1. The most important step is to use a storyboard, which is a sequence of short, detailed descriptions combined with images. If there are any problems in the storyboarding process, they can be fixed here.

2. Write as if speaking to a ten year-old. This ensures more detailed descriptions, which is absolutely necessary.

3. Use plenty of illustrations, screen shots and icons, with highlighting and numbering (if necessary). Text is not enough.

4. Present all information in short sections, so the software manual resembles a slide show.

5. If the process is quite complex, consider using video. The advantage of video is the user can play it over and over again until they 'get it.'

6. Test, test, and test again. All it takes is one missed step to cause the entire process to fail. If a step is missed, add in the missing piece and test the process again. If necessary, get a colleague to test the software manual process. All too often, the human mind has a tendency to 'fill in the blanks.'

'A smart writer knows that you have to make content easy to understand. If you do, you'll create a great user experience and a happy customer, one who will be loyal to you over the course of time,' said Segal.

Download the report: 10 Things You Must Know Before You Hire ANY Professional Writer at: http://nathansegal.org/report/10thingswriters.zip

Nathan Segal has been working as a technical writer since 1997. He writes software manuals, reviews and tutorials for magazines and businesses. He has written hundreds of articles for computer magazines in Canada, the United States and Great Britain. You can view his portfolio at http://nathansegal.org

— WebWireID174998 —

RECEIPT SAVER PRO

May 21, 2013 - Fine Products, Inc. (FPI) is proudly introducing and seeking licensees for the 'Receipt Saver Pro,' a New 'GO GREEN' pat. pending consumer retail technology.

With a single 'Receipt Saver Pro' Card or Fob, consumers can electronically archive all their desired retail shopping receipts paid by either cash, debit or by credit in one easy paperless networked location to remotely track their spending and for easy access for any future returns. The technology is ideal for retailers and network providers to boost their consumer base, marketing and service to their customers.

The new patent pending technology was developed by Vadim Drozd of New Jersey. The Receipt Saver Pro Technology is available now for technology transfer or licensing.

— WebWireID174991 —

San Jose, Calif. – Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: CY), today introduced PSoC® Designer™ 5.4, a new version of its Integrated Design Environment (IDE) for the PSoC 1 Programmable System-on-Chip architecture. The new version includes over 40 new or enhanced User Modules, which are free 'Virtual Chips,' represented by an icon, that are used to integrate multiple ICs and system interfaces into a single PSoC device. Version 5.4 also offers multiple new features to make designing with PSoC faster and easier, including an Auto-Complete feature that automatically suggests variables, functions, and keywords as users type. The version marks another significant first for PSoC Designer, as it now allows customers to create their own User Modules, with complete control over the hardware, firmware, and graphical user interface.

Version 5.4 includes three new SmartSense™ User Modules that simplify usage of Cypress's industry-leading CapSense® capacitive touch-sensing technology. The new SmartSense2X_EMC User Module supports both the CY8C2xx45 and CY8C28xxx PSoC 1 families. SmartSense2X_EMC not only saves time by automatically tuning capacitive sensors and dynamically adjusting the tuning during operation, it also increases end-systems' immunity to electromagnetic interference, providing the ability to operate in high-noise environments. This functionality is ideal for home appliances and a broad range of additional markets.

'PSoC Designer now makes it easier than ever to integrate sophisticated functionality in embedded designs, including Cypress's world-class CapSense capacitive touch controls,' said Kapil Rai, Senior Director of PSoC 1 Products for Cypress. 'Version 5.4 opens up a new world of designs by giving engineers the power to create their own User Modules and take full advantage of PSoC's flexibility.'

Other key new user modules include a programmable current source and a scanning successive approximation analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC). Instead of having to manually configure the hardware and firmware, users can simply drag and drop the scanning SAR ADC into their design to have it automatically measure voltages on any number of inputs. Users can download PSoC Designer 5.4 free of charge at www.cypress.com/psocdesigner.

User Modules can be dragged and dropped as icons into a design using PSoC Designer's graphical user interface. They are pre-tested and pre-characterized, and each comes with a datasheet that designers can use to customize the functionality for their specific designs. PSoC Designer 5.4 includes more than 160 of these User Modules, making designing with PSoC 1 devices fast and easy. In addition, PSoC Designer 5.4 boosts engineering efficiency through design re-use by enabling engineers to develop their own User Modules containing their own unique hardware and firmware IP. Designers can also create a customized graphical user interface to configure their User Modules.

PSoC Designer 5.4 contains 15 new example projects that show users how to build a wide array of PSoC systems. This version also includes a new graphical interface that makes it easier for users to sort and filter these example projects to find those of interest.

About PSoC Designer
PSoC Designer helps users harness the power and flexibility of PSoC 1 devices. By operating at a higher level of abstraction and not requiring ground-up firmware development, it enables new designs to be created, simulated and programmed to the targeted PSoC device in hours or days instead of in weeks or months. It provides the user with a catalog of peripheral functions called 'User Modules.' User modules take the configurable PSoC devices and create useful functions as diverse as counters, timers and PWMs, analog converters, both ADCs and DACs, communications links like UARTs, SPI and I2C, as well as comparators, programmable gain blocks, filters and even bootloaders. Each user module includes the hardware configuration data, startup code, an interrupt service routine when applicable, and a set of APIs.

PSoC — Because Change Happens
PSoC 1 devices employ a highly configurable system-on-chip architecture for embedded control design, offering a flash-based equivalent of a field-programmable ASIC without lead-time or NRE penalties. PSoC devices integrate configurable analog and digital circuits, controlled by an on-chip microcontroller, providing both enhanced design revision capability and component count savings. They include up to 32 Kbytes of Flash memory, 2 Kbytes of SRAM, an 8x8 multiplier with 32-bit accumulator, power and sleep monitoring circuits, and hardware I2C communications. Additionally, PSoC devices contain powerful analog functionality, such as delta-sigma analog-to-digital converters, operational amplifiers, and programmable switched capacitor networks.

The flexible PSoC digital and analog blocks allow designers to future-proof their products by enabling firmware-based changes during design, validation, production, and in the field. The unique PSoC flexibility shortens design cycle time and allows for late-breaking feature enhancements. All PSoC devices are also dynamically reconfigurable, enabling designers to morph internal resources on-the-fly, utilizing fewer components to perform a given task.

A single PSoC device can integrate as many as 100 peripheral functions saving customers design time, board space and power consumption while improving system quality and reliability. Customers can save as much as $10 in system costs. Learn more about PSoC products at www.cypress.com/psoc and receive free online training at www.cypress.com/psoctraining.

About Cypress
Cypress delivers high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with rapid time-to-market and exceptional system value. Cypress offerings include the flagship PSoC 1, PSoC 3, PSoC 4, and PSoC 5 programmable system-on-chip families. Cypress is the world leader in capacitive user interface solutions including CapSense touch sensing, TrueTouch® touchscreens, and trackpad solutions for notebook PCs and peripherals. Cypress is the world leader in USB controllers, which enhance connectivity and performance in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. Cypress is also the world leader in SRAM and nonvolatile RAM memories. Cypress serves numerous major markets, including consumer, mobile handsets, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial, and military. Cypress trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol CY. Visit Cypress online at www.cypress.com.

Cypress, the Cypress logo, PSoC, CapSense, and TrueTouch are registered trademarks, and PSoC Designer and SmartSense are trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

— WebWireID174988 —

"The 3rd Platform is not just a technology revolution; it's also a customer revolution. As a result, expect the rise of new software business models that align more closely with business outcomes and customers' experiences," said Amy Konary, Research Vice President for Software Licensing, Provisioning, and Delivery. "Customers should expect to see models that enable access to and consumption of applications when and where they want. Pricing will scale up or down according to consumption or need, allowing customers to pay only for what they use."

Additional IDC analysis shows:

The 3rd Platform makes possible a broad proliferation of two important, value-generating overlays – big data analytics and social technologies.

Most net-new commercial applications – as much as 82%, according to IDC – are being built specifically for cloud delivery in 2013. By 2016, nearly $1 of every $6 spent on packaged software and $1 of every $5 spent on applications will be consumed via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.

Customers want access to positive outcomes, and subscription pricing has proven to be a better means of facilitating this access than the perpetual license model.

Start-ups aren't the only ones offering subscription license models – 16% of the top 100 software vendors have more than 50% of their revenue coming from subscription and virtually all software vendors are at various stages in a seminal transition in how they build, sell, and deliver their products as services hoping to generate more revenue and improve customer satisfaction.

"Disruption rarely, if ever, leads to wholesale replacement," cautions Konary. "IDC believes that while packaged software applications are being slowly re-platformed for virtualized use on converged systems in datacenters, they will be available for distributed client/server computing environments (the 2nd Platform), and they will be priced and licensed accordingly. These applications will just become less interesting than they once were, as software developers shift innovation to where the growth opportunity exists – the 3rd Platform."

The IDC report, The Coming of the 3rd Platform and What This Means for Software Business Models (IDC #240918) focuses on the rise of the 3rd Platform and the ways in which software business models will change as a result. Advice to customers on the pricing and licensing of software-based applications and services is provided.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. For more than 49 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

— WebWireID174986 —

• Make smarter decisions with self-serve information 
• Generate breakthrough productivity gains 
• Leverage Gartner's counsel for evaluating specialized solutions
• Expand the benefits of a company's initial ERP investment

— WebWireID174977 —

• Make smarter decisions with self-serve information 
• Generate breakthrough productivity gains 
• Leverage Gartner's counsel for evaluating specialized solutions
• Expand the benefits of a company's initial ERP investment

— WebWireID174924 —

Dell today announced it will enable Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V as a viable hypervisor choice for the OpenStack cloud platform. This development, which is the first instance of a leading technology vendor enabling Windows Server Hyper-V hypervisor on OpenStack for private clouds, will give customers additional flexibility and choice to run OpenStack workloads within their existing Windows Server environments.

Dell will enable key features of the Windows Server 2012 virtualization platform for OpenStack, including network virtualization, policy-based isolation, Quality of Service (QoS) and multi-tenancy. Additionally, Dell is working with other OpenStack members for the optimization of OpenStack components including OpenStack Compute for Hyper-V, OpenStack Block Storage for Windows, and Dell Crowbar provisioning. Dell is targeting availability of initial functionality in an upcoming release of the OpenStack project.

'Dell has been an active sponsor of OpenStack for almost three years,' said Forrest Norrod, general manager, Dell Server Solutions. 'This project from Dell will help the OpenStack community gain additional value from investments in Windows Server 2012, with opportunity to further explore OpenStack-based solutions and workloads within existing environments.'

Dell and Microsoft have a longstanding relationship and this effort is in addition to Dell's current support for native Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V. Microsoft is working with Dell to provide support to enable interoperability. Dell will also work to have System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager, federated with OpenStack Image Manager, to provide full functionality. The concept of federating System Center Virtual Machine Manager with OpenStack Image Manager is to minimize synchronization issues to OpenStack customers running a hybrid environment with Integration to customers using Window Server 2012 Hyper-V in this environment.

Dell has been part of the OpenStack community since its announcement in 2010 and offers a packaged OpenStack solution today, the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, along with a number of joint solutions with partners. Dell also holds two seats on the OpenStack Board of Directors.

As part of Dell's broader cloud strategy, Dell has been a pioneer in working with customers to design and build private clouds through its industry-leading Server, Storage and Networking infrastructure products in addition to its recently unveiled Active Systems portfolio.

About Openstack
OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface. The OpenStack Foundation promotes the development, distribution and adoption of the OpenStack cloud operating system. For more information, visit www.openstack.org.

About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

Dell Enterprise Forum
Dell Enterprise Forum is the premier technical event for the Dell data center community. End users and channel partners will learn how to optimize Dell enterprise environments from servers to storage to cloud. Learn more at www.DellEnterpriseForum.com or follow #DellEF on Twitter.

Dell, Dell Enterprise Forum, and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

— WebWireID174937 —

By calling 800-238-1777 for IT Support Long Island NY, Small and Midsize Businesses can expect Same Day service available 7 days a week and an industry certified Engineer at the business location within 3-4 hours during business hours  and 4-6 hours on off hours and weekends.

For their peace of mind, Business Owners in Long Island NY can also expect a 30-Day Labor Warranty.

About 360 Network Services, Inc.:
Headquartered in Buffalo, NY, with a nationwide reach. We serve clients with up to 250 employees in practically every major industry from Healthcare to Legal, Education, Finance, Non-profit, Manufacturing and others. We also serve State and Local Governments.

What we do:
360 Network Services, Inc. is a leading provider of IT Support Services for Small and Medium Businesses nationwide. We offer a wide variety of IT Support Services including but not limited to IT Managed Services, On Demand IT Support, Cloud Computing Services, Data Backup and IT Project Services.From unlimited IT Help Desk Support to an OnSite technician, 360 Network Services offers IT Support Solutions tailored to fit your organization's needs.

For more information please call us at 800-238-1777 or visit our website 360networkservices.com

— WebWireID174911 —

Avaya delivers standards-based video collaboration on its Avaya Aura platform as well as traditional video conferencing through its acquisition of Radvision, which has been providing open, interoperable IP-based video solutions for more than 20 years. In addition, Avaya offers Collaborative Cloud enablement solutions for service providers, and Scopia video solutions are at the core of many video-as-a-service (VaaS) offerings and VNOC services.

As a leading provider of real-time enterprise collaboration solutions, Avaya will actively participate in the technical activities of the OVCC as well as provide its expertise in the areas of video software and hardware interoperability, call control platforms, and session border control. By joining the consortium, Avaya experts will help deliver better multivendor interoperability and performance and help protect the investments customers have already made in video technologies.

OVCC members are creating expansive visual and collaborative communication opportunities to deliver video as the new voice. The world's most influential global and managed service providers offer enterprise users a consistent experience with services easy enough to use everyday.

Executive Quotes:

"We are pleased to welcome Avaya, whose membership signals its commitment to growing the overall visual and collaborative communications market and connecting video calls as effortlessly as connecting a mobile call. Avaya and more than 30 other OVCC members have joined the consortium to answer market needs and opportunities for their customers that can only be addressed with a quality-assured global service delivery network open to any service provider, managed service provider and device maker."
--Andrew McFadzen, President, OVCC

"Avaya has a rich heritage of actively participating in industry standardization bodies and consortium activities as a way to help ensure that our products meet customer needs and applicable requirements, and also to better align Avaya innovations and emerging, industry standards. We're delighted to join the OVCC and help it deliver on its promise of enabling video collaboration across any network, vendor platform, and device."
--Gary E. Barnett, SVP and General Manager, Avaya

About OVCC
Open Visual Communications Consortium creates expansive visual and collaborative communication opportunities to deliver video as the new voice. The groundbreaking OVCC global service delivery network creates the technical and commercial framework for OVCC service providers to deliver consistent visual and collaborative communications experiences to enterprise users across networks, vendors and devices. OVCC members are global video exchange providers, network providers, manufacturers and solution providers dedicated to transforming everyday business communication from simple and reliable audio to simple and reliable video. For more information or to join the Consortium, visit www.ovcc.net. Open Visual Communications Consortium is a non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code.

About Avaya:
Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov . Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

OVCC is a trademark or registered trademark of the Open Visual Communications Consortium in the United States, other countries or both. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.

— WebWireID174897 —

LevelUp will initially interface with the industry-leading NCR Aloha POS using a site-based integration, while in parallel developing its solution for deployment via NCR Cloud Connect expected later this year. LevelUp will be one of the first companies to integrate into Cloud Connect, a new hosted infrastructure that will allow leading third parties to integrate, maintain and deploy their solution across NCR's install base of more than 100,000 locations on the Aloha, Radiant POS and Advanced Restaurant System platforms.

Today's restaurant operator wants to leverage technology in an integrated way to make their everyday life easier. Gartner estimates mobile payments worldwide will have 448 million users and account for $617 billion in transaction value by 2016*.

'LevelUp has always known that in order for mobile payments to become a standard for merchants, we need to provide a solution that seamlessly fits into their existing systems. The NCR relationship is significant because it makes using LevelUp simple for the tens of thousands of restaurants who already run Aloha,' said Seth Priebatsch, chief ninja at LevelUp. 'NCR understands what it takes to help restaurants keep pace with technology, and by integrating LevelUp, we are helping them get the great tools they need to run their businesses better.'

NCR's open API software enables integration to the Aloha POS by approved third-party applications. With this integration, restaurants using Aloha POS will be able to accept LevelUp transactions faster and easier than ever before. First, LevelUp transactions will be seamlessly logged with all other cash and credit card transactions, making reconciling the day's receipts simple. Second, data from LevelUp campaigns will be automatically integrated into a restaurant's existing Aloha POS system.

'As the leading provider of technology to the restaurant industry in the U.S., NCR is committed to bringing a wide variety of in-house and third-party mobile and digital wallet technologies to our customers, adding more value to their businesses,' said Kim Eaton, SVP and GM of NCR Hospitality. 'Using this new integration platform, our customers can choose the technology that is the best fit for their operations and for delivering exceptional experiences to their guests.'

'As the Managing Partner of a restaurant chain that uses NCR Aloha POS and is soon to launch a white-labeled LevelUp application, I was really excited to hear about this integration,' said Brett Schulman, CEO and co-founder of Cava Mezze Grill. 'In the restaurant space, having all payment transaction and marketing campaign data seamlessly filter into one system will ultimately allow us to make smarter business decisions and forge deeper connections with our customers.'

*Forecast: Mobile Payment, Worldwide, 2009-2016." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=2010515

About LevelUp
LevelUp is a revolutionary new way to pay. Users pay with their phone, saving time and money. Businesses pay 0% payment processing fees and re-invest those savings into growing their businesses by attracting new customers and bringing them back. LevelUp is a part of SCVNGR, which is backed by Google Ventures, Balderton Capital, Continental Advisors, Highland Capital, Transmedia Capital and T-Venture, the venture arm of Deutsche-Telekom.

About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is the global leader in consumer transaction technologies, turning everyday interactions with businesses into exceptional experiences. With its software, hardware, and portfolio of services, NCR enables more than 300 million transactions daily across the retail, financial, travel, hospitality, telecom and technology industries. NCR solutions run the everyday transactions that make your life easier.

NCR is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia with over 26,000 employees and does business in 180 countries. NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.

— WebWireID174895 —

'We are thrilled with the release of Wirecast 4.3, which adds even more sophisticated capabilities for streaming multi-camera live events,' said Filippa Hasselstrom, Director of Desktop Product Marketing at Telestream. 'The new features in 4.3 enable anyone, from video novice to professional, to easily and cost-effectively produce more complicated live streamed productions, incorporating multiple remote and local live sources, as well as recorded video.'

The new live thumbnail feature in Wirecast 4.3 enables real-time monitoring of all live source shots in the shot window. This allows users to see exactly what's happening on each live input at any point in time, making the process of switching between multiple live cameras faster and more manageable.

Wirecast 4.3 now displays a countdown clock whenever an imported video clip is playing, showing the time remaining before the video clip ends. This enables users more precise information to prepare for upcoming switches.

The addition of an innovative new plugin, developed by Teradek for Wirecast Pro enables flexible and economical live streaming options for easier capture of remote sources and more scalable publishing of local sources.

This plugin enables the Teradek Bond (bonded 3G/4G uplink) or the Teradek Cube (via Internet connection) to capture and send live video to Teradek's Sputnik server software running in the cloud or on a server -- even from private IP addresses, bypassing firewall restrictions. Wirecast Pro easily pulls in the live remote sources from Sputnik; effectively enabling users to easily connect any remote video source on any network to a Wirecast system located anywhere.

The integration with Teradek Cube also supports UDP Multicasting, providing a one-to-many distribution solution without bogging down the network. This is ideal for live events where multiple parties want to tap into one video source for multiple distributions to their own channels.

Wirecast is the only cross-platform, all-in-one live streaming production software that enables capture, live production, and encoding of live streams for broadcast to multiple servers and platforms simultaneously. Wirecast is ideal for streaming or recording live internet shows, broadcasting breaking news and sports, streaming live concerts, transmitting church services, corporate meetings, lectures and more.

Wirecast is being demonstrated at Streaming Media East booth 101 in New York City on May 21-22, 2013. More information and a free trial are available at www.telestream.net/wirecast/.

####

Trademarked company and product names are the property of their respective companies.

About Telestream
Telestream provides world-class live and on-demand digital video tools and workflow solutions that allow consumers and businesses to transform video on the desktop and across the enterprise. Many of the world's most demanding media and entertainment companies as well as a growing number of users in a broad range of business environments, rely on Telestream products to streamline operations, reach broader audiences and generate more revenue from their media. Telestream products span the entire digital media lifecycle, including video capture and ingest; live and on-demand encoding and transcoding; playout, delivery, and live streaming; as well as automation and orchestration of the entire workflow. Telestream corporate headquarters are located in Nevada City, California. The company is privately held. For more information, visit www.telestream.net.

— WebWireID174891 —

Haifa, Israel - As water increasingly becomes one of the world's most precious resources, IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists are working with Arad Group, a world leader in reliable water meter systems, to help water companies and utilities around the globe provide more effective and efficient management of drinking water through the use of Big Data and advanced analytics technology.

Water use has increased at more than twice the rate of population growth in the last century.[1] This means cities, water companies and utilities are facing new challenges in providing a high quality supply of drinking water while keeping costs and energy use to a minimum. Many areas have already implemented automated meter infrastructures (AMI) to measure water consumption, providing highly accurate readings. However, employing advanced analytics on the collected data can provide an additional layer of insight, helping both customers and water utilities gain control of the water network and manage valuable water resources more effectively.

Big Data and analytics technology helps clients harness the explosion of data coming from a growing number of resources -- including data collected from utility meter readings and sensors. Arad Group is working with IBM to integrate the latest analytics algorithms into Arad's Dailog3G and City-Mind software.

This means utilities and water companies can benefit from early indications of abnormal consumption, reliable fault detection to determine when there is a leak or water waste, and optimized customer interactions. The IBM algorithms are based on machine learning, data mining, and statistical analysis techniques. For example, these advanced features allow Arad's City-Mind software to learn whether the usage is a pattern that occurred before, if it is appropriate for the current seasonal demand, and whether it coincides with what neighboring families are consuming.

Established more than 70 years ago, Arad Group processes water consumption data for hundreds of millions of records each day, based on tens of millions of meters in over 50 countries across the globe. That is an estimated 5 billion gallons of water measured each day – enough to fill more than 50,000 swimming pools. The Big Data solutions available from IBM were an ideal fit to boost the data management capabilities in the company's field-proven automated meter systems.

"Highly specialized analytics from IBM provide an additional layer of insight into our technology, allowing us to provide utilities and water companies worldwide with the most advanced solutions and services to reduce water costs, improve customer service, and provide higher efficiency of water usage," said Gabi Yankovitz, CEO of Arad Group.

Developed by IBM scientists in Israel, Big Data analytics identify problems and patterns and differentiate between issues such as leaks and excessive use of water that could result in the waste of millions of gallons of water. It also provides water utilities with insight and helps identify when low or no water use signals a problem.

Reducing the number of false alerts helps technicians know when meters need replacement or repair. For example, when a utility company observes water consumption that is zero or almost zero over a long period of time, a technician is often sent to examine the situation. While this could indicate a broken or faulty meter, it could also be the result of something as common as a family vacation—in which case sending a technician is a waste of time and money.

The IBM analytics tool increases the confidence of differentiating between meters that are truly faulty and false alarms. Field tests have already shown a potential reduction of 50 percent in the number of technician visits, saving valuable time and human resources to address conservation and water management.

"These insights have the potential to revolutionize data management for utilities and help them develop transform their business," said Oded Cohn, director of IBM Research in Haifa, Israel, where the smart water analytics were developed. "Analyzing customer data that is collected for billing purposes can serve as a crucial factor in saving valuable resources and improving service in many industries."

In the future, IBM expects predictive algorithms to help utilities better plan for demand and as a result better manage resources, such as tank levels, pressure, and pump scheduling.

Arad has embedded IBM analytics into their Dailog3G and CityMind Meter Data Management software to give their customers the benefits of higher quality water analysis services.

• Operational benefits – By reducing the number of false alerts, utilities will dramatically cut down the amount of unnecessary technician visits.
• Financial benefits – New reductions in non-revenue water and water loss will help water companies save money and yield proven return on investment.
• Customer care benefits – The advanced features can be extended to provide customers with email or SMS alerts when a leak is detected, and enable consumers to immediately view their consumption via mobile devices. With access to knowledge and useful metrics, consumers are better informed and require fewer calls to customer service.
• Environmental benefits – Faster detection of leaks means better conservation of water and reduced waste.

IBM has established the world's deepest portfolio of Big Data technologies and solutions, spanning services, software, research and hardware. IBM has committed more than $100 million in R&D on new Big Data technologies and garnered more than 500 analytics-related patents.

For more information on IBM Research, visit: http://www.research.ibm.com/

For more information on IBM Smarter Water, visit www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/water

The Arad Group is an international leader in water metering technologies, with centers in Israel, the US (Master Meter), China, and Spain (Contazara). For more information, visit www.arad.co.il

[1] Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UN-Water

— WebWireID174861 —

Today, nearly 15 percent of all new enterprise application functionality is written in COBOL. The programming language also powers many everyday services such as ATM transactions, check processing, travel booking and insurance claims. With more than 200 billion lines of COBOL code being used across industries such as banking, insurance, retail and human resources, it is crucial for businesses to have the appropriate framework to improve performance, modernize key applications and increase productivity.

IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS, enables developers to deliver significant performance improvements in their business critical applications. For example, applications using the new compiler have shown performance increases of 10 to 20 percent.

'COBOL powers many of the critical systems people rely on everyday,' said Kevin Stoodley, Rational chief technology officer and IBM Fellow. 'With this new software, IBM is helping companies reduce operating costs and processing time associated with these applications while delivering new capabilities to take advantage of cloud, Web and mobile devices.

The new software helps companies deliver innovative solutions to their customers and reduce costs by:

· Providing support for Java 7, new UTF-8 built-ins, debugging enhancements, and support for unbounded tables and groups.

· Supporting a new level of z/OS System Management Facilities (SMF) tracking, which allows users who implement sub-capacity tracking to reduce their administrative overhead.

· Improving control over XML documents with the z/OS XML parser, allowing parsing workload to be off loaded to specialty engines to reduce operating costs.

IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS v5.1 compiler works with the latest versions of IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS), Information Management System (IMS) and DB2 software and is expected to be available later this quarter.

IBM was recently named the number one vendor in the Gartner market share for Application Development software with 22.4% share (Gartner, Market Share: All Software Markets, Worldwide, 2012, March 29, 2013).

For more information, visit http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/us/en/entecoboforzos

— WebWireID174844 —

GoalRef™ has been one FIFA's preferred goal-line technologies since the FIFA Club World Cup took place in Japan in late 2012. An international audience witnessed the system successfully passing its first big test under real-world competitive conditions. For instance, during the final in Yokohama between Chelsea F.C. and Sao Paulo's Corinthians, GoalRef™ helped to quickly clear up a confusing situation in front of the Brazilian team's goal: Despite not having a clear view of the ball, the referee had no hesitation in allowing play to continue as his wristwatch had not received a 'Goal' signal.

The Fraunhofer-developed goal-line technology uses a low-intensity magnetic field that is created by antennas attached to the goalposts and crossbar. As soon as the ball travels through the magnetic field created above the goal line, a signal is sent to the referee's watch, allowing them to decide immediately whether or not a goal has been scored.

The system is easy and inexpensive to install at any soccer stadium. Apart from the antennas attached to the goal frames, all that is needed is a special ball. Embedded in the ball are coils that are able to trigger antenna signals and require no power supply. The Derbystar ball has been developed by Danish company Select and Fraunhofer IIS for use with GoalRef™ at the Copa Amsterdam.

For video footage of GoalRef being used at the FIFA Club World Cup go to: http://fifa.to/12aNgG5

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Ciber will manage evaluation of interfaces, design and development of conversions for data, fit-gap analysis for reports, user acceptance testing, as well as cutover planning and activation. This engagement builds on the successful integration of processes and migration of data Ciber managed last year, after Le Duff America acquired Bruegger's Bagels.

'Once we saw how Ciber managed our last integration project, we knew we could trust them with this one,' said Mike Clock, chief financial officer for Le Duff America. 'We also knew Ciber could manage the combination of Oracle and Infor technologies we use.'

'Ciber has global practices focused on all the leading ERP system providers,' said Beth Dvoracek, Ciber's senior Infor practice director. 'We'll coordinate this effort between staff in our Infor and Oracle practices to ensure that Le Duff America gets consultants who know integration best practices as well as the specific technologies involved.'

Le Duff America is consolidating its back-office business systems to achieve significant IT cost savings and operate more efficiently. Company managers also will gain more insight by having access to data that encompasses all of the organization's restaurant brands.

During the consolidation associated with the Bruegger's Bagels acquisition, Ciber supported Le Duff with business process calibration consulting. Ahead, Ciber's team anticipates helping Le Duff expand its use of Infor and Oracle software to attain top benefit from these investments.

Ciber's relationship with Infor dates back to 1995. As one of Infor's largest systems integration partners, Ciber's Infor experts have enhanced client systems capabilities through more than 2 million consulting hours.

A Platinum level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), Ciber has helped more than 1,000 clients in more than 2,000 separate engagements leverage their Oracle applications to improve business processes, reduce costs and provide support for management decision-making.

About Le Duff America

Le Duff America is a division of French-based Groupe Le Duff, the second largest bakery-café company worldwide. In North America, the organization manages several brands, including la Madeleine Country French Café, Bruegger's Bagels, Timothy's World Coffee, Brioche Dorée and Mimi's Restaurants.

About Ciber, Inc.

Ciber is a global IT consulting company with 6,700 consultants in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific, and approximately $1 billion in annual revenue. Client focused and results driven, Ciber partners with organizations to develop technology strategies and solutions that deliver tangible business value. Founded in 1974, the company trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CBR). For more information, visit www.ciber.com.

About Infor

Infor is fundamentally changing the way information is published and consumed in the enterprise, helping 70,000 customers in 194 countries improve operations, drive growth, and quickly adapt to changes in business demands. Infor offers deep industry-specific applications and suites, engineered for speed, and with an innovative user experience design that is simple, transparent, and elegant. Infor provides flexible deployment options that give customers a choice to run their businesses in the cloud, on-premises, or both. To learn more about Infor, please visit www.infor.com.

Infor customers include:

• 19 of the top 20 aerospace companies
• 12 of the top 13 high tech companies
• 10 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies
• 23 of the top 50 largest U.S. hospitals
• 43 of the top 50 industrial distributors
• 26 of the top 35 global retailers
• 5 of the top 9 brewers

About Oracle PartnerNetwork
Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized is the latest version of Oracle's partner program that provides partners with tools to better develop, sell and implement Oracle solutions. OPN Specialized offers resources to train and support specialized knowledge of Oracle products and solutions and has evolved to recognize Oracle's growing product portfolio, partner base and business opportunity. Key to the latest enhancements to OPN is the ability for partners to differentiate through Specializations. Specializations are achieved through competency development, business results, expertise and proven success. To find out more, visit http://www.oracle.com/partners. Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

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'Apple would like to thank our incredible customers and developers for topping 50 billion apps downloaded,' said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. 'The App Store completely transformed how people use their mobile devices and created a thriving app ecosystem that has paid out over nine billion dollars to developers. We're absolutely floored to cross this milestone in less than five years.'

The App Store opened in July 2008 with 500 apps. Since its introduction, Apple's incredible developer community has created an app for doing almost everything imaginable on an iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch®.

'We were blown away with our success on the App Store back in 2008,' said Rich Riley, CEO of Shazam. 'And almost five years later we continue to be amazed with how much people love using Shazam on their iPhone or iPad. With the App Store, we can effortlessly provide users with updates that give them great new features while making it easy for new users to discover and download Shazam for themselves.'

'We started our company in 2008 as three friends focused on creating great educational apps for our children,' said Caroline Hu Flexer, co-founder of Duck Duck Moose. 'The App Store brought 'Wheels on the Bus' to the world in a big way. Sixteen apps later, a fan base of millions of parents, children and educators and a growing company with 20 full-time employees, we couldn't be happier with our success.'

'The App Store has been integral in getting us into the hands of millions of iOS users and has transformed our business,' said Elizabeth Francis, Chief Marketing Officer of Gilt.com. 'Our apps allow our members to access their favorite sales on Gilt every day, anytime, anywhere. App Store customers have proven to be a loyal shopper base and have been influential in making Gilt the globally recognized brand it is today.'

The revolutionary App Store offers more than 850,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 155 countries around the world, with more than 350,000 native iPad apps available. App Store customers can choose from an incredible range of apps in 23 categories, including newspapers and magazines offered in Newsstand, games, business, news, sports, health & fitness and travel.

*50 billion unique downloads excluding re-downloads and updates.

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.

Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, App Store, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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The Working Mother Research Institute, which conducted the study, found a significant jump in participation rates for the Best Companies' education programs. For example, 42 percent of all employees participated in gender diversity education this year, up from 23 percent in 2012. A total of 76 percent of the Best Companies have mandatory diversity training for their workforces.

'As a global company, CA Technologies is committed to diversity and recognize that our ability to increase innovation, improve execution and act with greater speed depends on our people and diverse perspectives,' said Beth Conway, vice president, Human Resources, CA Technologies. 'Working Mother has once again recognized the company's commitment to diversity and we are honored to be acknowledged for the third consecutive year.'

Carol Evans, president of Working Mother Media, says, 'The Best Companies for Multicultural Women know that a truly diverse workforce makes for an effective team, one that's plugged into the needs and desires of its customers. Grooming female leaders has become a crucial mandate, and great companies are simultaneously weaving diversity into their culture. However, many challenges lie ahead for all U.S. companies to build a pipeline of diverse talent to represent them at every level of decision-making and management.'

Key findings of the 2013 Working Mother report can be found on workingmother.com.

Methodology

The Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women requires candidates to have at least 500 employees. The winners were selected based on their answers to an extensive questionnaire on representation; hiring, attrition and promotion rates; recruitment, retention and advancement programs; and company culture. The Working Mother Research Institute created a scoring algorithm based on the previous year's benchmark results to determine the winners.

About Working Mother

Working Mother magazine reaches 2.2 million readers and is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers; WorkingMother.com (workingmother.com) gives working mothers @home and @work advice, solutions, and ideas. This year marks the 28th anniversary of Working Mother's signature research initiative, the Working Mother 100 Best Companies, and the eleventh year of the Best Companies for Multicultural Women. Working Mother Media, a division of Bonnier Corporation (bonnier.com), includes the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE, nafe.com), Diversity Best Practices (diversitybestpractices.com), and the Working Mother Research Institute. Working Mother Media's mission is to serve as a champion of culture change.

About CA Technologies

CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) provides IT management solutions that help customers manage and secure complex IT environments to support agile business services. Organizations leverage CA Technologies software and SaaS solutions to accelerate innovation, transform infrastructure and secure data and identities, from the data center to the cloud. Learn more about CA Technologies at www.ca.com.

Legal Notices

Copyright © 2013 CA. All Rights Reserved. One CA Plaza, Islandia, N.Y. 11749. All other trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

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Award-winning editors Jason Ballantine and Matt Villa used Avid Media Composer to cut festival opener 'The Great Gatsby,' in 3D

Avid® (NASDAQ: AVID) today celebrates The Great Gatsby, the 2013 Cannes Film Festival opener, which was cut on the industry's preeminent nonlinear editing solution, Avid Media Composer®.

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 15 – 26th, will open with the latest adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The 3D film was cut by award-winning editors Jason Ballantine ASE and Matt Villa ASE on Media Composer. With careers spanning over 20 years, Ballantine and Villa are long-time Media Composer users and have worked on major projects including, Moulin Rouge, Australia, Wolf Creek, Happy Feet Two and Daybreakers. Ballantine is currently using Media Composer on his next project, Mad Max: Fury Road; and Villa is using it to cut Predestination.

'Every film throws a new set of creative and technical challenges for post-production that must be overcome,' said Ballantine. 'With so many variations in workflows to navigate, it's incredibly reassuring that there is no decision to be made with the offline cutting system – it's always Media Composer, that's a given. The reliability and functionality of the entire Avid product range is second to none.'

Media Composer empowers the industry's top professionals to edit movies with 64-bit performance and provides easy-to-use video editing tools, and streamlined HD, file-based, and stereo 3D workflows.

'During the shoot we had an editing station permanently on location and during post we had two fully operational cutting rooms running concurrently and in perfect sync; one in Sydney and one in LA,' explained Matt Villa, co-editor of The Great Gatsby. 'We called upon many tools from the Avid family to deal with the 3D material and they never faltered. Productions of this scale can be unrestrained and unpredictable, but Avid never fails in being stable yet flexible enough to get these jobs done.'

"Jason and Matt have done outstanding work on The Great Gatsby,' said W. Sean Ford, vice president of worldwide marketing for Avid. 'Their achievement is a great example of why we are so committed to providing editors with the technology that lets them push the limits of what is technically possible-- from syncing workflows across many locations, to working with 3D material. The Great Gatsby is a perfect example of what can result when professionals have the tools they need to turn their creative visions into reality.'
About Avid

Avid creates the digital audio and video technology used to make the most listened to, most watched and most loved media in the world – from the most prestigious and award-winning feature films, music recordings, television shows, to live concert tours and news broadcasts. Some of Avid's most influential and pioneering solutions include Media Composer®, Pro Tools®, Interplay®, ISIS®, VENUE, Sibelius®, and System 5. For more information about Avid solutions and services, visit www.avid.com, connect with Avid on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+; or subscribe to Avid Blogs.

© 2013 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Avid, the Avid logo, Interplay, ISIS, Mbox, Media Composer, Pro Tools and Sibelius are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. The Interplay name is used with the permission of the Interplay Entertainment Corp. which bears no responsibility for Avid products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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LeaseRunner's report, which contains critical, first-hand data collected from its customer base of real estate investors, agents and accidental landlords across some 2,000 cities nationwide, reveals targeted economic issues as they relate to the rental property sector and the housing U.S. housing market in general.

Among the highlights of this year's report is that rents, according to some 60 percent of the respondents, are expected to rise over the next year. In addition, tenant demand, according to 71 percent of the respondents, could not be stronger, as they report that for every vacancy, three or more prospective tenants will show interest. In addition, 95 percent of the respondents say that this is not the time to sell investment properties.

LeaseRunner's annual survey also contains data and market trends broken down by industry groupings. So, while their rental housing market data and trends are presented in the aggregate, readers are also able to dig down further into the report to analyze survey responses from each group polled. For example, while 78 percent of real estate agents and 76 percent of real estate investors say that they are considering buying investment properties in the next two years, only 54 percent of accidental landlords indicate they will also be in the market to purchase investment property.

"We've learned that most real estate agents and investors are looking to buy long term, since income properties are a significant part of their retirement plan,' said LeaseRunner founder and CEO, Joe Buczkowski. 'Conversely, we've learned that many accidental landlords are not looking to hold long term, and they will likely be the first group to sell in the near term.'
 
LeaseRunner is in solid position to conduct and report on the conditions of the rental housing market. The company's in-depth knowledge and penetration into the housing sector through its highly effective tenant screening and property management services may be easily and quickly integrated with online renter credit check and rental ads. Its widely popular online features, such as its digital leasing web applications that allow users to manage leasing transactions from any web-connected device, are pushing the company toward becoming one of the most trusted resources for independent landlords and real estate professionals alike.

LeaseRunner's Rental Industry Report is compiled from data taken directly from its customer database and is considered a must-read for professionals in the rental housing market and a valued reference for anyone involved in the industry. The trends spotlighted in this year's report make for particularly critical reading considering the overall turbulence in the U.S. housing market, specifically pointing to solid long-term investment in the sector and the impact for real estate professionals who work with rental property transactions.

"The survey results show that real estate professionals and investors are actively looking to acquire investment properties, so real estate agents must understand how to analyze and market a property from the investor's point of view," added Buczkowski.

About LeaseRunner:   LeaseRunner is a comprehensive online tenant screening and rental management services provider, offering highly efficient digital leasing web applications that allow users to manage leasing transactions from any web-connected device. These include tenant screening technology for landlords and all real estate professionals, as well as credit and criminal records, landlord rental applications, online rental application through digital signing technology, and rental payment collections.

For more information about LeaseRunner visit their website or call 303-468-8018. 

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Los Angeles, CA – May 15, 2013 – iPR Software, http://iprsoftware.com, the industry leader in public relations and marketing software solutions, has delivered 43 million Facebook followers for their clients in the first quarter of 2013, an increase from 28 million this same time last year. This validates the effectiveness and power of iPR Software's integrated social media tools.

While clients like Yahoo!, Target, and Xerox provide the dynamic Content Marketing assets, such as news releases, HD Video, and Hi-resolution images, the ability to integrate social media into their online newsrooms and distributions is possible with the assistance of the online experts at iPR Software. 

iPR Software's public relations and marketing tools include customized, branded online newsrooms, integrated social media feeds, mobile optimized sites, digital press kits, crisis communication sites, and embedded multimedia galleries, just to name a few. Empowered with the easy-to-use Content Management System (CMS), iPR Software's clients connection to 43 million is part of the social media and sharing tactics that also include email alerts, RSS Feeds, and targeted information news distributions to targeted audiences, media lists, and newswires.

"We're very proud to serve the quality clients at iPR Software and assist in driving their social media efforts," says JD Bowles, President and COO of iPR Software. "The 35% increase in Facebook Followers from last year is an impressive achievement for our clients and evidence of the power of social media as a critical integrated PR and Marketing tactic."

With over 1 billion users and over 11 million business pages, Facebook is a critical element for any successful online PR and Marketing efforts. iPR Software makes social media tasks easy through their all-in-one CMS solution. If you would like to explore how iPR Software can assist you with your integrated social media efforts, Click here to receive a complimentary social media analysis of your newsroom and marketing content (a $500.00 value), or contact us at 800-514-1897 and on the web atwww.iprsoftware.com.

About iPR Software
iPR Software is the premier global provider of  public relations and marketing software that delivers increased brand visibility, drives traffic to corporate websites, and maximizes ROI with key audiences.  Its  solutions empower engagement across all traditional and social media channels via online, digital, and mobile networks. The  all-in-one proprietary CMS workflow solutions and customized platforms enable corporate communicators and marketers to target key influencers, produce and self-publish rich media content, host and distribute optimized content, and analyze key measurements and metrics to increase B2B and B2C engagements.

Media Contact:
James Madden
jmadden@iprsoftware.com
310-494-2637
 

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