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Tesco, first direct, IBM & eBay named Econsultancy Innovation Awards winners

2009-12-10T06:15:00-05:00

(Gawkwire.com) first direct was named a winner in three categories today as Econsultancy announced the results of its 2009 Innovation Awards.

The online bank was recognised for best innovation in Online PR and Multichannel Marketing, while also winning the Best Online Advertising Campaign category.

The bank, which shows both negative and positive consumer sentiment on its ‘first direct live’ microsite, impressed the judges with its successful use of social media and its integrated advertising campaign to encourage people to talk honestly about its brand.

Tesco, Comet, IBM and eBay were also among the winners in Econsultancy’s annual awards which recognise the smartest new ideas and achievements across digital marketing and e-commerce.

The digital agency Essence won the awards for Most Innovative Digital Agency and for Rich Media and Video. It won the Rich Media category for the YouTube HomeProject Channel, which enabled people to watch a full feature film about the global environmental challenge online.

Tesco.com won the award for Innovation in Email Marketing for its campaigns which provided personalised shopping lists to customers based on their in-store and online purchase history.

IBM won the Innovation in B2B Digital Marketing award for its augmented reality mobile phone technology which enhanced the Wimbledon experience by providing useful data about the tennis tournament as well as information which helped people to avoid queues.

The same technology, called Seer, earned IBM a commendation in the Most Innovative New Technology category.

eBay Partner Network won the Affiliate Marketing award for breaking away from the traditional affiliate cost-per-acquisition payment model and launching a new “quality based” Cost Per Click (CPC) payout method.

Entries were judged by an international panel from companies known for innovation such as Honda, The Guardian, lastminute.com, Orange, Mindshare, Channel 4, Google, Isobar, PHD Media, Unilever and Poke, as well as digital gurus Avinash Kaushik, Jeremiah Owyang, Sidharth Rao and Dr. Dave Chaffey.

The judges also included Econsultancy CEO Ashley Friedlein, Research Director Linus Gregoriadis, Editor-in-Chief Chris Lake, and Senior Research Analyst Jake Hird.

The full list of winners and judges’ comments is on the Econsultancy blog.
http://econsultancy.com/blog/5095-the-econsultancy-innovation-awards-2009-the-winners

List of winners and highly commended entries by category:

Innovation in Affiliate Marketing
Winner: eBay Partner Network
Highly commended: Skimlinks

Innovation in B2B Digital Marketing
Winner: IBM

Innovation in E-commerce
Winner: Glasses Direct
Highly commended: UpClick

Innovation in Email Marketing
Winner: Tesco.com
Highly commended: Silverpop

Innovation in Lead Generation Online
Winner: European Directories and Skype

Innovation in Mobile Marketing
Winner: Marvellous Ideas
Highly commended: Incentivated
Highly commended: KODIME

Innovation in Multichannel Marketing
Winner: first direct
Highly commended: DSB Danish Railways / Wunderman / Agillic

Innovation in Online Customer Service
Winner: CACI
Highly commended: BT

Innovation in Online Marketing Research or Customer Insight
Winner: InSites Consulting UK
Highly commended: Somatica Digital

Innovation in Online PR
Winner: first direct

Innovation in Paid Search/PPC
Winner: Summit Media / Comet

Innovation in Rich Media and Video
Winner: Essence

Innovation in SEO/Natural Search
Winner: Majestic-12

Innovation in Social Media
Winner: Storm Ideas
Highly commended: Independents United

Innovation in User Experience
Winner: Enhanced Editions Ltd
Highly commended: MixMatchMe

Innovation in Web Analytics and Optimization
Winner: Fresh Egg

Innovation in Web Content Management
Winner: Aqueduct & Poke

Most Innovative Digital Agency
Winner: Essence

Most Innovative Digital Marketing Team
Winner: eSpares

Most Innovative Online Advertising Campaign
Winner: first direct
Highly commended: Tangent One

Most Innovative New Technology
Winner: ipadio
Highly commended: IBM

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/tesco_first_direct_ibm_ebay_named_econsultancy_innovation_awards.html

Netnod Partners with Interxion

2009-12-08T06:45:00-05:00

(Gawkwire.com) Interxion, a leading European operator of carrier-neutral data centres, and Netnod, Sweden’s Internet exchange, today announced a partnership agreement that will extend Netnod’s infrastructure into Interxion’s Stockholm data centre.

The agreement will enable Interxion customers to reduce latency and transit costs by peering directly across the Netnod switch, while Netnod’s members will be able to expand their applications infrastructure in the security of Interxion’s facility. Installation is scheduled for January 2010.

Netnod is a neutral, independent Internet exchange operating in five Swedish cities. Dedicated fibres will link the exchange to the Interxion data centre, significantly reducing the cost of connections for Interxion’s customers.

“Netnod has a strategy of increasing its presence in carrier-neutral data centres, and in Stockholm Interxion is a natural extension for our exchange infrastructure,” said Kurt Erik Lindqvist, Netnod MD. “For us the partnership is an excellent way of reaching the market and at the same time benefitting from Interxion’s infrastructure and services.”

“For Interxion’s customers the partnership means that they can gain improvements in quality and cost-effectiveness by peering directly at Netnod,” said Peder Bank, Interxion Sweden MD. “The agreement will also create an even more attractive environment in Interxion Stockholm for international carriers.”

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/netnod_partners_with_interxion.html

Parallels Launches Ground-Breaking Small Business Panel 10

2009-11-03T06:30:00-05:00

RENTON, WA (Gawkwire.com) Cloud-enablement leader, Parallels, today announced the availability of Parallels Small Business Panel 10, which allows cloud services providers to offer IT-in-a-box solutions to small businesses, increasing revenue through business applications sales, and helping their small business customers transition to the cloud. Parallels Small Business Panel features a game-changing control panel designed for small businesses, offering simple wizards and productivity tools for collaboration, file sharing and business management. This makes self-service possible for all employees using the solution. Parallels Small Business Panel also introduces the Parallels Partner Marketplace, enabling cloud services providers to offer commercial applications to their small business customers in an easy-to-use storefront.

“Parallels is uniquely addressing the needs of small businesses and redefining the way control panels are used with the development of Parallels Small Business Panel. Over 40 cloud services providers are already launching the solution, so it’s clear that this is striking a chord with Parallels’ partners who are seeing the benefits for their small business customers,” explains Jack Zubarev, President of Service Provider Division at Parallels. “Parallels continues to enable cloud services providers to move beyond basic hosting services and offer value-added applications and services.”

Parallels Small Business Panel 10 gives users an intuitive user interface designed to connect employees to the right applications, which can be installed with a single click with no need for special training or technical knowledge. Role-based access enables user organizations to restrict functionality as appropriate for their employees. In addition, Parallels Small Business Panel incorporates the functionality of additional Parallels solutions for free, including Parallels Sitebuilder and Parallels Power Pack.

“Previously, we’ve found that control panels have not been suitable for our small business customers; however, in participating in the beta trial of Parallels Small Business Panel, we found that the performance, applications and end-user feedback exceeded our expectations,” said George Karidis, Chief Strategy Officer at Softlayer. “Parallels’ new panel signifies a new approach to servicing small businesses, enabling us to offer a separate solution that provides one interface for all their IT needs.”

The largest feature of Parallels Small Business Panel is Parallels Partner Marketplace, which launches with six commercial applications, including Symantec (desktop security), Interspire (email marketing & knowledge manager), Pinnacle Cart (shopping cart), LinuxMagic (Anti-Spam) and Keepit (online backup). Cloud services providers interested in cloud enablement can leverage Parallels Partner Marketplace, to participate in a revenue-sharing model that offers their small business customers the applications they need with minimal effort. The partner marketplace takes care of the ordering, licensing, billing and subscription management aspects.

“Parallels is bridging the gap between ISVs and Service Providers, essentially helping both become more successful with small business customers”, stated Hal Bennett, vice president of Global OEM/ISP Sales at Symantec. “In partnership with Parallels we are bringing our award-winning Norton Internet Security 2010, the fastest and lightest online threat protection available, to help protect against the cybercriminals who are targeting small businesses.”

“Parallels Partner Marketplace together with Parallels Small Business Panel, provides our small business customers with a central management console to access and service all their online requirements,” Ryan Elledge, Chief Operating Officer, at Codero. “With Parallels Panel Marketplace, our customers can select, purchase and install business applications with a few clicks. Parallels then takes care of the set-up, provisioning and management, making the solution complete and easy-to-use.”

Availability and Pricing
Parallels Small Business Panel 10 is available in English, German, Japanese, Spanish, French, Chinese Simplified and Russian.

The offering is available through retail, lease, or the Parallels Partner Program.

Further information on Parallels Small Business Panel’s new features and capabilities, as well as videos, screenshots and a demonstration of the new product are available at www.parallels.com/products/smallbusinesspanel.

As of today, Parallels Small Business Panel is available through Softlayer, Codero, Viux, Robson, Turnkey Internet, Servint, Layershift, Zipservers, KickAssVPS, CCF Consulting and OVH.

About Parallels — Optimized Computing
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 700 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/parallels_launches_ground-breaking_small_business_panel_10.html

If a Hurricane Hits Your Servers, A Cloud Could Save Your Business

2009-08-27T09:17:00-04:00

Toronto, Canada (Gawkwire.com) Hurricane season is officially underway. The season is now entering its historical peak period of August through October, when most storms form. Now is a good time for business owners and IT managers to review their current disaster recovery plan, says Dave Minns of Storage Guardian, the company that specializes in online and cloud backup solutions for small and medium-sized businesses.

"You can minimize the business impact of a natural disaster with online data backup to an offsite location -- and nowadays that means the cloud," says Dave Minns, client services manager at Storage Guardian. "Companies with a cloud-based business continuity plan can recover from a disaster in minutes. And keep in mind that every minute you're down is a major ding in your company's credibility with customers, partners and suppliers."

Storage Guardian's 'Jumpstart Cloud Continuity' program -- limited offer
Storage Guardian is making it easy for a business to implement cloud continuity by providing free initial data upload via USB drive for the first 50 companies that sign up. The USB drive, which is shipped direct to the customer, eliminates the need to perform a time-consuming initial backup via the Internet.
Click here for more details on the Jumpstart program.

Comprehensive business continuity protection has historically been something only large corporations could afford. The required investment in expensive, redundant hardware (both onsite and in remote locations) seldom provided suitable return or a 100% reliable restore of critical data. However, the advent of 'cloud computing' has made the provision of dynamically scalable and virtualized resources more available, including storage. Now, with Storage Guardian Cloud Continuity, even small businesses can quickly recover their IT infrastructure after a major disaster, ensuring their business doesn';t miss a heartbeat.

Cloud continuity is the latest approach to business continuity

Storage Guardian Cloud Continuity drastically reduces the operational impact of a natural disaster by restoring a single-server backup set from high availability storage to the cloud in just minutes. Users then have full access to all applications and data while the physical server is replaced, at which time normal operations can be resumed.

With cloud continuity service in place, a business can:

Minimize operational downtime
Continue business-critical activities while repairing its physical environment
Gain access to restored data in the cloud from anywhere in the world
Restore the data from the data repository into the cloud at LAN speed

Storage Guardian's latest cloud continuity technology supports online backup and disaster recovery for virtualized computing environments (Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX), and no hardware investment is required.

http://www.gawkwire.com/promotions/if_a_hurricane_hits_your_servers_a_cloud_could_save_your_busines.html