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NEW YORK, – Building on its national efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of texting while driving, AT&T today announced Connected Intersections, a new traffic safety initiative to spur technological solutions to improve traffic safety on New York City streets. The initiative seeks to utilize smartphone technology and wireless networks to make pedestrians, cyclists and motorists more aware of their surroundings and alert them to potential dangers. To kick-off the initiative, AT&T and NYC Media Lab released a paper drawing on research from around the country that examines smartphone distraction and impediments to traffic safety.

The paper, titled “Exploring How Mobile Technologies Impact Pedestrian Safety,” provides a springboard for a three-month tech challenge where developers will compete to create smartphone apps and wearable solutions that aim to augment the public’s connectedness to their immediate surroundings while reducing distraction. Developers will take advantage of smartphone sensors, phone-to-phone communications and natural user interfaces, among other technologies.

ChallengePost will produce the challenge and has assembled a panel of expert judges from across the transportation and technology sectors to judge the submissions and identify the winning solutions. Kim Wiley-Schwartz, Assistant Commissioner for Education and Outreach at New York City’s Department of Transportation, NYU Professor Mitchell L. Moss of the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation, General Assembly Co-Founder Matthew Brimer, Luke DuBois from New York University’s Polytechnic School of Engineering, Justin Hendrix from NYC Media Lab and Marissa Shorenstein from AT&T will award cash prizes collectively totaling $50,000.

“Mobile technology has allowed people and communities to connect in extraordinary ways, and as an industry leader, our goal is to facilitate ways for mobile technology to help be an asset, not a hindrance to public safety,” said Marissa Shorenstein, New York State President of AT&T. “The anti-texting while driving campaign championed by AT&T, It Can Wait, has raised awareness of the dangers of texting while driving. We want to build on its success by encouraging the development of apps and devices that use smartphones to improve traffic safety on New York City streets. We’re eager to see what developers create over the next several months and hopeful this initiative will lead to mobile technology embraced by the public and sustained by developers.”

“When NYC Media Lab started talking about this set of issues with AT&T in 2012, we hoped what was then a seed research project with NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering might lead to a broader effort to explore how new media and communications technologies can be employed to make the City a safer place,” said Justin Hendrix, Executive Director, NYC Media Lab. “This effort is the first of its kind and I look forward to the results.”

The report cites recent statistics showing that New York City pedestrian fatalities in car crashes were four times greater than the national average. The city has made it a priority to reduce pedestrian deaths with plans to lower speed limits, improve traffic signals and signage and create pedestrian greenways are already underway. AT&T seeks to use the collective power of the city’s transportation, technology, and academic and advocacy communities to serve these efforts.

“The NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering is excited to once again work with AT&T toward developing technology that will improve the lives of New Yorkers,” said R. Luke DuBois, co-director of the school’s Integrated Digital Media program. “We began developing a research brief more than a year ago on the issue of injuries and fatalities due to distracted mobile device use, and the city has outlined an impressive set of policy initiatives on the topic. We intend to do our part by exploring how technology can play a role in ensuring that mobile devices are used safely and responsibly.”

“New York is a city in motion, whether it is drivers in their cars or pedestrians on the sidewalks. Everyone must be aware of the risks involved when they move through the city streets,” said Mitchell L. Moss, Henry Hart Rice Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at NYU Wagner, and Director of the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation. “Information technology can play a vital role in improving pedestrian safety in the neighborhoods of New York and provide a model for cities around the world.”

“We’re looking forward to seeing the solutions developed to address pedestrian safety,” said Matthew Brimer, co-founder, General Assembly. “Modern mobile technology will allow people to produce creative, effective ways to increase the awareness of those walking within the city and solve this important issue.”

“It’s inspiring to see AT&T take a lead role in working with the global developer community for this software competition,” said Brandon Kessler, CEO of the ChallengePost platform, which will showcase the competition and results. “The latest software development kits and APIs are powerful, and enable developers to catalyze a new generation of software and wearable solutions to reduce distraction and improve safety.”

AT&T cemented its leadership role as a traffic safety advocate in 2010 when it developed and launched the “It Can Wait” campaign to spread awareness among drivers about the dangers of texting while driving. The nation’s other leading wireless carriers have since joined the campaign.

Winners of the Connected Intersections challenge will be announced in October. For more information or to register for the challenge, visit http://intersections.challengepost.com/ and follow the latest news on Twitter using the hashtag #ConnectedIntersection.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and internationally. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s most reliable 4G LTE network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile Internet, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV service with the AT&T U-verse® brand. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world.

– See more at: http://about.att.com/story/att_launches_connected_intersections_to_improve_pedestrian_safety_in_new_york_city.html#sthash.2sjy4ELB.dpuf

CUPERTINO, California —Apple® today announced it has agreed to acquire the critically acclaimed subscription streaming music service Beats Music, and Beats Electronics, which makes the popular Beats headphones, speakers and audio software. As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple. Apple is acquiring the two companies for a total of $3 billion, consisting of a purchase price of approximately $2.6 billion and approximately $400 million that will vest over time.

“Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.”

“I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple,” said Jimmy Iovine. “The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans, artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special.”

Iovine has been at the forefront of innovation in the music industry for decades, and he has been an instrumental partner for Apple and iTunes® for more than a decade. He has produced or collaborated with some of the most successful artists in the history of the iTunes Store®, helping make it the world’s number one music retailer. Iovine and Dr. Dre are sound pioneers, artists and entrepreneurs.

Beats Electronics has brought the energy, emotion and excitement of playback in the recording studio back to the listening experience and has introduced an entirely new generation to premium sound entertainment. Beats Music was developed by a team of people who have each spent their entire career in music and provides music fans with an incredible curated listening experience.

“Music is such an important part of Apple’s DNA and always will be,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The addition of Beats will make our music lineup even better, from free streaming with iTunes Radio to a world-class subscription service in Beats, and of course buying music from the iTunes Store as customers have loved to do for years.”

In just five years since launch, the Beats “b” has become the brand of choice in the music and sports worlds, and is the market leader in the premium headphone market. Music superstars including Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj have designed their own customized Beats headphones and speakers. Fashion designers and street artists such as Alexander Wang, Futura and Snarkitecture have collaborated on special limited products, while renowned athletes including LeBron James, Serena Williams and Neymar use Beats as a critical part of their training and game day process. Beats has quickly become part of pop culture in the US and with the acquisition the Beats product lineup will be offered in many more countries through the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

Subject to regulatory approvals, Apple expects the transaction to close in fiscal Q4.

Formally established in 2008 as the brainchild of legendary artist and producer Dr. Dre and Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records Jimmy Iovine, Beats Electronics (Beats) comprises the Beats by Dr. Dre family of premium consumer headphones, earphones, and speakers as well as patented Beats Audio software technology and streaming music subscription service Beats Music. Through these offerings, Beats has effectively brought the energy, emotion and excitement of playback in the recording studio to the listening experience and has introduced an entirely new generation to the possibilities of premium sound entertainment.

Beats Music is a subscription streaming music service that focuses on providing a personalized music experience for each user through a unique blend of digital innovation and musical passion. Programmed by a trusted team of well-respected music experts with over 300 years of experience across all genres, Beats Music delivers the right music for any situation, any time, and any preference, personalized to your tastes. The result is an artist-friendly digital music service that does more than simply offer access to music, but one that establishes an emotional connection to it as well.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

This news is courtesy of www.apple.com

Sergey and I started Google because we wanted “to develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible” (Founders’ IPO Letter, 2004). We’ve stayed true to that mission, placing long-term bets on new technologies that users truly love—from Search to Gmail, Maps, Chrome, YouTube, and Android. We’ve covered a lot of ground in a short space of time and so people naturally ask, what is Google today, and where are you heading? It’s a good question.

Search on…
Information is Google’s core. We’re motivated by a profound belief that access to knowledge will improve humankind. As kids, we were both quite curious. I remember spending a huge amount of time poring over books and magazines, or taking things apart at home to figure out how they worked. Today, it’s much easier to find out about stuff. You just go to Google and start searching. Search is so meaningful because even a little bit of knowledge can make a tremendous difference—whether it’s something seemingly small but important in everyday life, like avoiding traffic, or something bigger, like this farmer in Africa who figured out how to save his potato crop.

The activity on Google Search is astounding. There are over 100 billion searches a month (a whopping 15 percent of which we’ve never seen before), and we now update our index within seconds to ensure we show the freshest results. To make life easier, we’re increasingly able to provide direct answers to your questions. For example, “what’s the deepest lake in the world?” (It’s Lake Baikal in Siberia at 1,741 meters) or, “when does my flight leave?” or, “how many calories in a pancake?” And, I am excited by the progress we have made with Voice Search, which now works in over 38 languages, including, most recently, Thai and Vietnamese. Speaking is often the quickest, easiest way to ask, especially if you’re using a mobile device.

Yet, in many ways, we’re a million miles away from creating the search engine of my dreams, one that gets you just the right information at the exact moment you need it with almost no effort. That’s partly because understanding information in a deep way is a hard problem to solve. Google Now is starting to tackle this challenge. It provides information without you even having to ask, so no more digging around in your inbox to find the tracking number for a much-needed delivery; it’s already there on your screen. And recommendations on Google+, which are based on your interests, have also become a great source of information. I get things that are highly relevant all the time, like this YouTube video about the history of kitesurfing that appeared in my stream recently.

While it is still early days, we’ve also made significant progress understanding people’s context, which is crucial if we are to improve human-computer interaction. Think about your commute. You need the traffic information very accessible so you can plan for it, or avoid it altogether. If you’re going to another appointment, you want the directions to start from where you are at that moment (rather than having to type in your location on a small screen). Improved context will also help make search more natural, and not a series of keywords you artificially type into a computer. We’re getting closer: ask how tall the Eiffel Tower is, and then when “it” was built. By understanding what “it” means in different contexts, we can make search conversational.

Living in a multi-screen world
As devices proliferate, it becomes more and more important to ensure that you can navigate effortlessly across them. Our Chrome browser, which has over 750 million users and is super fast and secure, works seamlessly across devices. Open a map on your desktop; when you switch to your mobile device, the same tab will be open so you can pick up right where you left off.

Think about photos: they are a really great use case for how bad things can be in a multi-screen world. We’ve all suffered the frustration of having our photos marooned on different devices, making them hard to find, let alone share. G+ instantly uploads them to the web, so you can view them from any device. Better still, if you lose your phone, your photos don’t get lost, too.

In less than six years, over one billion Android devices have been activated (and growing fast)—creating an amazing platform for the increasing number of app developers globally. It’s super exciting to see this ecosystem take off, with Android developers earning four times more on average in 2013 than they did the year before from user payments. We’re now taking Android to wearables, like watches, and to cars, where we can make it super easy to get directions, make a call or play music.

The idea behind Google Play is similar, in that you can get apps, movies, books and music from one place, and play them on any device without the need for endless syncing. Start listening to a song on your tablet and when you switch to your mobile it will be there (as you can see there is a theme emerging here!). And most recently with Chromecast, we’ve made it easy to watch movies from Google Play or Netflix on your TV screen at home or at a friend’s apartment. You can throw away all your remotes and just use your phone or tablet to control your TV in the apps you are already used to—like YouTube. Best of all, it costs just $35.

Now, none of this matters without good design. I remember taking a class at the University of Michigan on usability. Students had to pick a program they knew really well (I chose an email program) and estimate how long it would take experts to perform different tasks. It really helped me understand that building good, efficient interfaces is hard, and a bit more like engineering than you might think. Another tab here, another drop-down menu there. The more choices you throw at people (even if they never use them), the longer it takes them to get stuff done. People still talk about the simplicity of the Google homepage, and that was a huge part of our original success. There’s no reason the same principles can’t apply across our products, especially now, with so many devices and options, and so much opportunity for distraction.

Access is an unsolved problem
Of course, this all assumes you are one of the two billion people who have access to the Internet. That leaves five billion other people. It’s a tragedy that with so much information available today, two-thirds of the world’s population lack even the most basic Internet connection. That’s why I’m so excited the team has gotten Project Loon off the ground (literally). The idea is to create a network of balloons on the very edge of space (they fly about twice the altitude of commercial airlines) that can provide connectivity in rural and remote areas. Soon there will be a classroom in northeast Brazil we are working to put online for the first time, using Loon. And as the program expands, we hope to bring the power of connection to more and more people—creating opportunities that none of us have yet imagined.

Invention and reinvention
It’s amazing what you can achieve with a small dedicated team when you start from first principles and aren’t encumbered by the established way of doing things. Yet I’ve learned over time that it’s surprisingly difficult to get teams to be super ambitious because most people haven’t been educated in this kind of moonshot thinking. They tend to assume that things are impossible, or get frightened of failure. It’s why we’ve put so much energy into hiring independent thinkers at Google, and setting big goals. Because if you hire the right people and have bold enough dreams, you’ll usually get there. And even if you fail, you’ll probably learn something important.

It’s also true that over time many companies get comfortable doing what they have always done, with a few incremental changes. This kind of incrementalism leads to irrelevance over time, especially in technology, because change tends to be revolutionary, not evolutionary. It’s why we continue to invest for the long term, in our next generation of big bets. In healthcare we have Calico—a new company led by the former CEO of Genentech, Art Levinson, that’s focused on health, wellbeing and longevity—and Iris, a smart contact lens designed to transform the lives of people with diabetes. We also recently acquired Nest, a company that’s taken unloved household products like thermostats and made them much more useful. And we’re excited about our new Google Shopping Express service, which is a great way to get deliveries the same day you order them, and self-driving cars (no explanation needed!). These seem like pretty crazy ideas today, but if the past is any indicator of our future success, today’s big bets won’t seem so wild in a few years’ time.

Sixteen years after we started Google, we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible. Sergey and I come to work each day excited about what lies ahead and the extraordinary people we work with. Googlers make everything possible, and they are our future. And, while the world may have changed over the years, we’re as motivated by the potential to make a difference in people’s lives today as when we first started.

Larry Page signature
Larry Page

This release is courtesy of www.google.com

REDMOND, Wash., and WALLDORF, Germany — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: “MSFT”) and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) have expanded their global partnership to deliver new solutions that are intended to help improve employee productivity, enhance workforce mobility and drive increased business value for customers and partners.

Monday’s announcement aims to extend the companies’ long-term partnership in three critical areas: enterprise cloud computing with business-critical SAP applications certification for Microsoft Azure; improved interoperability between data from SAP applications and Microsoft Office, including general availability of connectivity between SAP® BusinessObjects™ business intelligence (BI) solutions and Microsoft’s Power BI offering; and mobile productivity with expanded development and support for Windows and Windows Phone 8.1.

“Microsoft and SAP have a great history together, and we are committed to meeting the diverse needs of our enterprise customers,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Cloud & Enterprise, Microsoft. “Our expanded partnership with SAP demonstrates our continued commitment to deliver the applications and services our customers need — in their private clouds, service provider clouds, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office.”

“This has been an exciting year for one of the leading strategic partnerships in our industry,” said Steve Lucas, president, Platform Solutions, SAP. “For our customers, SAP and Microsoft are among the top strategic vendors relied upon to drive their business’ success. We are proud of how we listened to our customers and together developed — and will continue to develop — innovative new programs focused on the cloud, mobility, analytics and interoperability that we expect will provide unparalleled value for our customers.”

SAP applications on Microsoft Azure

It is anticipated that by the end of Q2 2014, Microsoft and SAP will support SAP® Business Suite software, SAP Business All-In-One solutions, SAP Mobile Platform, SAP Adaptive Server® Enterprise (SAP ASE) and the developer edition of the SAP HANA® platform on Azure. In addition, Microsoft and SAP expect that customers and developers will be able to deploy and provision a number of preconfigured SAP solutions, within minutes, directly to Azure using the SAP Cloud Appliance Library tool.

New and existing SAP customers will be able to take advantage of the “pay per use” model in Azure to reduce infrastructure costs and total cost of ownership. Customers will be able to take advantage of the compute resources in Azure to support SAP solutions and quickly scale capacity as computing requirements change, paying only for the resources used.

Improved data access and interoperability

Monday, Microsoft and SAP made Excel connectivity to SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions through Microsoft’s Power BI offering generally available. Microsoft and SAP also announced plans to deepen interoperability between applications and platforms with a new version of the SAP Gateway for Microsoft, which is expected to help customers automate business processes and access SAP applications and data through Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure. Customers can get started today with the current SAP Gateway for Microsoft and upgrade to the new version when it becomes available in the second half of 2014. More information is available at SAP Gateway for Microsoft.

Increased mobile collaboration

Microsoft and SAP plan to help customers conduct business anywhere and anytime by developing and co-marketing SAP mobile apps for Windows and Windows Phone 8.1. These new applications will be managed and secured by the SAP Mobile Secure portfolio or Windows Intune. Examples of prospective offerings resulting from this increased collaboration will be showcased at SAPPHIRE® NOW, being held June 3–5, 2014, in Orlando, Florida. More information can be found here.

Monday’s announcements bring exciting new capabilities to customers and opportunities for partners and developers through the combined strengths of Microsoft and SAP applications and platforms. You can learn more here.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 258,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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

This news is courtesy of www.microsoft.com

REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. announced on Monday a patent licensing agreement with Motorola Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of communication solutions and services for enterprise and government customers. The license provides worldwide coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for Motorola Solutions’ devices running the Android™ platform and Chrome OS™ operating system.

“Microsoft and Motorola Solutions share a respect for intellectual property and a commitment to fair and reasonable patent licensing programs,” said Nick Psyhogeos, general manager, associate general counsel, IP licensing of the Innovation and Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft. “Microsoft prefers licensing to litigation, since licensing is a more effective way to share technology and accelerate the pace of innovation.”

“Our Motorola Solutions communications technology works best for everyone when it is backed with robust intellectual property and patents,” said Joe White, vice president of Enterprise Mobile Computing, Motorola Solutions. “We are pleased to have agreed upon a solution that allows our customers to purchase Android products from Motorola Solutions with confidence.”

Microsoft’s commitment to licensing IP

The patent agreement is another example of the important role intellectual property (IP) plays in ensuring a healthy and vibrant technology ecosystem. Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, the company has entered into more than 1,100 licensing agreements and continues to develop programs that open Microsoft’s IP portfolio for customers, partners and competitors. The program was developed to provide access to Microsoft’s significant R&D investments and its growing, broad patent and IP portfolio. Microsoft’s specific patent licensing program for Android device-makers has resulted in signed license agreements with numerous companies, including Samsung, ZTE, LG, HTC, Acer and Barnes & Noble.

More information about Microsoft’s licensing programs is available at http://www.microsoft.com/iplicensing.

About Motorola Solutions
Motorola Solutions is a leading provider of mission-critical communication solutions and services for enterprise and government customers. Through leading-edge innovation and communications technology, it is a global leader that enables its customers to be their best in the moments that matter. Motorola Solutions trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “MSI.” To learn more, visit www.motorolasolutions.com. MOTOROLA, MOTO, MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS, and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC and are used under license. Android and Chrome OS are trademarks of Google, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

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

This news is courtesy of www.microsoft.com

“Manufacturing organizations want to improve engagement with customers and prospects across digital channels so that they can gain better visibility into their sales pipeline and grow their businesses,” said Steve Miranda, executive vice president, Oracle Applications Development. “With capabilities developed specifically for manufacturers including pre-built templates and leading business intelligence, Oracle Eloqua for Manufacturing helps manufacturers improve marketing effectiveness and drive revenue.”

Marketers in global manufacturing businesses are looking to improve customer engagement and increase marketing effectiveness as they support prospects and customers through the discovery and buying process. To be successful, these marketers need to quickly transition from conventional product-centric marketing to a customer-centric approach. Oracle Eloqua for Manufacturing is a flexible and scalable industry-specific marketing automation solution that enables companies to deliver targeted and personalized interactions across customer touchpoints and channels.

The latest addition to the Oracle Marketing Cloud, Oracle Eloqua for Manufacturing is a flexible and scalable cloud-based solution that is specifically designed to help global manufacturing organizations deliver personalized experiences to customers and prospects while improving marketing outcomes and efficiency.

The new solution increases marketing effectiveness by introducing industry-specific capabilities that enhance targeting and segmentation, increase engagement, improve measurement and produce actionable reporting.

With a full view of the buyer’s journey, insights into customer demand signals and integrated business intelligence reporting, marketers in global manufacturing organizations are able drive demand and improve the quality of leads that are passed to sales.

By providing insight into customer and prospect needs, Oracle Eloqua for Manufacturing helps marketers in global manufacturing organizations deliver personalized campaigns with timely and targeted content.

To help manufacturers achieve a faster time to revenue and maximize their customers’ lifetime value, Oracle Eloqua for Manufacturing includes product registration capabilities that help deliver efficient product maintenance and subscription renewals.

The new release includes intuitive templates and workflows that help marketers quickly and efficiently create and extend channel relationships. Campaign tasks are automated and personalized across print, e-mail, web, and telemarketing channels.

Oracle Marketing Cloud has industry-specific marketing solutions for insurance, asset management, entertainment, non-profits, life sciences, wealth management and manufacturing organizations. Each industry product is developed with the industry user in mind, incorporating marketing, content and data analysis best practices.

Oracle Eloqua for Manufacturing helps marketers drive revenue, improve the customer experience and transition to a customer-centric approach by delivering custom templates, targeted content and leading business intelligence.

Key benefits delivered by Oracle Eloqua for Manufacturing include:
Efficient marketing campaign management and execution: Pre-built and pre-approved branded sales templates for a number of manufacturing scenarios eliminate guesswork, increase the opportunity for early successes and accelerate time to value.
Fast and accurate targeting: Helps capture digital behavior, segment for relevancy, and target prospects with engaging content to shift them along the buyer’s journey.
Improved personalization: By analyzing digital body language from every interaction, including social and website data, the new solution helps marketers personalize content and generate real-time engagement when target audiences are most interested.
Better lead management: Helps manufacturers grow their new business pipeline and attract new customers by nurturing prospects through personalized interactions, identify buying signals and passing qualified leads to sales.
Simplified customer on-boarding: Product registration triggers automated campaigns that deliver efficient product maintenance and subscription renewals.
Accessible customer data: Enhances customer service and encourages transitions from trial to purchase by storing and analyzing critical information on product ownership, warranties and sample/trial requests.
Optimized customer engagement: Increases customer loyalty and creates additional revenue opportunities by personalizing and improving the quality of engagement with prospects and leads.
Enhanced customer insight: Provides insights into marketing activities and campaign performance, demonstrating marketing’s impact on driving demand and ROI, while the built-in business intelligence capabilities improve sales forecasting.
Enhanced mobility: Enables marketing and sales teams to set up campaigns with pre-approved content and templates while on the move.

Supporting Resources
Oracle Eloqua Industry Solutions
Oracle Marketing Cloud
Oracle Eloqua Lead Management
Oracle Eloqua Content Marketing
Oracle Eloqua Campaign Management
Oracle Eloqua Marketing Measurement
Oracle Eloqua Targeting and Segmentation
Oracle Eloqua AppCloud
Oracle Eloqua Twitter

About Oracle
Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.

FALLS CHURCH, Va., — CSC (NYSE: CSC) introduced today an offering that enables organizations to test the security of software applications and build security into the software development lifecycle. AppSEC on Demand is hosted in a secure environment that meets both U.S. federal and commercial regulatory requirements.

While organizations have focused traditionally on cyber network and perimeter defenses, businesses and governments are highly vulnerable at the application layer, where personal information, financial records and intellectual property reside. Eighty-six percent of successful cyber attacks penetrate the application layer rather than infrastructure, as demonstrated in 7Safe’s “Analysis of Data Compromise Cases 2010.” However, less than one percent of cybersecurity expenditures have been applied to securing applications, according to “The 2013 (ISC)2 Global Information Security Workforce Study.”

As a result of growing concerns, government and industry security standards, including PCI, HIPAA and FISMA, have all recently tightened their requirements for securing applications. The National Defense Authorization Act, for example, requires the use of automated static vulnerability analysis tools during software code development.

CSC’s next-generation offering for application security combines proven software, certified experts and rigorous processes to minimize risk for organizations by offering the capability to perform security testing on all applications for every release, from every source and on every platform. CSC conducts the tests on the application code, verifies the results and presents a detailed report of vulnerability findings to its clients with recommendations on what can be fixed with procedural changes and what can be fixed with code changes. Tests include static analysis of applications in non-run-time environments, dynamic assessments on live applications, and security assessments on mobile applications.

“Adversaries never sleep, and with AppSEC on Demand, we continually monitor around-the-clock our clients’ application performance and then deliver insights to decision-makers for cost-effective hardening of their code,” said Samuel Visner, CSC’s vice president and general manager for cybersecurity. “Moreover, for our public sector customers, we run AppSEC in secured data centers and securely interface with government networks, providing the ability to service sensitive environments.”

“Vulnerabilities in corporate software have existed for as long as developers have been writing code. Exploitation by hackers and malware writers came along later, but from a code protection standpoint only limited progress has been made towards improving the security situation,” noted Andrew Kellett, an Ovum principal analyst. “The new CSC application security testing-on-demand offering allows organizations to test the secure status of their software without incurring extra technology and infrastructure overheads.”

To deliver this offering to clients, CSC has teamed with HP to host its Fortify application security products within CSC’s global network of security operations centers, integrating them with CSC’s security information and event management and global threat intelligence platforms.

About CSC
CSC is a global leader of next-generation information technology (IT) services and solutions. The company’s mission is to enable superior returns on clients’ technology investments through best-in-class industry solutions, domain expertise and global scale. CSC has approximately 80,000 employees and reported revenue of $13.2 billion for the 12 months ended Dec. 27, 2013.

This news is courtesy of www.csc.com

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today issued a policy statement on the sharing of cybersecurity information that makes clear that properly designed cyber threat information sharing is not likely to raise antitrust concerns and can help secure the nation’s networks of information and resources. The policy statement provides the agencies’ analytical framework for information sharing among private entities and is designed to reduce uncertainty for those who want to share ways to prevent and combat cyberattacks.

“The Department of Justice is committed to doing all it can to protect the security of our nation’s networks. Through the FBI and the National Security and Criminal Divisions, the department plays a critical role in preventing and prosecuting cybercrime,” said Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole. “Private parties play a critical role in mitigating and responding to cyber threats, and this policy statement should encourage them to share cybersecurity information.”

“Cyber threats are increasing in number and sophistication, and sharing information about these threats, such as incident reports, indicators and threat signatures, is something companies can do to protect their information systems and help secure our nation’s infrastructure,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “With proper safeguards in place, cyber threat information sharing can occur without posing competitive concerns.”

“Because of the FTC’s long experience promoting data security, we understand the serious threat posed by cyberattacks,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “This statement should help private businesses by making it clear that antitrust laws do not stand in the way of legitimate sharing of cybersecurity threat information.”

In the policy statement, the federal antitrust agencies recognize that the sharing of cyber threat information has the potential to improve the security, availability, integrity and efficiency of the nation’s information systems. The policy statement also emphasizes that the legitimate sharing of cyber threat information is very different from the sharing of competitively sensitive information such as current or future prices and output or business plans, which may raise antitrust concerns. Cyber threat information is typically technical in nature and covers a limited type of information, and disseminating that information appears unlikely to raise competitive concerns.

The joint Department of Justice/Federal Trade Commission “Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors” provide an overview of the agencies’ analysis of information sharing as a general matter. The agencies consider whether the relevant agreement likely harms competition by increasing the ability or incentive to raise price above or reduce output, quality, service or innovation below what likely would prevail in the absence of the relevant agreement.

Previous antitrust analysis on cyber threat information sharing was issued in October 2000, when the Antitrust Division issued specific guidance in a business review letter to Electric Power Research Institute Inc. Under the Justice Department’s business review procedure, an organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust Division and receive a statement as to whether the division will challenge the action under the antitrust laws. In that letter, the Antitrust Division confirmed that it had no intention of taking enforcement action against the company’s proposal to exchange certain cybersecurity information, including exchanging actual real-time cyber threat and attack information. In that matter, the division concluded that as long as the information exchanged was limited to physical and cybersecurity issues, the proposed interdictions on price, purchasing and future product innovation discussions should be sufficient to avoid any threats to competition. The legal analysis in that matter remains current.

This news is courtesy of www.justice.gov


PALO ALTO, Calif., and SANTA CLARA, Calif., – Intel Corporation and Cloudera today announced a broad strategic technology and business collaboration, as well as a significant equity investment from Intel making it Cloudera's largest strategic shareholder and a member of its board of directors. This is Intel's single largest data center technology investment in its history. The deal will join Cloudera's leading enterprise analytic data management software powered by Apache Hadoop™ with the leading data center architecture based on Intel® Xeon® technology. The goal is acceleration of customer adoption of big data solutions, making it easier for companies of all sizes to obtain increased business value from data by deploying open source Apache Hadoop solutions. Both the strategic collaboration and the equity investment are subject to standard closing conditions, including customary regulatory approvals.