Industry News
SAP Opens Research and Development Center in Budapest, Hungary
Representatives of SAP AG officially inaugurated its tenth research and development center in Budapest, Hungary. Located in Graphisoft Park, SAP Labs Hungary is charged with the primary mission of developing new features and functionality for mySAP™ Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM) and will also offer localization and language consulting services from SAP’s Globalization Services group.
With operations in Bulgaria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan and the United States, SAP Labs integrate ideas and leading-edge technologies to develop solutions that address the business process needs of customers, specific industries and geographic regions, keeping SAP and its customers at the forefront of business innovation. As the newest location in the SAP Labs network, the facility in Hungary initially projected a staff of approximately 50 local software developers by mid-year and a workforce of 300 by the end of 2006. Given the wealth of local expertise in business solutions and technologies as well as a sound infrastructure, SAP Labs Hungary has already exceeded projections with a total of 100 software developers employed as of July 2005.
In addition to its paramount mission of driving SCM innovation, SAP Labs Hungary will host SAP’s Globalization Services group, which addresses all aspects of implementing global business solutions, including solutions spanning multiple languages and time zones, encoding systems such as Unicode, global system architectures, country-specific versions and translation of SAP applications and industry solutions. Globalization Services supports customers in formulating a coherent approach to global business, determining whether a global strategy is technically feasible and ensuring that globalization strategies meet business goals. The Globalization Services team within SAP Labs Hungary will focus on the emerging markets in Eastern Europe, with special attention to Russia.
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U.S. Joint Forces Command Extends General Dynamics Contract for Engineering and Technical Support
General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics has been awarded a US$92 million contract extension to continue its support of the U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Experimentation Program and Joint Futures Lab. Work will be performed in Suffolk, Va., and includes engineering, technical and administrative services for joint concept development and prototyping.
This award is for the second-year option on a five-year contract awarded in February 2004, extending the term of the original contract until July 2006. The total value of the contract to date, including this option, is $182 million. The U.S. Navy Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk, Philadelphia Detachment, awarded the modification in support of the Joint Forces Command.
General Dynamics has supported the Joint Experimentation Program and the Joint Futures Lab since 1998 and holds separate contracts to support the Joint Forces Command's Joint Systems Integration Command, and Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration Program.
The mission of the Joint Experimentation Program is to develop, explore and assess new joint warfighting concepts, organizational structures and emerging technologies through discovery, innovation and experimentation, in order to drive transformational changes that achieve the optimal future joint force capability.
U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Futures Laboratory expands the facilities of the permanent Distributed Continuous Experimentation Environment laboratory.
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Fujitsu Australia Signs $75 Million IT Contract Renewal
The Western Australia Department of Health has extended its information management alliance contract with Fujitsu Australia for another five years. Under the renewed contract, worth $75 million over the next five years to members of the InfoHEALTH Alliance consortium, Fujitsu Australia will oversee an applications and infrastructure overhaul to support more patient-friendly health services.
The contract supports the Western Australia Government’s $1.7 billion capital commitment to improve health services in the state, including a $335 million capital injection for an information and communications technology upgrade. The increased funding supports the delivery of the 2004 recommendations of the Health Reform Committee.
The contract renewal was based on a performance review of Fujitsu Australia’s initial five-year contract, including an independent benchmarking study carried out by IT analysts META Group, the government’s own review of the business case, and the results of a customer satisfaction survey.
Fujitsu will work in partnership with the Department in a continuation of the InfoHEALTH Alliance agreement. The focus will be to move the state’s healthcare services from a hospital and discipline-centric system to a patient-centric system. Instead of holding separate sets of patient records at individual hospitals or health services, information will be accessible centrally, subject to privacy restrictions, regardless of where the treatment is delivered. Other initiatives under the health reform program include developing the role of secondary hospitals around the metropolitan area and providing new services such as hospital in the home.
In contrast to traditional IT outsourcing agreements which lock the parties into a set of agreed deliverables, the Alliance is a co-sourcing arrangement with a high degree of flexibility to change priorities and services. Under the agreement Fujitsu will lead a consortium of companies and can engage third party providers under contract, giving the Western Australia Department of Health access to the best capabilities in the market.
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Ericsson Acquires Teleca OSS
Representatives of Ericsson announced the acquisition of the Swedish company Teleca OSS, with around 40 employees, specialized in systems integration in the area of telecom management.
Ericsson's systems integration offering supports network operators in creating, managing and evolving new consumer service offerings. It is a strategic area in the Ericsson Global Services portfolio and the acquisition of the Swedish company Teleca OSS reinforces Ericsson's focus on growing its services business.
Teleca OSS, a subsidiary to the Swedish company Teleca, has a strong track record of supplying service assurance, network management and operator charging solutions. They provide operators with the necessary tools to improve the quality of their services toward consumers. Teleca OSS customers are mainly large network operators in the Nordic and Baltic region. Around 40 employees will be transferred from Teleca OSS to Ericsson's market unit for the Nordic and Baltic region.
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Raytheon-Boeing Sign P-8A MMA Industry Team Contract
Raytheon Company's Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) and Boeing finalized a US$60.8 million contract for continued participation on the P-8A MMA (Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft) industry team.
Under the systems development and demonstration (SDD) contract, Raytheon will provide two upgraded APS-137D(V)5 maritime surveillance radars. The company will also contribute to related software design and provide radar simulation for design labs and program reviews.
The P-8A MMA program celebrated its first year anniversary last month. The upgraded APS-137 maritime surveillance radar will provide the P-8A MMA customer with reliable, accurate open water and littoral, all-weather surveillance capability for a variety of mission applications, including anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare maritime patrol as well as netted intelligence and reconnaissance surveillance operations.
The multi-resolution radar capabilities include long-range surface search and target tracking, periscope detection in high sea states, ship imaging and classification using ISAR (Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar), and SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) for overland surveillance, ground mapping, and targeting. Specific upgrades to the APS-137 for P-8A MMA include: reduced weight, improved MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures), color weather display, joint technical architecture compliance for seamless net centric operation as part of the Boeing aircraft backbone, and full integration with the Boeing mission system.
To date, SDD for the U.S. Navy's next generation multi-mission aircraft remains on budget and on schedule. The next milestone will be a preliminary design review scheduled for September, 2005.
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Lockheed Martin Awarded US$24.7 Million Contract
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a 2-year, US$24.7 million contract to continue development of a web-enabled mission execution system that will allow Joint battle commanders to work together to carry out battlefield strike missions in real time.
The Web-Enabled Execution Management Capability (WEEMC) is designed to allow numerous commanders to collaboratively plan and execute time-sensitive strike missions, as well as search and rescue efforts. The system will link Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, and Special Operations systems into a unified application, giving warfighters instant, integrated access from any command and control location, including Navy ships, Air Operations Centers (AOCs), or forward deployed command posts.
WEEMC’s web-based infrastructure allows more users to access the system from more locations, and also cuts down significantly on the amount of specialized hardware and software required to run the application. WEEMC is also built on the latest standards for net-centric technologies, and is fully compliant with the future Global Information Grid and Net-Centric Enterprise Services architectures. The system’s open architecture enables machine-to-machine interfaces with numerous other current and future battle management applications. WEEMC will be fielded with the Global Command and Control System – Joint and the Command and Control Personal Computer.
In addition to an improved net-centric architecture, WEEMC offers additional mission coordination management applications that are not available today. Warfighters from all services will be able to collaborate in near-real time on combat search and rescue, special operations forces, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
The contract was awarded under the Air Force’s Network-Centric Solutions (NETCENTS) contract, a potential $9 billion indefinite delivery / indefinite quantity contract awarded to Lockheed Martin and other prime contractors in September of 2004.
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EDS Elects Former Rice University President Malcolm Gillis to Board of Directors
Representatives of EDS announced Malcolm Gillis, former president of Rice University, has been elected to its board of directors.
Gillis served as president of Rice University for more than a decade and is currently a professor of economics at the university. He has dedicated more than 25 years of his professional career to teaching and applying economic analysis to important issues of public policy spanning nearly 20 countries.
“We’re fortunate to have Malcolm join our board,” said Mike Jordan, EDS chairman and CEO. “His academic leadership credentials, coupled with decades of international economic development experience, will be a tremendous asset to EDS.”
From 1986 to 1991, Gillis was dean of Duke University’s graduate school and vice provost for Academic Affairs. He also served as the school’s dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences. Gillis has published more than 70 journal articles and authored several leading economic textbooks. He was co-founder and chair of the board of trustees of the Center for World Environment and Sustainable Development and the Duke Center for Tropical Conservation.
Before assuming his university leadership positions, he was a consultant on economic issues to organizations ranging from the World Bank to the governments of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Indonesia. Gillis currently serves on the boards of directors of Halliburton, Service Corporation International, Introgen Therapeutics, AECOM Technology Corporation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He was recently appointed by President Bush as a director of the Vietnam Education Foundation.
Gillis holds several degrees, including an A.A. from Chipola Junior College, B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Florida, and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.
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Alcatel and Finmeccanica Finalize Joint Ventures
Representatives of Alcatel and Finmeccanica announced the successful creation of two new joint ventures effective as of July 1: Alcatel Alenia Space and Telespazio Holding.
The creation of these two new companies represents a great opportunity for their growth. Their common objectives will be to consolidate leadership in telecommunication satellite systems and services, to acquire a strong position in the most important European programs, such as Galileo and GMES, and to strengthen space defence and security, as well as observation, exploration and science.
Alcatel Alenia Space, of which Alcatel holds 67% and Finmeccanica 33%, now combines the activities of Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio. It focuses on the design, development, and manufacturing of space systems, satellites, payloads, orbital infrastructures and space transportation, instruments and associated ground systems for civilian and military applications. The operational headquarters of Alcatel Alenia Space are located in Cannes, France, with plants in France, Italy, Belgium and Spain. With estimated 2004 sales of 1.8 billion euros and around 7,200 employees, it is the European leader in satellite systems.
Telespazio Holding, of which Finmeccanica holds 67% and Alcatel 33%, combines Telespazio with Alcatel Space Services and Operations activities. It concentrates on operations and services for satellite solutions, which include control and exploitation of space systems as well as value-added services for networking, multimedia and earth observation. Its headquarter is located in Rome, Italy with plants in Italy, France and Germany. With estimated 2004 sales of 350 millions euros and around 1,400 people, it is a key player in the space services market.
Alcatel and Finmeccanica will account for Alcatel Alenia Space and Telespazio Holding using proportional consolidation. The creation of the new companies has a cash/debt impact of €109m for the two companies' shareholders.
Alcatel and Finmeccanica also announced the nomination of the senior management responsible for each of the two European space companies:
Alcatel Alenia Space:
Mr. Giorgio Zappa, Chief Operating Officer Finmeccanica, will hold the position of Chairman of the supervisory board of Alcatel Alenia Space.
Mrs. Pascale Sourisse will hold the position of President and CEO of this new company.
Telespazio:
Mr. Olivier Houssin, Executive Vice President of Alcatel and President of its Private Communications Group that includes Alcatel's Space activities, will hold the position of Chairman of the board of directors of Telespazio Holding.
Mr. Giuseppe Veredice will hold the position of CEO of this new company.
