Industry News
Visanet Extends EDS Relationship with US$209 Million Agreement
Representatives of EDS and Visanet announced they have expanded their existing decade-long relationship for an additional 10 years with a US$209 million agreement.
EDS will continue to provide information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) services to manage and support Visanet's merchant processing environment, which processes more than two billion VISA transactions per year and supports about one million merchants in Brazil.
In addition to extending existing IT and BPO services, the agreement includes new help desk services through which EDS will provide call center support to assist Visanet merchants with point-of-sale equipment technical support.
Since 1996, Visanet has relied on EDS to provide a fast, reliable and secure transaction-processing environment. The infrastructure includes hosting for Visanet's mainframe computing environment where transactions are processed, midrange hosting, applications development and other back-office support. Visanet and EDS also jointly manage the company's call center, which handles more than 450,000 merchant calls per month to provide merchant services.
As a pioneer of IT services for the financial services industry, EDS provides a wide range of outsourced services from payments and securities processing to applications development and network, customer relationship management and helpdesk services to all sectors of the industry. More than 20,000 EDS employees work on finance-related projects in 30 countries.
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IBM Canada Wins $24-Million Services Agreement to Build Pan-Canadian Communicable Disease Surveillance System
A new IBM system will assist in the day-to-day delivery of public health services and will help manage the risk of communicable disease in Canada.
This system will help public health professionals provide better care for Canadians in response to the routine communicable diseases in Canada, like measles or influenza, and will improve preparedness for a major outbreak should one occur in the future.
The Province of British Columbia signed a five-year, $24.7-million contract with IBM Canada to design and build the system, and to support the system with continuing improvements over the next five years. All provinces and territories have participated with British Columbia and Canada Health Infoway in designing the new system. Each province and territory is planning its implementation strategy for the system that will be ready to install in 2007.
Once complete, the system will enable public health professionals to log on to a secure, easy-to-use portal and quickly enter information about cases, symptoms and outcomes, providing health officials with a timely and comprehensive view of the state of public health. Should a serious communicable disease occur, the system will alert public health officials who will plan and direct actions to protect Canadians.
The system is built on applications from IBM Canada Business Partners Scientific Technology Corporation, Science Applications International Corporation, Amaranth Consulting Group and Sotern NV, as well as IBM software products including Websphere, Tivoli and DB2.
Canada Health Infoway, the key investor in this initiative, received funding from the Government of Canada to plan and coordinate the development and implementation of the pan-Canadian disease surveillance and management system. Participating provinces and territories will cover the remainder of the costs.
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Intel Announces Restructuring
Representatives of Intel announced plans for restructuring following an analysis of the company's structure and efficiency. As a result of the restructuring, the company expects to generate savings in costs and operating expenses of approximately $2 billion in 2007. In 2008 the company expects savings from this restructuring to grow to approximately $3 billion annually.
The savings are a combination of non-workforce related steps and a significant reduction in Intel's workforce. The company's employee population will decline to approximately 95,000 by the end of this year, resulting from workforce reductions, attrition and previously announced actions. The workforce will decline to approximately 92,000 by the middle of 2007 – 10,500 fewer than the company's employee population at the end of the second quarter of 2006. In addition to the savings from the workforce reduction, the company expects savings in merchandising expenses, capital and materials.
Most job reductions this year will occur in management, marketing and information technology functions, reductions related to the previously announced sale of businesses, and attrition. In 2007, the reductions will be more broadly based as Intel improves labor efficiency in manufacturing, improves equipment utilization, eliminates organizational redundancies, and improves product design methods and processes.
In 2008, the company expects the cost and operating expense savings from this restructuring to grow to approximately $3 billion as it achieves the full-year run rate on the projects implemented in 2007. In addition, Intel expects to achieve a capital expenditure avoidance of $1 billion by better utilizing manufacturing equipment and space. The company expects that approximately 25 percent of the project's savings in 2007 will reduce cost of sales, and the rest will reduce operating expenses.
The company expects severance costs to total approximately $200 million, offsetting some of the expected savings from the project's implementation.
Intel is currently in its quiet period, so an update to its business outlook will not be made at this time. Further information concerning savings and costs related to the restructuring project will be provided in quarterly earnings releases and related business outlook estimates. The earnings release for the third quarter of this year is scheduled for publication Oct. 17.
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Ericsson Acquires Assets of Finnish Software Company Distocraft
Representatives of Ericsson announced that it had reached an agreement with Finnish company Distocraft Oy to acquire the assets of Distocraft's business. The company, with 42 employees, specializes in software development for mobile network performance management.
In today's highly competitive environment, increasingly more focus is being placed on network and service management to reduce costs without compromising quality of service. Performance management systems give operators information about their networks performance, allowing them to improve efficiency and reduce time-to-market.
With this acquisition, Ericsson will expand the capabilities of its market-leading OSS portfolio, addressing both new technologies, such as HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and 3G LTE (3G Long-Term Evolution), and multivendor environments.
Kurt Jofs, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Business Unit Access, Ericsson, says: "I am pleased to announce this acquisition. It will further strengthen our ability to support our customers with best-in-class network management, allowing them to focus on the introduction of attractive end-user services."
Distocraft is based in Lahti and Helsinki, Finland, and is an independent software vendor specializing in software development for mobile network O&M. Its operations are concentrated in the Nordic and Baltic region. The company's 42 employees will join Ericsson Finland.
Ericsson's OSS offering is powerful in terms of capacity and is one of the few that can manage an entire network in a single system. Today, about 250 customers are using it worldwide.
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Lockheed Martin Announces Sale of Its Interest in International Launch of Services and LKEI
Representatives of Lockheed Martin announced Thursday the proposed sale of its ownership interests in Lockheed Khrunichev Energia International, Inc. (LKEI) and ILS International Launch Services, Inc. (ILS) to Space Transport Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
LKEI was formed as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and two Russian companies, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center ("Khrunichev") and S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, to sell Proton launch services to commercial customers around the world. LKEI under the brand ILS currently provides sales, marketing and mission management support for launches of both the Lockheed Martin-built Atlas and Khrunichev-built Proton and Angara rockets to commercial customers.
To date, ILS has launched 37 commercial Protons and has a backlog for 11 additional launches.
Following the sale, ILS, which will no longer be affiliated with Lockheed Martin, will continue to market the Krunichev-built Proton and Angara launch vehicles to commercial clients and expects to provide all the same sales, contracting, licensing, mission management and customer support services. Lockheed Martin will retain all rights related to the commercial Atlas vehicle and will continue to offer commercial Atlas launch services through its subsidiary, Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services.
Consummation of the proposed transaction remains subject to completion of regulatory review and other closing conditions. Completion of the transaction is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2006 and is not expected to have a material effect on Lockheed Martin's ongoing financial condition, results of operations or cash flow.
ILS is based in McLean, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., and is expected to continue operations from that location.
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Raytheon Missile Defense Systems Key to Successful Ballistic Missile Intercept in Space
Raytheon Company components played key roles in the destruction of a ballistic missile target in the latest successful flight test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system conducted Sept. 1.
The Raytheon-built Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) intercepted the ballistic missile target in space over the eastern Pacific Ocean. The Raytheon-developed Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., successfully tracked the target system for approximately 15 minutes during its flight downrange to the test several hundred miles west of California.
The test marked the first time an operationally configured ground-based interceptor was launched from an operational GMD site, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The target was launched from Kodiak, Alaska.
This test, designated Flight Test-2 (FT-2), did not have a target interception as a primary objective, but it demonstrated the EKV's ability to successfully detect, track, discriminate and destroy a target in space.
During the flight, the EKV received target updates from the In-Flight Interceptor Communication System and performed a star shot to calibrate its own position. The EKV observed the target complex with its advanced multi-color infrared seeker and successfully selected the target.
During the end game, as the target grew in the seeker's field of view, EKV selected the aimpoint and maneuvered for a direct, lethal hit. The closing velocity was in excess of 15,000 miles per hour.
This test follows another successful GMD mission in December 2005, which demonstrated the system's capability to launch a ground-based interceptor, conduct EKV separation and deliver the EKV to the desired point in space and time.
Raytheon is a major subcontractor to The Boeing Company on the GMD program, providing the EKV, the UEWR and the radar component for SBX (Sea-based X-band radar.)
Continuing the Raytheon heritage with UHF phased array radars, the Beale UEWR program upgrades existing PAVE PAWS and Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radars by adding missile defense capabilities while retaining missile warning and space surveillance missions. The UEWR provides midcourse target detection and tracking for the GMD.
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Rockwell Collins Acquires IP Unwired, Inc
Rockwell Collins, Inc., a global leader in aviation electronics and communications, has acquired all outstanding shares of IP Unwired, a privately owned developer of high data rate HF/VHF/UHF modem and networking products and services for U.S. and international military customers.
Acquired for an undisclosed amount of cash, IP Unwired, with annual revenues of approximately $3 million, will not materially affect Rockwell Collins' earnings for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006. Approximately 30 IP Unwired employees will join Rockwell Collins.
IP Unwired, located in Ottawa, Canada, is a worldwide provider of advanced digital communications and networking technology, inventing innovative communications and networking technologies for challenging wireless environments.
Rockwell Collins is a pioneer in the development and deployment of innovative communication and aviation electronics solutions for both commercial and government applications. Our expertise in flight deck avionics, cabin electronics, mission communications and information management is strengthened by 17,000 employees, and a global service and support network that crosses 27 countries. To find out more, visit the Rockwell Collins website .
