Industry News
EDS Awarded Seven-Year, US$48 Million Massachusetts Medicaid Contract
EDS has been awarded a US$48 million, seven-year contract to design, develop, implement and maintain a new state-of-the-art Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The contract may be extended up to four additional years.
EDS will build on its successful federally certified interChange Medicaid system currently operating in several states, including Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, modifying the application to reflect the program and technology requirements of Massachusetts.
Once implemented, the “NewMMIS,” as it will be called, will provide the core technology platform for Medicaid and a number of other human services programs statewide.
MassHealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid program, provides health care benefits to nearly 1 million people across the Commonwealth through approximately 27,000 providers.
Under the contract, EDS will replace the current state-operated Medicaid system with a new J2EE Web-based application constructed to utilize the Commonwealth's shared infrastructure. This infrastructure will include shared services such as enterprise identity management and electronic payments. The NewMMIS will support the consolidation of health records , permit the efficient implementation of new program controls and provide flexibility to create new programs.
The Massachusetts MMIS win is EDS' second major Medicaid award in the Bay State in 2005. In April, EDS was awarded a $24 million contract by MAXIMUS to assist in integrating Medicaid member and provider services into a single customer services model.
Earlier this year, EDS won multi-year Medicaid contracts in Wisconsin and Rhode Island.
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Alphabus Development Contract Signed
EADS Astrium and Alcatel Space, a subsidiary of Alcatel enter the full development of Alphabus, the new European platform for next generation communications satellites, following the signature of a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the French space agency CNES. Under this contract, the agencies will support the industry for the Alphabus development program and the production of a first flight model.
For several years, a joint team of the two leading European satellite companies has been working with the support of ESA and CNES to define a product line able to efficiently address the upper segment of communications satellites. EADS Astrium and Alcatel Space have decided to federate their technical and financial resources on a common development program, taking into account the amount of new technologies and facilities. Alphabus is then the vector for Europe to develop new reliable solutions for large satellites and offer them on the world market.
The Alphabus platform is designed for communications satellites with payload power in the range 12-18 kW of power. This will support the renewal of the fleet for large operators, offering a lower cost per transponder and the ability to accommodate reconfigurable missions, as well as the development of applications such new generation mobile and broadband services, digital audio broadcast and HDTV.
Satellites based on Alphabus will have a launch mass in the range 6 to 8 tons, and take full benefit of the capabilities of the new generation of 5 meter fairing commercial launchers. In order to cover the mission range in an optimized way, the platform product line includes several options such as electric propulsion, and features scalable resources (solar array, radiators for thermal dissipation, etc.). The platform will be able to accommodate up to 190 high power transponders and large antenna farms, and will have a significant growth potential.
Alphabus is jointly developed by EADS Astrium and Alcatel Space according to a longstanding industrial sharing. Responsibilities of EADS include: Electrical power, Solar array, Chemical propulsion, as well as the Assembly, Integration and Test of the spacecraft. Alcatel Space is in charge of the Mechanical and Thermal subsystems, Avionics, as well as Electrical propulsion.
EADS Astrium and Alcatel Space will market the Alphabus for commercial communications satellites. Following the completion of the development, Alphabus will be offered from 2007 onwards on the worldwide market.
The use of the ESA Alphabus protoflight model for the Alphasat mission is currently under definition.
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Huawei and Tele2 Sign European Frame Supply Agreement for SDH
Representatives of Huawei announced that the company has signed a European Frame Supply Agreement with Tele2 as a supplier of SDH optical transmission equipment.
First equipment rollout has already started in Austria for the expansion of UTA's broadband access network. UTA was acquired by Tele2 in 2004.
This is an important breakthrough in the Nordic and European operator market and it underlines Huawei's technical leadership in optical transmission. Huawei's OptiX OSN 1500/2500/3500 and OptiX Metro 500/1000 products and corresponding management system OptiX iManager T2000 form part of the agreement.
Huawei's OptiX product series have proven their capability, feasibility and reliability to the world of telecommunications through deployment of more than 276,000 sets of OptiX products in more than 54 countries and regions.
Huawei currently has over 1,300 staff in Europe and 50 based in Sweden, with a significant increase planned over the rest of 2005.
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SAP Names Eric Duffaut to Oversee Partner Channel and Small and Midsize Business in EMEA NEWS Region
Representatives of SAP AG announced that it has named Eric Duffaut, an industry veteran with 15 years of experience in top management positions with Oracle, as senior vice president for channel and small and midsize business in its EMEA north, east, west and south (NEWS) region. In this new position, Duffaut will be responsible for driving market share, growing and managing an effective partner channel and developing and executing programs to further increase customer and partner satisfaction in SAP’s NEWS Europe, Middle East and Africa region, according to SAP’s global SMB strategy. Duffaut is a member of the EMEA NEWS executive team in Paris and will report to Donna Troy, senior vice president, Global SMB, and Ernie Gunst, president of SAP’s EMEA NEWS region.
Duffaut’s appointment comes as SAP is entering its next phase of momentum in midmarket and partner channel growth through the introduction of a new, global multilevel channel program, SAP PartnerEdge™. The multilevel program, based on a unique system of value points, aligns SAP and its partner channel to support long-term customer relationships around the dual solution portfolio for the SMB segment, mySAP® All-in-One and SAP® Business One.
At the moment, SAP has nearly 2.300 customers and more than 260 partners for mySAP™ All-in-One. SAP® Business One, its business management solution for small companies, subsidiaries and enterprise departments, now has nearly 3.300 customers and a partner network of more than 400 delivering the solution to businesses in the EMEA NEWS region.
Prior to joining SAP, Duffaut served as vice president of Oracle Direct and Online Sales for Oracle EMEA. Before that, he held the position of vice president sales channels, Oracle EMEA, in which he was responsible for channel partners and hosting as well as the Web store and teleweb division. Duffaut holds a degree in Economy and Finance from Bordeaux University. He is also a graduate of INSEAD – Advanced Management Program.
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Boeing Completes Sale of Commercial Airplanes Operations in Kansas and Oklahoma
The Boeing Company completed the sale of its Commercial Airplanes operations in Kansas and Oklahoma to Onex Corporation. The transaction includes facilities and assets in Wichita, Kansas, and Tulsa and McAlester, Oklahoma. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems operations in Wichita and Oklahoma are not included in the sale.
Boeing and Onex announced the planned sale in February of 2005. The value of the transaction to Boeing includes approximately $900 million cash, transfer of certain liabilities and long-term supply agreements that provide ongoing savings to Boeing.
The single-source supply agreements cover the structures and parts currently produced by the Wichita/Tulsa Division. Also, the new company will remain a major supplier partner on the 787 Dreamliner program.
The Wichita/Tulsa Division currently supplies fuselage and other structural components for the 737, 747, 767 and 777 jetliners.
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Fujitsu and Epson Announce Joint Development of Next-generation Technology for FRAM Non-Volatile Memory
Representatives of Fujitsu Limited and Seiko Epson announced their agreement for joint development of next-generation technology for Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FRAM) non-volatile memory.
According to the agreement, the two companies plan to develop highly integrated next-generation FRAM that is one-sixth the cell area of conventional FRAMs on the market, targeting completion in the first half of 2006. Fujitsu and Epson also plan to develop memory core process technology that features minimal constraints on the number of read/write cycles that can be executed.
In recent years, portable information devices and intelligent home appliances have become increasingly sophisticated. As a result, demand for FRAM non-volatile memory has rapidly increased, as it fulfills a wide range of market needs such as low power consumption and high read/write speeds with greater advantages compared to flash memory and Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM). FRAM features non-volatile RAM functions in addition to ROM functions, thereby making it one of the best memory devices available and an ideal memory solution for system Large-Scaled Integrated circuits (LSIs).
Through their joint development of next-generation FRAM technology, the two companies plan to combine their elemental technologies, such as for FRAM materials and miniaturization processes, to enable shorter development periods.
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Cisco Systems Completes Acquisition of FineGround
Representatives of Cisco Systems announced it has completed the acquisition of FineGround Networks, Inc. of Campbell, Calif.
On May 26, 2005, Cisco announced a definitive agreement to acquire FineGround, a leading provider of network appliances that accelerate, secure, and monitor application delivery while minimizing bandwidth usage and maximizing infrastructure capacity in the data center. By integrating FineGround's technology with Cisco's products, Cisco will be able to provide customers with advanced application-acceleration across networks for secure and optimized delivery of web-based applications.
