Instead of what was to be a fun gala on a New York City pier, Google debuted its new hardware in a post on the Google Official Blog.
"Today, we’re excited to announce three great new Nexus devices … in small, medium and large," wrote Andy Rubin, Google's senior vice president of mobile and digital content, in the Oct. 29 post. "And they all run Android 4.2, a new flavor of Jelly Bean—which includes the latest version of Google Now and other great new features."
The new Nexus 4 phone, which is built by LG, features a quad-core processor, a 4.7-inch display running at 320 pixels-per-inch (PPI) and wireless charging that allows it to be charged by placing it on a charging surface, according to Google.
The Nexus 4 also features the latest version of the Android Jelly Bean operating system, which is being called Android 4.2. Under Android 4.2, Google has "reinvented the photo experience with Photo Sphere, which lets you capture images that are literally larger than life," wrote Rubin. "Snap shots up, down and in every direction to create stunning 360-degree immersive experiences that you can share on Google+ with friends and family—or you can add your Photo Sphere to Google Maps for the world to see."
The Nexus 4 starts at $299 for the 8GB model or $349 for the 16GB model, and is available unlocked and without a contract starting Nov. 13 on the Google Play store in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain and Canada. The 16GB version will also be available through T-Mobile for $199 with a two-year contract.
Also included in Android 4.2 is the rumored feature, Gesture Typing, which allows users to glide a finger over the letters they want to type on the keyboard. Instead of lifting a finger, users can glide their finger from letter to letter across the screen without lifting from the surface.
Android 4.2 also adds support for wireless displays so users can wirelessly watch movies, YouTube videos and play games right on a Miracast-compatible HDTV, according to Google.
The new Nexus 7 tablets are available in several models, including 16GB of storage for $199 or 32GB of storage for $249 for the WiFi versions. A mobile version with built-in Evolved High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) mobile data is also available at $299 for a 32GB model that can operate on more than 200 GSM providers worldwide, including AT&T in the United States, according to Google.
The new Nexus 10 tablet, built by Samsung, is aimed at giving users a suitable device for watching movies or reading magazines on its display. "The Nexus 10 is the highest-resolution tablet on the planet with a 10.055-inch display at 2560-by-1600 (300ppi)," Rubin wrote. "That's over 4 million pixels right in your hands." The Nexus 10 battery is expected to give users up to nine hours of video playback and more than 500 hours of standby time.
With the Nexus 10 and Android 4.2, now multiple users can share the same device and log in using their individual profiles to access their own email, apps, bookmarks and more. "That way, everyone can have their own home screens, their own music, and even their own high scores," wrote Rubin.
Google also announced that starting Nov. 13 the Google Play Store is now open to purchases from consumers in Canada, the U.K., France, Spain and Australia. Users in those countries will also be the first to get a new Google music matching feature. Google will scan a user's music collection and any song we match against the Google Play catalog will be automatically added to your online library without their needing to upload it on their own.
The feature will come to the United States in the near future, according to Google. "This will all be for free—free storage of your music, free matching, free syncing across your devices and free listening," wrote Rubin.
In addition, new content from Time Inc., including InStyle, People, Time and other publications, will soon be available, as well as new music offerings from Warner Music Group. More content will continue to be added, Rubin reported. "We’re now working with all of the major record labels globally, and all the major U.S. magazine publishers, as well as many independent labels, artists and publishers."
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
“It’s Delicate, But Potent”
Every now and then, I’ll get sucked into the distracting, immersive, emotional habit of flipping through pictures online. Rifling through albums can stop time. It’s disorienting, like stumbling upon an old photograph in your drawer, the type of visually arresting trigger that takes you back through time. For me, I keep a small cigar box full of all my old photographs, dating back to childhood. They’re all warped now, fading in color. I keep the box tucked away under the bed, forgetting about it because I know going through it will take me places for hours.
Maybe you’ve heard a song that triggered a memory locked up in the corner of your brain. Maybe you run into someone from your past in real life, and you just stop in place. Or, maybe you see a photograph that ties it all together, jarring and powerful. If you’ve watched Mad Men, you’ll no doubt recall the famous carousel scene in the final episode of the first season, a classic moment where Don Draper talks about a consumer product, based on photographs, that had the rare chance to create a sentimental bond with people.
Back in the Mad Men days, that product was a Kodak Carousel. More recently, that product is Instagram, using filters to manipulate photographs and give them a tinge of nostalgia. And, while we all may be tired of yet another photo-based service, I must admit that I’ve been fascinated by and addicted to Timehop emails for a while.
The triggers used by Timehop have been subtle and measured. It started with a daily morning email sent at the same time, a reminder about what I was doing a year ago that day. Then people started referencing their receipt of their Timehop email on Twitter, but without explicitly sharing the content. Recently, they adopted a technique popularized by Instagram to create a web page for each memory they surfaced to make sharing with friends easier. The folks at Timehop have been gently beating the drum of nostalgia and created a product I want to interact with at least once a day.
And now, with their brand becoming more well-known, with a small but lively installed base of users primed by weeks of subtle emails, and a social sharing rhythm in place, Timehop has launched a new iPhone app into a crowded app marketplace. The app takes what the simple email reminders did, but now has the ability to send push notification based not only on time, but also your location and what your other friends were doing years ago or at certain places. Timehop for iPhone will also access photographs you’ve taken on your phone, many of which don’t make it to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram — and then surface them for you at just the right time.
I could go on and on about the other cool things Timehop could do on mobile, but perhaps the best thing about the service is its ability to draw out emotion through such a simple concept. Aside from the design, there’s no earth-shattering technology here, though tuning which data to resurface is an interesting contextual challenge. The information Timehop surfaces already exists on your other social streams, but there’s no easy way to access or present it. There are also some data structure and organizational hurdles in presenting this data, and so far the app shows no sign of fatigue. Not surprisingly, it is a service I’ve seen many of my non-early-adopter friends mention and remember in conversation, leading me to believe it has the potential to spread naturally because it simply gives people what they want in a new form — the place where you can keep your memories. The carousel of old slides, the cigar box of warped pictures, and the Instagrams you’ve taken, now in your pocket, delivered to you in just the right way.
Maybe you’ve heard a song that triggered a memory locked up in the corner of your brain. Maybe you run into someone from your past in real life, and you just stop in place. Or, maybe you see a photograph that ties it all together, jarring and powerful. If you’ve watched Mad Men, you’ll no doubt recall the famous carousel scene in the final episode of the first season, a classic moment where Don Draper talks about a consumer product, based on photographs, that had the rare chance to create a sentimental bond with people.
Back in the Mad Men days, that product was a Kodak Carousel. More recently, that product is Instagram, using filters to manipulate photographs and give them a tinge of nostalgia. And, while we all may be tired of yet another photo-based service, I must admit that I’ve been fascinated by and addicted to Timehop emails for a while.
The triggers used by Timehop have been subtle and measured. It started with a daily morning email sent at the same time, a reminder about what I was doing a year ago that day. Then people started referencing their receipt of their Timehop email on Twitter, but without explicitly sharing the content. Recently, they adopted a technique popularized by Instagram to create a web page for each memory they surfaced to make sharing with friends easier. The folks at Timehop have been gently beating the drum of nostalgia and created a product I want to interact with at least once a day.
And now, with their brand becoming more well-known, with a small but lively installed base of users primed by weeks of subtle emails, and a social sharing rhythm in place, Timehop has launched a new iPhone app into a crowded app marketplace. The app takes what the simple email reminders did, but now has the ability to send push notification based not only on time, but also your location and what your other friends were doing years ago or at certain places. Timehop for iPhone will also access photographs you’ve taken on your phone, many of which don’t make it to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram — and then surface them for you at just the right time.
I could go on and on about the other cool things Timehop could do on mobile, but perhaps the best thing about the service is its ability to draw out emotion through such a simple concept. Aside from the design, there’s no earth-shattering technology here, though tuning which data to resurface is an interesting contextual challenge. The information Timehop surfaces already exists on your other social streams, but there’s no easy way to access or present it. There are also some data structure and organizational hurdles in presenting this data, and so far the app shows no sign of fatigue. Not surprisingly, it is a service I’ve seen many of my non-early-adopter friends mention and remember in conversation, leading me to believe it has the potential to spread naturally because it simply gives people what they want in a new form — the place where you can keep your memories. The carousel of old slides, the cigar box of warped pictures, and the Instagrams you’ve taken, now in your pocket, delivered to you in just the right way.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Mounting Fears of ‘Cyber-Pearl-Harbor’
From Bank of America to HSBC and from JPMorgan Chase to Wells Fargo bank a growing wave of cyber attacks has disrupted and crippled the customer-facing online presence of some of the biggest and most powerful high-profile Western financial institutions over the past several weeks. Ally Financial, BB&T, Capital One Financial, PNC Bank, Regions Financial, SunTrust Bank and US Bank have also been targeted. Customers trying to use the online systems of those banks after the latest digital attacks were denied access or faced long delays. Some of the digital attacks appear to have originated in Iran and Russia. Security experts now believe that multiple well-organised digital attackers rather than a single attacker are behind the events that caused day-long slowdowns and, at times, complete online outages at various top banks.
The US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has warned that the country could face a ‘Cyber-Pearl-Harbor’ in the near future and has drafted new rules which would enable the American military to move quickly to thwart any such attacks. Panetta is also concerned that the “scale and speed” of the bank attacks is unprecedented. The digital attacks have continued this week despite a warning from him that America has the ability to determine who is responsible. Specifically, Panetta said, “Potential aggressors should be aware that the United States has the capacity to locate them and hold them accountable for actions that harm America or its interests” to business executives in New York.
Panetta also said that Iran has “undertaken a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage.” Panetta added that digital attacks emanating from foreign soils could paralyse the country’s power grid financial networks and transportation system saying that a cyber attack had the potential to “paralyse and shock the nation and create a profound new sense of vulnerability.” “If we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant physical destruction in the United States or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take action against those who would attack us, to defend this nation when directed by the president,” Panetta said in the speech to top business executives in New York.
Panetta also added that the “Shamoon” virus which attacked Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Aramco, was probably the most destructive attack the business sector has seen to date. The virus also struck a joint venture between the US oil firm ExxonMobil and state-controlled Qatar Petroleum. Iran is suspected of taking revenge for US sanctions by targeting oil companies with cyber attacks, knocking out Saudi Arabia’s Aramco’s computers for two weeks. A disruption to Saudi Arabia’s oil exports could cause oil prices to spike from their already elevated prices and tip the fragile global economic recovery into recession.
If there ever was a time for any major organisation’s board of directors to listen carefully to their Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) that time has now arrived. Call an emergency board meeting and please pay close attention to the advice of your CIO and CISO in regard to online security matters. Your online reputation, trust in your brand, customer confidence and share price may soon depend on the swiftness of your attention to this urgent matter. Companies have to be very aware of what’s going on in regard to this latest round of cyber attacks on banks of 100+ billion bytes per second and they have to start thinking about a Plan B and Plan C beyond Plan A if financial chaos is manifest in the near future.
The mi2g Intelligence Unit (mIU) and the ATCA 5000 Research & Analysis Wing (A-RAW) have become concerned about the latest round of digital attacks because US and Western large capital financial institutions have some of the best network security defences of any industry. Sustained attacks could disrupt customer confidence in industries beyond banking and may have a much larger cascading fallout given that Systemically Important Financial Institutions — SIFIs — are also coming under sustained attack. The latest campaign of digital attacks appears to have been near-100 percent effective, at least in bringing the targeted financial institutions some level of visible duress. The attackers are adapting to the banks’ defences and becoming more sophisticated in their tactics with every passing week. Is it plausible that the next flash crash which manifests in the global financial markets may be traced back to these swiftly escalating cyber attacks?
A hacktivist group calling itself the “Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters” took credit for the cyber attacks against banking giants in a Pastebin post, which has since been removed. The group, perhaps Iranian, has claimed that it is protesting the presence of the anti-Islamic video ‘Innocence of Muslims’ on the Internet, which has helped spark outrage in the Middle East against the United States in particular and the West in general. There is scepticism that fringe Islamist groups are sufficiently organised to mount these colossal digital attacks on their own without nation-state assistance.
The US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has warned that the country could face a ‘Cyber-Pearl-Harbor’ in the near future and has drafted new rules which would enable the American military to move quickly to thwart any such attacks. Panetta is also concerned that the “scale and speed” of the bank attacks is unprecedented. The digital attacks have continued this week despite a warning from him that America has the ability to determine who is responsible. Specifically, Panetta said, “Potential aggressors should be aware that the United States has the capacity to locate them and hold them accountable for actions that harm America or its interests” to business executives in New York.
Panetta also said that Iran has “undertaken a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage.” Panetta added that digital attacks emanating from foreign soils could paralyse the country’s power grid financial networks and transportation system saying that a cyber attack had the potential to “paralyse and shock the nation and create a profound new sense of vulnerability.” “If we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant physical destruction in the United States or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take action against those who would attack us, to defend this nation when directed by the president,” Panetta said in the speech to top business executives in New York.
Panetta also added that the “Shamoon” virus which attacked Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Aramco, was probably the most destructive attack the business sector has seen to date. The virus also struck a joint venture between the US oil firm ExxonMobil and state-controlled Qatar Petroleum. Iran is suspected of taking revenge for US sanctions by targeting oil companies with cyber attacks, knocking out Saudi Arabia’s Aramco’s computers for two weeks. A disruption to Saudi Arabia’s oil exports could cause oil prices to spike from their already elevated prices and tip the fragile global economic recovery into recession.
If there ever was a time for any major organisation’s board of directors to listen carefully to their Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) that time has now arrived. Call an emergency board meeting and please pay close attention to the advice of your CIO and CISO in regard to online security matters. Your online reputation, trust in your brand, customer confidence and share price may soon depend on the swiftness of your attention to this urgent matter. Companies have to be very aware of what’s going on in regard to this latest round of cyber attacks on banks of 100+ billion bytes per second and they have to start thinking about a Plan B and Plan C beyond Plan A if financial chaos is manifest in the near future.
The mi2g Intelligence Unit (mIU) and the ATCA 5000 Research & Analysis Wing (A-RAW) have become concerned about the latest round of digital attacks because US and Western large capital financial institutions have some of the best network security defences of any industry. Sustained attacks could disrupt customer confidence in industries beyond banking and may have a much larger cascading fallout given that Systemically Important Financial Institutions — SIFIs — are also coming under sustained attack. The latest campaign of digital attacks appears to have been near-100 percent effective, at least in bringing the targeted financial institutions some level of visible duress. The attackers are adapting to the banks’ defences and becoming more sophisticated in their tactics with every passing week. Is it plausible that the next flash crash which manifests in the global financial markets may be traced back to these swiftly escalating cyber attacks?
A hacktivist group calling itself the “Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters” took credit for the cyber attacks against banking giants in a Pastebin post, which has since been removed. The group, perhaps Iranian, has claimed that it is protesting the presence of the anti-Islamic video ‘Innocence of Muslims’ on the Internet, which has helped spark outrage in the Middle East against the United States in particular and the West in general. There is scepticism that fringe Islamist groups are sufficiently organised to mount these colossal digital attacks on their own without nation-state assistance.
Monday, October 22, 2012
MB Digital Marketing 101
We believe there are two reasons SMBs haven’t yet embraced the full power of digital marketing: 1) Confusion over which online marketing efforts will provide the greatest value and 2) Limited resources to devote to marketing, exacerbated by the challenging economic climate.
Digital marketing requires more than just creating a website. SMBs need to leverage the power of online and mobile channels, a growing list of social channels, locally focused online directories and review sites. It can seem too daunting to even begin. More importantly, SMBs have limited budgets to allocate to digital advertising and there is still confusion on how marketing and advertising investments can be measured because some of the benefits are immediate and tangible, and others are just basic necessity.
The good news is that there are a number of relatively-simple, cost-effective ways for SMBs to market online and increase their ability to be found and stay top-of-mind by more of the right local consumers in their area.
It’s critical for SMB owners to ensure their company is listed in all relevant online directories, maps, apps and popular internet websites. According to research, most SMBs only update their directory listings once. In order to stand above the competition, SMBs need to think of their listing as an advertisement. Consumers looking for products and services want to see reviews, photos, coupons and have direct access to a current website. If an SMB has listed their company in the past, it’s a good idea to go back and make sure that all of the listings are accurate and current with any changes in location or contact information.
Creating a website is the core to an SMBs online presence. All other online activities should point to the businesses website and help efficiently generate business. Just like baking a cake, a website requires key content such as a prominently placed local phone number, email address and form for customers to reach their business. For SMBs, having their hours, driving directions, address and a map are critical. As the online “front door” to their business, they need to ensure their website is professionally-designed, filled with visual elements like videos and photos, and provides links to their Facebook and Twitter pages.
Being found online is very important for SMBs because so many people rely on the other major search engines as their go-to source for finding information about local products and services. SMBs should make sure that all of their online marketing and advertising activities are improving SEO and helping their business be found online. This includes making sure they have secured an intelligent URL that is both keyword and geo-targeted to the terms your customers use when they think about your business. The copy on their website should also be search engine optimized with relevant keywords and location based language.
The best part of social media is that it’s free… and it works. In a study conducted last year by comScore for 15 Miles and Localeze, findings revealed that 63% of those surveyed are more likely to use a local business if it’s visible on a social networking site. SMB owners without a social presence are missing out on opportunities to easily market their companies and connect directly with their consumers. Twitter and Facebook are great tools for SMBs as it allows them to communicate with potential and current customers in real-time. SMBs should consider putting out Twitter-only coupon offers or posting photos of their work environment on Facebook. There are companies that can manage this entire process for SMBs at low cost and effort. Consumers are already used to interacting with larger brands and small businesses across social channels, so SMBs need to take advantage of this to pull in new customers and maintain relationships with existing customers.
Digital marketing requires more than just creating a website. SMBs need to leverage the power of online and mobile channels, a growing list of social channels, locally focused online directories and review sites. It can seem too daunting to even begin. More importantly, SMBs have limited budgets to allocate to digital advertising and there is still confusion on how marketing and advertising investments can be measured because some of the benefits are immediate and tangible, and others are just basic necessity.
The good news is that there are a number of relatively-simple, cost-effective ways for SMBs to market online and increase their ability to be found and stay top-of-mind by more of the right local consumers in their area.
It’s critical for SMB owners to ensure their company is listed in all relevant online directories, maps, apps and popular internet websites. According to research, most SMBs only update their directory listings once. In order to stand above the competition, SMBs need to think of their listing as an advertisement. Consumers looking for products and services want to see reviews, photos, coupons and have direct access to a current website. If an SMB has listed their company in the past, it’s a good idea to go back and make sure that all of the listings are accurate and current with any changes in location or contact information.
Creating a website is the core to an SMBs online presence. All other online activities should point to the businesses website and help efficiently generate business. Just like baking a cake, a website requires key content such as a prominently placed local phone number, email address and form for customers to reach their business. For SMBs, having their hours, driving directions, address and a map are critical. As the online “front door” to their business, they need to ensure their website is professionally-designed, filled with visual elements like videos and photos, and provides links to their Facebook and Twitter pages.
Being found online is very important for SMBs because so many people rely on the other major search engines as their go-to source for finding information about local products and services. SMBs should make sure that all of their online marketing and advertising activities are improving SEO and helping their business be found online. This includes making sure they have secured an intelligent URL that is both keyword and geo-targeted to the terms your customers use when they think about your business. The copy on their website should also be search engine optimized with relevant keywords and location based language.
The best part of social media is that it’s free… and it works. In a study conducted last year by comScore for 15 Miles and Localeze, findings revealed that 63% of those surveyed are more likely to use a local business if it’s visible on a social networking site. SMB owners without a social presence are missing out on opportunities to easily market their companies and connect directly with their consumers. Twitter and Facebook are great tools for SMBs as it allows them to communicate with potential and current customers in real-time. SMBs should consider putting out Twitter-only coupon offers or posting photos of their work environment on Facebook. There are companies that can manage this entire process for SMBs at low cost and effort. Consumers are already used to interacting with larger brands and small businesses across social channels, so SMBs need to take advantage of this to pull in new customers and maintain relationships with existing customers.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Acworth Police Ready for Upgrade
To hear Det. Jonathan Sampson tell it, the Acworth Police Department's current record management system has some deficiencies.
Officers still have to save investigative reports on USB drives. They can't cross-check seemingly basic information while in the field. And the system's search function has limitations.
That's why Sampson made the pitch Monday night for a new system.
It's called CourtWare, and it won't cost the city anything. But more than that, it will eliminate redundancies and better assist the Acworth Police Department in investigations, Sampson told Mayor Tommy Allegood and the Board of Aldermen.
Currently, the police department, the court and the jail use different record systems.
"Not one of them," Sampson said, "communicates with the other."
So if an officer stops someone, that officer can't check jail or court records during the stop.
"The only way to use the jail software is to drive back to the (police) station, sit down at a terminal and use it," Sampson said.
That's not the only limitation of USA Software, the system the city currently uses.
"For example," Sampson said, "Cherokee County calls us and says, 'Hey, you've got any dealings with so and so?' We can only search the people who've been to our jail system as arrestees and we can only search (the) people who have been reported as victims of crimes."
With CourtWare, the police department will be able to pull up the names of anyone it has dealt with, whether they've been arrested or not. And it will also allow law enforcement personnel to quickly search reports for keywords.
"For example," Sampson said, "Cherokee calls again and says, 'Hey, we've just recovered six iPads, four cell phones and a GPS. Currently, unless someone in the detective division remembers the report about stolen iPads or stolen electronics, we can't find that report without looking through each report individually. This new system allows us to search through the narrative for 'iPads,' greatly aiding our investigative ability."
Entering and maintaining reports can also a hassle, Sampson said.
"Under the current system, there are five different saves for one report to make it from the police officer to the citizen. An officer saves it in his car, then he saves it onto a USB drive and walks it into the police department. Saves it onto a computer in the police department. His sergeant pulls up the report, reviews it and saves it into another location. Then the records division pulls that report up, reviews it, and saves it into its final resting place.
"Under the new system, there will not be multiple saves. Everything will be saved in the cloud so to speak. In real time. And once the file's created it will stay in its location until it reaches records and the end user."
The police department has looked at three software providers: CourtWare, USA Software and OSSI. More than 50 percent of the law enforcement agencies in Cobb use OSSI, Sampson said.
While Acworth liked that software "more than we liked the one we have here," he said, the price tag was "out of our reach."
"The cost for OSSI is an initial investment of $300,000 financed over three years with an annual maintenance cost of $28,000 per year."
USA Software, the software the city currently uses, quoted Acworth a one-time upgrade cost of $80,000 a year with an annual maintenance cost of $24,000 a year.
With CourtWare, there's no upfront cost and upgrades are free.
"The way their price works is they take a certain dollar amount off of each paid citation through the court system," Sampson said. "Our current rate is $4 per paid citation. The increase would be four more dollars, raising it to $8 per paid citation to finance this software. And that $8 per paid citation would cover ... everything about the software. There would be no other investment."
The police department will need $20,000 to outfit the department with new hardware to get the software up and running by Jan. 1, 2013. It will also need $4,000 to convert its old data from USA Software into the new system.
None of the money will come out of the city's general fund. The police department will pay for those expenses with money collected from drug seizures.
Officers still have to save investigative reports on USB drives. They can't cross-check seemingly basic information while in the field. And the system's search function has limitations.
That's why Sampson made the pitch Monday night for a new system.
It's called CourtWare, and it won't cost the city anything. But more than that, it will eliminate redundancies and better assist the Acworth Police Department in investigations, Sampson told Mayor Tommy Allegood and the Board of Aldermen.
Currently, the police department, the court and the jail use different record systems.
"Not one of them," Sampson said, "communicates with the other."
So if an officer stops someone, that officer can't check jail or court records during the stop.
"The only way to use the jail software is to drive back to the (police) station, sit down at a terminal and use it," Sampson said.
That's not the only limitation of USA Software, the system the city currently uses.
"For example," Sampson said, "Cherokee County calls us and says, 'Hey, you've got any dealings with so and so?' We can only search the people who've been to our jail system as arrestees and we can only search (the) people who have been reported as victims of crimes."
With CourtWare, the police department will be able to pull up the names of anyone it has dealt with, whether they've been arrested or not. And it will also allow law enforcement personnel to quickly search reports for keywords.
"For example," Sampson said, "Cherokee calls again and says, 'Hey, we've just recovered six iPads, four cell phones and a GPS. Currently, unless someone in the detective division remembers the report about stolen iPads or stolen electronics, we can't find that report without looking through each report individually. This new system allows us to search through the narrative for 'iPads,' greatly aiding our investigative ability."
Entering and maintaining reports can also a hassle, Sampson said.
"Under the current system, there are five different saves for one report to make it from the police officer to the citizen. An officer saves it in his car, then he saves it onto a USB drive and walks it into the police department. Saves it onto a computer in the police department. His sergeant pulls up the report, reviews it and saves it into another location. Then the records division pulls that report up, reviews it, and saves it into its final resting place.
"Under the new system, there will not be multiple saves. Everything will be saved in the cloud so to speak. In real time. And once the file's created it will stay in its location until it reaches records and the end user."
The police department has looked at three software providers: CourtWare, USA Software and OSSI. More than 50 percent of the law enforcement agencies in Cobb use OSSI, Sampson said.
While Acworth liked that software "more than we liked the one we have here," he said, the price tag was "out of our reach."
"The cost for OSSI is an initial investment of $300,000 financed over three years with an annual maintenance cost of $28,000 per year."
USA Software, the software the city currently uses, quoted Acworth a one-time upgrade cost of $80,000 a year with an annual maintenance cost of $24,000 a year.
With CourtWare, there's no upfront cost and upgrades are free.
"The way their price works is they take a certain dollar amount off of each paid citation through the court system," Sampson said. "Our current rate is $4 per paid citation. The increase would be four more dollars, raising it to $8 per paid citation to finance this software. And that $8 per paid citation would cover ... everything about the software. There would be no other investment."
The police department will need $20,000 to outfit the department with new hardware to get the software up and running by Jan. 1, 2013. It will also need $4,000 to convert its old data from USA Software into the new system.
None of the money will come out of the city's general fund. The police department will pay for those expenses with money collected from drug seizures.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Failing to plan?
Supply chain executives face an unprecedented challenge: to balance the need for cost efficiencies with the growing clamour for agility. So intones analyst Gartner, suggesting that for most in industry this requires "a fundamental shift in strategy, planning and implementation", as well as "a new ability to provide guidance and leadership to every member of their global supply chain teams". Grand stuff and, on the face of it, not a little intimidating, given the point that manufacturers are already under considerable pressure to do more with less.
In fact, however, Gartner's challenge is not all that unprecedented: manufacturers have been coming to terms with cutting costs while simultaneously improving responsiveness and customer service – largely using measures from OEE to OTIF as drivers – for decades. And, arguably, their problems have been simplified in recent years, given the increasing sophistication, scope and ease of use of computer assistance – particularly when it comes to planning and scheduling software. Much the same is also true of associated systems: for example, order management, warehouse management, demand planning, B2B/EDI and tracking software. In the right hands, these systems bring even the most difficult supply chain problems to heel and deliver competitive advantage to boot.
Take high-performance crankshaft engineering and manufacturing specialist Pankl Racing Systems. On the one hand, the firm lives and dies by deadlines imposed upon it by immoveable motorsport race dates. But, on the other, it also has to respond to relatively unpredictable changes on what are invariably bespoke projects. It's not just about getting theright products delivered on time, every time: if ever there was a requirement for accurate, yet ultra-flexible production planning and scheduling capable of driving an entire business, and ultimately its supply chain, this is surely it.
Looking at the detail of Pankl's US-based operations, order sizes range from two to 12 units and can be either manufactured or designed, developed and manufactured to customer specifications. Also, depending on the complexity of the product and the degree of engineering, lead times vary between 10 and 15 weeks. Production itself involves in excess of 50 process steps, some undertaken in Pankl's own works, others sub-contracted. And, given the exotic nature of its raw materials, these are often supplied, yet Pankl still needs to retain working buffer stocks to guarantee those all-important delivery dates.
But that's not all. Like most manufacturers, Pankl has to manage multiple concurrent projects running different – sometimes conflicting – routes, with shared resources and finite capacity. So production balancing is an ongoing issue. That, in turn, means that managers and supervisors need good visibility across production, right down to job status and location, as well as individual resource capacity constraints, and set-up and changeover times.
Further, from a day-to-day operational perspective, Pankl runs with a production planning horizon of 16 weeks, yet also needs to react quickly to changes within that window – whether due to planned or unplanned maintenance or customer updates. So it's also about being able to re-prioritise work while revealing the impact on all orders up to and beyond the planning horizon. And if a change happens in the design phase, rescheduling also needs to include other projects in engineering as well as the knock-on effects in production.
Yet until last year Pankl – along with much of UK manufacturing – relied on spreadsheets for its planning and scheduling. A Pankl spokesperson describes working with Microsoft Excel as a matter of "manually moving coloured boxes around", adding that it used to tie up significant skilled human resource, even if just one change was required. He also says that it simply wasn't possible to create 'what if' scenarios.
So in 2011, shortly after the acquisition of former Superior Crankshaft by Pankl, the company started searching the web for a scheduling system that wasn't too difficult to use, yet had the power to handle its environment. That led it to Production Modelling and its Orchestrate simulation system. And, after product demonstrations and a free download for 14 days, with training supplied and further online training available, the company bought the software.
Eureka: according to our Pankl man, what the firm had thought might be daunting was anything but. The system proved easy to pick up and indeed the local team largely taught itself. Less than two months later, planners had forgotten spreadsheets, and were managing plant optimisation and change management entirely on Orchestrate APS.
The result? Although Pankl's spokesperson cautions that it's still early days, the benefits, he says, have been considerable, and not only in terms of easily identifying optimal job sequence, no matter what the change demanded. He cites a newfound ability to visualise the bigger picture and, as a result, to see any potential for improvements. Additionally, scenario planning that was hitherto impossible is now provided in real time, meaning that decision making is far faster and more reliable. Indeed, Pankl has subsequently increased its planning horizon by a further 25%, and our spokesperson states that, in terms of time alone, this software is saving at least 43 days per year of expensive admin.
And it's not just about planning. For the first time, engineering and production have been linked into a coherent plan with do-able deadlines – meaning that when designers are given a completion date, everyone knows it's feasible and production can plan to start on time. Just as important, the impact of changes in one department can be seen in the other. Interestingly, that has led to better decision making throughout, despite the inevitably conflicting agendas between sales and production.
It appears that, with representatives from each department seeing the same 'what if' graphics, consensus decisions that are best for the customer and the business have now become the rule, not the exception. Indeed, the system is also being used to determine the benefits of capital investments by examining faithful simulations of different sales and capacity scenarios.
As for the future, Pankl says it is only scratching the surface. Areas next slated for improvement using Orchestrate include harnessing its reports to improve forecasting for suppliers, while also smoothing workflow and helping to bear down further on bottlenecks by using its WIP analysis. "We've got loads of things to try but we're taking it one step at a time and getting each step right," comments the spokesperson. "We have a saying and we are proving it at each stage: do what Orchestrate says and everything will be good."
But look at virtually any APS implementation, almost irrespective of the industry involved, and you'll hear similar stories. On the other side of the production spectrum, for example, confectionery group Mars is now reporting success with an installation of Preactor's GMPS (graphical master production scheduler) and APS software. This one is at its Basingstoke factory, which is responsible for producing Klix and Flavia drinks as part of another complex, inter-dependent, but very different supply chain.
In fact, however, Gartner's challenge is not all that unprecedented: manufacturers have been coming to terms with cutting costs while simultaneously improving responsiveness and customer service – largely using measures from OEE to OTIF as drivers – for decades. And, arguably, their problems have been simplified in recent years, given the increasing sophistication, scope and ease of use of computer assistance – particularly when it comes to planning and scheduling software. Much the same is also true of associated systems: for example, order management, warehouse management, demand planning, B2B/EDI and tracking software. In the right hands, these systems bring even the most difficult supply chain problems to heel and deliver competitive advantage to boot.
Take high-performance crankshaft engineering and manufacturing specialist Pankl Racing Systems. On the one hand, the firm lives and dies by deadlines imposed upon it by immoveable motorsport race dates. But, on the other, it also has to respond to relatively unpredictable changes on what are invariably bespoke projects. It's not just about getting theright products delivered on time, every time: if ever there was a requirement for accurate, yet ultra-flexible production planning and scheduling capable of driving an entire business, and ultimately its supply chain, this is surely it.
Looking at the detail of Pankl's US-based operations, order sizes range from two to 12 units and can be either manufactured or designed, developed and manufactured to customer specifications. Also, depending on the complexity of the product and the degree of engineering, lead times vary between 10 and 15 weeks. Production itself involves in excess of 50 process steps, some undertaken in Pankl's own works, others sub-contracted. And, given the exotic nature of its raw materials, these are often supplied, yet Pankl still needs to retain working buffer stocks to guarantee those all-important delivery dates.
But that's not all. Like most manufacturers, Pankl has to manage multiple concurrent projects running different – sometimes conflicting – routes, with shared resources and finite capacity. So production balancing is an ongoing issue. That, in turn, means that managers and supervisors need good visibility across production, right down to job status and location, as well as individual resource capacity constraints, and set-up and changeover times.
Further, from a day-to-day operational perspective, Pankl runs with a production planning horizon of 16 weeks, yet also needs to react quickly to changes within that window – whether due to planned or unplanned maintenance or customer updates. So it's also about being able to re-prioritise work while revealing the impact on all orders up to and beyond the planning horizon. And if a change happens in the design phase, rescheduling also needs to include other projects in engineering as well as the knock-on effects in production.
Yet until last year Pankl – along with much of UK manufacturing – relied on spreadsheets for its planning and scheduling. A Pankl spokesperson describes working with Microsoft Excel as a matter of "manually moving coloured boxes around", adding that it used to tie up significant skilled human resource, even if just one change was required. He also says that it simply wasn't possible to create 'what if' scenarios.
So in 2011, shortly after the acquisition of former Superior Crankshaft by Pankl, the company started searching the web for a scheduling system that wasn't too difficult to use, yet had the power to handle its environment. That led it to Production Modelling and its Orchestrate simulation system. And, after product demonstrations and a free download for 14 days, with training supplied and further online training available, the company bought the software.
Eureka: according to our Pankl man, what the firm had thought might be daunting was anything but. The system proved easy to pick up and indeed the local team largely taught itself. Less than two months later, planners had forgotten spreadsheets, and were managing plant optimisation and change management entirely on Orchestrate APS.
The result? Although Pankl's spokesperson cautions that it's still early days, the benefits, he says, have been considerable, and not only in terms of easily identifying optimal job sequence, no matter what the change demanded. He cites a newfound ability to visualise the bigger picture and, as a result, to see any potential for improvements. Additionally, scenario planning that was hitherto impossible is now provided in real time, meaning that decision making is far faster and more reliable. Indeed, Pankl has subsequently increased its planning horizon by a further 25%, and our spokesperson states that, in terms of time alone, this software is saving at least 43 days per year of expensive admin.
And it's not just about planning. For the first time, engineering and production have been linked into a coherent plan with do-able deadlines – meaning that when designers are given a completion date, everyone knows it's feasible and production can plan to start on time. Just as important, the impact of changes in one department can be seen in the other. Interestingly, that has led to better decision making throughout, despite the inevitably conflicting agendas between sales and production.
It appears that, with representatives from each department seeing the same 'what if' graphics, consensus decisions that are best for the customer and the business have now become the rule, not the exception. Indeed, the system is also being used to determine the benefits of capital investments by examining faithful simulations of different sales and capacity scenarios.
As for the future, Pankl says it is only scratching the surface. Areas next slated for improvement using Orchestrate include harnessing its reports to improve forecasting for suppliers, while also smoothing workflow and helping to bear down further on bottlenecks by using its WIP analysis. "We've got loads of things to try but we're taking it one step at a time and getting each step right," comments the spokesperson. "We have a saying and we are proving it at each stage: do what Orchestrate says and everything will be good."
But look at virtually any APS implementation, almost irrespective of the industry involved, and you'll hear similar stories. On the other side of the production spectrum, for example, confectionery group Mars is now reporting success with an installation of Preactor's GMPS (graphical master production scheduler) and APS software. This one is at its Basingstoke factory, which is responsible for producing Klix and Flavia drinks as part of another complex, inter-dependent, but very different supply chain.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Creating a better world with data
More information will be generated by and about any child born in 2012 than the amount of information generated by the entire preceding history of humanity since the dawn of time, according to Dave Menninger, head of business development and strategy for Greenplum, EMC’s big-data analytics unit.
During the first day of a baby’s life, the amount of data generated by humanity is equivalent to 70 times the information contained in the Library of Congress, and 10 percent of all the photos ever taken were snapped in the last 12 months, he said at the Human Face of Big Data Mission Control event in London last week.
It seems that data is everywhere, and big data is the latest buzzword in the tech world, Menninger said.
“The big-data revolution is the next crux point that has the potential to bring truly incremental change to the world and the citizens of the world,” he said.
In an analogy to the Internet, Menninger said, “People knew something was big, but they didn’t know how big.
Big data is in the same situation.”
Similar events were also held last week in New York City and Singapore, where data-storage company EMC launched a crowd-sourced media event produced by Rick Smolan, the creator of projects such as “Day in the Life” and the Obama Time Capsule.
According to EMC, the project aims to shine a light on “humanity’s new ability to collect, analyze, triangulate and visualize vast amounts of data in real time.”
Among the speakers at the London event were socially minded entrepreneurs and executives, including Jake Porway, founder and executive creator of DataKind, which works to connect data scientists with nonprofits; and David Lundberg, COO of location intelligence provider aWhere, which is putting into practice the transformative power of data to create a better world.
Porway organizes so-called data dives, in which volunteer data scientists hook up with social organizations to help them with their data needs by doing things such as making visualizations out of data so that the organizations can immediately see where resources are needed.
“Big data is changing our world, and, for the first time in history, we have the ability to use data on our own to change the world for the better,” Porway said.
“By connecting the skills of the data-science community with the causes and vision of the social sector, we can go beyond just using data to make better decisions about what kind of movies we want to see, or what restaurants we want to go to, and instead use data to make better decisions about what kind of a world we want to see.”
Both Porway and Lundberg expect a quantum shift in society will be brought about by big data.
Porway said the hookup between data scientists and visionary nonprofits would create a fundamental change in the way progress happens.
“No longer do we necessarily need institutions like government and large companies to do things,” he said. “We have these multidisciplinary teams bubbling bottom up. This is one of the first steps we are seeing toward a new kind of science.”
Lundberg said the “democratization of data” means developing nations can become sustainable sooner. His company, aWhere, provides agricultural development and global health solutions, including command and control systems for malaria, a disease that causes the death of some 1.2 million people every year, most of them under the age of five.
Using images from satellites to map the approximately 600 trillion pixels that cover the face of the earth, scientists can compare pixel spectrums to see whether water is clean or full of algae that can be a breeding ground for mosquitos, Lundberg said.
“With high-capacity processing available today, large geographical areas can be searched quickly,” he said. “Searches that would take months or years by people on the ground can be done in a matter of hours.”
During the first day of a baby’s life, the amount of data generated by humanity is equivalent to 70 times the information contained in the Library of Congress, and 10 percent of all the photos ever taken were snapped in the last 12 months, he said at the Human Face of Big Data Mission Control event in London last week.
It seems that data is everywhere, and big data is the latest buzzword in the tech world, Menninger said.
“The big-data revolution is the next crux point that has the potential to bring truly incremental change to the world and the citizens of the world,” he said.
In an analogy to the Internet, Menninger said, “People knew something was big, but they didn’t know how big.
Big data is in the same situation.”
Similar events were also held last week in New York City and Singapore, where data-storage company EMC launched a crowd-sourced media event produced by Rick Smolan, the creator of projects such as “Day in the Life” and the Obama Time Capsule.
According to EMC, the project aims to shine a light on “humanity’s new ability to collect, analyze, triangulate and visualize vast amounts of data in real time.”
Among the speakers at the London event were socially minded entrepreneurs and executives, including Jake Porway, founder and executive creator of DataKind, which works to connect data scientists with nonprofits; and David Lundberg, COO of location intelligence provider aWhere, which is putting into practice the transformative power of data to create a better world.
Porway organizes so-called data dives, in which volunteer data scientists hook up with social organizations to help them with their data needs by doing things such as making visualizations out of data so that the organizations can immediately see where resources are needed.
“Big data is changing our world, and, for the first time in history, we have the ability to use data on our own to change the world for the better,” Porway said.
“By connecting the skills of the data-science community with the causes and vision of the social sector, we can go beyond just using data to make better decisions about what kind of movies we want to see, or what restaurants we want to go to, and instead use data to make better decisions about what kind of a world we want to see.”
Both Porway and Lundberg expect a quantum shift in society will be brought about by big data.
Porway said the hookup between data scientists and visionary nonprofits would create a fundamental change in the way progress happens.
“No longer do we necessarily need institutions like government and large companies to do things,” he said. “We have these multidisciplinary teams bubbling bottom up. This is one of the first steps we are seeing toward a new kind of science.”
Lundberg said the “democratization of data” means developing nations can become sustainable sooner. His company, aWhere, provides agricultural development and global health solutions, including command and control systems for malaria, a disease that causes the death of some 1.2 million people every year, most of them under the age of five.
Using images from satellites to map the approximately 600 trillion pixels that cover the face of the earth, scientists can compare pixel spectrums to see whether water is clean or full of algae that can be a breeding ground for mosquitos, Lundberg said.
“With high-capacity processing available today, large geographical areas can be searched quickly,” he said. “Searches that would take months or years by people on the ground can be done in a matter of hours.”
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Mike O'Brien square off for first time
Before the time starts, if I may, please. I'd like to thank Western Michigan University, MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette, WMUK and all of you for participating in our democracy. This is what it's all about — you folks coming out tonight. Congressman and I stand before you, putting a little skin in the game and let you guys kick the tires. So, thank you to everyone who is hosting the event, the moderators and go Broncos. Um … I'm sorry can you repeat the question?
Yes, so, number one, looking at the facts, if you will, we have to put people back to work. There is nothing that lifts the economy quicker than Americans having good, meaningful work. Income disparity is a result of unemployment. It's not having the pieces in place for folks to have good meaningful work to pursue that American dream. I believe in the iconic words carved at the base of the statue of liberty: "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" and from that, we've built a nation. We have a role as Americans to look after each other. That's what we do when we're at our best. We are that bright shining city on a hill, if you will, when we take care of each other as Americans. I think we need to put people back to work and we need to make sure that everyone and every corporation pays its taxes so that the revenue is coming into the system and we do everything in our power to make sure that the least among us has everything they need.
I, too, want to thank the host and the preparation folks that are here tonight. Thanks very much. As you think about, income disparity really has been my focus since I've been in congress, that is jobs and the economy. When I sit with my UAW folks in my office, as I do every year, we talk about how our goals are the same: bring jobs to our district. We talk to our business leaders and we talk to our educators as I did today about jobs and the economy. Those people that have a job are the ones that are doing pretty well right now, particularly as we have gone through some mighty tough times. Here in Michigan, we had 38 consecutive months of double-digit unemployment. We're still above the national average. That's not right. One of the things that I have done is to really work as a team.
To partner with businesses large and small so we can create the jobs we want families to have. Tomorrow, I'm going to be down in Three Rivers. They're giving a pretty big check to the city of Three Rivers because of the expansion of what they've been able to do with American Axle. A $100 million plant expansion, their number one plant in the country. They're proud of that. They're proud because they were able to do that because of the bipartisan work that we first did with President Bush and then with President Obama with helping the auto industry survive. Because they had an issue of bankruptcy where they paid the money back with interest like Chrysler has done and hopefully GM does, or liquidation, actually shutting the doors and turning it to dust and not being able to work. We want people to go back to work and that's what our focus should be as we look at the income levels of all americans.
The facts speak pretty clearly. In 2000, this country had a lot smaller deficit and $236 billion in surplus and we were heading toward reducing our deficit. In 10 years under President George Bush, Congressman Upton, and our Congress, we lost all that advantage and are sitting on $10 trillion in debt. You bring jobs back home in part by getting rid of tax incentives that allow companies have us subsidize them to move jobs overseas. Day one, I'd look to reverse that tax incentive and create a tax incentive that brings jobs back here and puts people back to work. That's a meaningful program we could do now. We should also eliminate subsidies that we pay to big oil — billions and billions to big oil and gas. Take that money and, from day one, put it into infrastructure jobs. We had the warmest winter on record. People could have been out on our highways and bridges with jobs.
Yes, so, number one, looking at the facts, if you will, we have to put people back to work. There is nothing that lifts the economy quicker than Americans having good, meaningful work. Income disparity is a result of unemployment. It's not having the pieces in place for folks to have good meaningful work to pursue that American dream. I believe in the iconic words carved at the base of the statue of liberty: "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" and from that, we've built a nation. We have a role as Americans to look after each other. That's what we do when we're at our best. We are that bright shining city on a hill, if you will, when we take care of each other as Americans. I think we need to put people back to work and we need to make sure that everyone and every corporation pays its taxes so that the revenue is coming into the system and we do everything in our power to make sure that the least among us has everything they need.
I, too, want to thank the host and the preparation folks that are here tonight. Thanks very much. As you think about, income disparity really has been my focus since I've been in congress, that is jobs and the economy. When I sit with my UAW folks in my office, as I do every year, we talk about how our goals are the same: bring jobs to our district. We talk to our business leaders and we talk to our educators as I did today about jobs and the economy. Those people that have a job are the ones that are doing pretty well right now, particularly as we have gone through some mighty tough times. Here in Michigan, we had 38 consecutive months of double-digit unemployment. We're still above the national average. That's not right. One of the things that I have done is to really work as a team.
To partner with businesses large and small so we can create the jobs we want families to have. Tomorrow, I'm going to be down in Three Rivers. They're giving a pretty big check to the city of Three Rivers because of the expansion of what they've been able to do with American Axle. A $100 million plant expansion, their number one plant in the country. They're proud of that. They're proud because they were able to do that because of the bipartisan work that we first did with President Bush and then with President Obama with helping the auto industry survive. Because they had an issue of bankruptcy where they paid the money back with interest like Chrysler has done and hopefully GM does, or liquidation, actually shutting the doors and turning it to dust and not being able to work. We want people to go back to work and that's what our focus should be as we look at the income levels of all americans.
The facts speak pretty clearly. In 2000, this country had a lot smaller deficit and $236 billion in surplus and we were heading toward reducing our deficit. In 10 years under President George Bush, Congressman Upton, and our Congress, we lost all that advantage and are sitting on $10 trillion in debt. You bring jobs back home in part by getting rid of tax incentives that allow companies have us subsidize them to move jobs overseas. Day one, I'd look to reverse that tax incentive and create a tax incentive that brings jobs back here and puts people back to work. That's a meaningful program we could do now. We should also eliminate subsidies that we pay to big oil — billions and billions to big oil and gas. Take that money and, from day one, put it into infrastructure jobs. We had the warmest winter on record. People could have been out on our highways and bridges with jobs.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Birth pangs of an aerospace titan
On December 9, 1997, the governments of Britain, France and Germany issued a statement calling on Europe’s aerospace and defence firms to set out detailed plans by early the following year for consolidating and restructuring their businesses with a view to forming an integrated European business based on a “balanced partnership.”
“This will help to improve Europe’s position in the global market, to promote European security, and ensure that Europe will play a full role in its own defence,” they declared at the time.
A decade-and-a-half later, that plan could finally become a reality, should EADS and BAE Systems succeed in agreeing terms of a merger to create the world’s largest aerospace and defence company, with revenues of over $100 billion, and more than 2,20,000 employees globally.
Writing in the Financial Times this week, the two chief executives, Ian King of BAE Systems and Tom Enders of EADS, insisted that it was a “combination born of opportunity, not necessity,” pledging to create a company that was greater than the sum of its parts and better able to deal with cycles of civil aviation demand and defence spending. Analysts have been cautiously welcoming of the plans, which give BAE Systems greater exposure to the global civil aviation market.
“It would reduce BAE’s exposure to a US defence market that is on the verge of a serious contraction and link it to new sources of financing,” according to Robin Niblett, director of international relations think-tank Chatham House, in a recent note. EADS, which earns over 60 per cent of its revenues from Airbus, could gain access to the US defence market.
Among the other potential upsides cited by analysts is the positive impact an integrated company could have on joint projects such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, helping give momentum to campaigns particularly in West Asia and South Korea, following the disappointment over the medium multi-role combat aircraft competition won by Dassault Aviation in India.
Whether they will succeed, and particularly succeed in time for a forthcoming deadline — under British takeover law, the companies have time until this Wednesday, October 10 — is a different matter altogether. As one might expect from a deal of this magnitude, and involving three governments, hurdles have abounded from the outset. On Friday, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that the deal was on the verge of collapse.
Some concerns have focused on the valuation of the deal, particularly from the EADS point of view — and whether the 60 per cent EADS, 40 per cent BAE Systems merger proposal should be closer to a 70:30 split. There are also concerns in the three countries about potential job losses resulting from the merger, though King and Enders insisted in their joint message that it was a deal driven by “growth, not contraction.”
The German government until recently had a far more hands-off approach to EADS than France, whose direct holding in the company amounts to 15 per cent (the German government only had an indirect holding through automaker Daimler).
In fact, reducing French government influence over the aerospace and defence titan was seen as one of the reasons that Germany was so eager for the deal to go ahead.
Now, however, with the French government keen to retain a stake, and the possibility of it taking over the stake of French firm Lagardere, holder of 7.5 per cent of EADS, Berlin has weighed in, keen to ensure it has as high a stake as Paris would.
Even the matter of the merged firm’s headquarters has become a contentious matter — with Germany pushing for a location outside Munich, against the French push for Toulouse, the centre of Airbus’ operations, according to information recently obtained by Reuters. EADS and BAE Systems are also none too keen on a strong government hand, and are eager for both Germany and France to have a relationship more akin to Britain’s with BAE Systems, which has involved holding a golden share that gives them a veto right over takeovers and other sensitive nationally relevant issues.
“This will help to improve Europe’s position in the global market, to promote European security, and ensure that Europe will play a full role in its own defence,” they declared at the time.
A decade-and-a-half later, that plan could finally become a reality, should EADS and BAE Systems succeed in agreeing terms of a merger to create the world’s largest aerospace and defence company, with revenues of over $100 billion, and more than 2,20,000 employees globally.
Writing in the Financial Times this week, the two chief executives, Ian King of BAE Systems and Tom Enders of EADS, insisted that it was a “combination born of opportunity, not necessity,” pledging to create a company that was greater than the sum of its parts and better able to deal with cycles of civil aviation demand and defence spending. Analysts have been cautiously welcoming of the plans, which give BAE Systems greater exposure to the global civil aviation market.
“It would reduce BAE’s exposure to a US defence market that is on the verge of a serious contraction and link it to new sources of financing,” according to Robin Niblett, director of international relations think-tank Chatham House, in a recent note. EADS, which earns over 60 per cent of its revenues from Airbus, could gain access to the US defence market.
Among the other potential upsides cited by analysts is the positive impact an integrated company could have on joint projects such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, helping give momentum to campaigns particularly in West Asia and South Korea, following the disappointment over the medium multi-role combat aircraft competition won by Dassault Aviation in India.
Whether they will succeed, and particularly succeed in time for a forthcoming deadline — under British takeover law, the companies have time until this Wednesday, October 10 — is a different matter altogether. As one might expect from a deal of this magnitude, and involving three governments, hurdles have abounded from the outset. On Friday, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that the deal was on the verge of collapse.
Some concerns have focused on the valuation of the deal, particularly from the EADS point of view — and whether the 60 per cent EADS, 40 per cent BAE Systems merger proposal should be closer to a 70:30 split. There are also concerns in the three countries about potential job losses resulting from the merger, though King and Enders insisted in their joint message that it was a deal driven by “growth, not contraction.”
The German government until recently had a far more hands-off approach to EADS than France, whose direct holding in the company amounts to 15 per cent (the German government only had an indirect holding through automaker Daimler).
In fact, reducing French government influence over the aerospace and defence titan was seen as one of the reasons that Germany was so eager for the deal to go ahead.
Now, however, with the French government keen to retain a stake, and the possibility of it taking over the stake of French firm Lagardere, holder of 7.5 per cent of EADS, Berlin has weighed in, keen to ensure it has as high a stake as Paris would.
Even the matter of the merged firm’s headquarters has become a contentious matter — with Germany pushing for a location outside Munich, against the French push for Toulouse, the centre of Airbus’ operations, according to information recently obtained by Reuters. EADS and BAE Systems are also none too keen on a strong government hand, and are eager for both Germany and France to have a relationship more akin to Britain’s with BAE Systems, which has involved holding a golden share that gives them a veto right over takeovers and other sensitive nationally relevant issues.
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