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Virtusa launches BPM Test Drive

Virtusa Corporation a global IT services company that offers a broad spectrum of business consulting and outsourcing services, has introduced the Virtusa BPM Test Drive for Needs Assessment, Business Case and ROI from Gartner’s Business Process Management (BPM) Summit 2010.

This intensive three-week program, focused on BPM education, evaluation of challenges, business case creation, prototype development and technology evaluation and recommendation, establishes a framework for a client’s successful BPM engagement.

For many enterprises, BPM has dramatically improved operational efficiency, increased agility and accelerated time-to-market.

Despite these proven benefits, many BPM projects fail to deliver on their potential due to a failure to align the organization, clearly articulate goals and address non-technology challenges. Virtusa’s BPM Test Drive addresses this issue by anticipating and averting the common pitfalls that prevent organizations from reaping the full value of BPM.

“We have successfully implemented BPM programs for customers in many industries, and we’ve learned that success is determined during the early stages,” Vice President and BPM practice leader Vinaykumar Mummigatti said.

“Since we know that BPM is about business transformation, not technology, our BPM Test Drive immediately aligns business and IT stakeholders around a shared vision of BPM, participants’ roles, project goals and success criteria.

Our BPM Test Drive ensures that our customers are always among the 50 percent of BPM programs that succeed.”

Dulux colour testers unveiled

Akzo Nobel Paints Lanka, a member of CIC Group and supplier of Dulux, unveiled a new way of colouring dream walls at the recently concluded Architect 2010

exhibition.

A showstopper at the event, the attractively designed Dulux booth was ablaze with a varied colour palette - enveloping all those who entered the innovatively devised booth in a dreamlike state.

Serene greens, calm blues, fiery reds and passionate purples - colour never looked so good before.

The newly-launched colour testers offer customers the facility to try out any colour that catches their fancy, before investing in a large quantity of paint for their homes or offices.

Experimenting with colours and spoiling the customer for choice is a privilege that Dulux takes seriously.

As an extension of this desire to offer its customers world-class products, Dulux has pioneered ‘colour testers’ to the Sri Lankan market.

A novel concept that is capturing the imagination of people globally, ‘colour testers’ are small tubes of paint available at a nominal cost that allow customers to try out a small area on a wall before opting for the colour.

This pioneering move offers convenience and affordability, as the customer does not have to invest in a litre of paint only to find that the colour perhaps does not suit the requirement eventually.

By using these colour testers, customers will get a precise idea of what the colour will look like on the wall, since the tester tubes contain the precise colour shade as the larger cans of paint.

Richard Pieris Tyre Company appraises dealers

All authorized tyre dealers in the Western Province who transact business with Richard Pieris Tyre Company’s main factory at Navinna, Maharagama were appraised by the company’s Director/General Manager, Pushpika Janadeera at a function headed by him at the Biyagama Village Hotel.

Over 200 dealers participated. And the winners were: First Place - Proprietor Chandrapala Wijesinghe of Kiribathgoda Tyre Service, Second Place - Proprietor Susantha Rathnayake of Rathnayake Stores Kirindiwela and Third Place - Proprietor Wasantha Pushpakumara of Chamara Enterprises Gampaha.

The winners received valuable prizes, certificates and trophies while the rest of the participants received a special commemorative gift.

What was noteworthy of this event was that the appraisals were carried out under the respective divisions —Tyre Retreading, Trading (Birla Corsa and other tyres) and tyre related products —separately.

The event concluded with a grand finale of song and dance for the enjoyment of all.

Richard Pieris Tyre Company is the pioneer in tyre rebuilding in Sri Lanka and the leader in the tyre market in the island.

Over 50,000 tyres per month are released to the market with Arpidag being the flagship product of the company.

Richard Pieris is the authorized dealer islandwide for brands such as Birla from India, Corsa Radial from Indonesia and Casumina from Vietnam.

Apart from tyre trading the company also distributes Arpico tubes, Birla tubes and Arpico flaps.

Janadeera said in spite of a tight financial scenario where most companies were on the verge of closure, Richard Pieris Tyre Company however was able to showcase profitability.

That came about because products were able to maintain high quality standards, delivery was on time and were affordable. All of this resulted in a high demand for the company’s products.

whereby the company was able to realize its expansion schemes of the Nawinna Tyre Manufacturing Plant at a cost of Rs 15 million.

Etisalat extends customer reach to US region

Etisalat has partnered with Global Crossing, a leading global IP solutions provider, to offer seamless connectivity alternatives to customers keen to expand their connectivity to the US, Canada and Latin America from the UAE.

As part of this alliance, Etisalat has set up its own node in New York with last mile connectivity provided by Global Crossing to offer global connectivity solutions through a secure and fully owned IP/MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Sw

itching) network.

This is part of Etisalat’s long-term strategy of enhancing global connectivity options for its corporate customers, a top official said.

“This partnership with Global Crossing is significant in terms of expanding the connectivity alternatives for our customers across the US, Canada and Latin America,” senior vice president, Business Solutions, Etisalat Abdulla Hashim said.

“This will enable us to leverage their local presence and the capabilities of their integrated IP-based network to support our customers.

Moreover, the presence of our own nodes is a major differentiator for customers across this region that now can rely on us for world class connectivity solutions with advantages like reliable quality of service and network management capabilities.”

With the setting up of these new nodes, Etisalat will offer secure IP/MPLS links to carry data traffic on its own network.

This also will translate into pricing advantages which will be passed on to customers since Etisalat will manage its own network from end-to-end in a seamless manner.

With this Etisalat joins a select list of top-tier service providers offering Global Crossing Fast-Track Services portfolio to their enterprise end users,” Hashim said.

Windows 7 sells over 90 million copies

Just two months after revealing that it had sold over 60 million copies of its new Windows 7 operating system in its first quarter of availability, Microsoft has now sold over 90 million copies.

Windows 7 continues to be the fast selling OS release in PC history, and despite claims that the world is moving on, this is a product line that continues to drive incredible financial results for the software giant.

“We’re humbled and excited that people are responding so positively to Windows 7,” a Microsoft blog post reads.

“Our customers have made it the fastest selling operating system in history.”

The “over 90 million copies sold to date” figure arrived courtesy of Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein, who shared the number during a presentation at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecom Conference yesterday. Klein had some other interesting information to share around other products as well, but the Windows 7 figure was, perhaps, the most interesting, though he appears to have glossed over it somewhat.

The strong performance of Windows 7 isn’t all that surprising, given that Microsoft’s PC maker partners sell about 300 million devices a year, and Windows is installed on over 95 percent of them.

Even the much maligned Windows Vista, supposedly a flop, sold several hundred million copies and generated billions in revenues for Microsoft.

But Windows 7 has been on the market for a short time.