GSA Technology Council

Google Inc. awards South Carolina Tourism its first-ever Wisdom of the Crowd Award. In 2008, South Carolina launched a multi-faceted campaign that jolted wintry Chicago with a blast of warm air and southern sunshine. The S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism staged the “Time to Thaw” campaign during the snow-laden months of February and March 2008.

Google selected South Carolina’s “Time to Thaw” campaign from among three finalists (the others were the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau and the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Bureau) chosen out of more than 1,300 entries. The award was presented in New York City on January 26th during the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI) Adrian Awards Gala. The “Time to Thaw” campaign also won Gold and Silver Adrian Awards from HMSAI (www.HSMAI.org) for best practices in travel-related marketing and media.

Rob Torres, managing director of travel for Google, said the new Wisdom of the Crowd Award is intended to “recognize a powerful integrated marketing campaign that centers around one of Google’s core philosophies: Focus on the user and everything else will follow.”

“Time to Thaw” was a $500,000 effort that centered on engaging, unexpected visuals that turned four of Chicago’s underground parking garages – along with buses and a trolley – into sun-splashed beaches, perfect green fairways and scenic destinations in South Carolina. That included large garage interior wall murals, elevator and stairwell conversions, trolley and bus wraps and on-board videos, and a 20-foot-long, custom-built sand sculpture. Other elements were a special Web site, a photo contest inviting people to shoot images of themselves onboard a windsurfer in the Grant Park North garage, converting a downtown trolley into a rolling “welcome center,” air time on more than 50 Chicago radio stations, and personal media outreach.

Torres said 73 percent of respondents marked the two top boxes for the South Carolina campaign in a question about whether the campaign was likely to “grab and hold their attention,” and 53 percent said they were “motivated to visit a Web site or call to learn more about the destination.” “In fact, South Carolina’s ‘Time to Thaw’ campaign received the highest ratings by travelers across the board,” he said.

Google’s Senior Marketing Manager for Travel, Cindy Goodrich noted, “When we looked at how South Carolina’s campaign resonated with over 1,000 travelers in our survey, we saw overwhelmingly positive results. From its ability to make people smile to its effectiveness in driving consumers to its website, the ‘Time to Thaw’ campaign truly stood out among the finalists as an integrated marketing effort that engaged the consumer and won over the hearts of its ‘crowd.’”

Chad Prosser, director of the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, said, “Our goal was to generate direct exposure in the Chicago market and increase online traffic from the region. We achieved that. Inquiries from the Chicago area increased by 51 percent and we have experienced an increase of more than 22 percent in overall traffic to our Web sites.

“This campaign was a fun and engaging way to introduce our product to hundreds of thousands of people a day by showing a little humor and demonstrating the opportunities that are available to visitors in our warm climate,” Prosser added.

The “Time to Thaw” campaign was created and executed by SCPRT in partnership with the state agency’s two ad agencies – Rawle Murdy Associates Inc. of Charleston and the bounce agency of Greenville – with technical help from Web specialist Aristotle Inc. of Little Rock, Ark.

via Google

Mailprotector, a technology leader in fully managed email security services, today announced it has reached the 3,000 customer milestone with a three-year revenue growth rate of more than 196%. With the release of each new economic report the world holds its collective breath to see how the news will be received. Falling stock prices, unflattering employment reports and layoffs are typically the first noticeable reactions. Unfortunately, one hidden by-product of the flailing economy is the increase in cybercrime. According to reports(1), even IT professionals who were previously gainfully employed are now turning their considerable technical talents and using them to steal and exploit sensitive data.

With cybercrime on the rise, email security providers like Mailprotector are thriving. The company processes and protects more than 10 million messages per day for more than 3,000 customers around the globe and has doubled its revenue and nearly tripled its channel partner base over the last three years. With the company on pace with industry projections, Mailprotector’s explosive growth is positioned to continue. In support of this positive outlook, recent numbers published by industry analyst firm Radicati Group forecast the email security market to grow from $3.9 billion in 2008 to more than $6.2 billion in 2012.

Mailprotector Technology Leadership

Mailprotector’s delivery model and technology advantages have propelled the company as it addresses key concerns of small and medium businesses (SMBs), including simplicity, effectiveness and cost. Key technology and business success drivers include:

– Pioneering of training-free fully managed email security services to
provide protection from spam, viruses and malware before these threats
reach the network;

– Protection of ALL email hardware and software platforms, including
Exchange, Groupwise, IMail, SmarterMail, Sendmail, qMail, Merak and others;

– Comprehensive offering for uninterrupted virus and vulnerability
scanning, spam and phishing filtration, attack and email backup protection;

– Zero tolerance for false positives; and

– Partner driven go-to-market model with dedicated support and
compelling margin structure.

“The wave of email security threats to business operations shows no signs of slowing down. While traditional attacks continue, the field is broadening. Even IT professionals, who have dedicated their careers to ensuring that systems are safe and secure, are bending their considerable skill set to exploit weaknesses in networks they once managed,” said Bruce LaFlam, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Mailprotector.

Designed to protect against spam, viruses, vulnerabilities, attacks and availability challenges, Mailprotector is a highly accurate hosted solution that dramatically reduces email security based IT management problems. Mailprotector provides the most affordable, completely managed, and rapidly deployable email security service available to small and medium sized businesses with a high level of personal touch.

Special Agent Darren Mott of the FBI’s Cyber Division was quoted in a recent Dark Reading article as saying, “There has been an increase in attacks on specific individuals, such as CEOs and CFOs, because a lot of businesses are going under… that gives them more directed targets. The attackers lure them with promises of financial assistance, for instance, and some even pretend to be subpoenas from the Justice Department. One attack via email urged bidders who had lost out on a government contract to resubmit their bids and, thus, spill sensitive contact and other information.”

Such specific threats, known as spear phishing or whaling attacks, are a fast-growing and ominous threat. This form of cybercrime uses email-based “social engineering” to gain unauthorized access to corporate systems and confidential data. Unlike mass-phishing perpetrators, who use spoofed emails to cast a wide net to fraudulently gather data from unsuspecting victims, spear phishing attackers target specific organizations and individuals. Unfortunately, this targeted and sophisticated technique has proven extremely successful in providing “hackers” access to financial data, corporate and military information, and trade secrets — with the final goal, of course, financial or political gain.

With these threats accelerating, providing proper email security is as important as ever. Cybercriminals are continuously devising new and different approaches to monopolize email vulnerabilities, which takes constant expert attention to prevent.

via: Mail Protector

Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced at Adobe MAX Japan that Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash Player 10 software, key components of the Adobe Flash Platform, are being installed in record numbers by consumers and companies around the world. In less than one year after its initial release, there have been more than 100 million installations of Adobe AIR. Additionally, Adobe Flash Player 10 was installed on more than 55 percent of computers worldwide in just the first two months of its release, and is expected to surpass 80 percent by the second quarter of 2009, far outpacing the installation rate of past versions of the software.

“Adobe is the leader in enabling people to express themselves and connect with others globally, through the distribution of our world class client software,” said Michele Turner, vice president, product marketing for the Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “The incredible traction we’re seeing with Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash Player 10 in such a short period of time is a clear indication that individuals and organizations across the globe rely on the Adobe Flash Platform for breakthrough interactive content, applications and video on the Web.”

Companies across a variety of industries have chosen Adobe AIR to deploy hundreds of applications that reach customers, partners and employees in new and engaging ways. The growing list of global brands using AIR includes the BBC, (RED)WIRE and The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. In addition, OEMs including Sony Japan are beginning to pre-install Adobe AIR on shipping computers, giving customers immediate access to the software. Companies such as COMEDY CENTRAL, MySpace, Toyota Motor Corporation and the AOL Games site are using Adobe Flash Player 10 to deliver highly expressive and compelling user experiences, stunning audio/video playback and virtually universal reach across operating systems.

The Adobe Flash Platform is a complete system of integrated tools, frameworks, clients and servers for the development of Web applications, content and video that runs consistently across operating systems and devices. Adobe AIR enables developers to use proven Web technologies to quickly design and build compelling applications that extend outside the browser. In the last 12 months, there have been over 1 million downloads of the AIR software development kit (SDK), the free open source Flex framework and Adobe Flex® Builder™ by developers building Web applications using the Adobe Flash Platform. Adobe Flash Player content reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops, and over 80 percent of online videos worldwide are viewed using Adobe Flash technology, making Flash the No. 1 platform for video on the Web.

via Adobe

eGroup, a Greenville company headquartered out of Charleston, was for its second time honored at the Charleston Regional Business Journal’s annual “Roaring 20’s” event as one of the exclusive twenty regional companies whose combination of explosive growth and gross percentage revenue increases over the past 3 years has moved them to the forefront of the dynamic business community. The event took place on January 22nd at historic Hibernian Hall in downtown Charleston, and eGroup was recognized as the 4th fastest growing company of the 20 honored in front of a sold-out crowd of business and community leaders.

How does BMW create partnerships in the community? What works best? How do they partner with academia and commercial partners to deliver features they couldn’t do on their own? That is the topic of our February GSATC meeting as we hear from Dr. Joachim Taiber, the Head of the Information Technology Research Office of the BMW Group Information Technology Research Center (ITRC) at CU-ICAR.

GSATC Learning Lunch
Topic: BMW, The Keys to Successful Partnering and Technology Transfer
Presented by: Joachim Taiber, BMW

Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

Location: Crowne Plaza (Map: I-385 at Roper Mtn.)

Agenda
11:30 – 11:55 Registration, Networking, Lunch
11:55 – 12:10 Announcements
12:10 – 12:50 Presentation
12:50 – 1:00 Door Prizes, Adjourn
This meeting features easy access from I-385, plenty of free parking, ample networking opportunities, a great presentation, and door prizes. Plan to attend.

Lunch is $20 in advance, $25 at the door.*

Presenting Sponsor:

Gold Sponsors:

* We apologize for the increased lunch program prices as of our February meeting. I can’t imagine a more difficult time to deliver this news. While this is a cost driven issue for us, we hope that you will agree that we are constantly delivering higher quality events and that the benefit to you has in fact increased far more dramatically, than this, our first price increase in the lunch program in six years.

Dr. Joachim Taiber is the Head of the Information Technology Research Office of the BMW Group Information Technology Research Center (ITRC) on the CU-ICAR campus in Greenville. Since 2005 he is in charge of implementing collaborative IT innovation projects for the BMW Group in the ITRC. He joined BMW in 1997 as an in-house consultant for business process re-engineering in product development where his focus was on functional integration and vehicle systems integration. Since 1999 he worked in different leadership positions in the BMW Group Enterprise IT organization in the areas of IT strategy, IT program management, IT innovation management and IT benchmarking.

He holds a Master Degree in Engineering and a PhD Degree in Technical Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland. He is also vice-chairman of the South Carolina Educational Broadband Commission. Furthermore he is member of the ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) Advisory Board of Clemson University. He is member of IEEE and ACM.

Joachim Taiber speaks to the GSA Technology Council in February.

X-Rite, Incorporated, a color management, measurement and communication technologies company has announced the appointment of a leader in the wide-format color printing distribution industry, Tekgraf Corporation, as an Authorized Distributor for North America. Under the terms of the agreement, Tekgraf will distribute X-Rite’s full range of award-winning digital imaging, prepress and printing color management solutions, thereby expanding X-Rite’s reach into the fast growing signage and wide format printing markets.

“Our solutions are ideally suited to the unique needs of the wide format and signage markets. Tekgraf’s commitment, industry knowledge and unmatched expertise will help us further strengthen our leadership in these markets and offer complementary solutions to our vast network of reseller partners.” comments Buzz Apostol, X-Rite’s vice president of sales for North America.

“Tekgraf is very pleased to have become an X-Rite distribution partner, as X-Rite has always been the industry leader in color management technology.” said Scott Barker, president and CEO of Tekgraf. “With the production cost of printing signs ever increasing, there is a very real and immediate need for effective and accurate color processes for so many customers working with wider format aqueous print processes, UV and grand format technologies and we feel uniquely placed to help these customers implement a solid color management strategy using X-Rite’s industry leading solutions.”

Tekgraf’s headquarters are located in Greenville, SC.

via X-Rite and Tekgraf

Apple has announced that Mark Papermaster will be coming to Apple as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, on April 24. Papermaster, who comes to Apple from IBM, will lead Apple’s iPod® and iPhone™ hardware engineering teams. The litigation between IBM and Mark Papermaster has been resolved.

Papermaster has 25 years of product and technology experience, and was previously a vice president at IBM. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont in 1988. Papermaster is active with the University of Texas where he is a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Council.

via Apple

The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education has awarded a multi-year contract to AcademyOne, Inc. to improve college transfer and articulation in South Carolina. AcademyOne will develop a South Carolina electronic web portal to assist students and support college and university staff with tools that make it easier to transfer credit and evaluate how prior coursework will transfer among public South Carolina colleges and universities. In May of 2008, Pennsylvania launched a custom e-portal developed by AcademyOne to improve credit transfer among its higher education institutions.

South Carolina is implementing an ambitious, multi-year approach to address credit transfer. Across the nation, handling a high volume of transfer of credit requests and the myriad administrative tasks that accompany such requests can prove to be burdensome and costly for postsecondary institutions. Factors that contribute to this trend include the growing popularity of online courses, increased population mobility, and economic considerations that motivate adult learners to return to school in order to earn a degree.

State higher education agencies like the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education are keenly aware of such changing trends and the implications for students, institutions, and the economy. “States that tackle these trends head-on and develop a coordinated approach to college transfer and evaluation of prior coursework are going to be ahead of the game when it comes to workforce and economic development. The investment will ultimately save money and provide improved service to citizens,” says Dave Moldoff, AcademyOne’s founder and CEO.

South Carolina has 33 public postsecondary higher education institutions, including 13 four-year universities, 16 two-year technical colleges and four two-year regional campuses which collectively serve over 180,000 students. In addition, over 11,000 students take college courses annually while enrolled in high school. “Especially in times of fiscal exigencies such as those South Carolina is experiencing presently, we must implement cost effective practices that yield more efficiency and enable students to make the most effective choices toward degree completion in order to avoid additional expenses and delays,” says Dr. Gail M. Morrison, Deputy Director and Director of the Division of Academic Affairs & Licensing at the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. CollegeTransfer.net offers a comprehensive and national infrastructure to support the transfer of credit. “The fact that South Carolina and Pennsylvania elected to adopt a comprehensive technological solution indicates that higher education takes the issues surrounding transfer and articulation seriously and is moving to put proactive plans in place,” comments Moldoff. Ultimately, AcademyOne’s systems will help to provide flexibility and more options for students and families, clearer and more cost effective paths to a college degree, and more timely entrance into the workforce.

Via SC Commision on Higher Education

In recognition of the project’s unique and transformational nature for Spartanburg, The Duke Energy Foundation recently pledged $1.25 million to the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics at the University of South Carolina Upstate. The $30 million facility, which bears the name of the chairman of Johnson Development Associates, is currently under construction on Saint John Street and is expected to be completed in May 2010. 

“The Duke Energy Foundation views this business school as a landmark event for Spartanburg and the surrounding community. The location of a major business school will be a tremendous enhancement to the downtown area,” said George Acker, government and community relations director for Duke Energy Carolinas. “We view this as a “once every generation kind of gift” and the project fits nicely with our focus on economic and business development ties within the community.”

USC Upstate Chancellor John Stockwell expressed his tremendous appreciation to the Duke Energy Foundation, which is funded by Duke Energy shareholders, for its very generous gift that was pledged in summer 2008.

“The implications of having a prestigious business school in our downtown will be far-reaching and we are thankful to Duke Energy Foundation for recognizing these implications,” said Stockwell. “Once the facility is completed and our business and economics programs are running out of the heart of downtown Spartanburg, it will assist in the economic development of the City, the region and the State; serve as a magnet for corporate investment; aid in pre-start-up and incubation support of small business; and introduce thousands of business majors over the years to the opportunities for investment in the City.”

Stockwell will present the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Gold Dome Award to the Duke Energy Foundation for its sincere loyalty and commitment to USC Upstate and its future at the University’s annual Founders’ Day celebration on February 19.

“Duke Energy is committed to the success of the communities we serve. We see the new Johnson College of Business as a powerful enhancement to the economic and social infrastructure of Spartanburg, and the Upstate region as a whole. We also recognize the value that higher education institutions play in the growth of the new economy, and applaud USC Upstate for its leadership,” said Brett Carter, president of Duke Energy Carolinas, which covers North Carolina and South Carolina, serving approximately 2.4 million customers in a 24,000-square-mile service area.

The three-story, 60,000-square-foot building is located adjacent to the Chapman Cultural Center. David M. Schwarz Architects, Inc. is the design architect; McMillan Smith & Partners Architects is the production architect; Linbeck is the construction manager at-risk; and Clerestory Projects Group, Inc. is the project manager. 

Dr. Darrell Parker, dean of the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics at USC Upstate, is energized when thinking of the new facility — what it means for current faculty and students and the ability to recruit future faculty and students.

“This new facility will relieve pressures on restricted space for teaching and learning through the creation of sufficient classrooms and offices for future growth,” said Parker. “In addition, it will permit the development of specialized instructional space including dedicated computer labs with business software, a stock market trading room for finance classes, and classrooms with computers to permit students to individually run educational software during class.”

Parker also predicts significant expansion of resources for the local business community. “The Johnson College of Business and Economics will support executive education and other academic outreach activities, enabling expanded services for small businesses and connecting business leaders with the University and its students. We have the amazing opportunity to provide modern facilities with current technology, shared space for executive and continuing education opportunities, and a “Class A” office environment that welcomes and serves the business community.”

Via USC Upstate and Duke Energy