‘Profit By Design’ is an event tailored specifically for corporate and organization strategists. Whether initiating product service systems, R&D, business innovation, capital investment (angels & VCs) or government programs promoting Canada’s value added agenda, ‘Profit By Design’ will inspire you with stimulating presentations and provide interactive workshops with some of the best designers, business minds and investment gurus in Canada.

Learn and share:

• How top companies drive product innovation
• Best practices in developing an integrated product/service system
• How to build an effective product or service innovation team
• Leadership methods that catalyze creative thinking
• Case studies of successful product and service innovation
• How to apply design thinking to a wide range of business and strategy challenges

This event is a unique opportunity for business leaders to engage with top designers, market leading companies, and investors who know how to profit by design. Creative Led Innovation is now a key driver for business success: by convening design and business leaders in a series of interactive workshops and stimulating presentations, Profit by Design will help you connect with the business models, thinking and leaders that will drive innovation in your company. Join us for two exciting days with some of the best designers, business minds and investment gurus — and discover how you can profit by design.

Speakers include:

• W. Brett Wilson – Dragon’s Den panelist and host of Risky Business TV
• Bill Tam – President, CEO BCTIA
• Brian Paschke – Sr. Industrial Designer, Research in Motion
• Christopher Rudwal – Designer: Design & Innovation, Bombardier Recreational Products Inc.
• Etienne Guay – Director of Design & Innovation, Bombardier Recreational Products Inc.
• Geoff Catherwood – Partner, BDC Venture Capital
• Jill Chatwood – Director of Design Lululemon Athletica
• John Bandringa – Intermec Sr. Director of Corporate Design
• Mike Volker – Green Angel & Tech Innovator
• Todd Wood – Senior Vice President of Design – Research in Motion
• George Rubin – President, Day4Energy Inc.
• Brad Lowe- Wireless Accelerator Architect, Wavefront
• Alexandra Samuel – CEO, Social Signal and Director of Social and Interactive Media Centre, Emily Carr University of Art and Design

Profit By Design is organized by the Association of Canadian industrial Designers [ACID] and the Emily Carr University of Art + Design [ECUAD], with support and co-sponsorship from professional associations in Canada. Tickets are on sale now, and range in price (and access) from $100.00 to 350.00

“Huawei has become a strong business ally for Telus throughout the years, and we are very pleased to extend our relationship as we rollout our LTE network across Canada,” said Eros Spadotto, Telus executive vice-president of Technology Strategy and Operations. “This initiative is the latest technology evolution in the wireless network upgrade path made possible by our 4G wireless network launch in 2009, in which Huawei played an important role.”

Telus’ LTE network will enable customers to enjoy even faster speeds when they want to be entertained on-the-go, stay connected with family and friends, visit their favourite social media sites, engage with business contacts wherever they are, and access healthcare applications.

“We are excited to be working with Telus as they rollout their LTE network across Canada. This new network will be fully optimized to meet world-leading KPIs by Huawei’s local teams,” said Sean Yang, President of Huawei Canada. “With our leading position in LTE deployments around the world, we are confident that we will provide Telus and its customers with a superior network experience that is faster and more seamless.”

“Bell is dedicated to building Canada’s broadband infrastructure, investing more than any other company to deliver the latest communications technology to our country,” said Wade Oosterman, President of Bell Mobility. “LTE is the gold standard of wireless technology, enabling Canadian consumers to connect and Canadian business to compete at a global level with access to the latest superphones, data services and mobile content. The combined scale of Canada’s largest communications company and an international technology leader like Huawei ensures we can quickly bring this next generation of mobile technology to millions of Canadians.”

The Bell LTE wireless network allows customers to experience all the capabilities of the latest generation of superphones from Bell, including streaming of high-definition television and movies, video chat with friends or colleagues with seamless picture and sound, and downloading of apps and large attachments at least three times faster than with HSPA+ network technology introduced just over two years ago, which now serves more than 96% of Canadians.

“LTE significantly enhances the quality of the customer experience – it is the future of the global wireless industry,” said Sean Yang, President Huawei Canada. “As a global company at the forefront of this evolution, we are thrilled to expand our longstanding relationship with Bell as they continue to bring LTE to Canadians.

This purchase and licensing agreement will start with a first installation of 35 D-BOX MFX seats in March at Cineworld Glasgow, notably the tallest cinema in the world. This marks the first commercial theatre circuit to launch D-BOX MFX Seats in the UK.

“This deal marks a major milestone for us as we continue to experience strong, steady growth overseas with Cineworld Cinemas, the UK’s number one cinema chain (according to 2011 box office sales), demonstrating their commitment to providing the most innovative and technologically advanced theatrical presentations in the UK,” stated President and CEO of D-BOX Technologies, Claude Mc Master. “Ultimately, this agreement reinforces the appeal of our business model and speaks to the growing demand for motion technology in the cinema industry around the world.”

The six initial, confirmed Cineworld Cinemas locations include:

• Cineworld Glasgow Renfrew Street
• Cineworld Milton Keynes
• Cineworld Crawley
• Cineworld The O2 Greenwich, London
• Cineworld Castleford West Yorkshire
• Cineworld Didsbury, Manchester

Steve Wiener, Cineworld CEO comments “We are absolutely delighted to be the first cinema chain in the UK to introduce the cutting-edge D-BOX technology and provide a fourth dimension to the cinema experience. We invite film fans at all participating cinemas to come and enjoy the most immersive motion cinema experience to date.”

“3D movies continue to be very popular with our guests. With more 3D content being released each year, this installation will ensure that we have enough 3D capable systems to satisfy all of our guests and ensure that multiple 3D movies can play in the theatre at the same time,” said Ellis Jacob, President and CEO, Cineplex Entertainment. “Cineplex is committed to using technology to ensure that our guests can have the best entertainment experience possible when they visit our theatres.”

“Many of the highest profile films this year and beyond are being released in 3D and these additional installations will help assure that movie-goers visiting Cineplex locations will be able to see these highly anticipated movies in fully immersive RealD 3D,” said Joseph Peixoto, President, Worldwide Cinema at RealD. “We commend Cineplex for their commitment to giving movie-goers a premium entertainment experience including leveraging RealD’s technology advantage to deliver a bright, crisp and clear 3D image on screens of all sizes.”

In other news today, theatre guests and Cineplex employees showed support across Canada for the company’s fundraising efforts last year in aid of Starlight Children’s Foundation of Canada. Thanks to this support, Cineplex Entertainment will help provide sick children and their families with some escapism as the company announced today that $1,000,000 was raised for the Foundation in 2011. Guest generosity, national programs that supported Starlight and other special events were the catalysts of the fundraising. A cheque will be presented to Starlight in March.

“I’m so proud of the continued commitment Cineplex employees show the Starlight Children’s Foundation throughout the year. Our employees have truly embraced Starlight and they are quick to donate time or money when they can,” said Ellis Jacob, President and CEO, Cineplex Entertainment. “I would also like to commend our guests for supporting the Starlight programs as we could not have achieved this donation without their generosity.”

“Thanks to Cineplex, Starlight has been able to spread smiles and hope to more than 50,000 seriously ill and hospitalized children and their families,” said Trevor Dicaire, Director of Development, Starlight Children’s Foundation Canada. “We are constantly amazed and inspired by Cineplex’s generosity, passion for Starlight and efforts to include us in their fundraising programs and special events.”

Cineplex programs that benefited the Starlight Children’s Foundation include:

Employees at the Cineplex Home and Regional offices support Starlight throughout the year with various other fundraising events. In 2011, employees participated in raffles, themed events, bake sales and Starlight bear and pin sales.

The Starlight Children’s Foundation is a national, non-profit organization that strives to improve the quality of life for seriously ill children and their families. They provide entertainment, education and other family activities to help these children cope with the pain, fear and isolation of an illness.

Synchronized performance is the latest development for professionals who regularly use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc., to provide friends, family and other readers or customers with news. HootSuite is an online service for individuals and businesses who want to synchronize their marketing campaigns over multiple social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google +.

With the new click.to desktop tool, users can now share news, links and distribute any text directly from the desktop, via the Social Media Manager HootSuite, to the most popular social networks.

For those who are not familiar with it, HootSuite is a cross-linker, an online service that allows social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and WordPress to work on a single platform. click.to is an app that links all applications for the desktop and skips intermediary steps between several different actions–essentially, a cross-linker for the desktop.

“With HootSuite click.to, we have two ideas that complement each other perfectly, said Peter Oehler, Axonic COO. “HootSuite allows social networks to operate simultaneously, and now click.to makes this possible with just a single click.”

“With over three million SME users and estimated six million by end of year, our goal is to provide a directory of applications that expand the functionality of the HootSuite platform. Developers and partners will highly benefit from the functional and promotional exposure to our influential users with the apps they develop. Brands and businesses want to meet their audiences where they are, and that means engaging across multiple channels and networks; our partner programs and integrations like click.to in the HootSuite App Directory allow us to steadily launch new purpose-specific tools into the dashboard to satisfy these needs,” states HootSuite’s CEO, Ryan Holmes.

click.to expands the Copy & Paste principle by providing logical links between all applications on the desktop and the Web “with one click;” the beginning of an action and the target application are linked with a single step, whilst dead ends that usually inevitably happen when using programs or websites are simply skipped.

Instead of manually opening programs every time, or typing website addresses, re-entering login information, and clicking login, click.to users need only select the action from the click.to menu. click.to creates a series of processes that allow it to skip the usual barriers that arise as a user navigates through multiple programs and the internet.

In today’s environment, corporations, government, hospitals and educational facilities find it increasingly necessary to protect their employees, visitors, assets and property. Electronic access control provides a secure, flexible, manageable and cost effective means to provide protection and security without causing undue burden to the people who use the systems.

The use of numeric PIN passwords or electronic tokens or cards to access secure areas of buildings, ensures that doors are never left unsecured and there is no longer a need to re-key locks as a result of an employee not turning in their keys. Users or guests can be granted access to certain areas and denied access to others, and access may be restricted based on a flexible schedule. In addition, access control solutions can be used for time and attendance and can be integrated with alarm and security camera systems.

As part of the launch, hands on dealer training sessions are being held in Toronto (Feb 29th) and Montreal (April 26th). Attending dealers will be trained on installation and operation and will be part of the PAX1000 program providing additional ongoing training as well as access to dealer tools and awards programs. For more information on training please contact Aartech Canada at 1-877-760-3105.

Dell Voice is loaded with free features that Canadians typically pay for as part of their carrier’s plan. Features included with Dell Voice are free local and long-distance calls to most of Canada, free unlimited incoming calls, free Voicemail, free Caller ID, and free Call Waiting to name a few.

Dell Voice uses Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to receive and place calls with users existing data connection (i.e. 3G, 4G or WiFi) on the Fibernetics network. Fongo enjoys privileged access to Fibernetics, a Canadian CLEC that owns and operates its own coast-to-coast network in Canada. By using the Fibernetics network, users can choose a local Canadian phone number for their Dell Voice line, as well as place emergency VoIP 911 calls.

“Dell and Fongo want to tilt the competitive playing field by offering smartphone users everything we believe they need in a mobile phone service – for free,” says John Stix, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Fongo. “Dell Voice aims to help Canadians reduce the cost or even eliminate the need for a voice plan. I believe Dell Voice is a game changer that has the potential to transform the telecommunications industry, while helping to put money back into the pockets of Canadian consumers and business owners.”

Dell Voice can help small business operators save money on their mobile phone bill, which is good news for small business owners like Conor Gordon, a student painting franchisee who racked up a monthly mobile phone bill of more than $1,500 in August, despite having negotiated with his wireless carrier the ‘best’ package to suit his business needs. “Dell Voice will make a huge difference to a small business like mine that is totally reliant on mobile phones for communication. I’ll have all the features I need in a phone, without the huge bills. It’s a no-brainer to download the app and use my extra data as long-distance and daytime voice minutes,” Gordon said.

David Gair, marketing director for Small & Medium Business, Dell Canada, added, “Dell has been a pioneer in providing clients, whether individual consumers or businesses, with the most advanced, yet cost-effective solutions to meet their communication and computing needs. Dell Voice is part of this commitment and complements our spectrum of technology offerings that help Canadian consumers and businesses to stay connected without breaking the bank.”

There will be a BlackBerry version available soon, and there is also a desktop version for PC available now.

As mobile communications are moving towards a converged IP transport network and leading to the deployment of Carrier Ethernet in the backhaul, the introduction of LTE technology and the transition from circuit-switched to packet-based services are generating key challenges for industry stakeholders. In fact, there is continuous pressure to minimize the time to market for new services, reduce network OPEX, and provide subscribers with ubiquitous coverage, high availability and flawless quality of experience (QoE).

At this year’s edition of GSMA Mobile World Congress, EXFO will demonstrate how its comprehensive mobile network assessment solution addresses critical challenges, from the physical layer all the way to the application layer. Showcased EXFO products will include the Backhaul Tri-Pak, an all-in-one Ethernet, fiber and connector assessment solution that enables complete Ethernet service turn-up in 15 minutes, the BrixHawk Distributed Analyzer, designed for determining subscriber QoE in order to reduce customer churn, as well as the BrixNGN service assurance solution, which enables network performance optimization, bringing unprecedented scalability for both operational and capital cost reduction.

“EXFO has become a choice partner for both mobile network operators and mobile network equipment manufacturers, as our innovative and leading solution enables seamless network convergence”, said Matti Palomäki, Vice-President of EXFO’s Wireless Division. “Our complete end-to-end assessment solution is designed with one purpose in mind: clearly target business imperatives of the mobile industry, such as minimizing time to market, reducing OPEX and optimizing availability and QoE throughout the network lifecycle.”

Germain Lamonde, EXFO’s Chairman of the Board, President and CEO will be chairing the “Connect with Canada Networking Breakfast” on Tuesday, February 28 at 9:00 AM at Restaurante Watatsumi in Arena, Plaza España. Space is limited, please RSVP to chrystelle.carrillo@international.gc.ca to attend.

The advertising-supported service, launched in early November, is using QuickPlay Media’s integrated Live TV and VOD Solutions to stream approximately 70 TV programs and 1,200 episodes to members with Apple® iPad™, iPhone™ and Android™ devices. Just days after its launch, the myTV application was the most popular iPad app and iPhone app on the Hong Kong App Store.

TVB’s partnership with QuickPlay Media enables the company to easily extend its popular catalog of TV content to leading IP-connected devices, while generating incremental advertising revenue. Some noteworthy elements of myTV include:

• Cantonese, Mandarin and English language programming and application modes;
• Full integration of pre-roll and interstitial video ads as well as banner and splash ads;
• Featured content carousels for ease of search, and discovery of new content;
• Single sign-on from a myTV account with complete user authorization and authentication;
• Restriction of content viewing to authorized geographic locations; and
• Flexible WiFi or 3G content streaming options.

“With the launch of myTV, we are able to continue our tradition of delivering excellence in programming and cutting-edge broadcast technology to the people of Hong Kong,” said Mr. Cheong Shin Keong, General Manager of TVB. “We are delighted to be working with QuickPlay Media, a company with a proven history of providing high-quality, managed solutions for large scale premium video services.”

Wayne Purboo, CEO of QuickPlay Media said, “Asia is one of the fastest-growing markets for the consumption of video on mobile devices. This is an important market for QuickPlay and the successful launch of myTV is a great example of how our scalable technology enables our customers to cost-effectively deliver high quality services to their subscribers. We are proud to partner with such an innovative leader in the television market as we continue to expand our business into new geographies.”

myTV is currently a free service. Users can download the app via the Hong Kong iTunes® App Store or the Android Market™ and then register as a member on the TVB web site or inside the app for accessing the service. The ad-supported service currently offers approximately 1,200 hours of current TV programmes.

1. Prizes: $95,000 in prizes (part seed capital, part products and services)
2. A live pitch event, judged by leading technology and business leaders
3. A full year of follow-up editorial exposure (successes, challenges, advice) in print and online

The winner will receive:

• $20,000 in cash
• $60,000 in related products and/or service
• one year of mentoring and business assistance from a team of Canadian business and technology experts
• one year of on-going coverage in Backbone magazine and online

The runner-up will receive: 

• $5,000 in cash
• $10,000 in related products and/or services

The top 200 applicants will also receive invitations to the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT), Oct. 22 to 24 in Montreal.

The competition application form is available online. Qualified entrants are early-stage companies, with revenue of no more than $2 million annually. Successful entrants will have a ready-to-sell product or service and a complete business plan and market analysis. Any business or technology sector is relevant.

Timing of campaign

Backbone will create an online “Innovation Campaign Portal” in addition to the publication, where readers can monitor the winner’s advancements, successes, resources and challenges in weekly blog posts, tweets and other Web content.

“The campaign is consistent with Backbone’s mandate of inspiring innovation and helping companies learn from other businesses”, says Steve Dietrich, Publisher of Backbone magazine.

Alpha Group, the founding sponsor, is an organization established in 2007 to reinvigorate trading in Canada. With its Alternative Trading System, Alpha Group brought the change the financial industry was waiting for in the trading space. Now, with the formation of its Exchange, Alpha Group is looking at bringing similar change to the Canadian listing space driven by what issuers and investors need.

“We are determined to help build the eco-system that Canadian technology entrepreneurs are currently missing in the initial and early stages of their business.” states Jos Schmitt, CEO of Alpha Group.

Additional Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsors include: HP, ORION, Ceridian, Ryerson Digital Media Zone, Wildeboer Dellelce, BCTIA’s Centre for Growth, Financial Technology Partners, World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT).

“At the Huffington Post, we’ve always done things unconventionally. Last May, we launched HuffPost Canada, our first international edition. Last month we launched Le Huffington Post in France,” stated Arianna Huffington. “I’m delighted today to announce the launch of Le Huffington Post Quebec, an edition encompassing all things Quebec and run by a strong local team. Working closely with our Canada team, HuffPost Quebec will be bringing our signature mix of news, blogging, community, and social engagement to Quebec in a way that reflects the province’s vital issues, rich history, and unique cultural identity.”

Le Huffington Post Quebec combines HuffPost’s powerful engagement platform with local expertise from a talented Quebec-based editorial team led by the site’s managing editor, Patrick White. Jean-Philippe Cipriani is news editor and Tamy-Emma Pepin is managing blog editor. Bloggers who will be contributing to the site include:

• Michel Martelly
• Yves-François Blanchet
• Michel Kelly Gagnon
• Julius Grey
• Anne Marie Withenshaw

“Debuting in Quebec is the next logical step for us following on the heels of our successful Huffington Post Canada launch in May,” said Graham Moysey. “The Huffington Post Canada has more than 2.2 million unique visitors a month – 268,000 UV’s from Quebec alone – and the huffingtonpost.ca site has grown 162 percent since launch. We look forward to bringing to Quebec the smart news, real-time opinion, and vibrant social nature of the Huffington Post platform.”*

Le Huffington Post Quebec launches with advertising partner Bell Canada and its agency, Media Experts, featuring ads for Fibe TV.

The Huffington Post is part of AOL’s Huffington Post Media Group, a leading source of news, opinion, entertainment, community and digital information, which includes Moviefone, Engadget, TechCrunch, Patch, and StyleList. The Group’s diverse network of sites combines journalism, technology, engagement, and video to reach a global audience on every platform.

The Group has over 20,000 bloggers — from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts — who contribute in real-time on a wide-range of topics making news today. Among them are Nora Ephron, Larry Page, David Suzuki, Bill Maher, Robert Redford, Madonna, Alec Baldwin, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Gates, and Charlie Rose.

According to comScore, Inc., Total Canada, Home and Work, December 2011, The Huffington Post data from [E] Huffington Post Global, The Huffington Post has 36 million unique visitors a month. The Huffington Post UK and The Huffington Post Canada both launched last year, Le Huffington Post France launched in January 2012, El Huffington Post Spain is scheduled to launch in March, and the recently announced L’Huffington Post Italia is also scheduled to launch this year.

“It’s so important for us to partner with brands who truly get what we’re doing, and NOS has shown they’re serious about gaming and giving gamers great experiences. We’re proud to have their support,” adds Virgin Gaming President Billy Levy about the new agreement.

Competitive video gaming has become a strategic pillar for NOS Energy Drink to connect with current and potential consumers.  The company understands the powerful engagement tool that gaming provides, which led them to partner with the fastest growing brand in the competitive gaming space, Virgin Gaming, who recently surpassed 1 million registered players, each of whom spends an average of 72 minutes per visit using the Virgin Gaming platform.

“NOS is all about fuelling high performance energy, be it behind the wheel or behind the controller,” said Eric Helms, vice president of marketing for NOS.  “Competitive gaming is soaring in popularity, and Virgin Gaming is at the forefront of that surge.  We’re excited to partner with them and look forward to fuelling their million plus members to victory.”

Virgin Gaming has quickly earned a reputation for hosting some of the largest online video game tournaments ever.  The site pairs up gamers of similar skill levels to play head-to-head matches for cash prizes.

Bill White, VP Sales & Marketing for Roaring Penguin Software said, “We are pleased to be able to help support these events.  We really feel that training is key for the MSP industry.  We hope this road show will help MSPs take advantage of our technology alliance with Level Platforms.”

Roaring Penguin Software features anti-spam solutions for the client site that can be run as a centralized service at the managed service provider’s network operations center or as a completely outsourced service run by Roaring Penguin.  Roaring Penguin’s CanIt anti-spam software combines high-performance e-mail filtering with ease of setup and administration, making it the ideal solution for Small and Medium Enterprise environments looking for accurate, plug-and-play anti-spam/anti-virus filtering and e-mail archiving.  The software can be clustered to handle very large mail volumes.  All versions of the software feature automatic updates.

The CanIt line of anti-spam software has been integrated with Level Platforms’ Managed Workplace’s central dashboard.

The Level Platforms Managed Services Education and Collaboration Road Show is a day-and-a-half event featuring top MSPs sharing winning strategies and best practices, educational panels delivering the latest industry intelligence, and the launch of Managed Workplace 2012.

Cisco Videoscape is a comprehensive TV platform allowing service providers and media companies to extend content across devices and networks to create a new, truly immersive home and mobile television experience. Videoscape utilizes the cloud, network, and client devices together to deliver new, high-quality video experiences over the Internet.

Through the use of Cisco Videoscape, TELUS is differentiating its consumer video experience in an increasingly competitive market, while simultaneously extending opportunities for revenue generation to its growing customer base of Optik services subscribers and TELUS wireless subscribers in Alberta and British Columbia.

“Our vision for Optik on the go is to offer customers a simple, straightforward way to view Optik TV content across any number of mobile screens or devices,” said David Fuller, chief marketing officer, TELUS. “With Cisco Videoscape we can now mobile-enable content and offer customers an innovative, world-class TV experience — at home and on the go.”

With Videoscape, TELUS will offer Optik customers in Alberta and British Columbia a unique TV experience, allowing them to take their TV service with them on the go. TELUS has employed Cisco’s technology and service delivery expertise in managing synergies between the cloud, network and client devices, to launch a fully hosted video content management platform to increase service velocity. Optik on the go allows users to start, pause, rewind and fast forward their shows just like they do at home.

“Service providers like TELUS are well-positioned to do for the TV experience what the mobile Internet did for the cellphone — allow anywhere, anytime access,” said Pankaj Patel, senior vice president, Engineering and general manager, Cisco Service Provider Business. “Today’s consumers want a personalized video experience, regardless of location or device. With Cisco Videoscape technology powering ‘Optik on the go’, TELUS further enhances their premium video customer experience.”

“At TELUS, we’re listening to our customers and introducing more fun, flexibility and mobility to their Optik TV experience,” said Joe Natale, Chief Commercial Officer, TELUS. “Optik TV for Xbox 360 and Optik on the go are two more examples of fun and innovative services that make it clear Optik TV is not your average TV service. It’s exciting for us at TELUS to bring this kind of innovation to life for our customers. Stay tuned, we are committed to bringing a steady stream of cool, leading edge ideas to Optik TV.”

With Optik TV, TELUS customers can use their Xbox 360 as their digital television box. Now, with the addition of an Xbox 360 Kinect sensor, users can employ a range of voice commands and hand gestures to control their television. This means Optik TV customers can change channels up or down, mute or unmute the volume, and pause, replay, and fast forward without the remote control.

Additionally, Optik on the go offers TV On Demand shows and movies from Super Channel, Hollywood Suite, Family Channel, Disney XD, Disney Jr, and Baby TV in English, French and Mandarin. The content library will continue to grow throughout 2012 and beyond as new shows and movies will be added constantly.

Optik on the go is a free application. There is no additional charge for Optik TV customers to watch select TV On Demand shows and movies from channels they already subscribe to. Tablet and smartphone users can enjoy the service without incurring data charges by using Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet. When connecting via a mobile network, data usage charges would apply.

“Over the years, when we picked up our video cameras and recorded the exciting events in our lives, we wanted to have them forever. Now, so many of these irreplaceable memories like weddings, graduations, children’s birthdays and other special family celebrations are locked away on old tapes that are degrading over time while the devices to play them are disappearing. With this simple-to-use product, anyone can convert their aging video tape to digital and save and share the movies that tell their family’s unique story,” said Sean Penn, Vice President of Product Management for Roxio Products at Corel.

Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus makes it easy to transfer your old analog video tapes to digital by simply plugging in your video camera or VHS player to your computer and letting the software guide you through the process. Bringing together a high-quality video capture device with easy-to-use software, the new Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus includes many enhancements in three key areas:

Great looking video and projects: New image enhancement tools remove noise, stabilize and color correct your videos. Give your final productions a more professional look with Hollywood-inspired titles and credits, new menus, transitions such as wipes and dissolves, and fade-to-black.

Easier than ever to use: Find thoughtful, time-saving features throughout the product, including ‘smart’ contextual help; a new USB device that simplifies setup by automatically detecting the video source format; and new capabilities that make it easy to burn large videos across multiple DVDs if extra disc space is required.

Easy Sharing for Today’s Lifestyle: Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus makes it easy to preserve and share your videos in today’s formats, whether you’re burning a DVD, posting to YouTube or Facebook, or saving to mobile devices like iPhone. Supported formats include MPEG-2, WMV, H.264 AVC and DivX®.

Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus is now available for purchase from Roxio and will be offered in retail stores later in February. Suggested retail pricing in the US and Canada is $69.99. Registered owners of previous versions of the product are eligible for a special software-only upgrade for $19.99.

The above release news comes on the same day that Corel has announced completion of the acquisition of the Roxio® business from Rovi Corporation. With this deal, Corel has expanded its product portfolio to include Roxio’s broad range of digital media and security solutions, including Roxio Creator®, the industry’s most popular digital media suite and Roxio® Toast®, the leading media conversion software on the Mac® platform. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Corel now adds the Roxio product line, including the following well-known products, to its portfolio:

• Roxio Creator® – Software to enhance, preserve, capture and share your digital media
• Roxio® Toast® – The ultimate multi-media toolkit for your Mac
• Roxio® Game Capture – Software and hardware solution to record your console gameplay
• Roxio® Easy VHS to DVD – Convert analog video tapes to digital video for sharing on DVD, online and mobile devices
• Roxio® CinePlayer® DVD Decoder – Watch your favorite DVDs on Windows Media Player
• Roxio® BackOnTrack™ Suite – Complete media protection solution that automatically keeps your memories safe and protects your PC from both hardware and software disasters
• Roxio® Secure Products – Powerful encryption for optical media and USB flash drives

“We want Roxio’s customers and partners to know that these products are an important addition to our portfolio and they will have a great home with Corel,” said Shawn Cadeau, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing at Corel. “We look forward to bringing together the best of what Corel and Roxio have to offer as we work to deliver even richer, more rewarding experiences to our customers.”

With this acquisition, Corel will take advantage of its well-established global infrastructure to dramatically broaden distribution of Roxio products into new international markets. In addition, the company will draw upon the complementary video, photo, audio, and disc burning technologies found in both Roxio and Corel software to give users even more capabilities and further enhance Corel’s overall product portfolio. Corel also sees significant opportunities in combining the strengths of Corel’s and Roxio’s established retail and direct sales channels and large customer bases.

Developers are increasingly choosing eMMC instead of raw NAND flash as their main storage media in embedded devices. Presentations provide a background on eMMC on the Linux Kernel and the current state of the Android platform in regards to eMMC. Presenters will share insights on how to effectively measure your eMMC performance, and tips to improve it. Topics covered include: filesystem bearing on MMC/SD performance, IO scheduler configuration, and optimal partition layout.

The Android Builders Summit, February 13 – 14, 2012 at the Hotel Sofitel San Francisco Bay, Redwood Shores, CA, is a technical summit for OEMs, device manufacturers, integrators, custom builders, and the growing Android and Linux Kernel developer communities. The Android Builders Summit provides an intimate forum for collaboration at the systems level and discussion of core issues and opportunities when designing Android devices.

The Embedded Linux Conference (ELC), February 15 – 17, 2012 at the Hotel Sofitel San Francisco Bay, Redwood Shores, CA, is the premier vendor-neutral technical conference for companies and developers using Linux in embedded products. This conference, now in its 8th year, has the largest collection of sessions dedicated exclusively to embedded Linux and embedded Linux developers.

Tom Foy, Embedded Software Developer for Intrinsyc Software, will present at the Android Builders Summit. Tom has worked on multiple embedded Linux based products, specializing on e-readers and tablets. Mainly focusing in the areas of power management, ARM platform support and system performance he has experience in taking the often rough initial platforms provided by silicon vendors and making them ready for consumer use.

Ken Tough, Principal Engineer with Intrinsyc Software, will present at the Embedded Linux Consortium. Ken led the platform development on Linux and Android-based embedded products, including system engineering on the several e-readers and tablets. He has broad experience in the areas of power management and charging, system performance, component qualification, USB, and product-hardening of reference BSPs.

“DISH is pleased to announce that Industry Canada has approved the transfer of the Canadian spectrum licenses held by TerreStar to DISH. In granting its approval, Industry Canada reached the conclusion that the transfer would be in the public interest in light of ‘the capacity that would be available in Canada,’ among other reasons.

U.S. bankruptcy courts approved DISH’s acquisition of the spectrum licenses held by TerreStar and DBSD in the middle of 2011.

DISH is prepared to immediately close both transactions upon receiving Federal Communications Commission approval of the transactions and associated waiver requests, which will enable DISH to move forward with its planned wireless initiatives.

DISH believes that immediate Commission approval will be a win for consumers, competition, infrastructure investment, and American jobs.”

The $1.26 billion in production activity accounted for almost 30,000 full-time direct and spin-off jobs. The increase was led by domestic spending which accounted for $852.1 million in total, a 32% increase over 2010′s figure of $646.2 million. Foreign spending was also up contributing $412.9 million total – a 30% increase over the previous year’s $318.1 million.

“The McGuinty government celebrates the success of Ontario’s creative industries as we are committed to creating jobs and a stronger economy,” stated Michael Chan, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport for Ontario. “We are proud to partner with our film and television industry, continuing to foster an innovative, competitive climate that will drive Ontario forward as a leader in the global market.”

Karen Thorne-Stone, President & CEO, Ontario Media Development Corporation added that “We are delighted by the outstanding performance of the film and television industry. It is a testimonial to the fact that Ontario offers a ‘total package’ of incentives to attract foreign and domestic productions, including: the right mix of government support, stable and competitive financial incentives, world-class infrastructure, superb talent and skills and diverse locations.”

The rise came despite the continued strength of the Canadian dollar, aggressive competition from other jurisdictions and a soft global economy. Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) programs also support the book and magazine publishing, music and interactive digital media industries. The entire entertainment and creative cluster supports almost 300,000 jobs and contributes $12.2 billion annually to the province’s GDP.

“Ontario provides a wide variety of options that make it very desirable for us to shoot our productions here. With its strong infrastructure, consistently reliable tax credit, a deep, professional crew base and many architectural styles and diverse locations available throughout the region, each of our series is able to find all of the resources they need in Ontario,” Said  Mark Binke, Senior Vice President, Cable and Digital Production for Universal Cable Productions/NBC Universal. “Additionally, we have great relationships that we have built over the past decade with local vendors and talent. OMDC President and CEO Karen Thorne and her team are great partners.”

Ontario Film And TV Production Quick Facts

• Ontario’s 2011 film & TV production activity contributed $1.26 billion to the economy – an increase of $300 million or 31% over 2010
• Increased spending was seen in virtually all areas, including domestic film, which spiked in 2011 contributing $165.9 million in 2011 compared to $62.6 million in 2010 – a 165% increase.
• Domestic television series grew 34% -  to $626.7 million in 2011 from $467.9 million in 2010
• Foreign feature film spending was $231.6 million compared to $159.3 million in 2010 – a 45% increase.
• Foreign television series spending continued to grow contributing $150.2 million in 2011 compared to $119.0 million in 2010 – a 26% increase.
• Total domestic production spending contributed $852.1 million, a 32% increase.
• Total foreign production spending increased by $94.7 million or 30%.
• The $1.26 billion in production activity accounted for almost 30,000 full-time direct and spin-off jobs.
• Every million dollars of film and TV production in Ontario generates 23 full-time direct and spin-off jobs.
• Ontario’s entire creative cluster includes: book and magazine publishing; sound recording; film and television; interactive digital media; performing arts; radio; advertising; architecture and design

2009-11 Ontario Film and Television Production activity chart broken down by format with foreign and domestic levels.

1991-2011 20-year graph showing Ontario production levels comparing foreign and domestic activity.

e-Value™ is a software as a service tool designed to calculate the cost-efficiency of corporate social media campaigns by comparing natural (earned) engagement behavior of online communities against the paid promotion and management efforts deployed by companies to build these followings. All performance results are measured against a growing list of benchmarked social media accounts from global brands with a strong social media presence. As of today, over 1500 brands have their e-Value™ benchmarked.

According to Parta Dialogue, e-Value™ is a critical starting point that will allow brand managers to establish ROI for social media spending – a major request from top marketing management in 2012.

“We welcome the brands that have joined us as early adopters of our e-Value™ service. With their help, we are on the way to creating a new industry benchmark that will answer brand managers most pressing questions,” states Parta’s CEO, Paul Allard.

]]> http://www.villagegamer.net/2012/02/07/rona-and-air-transat-to-evaluate-parta-dialogue-e-value-analytics-tool/feed/ 0 http://www.villagegamer.net/2012/02/07/ceridian-corporation-to-acquire-dayforce/ http://www.villagegamer.net/2012/02/07/ceridian-corporation-to-acquire-dayforce/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:15:39 +0000 Tami http://www.villagegamer.net/?p=23968 Ceridian Corporation, a provider of business management software has announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Dayforce Corporation. The acquisition underscores Ceridian’s commitment to cloud technology and builds on Ceridian’s February 2011 investment in Dayforce’s award-winning HCM platform.

“Innovation is a top priority at Ceridian. With this acquisition we are gaining development and delivery expertise and innovative technology that are the perfect complement to Ceridian’s experience, established customer base and tremendous market reach,” said Stuart C. Harvey, Jr., Ceridian’s chief executive officer and president. “We are well positioned to deliver the most advanced human capital management cloud platform in the industry.”

Ceridian introduced its new workforce management solution in 2011 using the Dayforce platform. The customer response to the new workforce management offering has been overwhelmingly successful, with over 450 accounts sold in less than a year.

“Our partnership with Ceridian has been a perfect match from the outset,” said David Ossip, Dayforce chief executive officer and president. “Ceridian’s large customer base and robust distribution channels are an ideal outlet for Dayforce’s innovation and development expertise.”

Ceridian’s new platform will be marketed as Dayforce|HCM and in 2012 will include human resources, payroll, benefits, self-service, time & attendance, and scheduling. Clients can access the solution via the web and on mobile devices.

Dayforce|HCM has been designed for both existing and new clients, including two-way interfaces with Ceridian’s current HR, payroll, benefits, and paycard solutions. This allows Ceridian’s 130,000 existing customers to benefit from the new Dayforce|HCM modules while continuing to use their existing Ceridian products.

The transaction is expected to close in March, at which time Ossip will become president of Ceridian Dayforce, the new organization responsible for the development and management of Ceridian’s Dayforce|HCM application and services. Closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions, including approval of Dayforce’s shareholders and of the Canadian court with jurisdiction over the transaction.

“Canadians have told us that with more and more technology, their lives have become more confusing and complicated. We now have a seamless and easy-to-use solution for them with Rogers One Number,” said John Boynton, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Rogers Communications. “By extending your Rogers wireless number to your computer, we’re transforming and simplifying how Canadians connect with family and friends.”

With Rogers One Number, customers can use their mobile number to manage everything from their computer. Features of the service include:

With Rogers One Number, texts, calls and emails – Yahoo! Mail and Gmail are currently available with the service – can be organized into one unified inbox and contacts can be synched across customer’s wireless phone and the Rogers One Number website.

Wireless calls can be instantly switched to your computer, or vice versa, with the click of a button. You can also text with friends from your computer. Canadians already spend more time on the internet than any other nation and the amount of time Canadians spend online is nearly double the worldwide average – according to The comScore 2010 Canada Digital Year in Review (March 8, 2011). The study analyzes overarching trends in digital media usage in Canada, including overall Internet usage, high-growth categories, online display advertising, online video, search and mobile.

Whether you’re a student abroad or travelling on business, by using Rogers One Number on your computer, all calls, video chats with other Rogers One Number users and outgoing text messages sent to Canadian wireless numbers are free of charge, even if you are in the US or an international destination.

“When you’re a Rogers wireless customer it’s not just about you and your phone, Rogers One Number extends your mobile number to your computer, unifying your communication and giving you an enhanced identity,” said John Boynton. “This service reflects our commitment to customer-driven innovation and creating world-leading internet experiences that evolve with our customers’ relationship to technology.”

Rogers has brought many new advances to the Canadian market, building on a proud history of innovative firsts and commitment to investing in Canada’s digital future. Rogers was the first to launch LTE in Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver and surrounding areas, and the first carrier in Canada to launch a complete and robust network in Toronto. Rogers was also first to launch Android smartphones, and the iPhone in Canada; the first carrier in the world to launch BlackBerry devices, rolled out the first coast-to-coast GSM network in 2001 and one of the first 10 carriers worldwide to offer HSPA+.

The survey was developed by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology (IT) professionals on a project and full-time basis – who already has its own free App. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with more than 270 CIOs from companies across Canada with 100 or more employees.

CIOs were asked, “Has your company developed a mobile application for customers and clients, or do you plan to offer one in the next 12 months?” Their responses:

You have one now..................................................... 31%
You don't have one now but plan to offer one in the next 12 months ...12%
You don't have one and don't plan to offer one in the next 12 months .55%
Other/don't know ......................................................1%
                                                                       ------
                                                                       99%*

    *Responses do not total 100 per cent due to rounding.

As mobile applications become more prevalent, there is no shortage of issues for the IT teams tasked with developing them. In the same survey, CIOs said the two greatest challenges for IT teams developing these applications are keeping them up to date and finding IT professionals with the skills to build them.

CIOs were asked, “What is the greatest challenge for IT teams when developing a mobile application for the business?” Their responses:

Keeping the application up to date .................................. 41%
Finding and hiring IT professionals with the necessary expertise .... 18%
Collaborating across departments .................................... 16%
Gaining approvals from the application store or market ............... 5%
Other/don't know .................................................... 20%
                                                                     ------
                                                                      100%

“The use of mobile media, such as smart phones and tablets, is taking off at an exponential rate and as a result, firms are looking to create mobile applications that compliment their business strategy,” said Lara Dodo, a Canadian regional vice president of Robert Half Technology. “When developing these programs, it’s critical that these IT professionals not only have the necessary development expertise, but also the ability to effectively and frequently update the application’s content.”

As more companies look to develop mobile apps, the demand for IT professionals who specialize in this area has increased, according to the Robert Half Technology 2012 Salary Guide, which shows starting salaries for mobile applications developers are expected to increase 8.2 per cent next year — one of the largest increases of any IT position researched.

The latest version of Fairshare Traffic Management interoperates with third-party vendors to offer “mobility- awareness”. True mobility-awareness can accurately identify a moving subscriber’s cell location, dynamically evaluate the congestion level of the cell and apply traffic management policies in real-time, in order to alleviate any congestion. This is the only solution that offers true mobility-awareness; competing products can identify the initial location where the mobile subscriber’s device connected, but not subsequent network locations to which the subscriber has moved.

Sandvine’s Fairshare Traffic Management 4.0 for mobile enables:

• Sector-based congestion management based on dynamic congestion detection capabilities, superior to statically-provisioned cell capacity
• Fair-use network policies to maintain the highest quality of experience during times of congestion for the maximum number of users’ interactive applications
• Real-time network location-based policies such as charging, advertising and communications
• Support for location-based pricing for mobile data to create bundled and tiered services that match subscriber usage, dependant on the subscriber’s location
• Location- aware network analytics and reporting that provides visibility of the impact of congestion management policies and supports proactive network capacity planning

“Sandvine has been a leader in congestion management for the past decade. Our latest version of Fairshare Traffic Management brings a powerful and dynamic congestion control system that works in concert with our policy decision and enforcement capabilities,” said Don Bowman, CTO, Sandvine.   “Operators can cost-effectively manage their mobile networks to deliver optimal performance without resorting to crude approximations such as daily or hourly network-wide traffic management policies.”

Sandvine’s Network Policy Control is a complete system that gives mobile operators visibility of application traffic, per-subscriber usage, device identification and network congestion. This data powers the integrated policy decision and enforcement engine, enabling a myriad of solutions for service providers, such as fair-use management policies, network capacity planning, and tailored, tiered service plans. Sandvine’s Fairshare Traffic Management product has been deployed in over 50 service provider networks worldwide in 2011 alone to address congestion management across all access technologies.

Sandvine has also won five new broadband service provider customers, including two that purchased Sandvine’s market-leading Network Analytics product.

“Sandvine’s Network Analytics is a powerful enabler for our customers, who want to leverage the kind of business level insight that standard reporting tools don’t provide,” said Tom Donnelly, Sandvine’s COO Global Sales and Service. ”Network Analytics allows operators to use real-time information to create differentiated service offerings that satisfy rapidly evolving consumer demands.  Innovative service offerings allow operators to ensure efficient utilization of network resources while giving consumers the opportunity to tailor plans to match their Internet usage, whether for real-time streaming media, gaming or social networking, for example.”

The new customer orders reflect the breadth of Sandvine’s network policy control capabilities and include:

• Usage Management, to help service providers move from all-you-can-eat data plans to consumption-based service tiers;
• Traffic Management, to allocate network resources fairly and efficiently during times of network congestion;
• Application-specific Traffic Divert to third-party optimization solutions, including video optimization and content caching.

The new customers are located in the United States, Western Europe and Asia, and involved various access technologies: DSL, mobile, and converged fixed/wireless networks.

For more information on Fairshare Traffic Management and other Sandvine products, visit Mobile World Congress booth 2H57 from Feb 27-March 1.

Select-TV is an experienced and established technology solution provider offering end-to-end IPTV solutions to hotels, hospitals, cruise liners and other IPTV service providers. Through its market-leading EMAGINE content suite, Select-TV offers innovative, high quality on-demand entertainment services to some of the world’s most luxurious venues including Armani Hotel in Dubai, Emirates Palace and Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, Kempinski Residences & Suites in Doha, Lebua at State Tower Hotel in Bangkok, as well as Star Cruises’ cruise ship SuperStar Virgo.

GameTree TV will be available in 50,000 connected suites and state rooms over the next year and will also be available on 6 new service providers powered by Select-TV in the Indo-Pacific region.

“GameTree TV offers a unique and engaging consumer experience that will allow Select-TV to deliver even more value to our customers by adding to the already wide-ranging selection of content that we provide through EMAGINE,” commented CS Goh, CEO of Select-TV. “TransGaming’s value proposition is a special one. It’s one all-encompassing digital platform that is accessible through the set-top box that offers a wealth of interactive entertainment content for all ages.”

“GameTree TV is ideally suited for Select-TV’s markets and this agreement extends the GameTree TV territorial reach by introducing our product offering to new audiences within the hospitality market,” commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of TransGaming Inc. “Our GameTree TV offering rounds out the EMAGINE suite of on-demand services perfectly, while Select-TV provides instant access to a lucrative market that represents an impressive win for TransGaming’s rapid expansion strategy.”

“Shaw EXO is a promise that we will continue to innovate, lead and provide the latest in technology and entertainment offerings to customers,” said Peter Bissonnette, President, Shaw Communications Inc. “With Shaw EXO, the power of our network allows us to continue delivering the products and services that our customers are looking for.”

With Shaw EXO On Demand, you don’t need a PVR to catch up on your favourite shows. Thanks to partnerships with Global, CTV and Citytv, Shaw customers can now catch up on programs like Glee, Hawaii Five-O, Criminal Minds, The Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock and The Bachelor On Demand – whenever they want. (hmm…how about promoting some home-grown CANADIAN shows instead of imports, Shaw?)

Shaw EXO also brings full HD in stunning 1080p quality to the Shaw Gateway. Many titles, including new releases like Contagion, are now available On Demand with the Shaw Gateway in the best quality HD available for broadcast. Accessible through the On Demand button your Shaw remote or at Shaw EXO, Shaw EXO On Demand gives customers access to more than 7,000 titles, with 1,200 in High-Definition and many for free.

Outside the home, Shaw EXO is adapting to the ways people use technology to bring lightning-fast Internet speeds to people on the go. With Shaw EXO WiFi, customers will soon be able to experience their Broadband Internet at Shaw WiFi locations available across Western Canada.

Over the last six years, TDC has grown from one school servicing six children to over 400 schools servicing over 110,000 children during the 2010/2011 film season. TDC comes with a large content library of videos made by kids for kids. The TDC acquisition brings a wide range of lesson plans from both educational and technical perspectives to its fun curriculums with attendees learning the exciting world of digital media.

“The company reaches more than 7,000 kids per month and is growing,” said Bryan Goldmintz, President of The Directors Cut. “We never dreamed the company would grow across North America as large as it has. Joining with Kairos provides us with an opportunity to focus on our core strengths of developing digital curriculum and teaching kids while plugging into Kairos’ media relationships for growth.”

TDC digital media literacy workshops’ success is the result of its broad appeal to kids and educators’ in public and private schools demand for digital curriculum and its “field trip” budgeting approach. Kids in TDC programs learn by doing, collaborating and teaming up for pre-production, film shooting and post-production including sound track recording. These programs reach a broad range of kids many times including those with learning challenges. Public and private schools enjoy TDC’s day-long workshops and programs, which culminate in a free film festival hosted at participating Cineplex theaters. TDC offers week-long summer camps and after school programs for kids ranging from 8 to 17.

“The Directors Cut has world class digital literacy programs that schools actively seek to fill their digital curriculum,” said Bill Stuart, Kairos Transmedia’s CEO. “In addition to the immediate revenue and growth this acquisition provides, TDC gives Kairos additional content for its platform and extended awareness of its brands. Not only is The Directors Cut program super fun, it provides compelling videos, infused with positive messages and great lifestyle choices, tied to our firm’s existing culture.”

“Startup Weekend events in Toronto and around the world have proven to be one of the most effective ways to motivate and inspire innovation. I’ve seen people accomplish so much over the course of a single 54 hour period,” said Chris.  “I’ve been truly amazed and have become a firm believer in the power of bringing people together, mashing them up, and seeing what they can do. Entrepreneurship can exist in many different forms and is a powerful force wherever it’s found. I’m excited to see what Torstar Digital can do with this event and happy to see an organization like this supporting this type of activity across their team.”

Torstar Digital has a history of building and growing innovative businesses both through acquisition and incubation across the digital space in Canada. Past acquisitions have involved scaling and growing small entrepreneurial ventures into leading Canadian businesses including WagJag.com, TravelAlerts.ca, Olive Media and EyeReturn Marketing.

Torstar Digital has also leveraged its startup culture and business assets to incubate new ventures including TOPS, a content management system, Jaunt.ca, a travel group buying site, and ShopCatch, a mobile shopping app and retail solution. Torstar Digital’s future lies in creating a home for great entrepreneurial talent that want to build Canada’s leading digital businesses, and the company believes that driving further innovation and finding great new ventures can come from tapping into the expertise and entrepreneurial drive of its existing talent.

“We are very proud to be the first company in Canada to hold such an event. We are focused on creating the next generation of digital businesses in the country and who better to do so than the smart entrepreneurial talent of Torstar Digital,” said Candice Faktor, VP, New Ventures at Torstar Digital. “We believe magical things can happen when we give people the opportunity to work together from different functional areas and portfolio companies in an entrepreneurial immersive experience like StartUp Weekend.”

On Thursday February 9th, participants will gather at Torstar Digital’s King Street offices to be inspired by successful Canadian entrepreneur, Daniel Debow, CEO of Rypple, who recently sold his start up to Salesforce.com. Throughout the next two days, teams will form and work tirelessly to produce innovative new ventures through developing a business model, seeking customer validation and building a product.

On Saturday afternoon the teams will present their final pitches to a group of judges, a mix of Torstar Digital senior leadership and prominent Canadian venture capitalists, including Matt Golden and Matthew Leibowitz. While the winning team will walk away with $5000, the real prize will be the opportunity to see their concept further developed and potentially turned into a real Torstar Digital portfolio business.

Among other accomplishments, SherWeb has shown a 1332% growth rate from 2006 to 2010, won an IMPACT Award from Microsoft as Hosting Partner of the Year, entered the prestigious North American Technology Fast 500 list from Deloitte, brought its expertise to customers in more than 100 countries, and surpassed the 500,000 user count – an impressive resume that makes this company one of the most important players in the software-as-a-service field.

“It’s not a question of piling up prices and growing for the sake of growing,” explains Peter Cassar, CEO and cofounder of SherWeb. “We’re reaping what we sow. We’re not afraid of putting in the hours and our teams have done amazing work on countless occasions, which got us where we are today. This recognition is a strong indicator that we have the right formula for success. The challenge now is to maintain this momentum and surpass ourselves like we’ve done in the last ten years,” added the CEO.

ACTION TI is one of the most prominent IT partnership networks in Canada. Its selection of the Cassar brothers as their Personality of the Month testifies to SherWeb’s innovative operations and marketing strategies, the latter being mainly based on the company’s bilingual customer service, one of the best in the business. “Our business strategy is centered on our customers,” concluded Peter Cassar. “Ensuring their satisfaction is our ultimate goal.”

“The expertise and training required by communications practitioners today is dramatically different than it was just a few years ago,” noted campaign chair, Bruce MacLellan, President of Environics Communications Inc. MacLellan cited the emergence of digital technology and social media, globalization, economic recession and an aging workforce as some of the shifts impacting the public-relations profession.

MacLellan said the campaign achieved its $75,000 objective with donations still arriving.  In addition, Canadian research firm Leger Marketing has made a substantial services donation to the campaign.

Foundation chair Gordon McIvor called the campaign a gratifying success.  “The response from the Canadian communications and business community has been outstanding with donations from leading agencies, corporations and individuals.

“We can now proceed with our objective to investigate what employers in different sectors of public relations and communications management require to ensure the employees they hire have the talent and education needed to contribute to overall corporate or organizational objectives,” he said.

The Communications + Public Relations Foundation was founded in 1979 with a mandate to support education and research in the communications and public-relations industry.  Most of its work to date has focussed on advancing educational initiatives through the initiation of scholarships, bursaries, and professional development lectures as well providing reference text books across Canada and assisting post graduate students with funding for research projects.  The research initiative will be the foundation’s first endeavour through its newly formed Foundation Research Network.

“Academic researchers at leading Canadian universities have already indicated their support and interest in taking part in the original research,” said McIvor.  The research network includes Mount Saint Vincent University, Université du Québec à Montréal, McGill University, Mount Royal University, Université de Montréal, McMaster University and the University of Prince Edward Island.

“The first phase of the research is expected to begin by Fall 2012 with results made available through a phased approach using the foundation’s website and other media,” McIvor concluded.

Fibre-to-the-home is the most advanced broadband network available with 100 per cent fibre optic technology connected directly to a customer’s home. FibreOP can easily handle an array of high-speed data and video services, delivering the best Internet and TV experience in the market.

“We’re thrilled that FibreOP is coming to Greater Sudbury” said Mayor Marianne Matichuk. “It’s great news that Bell Aliant chose Greater Sudbury for its first FibreOP expansion outside Atlantic Canada, making our community a leader in new technologies and providing our residents with access to the most advanced broadband technology in the world.  Greater Sudbury will now have an added edge; making our community even more attractive for new investments.”

FibreOP Internet will offer customers blazing fast Internet speeds. These speeds enable customers to not only download music or movies and share video or photos faster than ever before, but also to accommodate the growing need for multiple users within the home.

FibreOP TV will provide the ultimate TV experience allowing customers to get everything they are used to and amazing features they won’t be able to get anywhere else. By the end of 2012, Bell Aliant will have invested approximately half a billion dollars to extend FTTH to more than 600,000 homes and businesses.

Of the total investment, $350,000 is an equity investment from the GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund and $192,000 is a research and development (R&D) project investment from RDC. Today’s support brings the Provincial Government’s total investment in adfinitum Networks to $522,000.

“Access to capital is critical for small businesses as they undertake product development, marketing activities, and ultimately expand their operations,” said the Honourable Keith Hutchings, Minister of Innovation, Business and Rural Development and Minister Responsible for RDC. “To assist small businesses like adfinitum Networks, it is important to bridge that gap and assist businesses address their immediate needs and position them for success over the long-term.  The involvement of GrowthWorks in this endeavour is even more exciting as venture capital-backed companies have greater opportunities for business success.”

GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund is a leader in Canadian venture capital management. Its managed funds provide investment capital for Canadian companies and tax-advantaged investment opportunities for Canadian investors.

“The fund has invested $350,000 in adfinitum Networks, making it the third portfolio company we have within Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Thomas J. Hayes, President and CEO of GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund. “We are delighted to be working with experienced angel investors, the Research & Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador and ACOA to provide knowledge based companies with the capital and expertise to commercialize and expand their businesses.”

RDC works with R&D stakeholders including business, academia and government agencies and departments to improve Newfoundland and Labrador’s R&D performance.

“Supporting the R&D needs of entrepreneurial companies such as adfinitum Networks is an important role for RDC,” said Glenn Janes, Chief Executive Officer of RDC. “Given the scope of success that the company has experienced to date, adfinitum Networks is strategically positioning itself for future growth and the next generation of its products.”

RDC’s investment will help with the technical and financial risk that is involved in extending adfinitum Network’s market reach and product offering to create two new services: Analytics and Ad Spend. These new innovative technologies will be developed as a module that sits on top of the company’s existing database of ad creative, which will provide marketers valuable information about competitor advertising such as how often competitors are advertising and where competitors are advertising.

“I am very pleased to be able to partner with GrowthWorks Atlantic and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Ed Clarke, CEO of adfinitum Networks. “Not only do they provide capital but they also have the experience and skills to help develop successful companies.”

Print Audit Premier is a new subscription plan that gives dealers access to all of Print Audit’s products for one low monthly fee. Premier subscribers will receive access to an exclusive web portal which will help track the programs three brand promises which are to help dealers Win New Customers, Keep Current Customers and Make a lot of Money.

The subscription program is disruptive in that it greatly increases office equipment dealers’ profit margins on print management solution sales. With the program, dealers can charge their customers for Print Audit’s software under a per page or device model, while only paying a fixed cost to Print Audit. This means that the dealer’s profits go up with every customer they sell to.

Print Audit’s statistics show that 80% of MPS and equipment deals are won using device and user assessment tools. Premier provides a full array of print management tools that can be used to uncover more sales opportunities, truly manage printing in any environment, lower print costs and add value to the dealers machines in field

The application is available through all global Apple App Stores as a free download and can be configured to connect to any existing eSCRIBE system running the upgraded Publishing module.

The company is running a number of webinars to demonstrate the application and brief prospective customers and channel partners, including:

Wednesday February 8, 2012 1:00 PM ET
Wednesday February 22, 2012 1:00 PM ET
Wednesday March 7, 2012 1:00 PM ET
Wednesday March 21, 2012 1:00 PM ET

For more information or to register for one of the events, contact eSCRIBE sales at 1-905-305-3424 or by email to sales@escribecorporate.com.

Worldwide, nearly one third of employees indicate they expect to be working from home more in 2012. This is especially the case in India (62%) and Mexico (63%). But the worldwide responses also report that roughly 40% of employees across the globe expect to be working from home less in 2012. Especially in China where 74 per cent of employees say they expect to work from home less than they did in 2011.

The absence of a sharp upward or downward trend is similar to recent data from Statistics Canada’s Working at home: An update: “The number of employees working at home in 2008 was 1,748,600, compared with 1,425,700 in 2000. Despite this increase, the proportion of employees working at home remained relatively stable during the 2000s. While there is an upward trend, the increase is small and the pace moderate”.

So why aren’t there more employees working from home?

Jan Hein Bax, President of Randstad Canada explains that home working doesn’t suit all jobs or sectors. “There many forward-thinking organizations who welcome teleworking, but there are some sectors where teleworking is impossible – retailers, construction workers, manufacturers – there are certain roles where people must be at the workplace.”

According to Bax, working from home can be a suitable arrangement for a number of employees and employers. “Through our own research and studies, we have found that having a good work life-balance is a key factor for Canadians when looking for an employer. But flexibility can mean more than just allowing employees access to work from home, it can be better access to wireless networks for commuters, flexible working schedules, or daycare facilities in the workplace. Those are just a few of the alternatives that also help workers get achieve more flexibility.”

“As the workforce continues to shrink, it’s important for businesses to find creative ways to leverage the skills of talented, productive employees,” says Bax. “Assessing how to best adapt to the ever-evolving needs of Canadian employees will be a critical task for employers looking to attract and retain the best talent.”

Find out if there are work from home in Canada opportunities for you at Randstad.

“I am very proud to welcome Alain Gignac to our management team as Chief Marketing Activation Officer. His creative talents and strategic thinking, which have enabled him to build highly successful marketing campaigns, along with his skills as a manager of major organizations, will make him invaluable in this new position. He will be responsible for ramping up the transformation of our marketing activation offering for major clients, while leveraging the efficiency of their investments and communication with their customers,” said François Olivier, President and Chief Executive Officer.

From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Gignac was at the helm of BBDO Montréal, a marketing communications agency that specializes in strategic planning, advertising campaigns and Internet strategies. Prior to that, Mr. Gignac handled operations management and development functions for a number of companies, including Saine Marketing, Cossette Communication Group and Marketel/McCann Erickson. As a communications practitioner at the forefront of new trends, Mr. Gignac is also an active board member of a number of private and charitable organizations.

With a rich history of innovation, disciplined adaptation to changing customer needs, and its specialization in marketing activation, TC Transcontinental is uniquely positioned in Canada to help customers attract, acquire and retain their target consumers.  Marketing activation is the method TC Transcontinental uses to bring a brand message to life through a strategic, integrated campaign that leverages the full potential of a wide range of marketing communications tools in order to maximize results and provide the greatest return to our customers’ marketing investment.

The opportunity in M2M is expected to explode as we head to 50 billion intelligent connected devices by 2020. Enterprise leaders, M2M solution providers and mobile operators will gather to share knowledge and best practices and explore new ideas that will improve enterprise operations, address industry challenges, and create a competitive edge. The mPower M2M event will take place February 7, 2012, from 8:00AM to 7:00PM, at the Westin Bayshore Hotel, 1601 Bayshore Drive in Vancouver.

Intrinsyc personnel will be on hand to discuss its M2M products and services including the following:

• iQ Wireless Development Kit
• M2M Wireless Modules
• Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) module for Smart Meters
• Design and Development Services
• Application Development
• Remote Device Management
• Carrier Certification
• Turnkey Product Development

Get in touch with Intrinsyc at the event by contacting Mark Waldenberg, Director of Business Development.

With the meaningful increase in the number of mobile devices accessing the internet and online services, and since most real estate boards in North America have developed, or are currently developing mobile strategies, PRG is now positioned to monetize mobile innovation in the Real Estate Industry.

“In today’s competitive marketplace, every successful real estate association member uses their mobile device as their preferred method of communication” said Tony Canapini, CEO of PRG. “Once patented, PRG will license the methods included in this patent to anyone wishing to provide real estate listings over mobile devices.”

MSNBC.com reported last month that Apple has over 500,000 mobile applications and Google is close behind with 400,000 applications, and that each of these companies has now achieved over 10 billion downloads. This means that most consumers are accessing applications from their mobile devices, and with the parallel growth in online auction sites and free internet classified advertising, consumers will become more directly involved in the advertising, buying and selling of their real estate.

PRG takes a keen interest in making solutions available where there is a need for innovative new ideas. In this instance, PRG will add this patent to its existing patent portfolio and be ready to monetize this emerging need for advertising and listing real estate over mobile devices.

“Quebecor Media’s participation in this project reflects our will to contribute to the development of Quebec champions in a cutting edge sector where Quebec know-how has up until now been mostly showcased by foreign studios operating here,” declared Quebecor, Quebecor Media and Sun Media Corporation President and CEO, Mr. Pierre Karl Péladeau.

To manage BlooBuzz, Quebecor Media will rely on eight entrepreneurs with a solid background in the video game industry, acquired at Saguenay-based Wendigo Studios whose Timebuilders franchise saw its first two editions (Pyramid Rising and Caveman’s Prophecy) downloaded over 2 million times.

“At Wendigo Studios, we demonstrated that it was possible, in Saguenay, to create games that can achieve worldwide success,” said BlooBuzz President Éric Trudel. “With the financial backing of Quebecor Media and the strength of its network, we are confident that BlooBuzz will be a great opportunity to showcase Saguenay and Quebec entrepreneurial talents in a field where our developing and creative skills are already well-established.”

“The acquisition of TMC enhances Fujitsu Canada’s offerings and consolidates its presence in Saskatchewan, a province that has experienced major economic growth. It will also let the company expand its pool of experts and improve its delivery capability. By combining forces, both organizations will offer a broader line of services and products that will not only meet the needs of the province’s customers, but also allow us to support all our customers in Central and Western Canada in terms of managed services, application development and service desks,” said Mr. Pouliot.

In operation for close to 20 years, TMC relies on the recognized expertise of some 70 professionals and offers services in the areas of project management, management consulting, business analysis, application development, delegated management and service desks. Not only has it made a name for itself over the years by constantly seeking cutting-edge solutions, but it has also built its reputation around the special attention it pays to the success of its customers. The current TMC senior management team will become part of the Fujitsu Canada leadership team.

“We are proud to join with Fujitsu Canada, which has recognized our expertise and the quality of our services. As an ICT leader, Fujitsu will give us the benefit of preferred access to world class experts and products so we can better serve our existing customers as well expand our business in Saskatchewan. This partnership will give our employees the possibility to take on new challenges,” stated Mr. David Luterbach, president of TMC. “Fujitsu and TMC have similar values and share a common vision on the importance of its relationships with employees and customers. We firmly believe that this agreement will produce results.”

EXFO’s FTB test platforms now offer 3G, VPN and Wi-Fi connectivity, providing users with real-time, 24/7 access to the EXFO Apps portal, right from the field. This unmatched data connectivity to the FTB platforms provides users with real-time notifications of new test application releases as they become available. In addition, EXFO Apps users can benefit from on-the-spot training through on-demand “How-To” video capsules. Downloadable and viewable on the FTB platforms, these capsules provide field technicians with application-specific, EXFO-recommended test methods and procedures.

The exclusive applications found in EXFO Apps enable FTB platform users to work faster and smarter, with an immediate positive impact on test-routine efficiency and everyday productivity. In fact, the software applications—such as ConnectorMax and EXpert IPTV—can run simultaneously with the platform’s test modules. In addition, EXFO is the first to introduce on-demand timed trials of all test applications, allowing users to benefit from test enhancements immediately in a “try-before-you-buy” environment. All software upgrades can be automated through the EXFO Connect systems, another key element for field productivity enhancements.

“The vision behind the FTB Ecosystem is to offer our customers the right tools to help them face their biggest single challenge: controlling their operating expenses,” said Étienne Gagnon, EXFO’s Vice-President of Product Management and Marketing. “The EXFO Apps portal is another key component of the FTB Ecosystem. It enables network operators to provide their teams with value-added software applications that boost their on-field productivity.”

• Google which continues to grow, expanding its current premises by another 11,000+ square feet for a total of 53,656 square feet at The Tannery Building in downtown Kitchener — also home to The Communitech Hub
• Desire2Learn - a learning solutions company in growth mode with 200 job openings — expanding to take over another full floor at the Tannery Building occupying 67,000 square feet in total;
• The University of Waterloo’s VeloCity incubator is moving into a new, expanded 6,500 square foot workspace in The Communitech Hub;
• The Communitech Hub is celebrating the grand opening of another 14,000 square feet of space, bringing its total floorspace to 44,000 square feet.

“Ontario’s innovation engine is on full throttle as we can see today at this celebration in Waterloo Region,” said Premier McGuinty. “Innovation programs that the Province has supported including contributing to The Communitech Hub which opened just 18 months ago, are working for all Ontarians — building a stronger economy for Ontario families.”

“We’re excited about the results that are being attained in Waterloo Region, driving innovative technologies, bringing those innovations to market and creating companies and jobs in Ontario, and we congratulate those here today who are in expansion mode and contributing to the vibrancy of the tech sector,” said Iain Klugman, CEO of Communitech.

Since first announcing its move to The Tannery, Google has doubled in size and continues to be one of the top engineering offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, driving tremendous growth and innovation worldwide.

“Kitchener-Waterloo is a great place to work and invest, and we are proud to be a part of the community, and a partner with Communitech to support not only our growth but the entire community’s success,” said Steve Woods, Engineering Director at Google.

Desire2Learn develops innovative solutions to help transform the learning experience and create a world where everyone has the opportunity to excel. The company is realizing phenomenal growth, with nearly 400 employees and more than 8 million users worldwide.

“We’re thrilled to be an active contributor to the innovation being generated in this Region,” commented John Baker, President and CEO, Desire2Learn Incorporated. “The outstanding products and services coming out of the Waterloo Region technology sector are having a dramatic impact around the globe.”

The University of Waterloo’s VeloCity program aims to develop Canada’s next generation of successful entrepreneurs. Students take their first steps in building startups and professional networks while living in the VeloCity residence on campus and then move up to the next level at the VeloCity workspace in The Communitech Hub.

“The grand opening of the new VeloCity workspace is a critical milestone in our continued efforts to foster the next generation of University of Waterloo mobile, media and web entrepreneurs,” said Mike Kirkup, Director of VeloCity. “The expanded workspace will enable us to increase collaboration, creative thinking and competition to help VeloCity companies turn their ideas into businesses.”

In 2009 the Province of Ontario invested $26.4 million into Communitech’s $107 million digital media strategy, which is anchored at The Communitech Hub. In just two short years, job and company creation has significantly accelerated since the Province’s investment, said Klugman. Within 18 months, demand from companies and requirements for support services drove the need for the current expansion. Today’s event was held in the newly renovated additional space.

Last week, Communitech reported that 450 startup jobs and 300 new companies emerged in Waterloo Region during 2011, along with continued hiring in established companies. Companies working with the Communitech startups team raised over $70 million in funding from venture capitalists, angel investors and government incentive programs to fuel innovation during 2011.

LinkedIn ranked second with 37 per cent of the response. Regardless of which social media site someone is using for business, staying active is essential, the survey confirmed: More than one-third (34 per cent) of executives said not keeping content fresh is the most common mistake creatives make in their professional online profiles.

The Canadian survey was developed by The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service for interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations professionals, and conducted by an independent research firm.

Advertising and marketing executives were asked, “If you had to limit yourself to only one social media platform, which of the following would it be?” Their responses:

• Facebook …………….. 44%
• LinkedIn …………….. 37%
• Google+ ……………… 7%
• Twitter ……………… 6%
• Other ……………….. 2%
• Don’t know/no answer ….. 6%

*Responses do not total 100 per cent due to rounding.

Executives also were asked, “In your experience, what is the most common mistake creative professionals make when creating online profiles that they use for professional purposes?” Their responses:

• Not updating it often enough …………….. 34%
• Including inappropriate information ………. 23%
• Providing too much information …………… 19%
• Providing too little information …………. 12%
• Other …………………………………. 1%
• Don’t know/no answer ……………………. 11%

“Online profiles can be effective marketing and branding tools for creative professionals, so it’s crucial that they paint an accurate and favourable picture of you,” said Lara Dodo, a regional vice-president of The Creative Group in Canada. “It remains especially critical for job seekers to be mindful of what information they are sharing and with whom, as well as what others may be saying about them.”

The Creative Group offers five tips for maintaining a polished and engaging presence on social media sites:

1. Don’t play the name game. While sites like Facebook and Google+ have guidelines that discourage the use of symbols, numbers or profanities in your username, that doesn’t stop people from coming up with unusual aliases. However, it’s best to stick to your first and last name and select a similar vanity URL that supports your personal brand.
2. Choose your interests wisely. Just because you’re a fan of reality TV doesn’t mean you have to list every show you watch. No matter how talented you are, a profile that goes into too much personal detail, particularly if those details are unflattering, will work against you.
3. Share quality content. The average Facebook user has 130 friends, according to Facebook Statistics. You can increase the likelihood others will see your posts by sharing rich content (like photos and videos) as well as information that will elicit comments, likes and shares.
4. Proof your posts. Always review your status updates and comments before hitting “Enter.” Posts strewn with typos or text shorthand detract from your credibility.
5. Be a regular. In addition to pushing out interesting content, engage with your online contacts consistently. By commenting on and sharing others’ posts, you’ll build a stronger sense of community.

For additional tips on using social and professional networking sites effectively, download Business Etiquette: The New Rules in a Digital Age. The guide was developed by Robert Half, The Creative Group’s parent company, and contains insights from industry experts on a wide range of topics.

The Canadian study was developed by The Creative Group and conducted by an independent research firm. It is based on more than 250 telephone interviews — approximately 200 with marketing executives randomly selected from companies with 100 or more employees and 50 with advertising executives randomly selected from agencies with 20 or more employees.

TELUS has selected Wolf based on its people, technology, and a shared vision of how information, communications and technology (ICT) can transform healthcare for Canadians. Wolf Medical Systems is Canada’s largest and fastest-growing cloud-based EMR provider. Since 2010, over 11 million patient visits have been documented by physicians using Wolf EMR. On a typical day, physicians using the system see more than 26,000 patients, prescribe 23,000 medications and review 166,000 lab results. Now, access to EMRs can be further expanded by combining Wolf’s hosted, cloud-based technology with TELUS’ secure, wireless and wireline broadband communications networks.

The addition of Wolf EMR (for physicians) rounds out TELUS’ portfolio of world class health record solutions including TELUS health space (for the home and on the go via a smartphone or tablet) and Oacis (for healthcare institutions). TELUS is now uniquely positioned to facilitate the integration of health records from the home, to the doctor’s office and to the hospital; ensuring critical health information is available to care providers over secure, wireline and wireless broadband networks wherever and whenever they need it.

“Electronic medical records are an essential building block to an efficient healthcare system in Canada,” explained Paul Lepage, senior vice-president, TELUS Health Solutions. “While EMRs have been proven to increase efficiency and performance at both the clinical and regional healthcare system levels, Canada’s EMR penetration rate of about 32 per cent lags behind other OECD countries. By committing to the EMR market with a best-in-class solution, combined with the connectivity that our wireless and wireline broadband networks enable, we are positioned to help increase this adoption rate which will in turn improve work processes, efficiencies in service delivery, and patient health outcomes.”

The new TELUS Physician Solutions organization will be led by Dr. Brendan Byrne, a practicing physician and founder of Wolf Medical Systems. Dr. Byrne’s team of more than 75 EMR professionals, paired with the depth and resources of TELUS, will allow for the rapid expansion of capabilities uniquely directed at the physician market.

“Joining the TELUS team is a tremendous opportunity for Wolf Medical Systems to fully realize our vision to be trusted by physicians to turn information into outcomes,” said Dr. Brendan Byrne, vice-president, TELUS Physician Solutions. “TELUS and Wolf are already deeply aligned in our commitment to develop and support technology that helps doctors help patients. Now as part of TELUS, we can deepen our investments to improve the physician experience and productivity, re-define EMR in terms of outcomes rather than features and leverage the TELUS brand, health portfolio and high-speed networking capabilities.”

TELUS Physician Solutions EMR will be enhanced with the addition of mobility, care collaboration, homecare and consumer solutions.  This will help doctors coordinate and share information with their extended healthcare team and their patients and families anywhere, anytime.

Over the past 13 years Wolf Medical Systems has evolved EMR from a simple software product to a market leading cloud-based EMR solution. Since 2010, the company has exclusively committed to cloud-based technology to enhance the physician experience in terms of patient care and physician productivity while focusing on health outcomes. The result is a secure, highly available, highly reliable cloud-based EMR that reduces the investment required by physicians as they upgrade from paper files to electronic systems.

Small businesses and families in the US are overpaying for mobile service and underserved by their mobile service providers. With Ting, Tucows seeks to offer a fresh alternative by emphasizing clarity, usability, a sincere commitment to customer support and significant monthly savings.

“What people are forced to put up with from mobile service providers just doesn’t make sense. It’s too complicated, too opaque, too adversarial, too expensive and frankly too inhuman,” said Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows. “We’re changing that. Ting is a mobile service that makes sense.”

Ting has a very different approach to pricing than the major providers. Minutes, messages and megabytes are each billed separately. If customers use less of any than they anticipated, they are credited at the end of the month. If they use more, they are simply billed the appropriate additional amount, without onerous penalties or premiums. Businesses and families can pool an unlimited number of phones and data devices on one Ting account, offering even greater savings over other providers’ more limited sharing options.

US businesses, families or individuals considering Ting are encouraged to instantly calculate how much they’ll save with Ting by entering past bills from their current provider into the Ting Phone Savings Calculator.

The site offers customers clear, visual snapshots of their usage throughout the month and a great deal of administrative control over usage and device features.

The customer support team boasts a “no hold policy” from 8am-8pm ET Monday through Friday and “geek support” from smart, passionate people who are empowered to solve problems.

“Licensing the Joyent platform, backed by Dell, was a perfect way for Uniserve to roll out a proven technology with all the security, scalability, reliability and support required by the Canadian development and enterprise markets.” said Mike Schmidt, CEO of Uniserve Communications. “We have seen significant interest in the platform and the adoption by our customers is greater than we expected.”

“Uniserve provided an excellent option for us to develop and host our SaaS-based billing products and mobile commerce platform,” stated Ajay Hans, President and CEO of Alligato Mobile. “It was important for us to pick a Canadian based scalable and secure Cloud solution. The Uniserve Cloud with Joyent SmartMachines was the perfect fit for us.”

Uniserve’s Cloud technology is licenced from Joyent, a global cloud computing software and service provider, who recently secured $85M in funding to roll out a collection of “seamlessly connected high performance clouds serving global corporations on every continent”, the company says. Uniserve is excited to be Joyent’s key partner in Canada and bringing their SmartDataCenter software to Canadian customers.

LYA benchmarked six key broadband internet metrics, covering cost and performance indicators as well as household penetration in G7 and 32 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Based on data from more than 52 million actual user speed tests, LYA has found that the performance of Canada’s broadband internet services is significantly better than rankings in previous international studies, which are often only based on advertised Internet speeds.

“The results of LYA’s analysis demonstrate that Canada’s broadband internet metrics are often in the top quartile among these countries, not near the bottom as reported by some organizations including the OECD,” noted Ms. Johanne Lemay, co-author of the Report at LYA. “Using actual tests conducted by users gives a far more accurate measure of performance than simply basing findings on what internet service providers advertise their broadband internet speeds to be.”

The LYA report has ranked Canada seventh (7^th least expensive) out of 32 OECD countries when comparing average monthly broadband subscription costs. Out of 32 OECD countries, Canada ranks 12^th in average Cost of a Mbps of Downstream Speed to end users – more than two times better than the 2011 OECD ranking.

Additional findings from the LYA report are:

• Canada takes the number one spot in highest broadband penetration among G7 countries at 74%, significantly ahead of the United Kingdom and France at 69.2% and 69%, respectively. Using the latest data available, LYA found Canada ranks seventh out of 32 OECD countries in the same metric, up from the 10^th spot as reported by the OECD.
• Canada’s average consumer broadband speed performance comes in at the top half with 11.5 Mbps, in 15^th place, faster than average speeds seen by consumers in France and the U.K.

The statistics are particularly meaningful when Canada’s large geographical land mass and sparse population is taken into consideration.  Canada has the best performance with respect to broadband speeds and penetration when compared to countries with similar very large geography, notably the United States and Australia.

This study was sponsored by Rogers Communications Inc., a leading Canadian telecommunications carrier.  LYA found that not only does Canada rank amongst world’s best in internet cost and performance, but the average Rogers broadband subscriber:

• Benefits from higher download speeds (average 15.6 Mbps) than the average broadband subscriber in Canada (average 11.5 Mbps)
• Pays less for each Megabit per Second of Downstream Speed compared to the average Canadian broadband subscriber ($1.99 vs. $2.68 USD PPP)

This independent study was conducted by Lemay-Yates Associates Inc. (LYA). The methodology for the study was developed by LYA and LYA conducted significant research on internet statistics and pricing among G7 and OECD countries using the latest and most reliable information available, as well as acquired data on user broadband speed tests from Ookla Inc. The LYA study provides detailed results for 32 OECD countries.

The study was finalized in December 2011, based on user tests and pricing research from mid-2011. To obtain a copy of the study, please fill out the form on LYA’s web siteor contact LYA directly by email at lya@lya.com or by phone at 1 514 288 6555.

A WiLAN Board member since June 2010, Mr. McCarten has over 30 years of legal and management experience. Most recently, he was partner in the business law group of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, a leading national Canadian law firm. He currently serves as National Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada and has previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors of The Canadian Diabetes Association. Mr. McCarten is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and the former Chair of the Ontario Bar Association real estate section.

WiLAN’s Board unanimously approved the appointment of Mr. McCarten as Chairman and believes this move is consistent with WiLAN’s commitment to follow the best possible governance practices by separating the roles of Chairman of the Board and CEO.

With Board approval, the Company has entered into a new five year employment agreement with Mr. Skippen to serve as President and CEO of WiLAN. This agreement sets Mr. Skippen’s compensation for five years, which will generally consist of a base salary and other typical stock-based compensation. The five year agreement also calls for the elimination of Mr. Skippen’s contractual right to receive 2% of WiLAN’s gross revenues for a portion of 2011 and all subsequent years, in exchange for a one-time payment of $7.25 million. The Company expects to record this one-time expense in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2011. Mr. Skippen has indicated that he will use a portion of the after-tax proceeds from this payment to purchase WiLAN shares. The new employment agreement also includes financial sanctions if Mr. Skippen voluntarily leaves the employ of WiLAN, or he does not maintain a minimum shareholding in WiLAN, during the first two years of the agreement.

The Compensation Committee of WiLAN’s Board of Directors retained compensation experts Towers Watson to review Mr. Skippen’s compensation package and to recommend approaches to eliminating the 2% component, which had no sunset provision.

The Company’s buyout of Mr. Skippen’s contracted right to 2% of gross revenues and the terms of the new employment contract were based on advice given to the Compensation Committee by Towers Watson, and were unanimously approved by all independent directors. Mr. Skippen did not take part in the meetings at which the buyout and employment contract were considered and approved, but did accept the buyout offer as proposed by the independent directors.

“Since the Board recruited Jim five years ago to lead the rebuilding of WiLAN, he has delivered very impressive results,” said Robert Bramson, Chairman of WiLAN’s Compensation Committee. “In only five years, under Jim’s leadership, WiLAN has increased annual licensing revenues from zero to a forecasted $105 million in 2011, signed license agreements that position the Company to generate many hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenues and secured a listing on the NASDAQ Global Select Market. These are a few examples of the Company’s impressive accomplishments.”

Added Mr. Bramson, “The 2006 compensation package for Mr. Skippen was appropriate and necessary to balance the significant risk of rebuilding WiLAN and has been well in line with shareholder interests to date. Given the Company’s consistent growth, the strength of its business today and its future prospects, WiLAN’s Board of Directors determined this to be the right agreement for WiLAN and its shareholders moving forward. We look forward to Jim leading the Company to even greater heights over the next five years.”

“We are extremely pleased to announce the continuation of our partnership with Bellator,” says Benjie Levy, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Score Media Inc.  “Bellator has developed a reputation for being one of the world’s elite MMA promotions and its programming is a perfect fit for our young audience.”

“theScore is Bellator’s longest running TV partner worldwide, having broadcast each of our first five seasons,” says Bjorn Rebney, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bellator. “As the place where Canadian fans go for MMA programming, news and information, theScore is the perfect partner to help us connect with Canadian MMA fans.”

Season six kicks off on Friday, March 9^th headlined by the Bellator World Featherweight title fight between Joe Warren and Pat Curran.  In addition, Bellator is planning multiple Canadian event dates in 2012.

theScore’s Bellator programming will be streamed live on theScore.com on Fridays at 8pm ET followed by repeat airings on theScore Television Network on Saturdays at 9pm ET, Sundays at 8pm ET and Wednesdays at 4pm ET.

City GM in Toronto has deployed the tablets to service advisors, dispatchers and the Shop Foreman and has measurably and sustainably seen significant performance improvements as a result.

“Using XSellerator on an iPad has increased our shop efficiency and throughput 25-30%! We have virtually no downtime. I am able to review repair orders with the technicians, approve straight time, request parts, dispatch work… all on my iPad, while in the shop – in the tech’s bay, out on the drive, or in my office. I am no longer chained to my desk to get these tasks completed. Customers love how I can discuss their service history and diagnose their vehicle while out on the lot, before it gets in the shop. XSellerator on the iPad has given us the freedom to spend our time doing what we are supposed to be doing – servicing cars, not paperwork,” exclaimed Jason Blake, City’s Shop Foreman.

Dan Ichelson, Quorum’s Vice President of Operations and Development explained, “XSellerator is a natural fit with mobile computing. Because we use RDP services to deliver the system, it is virtually device agnostic… any handheld or desktop computer can connect using an RDP client. And, since the system is real time and graphical in nature to start, it lends itself well to that environment. In fact, we have started a forum on our customer support website for our dealerships to share ways that they have found to use mobile devices with their peers. We expect to hear lots of other success stories like this over time.”