Level Up! Founder Ben Colayco and IP E-Game Ventures Inc. CEO Enrique Gonzalez graced the event as they publicly announced the local online game publishing giants' merge

IP e-Game Ventures Inc., (PSE: EG) will celebrate today  its sixth year anniversary with Domination 6, the biggest single-day gaming event of  2012.

Now on its sixth year, Domination is the biggest single-day local gaming event wherein gamers and enthusiasts come together to celebrate the joy of gaming life through a day full of gaming tournaments, fun offline activities, and exhilarating stage performances from cosplayers and a number of the country’s best bands.

According to IP e-Games chief operating officer Heidi Mendita-Garayblas, Domination serves as a venue for IP e-Games to thank its loyal gamers for their continued support and enthusiasm for its top gaming massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) titles RAN Online and  CABAL Online, online first person shooter Point Blank and online casual games Audition Dance Battle, and Bandmaster.

Big tournament finals are bound to happen in Domination 6. Set to conclude are the yearlong RAN Online Matira Matibay Tournament, CABAL 3v3 Carnage National Tournament, Point Blank Mega Bakbakan, Audition Dance Battle Master of Eight Keys, and Bandmaster SOS Bagsakan.

The winners of the Point Blank Mega Bakbakan tournament will not only get the top prize, but will also earn the enviable task of representing the country in the Point Blank International Competition, one of the most prestigious gaming tournaments, this May 2012.

Domination 6 will also be the landmark gaming celebration to attend as Level Up! Inc., will be joining in the festivities. With the completion of the merger of IP e-Games and Level Up! Inc., last March 30, this gaming event will be a launch pad for the combined gaming activities of both online publishers.

Level Up!  Inc., founder Ben Colayco together with Enrique Gonzalez, IP e-Games CEO and President, will be onstage to welcome gamers and provide updates on the merger.   Level Up! will also have a game booth for Bounty Houndz Online, its newest online sci-fi MMORPG.

Both companies have been actively promoting the event for the past months and gamer response has been overwhelmingly positive. Gamers can expect more intense tournament finals,  tons of freebies and awesome contest prizes. There will be more than 200 top-of-the-line PCs for free-play,  other online activities, and band performances from  Up Dharma Down (Oo, Baliw Sa ‘Yo), Join the Club (Nobela, Handog) and Tanya Markova (Picture Picture, Linda Blair). Model and radio disc jockey Karen Bordador and actor JC Cuadrado are this year’s event hosts.

“Expect Domination 6 and future Level Up! events to be grander, providing an even  richer gaming experience,” Garayblas said.

Aside from the tournaments, Domination 6 will offer gamers the chance to land their dream jobs. IP e-Games vice-president for marketing Miguel Bauza revealed that this year’s event will host a job fair. Gamers can submit their résumés and have a chance to land a job. He added that IP e-Games, in its own way, is always finding ways to look after our gamers. “This Job fair will hopefully provide them with opportunities to grow professionally as well.  This is how much IP e-Games values its loyal gaming community.”

Domination 6 is co-presented by Axe Anarchy and Smart Communcations with major sponsors Cobra Smart, PLDT, Redfox, and Razer and minor sponsors Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, SteelSeries, Bitdefender, Fatboy’s, Uno Pizzeria, and Binalot.

For more information, visit www.e-games.com.ph or http://portal.e-games.com.ph/domination6

IP E-Game Ventures Inc. (IP e-Games):

IP E-Game Ventures Inc. (IP e-Games) is a publicly listed company in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE: EG) which operates the online gaming business of technology conglomerate IPVG Corp. (PSE: IP). IP e-Games is ranked as the leading online games publisher in the Philippines and holds top MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) titles such as RAN Online, and  CABAL Online. The casual games of IP E-Games are published under X-Play Online Games Inc. (X-Play), a joint venture company between IP E-Games and GMA New Media Inc. (GMA NMI), the digital arm of GMA Network Inc. (GMA7). X-Play publishes the no.1 online dance game Audition Dance Battle, online rhythm game, Bandmaster and  MMO First person shooter Point Blank.  IP E-Games strategic minority investors include the Philippine Star Group and E-Store Exchange (an affiliate of GMA7). For more information, visit www..e-games.com.ph

Level Up! Inc.

Level Up! Philippines is the country’s first and biggest online game portal which introduced the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) genre to the Filipino psyche. The Level Up! brand has captured the online gaming market with a library of hugely popular and successful games like Ragnarok Online (the game that started the online gaming craze in 2003), Rising Force Online, Rohan, Perfect World, Grand Chase, Flyff, Crazy Kart, and K.O.S.: Secret Operations.  For more information visit http://levelupgames.ph

Jabra today launched a new series of four headsets developed for the growing Unified Communications (UC) market and specifically for UC deployments.

All four headsets were designed specifically for companies looking for a cost-effective means of deploying headsets across an organization and to accommodate for the different working styles and environments without compromising on quality.

In addition to headset solutions for light to heavy users the Jabra UC VOICE^TM series features a portable headset developed for today’s virtual offices that is the industry’s first corded UC headset with a behind-the-ear wearing style and discreet form factor for video conferencing.

UC use expected to increase 600% by 2015

“Today there are approximately 7.8 million users of UC,” said Ralph Ede, Jabra Managing Director for South Asia,.  “By 2015 that number is expected to skyrocket to 49.5 million.  Optimization of these investments by adding the voice dimension to the UC experience and attaching headsets that offer superior sound, comfort and build will have a tremendous impact when wanting to ensure the right ROI.”

With so many new users coming from a traditional desk phone environment, the single most important factor for successful deployment and adoption of the technology is the headset, which completes the UC experience. With a series of easy-to-use UC headsets Jabra’s new headsets pave the way for faster end-user adoption of the technology.

And as more companies deploy UC there is a growing realization that audio plays a vital role in the success of the UC deployment. While the audio quality at both ends of a UC conversation is critical, there are many other factors that make a headset perform beyond expectations.

“A headset must be easy to configure, comfortable, and have a solid, quality feel,” added Ede. “The seamless integration between the soft phone and the headset is a key factor in employee adoption of a UC roll-out and thus, it’s overall success in terms of improved collaboration and productivity gains.”

Strategic Development

With its new Jabra UC VOICE^TM series, Jabra builds on a long tradition of user-driven innovation and developing high-performance headset solutions. As the first company to have headsets optimized for Microsoft’s Office Communicator Jabra has a history of maximizing the benefits of UC with headsets that are comfortable, easy to use and at the forefront of the development.

“In essence, this is a whole new category of cost-effective headsets,” said Larsen Sandoval, Jabra Country Manager for Philippines,.  “The four headsets in the Jabra UC VOICE^TM series are both powerful and economical.  They’re simple, durable, have superb audio and come from Jabra’s years of experience creating an award-winning portfolio.

Sandoval added that with its availability in the Philippines, the Jabra UC VOICE^TM can help deliver significant benefits to end users and their employers, including the ability to lower operational costs while increasing productivity, cut travel costs and headaches, shrink decision cycles and times to market, and take advantage of new business opportunities by collaborating with customers and partners. “It can really make communications work in a business environment.”

_________________________________________________________________________

Designed specifically for Unified Communications deployments

With the Jabra UC VOICE^TM headsets Jabra is committed to making you successful in winning in the ‘last three feet’ between the promise of Unified Communications and the end user;

?         Dedicated to UC voice deployments

?         Easy to deploy

?         Easy to maintain

?         Superior sound clarity

?         Fast user adoption

?         Four designs to accommodate different needs and preferences

?         Two-year global warranty

?         Fast return on UC investment

To learn more about the Jabra UC VOICE series or to learn where to buy the headsets, please visit www.Jabra.com.

Jabra
Through its Jabra brand, GN Netcom is a world leader in innovative headset solutions. With around 850 employees and sales offices around the world, GN Netcom develops and markets a broad range of wireless headsets and in-car speakerphones for mobile users and both wireless and corded headsets for contact center and office-based users. GN Netcom is a subsidiary of GN Store Nord A/S. Read more on www.jabra.com

Photo shows PISM Vice President for Events and Conferences Mariel Zamora, CPSM discussing the first Regional SupplyLink 2012 that will be staged this April 2012.

Philippine Institute for Supply Management (PISM), the country’s premier association for supply management professionals, today shares the organization’s initiatives to help raise local practitioners’ become more globally competitive.

Originating in 1968, PISM has always been driven in providing an arena for local supply management practitioners to initiate conversations and collaborations, which will ultimately push for their individual and industry-wide excellence. To ensure a holistic approach in driving excellence in the industry, PISM also founded an advocacy arm via Foundation of the Society of Fellows in Supply Management (SOFSM).

“Over the years, PISM has been dedicated in providing current and future supply management professionals with the means to achieve their respective business goals successfully and efficiently,” says PISM President Ricky Sison.

Stakeholder Events

Every year, PISM has been staging its annual SupplyLink Conference and Exhibit with the aim to strengthen local practitioners’ ties among one another and more importantly, to impart the latest methods, tools and trends about and within the supply management discipline.

This year, PISM will stage the biggest installment of SupplyLink as it goes international.  SupplyLink 2012, which will be held on 19-20 April at SMX, SM MOA complex, will bring together the leading purchasing, logistics, demand and replenishment and customer service executives and practitioners locally and within Asia-Pacific, as well as other supply management professionals from Sweden, London and Australia among others.

Academic Initiatives

PISM and SOFSM have successfully introduced Supply Management as a 4-year college degree course in the academe. Academic linkages were established with known universities and colleges in the country, which now offer both undergraduate course and Diploma Program in Supply Management.

Scholarship grants are also given to the less privileged but deserving students taking up Supply Management course at the University of Makati and Jose Rizal University. In fact, PISM will be holding a Run and Raise Scholars on April 15 to raise fund for SOFSM/PISM scholars in supply management with the University of Makati and Jose Rizal University. The event will also serve as the kick-off for this year’s SupplyLink.

Business Intelligence

The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) is a “nowcasting” tool designed to estimate economic trends and complement standard economic indicators, such as the GDP that require three to six months to finalize. It is a response to the need of economic policy makers and business decision makers for timely, high quality, internationally compatible economic data for planning and decision making. There are currently 26 countries worldwide that produce PMI.  Philippines is among the 26 countries, six countries of which are from Asia. PMI Philippines is conducted by PISM through its advocacy arm SOFSM.

Industry Recognitions

Alongside SupplyLink, PISM and SOFSM awards Gawad Sinop, the industry’s most prestigious award, to a Filipino practitioner/professional in supply management industry who has exhibited outstanding achievements in the practice of Supply Management.  It likewise gives special recognition to organizations who have exhibited excellent supply management practices.

PISM and its advocacy arm is always driven to continue pursuing these initiatives and innovate other ways to encourage and push for best practices in the local supply management industry. “We are optimistic that the organization will positively and effectively contribute to our member companies’ success and to the country’s global competitiveness by raising the practitioners to the highest ethical and world-class standards,” concludes Sison.

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About PISM

PISM was founded in 13 November 1968 as a non-stock, non-profit organization. Its main purpose is to provide a forum where Supply Management executives can meet to network professionally, discuss, find and share business solutions to common operational challenges and strategic issues confronting their businesses and/or those of the national economy.

About SOFSM

The Foundation of the Society of Fellows in Supply Management, Inc. (SOFSM) the advocacy arm of the Philippine Institute for Supply Management is a non-profit organization founded in May 2006.  It is composed of both practicing and seasoned supply management executives imbued with a strong spirit of volunteerism and driven by a common desire to help elevate the expertise and status of a Filipino business and industry in the field of Supply Management.

RS Components, the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world’s leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, has announced continued business success in the Philippines. Despite a challenging global economic climate, RS Components Philippines has achieved over 17 per cent year-on-year sales growth for the period from April 2011 to February 2012, making it one of the fastest growing markets in Southeast Asia for the company.

Providing the widest range of components for the electronics and maintenance sectors, the company’s success is driven by a continued strong demand for maintenance and automation and control products across the manufacturing, electronics, semiconductor and oil and gas sectors in the country. RS Components has over 18,000 automation and control products stocked in Southeast Asia to meet this demand.

Glenn Lanot, Country Manager Philippines, RS Components said, “We serve over 3,000 active buying customers in the Philippines including Nestle Philippines, Sun Power Corporation, Rohm Electronics, Coca Cola and Team Energy. As the only multinational high service distributor in the industry to have a local office, our established track record of 14 years operating within the Philippines and understanding of the local market puts us in an optimal position to cater to the needs of engineers and sourcing managers across a wide range of industries, specifically from electronics, power distribution and generation, food manufacturing and oil and gas industries.”

The company’s robust eCommerce strategy has played a large part in its continued growth within the Philippines. As much as 60 percent of its business came from online transactions, a significant increase from the previous years. By providing an online experience with superior browsing capabilities and new intelligent product search features, customers now enjoy faster and easier access to over 550,000 products from global manufacturers including Schneider Electric, ABB, Siemens, Omron and Phoenix Contract. To this end, the company has also recently increased inventory for popular maintenance and automation and control products fo warehouses catering to Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.

The RS Components online platform also provides added value in the form of DesignSpark PCB, its popular, free and fully featured professional standard PCB design software. With over 120,000 downloads to date worldwide, DesignSpark PCB empowers engineers with free tools required to push the limits of innovative design.

“Engineers in the Philippines have shifted their focus towards innovation and high value-added manufacturing and engineering activities, and we’ve noticed a similar purchasing trend based on the products that we currently supply,” said Glenn.

“DesignSpark PCB is a free tool that allows them to become more innovative and productive by unleashing their creative talents with no limitations on design, based on schematic sheets that are in line with industry standards.”

The company’s commitment to its business in the Philippines is evident in the provision of a fully localised customer experience that includes customer service, sales and shared services functions in-country. This includes acting as the financial services hub for RS Components in Southeast Asia. The team of 47 local staff provides services to customers through a multi-channel strategy, executing fast, convenient, simple and secure transactions for customers through online, phone, fax and email. RS Components also provides free shipping for all online orders, with 2–5 days delivery for stocks shipped from Singapore and 5–8 days delivery for stocks shipped from the UK. All orders are eligible for door-to-door delivery with customised delivery options.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – March 16, 2012: NComputing, the world leader in end-to-end desktop virtualization solutions for small to midsize enterprises (SME) and education, today announced the NComputing M300, an entirely new virtual desktop device that redefines what is possible in a thin client.  The M300 delivers customers a 3-in-1 device that provides a rich PC experience to 3 users simultaneously at 1/3^rd the cost, using 1/3^rd the power and 1/3^rd the networking ports compared to PCs and other thin clients.  Customers can now deploy more computing per peso, spend less on power and facility upgrades, and manage with fewer IT resources.  Available immediately worldwide, the M300 is targeted at local workgroups from 3 to 45 users in environments like classrooms, labs, libraries, shared office workspaces, business centers and call centers.

The M300 3-in-1 thin-client is a breakthrough driven by advancements in 3 separate areas:

• In Silicon:  The 2^nd-generation Numo™ 2 System-on-Chip (SoC) delivers the performance and rich user experience like having 3 PCs on a single chip.  Within a single chip, the Numo 2 delivers three dedicated graphics, video, and user subsystems across common infrastructure like memory, I/O, and power.  This multi-tenant architecture dramatically offloads processing from the server and minimizes the infrastructure and power needed to deliver high performance computing.
• In Device Architecture:  The M300 thin-client device leverages the Numo 2 SoC to support 3 independent users across a single Ethernet port using a single power plug.  The M300 provides full HD-video and high-resolution graphics capabilities, allowing a rich PC experience in almost every work setting.
• In Software:  The vSpace Server software supports up to 45 concurrent M300 desktop sessions on a single consumer-class host PC.  With an extensive set of management tools, IT managers can deploy and maintain a Microsoft Windows or Linux-based environment in a fraction of the time compared to other solutions.

“NComputing delivers unmatched price performance, most optimal capabilities and is the only technology vendor to provide the entire end-to-end VDI solution” said Manish Sharma, Vice President Asia Pacific, NComputing Inc. He added, “The new 3-in-1 M300 is a game changing product and will further strengthen our leadership position in the thin client segment in Asia Pacific.“

The M300 was built to be a simple, incredibly powerful, and highly affordable thin-client deployment option.  Working in tandem with NComputing’s vSpace Server 6.6 software, the M300 3-in-1 thin client kit allows an organization to add virtual PC desktops for a fraction of the cost of a PC.  Customers can lower cost of acquisition and energy costs by more than 75%, networking costs by 67% and support costs by up to 75% ­– with no compromise in the quality of the computing experience for users.  For the M300, vSpace Server software enables up to 45 concurrent users to be hosted on a single operating system instance and on a single host computer.  An entire deployment can be measured in hours and managed by either IT professionals or those with only basic PC skills and time.  With these capabilities, the M300 3-in-1 thin-client kit multiplies the benefits of thin client computing in a virtual desktop environment.

Selected features of the M300 kit include:

• 3-in-1 client kit for desktop virtualization using a single LAN port and a single power plug
• Second generation Numo™ 2 SoC (System-on-Chip) provides PC-quality HD video streaming without excessive host-side processing
• Connection over Ethernet for flexibility and performance
• PC level performance for desktop applications
• Seamless HD video performance (up to 720p) and multimedia experience on standard Windows or Linux environments, including YouTube and other web multimedia content
• USB 2.0 port for peripheral support and two USB ports for mouse and keyboard
• Microphone and audio-out to support interactive communications and recording
• Energy-efficient?(typically 2 watts per user), compact, and reliable (no fans or disks)
• Powerful vSpace™ Server 6.6 desktop virtualization software is included

o    Up to 45 M300-based users per host massively lowers management and overall computing costs

o    Unique Windows User Accounts for 3 to 45 M300 client devices

o    Easy to set up, maintain, manage and secure

o    Remote management software included

Like the Numo 1 SoC in the best-selling NComputing L300, the Numo 2 is powered by an A9 chip, providing extensive processing capability for graphics and HD video.  As a follow on to NComputing’s highly successful PCI-based X-Series, the M300 delivers superior graphics & HD video streaming capabilities, increases the number of users per host PC, connects at distance with Ethernet, and provides support for USB 2.0.

The M300 is available immediately, at a suggested retail price of PHP 5,600 per seat in the Philippines.

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About NComputing
NComputing, Inc. is the fastest growing desktop virtualization company in the world with over 20 million daily users in 140 countries. The company’s award-winning, patented technology lowers desktop computing costs, improves manageability, and reduces both energy consumption and e-waste. It is the perfect solution for leveraging the power and potential of PCs and cloud computing. To learn more about NComputing, visit www.ncomputing.com

Dell today announced a portfolio of blade, rack and tower PowerEdge servers optimized for use in demanding enterprise environments. As the only one of the top five server vendors to grow server revenues in Q4 2011 with 9.7 percent year-over-year revenue growth^[1], Dell continues to innovate to deliver features that are industry firsts and make the PowerEdge 12^th generation servers the company’s highest performing, most manageable servers ever. With this new server series, customers ranging from small businesses to hyper-scale data centers can help maximize efficiency by streamlining and automating operations, help achieve better business application performance and business continuity.

“Dell designed the new PowerEdge servers with input gathered from more than 7,700 customer interactions in 17 countries across four continents,” said Christopher Papa, Country Manager, Dell Philippines. “Our customers told us that they need end-to-end solutions to handle the complex workload problems they face every day. As such, we built our new generation of servers, systems management and workload solutions to address the needs of business end users who require maximum performance to run mission-critical applications and IT departments which demand more efficient, secure and reliable operations.”

PowerEdge 12^th Generation Server Portfolio

The new PowerEdge R820, R720, R720xd and R620 rack servers, the M620 blade server, the T620 tower server and C6220 based on a shared Dell infrastructure server built on the Intel^® Xeon^® processor E5 product family are the foundation of a complete, flexible IT solution including Dell’s extensive portfolio of storage, networking and client components and professional IT services. The next-generation PowerEdge servers, along with systems management and workload solutions, are designed to deliver performance and management gains to effectively power the most demanding applications, including collaboration, IT and web infrastructure, high performance computing, decision support and business processing.

Maximize Efficiency

Dell updated the industry’s first embedded systems management tools, the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 6 (iDRAC6) with Lifecycle Controller 1.0, which shipped in more than 3.5 million 11^th Generation PowerEdge servers since its introduction in 2009, according to IDC. Now the second generation, iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller 2.0, enables customers to uniformly manage the deployment, updating, monitoring and maintenance of the server lifecycle. New capabilities include:

• Reclaim time with agent-free monitoring of over 400 sensors, including memory, RAID, storage and network devices, in multivendor operating system and hypervisor environments without installing software agents or drivers, which can save up to $2.5 million in server maintenance.
• Deploy servers quickly with new bare-metal deployment and provisioning that requires up to 86 percent less engineer time and up to 86 percent fewer manual steps[1].
• Help improve productivity with the enhanced Lifecycle Controller Log – significant improvements using Dell’s 11^th generation embedded server management features saved Virtacore[2] up to 43 days of system administrator time per year.
• Remotely enable and configure an extensive selection of network components delivered with PowerEdge 12^th generation servers.
• Customize solutions with a new library of more than 65 scripts leveraging industry standard protocols.
• Dell and partners Microsoft, VMware and BMC have integrated iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller 2.0 with their systems management frameworks to provide mutual customers the benefits of automated one-to-many embedded management features while preserving their existing IT investments and processes.

Dell also announced OpenManage Essentials, a new management console, which monitors the health of Dell servers, storage and switches. By interfacing with the Dell KACE K1000 Management Appliance, OpenManage Essentials sends user-defined server, storage and network health status alerts to the K1000 service desk.

The new PowerEdge 12^th generation servers are designed to maximize infrastructure efficiency, with innovations including:

• Increase performance per watt up to 101 times over Dell servers ten years ago, enabling large data centers to save up to $1.8 million per year on server power alone.
• An expanded Fresh Air offering for all PowerEdge 12th generation servers, based on customer feedback. Operate up to the highest excursion temperature (113° F/45°C) warrantied in mainstream servers in the industry and save up to an estimated (US) $3,000,000 in capital savings.
• Server fans in the R720 and T620 models that use less energy to cool the system than it takes to power a nightlight.
• OpenManage Power Center – leveraging Node Manager developed by Dell and Intel – controls and optimizes energy usage at the server, rack, row and room level from a single interface.
• The industry’s first power supply unit to be awarded the highest level of energy efficiency, the Titanium certification, based on independent testing by 80 PLUS.
• The ability to pack in up to 300 percent more SQL Virtual Machines per rack for higher data center utilization compared to previous generation Dell servers.[3]
• The unique Select Network Adapter portfolio to protect investments with a choice of networking I/O, connection speed – including 10GbE, across the portfolio – and vendor, without using a valuable PCI slot all deeply integrated with iDRAC7 with Lifecycle controller 2.0.
• New all-in-one appliances built on PowerEdge 12^th generation servers. Dell vStart for Dell Private Cloud, including Dell VIS Creator software, enables IT and business end users to accelerate application and IT service delivery. The Dell Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance, which is based on the new Dell PowerEdge servers, will be the first data warehouse appliance available on Microsoft SQL Server 2012, and will help mid-market and departmental users easily organize, access and analyze data, enabling them to make more informed decisions.    

Achieve More

The PowerEdge 12^th generation servers enable customers to increase application performance, availability and scalability, with new capabilities that:

• Improve responsiveness and provide fast customer insights, delivering up to 18 percent more Microsoft® SQL® Server transactions per second than HDD storage, with new industry leading technologies like Dell Express Flash, the first server design with front accessible, hot swappable PCIe solid state disks.
• Deliver up to three times the number of mailboxes with the capacity and capability for Microsoft Exchange with up to two times more message processing with Scalable Storage.
• Accelerate Oracle database applications with up to 86 percent reduction in transaction response time performance with Dell Compellent Data Progression Automated Tiered Storage feature.
• Consolidate Oracle RAC database workloads at a rate of up to 8:1, with up to 84 percent increase in power savings.

Ensure Business Continuity

Customers running PowerEdge 12^th generation servers can count on continual access to the IT services that power the business, with new features that:

• Maximize security by authenticating the integrity of updates using digitally signed firmware, safeguarding access to passwords and certificates with iDRAC Credential Vault, and using Data Wipe to remove critical data from retired or repurposed servers.
• Ensure redundancy and maximize uptime with an array of reliability, availability, and serviceability features including hot swappable fans, disks and spare power supplies, plus unique capabilities such as Failsafe Hypervisor and Memory Page Retire.

Quotes

“Today’s IT organizations are balancing pressures to become more energy efficient and stretch existing manpower further, while supporting ever increasing amounts of data. Customers are looking to make server hardware investments that deliver the best of management and performance. The 12th Generation PowerEdge servers build on Dell’s early lead in introducing embedded systems management into x86 servers with new features designed to streamline and automate data center operations.” – Matt Eastwood, Group Vice President, Enterprise Platform Research, IDC

“Dell’s PowerEdge 12th generation servers take advantage of the Intel® Xeon® processor E5 family’s leadership performance and breakthrough I/O capabilities to offer optimized solutions for customers’ most important workloads.  In small scale deployments, private clouds, and enterprise datacenters, customers will also benefit from key innovations such as Dell OpenManage Power Center, which is built on top of Intel’s Node Manager solution for monitoring and implementing policies for greater energy efficiency.” – Ricky Banaag, Country Manager, Intel Microelectronics Philippines, Inc.

Pricing and Availability

Five new Dell PowerEdge servers are available today on www.dell.com/PowerEdge or through any of Dell’s Global PartnerDirect Channel Partners. The PowerEdge C6220 will be available later this month.

Additional Information

• New servers:
  • PowerEdge R720xd rack server, optimized for collaboration
  • PowerEdge R720 rack server for demanding workloads, with server fans that cool with less power than it takes to runs a nightlight
  • PowerEdge R620 rack server packing in up to 300% more SQL virtual machines per rack
  • PowerEdge T620 rackable tower server
  • PowerEdge M620 2-socket blade server for extreme density and power efficiency
  • PowerEdge C6220 with optimized performance-focused shared infrastructure
    • PowerEdge R820 rack server for dense virtualization and scalable database applications

• Other news:
  • Dell introduces the industry’s first power supply unit to achieve the coveted Titanium certification for the highest level of energy efficiency
  • Dell unveils the industry’s first QR codes on servers for easy access to documentation optimized for mobile devices
  • Overview of Dell’s Enterprise Solutions that Help Customers Deliver Results Faster

About Dell

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

[2] Reference Vitacore Case Study by Dell, dated July 2011.

[3] Results based on testing by Principled Technologies in January 2012 comparing a Dell PowerEdge R620 configured with two Intel Xeon E5-2680 2.7GHz processors and a Dell R710 configured with two Intel Xeon X5670 2.93GHz processors. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability

Hugo. Photo Credit: Jaap Buitendijk © 2011 GK Films. All Rights Reserved.

Digital artists devoted days and years behind the scenes to help create the movie magic seen in many of this year’s Academy Award-nominated films. In the categories for Best Visual Effects and Best Animated Film (Feature and Short) in particular, many artists relied on the same set of tools — Digital Entertainment Creation (DEC) software from Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK).

“Great films depend on great storytelling and our technology is designed to enable artistic vision,” said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “We congratulate the multi-talented teams of artists from North America, New Zealand, Europe and Asia, and we are proud of Autodesk software’s role in helping them create these extraordinary movies.”

Best Visual Effects

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”— UK-based visual effects (VFX) studios Double Negative, MPC and Framestore each used Autodesk Maya 3D animation and rendering software to help create the visually extravagant effects for this final installment in the Harry Potter franchise. Double Negative VFX Supervisor David Vickery said, “Maya has been the lynch pin of our pipeline since ‘Goblet of Fire.’ For this film, Maya helped us build a fully computer-generated (CG) Hogwarts in a massive 3D environment, including a spectacular mountain range and an animated fire-breathing dragon digitally modeled with Autodesk Mudbox software.”MPC VFX Supervisor Greg Butler added, “From the first film in the ‘Potter’ series through to this film’s final shot, MPC has relied on Maya for modeling, rigging and lighting.”Andy Kind, Framestore VFX supervisor said, “Autodesk’s Maya once again was our go-to tool, enabling us to bring to life the magic of the Chamber of Secrets for Ron and Hermione’s first kiss, as well as Harry’s vision of Heaven. We couldn’t have done any of the eight films without it!”

“Hugo” — VFX studio Pixomondo managed a global production team across 10 of its 11 facilities in North America, Europe and Asia for this richly detailed reimagining of 1930s Paris. The worldwide team worked for over a year using a production pipeline comprised of Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max for animation, rendering, character rigging and modeling; as well as Autodesk MotionBuilder for motion capture and animation. VFX Supervisor Ben Grossmann said, “The interoperability of Autodesk tools helped us meet tight deadlines andbring Martin Scorsese’s magical vision to the big screen.”

“Real Steel” —Visual effects powerhouse Digital Domain, motion-capture specialists Giant Studios and virtual production innovators Technoprops delivered “Real Steel” within an impressively efficient 71-day production schedule. The close collaboration between the threecompanies and anAutodesk toolset helped createthis realistic and thrilling action movie with a believable and captivating robot and human relationship. VFX Supervisor Erik Nash said, “The on-set real-time interoperability of Maya and MotionBuilder enabled tremendous creative freedom for the entire production team.”

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” — Caesar, the CG chimpanzee performed by Andy Serkis is a creative milestone for Weta Digital in New Zealand. Weta used Maya and MotionBuilder as the core of its creative production pipelines for its groundbreaking visual effectsand performance capture. Sebastian Sylwan, chief technology officer at Weta said, “Creating a believable and realistic CG character like Caesar required providing our artists with the right tools and innovative technology that allowed them to iterate and express their creativity. We developed our own software to perfect performance capture, hair, eyes and muscles amongst others, using Maya and MotionBuilder as a backbone.” Canada-based Image Engine contributed previsualization for the film and also took advantage of a Maya-based pipeline.

“Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon”—The extraordinarily detailed Transformer robotscontain up to50,000 million polygons renderedin stereoscopic 3D by lead visual effects houses Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with studios in San Francisco and Singapore and Digital Domain. ILM used the following Autodesk DEC software tools in its pipeline: 3ds Max for digital environment work; Autodesk Flame as part of its proprietary SABRE high-speed compositing system; and Maya as the core tool for animation, rigging and layout. Scott Farrar, visual effects supervisor on ‘Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon’ said, “As effects work continues to grow in complexity, it is more important than ever that our artists have access to best of breed tools and by using Autodesk’s Digital Entertainment Creation software, ILM is able to continue to create groundbreaking visual effects.”

Best Animated Feature Film

“Kung Fu Panda 2”and “Puss in Boots”—Both movies earned not only Academy Award nominations for Animated Feature Film for Dreamworks Animation (DWA), but also were two of the top three grossing animated films of 2011.*DWA continues to creatively push technology to imbue animated characters with huge personalities, and both films used Maya. Phil McNally, stereoscopic supervisor on both movies said, “Either on our own or in concert with Autodesk, we can develop tools in Maya to specifically address the challenges of stereoscopic 3D. Maya gives us that intuitive flexibility, or the ability to see what we’re doing—while we’re doing it—in 3D.”

“Rango”

“Rango,” the story of a weird lizard’s quest for identity, was ILM’s first animated feature. The film presented some daunting creative and technical challenges: Rango’s face alone required over 300 controllers to achieve the range of performance needed for the 1,100 shots he appears in.On top of which, Rango was just one of well over 100 characters that populated the film. “All of these characters had some combination of scales, feathers, or fur and all had clothing. We strove to create a very tactile world for Rango,” said ILM’s Hal Hickel, animator director on the film. “We wanted to create the illusion that if you could reach out and touch objects in the frame you’d know exactly what they would feel like, so it was very important that our software enable us to show as much detail as possible ateach phase of the process. This allowed us to make certain the performances would translate to the big screen. Maya was great at letting us do that.”

Other Categories

• “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” — nominated for Short Film (animated) — Moonbot Studios in Louisiana used Maya to help create this poignant and humorous allegorical film.
• “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” —nominated for five awards — Digital Domain createddigital doubles, matte paintings, animation and set extensions using both Maya and 3ds Max. Method Studios contributed to 101 VFX shots, including a fully CG train sequence through a snow-covered landscape using Maya, Flame and Autodesk Flare software.Blur Studios created the amazing title sequence using a combination of 3ds Max for animation and Autodesk Softimage for keyframing.
• “La Luna” — nominated for Short Film (animated) — Pixar used Maya and Pixar’s own Renderman to create this mystical coming-of-age story.
• “The Muppets” — nominated for Original Song— LOOK Effects used a combination of Flame, Flare and Maya to help bring these beloved characters to life in this box-office hit.
• “The Tree of Life” — nominated for three awards including Best Picture — Method Studios used Maya to help create the fully CG 4K(4096 × 3112 pixels per frame) sequence for the film’s “Microbial” section,which plays effectively alongside practical and mixed-technique approaches. Method’s EVP Dan Glass was also the film’s overall senior visual effects supervisor. Prime Focus used Maya, 3ds Max and Mudbox to create the wonderfully realistic dinosaur sequences, dedicating a team of 50 artists to achieving Terrence Malick’s vision for these scenes.
• “War Horse” — nominated for six awards including Best Picture — UK-based Framestore used Maya to help create the equine digital double, barbwire VFX integration, digital environments and clean-up on 200 shots for Steven Spielberg’s epic drama. Hollywood and London-based The Third Floor also pre-visualized key sequences using a toolset that includes Maya.

NComputing Inc., one of the fastest growing end-to-end virtualization company in the world, enables the education sector to take advantage of its solutions to help modernize the public school learning environment.

According to analyst firm IDC, NComputing is the number one desktop virtualization provider in Asia Pacific. A leading provider of virtual desktops in education, the company worldwide has an install base of over three million units in less than three and a half years. They are involved in many educational projects across multiple countries such as India, Pakistan and most recently the Philippines.

With the help of NComputing’s leading desktop virtualization technology, both teacher and grade school students of the public school, Nueve De Febrero Elementary School in Mandaluyong City, now enjoy an e-classroom that changed the teaching and learning experience along with another 3000 plus schools in Philippines.

The e-classroom was made possible after a bidding process was initiated for the Department of Education’s Computerization Project.

“We are proud that NComputing’s technology is helping in the modernization of the IT educational infrastructure of thousands of schools in Philippines. We at NComputing are highly confident that the technology will enable more Filipino children to take advantage of computer education and have a much better environment than before. We are also confident that our track record with other educational institutions around Asia Pacific would prove that we are the solution of choice for education,” said Manish Sharma, NComputing’s Vice President for Asia Pacific.

The solution

Using NComputing’s virtualization technology, the school reduced the required number of central processing units (CPU) for a school’s computer laboratory and therefore helped in cutting down hardware costs significantly. This proves advantageous as well since with the lowered number of CPUs translate to lowering the maintenance and electric power consumption costs to a fraction.

In the lab infrastructure in most of these schools, these devices enable one host system (CPU) to power six user-peripherals (monitor, keyboard and mouse) simultaneously. Instead of having five additional CPUs, only one is being used for every six users.

The NComputing solution takes advantage of the fact that today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of users only need a small fraction of the computing capacity. NComputing taps this unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by many users. Each user’s monitor, keyboard and mouse are connected to a small and highly reliable NComputing thin-client device, which is then connected to the shared PC.  NComputing’s award-winning vSpace^TMdesktop virtualization software provides each user with a rich multimedia computing experience and individual computing sessions. Organizations typically save at least 50% on hardware costs, 75% on support costs, and 90% of electricity costs by installing NComputing.

NComputing’s low capital expenditure and total maintenance cost opens new avenues to implement better computer education as it paves the way for educational institutions to take double the advantage of this type of computing infrastructure.

The solution was provided by NComputing’s authorized national distributor, Mustard Seed and its channel partners.

About NComputing

NComputing, Inc. is the fastest growing end-to-end desktop virtualization company in the world with over 20 million users in 140 countries.  The company’s award-winning, patented technology lowers desktop computing costs, improves manageability, and reduces both energy consumption and e-waste.  NComputing provides the perfect solution for leveraging the power and potential of PCs and cloud computing.  To learn more about NComputing, visitwww.ncomputing.com .

Philippine-based Internet and E-Commerce community DigitalFilipino Club has announced that it will be holding the 3^rd instalment of its annual E-Commerce Summit entitled eCommerce Summit 2012: Doing e-Commerce for Real! at the Manila Peninsula Hotel on 24 February 2012.

The event will focus on the emerging trends, tools and platforms that local E-commerce players can utilize in order to successfully achieve their respective business goals. “With top sites in the Philippines today engaged in fostering e-commerce, it is important to learn how established industry players have leverage on these to become successful,” says DigitalFilipino Club founder Janette Toral.

The event will feature notable experts in the industry such as SEOMoz Founding President and search engine industry authority Gillian Muessig, E-Commerce Merchants Trade Association of the Philippines Founding President Jack Madrid, MRM Worldwide Managing Director Donald Lim, , Chikka.com Co-Founder Chiito Bustamante, among others who are driven to boost the knowledge base and expertise of e-Commerce players in the Philippines.

Lastly, DigitalFilipino Club will formally recognize the DigitalFilipino – Search Profile Index Web Awards Winners during the summit. Each winner is also expected to share their e-Commerce journey story.

For more information about the event, please visit http://bit.ly/ecom2012 or call Abby Magat-Ventura at 897-7088 ext. 114

Local Supply Management organization PISM, the Philippine Institute for Supply Management takes its annual conference and exhibit a notch higher as they go regional with SUPPLYLINK2012 Conference and Exhibit. The event, which will be held at SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia Complex on April 19-20, pulls together the leading purchasing, logistics, demand and replenishment and customer service executives and practitioners locally and within Asia-Pacific, as well as other supply management professionals from Sweden, London and Australia among others.

With the theme, “Tomorrow’s Supply Chain in a Value-Driven Global Economy,” SUPPLYLINK2012 will feature participants and resource speakers from the Asia Pacific Region to share industry relevant information, tips and trends to help local supply management professionals not only enhance their practice, but also to become internationally competitive practitioners.

According to PISM National President Ricky Sison, “This year, we are making our annual SupplyLink Conference and Exhibit bigger to ensure that the participants will get something more out of it this year compared to the previous ones. As such, we are optimistic that this will be a huge help in pushing the professionalization of supply management in the country.”

Aside from the conference and exhibit, SOFSM, the Foundation of the Society of Fellows in Supply Management will acknowledge the commendable contributions of top Filipino practitioners in the field with Gawad Sinop Awards 2012.

Sponsors are also welcome to participate in the event, given its bigger scale and scope this year. “Over the years that we’ve been doing SupplyLink, we have always provided sponsors with opportunities to effectively market their products and services. And this year, we can only promise that the opportunity for sponsors will be bigger,” said Sison.

For more information about SUPPLYLINK2012, please visit www.pism.org or you may also contact us at +632 634-6632; 638-4024 and 634-5955 or thru via e-mail at secretariat@pism.org.

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About PISM

PISM was founded in 13 November 1968 as a non-stock, non-profit organization. Its main purpose is to provide a forum where Supply Management executives can meet to network professionally, discuss, find and share business solutions to common operational challenges and strategic issues confronting their businesses and/or those of the national economy.