been said that our apps are designed to suit Japanese
preferences, and have been not accepted in the overseas markets. But our
Gocco brand targets the global audience, and has been seeing good results. If
we can keep going at this pace, we may catch up with other developers in this
space, such as Smart Education is doing more than just developing apps. It’s
making an effort to guide parents on the appropriate usage of apps for
infants, based on discussions with experts in the educational industry. The
company recently announced that its educational app Oyako de
Smahon(literally, “smartphone app for parents and kids”) will be
adopted at 250 nurseries in From
http://www.techinasia.com/
The present and future of the digital media industry were laid
out at a special event, Digital Media Festival 2013. Held on December 5
and 6 at Bitmaru in Ilsan, Gyeonggi-do (Gyeonggi Province), the festival
invited domestic companies to show off their advanced and innovative
technologies in sectors such as broadcasting, communications (mobile,
applications and the Internet), digital content and entertainment (movies,
games and animations). A variety of state-of-the-art digital equipment
was introduced all throughout the festival, ranging from newly developed
receiving antennae for digital TVs and intercom devices that enable
instantaneous communication at event sites, to digital single-lens reflex
(DSLR) cameras and LED lighting equipment. There were also special
eye-catchers, especially to young visitors and families, including games
designed for a smart TV that can be played with a mobile phone as a
controller and various applications specially designed for playing games and
childcare assistance. Other sideline events, too, helped signalize the
digital tech-focused intention of the festival, such as a conference aimed at
attracting both domestic and overseas potential buyers and a special showcase
of artwork and digital content that could be appreciated through digital
devices. The hosting venue Bitmaru opened its
doors on December 6. The complex, co-constructed by the Ministry of Culture,
Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Ministry
of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP), is armed with a
one-stop service system for broadcast content from planning and producing all
the way through transmitting and distributing. The 20-story building
features studios, editing rooms and transmitting spaces, all based on
networking and cloud computing systems, and is expected to serve as a hub for
production and dissemination of global broadcasting content. From
http://www.korea.net Internet Use
Spreading Fast in The number of Internet users in From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr The ICMRA will be test-operated for two years and afterward take
on its full range of duties. The 21 ICMRA members will carry out the
following tasks: put in place an ICMRA operating system and regulations;
analyze the status of international medicine-related cooperative projects
already underway; share information between member states; inspect good manufacturing
practices and generic drugs; and, help develop the enforcement capacity of
medical regulatory bodies in developing countries. From
http://www.korea.net
Telemedicine
Brings Health Care to Remote Communities In December 2013, Kim Gil-su, a 63-year-old resident of From
http://www.korea.net SK Telecom
to Launch World's First 3band LTE-A Service SK Telecom Co., From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Internet
Services to Be Available in Inter-Korean Park This Year South and From http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr Gov't, Carmakers to Develop Low-cost Electric Vehicle Batteries From
http://world.kbs.co.kr/ |
|
|
|
|
|
The University of the Philippines National Institute of Health
(UP-NIH), in close partnership with the Foundation for the Advancement of
Clinical Epidemiology, Inc (FACE, Inc.) and Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies
of Johnson and Johnson, launched earlier this week the country’s first
integrated Mental Health Information System (MEHIS) in a bid to effectively
respond to the needs of mental health patients and their families. “There is
a vicious cycle between poverty and mental illness. The rate of mental
disorders and the need for care is highest among disadvantaged people yet
with the lowest access to appropriate services,” said Dr. Michael Sionzon,
Consultant Department of Psychiatry at the Philippine General Hospital.
“Poverty causes mental illness and mental illness drifts down families in the
social strata but the government cannot see this occurrence,” he noted,
adding that patients suffering mental illness could live normal and
productive lives given proper care, treatment, and therapy. According to
Professor Maria Lourdes Amarillo, project leader of MEHIS, the creation of
effective solutions to address the needs of mental patients begins with the
collation of reliable baseline data. The data gathered will generate
information crucial for planning, programming, policy and decision-making
that will help the government and other health care institutions focus on
outcomes-based medication and treatment. Furthermore, the system will help
doctors advice families and caregivers on how to properly take care of the
patient. Sionzon revealed that they hope to complete the system by April 2014
and launch pilot trials in ten key areas in the following month. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The
The ICT Office of the Department of Science and Technology
(ICTO-DOST) revealed plans to roll out PhPay, an online e-payment system that
aims to give citizens a more convenient, faster and more transparent way of
completing government transactions. According to Jops Josef, Component Team
Lead for Systems Integration of the Integrated Government Philippines project
(iGovPhil), through the system, citizens availing services from a government
agency may pay through payment channels which include credit cards, online
banking, bank and non-bank over-the-counter payments, mobile banking, and
rural banks among others. This will be possible through private payment
aggregator companies that will be part of PhPay. “When we look at the whole
government payment process, each agency is required to deposit payments to
the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) at the end of each transaction day. Through
PhPay, we’ve made it simpler by removing this process for the agency and let
the payment go directly to the BTr,” Josef said. He added that agencies will
greatly benefit from PhPay as they would no longer need to talk to the
different companies offering online payments and paying a set-up fee for each
one. By simply enlisting their services on PhPay, they can leverage on the
diverse set of payment channels and allow citizens to choose their preferred
channel. While convenience derived from PhPay comes at cost of Php 20-40 (US$
.45-.90) per transaction, Josef said they expect this figure to fall further
as they meet with various stakeholders to finalise engagement terms with the
payment aggregators. At present, the ICTO-DOST is selecting agencies to be
part of pilot implementation which they hope to roll out by March 2014. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Philippine
City Launches New Mobile Money System The Local Government of Quezon City, in close partnership with
the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), launched a
new mobile money system that will assist the city administration with real
property tax assessment and collection, and disbursing stipends to government
scholars and public school teachers. The project is the realisation of the
Scaling Innovations in Mobile Money Project announced earlier this year. It
aims to provide citizens with a secure, transparent and convenient way to
settle government fees and improve social welfare through the use of mobile
money technology. According to USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator Greg
Beck, the project also aims to help the national government achieve its
development goals faster and make those gains more sustainable by extending
financial services through technologies like mobile money. “Mobile money is,
indeed, a proven effective development tool around the world to make
governments more efficient, transparent and accountable in deploying public
funds for social services,” he said. USAID facilitated the Local Government’s
partnership with BPI Globe BanKO to provide the mobile money platform for the
social transfers, and G-Xchange, Inc. (GXI) for the real property tax
assessment and collection. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
New
Real-Time Traffic Control System for Metro Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has rolled out a new
advanced Traffic Signalisation System (TSS) to improve traffic condition and
safety. The system will be complemented by a new surveillance network of 25
fiber-optic high definition pan-tilt-zoom CCTV cameras. These cameras add to
the existing 100 CCTV cameras installed last year at strategic spots in Metro
Manila, the most populous and densest region in The Philippines with 11.8 million.
MMDA has set up a its first Command and Control Centre in Makati City, from
which staff can monitor real-time traffic video feeds from the CCTV network
and remotely control traffic lights around Metro Manila. In the first phase,
MMDA’s staff will use the software system to manage 85 key road intersections
and 25 traffic control and video surveillance areas. This number will grow to
500 intersections in future, with planned enhancement to automate and
optimise traffic management, said MMDA’s Chairman Francis Tolentino. A
traffic management system better coordinates lights to enhance road users’
experience, reduce travel time, improve safety and reduce traffic
congestions. The system consolidates and analyses real-time traffic data to
allow MMDA make more informed decisions with speed. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Philippine government pledged on
Friday to coordinate with other governments to fully put a stop to online
child pornography, which victimizes Filipino minors. Deputy Presidential
Spokesperson Abigail Valte said at a news briefing, "it's a point of
concern because it happens within our borders but we are very much open to
working with authorities from other jurisdictions to make sure that these are
not repeated." She made the remarks amid reports from From http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Digital
Maps of Land Resources Launched in the The Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) launched an
online portal called “BSWM Maps” to make it easier for citizens to access the
agency’s wide collection of maps – the result of 15 years of fieldwork,
validation and consultations with stakeholders and government agencies
concerned with the rational use of land resources. The portal aims to provide
baseline information that may be valuable for land resources planning
including potential agricultural development and strategic prioritisation of
commodities consistent with the national food security programs and climate
change adaptations. According to an official statement, the portal can serve
as potential decision-support for better zoning of cropping systems,
strategic positioning of agri-support services, establishment of conservation
areas, and preparation of disaster mitigation measures and many others.
Though the generous funding support from the World Bank Global Facility for Disaster
Risk Reduction (WB-GFDRR) and in collaboration with the IT infrastructure
assistance from the Department of Agriculture Information Technology Center
for Agriculture and Fisheries (DA-ITCAF), maps on landscape, land management,
soils and physiography, land limitation, land use and vegetation (present and
potential) in analog format can now be downloaded free-of-charge via the
DA-ITCAF server. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The
In order to keep the public updated of impending storm surges
floods or landslides, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has
created an early warning system. The system is designed to alert residents -
especially those living in densely populated areas such as Metro Manila - of
tropical cyclones. The warning will be given 48 hours in advance, according
to DOST Secretary Mario Montejo and Project NOAH Executive Director Mahar
Lagmay, who presented the project to President Benigno Aquino III last week
at a cabinet meeting. The storm surge warnings will have three indicators,
Storm Surge Advisories (SSA) No. 1 for storm surges up to two metres in
height, No. 2 for up to five metres and No. 3 for anything higher than five
metres. Flood warnings will similarly have three indicators, starting with
No. 1 for rainfalls of up to 129 millimetre in the next 24 hours, No. 2 for
up to 190 millimetre, and No. 3 for up to 240 millimetres. The team proposed
several measures to minimise disaster risks, such as enforcing ‘no-build’
zones in coastal areas, enhancing the resiliency of residential and
commercial structures, and building natural and man-made barriers to soften
the impact in the event of a storm surges. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Philippine:
The recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Supporting the growing trend towards patient engagement, a
recent Accenture survey of more than 9,000 consumers across nine countries
found that more and more patients believe they should have more access to
their own Electronic Medical Record (EMR). In Singapore, for example, the
survey shows that nearly all consumers (96 per cent) say they should have at
least some access to their EMR, with roughly three out of four (73 per cent)
surveyed saying they believe they should have full access. Corissa Leung,
Accenture’s Managing Director for the ASEAN Health Industry, told FutureGov
that this disconnect between consumers and physicians is likely to be more
prominent as technology adoption accelerates, and physicians shift to a more
open approach to delivering care. Additionally, many patients are taking
ownership of their health records by self-tracking their personal health
information. Self-tracking is a trend that is gaining traction in Roughly a third of Meanwhile, slightly less than one third of From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) alerted
the public of a ‘tweet storm’ targeted at two government Twitter accounts.
Last Thursday, a member who claimed to be part of the Anonymous group posted
on Pastebin - an open web site where users can store and share text -
garnering support for a tweet storm against the Twitter accounts of Singapore
Government’s @govsingapore (pictured) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs @MFAsg.
A tweet storm is a coordinated effort by users to send out the same tweet at
the same time, causing a spike of activity around that certain topic. The
person demanded the release of five men who were arrested for vandalism in
support of Anonymous. The post also asked supporters to email their petitions
directly to Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law K. Shanmugam
and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. IDA advised the public not to be alarmed
by unusual activity on the twitter pages and assured that government infrastructure
will not be affected by the twitter storm. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Singapore Prison Service has implemented an online SMS system to
improve the ease of contacting inmates who are still under the enhanced
supervision programmes such as ‘Half-way care’ or ‘Aftercare’ programme. The
halfway care programme provides selected inmates the opportunity for a
gradual reintegration into the society near the end of his or her
incarceration. Inmates under this programme serves out his or her remaining
sentence outside of the Prison. The aftercare programme provides support to
inmates who have been released. The Prison staff will periodically call them
back for counselling sessions, meetings, medical check-ups and other
purposes. Every two to three times per month, the Prison staff has to contact
approximately 80 of them. Singapore Prison Service decided to implement a SMS
system in order to improve staff’s efficiency. After considering various
options, a public cloud-based service was selected. Inmates’ identity and
privacy are kept secure as only the mobile numbers are stored in the SMS
system. Codes are also used within the SMS text to ensure added
confidentiality. “Understanding the business, asking critical questions when
evaluating opportunities and risks and the guts to take action, is vital to
decision making and success of any organisation.” Kuai Ser Leng (pictured),
Senior Assistant Director, Technology Branch, Singapore Prison Service. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
After finding out more from these professors, Chee implemented
this form of learning on his class. He asked his students to watch an online
video on math concepts at home and adopted team-based learning in class. Heng
was impressed with Chee’s gumption and encouraged other teachers to innovate.
“He dared to imagine possibilities and dared to try! Yes technology matters,
but teachers matter most of all. Our technological advances are to help our
teachers do an even better job. If our teachers continue to use technology
with such gutsiness, I am excited for the great learning opportunities that
will open up for our children,” said Heng. “I know other teachers across our
schools are also innovating in different ways, and I look forward to learning
more about our teachers’ innovations and experiences,” concluded Heng. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the
National Library Board (NLB) have jointly launched three Smart Work Centres
(SWC) to enable Employees using a NWoW approach may also be able to enjoy a
better work-life balance, with the flexibility to meet their own family needs
or personal development while still capable of a full day’s work. A reduced
commute can help achieve cost savings while enhancing productivity. “The SWCs
can help businesses, especially small and medium enterprises reduce
operational costs by offering work facilities that they can use on demand.
With the deployment of the Nationwide Broadband Network island-wide, these
SWCs also offer ultra high speed connectivity to support organisations with
data or bandwidth intensive work. All these can help to boost productivity
and accelerate the growth of high-quality Singapore-based companies,”said
Steve Leonard, Executive Deputy Chairman, IDA. The SWC in the libraries are
located in residential hubs and conveniently accessible via public transport.
SWC users can work closer to home with easy access to the library’s
collection of books, information resources and audio visual materials. “NLB
is happy to serve the community in a new way. Our libraries are already
well-loved reading and learning spaces for people from all walks of life. Now
we offer space to work or run businesses, helping with professional lives
while enriching personal lives. We hope our libraries can be incubators for
budding entrepreneurs to chase their dreams,” said Elaine Ng, Chief Executive
Officer, NLB. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Ministry of Education Thailand will
be standardising and redesigning its information management system which will
be rolled out across all its offices, concluded at a meeting last week
chaired by Minister of Education Chaturon Chaisaeng (pictured). Currently,
offices do not have a standard operating system to update education
statistics, making the process inefficient and costly. The ministry decided
to consolidate and upgrade its information management system with the latest
technology, so that it will be comparable to successful systems found in
other countries and agencies. Professional consultants will be included in
the team responsible for the redesign. The team will look into the types of
data the system should capture, information that is necessary for educational
reform decisions, selection of solutions and installation. The entire process
is expected to take three to five years. Currently, the duty to update
education statistics fall on the ICT Centre under the Permanent Secretary’s
Office, who works closely with the Office of the Non-Formal and Informal
Education. These two departments are consolidating data on the literate
population between the ages of 15 and 59, and expect data collection to
complete this month. By August, they will also have completed the collection
of ICT indicators for education. The ministry also revealed that its ICT
master plan for 2014 is currently being prepared. From http://www.futuregov.asia/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Vietnam’s third largest city, Hai
Phong, has recently joined several other cities in the country to provide
free WiFi, promoting digital inclusion and enabling its 1.9 million residents
to to more easily access online public services. The city authorities have
set a budget of VND 4.5 billion (US$ 213,000) to provide free WiFi in three
areas of the city. The race for free WiFi networks in From http://www.futuregov.asia/
The From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Online Games
Go Local for It was while hunting for monsters in a virtual cave that Bend
Henmoko Madio met his community and realized why companies are adapting
online video games to suit the different languages, tastes and mobile devices
in "The growth has been quite staggering," said David Ng,
chief executive of Singapore-based gaming company Gumi Asia Pte Ltd.
"That is what's fuelling the localization business because more and more
people are starting to realize it's worthwhile." Gumi Asia, a unit of BEYOND LANGUAGE AND CULTURE Still, Catering to the Southeast Asian market goes beyond language and
culture to include optimizing graphics and adapting to diverse handset types,
Ng said. The Android operating system's domination in the region presents a
sizeable challenge. With at least nine Android systems now in use and
thousands of distinct devices in the market with different screen sizes and
graphics capabilities, developers must localize their games into many
formats. In contrast, the vast majority of Apple devices run on iOS 7 or the
previous version of that system. Low connection speeds in parts of From
http://news.yahoo.com/
|
|
|
|
|
|
In Jammu & Kashmir, out of total 6,417 (as per 2001 census)
inhabited villages, 33 are without Village Public Telephone (VPT) and 636 are
without mobile coverage. Giving this information in written reply to a
question in the Rajya Sabha today, Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of
Communications and Information Technology, said that the VPTs are proposed to
be installed by March 2014 and a plan is being envisaged to provide mobile
coverage in villages without mobile coverage through a scheme funded by
Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). From
http://pib.nic.in/ Railways
Launches Online Booking of Retiring Rooms Continuing with its efforts to extend more facilities to
passengers, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has
launched an online booking facility for retiring rooms at railway stations.
“Any passenger with the PNR of a confirmed or RAC ticket may make an online
booking of a retiring room. The ticket may either be a counter ticket or
e-ticket. The booking can be made for all the passengers on the ticket,” said
a senior IRCTC official. Currently, the system is being launched only for the
retiring rooms at Mumbai’s CST station and gradually it will be extended to
the major stations, like From
http://egov.eletsonline.com/
E-books
Provides From
http://www.siliconindia.com/ Introduction
of E-Insurance in the Insurance Sector Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has
introduced E-insurance in the insurance sector The IRDA has informed that as
on date the Authority has granted certificate of registration to five
entities to dematerialize insurance policies and store them in an electronic
form. These are: i. NSDL Database Management Limited ii. Central Insurance Repository Limited iii. SHCIL Projects Limited iv. Karvy Insurance Repository Limited v. CAMS Repository Services Limited Currently the above mentioned Repositories are opening
electronic insurance accounts for the purpose of dematerialization. This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance,
Shri Namo Narain Meena in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. From
http://pib.nic.in/ Rolling
Out of Next Generation E-Ticketing
i) IRCTC is working along with CRIS for development of Next
Generation E-Ticketing (NGeT) system.
This new system shall be able to book 7200 tickets per minute, as
against existing capacity to book 2000 ticket per minute. ii) Between 2003-04 and 2012-13, the number of tickets booked on
IRCTC website www.irctc.co.in has grown about 190 times. iii) The estimated cost of this Next Generation E-Tecketing
(NGeT) project is about Rs. 74 crore.
The investment is being done by IRCTC. This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways
Shri Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy in written reply to a question in Rajya
Sabha today. From
http://pib.nic.in/ From
http://www.brecorder.com/ |
|
|
|
|
|
Necessary conditions will be created for Internet service
providers to reduce the cost of access to the Internet for end users.
Azerbaijan Communications and Information Technologies Minister Ali Abbasov
made the remark on December 6. Recently, the Azerbaijan Tariff Council
adopted a decision to reduce telecommunication services' tariffs. The Tariff
Council reduced the cost of telecommunication services, international and
long distance calls, and use of fax machines, which will be implemented by
January 1, 2014. This decision is expected to have an impact on the reduction
of tariffs for Internet services. Abbasov said this will allow Internet
service providers to make Internet services more accessible to end users in
the near future. Chairman of the Azerbaijan Internet community Galib Gurbanov
said earlier about expected approval of proposals to reduce the cost of the
Internet access. Proposals were submitted to the ICT Ministry, aimed to
reduce the rent for connection to the optical ports, laying and rent of
optical channels. About 40 internet providers are functioning in From
http://www.azernews.az/ Incoming
Internet Traffic to Be Filtered in The computer emergency response team (CERT) will filter From
http://www.azernews.az/
The Science Development Fund under the President of Azerbaijan
and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies after
completing the second contest for the grants supporting projects in ICT
development sector have supported national labour market. According to the Ministry, 2 from 29
approved projects are focused at employment development. Thus, the State
Service of Labour Inspection and the State Employment Service acting under
the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population, received AZN
45,000 grant for study of virtual employment (labour market in Internet).
They plan to complete the project within 12 months. Vital LLC, in its turn,
received AZN 50,000 grant for 12 months. It plans to study possibilities of
HR management on the basis of central platform VideoCV. In general, the projects approved at
the contest have cost of approximately AZN 1.2 million. From http://abc.az/ From
http://news.az/
Number of
Mobile E-Signature Owners in Last month the total number of the Asan İmza mobile e-signature
certificates issued in From http://en.trend.az/ Suspension
of Foreign TV Channels’ Broadcasting in The Azerbaijani National Council for Television and Radio (NCTR)
has clarified the issue of suspending foreign TV channels' broadcasts in the
country. The broadcasting of foreign TV channels in From
http://en.trend.az/
Baku Metro will be provided with corporate mobile communication
system of DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication) standard, a
source in the telecommunications market told Trend on Jan.14. At the initial
stage DECT base stations will be installed within the territory of 28 May
station, and later their application will be extended to all other stations
of Baku Metro. Panasonic company is a supplier of equipment. Communication of
DECT standard is designed to provide mobile communications within the
territory of enterprises of those employees whose work is permanently or
substantially related to the absence at a permanent workplace. DECT wireless
communication has a working range from 1880 to 1900 MHz. The range of DECT
base station hits 50 meters in a building and 200 meters in open space. From
http://en.trend.az/
MNP Service
to Be Launched on Azerbaijani The mobile number portability (MNP) service will be available on
the Azerbaijani mobile operator networks from February 1, the Azerbaijani
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said on Tuesday.
Implementation of the MNP service will allow mobile communication subscribers
to save their phone number if they change service providers. The number
transfer envisages a subscriber's transition from one service to another with
the provider's prefix of 050, 051, 055, 070 and 077. The mobile operators
have already announced their readiness to deploy the MNP service. Its
application will further strengthen competition in the market. This will help
reduce tariffs for mobile services. From
http://en.trend.az/
The State Committee for Property Affairs of Azerbaijan will soon
introduce to notary offices an online service for issuing certificates (Form
No. 1) related to real estate, in particular encumbrance certificates (on
registered rights), the state committee said in its statement released on
Jan.30. According to the statement, currently preparatory work related to
applying this service is being completed. The country's citizens will be able
to obtain these certificates on the legal status of property online in early
2014. The main objectives of expanding the range of electronic services are
ensuring transparency in the process of registration of property rights,
improving and simplifying access to services provided by the State Property
Committee. In 2014 the State Committee plans to commission 10 new types of
electronic services. The services will be posted on e-emdk.gov.az. The
resource provides electronic services for citizens on the principle of a
"single window". The State Committee began introducing electronic
services in 2012. Currently, citizens and legal entities are provided with 16
electronic services. The services include obtaining an extract from the state
register of immovable property, encumbrance certificates, registration of
mortgage and leasing, and addresses of real estates. At the same time special
annual reports on the use and protection of state property are also available
in electronic form. About 8,800 appeals on these services have been received
from From
http://en.trend.az/
Commercial
Package of Digital TV in The commercial package of the digital TV DVB-T2 will be put into
operation in the Guba district of Azerbaijan in the middle of March, the
production station "Teleradio" at the Azerbaijani Ministry of
Communications and Information Technologies told Trend on Feb.14. Over 70 TV
programs will be included in the package. The commercial package will be
available in districts such as Gusar, Khachmaz, Shabran and so on. The cost
of connecting to the commercial digital package will be identical to the
tariffs functioning in Ganja (52 manats). The subscriber payment for a month
and the cost of tuner and SMART- payment cards will be included in the sum.
The monthly cost of the commercial package is six manats. The number of
channels in the digital package in Ganja (now 54 channels) will be increased.
"Teleradio" is planning to expand the commercial package in the
Zagatala district. The number of TV transmitters of digital TV (DVB-T) in the
Azerbaijani territory is 87. The signal of the digital TV covers 98 percent
of the republic's population. A social package, consisting of 12 television
channels is available to the public. To provide qualitative broadcasting of
analogue and digital broadcasting, a system of monitoring broadcast space was
installed at the Baku TV tower. The development of digital broadcasting in From
http://en.trend.az/
Difficulties for private companies Channels not funded by the
state face even more problems, though.
"Private companies will have to band together and buy their own
multiplex or lease one from the state," Mamyrkanov said. "However
it works out, it will be really expensive." Some people, like Mamat Kadyraliev, a
journalist for a private television company, argue that the government's move
is a way to shut down undesirable, private television companies or to take
control of them. However, Mamyrkanov disagreed. "The plan to switch to
digital broadcasting was passed in 2011, and this wasn't some government
eccentricity, but rather the country's international obligations," he
said. "Furthermore, private television companies using their own
multiplex will be less dependent on equipment infrastructure from the
state." Traning personnel,
filling airtime. The stations face non-technical challenges, too. Personnel
need to be trained, and that will take time, KPTRB Training Centre head
Adelya Laisheva said, and it still is not clear who will conduct the
technical specialist training. With that, Mamyrkanov said television companies without the
qualified personnel could end up not switching to digital broadcasting in the
middle of 2015. A partial, truncated switch to digital could take place in
2015 as long as the international obligations are met, though, Mamyrkanov
said. Filling airtime with
quality content is also a concern. "The government will put together a
social package of contracts for television companies to produce the
corresponding programmes and films, but money and quality producers are
needed for this," Laisheva said. "There needs to be original
content to keep channels from filling airtime with foreign content." The creative potential is already
there, we just need to contracts in place, Temirbekova said. Despite the hurdles, the switchover
should be worth it. "We have to remember that digital broadcasting
represents an opportunity to make a leap of progress," Mamyrkanov said. From
http://centralasiaonline.com/
The first national conference on 'Modern information technology
and IT education' was held in the Kazakh city of From
http://en.trend.az/ One can hardly argue that today's world becomes more and more
dependent on Internet technologies. In our daily lives we turn to the world
wide web for almost everything - transportation, food, education, work, even
rest becomes virtual. One of the most popular Internet trends today is social
media. People learned to share their opinions, photos, introduce their
personality, report about important events by means of such networks as
Facebook, Twitter and many others. Each country having its own social network
trends. Some experts even say that modern people lost their ability to create
relationships in real life and that they lost real personalities behind
artificially created internet images. You can even hear paraphrased
expression "Give me internet or give me death". As an example, in
Europe, according to the worldinternetstats.com as of 2012, 63.2 percent of
population are internet users, in the During the presidency of the former leader Saparmurat Niyazov,
better known as Turkmenbashi, according to several sources, the Internet was
grossly underdeveloped. Internet usage was estimated to be under 5 percent.
Following the election of current President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the
Internet started to intensively develop in the country - and everything being
relative - usage is now hovering around the five percent mark. In one of his
speeches he even said that this modern technology has to be available for
every citizen. After this, in February, 2007, two up-to-date Internet cafes
were opened in the country's capital, Ashgabat. There is no official data on
how many such cafes are functioning today. "Internet cafes in From
http://en.trend.az/
The fee for using subscriber phone numbers by legal entities
rendering mobile services increased by 20 percent from 500 to 600 soums in From
http://en.trend.az/
|
|
|
|
|
|
Minister for
Justice Michael Keenan launched the Emergency+ app last month that allows
users to give emergency call operators their exact location by longitude and
latitude. According to Australian Federal Police, over 66 per cent of callers
to emergency numbers are from mobile phones. Many callers are unable to tell officers
their exact location. Moreover, many people use the Triple Zero (000) number
when they should really be calling other numbers, such as the Police
Assistance Line (131444) the State Emergency Service (132500), Crime Stoppers
(1800 333 000), the National Relay Service (106) and Health Direct Australia
(1800 022 222). ACT Policing Operations reports that approximately half of
the average 2200 calls they receive per month to the Triple Zero number
should have been for other services. The smartphone app aims to better guide
citizens on the number to call based on the situation they are in and what
they want to report. Moreover,
when a caller is on the line with an emergency call operator and is not aware
of his/her exact location, the operator can guide the user to the app where
the latitude and longitude coordinates are displayed. Currently, the caller
has to read out the coordinates to the operator. Moving forward, the
authority plans to enhance the app so that the coordinates are automatically
sent to the emergency call operator once the caller dials from the app. The
app, available for free on GooglePlay and AppStore, was developed by Fire
& Rescue New South Wales and the Triple Zero Awareness Working Group a
national body that represents emergency call-taking agencies and their
government and industry partners throughout From http://www.futuregov.asia
Australian
Government Australian
Minister for Human Services Senator the Hon Marise Payne visits one of two
Mobile Services Centres last week as the team kicks off their first trip of
2014. The Mobile Service Centres, known as ‘Desert Pea’ and ‘Kangeroo Paw’,
travel through rural and regional Australia to provide remote communities
with government services. Each centre is equipped with the same technology
available in any Centrelink or Medicare service centre. “Over the next three
months, the centres will visit regional and rural communities in From http://www.futuregov.asia
Australian
Government Launches Medicare Mobile App Australia’s
Department of Human Services has created a mobile app to make it easier for
parents to access their child’s immunisation history, announced Minister for
Human Services, Senator the Hon Marise Payne last week. In the new school
year, some parents will need to provide proof of immunisation for their
child’s school enrolment. According to Payne, the ‘Express Plus Medicare’ app
allows parents to access their child’s Immunisation History Statement from
any mobile devices and email a copy to the school or childcare provider. The
app provides several other services, including requesting a replacement
Medicare card, updating contact details, viewing Medicare Benefit tax
statement, finding the nearest Medicare service centre, and more. Parents can
download the app now from GooglePlay or Apple App Store. The mobile app
complements the wide range of other services that are currently available at
Medicare Online Services on the myGov web site. “Express Plus Medicare and
myGov gives busy parents more options to access their records online quickly
and easily,” Payne said. “You can access your information when it suits you,
without needing to call or visit a Medicare office.” From http://www.futuregov.asia
From http://www.futuregov.asia
The Western
Australian Government has launched an incident notification app - Right Move
Perth - for commuters in the state capital, From http://www.futuregov.asia
The Ministry
of Health launched a new website that makes it easier for citizens to find
information on more than 650 aged care providers nationwide. This includes
the types of rest home care, number of beds and length of time the provider
is certified for. According to Associate Health Minister Jo Goodhew, the new
enhanced website will, over time, provide a much clearer picture of how rest
homes operate and they provide care to residents. She added that audit
reports are also included as part of a six-month trial. “Nearly 90 recently
completed full audit reports are now online. Further full audits will be
added as rest homes undergo their certification audits, with around 250
audits expected to be online by the end of the trial,” Goodhew said. “This is
an important step in making the auditing process as transparent as possible.
While there is a lot of useful information already in the audit summaries,
the full reports show the detailed assessments carried out by auditors as
part of the process.” Goodhew
shared that the recent enhancement is part of a wider government plan to
improve services for the elderly. This includes projects on upgrading systems
for the on-going certifying and monitoring process as part of auditing rest
homes, hospitals, fertility providers and residential disability services.
Around $2.26 million has been spent on the Provider Regulation Monitoring
System project so far including developing and implementing the new monitoring
system and the public website. “I am pleased with the number of improvements
in the audit regime over the last few years, including the introduction of
unannounced audits, third-party accreditation of auditing agencies,
streamlined audits to focus more tightly on services directly affecting
residents, - and today’s website launch. A number of these improvements were
recognised by the Office of the Auditor-General in its 2012 report, which
noted that since 2009 good progress had been made in certifying and
monitoring rest homes. But we are always looking for ways to further improve
these processes and the quality of our aged care facilities,” she said. From http://www.futuregov.asia
From http://www.futuregov.asia
From http://www.cellular-news.com
Immigration
New Zealand (INZ) is on track to complete most of the functionalities of the
Immigration Global Management System or IGMS by end of 2015, says INZ’s
website. Started in February 2011, the NZ$ 91.5 million (US$ 76.3 million)
project will support the new Immigration ONLINE service, enabling most visa
processing to be fully digitised from initial application to final decision
and delivery. Immigration Minister, Michael Woodhouse, said, “IGMS will
provide new online channels for customers to access information and submit
applications, and will consolidate back office processing functions.”
Immigration ONLINE will also enable better information sharing with
stakeholders including education providers, immigration advisors and other
government agencies. It will also strengthen border security with modern
identity management systems using biometrics, strong intelligence and risk
management tools, and strengthened international data sharing on criminality
and immigration fraud. To ensure
secure access to Immigration ONLINE, applicants and third parties will
require a RealMe logon, the Government’s online identity verification
service. Once access is granted, there will be a further layer of security to
determine what the logged-in user can see and do. INZ employed Datacom for
system design, development, implementation and ongoing support for IGMS. Over
the course of the project, the immigration authority shifted to procuring
infrastructure as a service instead of purchasing hardware. Nathan Guy,
former Immigration Minister, highlighted IGMS as a practical example of INZ’s
Vision for 2015 to be “more flexible, responsive and efficient”. From http://www.futuregov.asia
From http://www.futuregov.asia
Ultra-Fast
Broadband Uptake Picks Up Speed The number
of people connected to the Government's ultra-fast broadband network grew by
40 per cent in the last three months of 2013, bringing the total amount of
users hooked up to almost 20,000. This is about 5.5 per cent of the 363,000
people who could connect to the fibre infrastructure at December 31 last
year, a rate of uptake which the Government sees as being in-line with
overseas examples of this type of project. This rate of uptake is slightly up
from the last quarter, where it sat at around 4.4 per cent. Communications
and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams said today more than 25 per
cent of the UFB project is now complete. The ultra-fast broadband scheme,
which uses a mixture of taxpayer and private sector funds, aims to offer 75
per cent of the country internet speeds of 100 megabits per second by 2019.
In a separate programme, the rural broadband initiative, 179,000 homes and
businesses outside of major centres can connect to wireless broadband and
60,000 to improve copper-line internet. From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) is set to acquire a new
set of powers that will give it free access to private or confidential
information on consumers without a court order, the Business Daily reported.
The powers, which are contained in a new set of regulations that has been
prepared for publication in the Kenya Gazette, allow the CAK or its agents
the leeway to obtain information or data held by telecoms operators. The
proposed regulations state that a licensee must grant the authority's
officers access to its systems, premises, facilities, files, records and
other data to enable the CAK to inspect them. Business Daily said that
consumer rights activists claim the regulations are particularly in breach of
people's right to privacy, as provided for in the constitution. From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
EUROPE:
U.K. - Public Sector Fails to Tackle ￡20.6bn a Year Fraud Using Big Data The UK public sector is poorly equipped to combat fraud, with
civil servants not being given the necessary training to help detect the
estimated ￡20.6 billion
lost every to fraud, says big data analytics firm SAS. SAS says it has
already worked with HM Revenue & Customs to reduce fraud losses by a
claimed ￡7 billion,
as well as the Department for Work and Pensions, where savings of ￡100 million are said to
have been made. In a report entitled "Eliminating public sector fraud
and error: the secrets of a zero tolerance approach", the company says
of the estimated ￡20.6 billion
a year lost to public sector fraud, just ￡702 million (three percent) had been
identified - that is fraud actually measured in some way. The other ￡19.9 billion (97
percent) "remains hidden", SAS said. In comparison, the report
says, the private sector identifies 27 percent of its ￡21.2 billion a year
lost to fraud, so it is able to try and tackle it. SAS said: "There is a need for a cultural change in the
public sector, changing from cautious, siloed and largely manual systems to
innovative, collaborative and automated approaches." It added: "The
government also needs to invest in technology that can automatically detect
and deter the lower-level threats and 'would-be' fraudsters, with letters,
emails or SMS messages." Amanda Gardiner, public sector fraud specialist
at SAS UK said: "The current cost of fraud to the public sector is
equivalent to more than a third of the UK's education budget. “Fraudsters can
be swiftly identified when the public sector treats its information as an
asset, collecting it, valuing it and analysing it in smarter, more efficient
and effective ways to tackle this problem." Michael Levi, professor of criminology at From
http://news.idg.no/
Online
Information Poses Cyber Risk for Data published online by industrial firms could be used to mount
a cyber attack against "The research demonstrates the low level of technical
knowledge that is required to successfully mount an attack against industrial
control systems," he said. Hugh Boyes from the IET added that in order
to prevent such attacks, awareness needs to be raised over what information
is made publically available, with companies taking better control of their
data. "There continues to be real and growing threats to our interests
in cyberspace. The availability of open source tools makes it easier to
locate and attack or interfere with poorly protected control systems,"
He added: "Working with industry to raise awareness of the issue and to
promote the development of suitably skilled cyber security professionals [is
key]." Yesterday business secretary Vince Cable said that companies
supplying the From
http://news.idg.no/
NORTH
AMERICA: Report points out that cybercriminal activities are becoming
more difficult to track and more complex to solve. Stronger attacks in
cyberspace should be expected in 2014 with major data breaches to happen
every month and advanced mobile banking attacks to increase, a report said.
"Blurring Boundaries: Trend Micro Security Predictions for 2014 and
Beyond" also highlighted threats on various websites, and the emerging
security challenges Internet of Everything, uniquely identifiable objects
that are Internet-like structures, and Deep Web, a World Wide Web content
that is not part of the Surface Web or items that can be searched using
search engines. The report pointed out that cybercriminal activities are
becoming more difficult to track and complex to solve, as evidenced in the
hacked Philippine government websites. Filipino netizens' computers are still under threat from old
viruses like the DOWNAD/Conficker worm, file infectors and adware that are
still rampantly infecting units. With old and new threats impending to
infiltrate computer units in the country, the report urged Filipino computer
users to improve cyber defences and secure information better. "We see
the sophistication of threats expanding at a rapid pace, which will impact
individuals, businesses and governments alike," Raimund Genes, Trend
Micro Chief Technology Officer, said. According to the report, malicious
applications for the Android system will reach three million and mobile
banking will be compromised through Man-in-the-Middle attacks, an online
attack where the attacker monitors messages between two people, which will
make two-step verifications invaluable. And the Deep Web will continue to
thwart the efforts of law enforcement to address cybercrime. From
http://www.govtech.com/
Agencies
to Focus on Illegal Cyberweapons Trade in 2014 Agencies governmentwide over the next nine months must work
together on guidelines for controlling the trade of cyberwar technology,
under newly approved military legislation. In programming, a cyberweapon
often refers to malicious code that takes advantage of a software glitch
unknown to developers, called a "zero day," to insert itself and
manipulate data. For example, Stuxnet, an alleged U.S-Israeli cyberweapon,
upended Iranian's nuclear program by exploiting a flaw in the country's
centrifuge systems. The concern in Congress is that war worms, let loose in
the black market, are being sold to the public and overseas aggressors. The
2014 National Defense Authorization Act that lawmakers cleared on Thursday
night requires that federal departments, with input from industry, devise
"intelligence, law enforcement, and financial sanctions" mechanisms
to "suppress the trade in cyber tools and infrastructure that are or can
be used for criminal, terrorist, or military activities while preserving the
ability of governments and the private sector to use such tools for
legitimate purposes of self-defense." This week’s bill also directs the Obama administration to
address the problem at the international level – an effort that apparently
already has begun. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that 41
nations, including the United States, Russia and Germany, were close to a
deal that would equate sensitive cyber technologies to traditional arms under
one of the world's key agreements on weaponry export control. The revised
terms for the Wassenaar Arrangement would include “new controls on complex
surveillance and hacking software and cryptography," the newspaper
reported. In a seemingly complementary maneuver, the By next fall, federal agencies must deliver recommendations for
damping the proliferation of cyberweapons, including a draft statement of
principles and a review of applicable legal authorities. Some legal experts
call the whole concept of cyber arms control impractical for a defense sector
that isn’t limited to Boeing-size systems integrators. "In the physical
world, the production of weaponry is restricted by the need for an industrial
base. In cyberspace, weapons are
bits and bytes and produced as intellectual property,” Paul Rosenzweig, a
Homeland Security Department official during the George W. Bush
administration, wrote on the Lawfare Blog in July. “With such an ease of
manufacture (comparatively) and a global market, there seems to be precious
little prospect for an arms-control type approach to eliminating the trade.
The market for zero-day exploits will, I think, grow exponentially in the
years to come.” Cyberweapon vendor and federal contractor Endgame Systems
reportedly offers customers 25 zero-day exploits a year for $2.5 million.
Rosenzweig called Congress’ proposal for cyberweapon nonproliferation
"notably off-target," adding that "while the objective is
certainly noble, I suspect the effort will be relatively unsuccessful." From
http://www.nextgov.com/
Awards
Recognize Best in Government Cybersecurity Six government cybersecurity practitioners were recognized by
the SANS Institute this week for their efforts in making measurable advances
in information security. The People Who Made a Different in Cybersecurity
2013 Awards were presented to individuals, teams and groups at the SANS Cyber
Defense Initiative training event in Washington, on Dec. 16. The awards
recognize security practitioners as individuals, teams or groups who have
implemented security processes or technology over the past year that resulted
in meaningful and measurable advances in security. This year’s government winners: ■Erica ■Todd Boudreau of the U.S. Amry Office Chief of Signal was
honored for his efforts to redesign the Army signal warrant officer structure
to enable establishment of four new key cyber roles. The Army has since
graduated more than 100 warrant officers through an advanced training project
to develop people to fill those roles. ■Peter Kaplan, acting director of the Federal Trade Commission,
was recognized as a cyber difference maker for his leadership and charge of
the commission that has never lost focus of its mission to protect consumers
and is particularly strong at going after companies that don’t protect their
customers’ information. ■Maj. TJ O’Connor of the ■Alex Ruiz of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement was recognized
for his leadership of the Social Engineering Training program to provide
evaluation and improvement of the operational security posture of ICE
personnel. ■Jonathon Trull of the Colorado Governor’s Office of Information
Technology also was honored as a cyber difference maker for his efforts in
pulling together a cross-industry team to create a “Secure Colorado” plan
that drove measurable improvements in the security of the state’s information
systems. From
http://www.nextgov.com/
Defense
to Weigh Civilian Cyber Militia Congress has mandated that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
evaluate the practicality of hiring part-time nonmilitary employees to help
the National Guard thwart cyberattacks. Some states and other nations,
including From
http://www.nextgov.com/
Could
New Security Tech Cut Global Cyberattacks in Half? Startup's technology turns the hackers' techniques against them.
With online fraud on everyone's lips, a secretive but much-buzzed-about
startup on Tuesday will unveil technology that one leading security expert
says could cut global cyberattacks by half. Shape Security operates behind
locked doors in a bland "It can be a game-changer," said Gartner Research vice
president Avivah Litan, a security consultant who previously was director of
financial systems at the World Bank. She and other experts say security
software is often handicapped because it fights reactively: A virus or bit of
malicious software may not be discovered until long after it's begun to work.
"There are armies of 'bots' sitting on user machines that quietly take
over for a few unnoticed moments, then go back to sleep," Shape
co-founder Sumit (pronounced "summit") Agarwal said recently from
the company's compact offices. Those so-called bots, or automated programs,
can scour a person's computer for passwords and other information such as
birthdates and Social Security numbers. Often, they steal that data from
websites the person has visited. "This problem is bigger today than it's ever been because
every American household is wired," Agarwal said. An Air Force
cyberwarfare veteran and MIT graduate, he spent six years in product
management roles at Google before the Obama administration named him deputy
assistant secretary of defense. The federal government is increasingly keen
to stop cyberassaults; former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in a recent
speech in San Jose, said the agency is hit more than 100,000 times each day.
Many of those are "distributed denial of service" attacks, in which
a network of bots use stolen user IDs to flood a site with billions of
clicks. At the Pentagon, Agarwal got to know another tech refugee: Derek
Smith, who had founded security startup Oakley Networks and sold it to
defense contractor Raytheon. Agarwal and Smith came to believe the key to warding off attacks
via websites was to change the nature of the sites themselves. So in late
2011, they headed back to But what Shape's technology conceivably could do is stop
fraudsters from using those stolen card numbers to order things on Amazon.com
and other websites. Using stolen cards to buy gift cards or other items, then
quickly resell them, is a key strategy behind credit card theft, Agarwal
said. Litan, who's spoken to users of Shape's fledgling service, said it
would virtually eliminate malware takeovers of a user's computer and the kinds
of denial-of-service attacks that crashed federal websites in 2009 and those
of major Shape first set tongues wagging around Silicon Valley a year ago
by landing more than $20 million from some of the venture capital industry's
leading security experts -- without saying just what the company did.
"What Shape does is to take a static target -- the website -- and make
it very much a moving target," said investor Bob Ackerman of Allegis
Capital. Others backing the company include Google Ventures, former Symantec
CEO Enrique Salem and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers. The 55-person
startup has hired high-profile executives like Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google's
former "click-fraud czar." Others have been wooed from rivals
including Palo Alto Networks, whose soaring 2012 IPO illustrated the demand
for next-generation Internet security. Even security analysts who know
nothing about the product are bullish on Shape simply because of the team
that's behind it. "It's almost the wild west in security, because threats are
happening at so many levels," said Daniel Ives, a security analyst with
FBR Capital Markets. "Every enteprise and every government agency in the
world is trying to figure out what's the next shiny toy in security
software." While Litan reckons Shape's approach would shut down
"well over 50 percent of all cyberattacks," she also warned that
large companies might be reluctant to turn over control of their websites to
an outside vendor. And Litan believes hackers eventually will find ways to
outfox any new technology -- a point Agarwal also concedes. Still, Litan
said, "You don't run across something this radical very often." From
http://www.govtech.com/
Federal CIOs' Current Security Dilemma Three initiatives
meant to improve government IT security are languishing from funding
challenges, yet CIOs are asked to deliver on the promise of shared services. The Obama administration has made an
unprecedented commitment to making government data driven. It has also made
cybersecurity a centerpiece of its IT strategy. But it now finds itself mired
in controversy on both fronts. The less-than-stellar rollout of the website
designed to support the Affordable Care Act was a major embarrassment, while
the revelations surrounding NSA surveillance methods has cast doubts on the
administration's commitment to privacy as a keystone of national policy. These two story lines symbolize some of the
many challenges the administration faces in balancing the federal
government's IT investments: It must maintain public support for a strong
cyberdefense without losing focus on the civilian agency systems that are the
public interface with "e-government," but which also need to be
made more secure. They
also show the role funding plays in managing the outcomes of those IT
investments. Looking at
cyberdefense, the Snowden disclosures ironically revealed that the long-term
investment in intelligence gathering has paid off in the form of an
infrastructure and capability that are second-to-none. The disclosures also
brought to light just how much the administration has invested in
cyberdefense. It began with the emergence of US Cyber Command in 2009 and
more recently with the Pentagon's 2013 budget commitment to a fivefold
expansion in staff and offensive capability over the next few years, which
The Washington Post reported early last year. However, the cumulative impact of
continuing resolutions, sequesters, and the government shutdown have put a
damper on government efforts to make its IT systems more secure. Three key
security initiatives in particular have been affected: Continuous Diagnostics
and Mitigation (CDM), the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program
(FedRAMP), and HSPD-12. Federal agencies
have taken to heart the government's "cloud first" strategy,
outlined by former US CIO Vivek Kundra in the first Obama administration,
which mandates moving email and other business applications into commercial
clouds. The move to
the cloud has had the greatest impact on small and midsized agencies that
don't have legacy investments in large datacenters and that were able to
shift operations to commercial clouds with relative ease. Unfortunately,
these agencies also are least able to protect security funding from the
budget axe. That's why these big three initiatives are so critical to the
state of the shared security services. The CDM initiative, beginning in fiscal
year 2013, offered the hope that low-cost monitoring tools and continuous
authorization services would replace an expensive cycle of system
certifications. But the task of
managing the myriad of contracts associated with the initiative has bogged
down at the Department of Homeland Security, which is leading the initiative.
The tools -- along with the expected budget savings -- aren't yet at hand
even as the 2015 budget cycle begins. According to a survey of defense and
civilian IT specialists, conducted by Dimension Research and published by the
security firm Tripwire, there are major challenges facing CDM implementation,
with 50% of respondents citing budgets as a top barrier. Even if the CDM program gets back on its
feet, it will not do anything in the short term for the agencies that have
moved their operating environments to the cloud. CDM is currently an
on-premises approach to system security. Plans to implement it in
commercially hosted government clouds -- and to put those clouds inside the
government’s Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) boundary -- are still to come. Meanwhile FedRAMP,
the framework for securing these commercial cloud services, despite some
headway, is off to a slow start. The FedRAMP Concept of Operations memo,
issued by the Office of Management and Budget, describes a rich array of
capabilities and services that could support authorization of cloud-based
environments. But CISOs and CIOs are finding that many of the big providers
in the cloud space are using prior security certifications provided by the
GSA or other agencies, with FedRAMP-certified services still being in short
supply. Other
providers have bundled multiple independent operating environments into a
single certified package. This makes it difficult to unpack the connections
and tell what controls are in place or to enforce them, even when they are
spelled out in contract language. The FedRAMP Joint
Advisory Board (JAB) has approved more than 20 independent third-party
assessors who are qualified to certify cloud environments, but only a handful
of them are doing the work. The irony is that without a scanning and
monitoring function built into the FedRAMP process, the certifications are no
different than the old three-year cycle model that DHS and NIST are trying to
replace. The final
piece of the security puzzle, inherited by the Obama Administration from the
Bush Administration, is the HSPD-12 mandate, intended to replace outmoded
password authentication with PKI-based, two-factor methods that rely on
electronically coded identification cards and card-reading systems. Unfortunately, this critical security
capability, meant to protect systems on-premises and in the cloud, is also
languishing due to budget constraints. The initiative was launched as an
"unfunded mandate," but in an environment of competing budgetary
priorities, agencies have deferred implementation. And those that have
implemented it report that only a small percentage of users are
authenticating themselves using the credentials. Many CISOs believe
that security would be better served focusing on the use of two-factor
authentication -- which is relatively cheap to implement -- and deferring the
more costly process of creating and managing the assured identity and
expensive card that is bound to it. The White House has met those requests
with a firm "no." However, as long as secure authentication remains
an unfunded mandate, competing for a share of limited funds, other
initiatives that depend on secure identities are hard-pressed to move forward. Consequently, civilian agency CIOs face a
difficult balancing act trying to implement these three key initiatives, and
others. They must manage the risks of a security infrastructure and also find
the means to fund these security priorities. It's one more reason so much of
the effort to fortify government IT remains a work in progress. From
http://www.informationweek.com/ Information Security Products and Services - Global Strategic Business
Report 2012-2018: Smart Technology Influences Industry This report analyzes the worldwide
markets for Information Security Products and Services in US$ Million by the
following Product Segments: Information Security Software, Information
Security Hardware, and Information Security Services. The sub-segments
analyzed under the Information Security Software segment include Identity
& Access Management (Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Web Single Sign-On,
Host Single Sign-On, User Provisioning, Directory Services, Legacy
Authorization, Advanced Authentication), Secure Content Management
(Antivirus, Web Filtering, Messaging Security), Intrusion
Detection/Prevention, Security & Vulnerability Management, Firewall/VPN
Software, and Other Security Software. The sub-segments analyzed under the
Information Security Hardware segment include Hardware Authentication
(Tokens, Smart Cards, Biometrics), Threat Management Security Appliances, Firewall/VPN
Hardware/Appliances, SCM Appliances, Intrusion Detection/Prevention
Appliances, and Unified Threat Management Appliances. The sub-Product Segments: analyzed under
the Information Security Services segment include Implementation Services,
Consulting Services, Management Services, Education & Training, and
Response Services. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for
the Key Topics Covered: I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY &
PRODUCT DEFINITIONS II. Executive Summary 1. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 2. REVIEW OF SELECT PRODUCT/SERVICE
MARKET OPPORTUNITIES 3. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE 4. PRODUCT/SERVICE OVERVIEW 5. AN UNDERSTANDING OF KEY PRODUCT
SEGMENTS 6. PRODUCT/SERVICE INNOVATIONS/
INTRODUCTIONS 7. PRODUCT/SERVICE INTRODUCTIONS/
INNOVATIONS IN RECENT PAST - A PERSPECTIVE BUILDER 8. RECENT INDUSTRY ACTIVITY 9. CORPORATE ACTIVITY IN RECENT PAST - A
PERSPECTIVE BUILDER 10. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS 11. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE III. MARKET 1. THE UNITED STATES 2. 3. 4. 5. ASIA-PACIFIC 6. 7. REST OF WORLD IV. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE Total Companies Profiled: 385 (including
Divisions/Subsidiaries - 531) •The • • • •- •- •- The •- •- •- Rest of •Asia-Pacific (Excluding • • • From http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/ UN Votes to
Protect Privacy in Digital Age The UN
General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at protecting the
right to privacy against unlawful surveillance in the digital age on
Wednesday in the most vocal global criticism of US eavesdropping. The
resolution calls on UN members to establish or maintain independent and
effective oversight methods to ensure transparency, when appropriate, and
accountability for state surveillance of communications, their interception
and collection of personal data. General Assembly resolutions are not legally
binding but they do reflect world opinion and carry political weight. The
resolution instead expresses deep concern at "the negative impact"
that such surveillance, "in particular when carried out on a mass scale,
may have on the exercise and enjoyment of human rights." It directs UN
human rights chief Navi Pillay to report to the Human Rights Council and the
General Assembly on the protection and promotion of privacy "in the context
of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance ... including on a mass
scale." Cynthia Wong, senior internet researcher at Human Rights Watch,
and Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human
Rights Program, welcomed the resolution's unanimous adoption. "With the
internet age quickly becoming a golden age for surveillance," Wong said,
"this resolution is a critical first step that puts mass surveillance
squarely on the international agenda." "Given the scale of snooping
that technology now enables, all states should modernize privacy protections
or we risk undermining the internet's potential as a tool for advancing human
rights," she said. Dakwar said that while somewhat watered down,
"the measure still sends a strong message to the From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Research
and Markets: Global IT Security Spending Market Forecast & Opportunities,
2016 One of the major drivers is the need to improve the quality of
protection. As the frequency of attacks is increasing, organizations are
increasingly implementing IT security solutions that efficiently monitor and
provide enhanced protection. Commenting on the report, an analyst from the
team said: One of the major trends witnessed in the market is the increasing
demand for cloud-based security solutions. The demand for cloud-based
security solutions is increasing in the Global IT Security Spending market,
primarily because of the significant advantages attributed to such solutions.
Moreover, companies are finding it difficult to manage standalone or
integrated network components because of issues such as budget constraints,
and lack of resources and expertise to address security issues. Hence,
companies are increasingly opting for cloud-based IT security solutions,
which are cost-effective, compliant with PCI DSS, and offer round-the-clock
monitoring of the system. Therefore, the increasing demand for cloud-based
solutions is expected to contribute to the growth of the Global IT Security
Spending market during the forecast period. The quality of protection can also be enhanced by outsourcing
security responsibilities to service providers that have core expertise in
this field. Hence, more end-users are adopting IT security services, a trend
which is supporting the growth of the Global IT Security Spending market. Further,
the report states that one of the major challenges faced by the vendors in
the market is the high cost of implementation. Despite the potential benefits
provided by IT solutions, certain organizations refrain from investing in
such solutions owing to the high costs associated with them. In addition,
there are certain hidden costs involved in the maintenance of such solutions.
Factors like these discourage end-users from adopting these solutions,
thereby affecting the growth of the Global IT Security Spending market. The key vendors dominating this market space are: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Cisco Systems Inc. EMC Corp. Fortinet Inc. Hewlett-Packard Co. Juniper Networks Inc. McAfee Inc. Palo Alto Networks Inc. Sourcefire Inc. Symantec Inc. Trend Micro Inc. Key Topics Covered: 01. Executive Summary 02. Scope of the Report 03. Market Research Methodology 04. List of Abbreviations 05. Introduction 06. Market Description 07. Market Landscape 08. Geographical Segmentation 09. Buying Criteria 10. Market Growth Drivers 11. Drivers and their Impact 12. Market Challenges 13. Impact of Drivers and Challenges 14. Market Trends 15. Trends and their Impact 16. Vendor Landscape 17. Key Vendor Analysis From
http://finance.yahoo.com/
|
|
|
|
|
|
Netizen privacy must be protected on the Internet and searches
for graphic or revealing sites should be banned and those who initiated them
should be punished, an official of China's top Internet regulator said.Liu
Zhengrong, director of the information coordination bureau with the State
Internet Information Office, said on Monday that it was morally wrong and
illegal to expose people's privacy on the Internet.Those who initiated
searches for "human-flesh" (looking for detailed private
information on the Internet) should be punished strictly, he told Global
Times.Cyberspace should be regulated in line with laws and netizens should
not resort to Internet sites that harmed or degraded others, Liu said.The
official was commenting on an incident in which a highschool girl in Lufeng city,
Guangdong province, committed suicide after she was accused of stealing by a
costume manager who exposed her information on a website. From http://www.news.cn/
Experts have warned that the inaccessibility of many Chinese
websites on Tuesday posed information safety risks and could have been
exploited by hackers.For a period around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, attempts to visit
many Chinese websites failed, with netizens often receiving error messages.
This was due to malfunction of root servers for China's top-level domain
names, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said in a
posting on Sina Weibo, the Twitter-like microblogging service.The
accessibility of the websites has returned to normal, the CNNIC said.360 Safe
Guard, a popular Internet security software brand by Qihoo 360 Technology
Co., said in a Weibo posting that visits to many sites were redirected to
65.49.2.178, a U.S.-based IP address. Song Yingqiao, an expert with www.net.cn, a domain service
provider, said such failures could be exploited by hackers, with the IP
address being used to phish for users' information, for example.However, the address
did not respond to the visits, so there have not been reports of any personal
information leaks, Song said.Dong Fang, an expert with Qihoo 360, agreed,
saying that the possibility of the problem being the result of a hacker
attack cannot be ruled out at present."Theoretically, if hackers take
control of the root servers, they can make phishing websites to lure Internet
users," Dong said.He added that it is difficult to take precautions
against this kind of incident, but that affected companies should make timely
responses and provide remedy plans. From http://www.news.cn/
Hackers Blamed for
Online Crash Affecting Millions China yesterday blamed hackers for a massive Internet access
glitch that affected users of websites ending with ".com" on
Tuesday afternoon.The problems have been fixed and services are being restored,
officials said.The crash of servers in China, which also affected popular
domestic sites such as baidu.com and QQ Mail, was caused by hacker attacks,
the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's emergency response team
CNCERT said.The Internet was almost fully restored by 4:50pm on Tuesday, 90
minutes after the crash, CNCERT said.Qihoo 360, a Beijing-based online
security firm, said the crash affected millions of Internet users, the entire
dot-com industry and even the country's economy, with tourism, airline,
e-commerce, IT services and social networking sites unavailable."I
couldn't use any Internet services except for instant message service QQ. It drove me crazy," said Zhang Xue, an executive with an
overseas trading firm based in Shanghai.More than two-thirds of domestic DNS
(domain name system) servers were out of action on Tuesday afternoon. Though
most Internet traffic has been restored, a full restore would need 48 hours
after the crash, which began at 3:10pm on Tuesday, Qihoo 360 said.DNS servers
play important roles in transferring Internet addresses to a serial number
address computers can recognize.Chinese users were redirected to inaccessible
addresses in The top 13 DNS servers are in the From http://www.news.cn/
Chinese Websites Fail
on DNS Outage Suspected from US Location The domestic Chinese Internet has been going haywire for many
users over the last twelve hours.Starting at around 13:00 yesterday, January
21 (+8 GMT), However, a check a few hours later on GlobalIPCheck.com showed the
IP was taken down.Because the problem appeared to affect the root gTLD
servers in China that control up to two-thirds of domestic websites and it
had no impact on visiting overseas websites, some Chinese websites are
reporting this may be a retribution hack from the United States. However,
Chinese node controllers and Internet Service Providers have been known in
the past to have self-created DNS problems, as well as lax upkeep of cached
data, so this may not be the result of a third-party hack.Chinese DNS service
provider DNSpod said the infection only lasted for a few hours, but because
some Internet Service Providers have cached DNS records, users may continue
to be affected for some time. From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
A Japanese investigator will head a new Interpol bureau whose
main task is to support cybercrime investigations, it has been learned. The
new bureau, called the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation, will be
established in The officials at the start include those on loan from
investigative authorities in various countries and 10 technical experts,
including three Japanese personnel, from seven private information security
companies. They will conduct analyses on computer viruses and regional trends
in cybercrime. In cooperation with their counterparts in Interpol’s offices
in The following are excerpts from the interview held with Noboru
Nakatani at the general secretariat of Interpol in From
http://the-japan-news.com Cybersecurity
to Include Oil, Credit Cards Taking its cue from rising cyberthreats and lessons from the
2011 earthquake, the government will add credit card companies and the oil
and chemical industries to the list of key infrastructure that require
greater protective measures against system failure, according to draft
revisions of a government action plan. The plan functions as a guideline for
public-private cooperation in preventing system failures due to cyber-attacks
and natural disasters. With the latest revision, which was unveiled on
Saturday, the government aims to provide crisis management support for these
companies to minimize damage in case of such events. This revision is the
second for the government action plan, originally compiled in 2005. The
information security policy council, headed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide
Suga, will make a formal decision on the plan in March. The government has
designated certain domains as critical infrastructure in consideration of
their public nature and based on the potential impact of a system failure on
economic activities and people’s daily lives. Companies in the designated business categories will be required
to share information with relevant ministries and agencies and take part in
drills to prepare against cyber-attacks. The 2005 action plan designated the
following business categories as critical infrastructure: information and
telecommunication; financial services; aviation; railways; electric power;
gas supply; government and administrative services, medical services; water
utility and distribution businesses. This revision is the first time that new
domains have been added to the designated critical infrastructure. In the
chemi-cal field, companies dealing with naphtha, or crude gasoline, and
ethylene also were designated as important infrastructure. In the event of a system
failure, there is the possibility of losing control of plant operations,
which creates an increased risk of explosion, or leaks of hazardous materials
from the premises. Following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, several
oil refineries in the Kanto region and elsewhere were shut down. In the event of a protracted disruption of the oil supply,
backup power at companies related to the important infrastructure is expected
to stop functioning, potentially causing a series of system-wide issues. In the
consumer credit domain, the 2011 hacking of Sony Corp.’s PlayStation online
services caused the leak of a large amount of personal information from
various parts of the world. The incident stoked fears that leaked credit card
information might be used for fraudulent purposes. The government will
furnish companies in the credit card industry with information on related
cases from overseas and relevant countermeasures, and will compile
international guidelines for the firms to help protect them from such inci-dents.
The draft stipulates for the first time the social responsibility of the
companies to continue to offer their customers services even in the event of
cyber-attacks. In the draft, the government required affected companies to
draft necessary plans, secure budgets and implement systems to deal with
these situations. From
http://the-japan-news.com Govt to Set ‘Day of
Cybersecurity’
The government has decided to designate the first weekday of
February as a cybersecurity day to help heighten people’s awareness about
risks on the Internet, smartphones and other information communication
networks. The cybersecurity day will fall on Feb. 3 this year. On that day,
the government will hold a symposium of experts and call for caution to be
exercised among the public via its website and other means. In February 2006,
the government compiled its first basic plan regarding information security,
which called for safety measures to be put into place when using information
technologies. Since then, the government has made every February a month of
information security, during which various actions have been taken. Recently,
however, there has been a large number of incidents targeting ordinary
individuals, such as personal computers becoming infected with computer
viruses through malware pretending to be updates of video-replay software,
and hackers stealing personal information from smartphones through app software.
Given this situation, the government decided to set a day at the beginning of
the month of information security to raise people’s awareness. From
http://the-japan-news.com
Senior Japanese and From
http://the-japan-news.com Record
12.8 Billion Cyberattacks Seen in The National Institute of Information and Communications
Technology detected a record 12.8 billion cyberattacks on government and
other organizations in the nation last year, NICT officials said Monday. The
number was the largest since the government-backed institute began
cyberattack surveys in 2005, they said. “Cyberattacks from emerging countries,
as well as From
http://www.japantimes.co.jp
Prime Minister Chung Hong-won instructed the financial watchdog
chief Monday to sternly punish those responsible for a recent massive leak of
personal information of credit card users, calling for fundamental measures
to prevent recurrence. According to the prosecution, sensitive personal
information, including resident registration numbers, bank account numbers
and credit ratings, of as many as 104 million customers were leaked
altogether from the country's major credit card firms of KB Kookmin Card Co.,
NH Nonghyup Card Co. and Lotte Card Co. "Relevant institutions should do
everything to learn the exact situation of the data leak to prevent the
stolen information from being used by financial scammers," Chung told
Shin Je-yoon, the chairman of the policymaking regulatory body, the Financial
Services Commission. He then instructed the watchdog chief to set up a task
force involving the government and the credit card firms to find out what
caused the incident and who is responsible for it, according to the Prime
Minister's Secretariat. Chung then called on the authorities concerned to
"greatly strengthen punishment for those who leaked the information to
deter anyone from daring to conduct such crimes." From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr Here at a leading university in From
http://www.arirang.co.kr
South Korean
Credit Card Firms Suspended Over Data Breach From
http://www.zdnet.com From
http://www.presstv.ir
Special
Report: The Cyberwar Threat from A history of cyber-violence. According to reports beginning in
2010, An attack in March 2013 was the biggest
one yet, infecting and wiping clean the critical master boot records of
48,000 computers and servers associated with South Korean banks and media
outlets, using their own networks. Experts traced the “cyberweapon” back
through more than 1,000 IP addresses used on different continents, but South
Korean officials accused
He said the best way to confront cyberthreats is to secure
domestic networks and force other countries to spend more money to get to us.
“Then it becomes like the [Cold War-era] From
http://www.foxnews.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
National Registration Department (NRD) of From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Latest official figures show From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
With the From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Cyber Intelligence Centre Opened in The Infocomm Development Authority
(IDA) in partnership with Fireye, a leading provider of advanced
cybersecurity products, launched Asia Pacific’s first ever Centre of
Excellence which aims to enhance the region’s manpower capabilities in the
area of cyber security. In November last year, The second area is the development of
next generation cyber security solutions. FireEye and IDA aims to develop at
least 10 new malware detection and prevention applications tools to manage
Advance Persistent Threats. This will be done by facilitating collaboration
between Institutes of Higher Learning and Local ICT Companies to build new
products and solutions for both local and regional markets. “Organisations
are coming to the rapid realisation that they must be prepared to invest in
building capability and capacity to deal with cyber security anytime,
anywhere. If cyber attacks respect no borders, then defence must also be
organised on a global scale,” she said. “Our industry collaborations with
partners such as FireEye to develop tools and intelligence that can be
deployed globally will also benefit organisations in From http://www.futuregov.asia/
Cyber
Security Remains a Priority for Minister for Communications and Information Dr Yaacob Ibrahim
assured the public that cyber security continues to be a priority for the Due to the fast-evolving threats and the growing complexity of
IT systems, efforts to patch vulnerabilities and ensure sufficient storage
and transmission capacity to avoid down-time do not always pay off. He asked
for the public’s understanding and patience as they might experience more
online service disruption when government web sites undergo more maintenance
and updates. And in the event of an attack, Besides outreach efforts such as competitions and events, the
Government is also partnering the private sector through the Cyber Security
Awareness Alliance. The From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you are a cybercriminal trying to commit identity theft or digitally
impersonate a citizen, you have help from the unlikeliest of sources — the
Government of India. Various government agencies have put vast amount of
personal information online, often with little barrier to access and with
hardly any provision to prevent their misuse. Combine a few of these
databases and you have a gold mine of information on From
http://www.i-policy.org/ A proposal by Google to offer voter lookup services was declined
by the Election Commission of India, after cybersecurity experts and
political parties voiced concern about the plan's security implications. The
commission on Thursday confirmed that it had seen a Google presentation for
electoral lookup services to provide information to voters. "However
after due consideration, the Commission has decided not to pursue the
proposal any further," it said in a statement. Google offered the
commission, in a presentation on Tuesday, facilities for free online voter
registration, search and other services, the Press Trust of India reported.
The report drew criticism on the belief that the collaboration would provide
Google with access to a vast amount of data on Indians. To register online as
a voter on the commission website, people have to provide their email IDs and
mobile phone numbers, said Jiten Jain, a member of Indian Infosec Consortium,
a group of cybersecurity experts. By the tie-up with the commission, Google
would have access to the email IDs, mobile phone numbers and the IP addresses
of voters who register online, he added. "Tying with Google was tantamount to tying up with the U.S.
NSA [National Security Agency]," said Jain, who cited media reports that
the agency may have access to real-time to data on the servers of Internet
companies. Indian companies and agencies can provide the services offered by
Google to the poll commission, he added. Google, however, said it was only
providing publicly available data through a voter lookup tool. "It is
unfortunate that our discussion with the Election Commission of India to
change the way users access their electoral information, that is publicly
available, through an online voter look up tool, were not fruitful,"
Google said in a statement after the decision of the commission. The company
said it would continue to develop tools and resources "to make civic
information universally accessible and useful, help drive more informed
citizen participation, and open up new avenues for engagement for
politicians, citizens, and civic leaders." From
http://www.i-policy.org/ On
Internet Freedom, By the time the first story based on former NSA contractor
Edward Snowden's disclosures splashed across the front pages of the world's
newspapers, Although the system is not yet fully operational, The Hindu
further reported in September 2013 that all of India's 160 million Internet
users were by that time "already being subjected to wide-ranging
surveillance and monitoring," much of it "in violation of the
government's own rules and notifications for ensuring 'privacy of
communications.'" And things only seem to get worse. Just last week, The
Times of India reported that the Indian government will soon deploy NETRA, an
Internet spy system capable of real-time keyword analysis on all manner of
Internet communications, from public tweets to private emails, as well as
Voice over Internet Protocol traffic such as calls made via Google Talk and
Skype. According to The Hindu, all authorizations for surveillance under the
system remain secret, and contained within government departments. Thus,
Indian authorities may program a keyword search, then monitor "all
traffic of every and any Internet user for as long as it desires, without any
oversight of courts and without the knowledge of [Internet Service
Providers]." Journalists who have sought to shed light on such systems have
found themselves obstructed. Speaking to CPJ, Economic Times senior reporter
Indu Nandakumar stated that after she published information about India's
surveillance capabilities, "Indian government authorities, particularly
top decision-makers at CERT-In [a government agency responsible for
cybersecurity and surveillance] have stopped talking to me, and many other
journalists who cover these issues." She added, "That makes it very
hard to cover this topic." Compounding concerns over the Indian government's
technical capabilities, and the lack of independent oversight of its powerful
tools, is a dearth of strong individual privacy protections under Indian law.
As BBC South Asia Correspondent Andrew North wrote in October, "the
intelligence agencies still report straight to the prime minister and the
home minister." Bhairav Acharya, a constitutional lawyer who practices
before the Supreme Court of India, agrees. Writing for the South Asian media
watchdog website The Hoot in November, Acharya said, "For ordinary
Indians who want to protect themselves and their communications from state
encroachment, the law currently offers little solace." Even Internet
users who wish to engage in self-help by using encryption--as journalists
frequently do--are afforded little to no protection: pursuant to Section 69
of India's Information Technology Act, the government may put an individual
who fails to comply with a governmental decryption order in prison for seven
years. From user data requests, to media ownership, to the deaths and
imprisonment of journalists, From
http://www.i-policy.org/ Building
Better Cyber and Telephony Infrastructure and Evolving New Cyber and Telecom
Security Practices Government is working to enhance its capacity to protect data
and information flows by building better cyber and telephony infrastructure
and by evolving new cyber and telecom security practices. Government is
promoting Indian players in the Information Technology field to develop and
offer Internet Services by having their servers located in From
http://pib.nic.in/ |
|
|
|
|
|
AZERBAIJAN: To Study Israel’s Experience in
Information Security From
http://en.trend.az/
Azerbaijani
Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies Not Satisfied with
Information Security in Country The Center for electronic security of the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan has started the
estimation of the level of the information security of users, and also
stability of infrastructures of enterprises to harmful programs, Head of the
Center Faiq Farmanov told journalists on Feb. 4th. The primary indicators are
not satisfactory, which requires a special approach for solving this problem,
according to Farmanov. He mentioned that the main problem is that the
majority of users do not know about harmful programs spread through networks
and the absence of necessary tools such as antivirus programs to combat the
spread. The main goal of the Center is to increase the level of knowledge and
skills in the area of resistance to threats. The "hotline" 1654 and
the site cert.az. have been created as part of this effort. "The Centre
plans to publish a monthly overview about threats and virus activity,"
Farmanov said. From
http://en.trend.az/
Resolution
for 2014: Improve Cyber Security Health and fitness goals make annual appearances on New Year's
resolution lists, and with good reason: After January vacations and a holiday
season of indulgence, steps such as improving diet, losing weight, and
getting fit take on a new urgency. But as a business executive, perhaps you
should carry these resolutions a step further. What about the health and
fitness of your corporate networks and data? The new year is a perfect time
to get your systems into shape, too. Cyber security, defined by
Merriam-Webster as "measures taken to protect a computer or computer
system against unauthorized access or attack," is no longer the
exclusive domain of the CIO and the IT department. The threat has become so
pervasive, the points of illegal entry so numerous, and the implications of a
breach so serious that every member of the organization has a stake and a
role in protecting the company from cyber threats. The steps outlined below
range from the basic to the advanced. Some forward-thinking organizations will already have tackled
some or even many, but, in our experience, very few have adequately addressed
them all. 1) Focus on what matters: Identify and document the
business-critical functions and information assets that must be safeguarded
against cyber attack. 2) Get real about risk: No matter how strong your
current security measures, cyber criminals likely know how to circumvent
them. That's why you need a risk-based approach to cyber security, one that
prioritizes risks based on their likelihood and impact, so you can
effectively manage your cyber risk exposure. 3) Know your friends: In a
recent Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu survey of technology, media, and telecomm
companies, 92 percent of participants felt an average or high level of threat
from third parties. To help combat this, inventory your extended
relationships-supply chain, outsourcing, partnerships, clients, vendors,
contractors, etc. Include anyone who has access to your IT infrastructure, and
seek assurances from these parties that they are vigilant in addressing cyber
security. 4) Become a detective: Develop capabilities for detecting threats
to your business-critical functions, information assets, and operational
continuity. By centrally monitoring your systems, you can detect cyber
threats in real time, enabling you to respond quickly enough to mitigate negative
impacts. 5) Draw up emergency plans: When it comes to cyber attacks,
prevention is only half the battle. Even the best systems and most vigilant
organizations can be compromised. That's why you need to establish procedures
to react to cyber attacks, from fiduciary, legal, technical, business,
organizational, and branding standpoints. 6) Crash your own gates: Cyber
simulations can help you test the effectiveness of your emergency responses
and the ability of your systems to detect intrusions and withstand attacks.
This enables you to hone both your resiliency plans and your defensive
strategies so you can recover quickly and get back to business. 7) Protect what's vulnerable: Cyber criminals increasingly evade
current security controls to target vulnerable applications. To protect your
business-critical systems, make sure to apply timely patches and software
updates to your most exposed assets. 8) Get smart: Enhance your
organization's ability to proactively detect and mitigate imminent and
emerging cyber threats by leveraging the knowledge of industry associations,
as well as commercial and open source intelligence sources. Whether you build
the skills in-house or outsource, the key is to establish proactive cyber
threat intelligence capabilities. 9) Jealously guard your reputation:
Companies that suffer a cyber attack face more than financial loss. They also
risk brand damage and the loss of public confidence. To protect your
reputation, you need to know who's talking about your brand and what they're
saying. By consistently monitoring your brand on the Internet, you can
often prevent trademark, copyright, and other intellectual property
infringement. More significantly, by improving your cyber security stance,
you can even protect your corporate assets and sensitive customer and
employee data from the outset. 10) Foster cyber awareness: The weakest link
in your cyber security isn't your technology; it's your people. Social
engineering attacks that use targeted phishing emails or other techniques
often hoodwink users into revealing confidential information or trick them
into downloading malware. This makes it easier for cyber criminals to
penetrate your network, without even resorting to more traditional hacking
methods. Educate your employees to make sure they're aware of these risks and
threats. Make cyber security one of your top resolutions for 2014. The more
of these steps your organization can address, the less likely it will be to
find itself in an embarrassing, costly, or litigious situation in the wake of
a cyber security attack. Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Limited, a From
http://en.trend.az/
|
|
|
|
|
|
Australian
Federal Police plans to pilot the use of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) - a
type of computer network packet filtering technology - starting next month.
If successful, full implementation will take place in April. The force will
use it as an internal system tool and it will not be connected to any
external telecommunications or IT networks. While AFP said that DPI is
commonly used by enterprise and government users, some local media have
highlighted the controversy around this new technology, which is used by the
US National Security Agency for online surveillance. The technology enables
the collection and storage of vast volumes of data to track emails and online
activities, including email headers and social media communications.
According to AFP’s tender which closed last month, the force required the
system to be able to collect and record data in real time at 10 gigabits per
second, as well as extract and store metadata. From http://www.futuregov.asia
Government
Calls for Comment on Children's Online Safety Proposals The
Commonwealth Government has released a discussion paper setting out its plans
to improve online safety for children. In the light of the widespread use of
social media by children (ie, those under 18) and the reported incidence of
cyber-bullying (which has led to suicide in some cases), the Coalition
released its 'Policy to Enhance Online Safety for Children' in the run-up to
the 2013 Federal Election. The Government has now issued a discussion paper
setting out its plans and inviting comment from interested parties. At the
top of the list is the establishment of a Children's e-Safety Commissioner
with a range of responsibilities in the area, including taking control of
existing online safety programs and resources, working with the industry to
provide parents with better options for protecting their children from
harmful content, and establishing a research fund to consider the effects of
internet use on children and ways of providing online support services and
mitigating online risks. Options being canvassed include setting up an
independent statutory authority to support the Commissioner, setting up a
statutory office backed by an existing agency (most likely the ACMA), giving
the job to an ACMA member, and outsourcing the task to an expert
non-government organisation. The
Government also suggests the Commissioner would be in charge of a new scheme
to "enable the rapid removal from a large social media site of material
targeted at and likely to cause harm to a specific child (the proposed
scheme). The proposed scheme will provide an independent and impartial third
party to consider such disagreements between social media sites and
individuals on content complaints, where the content relates to a specific
child in Another
proposal is to establish a specific cyber-bullying offence or a civil penalty
regime. One of the problems with relying on criminal law is that under 10s
cannot be held responsible, and prosecutors must prove that 10-14 year olds
knew their conduct was wrong. The paper notes that "The penalties under
the infringement notice scheme should be high enough to dissuade and attract
parental attention, but not so high that it leads people to contest the
matter as a preferable option (perhaps a $1,000 fine)." Paul Fletcher,
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications, said "When a
child falls victim to cyber-bullying, it can be hard to get the harmful
material down fast. "And with current laws, cyber-bullies may not realise
they are breaking the law. This is what these measures are designed to
address." The discussion paper is available on the Department of
Communications website, and he closing date for submissions is 5pm on 7 March
2014. From http://www.itwire.com
Fears
sparked by the likes of WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden mean information
security staff are now among the most sought after professionals in According to
the survey, security specialists can expect to earn between $90,000 and $ Without
specifying, he said staff had received more than a 9 per cent pay increase in
that period. One of the major incidents which led to the change in mentality
in From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LTE networks will cover 50% of the African population by 2018,
according to new research published by ABI Research on Wednesday. However,
subscriber uptake will be nowhere close to that level. The number of LTE
subscribers in the continent will grow to more than 50 million by the end of
2018, almost half of whom will be able to use voice-over-LTE (VoLTE), the
analyst firm reported. With a population of over 1 billion, that still leaves
a lot of people using earlier generations of mobile technologies, or without
mobile connections at all. Nonetheless, that 50 million subscribers figure
amounts to a compound annual growth rate of 128% between now and then, which
is a significant development. "What makes this exponential subscription
growth possible is the increasing affordability of LTE handsets a few years
down the road," said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director at ABI
Research. "LTE handset shipments will increase by 75% annually on
average in the next five years," he added, noting that poor fixed-line
infrastructure means that Africans will depend more on mobile networks for
access to the Internet. "There is a strong business case for mobile
operators to roll out LTE early to take advantage of the opportunity,"
Saunders advised. Naturally, By Mary Lennighan, Total Telecom From
http://www.totaltele.com/
The EU Benchmark report compares and analyses over 2600 mobile
packages across eleven European countries ( From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
EU
Still Trailing US in Terms of ICT The European Union is trailing the From
http://www.telecompaper.com/
Spain to Invest Over EUR 8 mln in Malaga Digital Hub From
http://www.telecompaper.com/ LATIN
AMERICA: From
http://www.bnamericas.com/
NORTH
AMERICA: A combination of multiple technology trends increasingly being
adopted in the enterprise will precipitate an IT skills shortage throughout
the next few years, according to CA Technologies. A mounting IT skills crisis
due to big data demands, an insatiable appetite for apps in the enterprise
and increasing focus on security, are among the top five IT trends that will
characterize 2014, according to IT management solutions company CA
Technologies. A combination of multiple technology trends increasingly being
adopted in the enterprise will precipitate an IT skills shortage throughout
the next few years, according to George Watt, vice president for corporate
strategy at CA Technologies. “Cloud computing, mobility, big data, more and
more companies are either rolling out or planning programs around these
technology trends,” he said. “Unfortunately for many organizations change is
happening pretty fast and they just don’t have the in-house talent or
expertise to carry out the implementation.” The rise of these trends has brought about tremendous disruption
in the enterprise. However, in order to obtain the potential benefits of
these technologies organizations need to invest in talent that possess the
appropriate skills, said Watt. Businesses have several options. They can
recruit new people, train and develop in-house talent, or outsource, he said.
Widespread adoption of cloud computing, mobility and other technical advances
has driven fundamental changes in how applications are created and deployed,
according to CA Technology. Applications are no longer monolithic and hosted
on a single platform. They can now be rapidly assembled from in-house and/or
provider-built components which reside independently, either on-premise, in a
cloud, or both. “In such an environment, the CIOs that move up the value
chain to focus more on managing apps and services will increase their
company’s ability to drive business success,” said Watt. Instead of a buy-build-manage model, IT will increasingly focus
on composite business applications to achieve new levels of speed,
innovation, performance and cost/risk efficiencies. To successfully make this
transition, CIOs will need to increase their leverage of service-oriented
style architectures through more efficient use and better control of APIs
(application performance interfaces). CA Technologies also foresees a rise in
what it calls “experience-centric everything”. There will be increased use of
sensing technologies available in most modern mobile and wearable devices.
“Mobile first” development will give way to “experiences first” multi-channel
approaches that will leverage smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, gaming
consoles, laptops, or any other platform that a consumer is likely to be
using when they want a product or need a service. There will also be
increasing for “accelerated delivery” as consumers and employee demand for
more engaging experiences will continue to increase at a dramatic pace as
they become more comfortable with experience-driven, multi-channel applications
and technologies such as sensing. Security will remain top of mind for many enterprise
organizations, said Watt. Mobility, social, DevOps and cloud adoption have
effectively opened the enterprise and invited new business risk into today’s
workplace, he said. The rapidly expanding and collaborative open enterprise
diminishes IT control and requires the CIO and CSO to find the delicate
balance of enabling and protecting the business. A fundamental change and how
organizations view how IT departments deliver security is occurring said
Watt. “Once people thought of the IT department as a gatekeeper, keeping the
bad guys out and important data in,” he said. “Today, IT is the enabler ,
providing applications and services that let users do their job better and
safer.” From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
The widespread management and oversight failings of the
HealthCare.gov rollout renewed the call on Capitol Hill and from the White
House to fix how agencies buy technology. While the administration continues
to focus on fixing the Affordable Care Act portal by Nov. 30, the Senate is
poised next week to follow the House's lead and act to reform the way
agencies buy technology. But one of the co-authors of the Federal IT Acquisition
Reform Act (FITARA), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), said the bill is by no
means the silver bullet or panacea to the systemic problems HealthCare.gov
once again exposed. "Getting FITARA into law is a real first step. It's
not going to solve all the problems," Connolly said in an interview with
Federal News Radio. "But I think it's going to create a new environment
for IT management that we badly need." The House passed FITARA in June
as part of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Senate finally acted on the bill Nov. 20 when Sen. Jean
Shaheen (D-N.H.) introduced an amendment to the upper chamber's version of
the NDAA. "The problems with the Affordable Care Act website highlight
the need for a larger effort to upgrade our informational technology
infrastructure," said Shaheen in a release. "What we're doing right
now is outdated, expensive and inefficient. We have to upgrade the way we do
business, boost accountability and oversight, and put in place the right kind
of federal IT infrastructure for the future, and we have to do it now."
Shaheen said her amendment mirrors the House version of FITARA, except for
the data center consolidation provisions. Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Tom
Coburn (R- Okla.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
introduced a separate amendment to the NDAA to address agency requirements to
consolidate data centers. The committee passed the Data Center Consolidation
Act in November. Support for reforms grow Carper and Coburn, the chairman and ranking member,
respectively, of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee,
held several hearings looking at different aspects of FITARA, such as giving
agency chief information officers more authority, but never introduced a
companion bill. "Chairman Carper and his staff continue to work with
Senate and House colleagues to improve how our federal agencies manage their
IT systems," said a committee staff member by email. "Earlier this
month, the committee approved S.1611, the Federal Data Center Consolidation
Act of 2013, which mirrors a major provision in Chairman Issa's FITARA
legislation. Advancing this measure is a priority of Chairman Carper."
Connolly said the Senate is close to acting on FITARA, as support grew
considerably after the HealthCare.gov debacle. He said his and Issa's staffs
have had good conversations with Carper and Coburn's staff, as well as those
of several other senators. "I'm really hopeful especially, frankly,
after the health care website difficulties that people are now seized with
the mission that we must do a better job of federal IT acquisition,"
Connolly said. "Of course, I wish one could say the health care roll out
was unique, but it, frankly, characterizes large federal IT procurements."
As for the administration, President Barack Obama earlier this month called
for a review of the federal procurement processes to buy IT. But the White
House has not signaled what the review would entail or what steps need to be
taken. Tries to fix systemic problems FITARA is considered the first major rewrite of the
Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and the first major governmentwide technology and
acquisition change in the law since the E-Government Act of 2002. Both bills
attempted to improve agency management and oversight of IT. But many experts
believe agencies fell well short of implementing key provisions of the bill,
and Congress dropped the oversight ball. FITARA would reduce the number of
CIOs from more than 200 across the 24 major agencies to requiring only one
person with the title of CIO per department. It also gives the CIO more
authority and accountability, and requires each CIO to be
presidentially-appointed, but not Senate confirmed. Additionally, the
legislation aims to help agencies in developing requirements for IT programs.
It would create a Federal Infrastructure and Connolly said these two provisions, in many respects, epitomize
the problems with HealthCare.gov — a lack of accountability and poor
requirements development. "For one thing, I'm not sure if it's clear
that there was somebody in the federal government that was in charge. There
was no project director. That was astounding. What could go wrong with
that?" he asked sarcastically. "So you had sort of a stovepipped
approach even with the private contractors that didn't bring this all
together as a piece. You didn't have consistent testing to make sure the roll
out would be problem-free or mostly problem-free. Warning signs about
technical glitches in advance of the roll out were either ignored or
dismissed. So as a result, we had what we had. It's a real management
failure. But I do think it's a great 'Exhibit A' for why FITARA might have
made a difference and might have at least encouraged a different kind of
management mentality about this very important roll out for one of the most
transformative pieces of legislation in the last generation." Connolly added the CIOs need authority, but there also has to be
consistency among project and program managers. When he worked for a
government contractor, he said there was one project that had 17 different
federal executives in charge over the three year program. "We do need to
make sure program directors and contract project directors have some real
authority. We also have to make sure they have real continuity, whether it's
the CIO that manages that or the agency head. What we do need is to make sure
people can stay with a long-term IT investment program for either the life of
the program or a good chunk of it," he said. "Constant turnover is
very disruptive and means that you creep that program with other expectations
that may or not be formally written in the original request for proposals."
Silent all these months FITARA would help promote a formal career path for project and
program managers by requiring agencies to develop five-year strategic
workforce plans that focus on training and development of these employees.
Despite the newfound support from the Senate for FITARA, the White House has
yet to show its support. Connolly said while federal CIO Steve VanRoekel has
warmed up to the bill, the Office of Management and Budget more broadly
hasn't discussed it with the House much at all. "Much of FITARA,
frankly, codifies many of the reforms both Steve VanRoekel and his
predecessor [Vivek Kundra] advocated for in the early years of the
administration," he said. "This is not an adversarial bill at all,
and as I've told him both publicly and privately, 'You're not going to get a
friendlier bill in Congress than this one.' If I were them, I'd take it and
run. OMB is always a problem. They would rather not have Congress mucking
around in anything the executive branch does, and they seem to have told us one
thing and told the Senate something else. We are trying to straighten that
out. I think OMB has to speak with one tongue and quite clearly about if it
has concerns identify them and if you don't, get out of the way." Connolly said OMB has not laid out any concerns to him other
than "vague legislative interference with the prerogative of the
executive branch." Instead, he said OMB says everything is fine and they
don't need any more legislation. "That line may have worked prior to the
roll out of the health care website, but that doesn't pass the giggle test
with the public or members of Congress today," Connolly said. "I
have had good conversations with Steve VanRoekel. I have not had any kind of
reaction from OMB itself whether they like or don't like the legislation,
and, if they don't, what is it that bothers you that we possibly could
address? They certainly were invited along with other federal agencies to
participate in the drafting process." Connolly said OMB has let senators
know more about its concerns with FITARA. "That is not playing straight
with members of Congress," he said. "This is an important piece of
legislation, and I'm not about to have it damaged in the dark of night by a
stiletto." A request to OMB for comments on FITARA and Connolly's
criticisms was not returned. From
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/
5
Issues to Watch in Data and Technology As governments are seeking to move toward more effective uses of
data, here are five topics to watch in 2014. Next year, public officials will
much more aggressively begin weaving their technology threads into a larger
tapestry as the cute and helpful become vital and mainstream. Last year,
hackathons and mobile apps proliferated on a growing foundation of open data.
Next year will herald a more widespread substantive use of data and
technology to significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of
local government. But much depends upon how well government integrates data
and hardware offerings. As the McKinsey Global Institute reports, the
combination of opening data and applying analytics could generate more than
$3 trillion annually in new businesses and products as well as increased
productivity. Hot subjects for next year will include: 1. Predictive Analytics As public-sector databases grow more sophisticated, more
policymakers will use predictive analytics to target government services,
identify trends and refine operations. Falling costs of data storage, memory
and higher-speed computing will make analytics more powerful and available. 2. Breaking the Data Silos Different departments in government build their own data sets,
often with conflicting standards and formats. It has been difficult for
analysts to navigate these data silos, but that will likely change in 2014 as
more cities understand that powerful new tools make these previously hardened
silos permeable. In 3. A New Class of 311 With 4. The Maturing Civic Startup Sector A new group of civic startups has created successful apps and
other services from open government data, supported by programs like the Code
for America Accelerator. As the total number of public data sets across the
country increases exponentially, the opportunity for third-party use that
makes government information more valuable to the public will grow. Data
standards and open source development will allow lower-cost adoption and
repurposing of other cities’ projects. 5. Demystified Data In October, From
http://www.govtech.com/
The
Top 2014 Government IT Headache - Windows XP Migration As 2014 priority lists are drawn up for government technology
teams around the world, migrating off of the Microsoft’s Windows XP operating
system is at or near the top of the list for many public-sector
organizations. The problem is that too many organizations aren’t ready and
will miss the April 8, 2014 end of life deadline for XP migration. And the
consequences will be severe for the migration laggards, with security,
financial and other ramifications. One estimate from back in August predicted
that 10% of Why is XP Still Around? There are many reasons that XP is still around. Quite a bit of
software does not run well on other operating systems, and many business and
technology leaders have not taken the time over the years to make upgrading
off of XP a priority. Why? We all know the phrase – “if it isn’t broke, don’t
fix it.” Or, in other words, there was minimal cost for staying with XP. But
since many good things come to an end, that luxury will soon no longer be available.
Many veteran computers specialists point to previous Microsoft end-of-life
operating system stories, such as Windows 2000, and say that the same pattern
is repeating itself. The reality is that this issue affects worldwide users,
and the reasons for waiting until now are all over the map. Windows XP-Migration Background It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Despite years of advance notice and the reality that staying
with Windows XP can be three times more expensive than buying Windows 8, many
system administrators proclaimed that dumping XP was just too expensive. (Since many older computers often
cannot support Windows 7, much less Windows 8, the migration costs often mean
buying new computer hardware as well.) The trouble is that staying with XP
after support ends could open the door for many security vulnerabilities
which won’t be patched on XP computers without paying for additional
support. Here’s an excerpt of the PC World article: “Tim Rains, director of Trustworthy Computing for Microsoft, has
warned Windows XP users of another potential concern. Attackers often wait
for a vendor to release a patch and then reverse-engineer it to discover the
flaw and craft an exploit to take advantage of it. Once Microsoft support for
Windows XP expires, malware developers will reverse-engineer Microsoft’s
Windows 7 and Windows 8 patches and then verify whether those same flaws
exist in Windows XP. In many cases, they will—and there will be no patch
available to protect Windows XP.” In addition, governments and private sector
organizations that don’t have XP computer support may open themselves to
compliance risks such as Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance trouble and
other audit issues. Can You Buy XP Support After April 8, 2014? Another trouble is that buying additional support for XP after
April (for the enterprises that can even buy it at all) is very expensive.
Without going into too many details, Microsoft has recently raised the cost
dramatically – in an effort to push migration to Windows 7 & 8. This is a major sore point for many
Microsoft customers, but that is another article for another day. There is
also non-Microsoft support for XP that is cheaper. Some government
organizations, who thought that buying an additional support contract would
actually help push customers off of the operating system, now face sticker
shock as they look at hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in extra
costs in 2014 for just staying on current XP technology. This legacy problem
is complicated by a late push by many customers who all want to get off of XP
at the same time. What Now? Technology leaders have a few immediate tasks after
understanding their current inventory of XP PCs and servers, including: 1)
Migrate computers still running XP. This includes testing of software,
embedded systems, etc. 2) Plan
(with Microsoft or other companies) for those computers that will not make
the deadline. 3) If a
system is still running XP on April 9, 2014, and additional system support
(with patches) is not purchased, take other steps. That is, unplug the
system, or determine how to protect the environment without support (not
recommended.) Wrap-up There are many good migration guides to help technology teams
migrate off of Windows XP – such as this one from Microsoft. The issue is not
that this is too hard. The main issue is generally that most organizations
have not been able to make this a priority soon enough. Too much work is left
before the deadline. The other issue is that the costs to buy support for XP
after April 8 may be too great for some. That means that security issues will
almost certainly arise and new headaches will be born if you do nothing. Only
time will tell whether a surge in breaches will occur after April on XP
computers. No doubt, there will be plenty of headlines in 2014 on this
topic. Sadly, this short-term
issue will be hot throughout 2014 and take away from other more value-added
work for businesses. My advice is to try to upgrade to other operating
systems in such a way as to add business value and security protections at
the same time. I realize that this is easier said than done for many readers.
I don’t advise staying on XP without proper support. Do you have any other
advice for others on Windows XP migration? Where is this issue on your
government’s priority list? Feel free to leave a comment. From
http://www.govtech.com/
14
Predictions on Government IT for 2014 As we head into 2014, there has never been a greater divergence
between the optimists and pessimists in society on a wide range of issues.
Government technology, infrastructure and cybersecurity topics are no
exception to this wide-ranging online debate regarding our future. On the
positive side, we have an improving economy with the Background on the list After spending hours surfing the Web and reading hundreds of
tech predictions for the next year, I am more convinced than ever that
cybersecurity will stay hot for the foreseeable future – certainly in 2014
and probably for the next decade. Most of the predictions I found read more
like overall trends, which is ok – but I try to add some new twists and a few
bolder statements. Along the way, I found some fascinating (and fun) articles
worth reading. These include: Why millennials mattered in 2013 – My daughters loved this one … The VAR Guy’s Top 50 (out of 100) predictions – Such as this
quote: "Data Sovereignty will be a monster issue: Information that
has been converted and stored in digital form is subject to the laws of the
country in which it is located. The widespread adoption of cloud computing
services, as well as object storage, have broken down traditional
geopolitical barriers. In response, many countries have regulated new
compliance requirements and legislation that requires customer data to be
kept within the customer's country of residence. CIOs will want to see and
control their data, down to the rack-level. Most public cloud deployments
don't offer their end-user visibility into where their data resides. In 2014,
enterprise CIOs will look at providers who offer visibility and controls that
enable policy-based compliance with respect to domain. Whether it's corporate
security standards or driving compute efficiency, the CIO will be expected to
know where data resides and where specific applications are running at all
times ..." Also, Gartner technology predictions are always worth a look,
although they tend to be for 3-5 years rather than for just 2014. My predictions for 2014 So here are my favorite technology and cybersecurity predictions
for 2014 – with a section for both the “can do” optimists and “negative news”
for pessimists. Some of these are original and some are borrowed – in which
case I link to the original source. 7 Predictions for Optimists in 2014: 1) Technology budgets will be up – (with cybersecurity at the
top of the list) – IT budgets will rise over 5% from 2013 levels, from IDC –
on Forbes.com 2) Smarter cities – Cities and states will adopt more projects
with ROI and citizen benefit than ever before. For example, Greater
Vancouver’s transit system finally gets a tap-and-go transit pass – (Source:
Juniper Research) 3) Presidential executive order(s) or directives will come out
on Cybersecurity Framework incentives – implanting many of the items that
President Obama discussed in the 2013 State of the Union address. for more,
see: this article from IP Law Alert 4) More open source and open stack adoption – “Organizations
will continue to utilize virtualization in order to get greater efficiency
out of their compute infrastructure ...” Source: Netapp 5) Wearable tech takes off – numerous sources such as:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-user-and-the-device-10-technology-predictions-for-2014-234457101.html 6) New targeted cyber legislation will be introduced in the USA
to protect children – following in the UK’s opt-in approach on porn and other
material deemed inappropriate for children – background sources: Huffington
Post and The Daily Mail (UK) – Some will no doubt deem this as infringing on
free speech, however documentary films like Nefarious: Merchant of Souls will
gradually change the dialogue in America about the dark side of Internet
activity, which surely includes more than just identity theft. This ongoing
effort will take years, but will eventually win out in the 7) Big 4 becomes Big 5: In 2013, the Big 4 IT trends were 7 Predictions for Pessimists in 2014 1) The rise in mobile and cloud computing use will see more
advanced malware. Ransomware will soar. Increased Cyber Kidnappings Raise
Attacker Profits – Ransomware, a class of malicious software that tries to take
a computer hostage, has grown steadily over the past few years, but a
particularly nasty variant emerged in 2013: CryptoLocker. This year, it has
affected millions and it is suspected that the authors have made a high
return in their criminal investment. In 2014, WatchGuard expects that many
other cyber criminals will try to copy CryptoLocker's success by mimicking
its techniques and capabilities. Plan for a surge of ransomware in 2014.
Source: Watchguard Technologies. 2) A big insider threat story will emerge from the private
sector – (A virtual Edward Snowden – take 2) will force another look at
stopping insider threats beyond the intelligence community. 3) The rise in cyber crime will continue – More
headline-grabbing stories about ATMs and banks accounts mysteriously being
emptied of cash. Health information misuse will surely be a rising threat in
2014. Expect one or more state or local governments to have a major breach –
rivaling the 4) Skills crisis in government technology and cybersecurity will
lead to more partnering with the private sector. The pay and benefits of
government technology jobs are stagnant and getting worse (falling further
behind), while private sector also needs more talented cyber experts. Plus
baby boomers in government will start leaving faster as the economy improves. 5) Microsoft Window XP Support will end in April – and many
security headaches will ensue for government leaders. Many security issues
will be the result. 6) Snowden will not be given asylum in 7) NSA data gathering will be curtailed, BUT NOT stopped, by
President Obama in January 2014. However, the Supreme Court will go further
in curbs later in the year. Background on this topic at end of 2013 and see
this CNN story. From
http://www.govtech.com/
Government
Technology Trends to Watch in 2014 The top 3 tech policy trends that will demand attention from
state and local leaders this year. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr
famously said, “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the
future.” I tend to agree with him, but as we enter the New Year there are
three interrelated technology issues that we can’t ignore. They’ll demand
more attention from state and local leaders in 2014. Data Analytics Governments are great at collecting information, but they often
do a lousy job of using it eff ectively. Dropping prices for storage and
high-speed computing have put sophisticated analytics capabilities within
reach of more public agencies, potentially giving policymakers new tools for
spotting trends, allocating resources and modeling the impact of decisions.
But there’s a fair amount of work to be done before agencies can really
benefi t from these advancements. Policymakers will need to weigh security
and privacy issues as technology makes it possible to collect and mash together
diff erent types of data. They’ll also need to force reluctant agencies to
share information and comply with standards that allow the data to be used
more broadly within a jurisdiction. For CIOs, the need to use data more
predictively could rebalance the information technology equation. In other
words, CIOs may spend less time on technology and more time functioning as
stewards of a jurisdiction’s information assets. That’ll also drive the need
for more data scientists and fewer computer technicians in state and local IT
departments. How eff ectively states and localities confront these issues
will determine if they truly understand and realize the promise of “big data”
in 2014. Civic Innovation While governments are struggling to get a handle on analytics,
many have done a good job of opening data for public consumption. Open data
initiatives have powered a groundswell of civic innovation. Now, it’s time to
make these activities sustainable. The earliest government app contests
invited local tech geeks to create interesting software applications based on
newly opened stockpiles of government information. Those events forged
connections between governments and innovative software developers, but the
results—an iPhone app that maps the safest walking path from one bar to
another, for instance—weren’t necessarily aligned with core government needs.
Since then, groups like the nonprofit Code for Procurement Reform One of the biggest barriers to harnessing the growing momentum
around civic technology is government procurement. The buying process tends
to scare off potential new players and rewards long-time contractors who know
how to work the system. As a result, public agencies struggle to attract new
ideas, or even keep up with private-sector trends. One glaring example of
this is the launch of HealthCare.gov. As the feds struggled for weeks to fix
problems with the site—the heart of which was built by big-time contractor
CGI Federal—a chorus of From
http://www.govtech.com/
What
to Expect from Open Data in 2014 2013, arguably the most vibrant year in the history of open
data, paved the way for even bigger achievements in 2014. As open data
transitioned from a social movement to a quickly growing global market,
developers seized on the newly-available data to create software applications
that improve people’s lives. In the coming year, we can expect to see much
more innovation. Open Data as a Market Open data has emerged as a way to fuel innovation and create new
businesses. McKinsey published a white paper near the end of 2013 suggesting
the economic impact of open data is between $3 trillion and $5 trillion
across the globe, per year. Businesses built on open data emerged, such as
CivicInsight. Data Maturity Governments will demonstrate new open data maturity in 2014.
They will go beyond just making data available and will work to understand
their audiences, taking advantage of technologies to reach those audiences
better. For example, we’ll see more robust and flexible APIs made for
developers and entrepreneurs; more comprehensive data analysis tools for
researchers, journalists, and scientists; and more types of Web and mobile
apps for citizens. The processes for gathering data will also be streamlined,
allowing more data to flow automatically from its source to the public, the
instant it is created. Improved Relationships to New Technologies 2014 will also include improvements in how federal officials
relate to new technologies. This evolution goes beyond open data and involves
adopting cloud computing, innovative vendors, the open source community, and
lean methodologies. The federal government needs help from these groups to
modernize its systems, especially in light of the technological struggles of
the HealthCare.gov website in 2013. New Urban Leaders Extending beyond Sweeping Social Issues Finally, one of the most powerful developments in 2014 will be
the widespread realization that continuous delivery of open data can help
governments measure their effectiveness as they address social issues like
crime, teenage pregnancy, poverty, and high school graduation rates. Based
upon the success of programs in History in the Making A revolution is underway. It is being lead by the technology
community, good governance advocates, business leaders, academia, and
citizens around the globe. Open data is getting closer to improving almost
every aspect of our lives. I look forward to watching this revolution grow in
2014. From
http://www.nextgov.com/
World Leaders Call for More Timely, Harmonized Data
on Global ICT Access and Affordability ITU leads efforts to extend ICT data
collection capabilities through new partnerships with tech industry,
government agencies. Delegates to ITU’s World Telecommunication/ICT
Indicators Symposium (WTIS), held this week in Mexico City (4-6 December)
endorsed the need to strengthen and adapt the way data on information and
communication technologies (ICTs) is collected to better meet the needs of
today’s fast-evolving environment. Accurate data on indicators like network
access, service affordability and connection speeds is increasingly
recognized as essential to each country’s plans for social development and
economic growth. The three-day symposium is the world’s most important
meeting of ICT data experts from around the world. Organized by ITU, and
hosted this year by Mexican regulator the Federal Institute for
Telecommunications (IFT), the event welcomed over 300 delegates, including
government Ministers, industry CEOs and heads of national and international
statistics agencies. “The ICT sector is evolving faster than
any sector in human history. The role of this annual symposium is to meet the
challenge of measuring the rapid evolution of the sector, and of making sure
that ICT data, statistics and indicators are internationally-harmonized, and
internationally-comparable,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré,
in his closing address to delegates this afternoon. “Only by doing this can
we paint a clear, impartial and – most importantly – universal picture that
will enable us to make meaningful comparisons and track the evolution of the
ICT ecosystem.” ITU’s work in global ICT statistics gathering and analysis is
relied upon by policy makers around the world, referenced by other
influential institutions including the UN family of agencies, the World Bank,
the IMF and the World Economic Forum, and acted upon by a growing
international community of investors. For the first time this year, the event
featured a High-Level opening day with three key debates around future
post-2015 development frameworks, the role of monitoring in building
tomorrow’s information society, and strategies for enhancing
multi-stakeholder dialogue and national coordination in data collection. It
brought together expert speakers and panelists to share views and best
practices, and emphasized the importance of ensuring that ICTs are a
cornerstone of the post-2015 development agenda as the catalyst of broad
social and economic development. “This has been the best-attended WTIS event
to date, which demonstrates the growing recognition of the importance of data
and statistics in the ICT sector. We look forward to seeing even greater
participation next year,” said Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU’s
Telecommunication Development Bureau. “ITU remains committed to this process,
and we look forward to continuing our work with the global community in this
field as we move forward”. In his opening remarks to the conference
earlier this week, WTIS Chair Luis Lucatero, Chief of Regulatory Policy at
IFT, said: “The biggest enemy of investment is information asymmetry. An ICT
regulator is like an architect, building a strong and robust market that
ultimately serves as a platform for national growth across all business
sectors. The global dialogue that this event promotes is unique, and will
help all players – industry, government and regulators – fulfil the ultimate
goal of serving the needs of the ICT consumer.” This year’s symposium also
featured two special side events; the first hosted by Costa Rica on the
national approach to data collection in partnership with ICT operators, and
the second by Iran on the development and implementation of a new data
measurement system. The event also incorporated a special tour led by IFT to
view a community ICT centre developed by Red de Innovación y Aprendizaje
(RIA), a learning and innovation project of the Fundación Proacceso which is
designed to bring access to technology training to marginalized communities.
The tour was hosted by young co-founder, Jorge Camil Starr, and has already
brought the power of ICTs to over 425,000 children and youth in 95 schools in
the From http://www.areapress.it/ E-Waste Up
by Third by 2017 - UN Study The mountain
of refrigerators, cellphones, TV sets and other electrical waste disposed of
annually worldwide is forecast to grow by a third by 2017, according to a UN
study. E-waste - defined as anything with a battery or a cord - can pose a
big problem because it often contains substances that are harmful to humans
and the environment if not properly treated. On the other hand, some of it
can be profitably recycled. A UN think tank dedicated to the issue estimates
that the amount of e-waste will rise from almost 48.9 million metric tons in
2012 to 65.4 million metric tons in 2017. The Taken
together, developing and emerging countries already produce as much e-waste
as the developed world, said Ruediger Kuehr, who heads the StEP secretariat,
based at the United Nations University in From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Global
Software Developers, ICT-Skilled Workers to Reach Heading into 2014, analyst firm IDC believes there are 18.5
million software developers in the world, of which 11 million are
professional software developers and 7.5 million are hobbyist developers. IDC
also said that there are 29 million ICT-skilled workers in the world,
including professional software developers and 18 million operations and
management skilled workers. “IDC’s country-by-country analysis of 90 of the
most developed countries in the world, representing 97 percent of the world’s
GDP, is unique in the industry as it provides the only bottom-up model of the
world’s developer and ICT-skilled workers,” said Al Hilwa, program director
for application development software at IDC. IDC’s analysis shows that the From
http://newsbytes.ph/
Gartner:
Global IT Spending Will Grow Slightly in 2014 Global spending on IT and telecom products and services will
grow 3.1 percent between 2013 and 2014, compared to just 0.4 percent a year
earlier, with enterprise software spending driving much of the growth,
according to Gartner projections. Worldwide spending for IT and telecom will
total US$3.8 trillion, with enterprise software spending driving the growth,
Gartner said Monday. Telecom services will grow just 1.2 percent during the year, to
$1.7 trillion, Gartner predicted. While telecom services will see the lowest
growth of five categories measured by Gartner, it will still improve compared
to 2013, when it dropped 0.5 percent, Gartner said. A year ago, the firm had
predicted growth of 2.4 percent in that category. Gartner's numbers differ
from projections released by competitor Forrester Research, which released
its IT spending predictions last week. The more optimistic Forrester expects
global spending on technology to rise 6.2 percent to $2.2 trillion in 2014,
but those numbers don't include telecom services, as Gartner does. IT
spending grew only 1.6 percent in U.S. dollars during 2013, Forrester said.
IT spending will grow even faster in 2015, with a 8.1 percent growth rate, Forrester
predicted. Since last quarter, Gartner has lowered its IT spending forecast
for 2014 from a 3.6 percent increase to 3.1 percent. Much of that decrease is
due to a downward revision in telecom spending, with a growth in mobile-only
households, declining voice rates in From
http://news.techworld.com/
Post Event
Report: Best Run Cities 2013 How are city managers using today’s cutting-edge technologies to
create liveable communities? This report discusses how some of the region’s
innovative cities are engaging with technology, planning and people to move
towards a knowledge-based economy. Today, city managers are hard-pressed to
keep up with a growing population, changing expectations of citizens, and
erratic macro and micro economic reforms to avoid potential socio-economic
losses. For the longest time, cities have been focusing on improving their
infrastructure, with little attention given to community engagement. This is
exacerbated by a silo mentality in many government departments resulting in
inefficiencies in public service delivery. This forum addressed how city
managers should engage the community and other relevant stakeholders to
determine what kind of place they want to live in. This report discusses on
how using technology some smart-city governments are breaking barriers and
engaging their citizens through various innovative and open government
initiatives. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Global
Airport IT Market 2012-2016 TechNavio's analysts forecast the Global Airport IT market to
grow at a CAGR of 4.29 percent over the period 2012-2016. One of the key
factors contributing to this market growth is the need to improve passenger experience.
The Global Airport IT market has also been witnessing the increased demand
for network virtualization. However, the high implementation cost of airport
IT solutions could pose a challenge to the growth of this market. TechNavio's
report, the Global Airport IT Market 2012-2016, has been prepared based on an
in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers
the market in the Key questions answered in this report: What will the market size be in 2016 and what will be the growth
rate? What are key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by key
vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these key
vendors? You can request one free hour of our analyst's time when you
purchase this market report. Details provided within the report. Methodology Research methodology is based on extensive primary and secondary
research. Primary research includes in-depth interviews with industry
experts, vendors, resellers and customers. Secondary research includes
Technavio Platform, industry publications, company reports, news articles,
analyst reports, trade associations and the data published by Government
agencies. 01. Executive Summary 02. List of Abbreviations 03. Introduction 04. Market Research Methodology Market Research Process Research Design Research Methodology 05. Scope of the Report Market Overview Product Offerings 06. Market Landscape 06.1 Recent Developments 06.2 Segmentation of Airport IT Solutions 06.3 Market Segmentation of Operational Systems 06.4 Market Size and Forecast 06.5 Five Forces Analysis 07. Geographical Segmentation 08. Key Leading Countries 09. Vendor Landscape 10. Buying Criteria 11. Market Growth Drivers 12. Drivers and their Impact 13. Market Challenges 14. Impact of Drivers and Challenges 15. Market Trends 16. Key Vendor Analysis 16.1 Amadeus IT Group Business Overview Business Segmentation Key Information SWOT Analysis 16.2 INFORM Business Overview Business Segmentation Key information SWOT Analysis 16.3 SITA S.A. Business Overview Business Segmentation Key Information SWOT Analysis 16.4 Ultra Electronics Airport Systems Inc. Business Overview Business Segmentation Key Information SWOT Analysis 17. Other Reports in this Series List of Exhibits Exhibit 1: Market Research Methodology Exhibit 2: Global Airport IT Market by Solution Types Exhibit 3: Global Airport IT Market Segmentation by Solution
Types 2012 Exhibit 4: Global Airport IT Market by Operational Systems
Segmentation Exhibit 5: Global Airport IT Market 2012-2016(US$ million) Exhibit 6: Global Airport IT Market by Geographical Segmentation
2012 Exhibit 7: Business Segmentation of Amadeus IT Group Exhibit 8: Business Segmentation of INFORM Exhibit 9: Business Segmentation of SITA Exhibit 10: Business Segmentation of Ultra Electronics Airport
System Inc. From
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/
OECD
Broadband Statistics Update Wireless broadband penetration has grown to 68.4% in the OECD
area, according to June 2013 data, meaning there are now more than two
wireless subscriptions for every three inhabitants. Wireless broadband subscriptions
in the 34-country group were up 16.63% from a year earlier to a total of 851
million, driven by continuing strong demand for smartphones and tablets. Six
countries (
Fixed wired broadband subscriptions in the OECD area reached 332
million as of June 2013, making an average penetration of 26.7%. From
http://www.oecd.org/
10 IT
Outsourcing Trends to Watch in 2014 2014 could be the year customers - and a few robots - take
greater control of the IT outsourcing space In 2013, the IT services industry saw customers doing more of
their own IT services deals, testing the service integration model, and
continuing to struggle with outsourcing transitions. CIO.com asked
outsourcing observers to tell us what they think is in the cards for the year
ahead. And if they're right, 2014 could be the year customers - and a few
robots - take greater control of the IT outsourcing space. 1. The rise of the machines Say hello to the latest IT services professional: the robot.
"2014 will see significant growth in the development and implementation
of robot-like technologies that will automate many tasks currently performed
by full-time employees in [outsourcing] deals," says Shawn C. Helms,
partner in the outsourcing and technology transactions practices at K&L
Gates. "Given the rise of robots replacing people in manufacturing and
logistics, it is not a stretch to predict that robots will move up the
intellectual value chain as artificial intelligence continues to
develop." "The rise of smart machines will have a radical effect on
the IT and outsourcing environments," says Jonathan Crane, chief
commercial officer for IPsoft. "What is still unclear is what either of
these industries will look like in the end. Will these tumultuous changes
have a lasting effect? Could this be the beginning of the end of the labor
arbitrage era?" At the very least, expect an increase in automation generally.
"With the cost benefits of labour arbitrage being largely harvested and
labour costs inevitably on the rise, CIOs will need to look for alternative
opportunities to reduce or contain operating costs," says Joe Nash,
principal in Pillsbury's global sourcing group. "That means looking for
ways through automation to reduce the amount of work it takes to complete an
IT function or service, not the cost of the labor to do it." Process
automation will become integrated with service provider solutions this year,
says Chip Wagner, CEO of IT outsourcing consultancy Alsbridge. 2. Hybrid offshoring heats up "In 2014, offshoring to a supplier will not be the
default," says Atul Vasithsha, chairman of outsourcing consultancy
NeoGroup. Rather, a hybrid model, combining insourced and outsourced offshore
services, will gain attention as an alternative. "Companies are starting
to invest more in global business services models, [which combine] the best
of shared services and outsourcing under a common governance model. This is
seeing processes being offshored in captives by industries that have
traditionally been reluctant, such as media and entertainment," says
Vasithsha. Indeed, this year will see a mix of outsourcing models overall.
"Most companies need to get the right combination of best talent and
most-cost-effective IT services," says Scott Staples, president of 3. An increase in insourcing "Of the IT services historically outsourced, 20 to 30
percent will be brought back in-house as buyers are more comfortable to
create retained organizations that not only govern the services, but start to
move more into operational control of the services," says Stan Lepeak,
global research director for KPMG Advisory. Companies will rely on IT service
management frameworks like version three of the Information Technology
Infrastructure Library to manage the increased insourcing. But expect the
industry press to make a bigger deal about such backsourcing than it
deserves, says Wagner of Alsbridge. 4. Service integration comes home IT leaders have given third parties a shot managing their
multi-sourced environments in recent years. In 2014, they'll take on service
integration themselves. "Following a period of experimentation with
various outsourced models, client organizations will increasingly focus on
service integration as an integral core competency and take key functions
back in-house," says Lois Coatney, director with outsourcing consultancy
Information Services Group (ISG). "In outsourced models, clients have
found they lose visibility and direct control of service management
effectiveness, and that they become too remote and unable to fill their
fiduciary responsibility. Clients are recognizing that a solid internal
service integration capability provides better flexibility and knowledge of
the business required to onboard new and specialty service providers,"
says Coatney. 5. The cloud gets grounded There's little doubt that cloud computing is here to stay, but
businesses have struggled to managed such IT services effectively. "In
2014, we expect clients and service providers to further define their
strategic objectives for cloud services, applying consistent metrics to
quantify their return on investment and navigate a rapidly evolving
contracting environment," says Scott Feuless, principal consultant with
ISG. "One key will be progress towards normalized measurement frameworks
that enable meaningful comparisons of alternative solutions."
Ultimately, companies will be able to perform apples-to-apples comparisons of
different cloud options, as well as comparisons of cloud vs. traditional
solutions. "The result will be significant progress in reaping the
benefits of cloud services, as buyers avoid the mistakes of early
adopters," Fueless says. "Service providers will adjust their
offerings to meet the needs of a more cautious and educated market." 6. Contracts compel inter-provider cooperation Why can't they all just get along? This year, they'll be legally
required to. "As organizations continue to implement a multi-sourcing,
best-of-breed strategy customers need to find a way to force competitive
service providers to work together to achieve common goals," says Helms
of K&L Gates. In 2013, some outsourcing customers implemented outsourcing
"cooperation agreements" that contractually obligated service
providers to cooperate at an operational level. "I predict that 2014
will see an increased use of outsourcing cooperation agreements," Helms
says. 7. A lower cost consulting model emerges This year, an increasing number of experienced IT outsourcing
customers decided to forego the pricey third party consultants and set up
their IT services deals on their own. Look for outsourcing consultants to
adjust their approach in the year ahead. "In 2014, we'll start to see more
consultants offer light-touch services for clients, often on annuity
subscriptions, to service clients wanting ongoing relationships with less
intense financial commitments," says Phil Fersht, CEO of outsourcing
analyst firm HfS Research. 8. India Inc. made its reputation on application development and
business process outsourcing. This year, they'll increase focus on
infrastructure deals. "It would have been unheard of 10 years ago for an
India-based provider to beat out an IBM, EDS, or CSC in an IT infrastructure
deal in the 9. Big deals get smaller, small deals get bigger Multi-sourcing continues to be the name of the game. "Prior
mega-deals will continue to be disaggregated and resourced in smaller
pieces," says Wagner of Alsbridge. At the same time, however, many
smaller deals will be rolled up into midsize deals as customers seek more
leverage with their vendors, Wagner says. 10. Governance gets harder "With increased adoption of global business services and
the growing complexity and diversity of vendor portfolios, the governance
function will become an even more critical capability that enables
organisations to manage performance, risk and compliance," says KPMG's
Lepeak. "However, most organisations will face challenges in recruiting
and hiring skilled resources due to a talent shortage in the governance
arena." From
http://www.cio.com.au/
Investors
Urged to Help Transform Cyberjaya into Global Technology Hub Cyberview Sdn Bhd, the entity spearheading the development of
Cyberjaya, is calling on technology companies, both foreign and local, to set
up operations in the area in efforts to transform Cyberjaya from the premier
ICT hub to a global technology hub. Cyberview's ambitious aim is by
leveraging on the upcoming Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre
(MaGIC) that will be set up in Cyberjaya, as part of the government's efforts
to spur entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation. "We are identifying
other focus areas such as big data, cloud, social business and
technology-related activities for Cyberjaya," Cyberview Managing
Director Faris Yahaya said. The new niche areas would complement the current
clusters of information technology, shared services and outsourcing as well
as creative multimedia in the hub. Elevating Cyberjaya to a global scale would attract more foreign
direct investments into the country, help strengthen local technology firms
and create a high-value workforce, he said after a visit to the Malaysian
National News Agency, Bernama. "Cyberjaya will appeal to multinationals
(MNCs) for more infrastructure investments," he said. Cyberview also intends
to team up with more joint venture partners in developing the remaining land
in Cyberjaya as well as in the mixed development of Cyberjaya City Centre.
"We hope to work with partners such as those from the technology,
lifestyle and healthcare sectors to further develop Cyberjaya," he said. Present at the briefing were Bernama General Manager Datuk Yong
Soo Heong, Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Domestic News Datuk Zakaria Abdul
Wahab, Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Bernama Economic Service Amer Hamzah, and
Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Bernama TV Mokhtar Hussain. Cyberview is talking
to partners including renowned property developer SP Setia Bhd to develop the
RM6 billion Cyberjaya City Centre, a mixed development project of commercial,
residential and corporate office space. The deal with SP Setia is expected to
be finalised by the second quarter of this year, with the property developer
undertaking the first two phases, he said. Cyberview hopes to rope in more partners for other phases of the
project, he added. Currently, some 607 hectares (ha) of land in Cyberjaya
housing over 800 companies including 38 MNCs, have yet to be developed. Out
of this, From
http://www.bernama.com/
Latest
Report: Top 10 Countries with Fastest Internet Connection in the World From
http://www.siliconindia.com/ Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud Services 2013-2017 Forecast This IDC study forecasts revenue growth
for public IT cloud services through 2017, segmented by five functional
categories within eight regions/countries. The forecast data, driven by IDC's
key forecast assumptions for public IT cloud services development and
adoption, leads to the study's key conclusions regarding cloud offerings'
revenue and growth impacts on the IT industry, customer adoption shifts among
the five IT cloud services categories, and shifting adoption patterns among
the eight regions/countries. According to IDC Chief Analyst Frank Gens,
"The cloud services market is now entering a dramatically different
'Chapter Two' phase, with the scale of adoption rising, the type of customers
shifting, and the type of solutions radically expanding. It will be essential
for cloud services providers to reexamine their cloud strategies, preparing
for a marketplace focused intensely on business innovation, industry
transformation, a new generation of "killer apps" based on a fusion
of cloud services and Big Data, and increasingly pressured pricing and
operating models. How suppliers navigate the next two years will tell us a
lot about who the IT market leaders will be for the next two decades." From http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/ The Global
Military IT, Data and Computing Market 2014-2024 The Global Military IT, Data, and Computing Market 2014-2024 offers
the reader detailed analysis of the global Military IT, Data and Computing
market over the next ten years, alongside potential market opportunities to
enter the industry, using detailed market size forecasts. Recent years have
witnessed the spiraling importance of network-centric warfare (NCW), which
utilizes digitized operational assets to leverage information supplied in
times of war. Various technological and structural efforts aim to create an
information-based army that is capable of responding to threats more quickly,
thereby effectively fighting asymmetric enemies. The Global Military IT, Data
and Computing Market 2014-2024 provides detailed analysis of the current
industry size and growth expectations from 2014 to 2024, including highlights
of key growth stimulators. It also benchmarks the industry against key global
markets and provides detailed understanding of emerging opportunities in
specific areas. Key Features and Benefits The report provides detailed analysis of the market for Military
IT, Data and Computing during 2014-2024, including the factors that influence
why countries are investing or cutting expenditure on biometric systems. It
provides detailed expectations of growth rates and projected total
expenditure. Public and private partnerships are crucial to effectively
combat cyber-attacks. The costs of developing effective cyber defenses are
increasing rapidly due to advancements in technologies, and defense
ministries around the world have realized that developing these solutions by themselves
would result in expensive procurement costs. When a joint development project
is undertaken however, the RandD costs are shared by all countries in the
consortium, with almost all member countries procuring a system, resulting in
lower unit costs. Key Market Issues The Attacks from malware makes it important for defenders to
identify the source of the malware so that similar patterns can be tracked
and observed for flaws, and a proper response to the attack can be delivered
without causing undue inconvenience to the entire cyberspace community. This
challenge stems from the fact that the cyber security institutional
eco-system, which consists of a broad set of international, national, and
private organizations, has unclear and overlapping boundaries, as well as
differing capacities, due to which a comprehensive database on such malware
has not been developed. From
http://www.prweb.com/
Global IT
Business Confidence Research Report 2014: Worldwide Industry Share,
Investment Trends, Growth, Size, Strategy and Forecast Research Report “IT Business Confidence Report Q1 Introduction and Landscape Why was the report written? This report is the result of an extensive
survey drawn from Kable's exclusive panel of leading global IT industry
executives. The report analyzes current economic conditions prevailing across
the globe and their impact on the IT industry, and forecasts company and industry
growth prospects over the next six months. Furthermore, it provides
information about the impact of customer confidence, supplier prices, and
staff headcount likely to affect the investment decisions of the industry
over the next six months. Additionally, this report tracks the change in
executives' perceptions during the last three months, by providing a
comparative analysis of survey results with the previous quarter. What is the current market landscape and
what is changing? Overall, 78% and 69% of global IT industry
executives are optimistic about the future growth prospects of their company
and the industry, respectively, over the next six months. Optimism towards
company growth prospects has improved by nine percentage points in Q1 2014,
compared to Q4 2013 results. What are the key drivers behind recent
market changes? Increased customer confidence will
positively impact IT business as the prices of ICT products and services are
stabilizing and service providers are becoming more competitive. What makes this report unique and essential
to read? “IT Business Confidence Report Q1 Key Features and Benefits Project industry trends and industry growth
expectations in the next six months, and understand business confidence to
make informed business decisions. The report drives revenues by understanding
future product investment areas and key growth regions. Readers will be
provided with a clear uncovering of key challenges and opportunities, and
identify the key priorities likely to affect industry growth prospects. The
report clearly forecasts the change in supplier prices for various products,
which are likely to influence the industry's growth prospects over the next
six months. Identifies the major changes in customer confidence levels in the
IT industry over the next six months. Key Market Issues According to IT industry respondents, the
present economic conditions in To Buy the Copy of This Report Visit:
http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/187544. Key Highlights Of respondents, 61% anticipate a positive
change in the global economic outlook over the next six months. In comparison
to the previous quarter, the percentage of respondents who expect a positive
change has increased by two percentage points. IT industry executives plan to
increase investments in the areas of new product development and social media
strategy in the next six months. Executives operating in Latest Report Strokes can be classified as either
ischemic or hemorrhagic, where an ischemic stroke is characterized by failure
in proper blood supply to a part of brain due to blockage (due to blood clots
or arthrosclerosis) created in the blood vessel. These blood clots have the
ability of travelling to brain either from heart (cardioemblic stroke) or
from another artery (artery-to-artery embolization).Acute ischemic strokes
can be caused by building up fatty materials along the walls of artery, breaking
off atheroma from the artery wall and getting stuck in a smaller artery,
blood clots which break loose from heart valves also known as embolus,
inflammation or infection to an artery, drugs like cocaine and amphetamines
which narrow the blood vessels and sudden drop in blood pressure. According
to the WHO,each year 15 million people suffer from stroke worldwide. The
global acute ischemic stroke treatment market can be segmented on the basis
of drug treatmentsand surgical procedures. Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) treatment
marketis driven by aging population which has higher incidence of AIS.Other
drivers of this market include recent launch of novel new generation drugs,
growing research investments andincreasing prominence of telemedicine.A major
growth avenue in this market opened with the launch of Desmoteplase, a novel
next-generation thrombolytic, which has an extended therapeutic time window
when compared with the current standard of care. Some of the key players of this market
include Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, BoehringerIngelheim, Lundbeck, ThromboGenics,
Vernalis and Others. This research report analyzes this market depending on
its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends.
Geographies analyzed under this research report include Rest of the World This report provides comprehensive analysis
of Market growth drivers Factors limiting market growth Current market trends Market structure Market projections for upcoming years This report is a complete study of current
trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides
market projections for the coming years. It includes analysis of recent
developments in technology, Porter’s five force model analysis and detailed
profiles of top industry players. The report also includes a review of micro
and macro factors essential for the existing market players and new entrants
along with detailed value chain analysis. Clostridium is a gram-positive
bacteria which belongs to phylum Firmicutes, it’s an obligate anaerobe
capable of producing endospores. Clostridium botulinium, Clostridium
difficle, Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium tetani and Clostridium
sordellii are the different species of clostridium responsible for diseases
in humans. Clostridium tetani is the etiological agent of tetanus,
Clostridium botulinum is the etiological agent of botulism, Clostridium
perfringes is one of the etiological agents of gas gangrene, Clostridium
sortellii is capable of causing pneumonia, endocarditis, arthritis,
peritonitis, and myonecrosis and Clostridium difficle is etiological agent of
diarrhea. The global clostridium diagnostics market
can be segmented as follows: Diagnostic tests Counterimmunoelectrophoresis Fluorescent-Antibody Assays Poloymerase Chain Reactions Emerging Diagnostic Technologies DNA Probes Monoclonal antibodies Immunoassays Differential Light Scattering Microcomputers and Automation Artificial Intelligence Liposomes Flow Cytometry Chromatography MRI Gel Microdroplets Others Clostridium diagnostics market is driven by
rising population, growing awareness about clostridium related disorders and
technological developments in diagnostics equipment like artificial
intelligence and automation. Prevalence of clostridium and its different
species was observed more in North America and Some of the major companies contributing to
the global clostridium diagnostics market include Abbott Laboratories,
Beckman Coulter, Inc., Biochem Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Johnson &
Johnson Services, Inc., Olympus Corporation, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd,
Siemens and others. This research report analyzes this market depending on
its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends.
Geographies analyzed under this research report include Rest of the World This report provides comprehensive analysis
of Market growth drivers Factors limiting market growth Current market trends Market structure Market projections for upcoming years This report is a complete study of current
trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides
market projections for the coming years. It includes analysis of recent
developments in technology, Porter’s five force model analysis and detailed
profiles of top industry players. The report also includes a review of micro
and macro factors essential for the existing market players and new entrants
along with detailed value chain analysis. From http://www.prweb.com/ IDC Predicts the Top 10 ICT Trends for APeJ in 2014 The ICT spending of the Asia Pacific
excluding 1.CYOD will replace BYOD While the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
model enables employees to be mobile, it poses security problems, such as
loss of sensitive information, to the enterprise. IDC predicts that
organisations evaluating mobility strategically will thus look to Choose Your
Own Device (CYOD), where eligible users will be given a choice of devices
that they can use for work, as the main adoption model in 2014. With CYOD,
management and security can be standardised and guaranteed, and business
processes can be mobilised. 2.One-to-one marketing will be redefined to
become socially and contextually aware As big data and analytics, cloud, mobility,
and social come together in an unprecedented way to create entirely new
business value solutions and change the technology field, they are enabling
intelligent solutions and innovations that drive significant change. IDC
forecasts that 2014 will be the foundation year where these methodologies and
tools will be introduced in APeJ and used to redefine personalised marketing. 3.Geolocation data will help organisations'
improve their relationship with customers Many organisations in APeJ will have access
to or the ability to analyse consumer geolocation for the first time in 2014,
according to IDC. As geolocation can enrich other forms of data and provide
information on a customer's behavior and habit, organisations can use the
information to create opportunities to engage their customers as individuals.
It is also projected that organisations will be creating applications that
request legal permission from customers to collect and sell their behavior
information, thereby building a positive relationship with their customers. 4. Big Data as-a-Service (BDaaS) will make
its entrance Big Data as-a-Service (BDaaS) is an
integration of four key offerings: non-transactional data (sensor readings,
clickstream data, video, social interaction); data storage services with
adequate availability zones or clusters; compute resources offered by the
same cloud provider that hosts the data storage; and analytic tools and products,
or industry-specific applications, running on the same cloud services as the
compute resources. IDC expects that in 5.
eCommerce boom will give rise to new consumption models and industries Mobile commerce is particularly well suited
for the APeJ region and thus, IDC predicts that most eCommerce providers will
expand their capabilities for mobile shopping in the near future. It is
expected that in 2014, many types of mobile app providers will incorporate
commerce functions into communications, social networking and gaming apps.
This, in turn, may help topple the dominance or near-monopolies of existing
eCommerce players. 6. Technology and web-based giants will
move into adjacent business areas signaling a new wave of business disruption Telecom service providers, web giants and
Over-the-Top providers (OTTPs) are expected the first tentative steps towards
capturing new types of business opportunities the ICT market in 2014. 7.Internet of Things (IoT) will
revolutionise products and business models In 2014, IoT will have more impact on the
way cities function, industries operate, companies compete, employees work
and consumers live. However, much of the innovation that drives the industry
forward is expected to come from entrepreneurial new IoT application vendors
and analytics companies instead of traditional vendors. 8.Partner community platforms will become
the melting pots of business innovation Investment priorities of enterprises
towards "ecosystem ICT", where technologies are harnessed from the
enterprise to its partners and customers, are expected to increase in 2014.
Organisations with business processes more aligned to "supply
chain" -- such as those in the manufacturing, healthcare, logistics,
FMCG and oil and gas industries - are ideal candidates for this
transformative change. 9."Software-defined"
infrastructure to become a formal transformation agenda Software-defined infrastructure has the
potential to resolve a number of complex issues that are inherent in the data
centre due to years of buying best-of-breed point solutions. The future of
the data center will include general purpose servers and specialty systems
that can manage varied workloads. IDC forecasts that enterprises - especially
those that are moving towards cloud in an aggressive fashion - will look for
a software-defined data centre as application-aware environment becomes
increasingly critical to enterprises. 2014 will be the year where we will see
the start of formal discussions with and among CIOs. 10. 2014 will see the perfect storm for
project failure: The combination of Mobility, Analytics, Social and the Cloud IDC predicts that by 2015, the increasingly
frequent application of these technologies to meet business demands will
increase the risks of project failure to unacceptable levels, forcing CIOs to
adopt new risk mitigation strategies. While many projects may successfully
reach production-ready status, ROI targets will be missed from inadequate
planning for service management. When combined with the impact of 'cloud
speed' and a region-wide drought of IT skills, the potential for serious project
failure is large. Regional CIOs are not unaware of project risks, and in some
cases the potential for failure will slow adoption of new technologies
dramatically. However, demands for new services from business managers will
force the CIO to find a way of risk mitigation. From http://www.computerworld.com.sg/ ICT to Be a
Catalyst for Transformation to Drive Connected Industries The convergence of the various industries is expected to spark
innovation opportunities, especially in the area of connected industries
which will be significantly enhanced through the use of information and
communication technologies (ICT). "Connected industries will be a
catalyst for efficiency and productivity by linking power, data and signals
to enable greater automation processes, creating 'intelligent devices,'"
says Nitin Bhat, Partner, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific. Key examples of
industries expected to undergo ICT driven transformations include automotive
(connected cars), healthcare (connected health) and manufacturing (smart
manufacturing), all of which will be influenced by IoT. 2014: Internet of Things (IoT) a pivotal catalyst for the ICT
industry The Internet of Things (IoT) is set to be a key area of interest
for IT buyers and sellers in 2014. The explosion of IoT activity over the
next few years will be driven by the nexus of low cost sensors, cloud
computing, advanced data analytics and mobility. Andrew Milroy, Vice
President, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific believes that IoT
will be significant. "Numerous opportunities will emerge as more and
more data is generated by machines ('things') than human beings." He
added, "These include the ability to analyse and use vast amounts of
data, to store data and source application functionality in/from the cloud,
to create, manage and support apps that enable the operation and management
of IoT implementations and to provide high speed connectivity between objects
and the people, who work with them and use them." 2014: Telecoms market will continue to experience positive
growth For the traditional telecoms revenue comprising of voice and
data, it was estimated at USD532.5 billion and is expected to reach USD608.5
billion by 2018. For the Southeast Asia region, in which 2014: Technology to drive healthcare transformation The delivery of healthcare services is challenged by rapidly
aging populations, disparity in healthcare access, shortage of medical
resources and rising costs, while an increasingly technology-conversant
patient is rapidly raising expectations for better healthcare information and
care. "Increasing application of technology such as telehealth, mobile
and digital health can be instrumental in mobilising scarce resources and
managing efficiency. Over the last decade, the focus has been on implementing
technology and applications that improve operating efficiency and achieve
cost savings," says Rhenu Bhuller, Senior Vice-President, Healthcare
Practice, Frost & Sullivan 2014: Automobiles: Immense possibilities for development The Google car provides a hint of the immense possibilities with
the convergence of the car with the Internet. For instance, its 360 degree
Laser Detection (LIDAR) has made it possible to achieve map-accuracy as close
as From
http://www.prnewswire.com/
A10 Networks
Chosen for Top Global 75 Companies by MIS Asia A10 Networks™, a technology leader in Application Networking,
today announced that it has been selected by MIS Asia as part of the Global The nominees were selected based on recommendations from the
editorial board of MIS Asia and the panel of Strategic 100 judges, which
comprised Hood Abu Bakar, General Manager, Information & Communication
Technology, Malaysia International Shipping Corporation Berhad, Malaysia;
Raul Paolo Miranda, Deputy Director, Technology Solutions Division, National
Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, Singapore; Andy Tan, CIO, RHB Bank,
Malaysia; Associate Professor Daniel Tan, Director, Centre for Excellence in
Learning & Teaching, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The
honorees were chosen based on five criteria -- industry leadership, products
and services innovation, global impact, contribution to industry development
and financial performance. "We are delighted that A10 Networks has been
recognized for the first time as part of the global 75 vendors in the MIS
Strategic 100 Awards this year," said Lee Chen, Founder and CEO of A10
Networks. "We are very proud of the industry validation and recognition
of our efforts to continue to grow A10's presence globally and in the region." About A10 Networks A10 Networks was founded in Q4 2004 with a mission to provide
innovative networking and security solutions. A10 Networks makes
high-performance products that help organizations accelerate, optimize and
secure their applications. A10 Networks is headquartered in Silicon Valley
with offices in the From
http://finance.yahoo.com/
Text2Teach
Cited as Exemplary ICT Innovation for Education Innovative Learning System Text2Teach was recognized as one of
the exemplary Information Communications Technology (ICT) innovations for
education in the recent “Asia-Pacific Ministerial Forum on ICT in Education
(AMFIE) AMFIE is an annual platform for policy-level knowledge exchange
and dialogue. The Forum showcases a number of promising ICT innovations and
experiences in developing, adapting and/or monitoring ICT in Education
policies and practices in countries at different development levels.
Text2Teach is a mobile learning package which uses a smartphone and a
specialized SIM card to download comprehensive educational videos of Math,
Science, English, and Values Education subjects for 5th and 6th grade
students. It utilizes Globe Telecom’s mobile network to allow teachers even
in remote areas to access educational materials to supplement their lessons.
Text2Teach has been deployed to 816 Philippine public elementary schools and
has served 309,672 students and trained 2,617 teachers across 14 provinces,
15 cities, and 26 municipalities. The project is being implemented by the
Text2Teach alliance composed of Nokia, Globe, Pearson Foundation, Ayala
Foundation, Toshiba and Department of Education. Text2Teach is one of the
projects under the iAccess pillar of Globe CSR which advocates quality
education and social services for all. From
http://technology.inquirer.net/
Top Ten ICT Predictions for 2014 Revealed!
From http://www.newkerala.com/ Asia/Pacific (Excluding "Although IDC does expect markets
like From http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/ 3D Printing and Wearable Tech to Transform Among Gartner's latest top 10 predictions
on global IT market, the rising of 3D printing and wearable tech are expected
to be most significant to Massive impact to Chinese manufacturers He said the accessibility of 3D printers
can also tremendously bring down the cost and take the manufacturing
locations much closer to consumers, reducing the value of low cost
manufacturing plans in Asia, particularly in 75% of sensitive data will not be protected Gartner also predicted that "by 2020,
enterprises and government will fail to protect 75% of sensitive data, and
declassify and grant broad/public access to it." "The reason why is
pretty clear because it's really unrealistic and unlikely to protect the vast
amount of data," said Warrilow. The research firm said at least one more
Snowden or WikiLeaks moment will occur by 2015 and more NSA-like
organizations will develop technics to access corporate data that both
enterprises and governments will find it very challenging to protect. Instead
of fencing all the data, he said enterprises should focus on data
classification and apply maximum protection to only the top 25% of data.
"So I'd tell the CIOs to close their eyes, take a deep breath and let it
go," he said. "But they can't. They may be so fixated on it that
they will have the ultimate security, but it still won't work and their
businesses slowly disappear into the digital horizon." Warrilow added it
is important to have good security, but if such protection "does not
support the business model and the transformation it needed, it's not worth
it." Privacy and IoT He noted part of the reasons enterprises
will find it difficult to protect all their data is that more consumers are
willing to "barter their personal data for cost saving, convenience and
customization." Gartner predicted that in three years (2017), 80% of
consumers are willing to do that. "Consumer interest in self-tracking
also suggests that consumers are investing more time and energy in collecting
data about themselves," said the research firm. "They increasingly
view such data as a key asset for life improvement, which is potentially
consistent with the idea of trading it for value under the right
circumstances." Warrilow added that IoT is expected to pick up even
faster in What do these mean to the CIOs? According to Warrilow, more organizations
will introduce new titles like Chief Digital Officer (CDO), whose specific
job is to raise the enterprises digital footprint and grow the business via
digital channels. CIOs need to be able to transform into these roles or
eventually being replaced from CDOs. "I'd like to see the CIOs to become
CDOs," he said. "But many will keep the traditional role and won't
be the CIOs by 2024, or they may have a CDO to replace its job by then."
"CIOs are also encouraged to move beyond the three to five years
planning horizon, as the implications of these technologies covers to 2020 —
2022. These changes are societal to human changes, they will come with
discomfort and require the CIOs to be a true leader of technological change,
rather than just a leader of technologies," Warrilow concluded. From http://www.computerworld.com.sg/ CommunicAsia2014,
EnterpriseIT2014 and BroadcastAsia2014 Showcase Breakthrough Technologies for
an Increasingly Connected World Social media, big data analytics, OTT, multi-platform screening
and CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) have been cited in various industry reports
as some of the key trends to watch in 2014. These trends are fuelled by a
steep increase in consumption of data and entertainment on mobile devices,
with mobile data traffic in Asia Pacific expected to exceed the rest of the
world by 2017. End-users now seek reliable and seamless services on the go;
and the industry is responding with a proliferation of cutting-edge solutions
such as business analytics, cloud services, social TV, and second/multi
screens that help consumers stay connected in an evolving digital world.
"As the dominance of mobility proliferates in every aspect of our lives,
businesses in The application of these technologies will be intertwined
throughout the three exhibitions and conferences. Visitors will not only get
to experience the convergence of technologies, they will also get to unlock
new business pathways with access to networking with major global industry
players. CommunicAsia2014, EnterpriseIT2014 and BroadcastAsia2014: Where
Mobility and Connectivity Take Centre Stage. Enabling technologies for the
entire mobile ecosystem, ranging from satellite communications, embedded
technology, mobile technologies to multi-platform screening and broadcasting,
will come together during CommunicAsia2014, EnterpriseIT2014 and
BroadcastAsia2014 when the industry's most established event opens from 17 to
20 June 2014 at Marina Bay Sands, CommunicAsia2014 together with EnterpriseIT2014 will demonstrate
how various technologies connect people, enterprises and cities with three
new thematic clusters - -- NXT Cities - focuses on technologies that enable the
progression towards a truly connected city -- NXT Enterprises - spotlight on services that are designed to
improve business operations, including business analytics and cloud services -- NXT Connected Services - demonstrates the enormous potential
for a personalised experience to stay connected at anytime, anywhere with any
devices Agilent, AppearTV, Eltek, KORE Wireless, PCCW Global, Siemens,
ST Electronics and Toshiba Electronics are just some of many key market
leaders whom have confirmed their participation at CommunicAsia2014 and
EnterpriseIT2014. A part of CommunicAsia2014, SatComm2014 will return to
provide a strategic base for the global satellite community to showcase the
latest satellite communications and turnkey solutions that meets the critical
needs of BroadcastAsia2014 will feature the hottest state-of-the-art
technologies and solutions from acquisition to production to delivery that
will enhance the multi-screen experience for users 'on the go'. Key
highlights include: -- Sportscasting - featuring latest technological leaps related
to sportscasting, from acquisition to production to delivery -- ProfessionalAudioTechnology - an international showcase for
professional audio equipment, services and technology -- Cinematography / Film / Production Zone - a one-stop venue
for the showcase of ground-breaking motion picture production tools and
software Confirmed exhibitors at BroadcastAsia2014 include Canon, EVS,
GoPro, Gospell, Knowledge Transfer Platform Comprising visionary keynotes and specialised industry sessions,
the CommunicAsia2014 and BroadcastAsia2014 International Conferences bring a
knowledge transfer hub and networking platform for attendees to debate and
discuss critical upcoming trends such as disruptive technologies in the ICT
and broadcast market landscapes, industry risk factors and models for success
that will enable companies to ride the mobility wave and remain profitable.
The CommunicAsia2014 Summit will examine exciting new trends such as using
big data analytics to power the 'Internet of Things'. An impressive line-up
of conference tracks will cover the latest hot topics including the 'Internet
of Things', the rise of VSAT mobility solutions for land, air and sea,
enterprise consumerisation and CYOD, presented by C-level industry
thought-leaders from companies such as Celcom Axiata, Dell, SES, SingTel and
Telekom Malaysia. BroadcastAsia2014 International Conference will delve deep into
OTT as well as the role of social media in the future of TV, whilst the
Creative Content Production Conference 2014 will focus on content creation
and distribution, and the technical aspects of 4K. An insightful series of
conference tracks will cover the latest disruptive technologies that enable
companies to increase eyeballs, with specialised tracks on Asian audiences
and strategies for success in From
http://www.japancorp.net/
APEC to
Recognize 'Intelligent Transportation' Innovator APEC has opened the nomination period for
the APEC Science Prize for Innovation, Research, and Education, also known as
the ASPIRE Prize, which in 2014 will honor a young scientist whose work has
made an outstanding contribution to ‘intelligent transportation.’ The theme
reflects APEC member economies’ focus on improving regional connectivity
further during The ASPIRE Prize celebrates collaboration
between APEC researchers, universities, research centers and businesses that
fosters ideas and technologies which drive more robust, integrated and
sustainable economic activity. Nominees are evaluated based on the merits of
their research, as validated by scholarly publication, and collaboration with
scientists from other APEC economies. This year’s ASPIRE Prize spotlights
developments in areas such as civil engineering, intelligent transport
systems, traffic engineering and urban planning. The goal is to encourage innovation
that is vital to ensuring better connectivity in the APEC region. Asian
economies will require about USD8 trillion in infrastructure development for
the period between 2010 and 2020 alone, according to the Asian Development
Bank. “'Intelligent transportation solutions will enhance the efficiency and
effectiveness of regional connectivity and promote smart, clean and
low-carbon urbanization,” said Dr. Agus Hoetman, Chair of the APEC Policy
Partnership for Science, Technology, and Innovation which administers the
ASPIRE Prize. The award will be presented later this
year. It is sponsored by Wiley and Elsevier, two publishers of scholarly
scientific knowledge. The winner will receive USD From http://www.apec.org/ |
|
|
|
|
|
The issuance of
fourth-generation ( Meanwhile, users will
shuffle around on the new platform that requires support of new technology
and system reconstruction.The The issuance of From http://www.news.cn/
The Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology of China has formally issued three TD-LTE
From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
A leading information
technology company on Wednesday unveiled China's first cloud computer, a major
breakthrough for Chinese cloud computing.The computer developed by the
Unisplendour Corporation Limited of Tsinghua University, has a dynamically
scalable function in computing power and storage capacity in accordance with
customer requirements, according to a statement from the company.The number
of the computer's CPU can be expanded to 65,535 and its storage space can
reach up to 85 PB bytes, with a throughput of 1.2 GB bytes per second,
according to the statement.It differs from personal computers and
supercomputers in terms of distributed architecture and combines
virtualization technology of cloud computing and computing resources with
lower cost.The computer's software consist of virtualization, big data and
automatically-deployed modules, all with independent intellectual property
rights, the statement said.The computer's completely open nature allows high
compatibility with various general hardware and industry application
software, it added.Cloud computing generally refers to services, including
software and storage, accessed by users through the Internet. From http://www.news.cn/
Shanghai Liantong and
the From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
From http://www.news.cn/
Azerbaijani ICT
Minister Ali Abbasov spoke about future targets on building new, diversified,
and sustainable economy based on the results of NEC CEO Masahiro Ikeno
told journalists that the corporation has received an invitation to
participate in the tender for the construction of a second telecommunications
satellite in From http://www.azernews.az From http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
From http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Science & ICT Ministry to Promote
Strategic Industries, Shared Growth in 2014 From http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
From http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
|
|
|
|
|
|
From http://www.telecompaper.com/ Cambodian Information Minister
Khieu Kanharith said Wednesday that information sector has played a very
important role to further enhance ties and cooperation between Chinese Ambassador to
Cambodia Bu Jianguo pledged to help broaden information cooperation between
the two countries during her diplomatic mission. "Information sector is
vital to help the two countries to deepen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
of Cooperation and bring closer connection between the peoples of the
countries," she said. At present, the two countries have maintained good
relations in information sector. The Cambodian Information Ministry has a
good relation with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television of
China, and the country's official news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP)
has closely cooperated with the From http://news.xinhuanet.com/
The National University
of Singaporeqaodmasdkwaspemas8ajkqlsmdqpakldnzsdfls (NUS) Computer Centre has
achieved an unprecedented energy reduction in cooling its data centre by four
times using a new hybrid cooling design. The 10,000-square-feet
(930-square-metre) facility, which houses 1,035 servers, is also NUS Computer
Centre’s first data centre to deploy low, medium and high density zones in
the same IT environment. The data centre, the first hybrid facility of this
scale in The increased storage
capacity of the data centre enables NUS Computer Centre to provide an
extensive range of teaching, learning and administrative services and
facilitate faster computing and more data intensive research functionalities.
It now supports high performance computing more effectively, particularly for
Big Data research, and achieves accelerated research stimulations. “As one of
the world’s leading universities, it is imperative for NUS to provide a
conducive environment for the delivery of high quality education and
world-class research,” said Tommy Hor (pictured), Senior Director, NUS
Computer Centre. “As we leverage on information technology and Internet more
intensively for education, research and services, the deployment of medium
and high density servers ensures that our data centre can meet the growing
demand for a wider spectrum of online services, richer online content and
faster computing power.” NUS Computer Centre’s data centre has the capability
to provide adequate cooling for its medium and high density zones. The
cooling solution not only prevents downtime due to the creation of hot spots
in these zones, it also improves energy efficiency and reduces the
University’s carbon footprint. The new cooling
solution implemented in the data centre envelopes the medium and high density
equipment to prevent hot server exhaust air from escaping into the room and
mixing with chilled air. Cooling is targeted at the heat source so that less
energy is needed for heat removal, resulting in a 30 per cent increase in
efficiency over traditional cooling architectures. By keeping cooling
targeted and close to the heat sources, NUS Computer Centre avoids lowering
the temperature of the entire IT environment unnecessarily. This allows the
data centre to maintain its ambient temperature at 25 degrees Celsius and
effectively reduce energy consumption. “We are confident that the data
centre, with its virtualisation technology and smaller energy footprints for
servers and storage, is able to adequately support the University’s growing
IT demands over the next few years without incurring extraneous energy
expenditure and compromising availability of IT services,” said Hor. From http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Singapore Land Authority
(SLA) is leading a whole-of-government initiative to develop and maintain a
3D National Topographic Model to facilitate the efficient exchange and use of
topographic information among agencies. “Today, topographic plans are
produced and kept by separate agencies to serve localised development needs
(e.g. for a particular development area). Given the increasing need for
accurate 3D information on the as-built environment, there is a need for SLA
to take the lead to capture and produce much-needed 3D data for Agencies’
critical needs such as flood risk modelling, flight path planning,
environment and coastal protection, and many more,” says Ng Siau Yong,
Director of the Geospatial Division at SLA. He told FutureGov that this
initiative will involve data acquisition in the air and on-ground. From http://www.futuregov.asia/
The emerging of a third
platform (Cloud, Big Data, Mobility and Social) will change the main themes
of the IT and telecoms market in * ICT spending in * Homegrown smartphone
brands will be more competitive. There is increasing competition in the
budget smartphone segment from local players like Viettel, Q-Smart and
MobiiStar. Homegrown brands are predicted to be even more competitive in 2014
as they challenge the status quo in market share between foreign brands versus
homegrown ones. * Mobile gaming will
explode, but not without challenges. The proliferation of smart-connected
devices extends new opportunities for gaming in * * Taking advantage of As the ROI (rate of
investment) for investment in * Telecommunication
companies will seek mutual partnership with OTTPs. Telecommunication
companies are facing a new challenge to their business model as * Local enterpise
mobility partner ecosystem starting to form. The enterprise mobility partner
ecosystem in * Local IT Service
Providers redefine services portfolio. As the market heads towards the third
platform, local IT players are somewhat disengaged from the new landscape as
their business volumes are still heavily based on the second platform. Away
from the traditional IT services business, key local IT services players will
aggressively seek growth and business sustainability to redefine their
engagement. * Stronger IT adoption
push from lower tier cities and provinces. The phenomenon of * Windows XP: To keep
or not to keep. According to Microsoft, as of March 2013, the penetration of
Windows XP in From http://vietnamnews.vn/
12/30//2013 |
|
|
|
|
|
Dhaka
residents will enjoy Wi-Fi on busy roads during the ICC Twenty20 World
Cup.The wireless Internet will be available from March on a three kilometre
stretch of road from Jahangir Gate to Banani. From
http://newsfrombangladesh.net/ The Department of Electronics
and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications &
Information Technology, launched the ‘E-Inclusion: IT Training for Shri Kapil Sibal
mentioned that Digital Literacy is an enabler for empowering communities and
providing them real freedom. The Government initiative for making one person
in every family e-Literate is a step in that direction. This is in fact a
revolution for enabling citizen’s participation in nation building. By making
the girls and boys in rural Shri J. Satyanarayana,
Secretary, DeitY, on this occasion mentioned that From http://pib.nic.in/ E-Insurance
to Come into Existence from Next Year However, with insurance
repository, the initial incidental cost would come down to less than Rs 100 per
annum per policy, he said, adding, the initiative shall benefit both policy
holders and insurance companies from convenience and cost front. "We
have initiated multi-level programme for educating policy-holders on
e-Insurance across From http://www.siliconindia.com/ Indian IT Service Sector Gears Up for 2014 From http://www.siliconindia.com/ Intel, a technology
company, has teamed up with Sri Lanka's state the Information and
Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka to boost IT literacy in the
island.ICTA chief executive Reshan Dewapura said an agreement was signed with
Intel to provide free training of its 'Easy Steps' basic technology literacy
program starting with operators of 'Nenasala' information kiosks that are
spread around the country. "In the first phase, we have started ‘train
the trainer’ sessions for Nenasala operators," Dewapura said in a
statement. "Run by certified Intel Easy Steps Senior Trainers, this will
enable them to train fellow Nenasala operators which will in turn set off ICT
training island-wide." From http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/ |
|
|
|
|
|
Azerbaijan Chamber of
Commerce (USACC), Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of
Azerbaijan, and Embassy of Azerbaijan to the USACC booth was visited
by the President of the Among the panels
discussed were From http://www.washingtontimes.com/
The minister said the
third major point in talks was expanding the presence of Azerbaijani
companies in foreign markets in partnership with From http://www.azernews.az/ Development of Fiber Optic Internet Access in Access to the internet
via fiber optic lines will reach its peak in 2017, chairman of Azerbaijan
Internet Society (ISOC Azerbaijan), Galib Gurbanov told Trend. He said that
this will be facilitated by implementation of the project on development of
broadband internet (Fiber-to-the-Home), which will start in 2014. The project
will cover the years 2014-2016. "Currently, the fiber optic internet
access penetration rate is about 10 percent. Despite their dominating
position in the market today, the ADSL technologies are gradually becoming a
thing of the past, giving a place to optical communication channels. As for
the DialUp, today this type of connection is not popular among users,"
Gurbanov said. According to estimates of the ISOC Azerbaijan, in 2017 the
fiber optic internet access will cover approximately 60 percent of the
country's internet market. Some 30 percent will account for wireless access
technologies, and about 15 percent will fall to ADSL. Azerbaijani Ministry of
Communications and Information Technologies previously told Trend that all
settlements of From http://en.trend.az/
Minister: All of The entire population
of The growth rates of From http://en.trend.az/
From http://en.trend.az/
Digital Communications to Be Discussed in
Framework of “WCFDavos Kyiv” Forum In the framework of
Davos communication Forum ("WCFDavos Kyiv"), which is going to run
in Kyiv, panel discussion on "From digital-effectiveness to
business-effectiveness. New money" topic will be held. Communication
failures are costly. When misunderstanding builds up, it tends to spill over
in discontent at some point or another. Latest developments in His ideas have been
implemented in many countries and his publications have inspired dozens of
research papers. The ground-breaking visions about user experience that he
published in 2009 are today utilized by Facebook and other major social
networks. Panel will be moderated by Oksana Horbach, Digital Director at
marketing and media agencies group AGAMA communications ( Founded in November
2013, AGAMA communications unites 16 agencies of communications holding
Atlantic Group and is its structural unit. The group was created to
facilitate the integration of creativity, technology and entrepreneurialism
across agencies and disciplines. Group's agencies carry out integrated
projects of various scale and geography. "We are definitely excited by
the opportunity to hold Communication Forum Davos in Founded 17 years ago,
the organization has been actively supporting sports, healthcare, cultural
and educational programs in From http://en.trend.az/
From http://en.trend.az/
|
|
|
|
|
|
The full report is available here. Australian
highlights: # # # # The global average connection speed continued
its upward trend in the third quarter of 2013, climbing 10% over the previous
quarter to 3.6 Mbps. Average connection speeds saw a 29% year-over-year
increase, with all of the top ten countries or regions climbing 27% or more.
Globally, 133 qualifying countries or regions saw year-over-year increases in
average connection speeds, from 0.2% in Egypt (to 1.2 Mbps) to 259% in
Réunion (to 6.8 Mbps). Global average peak connection speeds showed a slight
decline in the third quarter of 2013, dropping 5.2% to 17.9 Mbps. Seven of
the top ten countries or regions saw increases in average peak connection
speeds during the quarter, ranging from 0.5% in Hong Kong (to 65.4 Mbps) to
19% in South Korea (to 63.6 Mbps). Meanwhile, Akamai maintains a distributed set of
unadvertised agents deployed across the Internet that log connection
attempts, which the company classifies as attack traffic. Based on the data
collected by these agents, Akamai is able to identify the top countries from
which attack traffic originates, as well as the top ports targeted by these
attacks. “It is important to note, however, that the originating country as
identified by the source IP address may not represent the nation in which an
attacker resides,” said Belson. “For example, an individual in the Akamai has also started to examine the
likelihood that attack targets may be subject to follow-up attacks. Out of
the 281 third-quarter attacks, 169 were focused on unique targets. During the
quarter, 27 customers were attacked for a second time; five reported three
attacks; and seven companies were attacked more than three times. Initial
analysis of the data indicates that if a company is the target of a DDoS
attack, there is a 25% chance that it could be attacked again within three
months. “Although the number of DDoS attacks reported by Akamai customers in
the third quarter declined from the previous quarter, we believe that 2013
will ultimately be a significantly more active year for DDoS attacks than
2012,” Belson said. “As of the end of the third quarter, customers had
already reported more DDoS attacks than they did in all of 2012.” Average
connection speeds on surveyed mobile network operators during the third
quarter of 2013 ranged from a high of 9.5 Mbps to a low of 0.6 Mbps, while
average peak connection speeds ranged from 49.8 Mbps to 2.4 Mbps. Eighteen
operators showed average connection speeds in the broadband (>4 Mbps)
range. According to data collected by Ericsson, the volume of mobile traffic
increased by approximately10% during the third quarter and grew by 80% year
over year. Analysis of Akamai data collected during the third quarter shows
that Android Webkit-based browsers (such as Google Chrome) accounted for
nearly 38% of all requests and Apple Mobile Safari slightly less than 24%.
When accounting for mobile device usage across all networks (not just
cellular), Apple Mobile Safari comprised just over 47% of requests and
Android Webkit made up 33% of requests. From http://www.itwire.com
Nearly two thirds 64 of New Zealanders aged between
15 and 65 currently own a smartphone and ownership levels are expected to
grow strongly reaching 90 penetration in 2018 Android 64 leads over the Apple
iOS 24 as the preferred operating platform As smartphone suppliers continue
to improve their functionality at cheaper price points Apple s market share
is predicted to drop further over the next few years. Frost & Sullivan's
new research reports that over the past five years, mobile devices have
transitioned from being used primarily for voice and text to more
sophisticated multi-functional usage based on their mobile media
capabilities. Phil Harpur, Senior Research Manager, Smartphones are also widely used in the
shopping process. Harpur elaborates, "51% of smartphone users have used
their smartphone to locate stores, 31% to compare prices, and 28% of all Just under half of all smartphone users read
newspaper articles on a smartphone via internet / m-sites at least once a
month; 31% do so on a daily basis. Although consumers increasingly read news,
books or other digital content on smartphones, viewing levels of e-books and
e-magazines are much lower than newspaper articles which are generally more
suitable for shorter or on-the-go viewing. 32% of consumers download an album
or a song from sites such as iTunes at least once a month and 27% do so from
a streaming or cloud-based service such as Spotify. Streaming music content
is proving to be a major disrupter to the business model of the traditional
music industry as fewer consumers opt to for individual albums, whether CD's,
DVD's or through iTunes, opting instead to access music libraries from sites
such as Spotify or Pandora via a monthly subscription. 26% of New Zealanders
aged between 15 and 65 currently own a tablet and 42% of all households have
at least one member who owns a tablet. Tablet ownership and usage is expected
to grow strongly over the next few years. Penetration of tablets is predicted
to increase from 44% in 2013 to 78% in 2018. Apple's iPad market share in New
Zealand is predicted to drop from 59% to less than 40% over the next five years,
as more vendors enter the market at cheaper price points. 62% of tablet users
read a news article on an internet site / m-site or via an app at least once
a month. However, a significant proportion of tablet users do not read
newspaper articles at all online. Media publishers can boost readership by
offering a more content optimised for the tablet. Within five to ten years,
tablets and smartphones would have overtaken print as the most popular
channel to access news content," Harpur explained. From http://www.cellular-news.com
|
|
|
Powered
by UNPAN-AP Editorial Department |
