Nokia’s Mail on Ovi Public Beta goes ’Live’ Around the World

More than 110 million Nokia mobile phone users can now set up their own Ovi email account directly on their phones

30 December 2008 - Mail on Ovi, the free email account from Nokia, is now ’live’ and can be set up directly on Nokia phones without requiring a PC to get started. People who use Nokia Series 40 devices can create their own email address directly on their mobile phones. The Ovi email account gives a person all the features and functionalities of a typical PC-based email account. During the Beta period, consumers will be able to choose from 12 languages based on the settings of their device, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia.

”We’re creating a mindset shift with mobile messaging. Mail on Ovi is the first-ever email service which allows people to create an account directly on their mobile phone, and start using it right away” said Senior Vice President Tom Furlong, who oversees Consumer Messaging initiatives within Nokia’s Services & Software organization. ”Rather than focusing purely on push email for the world’s most advanced mobile users, we are mobilizing email across Nokia’s mainstream device portfolio, while giving consumers in emerging markets their first email account, Mail on Ovi, as well as their very own internet identity. These people are the new ’mobile digital natives’ who will exclusively use their mobile phones for email and internet, rather than a PC.” Mobile phone users from India, Malaysia and the Philippines have been able to use the Beta service since November, with extremely encouraging results, and the availablity is now being extended to the rest of the world.*

Nokia has launched more than 35 Nokia Series 40 device models which immediately enable the creation of the Mail on Ovi email account**. As of October 2008, Nokia has shipped more than 110 million of such devices globally.

* Certain countries may not yet be supported during the Beta period

** Devices that enable Mail on Ovi include:
Nokia 1680 classic, Nokia 168Oi
Nokia 2320, Nokia 2323, Nokia 2330, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2600 classic, Nokia 2630, Nokia 2680 slide, Nokia 2760
Nokia 3210, Nokia 3555, Nokia 3600 slide, Nokia 3610 fold
Nokia 5000, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia 5220 XpressMusic, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, Nokia 5610 XpressMusic
Nokia 6267, Nokia 6300i, Nokia 6301, Nokia 6260, Nokia 6500 classic, Nokia 6500 slide, Nokia 6555, Nokia 6600 fold, Nokia 6600 slide
Nokia 7100 Supernova, Nokia 7210 Supernova, Nokia 7310, Nokia 7500 Prism, Nokia 7610 Supernova, Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism
Nokia 8800 Arte, Nokia 8800 Sapphire

Intel Malaysia 2008 Highlights & Outlook for 2009

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 29, 2008 – 2008 has been a very positive year for Intel. Apart from extending its technology leadership in its 45 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process, Intel also introduced a wide range of new products, achieved several R&D, environmental and corporate milestones this year. In addition, the company also spearheaded a number of marketing campaigns in Malaysia to stimulate consumer demand and spur further market growth among local PC manufacturers. (For more details on key highlights in 2008, please refer to Page 4 of this press statement).

As we close 2008 and move ahead into 2009, Intel Malaysia executives would like to share their thoughts on the company’s achievements made in 2008 as well as their expectations for the next year:

Atul Bhargava, Managing Director, Intel Malaysia:
2008 was a great year for Intel Malaysia as the site made valuable contributions to key product designs, qualifications and manufacturing. We will continue to invest and innovate and have the best products in the future, because we have a very strong business model. Since Intel is a key ingredient in all aspects of computing and communications, we feel we will emerge from this cycle stronger than ever because of that.

As part of Intel’s 40th year anniversary, Intel Malaysia contributed over 118,105 volunteer hours to the community in Malaysia. This represented more than 10 per cent of the global 1 million volunteer hours that Intel had committed to achieve in 2008 as a way to honour its 40th year of business.

Intel remains committed to the investments it has made in Malaysia. After all, we have been here for more than 36 years, have invested nearly USD4 billion and currently employ close to 10,000 people to support our operations in Malaysia.

More importantly, Intel believes in investing for the future. While the economic outlook remains uncertain for 2009, we believe that Intel Malaysia is very well positioned competitively. We have been through many cycles before and the one thing we have learned is you cannot save your way out of a downturn. If companies want to be competitive, they need to invest to emerge as winners in a downturn. Companies that fall off the investment cycle in IT are taking a risk and next generation IT solutions will give them that winning edge.

We should also bear in mind that while business activity may slow down, the big challenges around energy, the environment, healthcare, education, and life sciences aren't going away. If anything they will get tougher. Hence, investment in new technology can address these critical issues in Malaysia as well as globally. All said and done, Intel believes that technology has been the engine of the economy for some time, and will continue to be so in the future.


Ryaz Patel, Country Manager, Sales and Marketing, Intel Malaysia:
While 2009 will be a challenging year, we are confident that a concerted effort by consumers, corporations, and the government will enable Malaysia to emerge out of this economic transition stronger than before. With shrinking global demand and less foreign direct investments available, the global marketplace will be even more competitive. It is therefore imperative for all Malaysians to raise the national productivity levels so that we can stay ahead of the curve, and make the country an attractive location for more foreign investments.

Naturally, ICT will continue to play a critical role in helping to increase productivity levels, hence the focus for strategic investments should be channelled towards ICT as a key enabler for sustained growth.

In this respect, Intel is playing its part to ensure that computing is made affordable to all Malaysians, and this includes rolling out campaigns such as volume aggregation programs that help consumers save by pooling their purchasing power. Today, new PCs and many other computing devices are already priced below RM1,000 to satisfy the basic computing needs of many consumers. Meanwhile, companies that require more computing horsepower can opt for Intel’s full suite of processors that are designed to cater to the breadth and depth of any computing environment.

We are also committed to accelerate broadband adoption in Malaysia because widespread and affordable Internet access will allow Malaysians to be more competitive in a global economy. An example of our commitment in accelerating broadband adoption in Malaysia is Intel Capital’s decision to invest RM50 million in Green Packet to kick-start Malaysia’s first mobile WiMAX network. Intel and Green Packet’s subsidiary, Packet One Networks are working together to deploy Malaysia’s first nationwide 802.16e WiMAX network. This is a significant milestone for Malaysia and WiMAX as it represents the first large scale commercial deployment of mobile WiMAX in Southeast Asia and the first large scale deployment of an 802.16e 2.3GHz WiMAX network outside of Korea.

There are still a billion people who aren’t connected to the Internet, and all around the world governments are looking to invest in technology as a way to be competitive. The Malaysian government understands this challenge and has done much to invest in and embrace technology. While this is commendable, we wish to encourage the government to keep the momentum going by reviewing other ICT-related areas that can help stimulate further economic growth in the country. This includes unlocking the Universal Service Provider funds to support broadband infrastructure deployment in the country.

A review of the existing Internet backhaul charges by the government would also be a welcome move because this would contribute significantly towards reducing the cost of international bandwidth charges to the Internet. This move will make Malaysia more competitive and also opens the door for growth and more inbound investments in areas such as Shared Services Outsourcing and the setting up of regional data farms.

COMIC FIESTA 2008 BRIDGING THE CREATIVE DIVIDE

In its bid to help grow the creative content industry, Comic Fiesta introduced a slew of new activities namely live demonstrations and portfolio reviews which connects the industry with a largely untapped talent pool of creatives.

Petaling Jaya: Dec 26: The recently-concluded Comic Fiesta 2008 (CF’08), held this year at Sunway Convention Centre on 20 and 21 December 2008, has achieved new feats on all fronts this year. Besides securing an even larger venue, CF’08 has also introduced its first ever Portfolio Pavilion and a number of live demonstrations by participating sponsors. This is in addition to the usual art, cosplay and comic competitions.

Inspired by its “For Fans, By Fans” slogan, CF’08’s theme this year, called “Bridging the Creatives”, focuses on helping the very fans it seeks to cater. From an event that is designed to serve a budding community of animation, comics and games (ACG) fans, it now moves to improve the local creative industry. Hence the number of industrial events CF’08 is featuring this year.

Notably, the main event for CF’08, aside from the highly anticipated event competitions, is the Portfolio Pavilion. This new feature is basically a place where talents from all over the country, and some can bring their works to show to industry players who were present there. This includes Animasia Studios, Imaginary Friends Studios of Singapore, Foldees, GempakStarz, Eden Animation, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) and more.

With such notable organisations participating, it is certainly an opportunity of a lifetime for those who seek to break into the creative industry and earn, firsthand, invaluable working experience. In fact, the Portfolio Pavilion is in line with Comic Fiesta’s main aim in being able to bring key representatives and icons of the Malaysian comic industry, and indirectly, continue to develop the local creative development industry.

It is the hope of the organisers to bring out new creative talent as well as young entrepreneurs into the local ACG industry. In addition, CF also exposes local talent and their works to the public and the industry at large. That is the basis of being a platform to showcase the emerging field of local creative talents.

These same talents will also be showcasing their works at the comic market, which has now expanded to include more tables and doujinshi (amateur) groups. To date, this is the largest local amateur comic market by far, collecting together doujinshi groups, merchandise makers and even fan-made goods all in one venue.

As for new comic participants, CF’08 also saw the presence of new exhibitors such as the renowned Imaginary Friends Studio from Singapore, which has made CF’08 its somewhat official debut onto Malaysian shores; Majolica Majorca, a local cosmetic firm that is keen to tap into the cosplay presence in CF’08; and Cherry Credits, a new Singapore organisation that offers online credit for its game and video content. Returning sponsors from last year include HP, Animax, Wacom, Grandtech, PC.com, Suncomics, and Anime Tech.

Besides its industrial events, art galleries, and ever-growing comic market, the organisers also used CF’08 to highlight their involvement in new key areas with partner sponsors. One major highlight is the charity artbook project that HP and AMD worked on. Leveraging on Comic Fiesta’s (CF) pool of artists, the two have produced a compilation of themed illustration that depict the future of technology solutions. The Comic Fiesta Charity Coffee Table book entitled “Animation Comes to Live: An Exclusive Collection of Anime Artwork” in CF’ 08. This 50 pages coffee table book features 30 artworks from renowned local talents such as Santa Fung, Maxsterism, Puppeteer, Ho Seng Hui, Alan Quah and other local amateur talents. The anime artworks were sold at CF’08 and all of the proceeds will go to World Vision.

“HP has always been a key supporter of animation-based initiatives, having had successful partnership-based 3D animation movie-making ventures overseas. And we’re happy to be supporting the drive for more creative local content and , a significant portion of which is driven by CF,” said Danny Lee, Country General Manager, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard (M) Sdn Bhd.

“Local talents definitely need a champion and a voice, and HP is proud to be associated with CF, which has grown to be the ACG showcase of the year for all Malaysians,” said Lee.

“We are proud to join hands with HP in supporting CF, the annual melting pot of creativity. It is exciting to be a part of an event that acts as a stage not only for comic and animation creators but also for artists of other genres. We believe in supporting such events as they help encourage expression and act as an avenue for artists to make their stand”, said Ryan Sim, Regional Sales Director, ASEAN, AMD.

“As with the AMD belief of providing the best platforms for visual entertainment, we hope that our support to these talented artists will help them continue to provide their best in the animation and entertainment industry.” said Ryan.

马来西亚将主办2009年度保健资讯与管理系统协会亚太大会

吉隆坡市成为保健资讯大会与展览东道主

吉隆坡2008年12月24日 – 全球保健及保健资讯科技专家将于2009年2月24日至27 日期间到来
吉隆坡，参加由一家非盈利非政府国际保健会员机构，即保健资讯及管理系统协会(HIMSS)所主办的2009年度保健资讯与管理系统协会亚太大会(HIMSS AsiaPac09)。

2008年度保健资讯与管理系统协会亚太大会，去年成功在香港举行。逾1500名来自本区域的保健及保健资讯科技专家，对业界的最佳行事惯例和改进保健素质的创新技术，进行了交流。

该协会亚太区副总裁兼执行董事Steven Yeo说：“2009年度保健资讯与管理系统协会 亚太大会为保健权益持有人，对全球最新保健资讯科技交流的一个理想平台。我们这次选择在吉隆坡举办大会，只因吉隆坡四通八达，方便从亚太区主要城市到来，可说是明年大会的理想举办地点。

他说：“举办本届大会也很合时宜，因为马来西亚政府目前不但重视保健业，而且为了扶助这个领域，也采取了各种措施，包括透过保健资讯科技提升现有医院的护理素质，改善设备和加强保健专业人士的培训。”

马来西亚卫生部总监丹斯里哈芝莫哈末依斯迈美利坚，将在大会上发表重要演说。本届大会将同场举办逾30项教育座谈会，来自14个国家的主讲者，将针对各项课题，包括时下保健趋势和事宜，与出席者分享他们的独特见解。

将在大会上发演说的其他重量级人物，包括美国杜克大学Health Level Seven Inc.组织主席，
威廉爱德华韩门名誉教授；澳洲新南威尔斯大学保健资讯中心主任恩立可科伊拉，以及John Nance and Associates 的约翰年西。.

Steven Yeo说：“保健业正面对基本问题如成本、获取护理与护理品质的问题。这加上全
球尤其是亚太区域日趋老化的人口，保健业有需专注于克服降低提供保健的成本和保健系统的行政费。另一个问题则是透过有效的诊断、病人投诉和避免医药误诊来确保护理品质。其他有需克服的问题，包括设立足够的医院和拥有足够的保健人员，去改善偏远地区或新兴及穷国人民的保健服务。

“保健业者的当务之急，因此是鉴定问题所在，然后作出反应及采取有效的程序和技术，包括广泛运用保健资讯科技系统去提供卓越的护理服务，在降低成本之下，提升保健品质和获取程度。”

大会除了发表重要演说，也召开将近25场教育讲座，由来自超过12个国家的主讲者，针对各种课题发表精辟见解。

大会为与会者提供以解决方案为导向的务实教育计划，此计划涵盖3大领域：电子健康；EHR/EMR/EPR/PHR；以及资讯科技和创新。

其他讲座将探讨下列3项课题：
· 诊断领导与管理
· 永续资讯科技的商业个案
· 通讯 – 护理的沟通

参观者不宜错过大会展出的时下最新保健资讯科技方案、新兴技术和可相互运用的各种标准。展出最新产品和方案的超过50家公司，将进行示范和提供试用，务求参观者能够在互动的情况下达成参观目的。

大会也将举办两项特别为有关目标而设的全天论坛，以及一个工作营，让诊断人员、护理供应者、政府官员和业界领袖有机会聆听专家如何剖解时下亚太区最令人关注的保健问题。

医生及资讯科技领袖论坛将专注于讨论各种解决方案、保健资讯科技、如何以资讯科技作为创新的基础，以及保健服务的整合与扩展。出席者也有机会参观由政府资助设立，备有各种专科的沙登医院。

护理资讯论坛将让护士、诊断人员和经理有机会探讨各种重要事宜，包括如何有效地整合资讯科技工具来改善护理程序和工作流程，以及如何去提升对病人护理和护理效果的品质。

本届大会的一个重点，就是一项旨在为新兴国家的保健服务供应者、领袖和政府官员而设的发展中国家工作营。此工作营旨在深入探讨亚太区域的保健资讯科技进展，塑创一个可让发展中国家分享知识的环境。

2009年度保健资讯与管理系统协会亚太大会已在其网站www.himssasiapac.org开放报名。在1月15日前提早报名者，报名费可享有优惠。网站也提供有关交通及膳宿的资料，参与者可上网了解市内各酒店所提供的各种住宿优惠配套。

D-Link extends green initiative to Network Attached Storage products

D-Link introduces green packaging to reduce plastic and paper waste

Malaysia, December 24, 2008 – D-Link International, one of the world's biggest suppliers of network products, today announced the environmental upgrades for the company's Network Attached Storage (NAS) product line and the introduction of green packaging.

A part of D-Link's plan for conserving energy and reducing waste, the NAS upgrade features a hibernation function for the hard drive that conserves power during idle stages. Integrated Smart Fans automatically turn off when the systems reach a low temperature state to reduce noise and energy. The 2-bay DNS-323 and 4-bay DNS-343 are both environmentally friendly when shipped, while users of the DNS-313 will need to download and install the Fireware 1.02 upgrade to add the green feature.

With such upgrades and certification, the NAS product line joins the company's growing list of environmentally friendly product lines, which already includes the first of industry Green Ethernet Switch and Green Wi-Fi Router (available in 2009). All of these products meet the criteria of the European Union's RoHS to restrict the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star to provide efficient energy-saving products.

"We are very pleased to be taking another positive step towards improving out products to meet community needs," said Tony Tsao, CEO and President, D-Link Corporation. "By continuing to provide full product lines better suited to the environment, along with the introduction of green packaging in all of our product lines, our company is on pace towards accomplishing its green initiative."

The implementation of green packaging reflects D-Link's commitment towards reducing waste. As part of this commitment, D-Link has re-designed product boxes to reduce the waste of plastic and paper. Quick installation guides are also printed in black and white, instead of the previous four-colour design.

To continue the company's green initiative, D-Link is also currently working towards extending green technology across other product lines, including Switches, Broadband, WLAN and Digital Home, to achieve further energy savings. The company also plans for the second generation of Green Ethernet Switches to be released in 2009.

To date, D-Link has received many awards and acknowledgements for its green initiative, including the Interop 2008 'Best of Show' Award in Japan, Techworld 2008 'Green Product of the Year' Award in the United Kingdom, 2008 Taiwan Excellence Silver Award, 2008 AeA Harvey Mudd College Green Engineering Award Finalist in the United States, ZDNet Australia & CeBIT 2008 'Emerging Innovation' Award Finalist and 2008 International Engineering Consortium InfoVision Award in the United Kingdom.

3Com Reports Second-Quarter Results for Fiscal 2009

MALAYSIA — December 24, 2008 — 3Com 3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) today reported financial results for its fiscal 2009 second quarter, which ended November 28, 2008. Revenue in the quarter was $354.6 million, compared to revenue of $317.8 million in the corresponding period in fiscal 2008, an 11.6 percent increase.

Net income in the quarter was $12.9 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $35.6 million, or $0.09 per share, in the second quarter of fiscal year 2008. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $46.9 million, or $0.12 per diluted share, compared with net income of $13.0 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, for the second quarter of fiscal year 2008.

Revenue for the first six months of fiscal year 2009 was $697.2 million, compared with $637.2 million for the same period in the prior year, a 9.4 percent increase. Year-to-date net income was $92.7 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $54.3 million, or $0.14 per share, for the first six months of the prior year. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $90.3 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, compared with net income of $25.2 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, for the first half of fiscal year 2008.

"We are very pleased with these strong results," said Bob Mao, 3Com CEO. "Q2 was an excellent quarter for 3Com as we achieved GAAP profitability for the second consecutive quarter and we continued our string of profitable results on a non-GAAP basis. We continue to
deliver on our three key objectives: revenue growth, margin improvement and cash generation. We executed on our strategy and delivered these financial results in a very difficult economic environment."

In the second quarter, 3Com generated $56.8 million in cash from operations. 3Com's cash and cash equivalents balance at November 28, 2008, was $460.8 million.

During the quarter 3Com completed the repurchase of 21,264,430 shares of its common stock at a total cost of approximately $50.0 million. The repurchases were made in the open market under the Company's previously-announced buyback program.

Also in the quarter, 3Com retired $88 million of its long term debt, reducing the balance to $213 million from an original loan of $430 million. The repayment included a voluntary early payment of $40 million.

Please click here for a complete version of the financial tables. Additional financial information is available on the Investor Relations section of our Web site.

A Dream Come True: Logitech Introduces New Category of iPod Speakers – The iPod Bedroom Music System

Premium Audio, Innovative Motion-, Light-Sensing Technology, Radio, Alarm Make Logitech Pure-Fi Dream Perfect for the Bedroom

MALAYSIA— Dec. 22, 2008 — Logitech (SWX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI), a worldwide leader in iPod speakers, today announced the Logitech® Pure-Fi Dream™ Premium Bedroom Music System for iPod®, establishing a new category of iPod speakers for the bedroom. With premium audio, an innovative application of motion- and light-sensing technology, a built-in digital AM/FM radio and a dual alarm with battery backup, the Pure-Fi Dream speakers are perfect for any nightstand.

“Pure-Fi Dream is our most thoughtful and sophisticated design for iPod users,” said Jef Holove, general manager and vice president of Logitech’s audio business unit. “Though people use their iPods in the bedroom more than anywhere else, until today, a high-quality, iPod bedroom speaker system did not exist. First and foremost an impressive audio platform, the Pure-Fi Dream will make listening to iPod music in a bedroom a great experience any time of day. And at night, with its innovative light- and motion-sensing technology, as well as its alarm clock, the Pure-Fi Dream is the ideal bedroom system for iPod lovers.”
Unlike a clock radio, the Pure-Fi Dream is a premium bedroom audio system supported by 3/4-inch high-definition, soft-dome tweeters and 3-inch high-power, long-throw woofers. And by activating Logitech’s StereoXL™ technology, people can enjoy a wider soundfield that creates a quality audio experience.

But the Pure-Fi Dream offers more than just great audio. The Logitech Pure-Fi Dream speakers use the latest motion-sensing technology. For controlling the Pure-Fi Dream in a dark room, the motion-sensitive, backlighted control buttons automatically light up when a person waves a hand over the top of the speaker; the buttons automatically dim when the person has finished changing the speaker’s settings. The backlighted buttons make it convenient to set the alarm clock without turning on the light or fumbling in the dark.

The motion-sensing technology also extends to the Snooze function. Instead of hitting a button, one can simply wave a hand over the Pure-Fi Dream speakers to sleep for a few more minutes, eliminating the inconvenience of leaving the bed, inadvertently waking up a sleeping partner or accidentally knocking the iPod across the room. For those who prefer hitting the Snooze button with their hand, the Pure-Fi Dream also offers a prominently displayed tactile button located on the top of the system.

In addition to offering motion-sensing technology, Logitech also incorporated light sensors into the display of the Pure-Fi Dream iPod speaker system. The light-sensitive, auto-adjusting display brightens during the day, making it easy to read from across a room. The amber lettering clearly displays the time and date, iPod track information, radio stations and volume settings. And in the evening, when the display automatically dims, the speaker still provides information people want to see – including a one-of-a-kind LCD screen that provides track, song and artist information – without emitting unwanted ambient light.

A premium accompaniment to any iPod, the Pure-Fi Dream speakers offer one-button access to iPod playlists and radio stations. There are 24 separate presets available – six iPod playlists, six AM radio stations and 12 FM radio stations. The speakers also offer dual alarms, providing two settings – one for each partner. The alarm can be set to go off to an iPod track or playlist, radio station, or buzzer. And with a built-in back-up battery, there is no need to worry about missing the alarm.

For added convenience, with the included remote control, people can select their favorite iPod playlists, radio stations, control Volume, skip Forward and Back, Play, Pause, Shuffle or Repeat tracks, and Snooze the alarm from across the room. Like the speakers themselves, the remote control’s backlighted buttons make nighttime navigation easy.

Part of the “Made for iPod” program, the Pure-Fi Dream speakers present an attractive piano-black finish and minimalist design that complements the iPod aesthetic. When an iPod is docked in the system, the speaker charges the iPod.

To meet the diversity of iPod owners’ needs, Logitech also offers a family of speakers for iPod and MP3 players that includes the Logitech® Pure-Fi Anywhere™ Compact Speakers for iPod® (also announced today), the high-end Logitech® AudioStation™ speaker system, the lightweight Logitech® AudioStation™ Express portable speakers, the stylish Logitech® mm32 Portable Speakers for iPod and the flat-panel Logitech® mm28 Portable Speakers.

Pricing and Availability
The Logitech Pure-Fi Dream is expected to be available at a suggested retail price of RM 1,139 with 2 years warranty. Authorised distributor for Logitech Pure-Fi Dream is MCL, Tel: 603-8023 3800. For more information, visit www.logitech.com

SUN MICROSYSTEMS COMMENTARY: **IT TRENDS FOR 2009**

CP Loo, Managing Director, Sun Microsystems Malaysia

Overview
In 2008, Sun continued to achieve growth in emerging markets, steadily seeding countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China with tools, training and open source technology to support their success and innovation.

In 2009, Sun sees businesses and governments in emerging markets increasingly using the latest open source technologies to develop innovations with minimal costs and investments. Sun’s open source strategy and industry standard offerings complement the needs of customers in the emerging markets, who look to Sun’s solutions to heighten their business performance amid rising pressures to control IT costs in the current global financial environment. By enabling developers in these markets to create new solutions, Sun is cultivating its long term growth in these markets while making a strong contribution to the local IT industry’s development and competitiveness.

IT Trends for 2009

**GREEN IT**

Eco
Energy efficiency to reduce watts/compute workload will continue to be a priority in 2009, given high ROI and overall energy limitations. Datacenter blueprints will continue to evolve with aggressive virtualization saving potentially 2X-10X the savings of facility efficiency measures. Power management will be used to throttle down servers (and other IT equipment) when not in use, something not done effectively today.

High temperature data centers, some without any mechanical cooling systems, will be discussed more in 2009 (but very few will be implemented). And collaboration will continue to drive progress forward through new standards (The Green Grid), best practices and open tools (OpenEco.org), as we scramble to meet energy and climate goals. Sun will continue to innovate on eco in hardware (servers and network), software (inc. efficient coding), services (datacenter design) and partnerships.

**THE CLOUD**

Cloud Computing
For 25 years, Sun has been guided by the vision that "the network is the computer." With the explosion of cloud computing in 2008, that vision is truer than ever. We are just at the beginning of this next evolution of the Internet. Sun expects to see cloud computing continue to impact the way IT infrastructure is designed and delivered to meet the varied needs of Web, business and HPC users. As enterprises and developers weed through the hype and figure out how to take advantage of the efficiencies of the cloud model, security, open standards and data portability will become increasingly important.

**HARDWARE**

Mid-range Computing
IDC estimates midrange server spend at US$15B in 2009, accounting for nearly 1/4 of the overall server spend. Customers have traditionally relied on midrange servers to deliver the scalability and reliability to handle business critical applications like OLTP and CRM, without much regard for energy efficiency.

The industry is beginning to see a shift in midrange capabilities -- instead of just being miniaturized versions of big iron -- the new midrange like Sun's SPARC Enterprise T5440 server will pack a lot more performance in a midrange package.

There are also the added benefits of reduced operating costs and space and energy savings -- a huge value in today's economy. These new platforms are redefining the midrange. In 2009 businesses will continue to demand a right-sized solution for consolidation and virtualization with the ability to scale. Expect to see Sun challenge the competition as the redefinition of the midrange extends into the storage market, offering customers peak performance and energy efficiency.

High Performance Computing (HPC)
In recent years, HPC has become a hot topic within IT, and businesses worldwide have begun to look towards tangible HPC solutions for their customers’ needs. Data-intensive industries like oil & gas and manufacturing are seeing the solid benefits to not only HPC processing, but also storage.

Open Storage
Open Storage will continue to grow as one of the most innovative and relevant topics affecting the storage community in 2009. Storage, currently a US$40BN dollar industry, is today going through a shift similar to that of the server market that occurred in the mid-90's. Customer demand for state-of-the-art storage systems with open architectures and easy deployment will dramatically increase.

Given the nature of the financial markets, cost economics have never been so important and will continue to be an important part of the buying decision in the coming year. Sun is spearheading the open storage revolution by combining open-source software with industry-standard system components to reduce storage costs by up to 75% over traditional market solutions.

**SOFTWARE**

Open Source
Open Source is definitely the top technology trend that has and will continue to have an impact on Sun and our customers. In companies across India, China, Eastern Europe, South and Central America, companies are dominantly using open source to create enormous wealth.

In China and India alone, there are more than a million software developers, many of whom cannot afford punitive technology license fees, so they default to open source software, like MySQL, Ubuntu Linux, OpenSolaris, Java or OpenOffice.org. Armed with these and the zeal to succeed and overcome adversity, the global market is open to them. Likewise, it is also open to businesses that want to leverage these same technologies that power some of the world’s most innovative companies such as Amazon, Google, Nokia and Sun Microsystems.

Many governments worldwide, including Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and South Africa now embrace the open document formats to help bring costs down and ensure all citizens have equal access to important material years from now. Research firm Gartner projects that by 2012, 90% of the world's companies will be using open source software – globally. Companies are realizing now that progress rests with their willingness to take a position on open source technology.

Virtualization Management
In 2008, virtualization became widely accepted as the premier consolidation tool to increase hardware utilization and decrease power and cooling costs. Gartner recently identified virtualization as the top strategic technology for organizations in 2009, and – in the current tough economic climate - businesses will continue to rely on virtualization coupled with effective management as the simplest and most cost-effective strategy for dealing with consolidation. Sun’s xVM virtualization management portfolio, introduced in September, provides open source virtualization software to help customers virtualize from the desktop to the datacenter at half the cost of the competition.

Open Your Windows to the Party Central

The good news is there’s going to be a huge New Year’s Eve party this year.

The bad news is you’re throwing it.

Don’t let the stress of planning a party take the joy out of the season. From creating the décor, the menu and the music, even the most organized planner can get overwhelmed. Thankfully, Windows Live will come to the rescue with several new features that are tuned towards making party-planning a breeze and at no extra cost! In fact, your party budget can even be significantly reduced.

Here are a few tips to make your party tops:

· Invitations: Windows Live Hotmail now lets you upload ALL of your contacts into one place, making it easier to reach everyone from one single and convenient invitation list.

· Menu: Afraid to serve your dinner guests that “signature” dish of instant noodles? Fret not, just ask mum to share all of her recipes with you on Windows SkyDrive. With 5GB of space, she might just be able to send the turkey through (or at least a picture of how it’s supposed to turn out)…

· Music: Use SkyDrive as your alternative DJ. You’ll need a lot of music to keep the party going all night long. Save yourself all the time, effort and most importantly, money, in getting a DJ or buying new CDs. As your guests RSVP, ask that they upload their favourite songs onto your shared SkyDrive. This way, everyone will have a shot at being DJ (and it eliminates the stress of music selection)…. Also, there’s the new girl or guy that you really want to kiss on the stroke of midnight! Look at their profile page to find out what sort of music they like, go out get their favourite songs and play it for them.

· Décor: Make your décor meaningful (and affordable). Guests will have a laugh, with a photo collage of some of the year’s fondest and funniest memories. Using Windows Photo Gallery, upload and print the best photos. Place the photos in existing frames to decorate your home. They’ll make for great conversation topics, and are yet another way to ensure your party is memorable...

Don’t let the party end…

· Memories: Upload all your photos onto Windows Live Photo Gallery for everyone to comment on afterward. This year, you can easily tag your guests in the pictures using new face recognition technology – and don’t waste precious time tagging the same people in different pictures over and over again.

· …and More Memories: With Windows Live Writer, you can compose your blog offline and then publish your entry with just a few clicks to one or multiple blogging sites. It's easy to bring your posts to life with photos, video, music, maps, emoticons, and more – and Writer lets you preview your blog before you publish, so you can be sure you've got your story straight.

To make your party a smashing success, download Windows Live on your PC at http://get.live.com. Install the latest range of Windows Live products for all of the newest applications at your fingertips.

Planning that New Year’s party has never easier. From invitations to music, with Windows Live by your side, you’re sure to be the host with the most.

Stay Organized and Loved this New Year

Congratulations! You've conquered 2008 but just barely.

2009 is coming at you fast and furiously, and with work, family, friends and so many activities on the radar, you may have a hard time managing your schedule. Even your trusty organizer has become tattered with all the constant thumbing through, writing, erasing.

With the new Windows Live suite of services, help yourself get organized.

Windows Live Calendar helps you stay organized with to-do lists and even share tasks and calendars with your loved ones. Upload your schedule online, share it with your partner and family members and see how your circle of important ones gets easier to manage with the new Windows Live Calendar. This way, your loved ones know where you are, and when you can’t be disturbed JWorried about missing birthdays? Planning your leave around public holidays!
You can also create automatically generated birthday and holiday calendars and never miss one single important occasion of your loved ones again. With Windows Live Calendar, you can synch your calendar to the national calendar, ensuring that you are up to date with important activities around the country.

Remember all the photographs you snapped over New Year’s eve?Upload them all on the new Windows Live Photos!

Create slide shows and share photos through your Windows Live applications. Your friends no longer have to look through hundreds of photographs to look for themselves, and you don’t have to explain to your loved ones who the people in the photo are because Windows Live Photos now comes with a simple people-tagging feature.

How will your friends know what you’ve posted? The beauty is that you don’t have to go ahead and tell them anymore, once you’ve posted your photos online, your contacts will receive an update in their ‘What’s new’ page. They are then free to check out the photos as they please.

Photos on the go – don’t carry multiple thumb drives
If loved ones want to download all those photos into their own PC, let them have it on Windows Live SkyDrive, with 25GB of online storage! Just add their Live ID to your SkyDrive folder, and send them the link. What's more, with the Windows Live SkyDrive, you can access your files anywhere without carrying with you bulky hard-drives or multiple thumb-drives.

Make Your Last Minute Presents A ‘Hit’ This Year

Have you ever opened a holiday present and wondered what your family was possibly thinking when they thought you would love that gift?

Say goodbye to the wallet that’s not your style, a perfume that smells like your grandparents and the t-shirt that was so last year. Get what you want without hurting anyone’s feelings this holiday season… eliminate the ‘unwanted gifts’ pile at the corner of your room.

This year, give your friends and family a choice. How? It’s so simple with your PC.

Create a holiday gift registry…by YOU, from YOU, for YOU.

Look at gift giving this season from two ways: what you’d like to give, and what that special someone would like to receive. Copy and paste images of the items you’d like to give from the internet and save this in Windows Live Photo Gallery. Share your images and ask family and friends to narrow down their choices. You can even suggest that they upload their own suggestions or photos of it! When it’s time to shop, use Windows Live Search to find the best possible price and where to buy your gifts. You will save both time and money in making the most of your shopping outing.

Your gifts are sure to be a hit, and still have that element of surprise.

Here’s how to get Windows Live Photo Gallery – if you don’t have it already:
· Go to http://get.live.com/ and click the option to download Windows Live, which includes the Photo Gallery. It’s available for free.
· Search for online image of your gift choices using live.com or snap one with your Windows Mobile phone.
· Upload the images into your Windows Live Photo Gallery album and share it with family and friends by sending them the link to your album. They simply need to have Windows Live installed (download it from http://get.live.com/) to view it.
· Have a chat on your Windows Messenger and see which ones they like best.

The next time your Aunt plans to buy you an ugly t-shirt, politely ask if she can share the choice of patterns through Windows Live Photo Gallery. Your Aunt doesn’t know how to use Windows, you say? Here’s a piece of advice that can win you brownie point with her: pop by her place one day and show her how. You just might get more than one ugly t-shirt… two cooler not even close to ugly t-shirts.

Decorate Your Windows – Digitally, Of Course

The season to be jolly has arrived! Do you have time to spread holiday cheer to friends and loved ones? Year-end madness may keep you glued to your office desk, but don’t let that deflate your festive mood. If your computer has to be your closest pal, spread the festive sprit online!

Here are some tips to spread joy…at your finger tips.

· Decorate your Windows Live Messenger with holiday colors and themes…consider it the latest version of a holiday greeting! Simply click on the “Tools” option at the top of your screen and it’ll show you several choices to decorate your online personality.

· In addition to colors and background, you can also customize and create new emoticons (J). Turn a J into a special holiday themed version. The “Emoticons” function under “Tools” allows you to import any holiday image – Christmas tree, Santa hats, gifts, cakes – and will make your holiday chat even more fun. Use custom emoticons to drop hints of what’s on your holiday wish list…and subtly use during conversation to make all your wishes come true.

· Store bought cards can be so impersonal. Wish your family and friends happy holidays your way with a personal audio holiday greeting. Record your very own holiday-hello with Windows Live Messenger. It will spread joy every time you start an IM conversation. You can easily do this by clicking the “voice clip” option, record a message and click Send. You can do this on your mobile, too!

Start spreading holiday joy straight away. All you need to do is log on to your Windows Live account. To download Windows Live, go to http://get.live.com

Top Research Firm Recognizes Fortinet with Global UTM Market Leadership Award

Frost & Sullivan’s World UTM Report also Recommends UTM as a Preferred Enterprise and Data Center Security Solution

MALAYSIA, 23 December 2008 – Fortinet – the pioneer and leading provider of unified threat management (UTM) solutions – today announced that Frost & Sullivan has bestowed on the company the “2008 Global Market Leadership Award for UTM” for its growth, innovation and market strategy. The award is based on extensive research conducted by the global market research and consulting firm, which evaluated Fortinet against several UTM vendors, including Check Point, Cisco and Juniper.

This award supports data from other research firms that confirm Fortinet’s UTM market leadership, and further validates the company’s integrated network security approach as a preferred solution for enterprises and data centers worldwide.

The Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Leadership was given to Fortinet for exhibiting market share leadership through the implementation of its market strategy. As stated in the corresponding award report, “Fortinet has displayed excellence in all areas of the market leadership process, including the identification of market challenges, drivers and restraints, as well as strategy development and methods of addressing these market dynamics.”

In recognizing Fortinet’s leadership, Frost & Sullivan highlighted the following specific contributors:
· Presently, Fortinet sales account for more than 15 percent of the USD1.6 billion UTM market
· Fortinet was one of the only companies to recognize that businesses need agility through scalability to counter present-day and future network security threats
· Fortinet’s overall solution provides businesses of all sizes with superior protection at a low total cost of ownership, or TCO
· Fortinet is also one of the few companies to develop its own suite of network security products, such as anti-malware and IPS signatures

“Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2008 Award for Market Leadership in Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions market to Fortinet for their continued leadership through innovative technology,” said Terrence Brewton, research analyst for Frost & Sullivan. “Fortinet’s UTM appliances were built from the ground up, incorporate proprietary ASICs, and use a common operating system to meet the growing threat of blended based attacks head-on, while also addressing the performance and scalability needs of enterprises of all sizes. For these reasons and more, Fortinet is our top pick for this prestigious and competitive award category.”

Leadership in a Booming Market
In addition to this prestigious award, Fortinet was called out as the market leader in Frost & Sullivan’s “World Unified Threat Management” report, published last month, which provides an overview of key findings and market drivers for UTM. In the report the firm forecasted that the current USD1.6 billion UTM market would increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 percent to USD6.9 billion in 2014.

In the report, Frost & Sullivan recommends UTM as a viable solution for enterprises and large-scale data centers, as the technology incorporates the same high-speed processing and throughput found in stand-alone enterprise-class appliances, yet also provides the ability to protect networks against blended threats – something that standalone solutions cannot do. The firm’s survey of business managers and administrators showed that these users believe UTM appliances are especially viable for the enterprise due to their low latency and ability to meet high throughput requirements needed to support large businesses with 500 or more users and for large-scale data centers.

The FortiGate line of new generation secure gateways is a consolidated approach that integrates eight core security functions, including firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention (IPS), VPN, spyware prevention, antispam, Web content filtering and traffic shaping. Customers can choose to purchase FortiGate appliances for some or all of these functionalities.

“Frost & Sullivan’s perspective on the UTM market mirrors what Fortinet’s vision and growing customer adoption have confirmed – that enterprises of all sizes can benefit from consolidated, centrally managed network security solutions,” said Ken Xie, founder, president and CEO of Fortinet. “Enterprises are no longer staking their data – and the security of their businesses – on firewall solutions alone. They are requiring the scalability and flexibility found only within a more comprehensive security solution.”

Canon boosts imageRUNNER series with new range of advanced and cost-effective monochrome multifunction devices

The imageRUNNER 3225 / 3235 / 3245 harness cutting-edge technologies to deliver intelligent and networked features that boost office productivity and efficiency

KUALA LUMPUR, 23rd December 2008– Canon today unveiled three new monochrome multifunction devices (MFD) that are packed with new features to deliver time-savings, performance and high-quality output to businesses.

The new imageRUNNER 3225 / 3235 / 3245 offer unparalleled performance and value to smaller businesses and workgroups. Incorporating new features such as wireless capability, a 3 line fax, direct USB memory printing and direct scan-to-USB memory, the new lineup is suitable for offices that handle high volumes of monochrome printing - providing greater productivity and scalability options to suit every need. "Now more than ever, businesses are demanding high-quality, cost-effective black-and-white printing", says Richard Yeow, Senior Director & General Manager of Buisness Imaging Solution Division at Canon Marketing Malaysia. "Designed with the user in mind, we are confident that our new imageRUNNER series will become the black-and-white device of choice for the workgroup environment. By offering colour scanning and improved performance, usability and security, we are confident that the launched solutions will help businesses to increase productivity and enhance cost-savings at the same time."

Productive communication
The imageRUNNER 3225 / 3235 / 3245 delivers superior printing performance at speeds up to 25 page per minute (ppm), 35ppm and 45ppm respectively. In addition, all models feature high precision data writing, true 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution that ensures clear, crisp text and images in every print out. It is also the first monochrome multifunction device in its range that offers color scanning, using a new compact CCD scanner unit for improved image quality.

By uitlising Canon's propriety UFR II print processor technology, business users can expect their printouts quickly and without complexity. The MFDs also supports PCL6, PCL5e and PostScript 3 print emulation.

With the high capacity Duplex Auto Document Feeder (DADF), scanning documents in large volume is a breeze. Users can easily digitise hardcopies such as invoices and contracts, which they can then send directly to their workstations, or to external parties.

With Canon's Universal Send feature, documents can also be scanned as PDFs and securely sent to network folders, email addresses and mailboxes.

There is also a new operation panel that facilitates the ease-of-use of the devices. This includes a large TFT touch screen that provides superior picture quality, which is sensitive to user input, ensuring a higher degree of usability and operational speed.

Convenient print and scan on demand
The new imageRUNNER 3225 / 3235 / 3245 offer optional wireless capability, giving businesses greater convenience of printing without cable-clutter and also allow ease-of - integration into an existing IT infrastructure.

With the new Direct USB Memory Printing option, users can simply plug in a thumb-drive or portable hard-disk and print direct from the external source without the need for an attached computer. Similarly, the new Direct Scan-to-USB memory function allows users to scan paper documents into electronic files for the purpose of saving directly into USB memory media. These features support PDF, JPEG and TIFF formats for high compatibility.

Safe and secure
In this day and age, security is a priority for businesses of all sizes. The imageRUNNER 3225 / 3235 / 3245 provide security at all critical levels; across the device, the document and the network.

The hard disk erase feature ensures that no sensitive data is left on the device, while information that is stored on the hard disk is encrypted for additional security. PDF encryption and signature options enable users to share scanned documents, safe in the knowledge that only authorised parties are able to view the information. In addition, should a rogue network connection be detected, it is automatically terminated by the device.

To prevent unauthorised access, network user identities can be authenticated before network connections are granted and established, bringing about greater network security. This can be done via passwords, company' network IDs, card or even fingerprints. When printing confidential documents, users can store them securely in the system or mailbox, and retrieve them with a confidential PIN. Scanned documents can also be encrypted before sending to ensure high levels of security. With Secure Watermarks and Digital User Signatures functions, users can track who has sent, printed and scanned each document.

SMART Regional Training Centre Opens in Malaysia

SELANGOR, Malaysia – December 22, 2008 – EP-TEC Solutions Sdn Bhd (EP-TEC), the Malaysian representative and distributor for SMART Technologies Inc (SMART), the leader in the interactive whiteboards (IWB) market, opened a regional training centre for SMART solutions in Kuala Lumpur. This fully-fitted facility offers hands-on training experience to both SMART customers and resellers from the Asia region. It also houses SMART’s latest educational technologies, which plays an integral role in transforming a traditional classroom to a 21st century one, being fully interactive to increase student engagement, participation, interest and retention.


As an organisation that values simplicity and intuitive use, SMART has created interactive solutions such as touching an icon to open a file, or picking up a pen to write notes over any application. The SMART training centre will help educationalists discover features that will simplify the way they teach and work. A survey of SMART customers has indicated that 100 percent of respondents have increased their use of the product through training, while 80 percent of respondents said that training helped them find a way to use the SMART’s IWB more effectively.


“SMART pioneered the IWB in 1991, and this year, 1 million SMART IWBs have been shipped. While the benefits of interactive technologies in classrooms have been lauded by number of studies and educational institutions, Asia still lags in adoption,” said K.N. Loh, Managing Director, EP-TEC. “This training facility will help us clearly demonstrate to educational institutions how SMART interactive solutions can make learning easier, more productive and fun.”


Locally, educational institutions such as Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar (KTJ) and Universiti Malaya have installed SMART’s interactive whiteboards throughout their campuses. Both lecturers and students are very pleased with the results and KTJ’s principal, Walter Jones, noticed a higher academic performance amongst students in the school since the implementation of this technology.

The SMART training centre will showcase, among other solutions:

SMART interactive whiteboards - the touch sensitive display connects to a computer and to a digital projector to showcase computer images. You can then control computer applications directly from the display, write notes in digital ink and save your work to share later.

SMART Document Camera - the SMART Document Camera displays real-time images of any physical object onto a display device for the entire class to see. The document camera is seamlessly integrated with the SMART Notebook, instantly turning objects into interactive content for lessons.

SMART Audio - SMART Audio ensures that students hear every word of a lesson, thus reducing teachers' vocal strain. The classroom amplification system magnifies sound and distributes it evenly throughout the room, so students at the back can hear as well as those sitting in front. The system includes an infrared receiver, a ceiling-mounted infrared sensor, two wireless microphones and four speakers.

Senteo interactive response systems – this system allows teachers to quickly gain insight into learning, track student performance and organize assessment results through wirelessly conducted quizzes that tally and present results instantly, in an automated fashion.

More Ways for Malaysians to ‘N-Gage’

New partnerships with Maxis and i-Serve make the N-Gage experience simpler

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Hooked on “Creatures of the Deep” or the ever popular “Tetris”?
Malaysian consumers will now be able to try and buy these and other games from Nokia’s N-Gage service through Maxis and i-Serve.

The agreements with Malaysia’s leading mobile operator, Maxis Communications Berhad (“Maxis”) and i-Serve Technology Sdn Bhd (“i-Serve”) mean that Maxis subscribers will now have the option of operator billing to pay for their N-Gage games while Malaysian consumers will be able to instantly download trial or purchase full game licenses from i-Serve kiosks nationwide.
“We would like to thank our partners Maxis and i-Serve for making these initiatives possible. Our commitment with the N-Gage platform is to provide a seamless experience that allows for easy discovery, trial, purchase, and play of quality mobile gaming content and these partnerships are making it easier than ever for local consumers to get into the experience,” said Vlasta Berka, General Manager of Nokia Malaysia.

“This is in line with our strategy to introduce Nokia’s internet services to Malaysia. We understand that to reach the local market, we need to create accessible and relevant channels. Not everyone has a credit card or would love to make a purchase via the internet. Thus, steps such as localising pricing and working with local partners are a key prerogative for us. In the end, what we want to achieve is a seamless, simple experience for the consumer,” he added.

These partnerships follow the implementation of local pricing for N-Gage games which ranges from RM23.00 to RM30.00 for a full game license.

Engaging Malaysia’s biggest mobile gamer community

What this initiative brings to Maxis’ avid and large mobile games user base is the easy option of paying for N-Gage game downloads over-the-air from their Nokia devices.

“It will be so easy now for Maxis customers to purchase game licenses from N-Gage. The new billing system allows Maxis customers to make these purchases with just a click of a button on the N-Gage application residing in their Nokia handsets. Now any Maxis postpaid or prepaid subscriber with an N-Gage-compatible Nokia device can directly purchase the game licenses and start playing, without having to use a credit card,” said T. Kugan, Maxis’ Head of Product Development and Infotainment Services. “With this arrangement, Maxis extends our already extensive mobile entertainment value proposition to our 600,000 mobile gamers – the largest mobile gaming community in Malaysia today.”

Maxis postpaid and Hotlink prepaid customers are now able to browse for games and download trial versions through the N-Gage application via Maxis 3G, free of data-charges. Purchasing a full game license is also really simple – Maxis customers can just charge it to their phone bill (postpaid accounts) or have the cost deducted from their remaining credit (for prepaid customers).

What’s more? N-Gage action comes to life with the Nokia-Maxis Mini N-Gage Game Challenge 08/09 at Maxis Centres in Kuala Lumpur.

Members of the public are invited to join in the games and compete for great prizes. The Nokia-Maxis Mini N-Gage Game Challenge 08/09 will be held at:

Maxis Centre, Pavilion Shopping Mall
27 – 28 December 2008 from 12 noon until 9 pm

Maxis Centre, Berjaya Times Square
3 – 4, 10 – 11 January 2009 from 12 noon until 9 pm


Get N-Gage from 140 i-Serve kiosks Nationwide

The agreement with i-Serve means customers N-Gage games will now be made available for trial or purchase and activate at 140 i-Serve kiosks already deployed around the country.

All users have to do is follow simple on-screen instructions to get their chosen games downloaded onto their N-Gage compatible devices via Bluetooth. Consumers also have the option to pay for one-day, one-week or full licenses for N-Gage games at the kiosk by cash.

“Our machine is a 24x7 self-service touch screen interactive kiosk which is user friendly that provides excellent user experience. We let the customer understand the content of the game before a purchase is made. This is done by way of touching on the game description to preview a short video. We are most proud to bring our kiosks directly to you at strategic locations such as local universities and colleges nationwide. We will soon be deploying our kiosks to condominiums, apartments, hypermarkets and shopping malls in major cities,” said Allan Goh, Managing Director of i-Serve Technology Sdn Bhd.

“We strongly believe in bringing convenience to our customers. Our kiosks allow purchases to be made by cash, as we understand that, not everyone owns a credit card today. We are most proud to be a partner of Nokia to bring N-Gage games to customers via our kiosks.” he added.

All Nokia users can download N-Gage applications and trial games to their compatible mobile devices directly through the N-Gage application on their devices, side-loaded via their PCs (games downloaded from www.ngage.com) or through i-Serve kiosks nationwide.

N-Gage games feature dynamic gameplay, vivid graphics and a community to connect you to other players across the street or around the world. Some of the games available are FIFA 2009, ONE, Brothers in Arms, Midnight Pool, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, Pro Series Golf, The Sims 2 Pets, Snakes Subsonic, Mile High Pinball, Tetris etc. More than 30 games have been announced for the N-Gage platform.

Today’s N-Gage compatible devices include: Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia N78, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8GB, Nokia N82, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N79, Nokia N85 and Nokia N96.

To find out more about N-Gage, visit http://www.n-gage.com on your mobile device or PC. New games, features and compatible devices will be added regularly.

HP and Barang Barang Award Winner of The “Guess and Win” Contest

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 22 December 2008 – Hewlett-Packard (M) Sdn Bhd and Barang Barang Lifestyle Sdn Bhd today announced the winner for the HP “Guess and Win” contest, a follow-up to the recent launch of the HP Digital Living Solution Showcase which was held in One Utama from 23rd to 27th October 2008.

HP & Barang Barang “Guess and Win” contest was opened to all Malaysians. Participants were required to guess the total value of the HP products and Barang Barang furniture that were displayed in the living terrace during the HP Digital Living Solutions Showcase. Winners were shortlisted based on the closest guess to the actual value.

(L to R) Mr. Ken Lam, General Manager, Barang Barang Lifestyle SdnBhd, Ikmal Nizam Ariffin (Winner), Mr. Lim Kok Hui, Managing Director,Barang Barang Lifestyle Sdn Bhd and Alex Chang, Consumer BusinessSolutions Development Manager, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard(M) Sdn Bhd.

A ceremony was held at the Barang Barang Showroom located at Ikano Power Centre, Mutiara Damansara to fete the winner and hand over the prizes. Alex Chang, Consumer Business Solutions Development Manager, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard (M) Sdn Bhd (HP Malaysia), Tracy Sin, Market Development Manager, Consumer Notebook, Personal Systems Group, HP Malaysia, Frankie Chan, Market Development Manager, Consumer Desktop & Handheld, Personal Systems Group, HP Malaysia, Mr. Lim Kok Hui, Managing Director, Barang Barang Lifestyle Sdn Bhd and Mr. Ken Lam, General Manager, Barang Barang Lifestyle Sdn Bhd were present to jointly perform the prize presentation.

“Malaysians are very receptive to the digital living concept and we received an overwhelming response with more than 3400 entries within 5 days,” said Danny Lee, Country General Manager, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard (M) Sdn Bhd. “HP will continue to innovate and showcase products that enhances digital living concept to improve consumer’s lifestyle experience.

We believe through this Digital Living Solution showcase, the possibility to enjoy a personal cinema, jukebox, photo gallery as well as photo-lab whilst running a business and surfing the web all at the touch of a button would be deemed promising as HP continues to champion the digital living concept for the Malaysians, in line with our HP Computer is Personal campaign,” added Lee.

“We are proud to partner with HP in this initiative as we continue to promote better living with our unique lifestyle home concept especially in the new digital age. This partnership also enables us to better position ourselves one of the leading home furnishing provider in the country,” said Lim Kok Hui, Managing Director, Barang Barang Lifestyle Sdn Bhd.

The winner of the contest was Mr. Ikmal Nizam Ariffin who guessed the value of the living terrace at RM46, 767, nearest to the actual value of the living terrace displayed during the HP Digital Living Solution Showcase in One Utama which was RM46, 734. He walked away with exciting prizes from HP including the HP M9000 Media Centre PC, HP iPAQ 912 and living room furnishings such as TV stand, coffee table, 3-seater sofa and easy chair from Barang Barang.

“This is the best birthday gift I’ve ever received as this is the first time participating and winning a contest. I would like to thank HP and Barang Barang for organizing such an exciting contest”, said Mr. Ikmal Nizam Ariffin, 32, from Kuala Lumpur. He spent ten days to derive to the value of the products with the help from his beloved wife.

Lawson Combines ANZ and Asia into APAC Regional Organisation; New Appointments Announced

SINGAPORE, 22 December 2008–Lawson Software today announced that it is combining its Australian and New Zealand business with its Asia operations to create a unified Asia Pacific regional organisation.

As part of the move, David Hope will take on an expanded role as Lawson regional vice president & Managing Director for Asia Pacific. Hope, based in Singapore, has been managing Lawson's Asia business for the last 8 years and now assumes responsibility for Australia and New Zealand under the combined Asia Pacific territory.

As part of the launch of Lawson Asia Pacific the following appointments are effective immediately: Trygve Slette, based in Singapore, takes on the position of Lawson Professional Services director for Lawson Asia-Pacific Brian Fan, based in Singapore, takes on the position of marketing director for Lawson Asia-Pacific Wong Ping Ping, based in Singapore takes on the role of sales director for Lawson South East Asia Ian Desbrow, based in Sydney, takes on the responsibility of sales director for Lawson Australia and New Zealand Noriyasu Kida, based in Tokyo, takes on the responsibility as country manager for Lawson Japan

Lawson has created a unified Asia Pacific regional organisation to take advantage of the renewed strength of the ANZ market by combining resources with existing Lawson businesses across various Asian markets.

The amalgamation of the two regions ideally positions Lawson as a key player in the enterprise software market in the Asia Pacific region, which is likely to become the global growth engine in the future.

“The amalgamation marks a new chapter in the evolution of the Lawson business. By combining the regions, we are able to create a more streamlined, focused and customer driven organisation. As such, the long term outlook is very positive as we see a strong pipeline for new business emerging as economic conditions recover and stabilise,” said David Hope, Lawson regional vice president for Asia Pacific.

Lawson’s Asia Pacific customer base now stands at over 600. In addition, Lawson has more than 1,000 direct employees in the region across 20 offices located in 12 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, India, Indonesia, China and Hong Kong.

AFFINBANK launches affinOnline.com, a simple, convenient and safe Internet-banking service for everyday customers

KUALA LUMPUR – Affin Bank Berhad (AFFINBANK) today launched affinOnline.com, an Internet–based retail banking facility specifically designed to help everyday customers do their banking transactions with the ease, safety and simplicity of point–and–click.

Online banking is already prevalent in Malaysia. At AFFINBANK, its Retail Internet Banking strategy is based on serving the needs of any customer who may not have the time to go to banks – busy entrepreneurs, the aged or disabled, people living in areas without banks nearby, people on holiday or parents with young children.

( left – right)YBhg Dato’ Sri Abdul Hamidy Abdul Hafiz, Managing Director/CEO Affin Bank Berhad, Mr Shariffudin Mohamad, Director Operations and Project Sponsor affinOnline.com and Mr Ou Shian Wei, CEO IBM Malaysia

With affinOnline.com, customers will have access to a variety of transaction options. These transactions will be secure because affinOnline.com was designed on a strategy based on three basic premises: easy to use, convenient and safe.

That strategy also complements AFFINBANK tagline “Banking without Barriers” because affinOnline.com is purposely designed in a manner where anyone with a computer and internet access will be able to make online transactions easily and safely.

( left – right)Mr Ou Shian Waei, CEO IBM Malaysia, YBhg Dato’ Sri Abdul Hamidy Abdul Hafiz, Managing Director/CEO Affin Bank Berhad and En. Shariffudin Mohamad, Director Operations and Project Sponsor affinOnline.com

“We are very mindful that online banking could be a barrier to customers or even to savvy computer users. When we embarked on our internet banking strategy, we made sure that there will be a high level of consumer confidence in our service. We conducted an in-depth study of online banking to know and understand all the problems associated with such a service.

“The end result for our customers is user friendliness. affinOnline.com is online 24 hours a day, without disruptions. It has good response times. That is what we all want from online banking – user friendliness, convenience and safety for all users,” says AFFINBANK Bhd’s Managing Director/ CEO Dato’ Sri Abdul Hamidy Abdul Hafiz.

He adds that AFFINBANK’s introduction of affinOnline.com is an evolution of services the bank offers its customers.

“At AFFINBANK, we want to make banking as easy as possible for our customers. We introduced voucher–less banking as well as counter free banking, so that banking transactions can be made in a comfortable environment. These are areas where we led the market. Banking today is all about how you cater to customers’ needs and demands. Our internet banking strategy helps our customers by distributing and expanding our delivery channels as wide as possible, so that any person with or without a computer will still be able to make their banking transactions, not only from the comfort of their homes but also anywhere in the world” says Dato’ Sri Abdul Hamidy.

AFFINBANK partnered with IBM and S1 to develop affinOnline.com on a platform that is robust enough to cater to the needs of its customers.

“For people who do not have access to computers, we have installed internet kiosks in our branches so that they can continue to do banking in our self–service lobbies. AFFINBANK is progressively rolling out its internet kiosks across all its branches throughout Malaysia.

“These kiosks are a physical representation of our tagline “Banking without Barriers” because they also offer 24–hour banking. Accessibility to internet banking will not be confined to branches anymore. Customers can do their banking whenever it is convenient for them,” says Dato’ Sri Abdul Hamidy.

Symantec Launches Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition

New security offering lets you get your game on while playing it safe

Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur - December 19, 2008 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), makers of Norton security software, today announced the availability of Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition, a new offering designed specifically with the gaming community in mind. From protecting assets earned on massive multi-player games to keeping malware at bay, Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition is fast and light on system resources, and never compromises the gaming experience. Key features of Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition
New Gamer Mode keeps you protected but won’t bother you while you’re in the middle of a game. Suspends updates, alerts, and other background activities and is automatically enabled when system is in full screen mode, or easily manually enabled;
Smart scheduling holds resource intensive actions such as system scans for when the computer is idle;
Industry-leading[1] protection from viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, keyloggers, bots and infected web sites;
Customizable security settings allow gamers to reach the performance and protection balance they require; and
Performance driven release installs in under a minute, uses less than 6MB memory, adds less than 1 second to boot time and averages scans in less than 35 seconds.[2]

Quotes
“Gamers are an extremely demanding audience that simply won’t tolerate anything on their system that detracts from gameplay,” said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Consumer Products, Symantec. “Norton AntiVirus Gaming Edition keeps gamers protected online and runs perfectly undetected in the background, meaning no interruptions, no pop-ups, and with the same award winning zero-impact performance of our 2009 products.”

The current German and European Champion in Warcraft III™, Daniel 'XlorD' Spenst, commented: "The user interface of Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition is really optimized for us Gamers. Fully automatic switching into Gamer Mode provides us with a perfect balance between performance and security." Spenst won the German Championships (ESL Pro Series Season XII) and the European Championships (ESL ENC; European Nations Championship) in Warcraft III™ in 2008 and is a member of Team ALTERNATE. Team ALTERNATE is the official professional gaming team of ALTERNATE Computerversand GmbH and is one of the most successful eSport teams in Europe. More information is available at www.team-alternate.de.

[1] AV-Test Labs (www.av-test.org): The independent testing organization AV-Test.org, conducted a major comparative test of 34 security suites. AV-Test.org rated competitors in six categories: Overall Malware Detection, Adware/Spyware Detection, False Positives, Scan Speed, Proactive Detection, and Response Times to new threats. For further information on the review, please visit www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/09_02 . www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse/report19.pdf: In the Anti-Virus Comparatives Test No. 19, Symantec was the only vendor to be awarded the top “green” rating in the three tested categories, representing the best combination of detection, false positives and performance.

[2] Independent 3rd party test lab, PassMark Software was commissioned to benchmark Symantec and top security software competitors’ performance impact on key metrics. Full report can be found online:
http://www.passmark.com/ftp/antivirus_09-performance-testing-ed2.pdf

Hong Kong businessman pleads guilty in stock spam case, Sophos reports

Singapore. December 19, 2008 – IT security and control firm Sophos has welcomed news that a Hong Kong businessman has pleaded guilty for his part in a scam where tens of millions of spam messages were sent, artificially pumping up the stock price of Chinese companies between 2004 and 2006.

According to media reports, How Wai John Hui, a resident of Hong Kong and Vancouver, was the CEO of China World Trade, one of the companies whose stock was inflated as a result of the scam. As part of his plea agreement with prosecutors the 50-year-old businessman could face a sentence of between 63 and 78 months in jail.

“While there’s been a significant drop in pump-and-dump stock manipulation spam since this alleged conspiracy, it’s still encouraging to see authorities pursue cases like this, and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “Without punishment, the cybercriminals may be tempted to revisit old techniques and this will cause more trouble for computer users.”

Sophos experts note that, as in many cases of cybercrime that we encounter today, Hui was not working alone. In fact, he is believed to have been part of a gang which included the notorious Alan Ralsky who was previously accused of being the world’s biggest spammer.

“The alleged association with spam king Alan Ralsky really spells out the seriousness of this case,” continued Cluley. “While Ralsky has always maintained he is not a spammer, but a legitimate email marketer, the US Department of Justice claims that in the summer of 2005 alone, Ralsky made three million USD through illegal spam operations. This is likely to just be the tip of the iceberg if it’s true that Ralsky is involved in other scams too.”

Hui's other fellow gang members Francis "Frankie" Tribble and Judy Devenow pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other charges in October, and are scheduled to be sentenced next year. They have all agreed to give evidence against Ralsky.

For more information please visit Graham Cluley's blog at: http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2008/12/18/hong-kong-businessman

AMD Promotes Two Leaders in Asia to Vice President

Local Executives Recognized for Excellence in Electronics Assembly and Test

PENANG, MALAYSIA. — December 19, 2008 — AMD (NYSE: AMD)announced the promotions of KY Wong and Mohd Sofi to vice president,Manufacturing Operations, in recognition of their significant contributions to AMD’smicroprocessor products and proven leadership abilities.

KY Wong is currently the managing director for AMD’s Test, Mark and Packfacility in Singapore. KY was a pioneer for AMD Singapore, establishing thecompany’s first operations there in 1984.

The Singapore AMD production facility, located near the Technopark @ ChaiChee, is a premier test centre for microprocessors and product engineeringservices, including laboratories that support Device Analysis, Reliability Testing,Surface Mount Board Assembly Evaluations, Packaging Characterization, PlatformValidation and Hardware Debug. This is in addition to the support the centerprovides analyzing and resolving customer issues for AMD customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mohd Sofi joined AMD as an Engineer in 1986 and was appointed managingdirector for the Penang site in 2002. During his 22 year tenure he has held an arrayof key positions, including Assembly Process Engineering, Test, Mark & PackProcess Engineering, Maintenance, Assembly Operations and Human Resources. In1996, he was appointed the Project Manager responsible for starting up themanufacturing operation in the Penang facility for the Control Collapse ChipConnect (C4) Flip Chip Assembly.

In addition to his AMD responsibilities, Sofi is currently the president ofFrepenca, an association representing more than 60 companies in the Bayan LepasFree Industrial Zone and also serves as the Chairman of Penang Skills DevelopmentCentre.

The Penang operation is the first C4 assembly facility outside North Americato assemble microprocessors using an advanced “flip chip” process. Whilemanufacturing remains its core activity, the plant also provides R&D in packagingdevelopment and boasts a multi-skilled and highly motivated workforce that is ableto deploy the most advanced and sophisticated manufacturing technologies.

Under KY and Sofi’s leadership, both plants have been actively involved incorporate social responsibility initiatives in their respective markets, taking everyopportunity to contribute back to the community through educational projects aswell as sponsorship programs and donations to various charitable organizations.These include organizing charity collections in aid of victims of natural disasters,such as the recent Myanmar cyclone and Sichuan earthquake.

In July 2008, the Singapore team helped raise SGD 135,000 at a charity golftournament in aid of the Rainbow Centre, which provides early interventionprograms and special education for children with disabilities. Led by Sofi, the facilityin Malaysia has also collaborated with a number of government and governmentsupportedorganizations on various community initiatives. Some of these activitiesinclude the Smart Partnership programs with the Ministry of Education and theMinistry of Finance, where for the first time, the government invested in anintegrated circuit assembly factory.

AMD Malaysia has also participated in environmental protection projects,taken on advisory roles in the Young Enterprise (YE) Program, as well as organizedfund-raising activities for the Penang Down Syndrome Association, Rotary DialysisCentre and local orphanages.

MICROSOFT FLEXES GLOBAL ALLIANCES TO DELIVER NEW SERVER LINE FOR SMALL AND MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

Innovation that drives cost efficiency and help SMBs succeed in the world market.

Kuala Lumpur, December 18, 2008 - Microsoft Malaysia today announced the general availability of Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS 2008). The launch is part of Microsoft Corporation’s USD 6.5 billion annual investment in products, support programs and incentives for small and midsize businesses (SMBs).

These solutions bring the power of Microsoft’s enterprise-class server technologies to SMBs in a way that these companies can best utilize them. Large businesses traditionally will have the budgets to equip themselves with a roster of specialists with the technical knowledge to manage IT environments – a luxury that SMBs can rarely afford. The SBS and EBS products are designed and priced to help customers reduce expenditures and be more competitive on the global stage.

“Globally, SMBs are the engines for economic growth and opportunity. Our SMBs, likening their larger counterparts, are facing tough challenges brought forth by the widespread uncertainty in the world market,” said Ramesh Rajandran, Product Marketing Manager, Infrastructure Servers, Microsoft Malaysia. “Our mantra is to support businesses succeed during these unpredictable economic climate. Microsoft is focused on delivering integrated and affordable server solutions, configured for optimization, to meet the needs of companies with scarce IT resources. Our SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 offer a comprehensive set of capabilities that will fuel the growth of SMBs.”

Partner Ecosystem
Microsoft leveraged on its more than 400,000 partners worldwide – 20,000 of which are small-business specialists – and provided them with other resources to assist small and midsize businesses successfully implement and use these solutions.

Vincent Lee, Country Business Manager, Industry Standard Servers, Technology Solutions Group, HP Malaysia, said, “HP is proud to be one of the key technology enablers of Microsoft to provide SMBs with optimized hardware configurations. Together we will ensure superior customer satisfaction when installing, running and maintaining the SBS 2008 and EBS 2008.”

Microsoft’s partners like HP, Dell and IBM are offering a broad choice of solutions for the new server line. In addition, HP, IBM and Intel Corporation have also designed and priced blade servers specifically for midsize customers. Combined with EBS 2008, these blade servers will give customers an affordable and scalable infrastructure solution that is quick to set up and easy to maintain.

Lee continued, “SMB customers are constantly searching for ways to stay at the technology forefront without having to make hefty IT investments. Being able to share our insights with Microsoft in the development of their new server solutions was an excellent opportunity for us to adequately address the needs of SMBs.”

“We are fortunate to be working with a very good mix of partners who contributed their inputs using our various feedback channels during the development of these products. The inputs of our partners are evident throughout these new solutions. Our deployment partners have direct regular access to their SMB customers and they use these relationships to build customized solutions to cater to the needs of their customers,” Rajandran added.

Many independent software vendors (ISVs) are also supporting SBS 2008 and EBS 2008, across a wide variety of applications such as backup and recovery, security, business management, systems management, line-of-business applications, and more. In addition, SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 will run virtually any applications certified on Windows Server 2008.

Product Details
Designed for companies with up to 75 users or PCs, SBS 2008 is an integrated server solution created to help businesses keep their data more secure and make their company more productive. SBS provides many of the technologies used by larger companies, such as Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and other Microsoft products. EBS 2008 is designed for businesses with up to 300 users or PCs, and allows IT managers to have more control over their environment by reducing complexity and automating common tasks. With support for Windows Mobile phones, SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 can significantly help boost productivity with access to business e-mail, calendar, contacts and files when away from the office.

For more information about these new Microsoft solutions, and a whole range of other products, including detailed feature lists, please visit, http://www.secureandreliable.com.my/Home.aspx.

NComputing为满足日益增加的超廉价电脑方案需求扩增大马分销网

领先型虚拟电脑公司与本国配销商合作带动大马的电脑使用率。

（吉隆坡12月17日讯）超廉价电脑解决方案领先提供业者NComputing，今天宣布与国内资讯科技配销商GrandTech Systems Sdn Bhd合作，旨在为更多大马企业公司和机构提超廉价电脑解决方案。NComputing的解决方案在全球100多个国家里使用者已超过100万人，而本技术也已大幅度打进大马企业界。已了解到NComputing好处的大马企业机构包括一家区域人力资源网站公司、槟城一所大学、一家领先型基建工程和营造公司、以及一家从事防火器材供应的上市公司。

NComputing亚太区副总裁Manish Sharma说：“NComputing在大马的客户来自各行各业，这显示我们的廉价解决方案适用於所有类型的企业或学校。NComputing解决方案能帮助他们省下多过一半的电脑成本，而省下的预算能够帮助这些企业机构在目前的经济环境里生存和繁荣。”

NComputing解决方案根据的是一个非常简单的原理，也就是当前个人电脑的功能超强，以至於大部份应用程式只用上电脑功能的一小部份。NComputing虚拟软件和硬件充份应用这些未使用功能，这样一来，多重使用者就能同时间共用这些功能。NComputing虚拟软件安装在Windows或Linux电脑里，每一名使用者的监视器、键盘、以及滑鼠透过一个体积小、但很可靠的NComputing终端接入器连接至这台共用电脑。使用者会发现，电脑成本将因此减少多达70%，耗电量则能省下90%。一般电脑使用110瓦特的电力但NComputing终端接入器只需要1瓦特的电力，因而成为全球最环保的电脑解决方案。

GrandTech南亚区企业副总裁兼总经理Jason Ngoi说：”我们决定抢进商业市场时，曾问过企业公司需要什么。他们一再要求我们降低电脑使用成本。选择NComputing前，我们曾参考过无数产品。NComputing解决方案绝对是扩大电脑使用率的最佳方法，而且还能省钱。他们也是最环保的电脑解决方案，这样一来，就能帮我的企业客户特别在长远使用上节省成本，这是很大的优势。”

NComputing最显著的建置专案，包括印度Andhra Pradesh州一个提供近200万学生电脑使用的供应专案。其它亚洲客户包括新加坡的制造商、印尼和泰国的霸级市场、以及韩国的电话客服中心。本方案也很受全球执法单位的欢迎，且已建置在美国、首尔、以及印尼。

Dairy Farm Selects SAP for Strategic Business Transformation

Leading Pan-Asian Retailer of Well-Known Brands Chooses SAP® for Retail Solutions to Support Growth and Better Serve Customer Demands

KUALA LUMPUR — Dec. 18, 2008 — Providing industry solutions on a single platform for optimized customer business processes, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Dairy Farm, a leading pan-Asian retailer, has selected SAP® for Retail solutions. With more than 4,300 outlets that include supermarkets, hypermarkets, health and beauty stores, convenience stores, home furnishing stores and restaurants in the Pacific Region and in China, the retailer selected SAP to support its growth plans and harmonize business processes across the region, in order to leverage existing innovations and efficiencies. Joining a growing number of global retailers who have chosen SAP over Oracle to drive competitive advantage, Dairy Farm will replace multiple in-house and third-party applications with SAP to provide a single information platform that will enable the company to focus its resources strategically and enhance service levels to consumers.

Dairy Farm is one of Asia’s most dynamic and reputable retailers, operating well-known brands such as Wellcome, Cold Storage and Hero supermarkets; Giant hypermarkets; Mannings and Guardian health and beauty stores and 7-Eleven convenience stores. As Dairy Farm continues to expand its customer-centric business model in Asia, the common information platform for merchandising will also provide the tools for tracking and managing future growth.

“Technology plays a significant role in the growth and success of our business,” said Jeff Shaw, regional director for South Asia, Dairy Farm. “We believe that SAP is a valuable software provider who will bring industry best practices and greater flexibility, as well as scalability, to our growing business based on thirty years of experience in helping global retail companies.”

Supporting Growth Through Strategic Business Transformation
The dynamics of the retail industry, including an increased need for convenience, breadth of product options and a vast array of shopping formats, are changing the buying habits of shoppers and placing an increased emphasis on producing a consistent and high-quality customer service experience. In parallel, with tighter margins, retailers must not only address process efficiency, shorten product cycles and improve in-stock performance, but fundamentally alter the shopping experience to drive customer loyalty. To support retailers’ drive for customer centricity combined with efficient business processes across the entire enterprise – from headquarters down to the store level – SAP offers an integrated solution portfolio, SAP for Retail, to enable strategic business transformation.

Supported by the flexible SAP NetWeaver® technology platform, SAP for Retail will help Dairy Farm anticipate, rapidly adapt and cope with fast evolving business needs and customer demands. In addition, SAP for Retail can enable operational excellence for Dairy Farm by supporting customer loyalty and providing real-time business visibility. It also reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) through a platform that supports multiple channels simultaneously and incorporates best practices across functions.

Implementation for Dairy Farm has already started across three key markets in Asia, beginning sequentially with Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.

“Retailers around the world look to SAP to help them consolidate their operations to take their business operations to the next level,” said Geraldine McBride, president and CEO, SAP Asia Pacific Japan. “We are proud to be able to help Dairy Farm achieve its leadership and growth goals. By adding Dairy Farm to our ever-growing list of best-run retail businesses, we are increasing our depth of experience in the exciting APJ retailing segment.”

Emerson Network Power Advances Energy Logic Strategy in Asia

Introduces universal measure for data center efficiency to quantify real return on investment from energy saving measures

KUALA LUMPUR, 18 December 2008 – Data center professionals now have a way of calculating the return on investment of energy efficient infrastructure and equipment using an industry-first metric from Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson (NYSE: EMR) and the global leader in enabling Business-Critical ContinuityTM.

The latest installment of Emerson’s Energy Logic framework advances the discussion started earlier this year about a universally accepted metric for data center output, without which efficiency cannot be accurately quantified. With its new white paper, Energy Logic: Calculating and Prioritizing Your Data Center IT Efficiency Actions, Emerson takes the next step by using a placeholder metric to highlight the value of measuring data center efficiency in the same way that litres-per-kilometre provides an easily understood, agreed-upon efficiency measure for cars.

“This is the first time that we’ve been able to show how a considered and structured planning approach to data center efficiency can measurably reward capital expenditure through ongoing operational savings, and by extension, demonstrate a measurable ROI,” says Anand Sanghi, Vice President Marketing, Emerson Network Power Systems, Asia Pacific.

“Other industries – telecommunications for example – have had these types of measures for years, but not so the IT industry,” says Sanghi. “Other measures being promoted don’t show progressive rewards from each of the steps needed to improve efficiency. Energy Logic was the first framework to highlight the ‘cascade effect’ of savings from one step to the next, but until now we didn’t have any way to quantify the reward from each step, in monetary terms or otherwise.”

Specifically, the new Energy Logic white paper introduces the concept of CUPS, or Compute Units per Second, to demonstrate how a metric can work. CUPS is a relative measure of server output, based on average server performance. Using data from multiple industry sources, Emerson Network Power calculated the change in CUPS between 2002 and 2007, providing a common server performance measure required to calculate efficiency. Data center professionals can experiment with CUPS relative to their own data center in an online efficiency calculator available at www.efficientdatacenters.com.

CUPS uncovers an important fact – while data center energy consumption has risen in recent years, these increases have been accompanied by dramatic gains in output and efficiency. If data center output had remained flat between 2002 and 2007, the efficiency improvements achieved would have cut 2007 data center consumption to one-eighth the 2002 consumption.

The analysis also helps data center managers prioritise energy efficiency decisions. Using the CUPS metric, the report shows that the 10 prioritised strategies proposed in the original Energy Logic white paper increase data center efficiency by 3.6 times. The measurement also pinpoints three strategies with the most impact – faster replacement of IT technologies, virtualisation and high-density architecture.

“Our goal with Energy Logic and the CUPS metric is to focus attention on the importance of the various steps that need to be taken to achieve optimal efficiency in the data center,” says Sanghi.

“Take the analogy of a diet, for example. The goal of a diet is to lose weight. By using ‘calories’ as a universally accepted measure, we can demonstrate the merit of each step of a diet – such as exercise, healthy eating and rest – by the amount of calories burned. The reward for the effort – or the ROI – is the weight loss. Using CUPS as our ‘calories’, we can now quantify how much each step of the Energy Logic framework contributes to the overall efficiency of the data center, but in real financial and environmental terms.

“Ultimately, a universal metric will help data center professionals make significant improvements in energy efficiency while meeting growing performance demands.”

To promote industry discussion and debate toward development of an agreed-upon approach, the extended Energy Logic framework offers three criteria that an efficiency metric should meet: it should drive the right behavior; be available and published at the IT device level to help buyers make the right choice; and be scalable from the IT device to the data center level.

“We need to emphasise how the investment in energy efficient data center solutions and design methodologies is rewarded with ongoing operational savings, otherwise that investment won’t be made, particularly in a difficult economic climate,” says Sanghi. “A measurable ROI based on a universally quantifiable metric can only encourage investment and further the goal of energy efficiency in the data center.”

For more information, visit www.efficientdatacenters.com, a new website developed by Emerson Network Power that showcases the latest advances in energy efficiency for data center professionals.