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Canadian consulting firm Ideaca, a specialist in assisting customers through a portfolio of management consulting, advisory, implementation and support services, has announced that the company is expanding its retail practice into the United States.

Ideaca has been a leading provider of solutions to retailers for over 10 years with experience delivering Dynamics AX for Retail, combined with expertise in the end-to-end Microsoft suite. These solutions have delivered benefits for a variety of retail clients including LS Retail North America, Sobeys, Subaru and many others. Ideaca will now look to leverage that experience with a strong network of partners to deliver these solutions both in Canada and the United States.

Ideaca is a Certified Microsoft partner and has recently been recognized for numerous achievements including:

• 2011 Microsoft Dynamics Customer Excellence Award – Excellence in Industry Implementation for retail solution delivered to LS Retail North America
• 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Awards – Dynamics Retail Partner of the Year Finalist
• Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club for 2011
• Certified Microsoft Partner with Gold competencies in ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence and Silver competencies in Portals & Collaboration, Application Integration, Virtualization, Data Platform and Web Development

“We are proud to recognize Ideaca from our highly valued worldwide partner network,” said Jon Roskill, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Corp. “We applaud the unique perspective and creativity they bring to solving customer business and technology challenges. Our strong partnership along with their commitment to customers plays an essential role in our mutual, long-term success.”

“Ideaca is committed and focused on delivering value-based solutions to the retail industry,” said James Gurney, Director, Retail Solutions, Ideaca. “We look forward to helping clients across North America reduce costs, increase operational efficiencies and streamline core business processes with our integrated retail solution offerings.”

Intelliware Development Inc. is pleased to announce its sponsorship of CodeRetreat on July 10, 2011. This one-day intensive practice event provides a unique opportunity for developers to improve their skills, interact with other colleagues in the development community and learn a range of new techniques and problem-solving skills. The sold-out event will be facilitated by Jason Cheong-Kee-You and Alistair McKinnell, both of whom have extensive experience with participating in and facilitating code retreats.

CodeRetreat will focus on the fundamentals of software development and design. Because CodeRetreat is held outside the workplace and regular business hours, participants will have a unique opportunity to collaborate in a highly focused environment. This format has proven to be highly effective for improving development skills. The event is fully sponsored and hosted by Intelliware Development.

“Intelliware has been a strong supporter of the developer community for over 20 years,” explains Bruno Schmidt, CTO, Intelliware. “We have been participating in the sponsorship, promotion and leadership of various events and organizations such as AgileTour, AgileAlliance and XP Toronto. We also host www.i-proving.ca, a technical community and destination for developers, Agile practitioners and people who share a passion for technology. CodeRetreat provides a perfect opportunity to further support this community and we are proud to be its sponsor and host.”

TVO, Ontario’s public educational media organization is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with Polar Mobile that will make TVO’s flagship current affairs program The Agenda with Steve Paikin available on mobile apps for BlackBerry® smartphones; Apple iPhones; Android and Windows Mobile smartphones.

The development of TVO’s cross device apps offerings is part of TVO’s aggressive digital strategy designed to make its educational content available to more people, anywhere at anytime.

“Our new partnership with Polar Mobile is allowing us to further the reach of our educational content,” says CEO Lisa de Wilde. “We’re excited to be able to use digital media to bring The Agenda with Steve Paikin to a new audience.”

“A strong mobile strategy is key for any media brand to be successful, and we are very pleased TVO has decided to use Polar’s SMART™ Platform as an integral piece of their strategy,” said Kunal Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, Polar Mobile.

The Agenda with Steve Paikin mobile app will give users access to episodes of The Agenda with Steve Paikin; all of The Agenda with Steve Paikin’s blogs; YouTube videos of the program; and all Twitter feeds related to The Agenda with Steve Paikin. The app will also include TVO’s live broadcast TV schedule.

The app will launch in late summer as part of TVO’s Your Vote 2011 suite of multi-platform resources that are helping Ontarians engage in the issues that are shaping the debate in the lead up to the Ontario election in October.

TVO is a trusted source for multi-platform content, and has recently launched two new mobile apps that teach children math on BlackBerry® smartphones, Polka Dot Shorts and Flower Frenzy; and its first app for BlackBerry PlayBook, My Canada, a fun and engaging app that teaches children about Canadian geography. This follows last year’s launch of Melvin’s Marvelous Words, TVO’s early learning iPhone app.

Entrepreneurs are poised to drive the next major wave of economic growth, but the wider community must do more to support these creative-minded innovators, Ernst & Young said today when revealing this year’s finalists for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year^®.

“Entrepreneurs have the ability to transform ideas into great businesses. And not just any business – businesses that drive economic growth,” says Ron Voyer, Pacific Director of Entrepreneur Of The Year. “Behind their success is an entrepreneurial mindset to innovate, create jobs, and invest in communities across the country.”

In a new global survey of entrepreneurs – Nature or nurture? – Ernst & Young uncovered that funding, people and know-how were the biggest barriers to entrepreneurial success. Among the six out of 10 respondents who experienced obstacles in their ventures, 33% called lack of funding or finance their biggest stumbling block.

Voyer says that’s only the first issue. Entrepreneurs need improved access to credit in addition to new educational opportunities and less red tape. He also underlined better leadership from Corporate Canada, which stands to gain by building an internal spirit of entrepreneurship — or intrapreneurship — into their business model to promote innovation, creativity and fresh thinking.

“Entrepreneurs challenge conventional thinking and spot opportunities where others see road blocks,” says Voyer. “With a wealth of entrepreneurial potential waiting to be unleashed, stakeholders – from governments to businesses to academia – need to work together to create an ecosystem that enables entrepreneurs to thrive.”

In April, an Ernst & Young/Financial Post survey found more than one-third of entrepreneur respondents were more optimistic about their company’s’ future prospects than they were just six months ago. Voyer says that’s a positive step in the right direction.

“Taking lessons from the past into account, Canada’s entrepreneurs are ready to continue building on their accomplishments and supporting our economy in the years ahead,” says Voyer. “And with the right business and community support, there’s no limit to what these entrepreneurs can accomplish.”

The Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards recognize the spirit and contribution of entrepreneurs here and around the world. The Canadian program is in its 18th year of honouring the country’s most impressive entrepreneurs from all areas of business. Award winners are chosen based on their vision, leadership, financial success and social responsibility.

The Pacific winners will be announced at a banquet on October 5, and the overall winner will represent the region at the national banquet held in Toronto on November 23.

The 2011 Pacific finalists for Entrepreneur Of The Year:

Business-to-business products and services

Darby Kreitz – Allnorth Consultants Limited – Prince George – Provides engineering and consulting services to clients in the mining, pulp and paper, chemical, oil and gas, marine, transportation, power and municipal sectors.

Ross Waters – C.G. Industrial Specialties Ltd. – Vancouver – Supplier of valves and controls.

Doug Morneau – Rhino Marketing Inc. – Port Coquitlam – A full-service marketing agency that knows business and how to connect clients with their customers online. Read the rest of this entry »

Mobidia Technology, Inc. has announced a major update to My Data Manager, their popular Android application that helps mobile subscribers monitor and manage their data use. The update is also available to mobile operators and handset and tablet OEM’s as a component of a fully customizable and extendable carrier-grade data management and analytics solution. IOS and Blackberry versions will be available in the near future.

As the vacation season in North America and Europe moves into full gear, Mobidia has released a number of new features to help mobile phone users manage their data usage while traveling. The latest update of My Data Manager supports tracking Wi-Fi data as well as standard mobile and roaming data plans. The app now also provides Dual SIM support for those users that use multiple plans and SIM’s to manage their data usage. Small usability and accuracy improvements have also been welcomed by frequent users who are increasingly becoming dependant on the application to save them money on their cell phone bills.

“With so many people traveling over the next couple months on their summer vacations, we really wanted to make our latest technology available to them to use while on their holidays” says Mobidia Vice President of Marketing, Chris Hill. “Nothing spoils a great vacation like an unexpected, gigantic phone bill when you return home from all those data roaming charges. Our My Data Manager can help people save money by simply making them aware of the amount of data they are using while roaming and which applications are consuming the most”.

The My Data Manager has been firmly embraced by mobile phone users that are on limited or metered data plans. But even in geographies where the move to metered plans is only just starting, many phone users have benefited from using My Data Manager to manage the costs of roaming data charges when they are traveling on personal and business trips.

Chuck Musciano, a busy IT Executive at a Fortune 1000 company, agrees. Chuck occasionally travels overseas where roaming charges can be quite high. Despite paying for a monthly roaming plan, he tries to stay within his limits but has been restricted by operator-supplied tools which are often delayed in reporting usage. My Data Manager saved him real dollars on his last trip. “Your app really helped me on a recent trip to Belgium,” says Chuck, “ I had a 200MB roaming plan with my operator and blew through 25MB the first day, even with everything (I thought) turned off. The app level usage stats instantly showed me which apps were using data unbeknownst to me, and I was able to shut them down and save a lot of data and money.”

His experience highlights an important benefit of My Data Manager – the ability to identify applications that are running in the background and consuming large amounts of data. Mobidia’s My Data Manager can be downloaded from the Android Marketplace. Both a premium, ad-free version and a free version will be available. iOS, Blackberry, and other smartphone users can sign up for Mobidia’s beta program and will be notified when additional platforms become available.

Mobidia is offering My Data Manager directly to smartphone users as a powerful tool to help them save money and better utilize their data plans. A complete, carrier-grade service is also available to extend the application for mobile operators and OEM’s. The white-label service can fully integrate into operator’s existing infrastructure or on existing smartphones and tablets to help decrease costs and generate revenue.

Entrepreneurs are poised to drive the next major wave of economic growth, but the wider community must do more to support these creative-minded innovators, Ernst & Young said today when revealing this year’s finalists for Ernst & Young Quebec Entrepreneur Of The Year®.

“Quebec needs entrepreneurial role models,” explains François Dufresne, Quebec Director of Entrepreneur Of The Year. “That’s why it’s essential that we highlight their success, and reward them. Paying tribute to entrepreneurs shows them that society appreciates their achievements. What’s more, successful entrepreneurs can inspire young Quebeckers and encourage them to go into business.”

The Quebec winners will be announced at a banquet on October 6, and the overall winner will represent the region at the national banquet held in Toronto on November 23.

The 2011 Quebec finalists for Entrepreneur Of The Year:

Business-to-business products and services

Claude Bigras – Groupe Distinction Inc. – Lasalle – A leading provider of building maintenance services with 9,000 employees and 17 offices in Canada.

André Gaumond – Mines Virginia Inc. – Quebec City – Mining exploration company that works with many projects in various stages of growth in order to develop mineral resources.

Sean Roosen – Osisko Mining Corporation – Montreal – A development-stage gold mining company, Osisko is currently completing the construction of the Canadian Malartic gold mine in the Abitibi mining district.

Business-to-consumer products and services

Sanjay Bakshani, Vicken Kanadjian – Cesium Telecom, Inc. – Mont-Royal – One of North America’s leading distributors of wireless products, Cesium introduces the latest technology from the world’s top manufacturers to the North American market.

Guy Bessette, Manon Duplantie – Fix Auto – Blainville – Franchisor specializing in autobody collision with key customers such as insurers.

Sylvie Myre – Voyages à rabais – Trois-Rivieres – Travel provider that offers vacations, flights and travel insurance.

Health sciences

Frank Baylis, Krishan Shah – Baylis Medical Company Inc. – Saint-Laurent – Recognized around the world for high tech cardiology, radiology and pain management products. Read the rest of this entry »

Entrepreneurs are poised to drive the next major wave of economic growth, but the wider community must do more to support these creative-minded innovators, Ernst & Young said today when revealing this year’s finalists for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year^®.

“Businesses — and countries — don’t grow by standing still,” explains Colleen McMorrow, National and Ontario Director of Entrepreneur Of The Year. “Entrepreneurial thinking empowers companies to generate new jobs, open new doors and seize new opportunities. But stakeholders — from governments to businesses to academia — must now work together to create a truly entrepreneurial ecosystem where creative-minded businesses can thrive.”

In a new global survey of entrepreneurs — Nature or nurture? — Ernst & Young uncovered that funding, people and know-how were the biggest barriers to entrepreneurial success. Among the six out of 10 respondents who experienced obstacles in their ventures, 33% called lack of funding or finance their biggest stumbling block.

McMorrow says that’s only the first issue. Entrepreneurs need improved access to credit in addition to new educational opportunities and less red tape. She also underlined better leadership from Corporate Canada, which stands to gain by building an internal spirit of entrepreneurship — or intrapreneurship — into their business model to promote innovation, creativity and fresh thinking.

“By establishing that kind of ecosystem, we can unleash limitless entrepreneurial potential,” adds McMorrow. “Entrepreneurs see opportunity where others see disruption. Even the financial crisis generated opportunities for those willing to seize them, and that bolsters the economy. But governments and corporations must renew their focus on this area to adequately support entrepreneurs.”

In April, an Ernst & Young/Financial Post survey found more than one-third of entrepreneur respondents were more optimistic about their company’s future prospects than they were just six months ago. McMorrow says that’s a positive step in the right direction.

“Entrepreneurs have not forgotten the lessons learned in leaner times. But they’re ready to look forward, and continue building on what they’ve already accomplished. With the right support from the broader community, entrepreneurs will continue to energize the economy in the months and years ahead,” says McMorrow.

The Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards celebrate the contribution and spirit of entrepreneurs everywhere. The Canadian program is in its 18th year of honouring the country’s most impressive entrepreneurs from all areas of business. Award winners are chosen based on their vision, leadership, financial success and social responsibility.

The Ontario winners will be announced at a banquet on November 2, and the overall winner will represent the region at the national banquet held in Toronto on November 23.

The 2011 Ontario finalists for Entrepreneur Of The Year:

Business-to-business products and services

Razor Suleman – I Love Rewards – Toronto – An employee-recognition solution that helps companies drive performance. Unlike traditional service award programs, it creates authentic moments of recognition that resonate with a multigenerational workforce.

Jennifer Nashmi, Victoria Sopik – Kids and Company Ltd. – Vaughan – Offers infant, toddler, preschool, kindergarten, Montessori, and after-school child-care programs at locations across Canada. Read the rest of this entry »

Ortsbo and INDYCAR have formed a multi-year partnership that makes Ortsbo.com the “Official Online Translator Service Provider” for INDYCAR and the IZOD IndyCar Series.

The official kick off of the partnership, which will allow INDYCAR’s teams, car and driver sponsors, and fans all over the world to keep pace with the premier open-wheel racing events, will be at the Honda Indy Toronto event this Saturday, July 10, in Toronto, where Ortsbo is headquartered.

Ortsbo enables real-time conversational translation in more than 50 languages and seamlessly integrates with today’s most popular social media platforms; translates e-mails on the fly with O4O (Ortsbo for Outlook) and connects with PC and Mac computers, mobile browsers and major search engine platforms.

Through Ortsbo, IZOD IndyCar Series enthusiasts around the world will be able to follow every twist and turn of the action-packed racing series and connect with their favorite drivers in their native languages.

“We look upon our relationship with Ortsbo as more than just a sponsorship,” said INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard. “It’s a true partnership that will help us expose Indy car racing to people around the world by breaking the language barrier between the fans and their favorite drivers. It will truly connect and engage all sides of the INDYCAR community.”

Transcripts of press conferences will be made available in multiple languages for distribution to the media and indycar.com as well as social media sites, and may include drivers such as 2010 series champion Dario Franchitti, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and others.

Ortsbo will also host online INDYCAR Live and Global Events, similar to recent, world-record breaking Live and Global events with KISS band members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, and NBA MVP Steve Nash. These question and answer sessions between IZOD IndyCar Series drivers and fans will be made available in up to 53 languages.

In addition, Ortsbo will provide O4O (Ortsbo for Outlook) services to INDYCAR. Ortsbo for Outlook is a seamless add-on for Microsoft Outlook™ that automatically translates e-mails without any copying or pasting. IndyCar’s official website will also be translated into three languages – Portugeuse, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

“Racing fans from all over the globe can now interact with some of the world’s best drivers in a way they haven’t been able to before,” said David Lucatch, president of Ortsbo. “Ortsbo translates text automatically, eliminating the typically tedious and inefficient translation process of other services.”

Ortsbo, the free, real-time chat translator, integrates with 13 of the most popular social media platforms, including Windows Live Messenger, Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, iChat and AIM to allow users to instantly send and receive messages in 53 languages.

Showcase has ordered nine more episodes of the supernatural drama series Lost Girl, which is currently in production for Season 2. The new season is scheduled to premiere on Sunday, September 4th at 9pm ET. This brings the ordered episode total up to an unprecedented 22 episodes, and US station SyFy acquired seasons one and two this past May.

In addition to the above news, Comic-Con fans are in for a treat as Lost Girl succubus, Bo (played by Anna Silk) leads a panel discussion at the highly regarded event along with Emmanuelle Vaugier who stars as “The Morrigan”, the leader of the Dark Fae. Joining Anna and Emmanuelle on Friday, July 22 at 7:30pm room 24 ABC are Executive Producer Jay Firestone (Prodigy Pictures) and Creator, Michelle Lovretta. A limited edition of the Lost Girl comic book, a prequel to the series, will be given out at this year’s Comic-Con panel.

Season one of Lost Girl premiered on Showcase in September 2010 with record-breaking audience numbers and continued to draw viewers in each week. During its run in Fall 2010, the series ranked number one on the channel for adults 25-54 and was the top scripted series across all specialty channels.

Produced by Prodigy Pictures, Lost Girl centers around Bo, who, raised by human parents, had no reason to believe she was anything other than the girl next door — until she “drained” her first boyfriend to death.

Bo has since hit the road alone and afraid. She discovers she is one of the Fae, creatures of legend and folklore, who pass as humans while feeding off them in secret, as they have for millennia. She is faced with choosing an allegiance between the Dark or Light Fae clans. Bo decides to take the middle path between humans and the Fae while embarking on a personal mission to unlock the secrets of her origin, protecting humans along the way.

Lost Girl co-stars Kris Holden-Ried as Dyson, a shape-shifting Fae, homicide detective and Bo’s love interest; Ksenia Solo as Kenzi, Bo’s human confidante and street-smart survivor; Zoie Palmer as Lauren, a human doctor who competes for Bo’s heart; Rick Howland as Trick, the mysterious owner and bartender at The Dal Riata tavern, with a secretive past that is yet to be unlocked, and K.C. Collins as Hale, a handsome male “Siren” who is the eternal bachelor, ultimate wingman and Dyson’s partner on the force.

Richmond’s Point Grey digital camera technology company and AMD recently conducted a joint demonstration of uncompressed streaming HD video across USB 3.0 during AMD’s A-Series APU official launch event, held last month in Seattle.

The AMD A-Series APU-based platforms are the first to utilize the A75 and A70M FCH chipsets in desktop and mobile, respectively. The A75 and A70M FCH are the first certified chipsets to integrate SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) into their core logic. The live demonstration showcased the performance benefits of USB 3.0 by streaming uncompressed high definition (HD) 1080p60 video from Point Grey’s Flea3 digital video camera to an AMD Fusion A-Series-based laptop computer. USB 3.0 offers ten times the bandwidth of USB 2.0, full duplex and asynchronous operation, and increased power delivery.

“We are pleased to have had the opportunity to team up with AMD to demonstrate the benefits of USB 3.0,” says Michael Gibbons, Product Marketing Manager at Point Grey. “Point Grey demonstrated the world’s first SuperSpeed USB camera in September 2009. Since then we have witnessed widespread adoption of USB 3.0 in consumer devices and a huge groundswell of interest from both industrial and prosumer customers. Desktop and notebook computers equipped with the new AMD A-Series APUs will enable users to build high-performance and cost-effective imaging systems.”

“The AMD Fusion A-Series APUs when paired with the A75 or A70M FCH chipsets provide customers with immediate and easy access to SuperSpeed USB’s impressive bandwidth,” says Godfrey Cheng, Director of AMD’s Client Technology Unit. “USB 3.0 enables the use of HD 1080p cameras, which means a new level of realism for video conferencing and other forms of tele-presence. Using Point Grey’s Flea3 we were able to give users insight into some of the other applications that are possible with SuperSpeed USB in addition to the high-speed data transfers with external storage devices that we have seen so far.”