Beta Availability of First Product For Proactive Business Intelligence

Panorama Software, a global leader in Proactive Business Intelligence (PBI) solutions, announced availability of the beta version of the first product developed specifically around its recently introduced PBI vision. Panorama NovaView Spotlight embeds key metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) into Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Office task pane that acts as a smart personal dashboard. NovaView Spotlight enables information workers to focus on the relevant insights that impact and drive business decisions and successes, and empowers information workers to take context sensitive structured actions based on these insights, without requiring complex BI tools or expertise.

New Competitive Intelligence Benchmarking Report

The Competitive Intelligence
unit plays a vital role by providing senior management and key decision
makers with actionable information they need to respond strategically to
external change. However, CI is a relatively new corporate function, often
underdeveloped and undervalued; at most companies the CI group was
established only in the last five years.

To be effective, a CI group needs an environment that includes
proximity to key customers and/or executives, opportunities for frequent
interaction with stakeholders, direct management by an executive champion,
functional independence and a seat at the decision table.

Insights and metrics were collected from surveys and in-depth
interviews with CI leaders across industries, including Amgen,
Boehringer-Ingelheim, Boeing, Citigroup, Eli Lilly, Fidelity Investments,
IBM, Kraft, LexisNexis, Merck, Motorola, Novartis, Procter & Gamble,
Raytheon, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, SAS, and Wyeth. Data is presented for the
full benchmark class and the pharmaceutical segment.
Sample findings around structure and alignment of the CI group include:
-- 64 percent of benchmarked companies have standalone CI departments.
-- 26 percent of CI groups report to either strategic planning, 26 percent
to marketing and 22 percent report to market research.
-- On average, there are only 2.7 levels of management between the CI head
and the CEO, which helps achieve greater proximity to company decision-
makers.

The leading online competitive intelligence service

Hitwise Launches Election 2008 Data Center To Provide Online Insights Into Its Candidates and Politics Category

Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today announced the launch of its new Election 2008 Data Center, providing online usage data surrounding the 2008 US presidential election. This new feature to the Hitwise Data Center highlights which candidates are the most visited online and which candidates generate the highest volume of searches. This sample of Hitwise data is publicly available to political enthusiasts, marketers, bloggers, academics, and the media.


Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today announced the launch of its new Election 2008 Data Center, providing online usage data surrounding the 2008 US presidential election. This new feature to the Hitwise Data Center highlights which candidates are the most visited online and which candidates generate the highest volume of searches. This sample of Hitwise data is publicly available to political enthusiasts, marketers, bloggers, academics, and the media.

Hitwise Election 2008 data is based on the online usage and search behavior of how more than 10 million US Internet users interact with more than 1 million websites across more than 160 industry categories.

Dubai and Technology

UAE is one country that has experienced one of the biggest economic impacts by passing their Electronic Transactions and Commerce Law in 2002.

Today Dubai is a well-known e-Commerce centre. 70 per cent of government services are offered online in Dubai and even some IT companies in East Africa have moved operations to Dubai.

In 2004 the ruler of Dubai launched the Dubai Outsourced Zone to facilitate e-trading. This is the world's first free zone just dedicated to the outsourcing industry.

Dubai Internet City provides a strategic and cost effective platform for ICT companies and government.

Business licence application forms are processed electronically through the Dubai Internet Site.

Besides just having a world-class technical infrastructure, the Dubai government has backed e-business initiatives to support this vibrant environment.

IT in Kenya

Lack of an electronic communication and e-transaction legislation has hampered growth in the e-Commerce sub sector and also kept numerous potential investors away.

The Kenya Communications Amendment Bill 2007 is rather vague about the issue and does not adequately address electronic transaction or e-commerce issues.

The growth of the Internet and other electronic communications technologies is providing an array of opportunities and benefits for Kenyans especially in the business sector.

e-Commerce enables businesses to harness ICT to overcome distance. Businesses can use e-commerce to increase efficiency, access new markets and respond creatively and effectively to business opportunities and customer needs.

Industry data indicates that e-commerce is conservatively estimated to be worth over $2 trillion and an extraordinary growth is expected in the next few years.

For the Government to boost e-Commerce, it needs to have a strategy that would ensure that the legal and regulatory environment facilitates uptake of e-commerce across the country. This is critical to the future global competitiveness of Kenya and the region as a whole.

European Risk Management Strategy

Achievements to date

Achievements made between 2005 and 2007 are described in the 'Public Status Report on the Implementation of the European Risk Management Strategy'. Some of the achievements have been:

-- Implementing the legal tools for monitoring the safety of medicines and for regulatory actions provided for by revised EU pharmaceutical legislation, with particular emphasis on the systematic implementation of risk management plans;

-- Strengthening the spontaneous reporting scheme through further improvements to implementation of electronic reporting of adverse drug reactions to the EudraVigilance database;

-- Launching the European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCePP) project to strengthen the monitoring of medicinal products by facilitating the conduct of multi-centre post-authorisation safety studies;

-- Contributing, in collaboration with the European Commission, to the conduct of research in the field of pharmacovigilance and safety of medicines in the context of the Health Theme of the 7th Framework Programme;

-- Strengthening the organisation and the operation of the EU Pharmacovigilance System.

Priority areas for the next two years

Building on the achievements to date, the EMEA and HMA are in the process of finalising a work programme on activities to be undertaken over the next two years to further implement the ERMS. A number of environmental changes will impact on this work programme, such as the European Commission's Strategy to Better Protect Public Health by Strengthening and Rationalising EU Pharmacovigilance. Two main areas will be covered by the ERMS during the next two years: further improving the operation of the EU Pharmacovigilance System and strengthening the science that underpins the safety monitoring of medicines for human use. It is envisaged for this work programme to be published following the November 2007 HMA meeting.

1. In autumn 2002, the Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) agreed on the outline of a European Risk Management Strategy (ERMS). A summary report prepared by the HMA Ad Hoc Working Group on ERMS was subsequently published in January 2003 (MCA/PL/JM/HoASummaryReport.doc on http://heads.medagencies.org). The aim of the ERMS is to strengthen the safety monitoring in the EU of medicinal products for human use.

2. The 'Public Status Report on the Implementation of the European Risk Management Strategy' is available on the EMEA website http://www.emea.europa.eu/pdfs/human/phv/16895407en.pdf

3. The final version of the work programme to further implement the ERMS in the next two years will be presented at the November 2007 Heads of Medicines Agency Meeting.

Enterprise Security

Enterprises and end-users are making buying decisions based on vendor innovation. So says the recent IDC study, 'Innovation in the Security Software Market: Top Vendors from a Mindshare Perspective'. This indicates that organizations may be looking for value in their software investments, and not just the price. In general, many companies in the region may come across as being price sensitive, but this survey result suggests that companies may be willing to invest in more expensive software solutions if they see the value of their investments to the business.

The study reports that traditional heavyweights like Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, IBM, and Microsoft have been perceived by enterprise IT users to be innovative in the area of security software. However, large infrastructure software vendors, who were a part of the IDC survey, indicated that security wasn't their primary focus. This shows that other product lines in the portfolio of the vendor could have influenced the perception of how innovative a vendor's security products are. These players may have the opportunity to leverage their brand equity to leapfrog competitors in the security software business, especially if they are trusted names in the market for other products.

When respondents were asked about the benefits they look for when software vendors innovate, the response that made it to the top 3 list in all 4 countries was 'more value for money as vendors bundle new features in products'.


The top benefits mentioned when software companies innovate for Indian companies include 18% cost savings, 20% fewer integration problems, 5% improved business productivity, and 21% more value for money as vendors build new features in products.