Government Agencies Seek Tech Solutions That Promote Efficiency, Reduce Costs, New CompTIA Study Finds

Downers Grove, IL (PRWEB) May 17, 2011

Challenged by tight budgets, bureaucratic hurdles and a dramatic rise in cybersecurity attacks, government agencies are looking for technology solutions that help them become more efficient while at the same time reducing costs, according to new research released today by CompTIA, the non-profit association for the information technology (IT) industry.

CompTIAs Second Annual Government IT Purchase Plans study finds that the top influencer driving government IT purchase plans over the next 12 months is a desire to become more efficient and reduce long-term costs. It was identified as an influential or very influential factor in purchase decisions by 60 percent of the government IT decision makers or influencers surveyed.

A significant number of respondents, 54 percent, said the need to comply with a mandate or regulation is a driving factor in IT spending. Other top purchase influencers include responding to the needs of citizens and staff (53 percent); and the need to modernize aging systems (47 percent), especially systems that are vulnerable to security threats due to dated technology.

Though budget challenges and the burden of bureaucracy can slow the pace of change, government technology spending will continue, particularly on solutions that help to ease the challenges of resources and security, said Amy Carrado, director, market research, CompTIA.

But with money to spend increasingly precious, agencies are likely to demand greater returns on their investments and require vendors to clearly prove the effectiveness of their solutions.

Nearly four in ten (39 percent) of federal, state and local government IT decision makers and influencers identified new data backup and recovery solutions as a priority over the next 12 months. Security applications were cited by 37 percent of respondents, followed by virtualization solutions (30 percent) and content management solutions (24 percent). Options such as unified communications and cloud computing (18 percent each) ranked slightly lower on the list.

This may be a signal that government users need further education from their IT providers on how cloud computing and unified communications can effectively address their objectives of greater operational efficiencies, Carrado said.

Among specific products on government shopping lists, desktop PCs (51 percent) and laptop PCs (48 percent) hold the top two spots, according to the CompTIA study. Local government agencies are especially bullish on purchases of new PCs, including tablet PCs.

Other purchase priorities for the next 12 months include servers (37 percent), printers (33 percent), operating systems (32 percent), productivity suites and software (28 percent), network infrastructure (27 percent) and smart phones (23 percent).

Agencies Plan More Training

Nearly half (44 percent) of government IT respondents at the federal, state and local levels plan to implement employee training for both IT staff and end users over the next 12 months

This suggests that even under severe budget constraints, government agencies continue to recognize the importance of a well-trained workforce that understands how to effectively use technology, Carrado said.

Among the training priorities: PC maintenance, help desk and tech support; security; disaster recovery and backup; and networking. Project management, business intelligence and data management and analysis also appear on the training priority list.

Increased interest by government agencies in training is something that technology vendors and solution providers should note, according to Carrado.

Technology providers should consider providing training sessions as a value-add when government organizations purchase a product, or offering mini-tutorials to employees at agencies where there is potential for purchases in the near future, she said.

CompTIAs Second Annual Government IT Purchase Plans study was developed from a survey of 375 federal, state and local IT buyers and influencers. The data was collected during late February 2011.The full report is available at no cost to CompTIA members at http://www.comptia.org or by contacting the research department at research(at)comptia(dot)org.

About CompTIA

CompTIA is the voice of the worlds information technology (IT) industry. As a non-profit trade association advancing the global interests of IT professionals and companies, CompTIA is the recognized authority for IT education and credentials and the primary advocate for IT businesses and workers. Through its foundation, CompTIA also enables disadvantaged populations to gain the skills they need for employment in the IT industry. CompTIAs vision of the IT landscape is shaped by more than 25 years of global perspective and more than 2,000 members and 1,000 business partners. For more information, visit http://www.comptia.org or follow CompTIA on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/comptia.

Contact:

Steven Ostrowski

Director, Corporate Communications

CompTIA

630-678-8468

sostrowski(at)comptia(dot)org

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Government Agencies Seek Tech Solutions That Promote Efficiency, Reduce Costs, New CompTIA Study Finds

GL Conveys its Expertise in Designing Video Surveillance and Passenger Information Systems for Mass Transit Agencies

Gaithersburg, MD (PRWEB) August 02, 2012

GL Communications Inc. a leader in providing PC-based test, analysis and simulation products and consulting services to the worldwide telecommunications industry, conveyed today its expertise in designing Video Surveillance and Passenger Information Systems for Mass Transit Agencies.

Speaking to the press, Mr. Vijay Kulkarni, CEO of the company said, The goal of Video Surveillance and Passenger Information Systems (PIS) that many Mass Transit agencies use is of transit network operation and passenger safety. In general, such surveillance and information systems help: Provide patrons with a 24 x 7 contact point in case of emergency, allow for important announcements to patrons, allow for displays using LED signs for special events and train or bus schedules, assist police to prevent and discourage crimes, and monitor transit network operations.

He added, Mass transit agencies in many countries are increasingly using Video or Close Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance to enhance public security within the transit network. Experience shows that video surveillance has been successful in reducing and preventing crimes and helpful in prosecuting individuals caught in the act of committing a crime by having access to recorded evidence of crime scenes. Overall, operational cost savings are realized. Video surveillance systems can passively record and play back video as needed or be actively monitored by security personnel.

Mr. Kulkarni further added, CCTV Surveillance and PIS have evolved from standalone displays and audio to multimodal integrated systems to keep passengers informed and safe within public transit systems, such as trains, station platforms, buses and bus shelters. Left Objects Detection (LOD) feature of CCTV systems have become very popular and useful to prevent serious crimes such as early detection of timed-release explosive materials. Modern systems incorporate multiple communications technologies, including IP networks, wireless networks, video streaming, advanced visual displays, public address, emergency intercom etc. They are controlled and managed from a centralized operations center and deliver real time information for remote monitoring and control.

Mr. Kulkarni added, Transit agencies need to consider many factors while planning and implementing passenger information and security systems. They include: Customer satisfaction and ADA (Americans with Disability Act) compliance, use of modern State-of-Art technology solutions, system scalability for future expansion and upgrades, passenger growth and convenience, advertising potential, capital expenditure and long term sustained cost savings and reduced recurring expenditure (manpower, infrastructure maintenance, transmission bandwidth etc.).

GLs expertise span in designing CCTV Surveillance Systems, station emergency telephone systems, public address (PA) and LED sign systems and more.

About GL Communications Inc.,

Founded in 1986, GL Communications Inc. Provides technical consulting, engineering and testing services in wireless, telecom, and IT disciplines. Our customers include telecom wireless and landline carriers, mass transit and public safety systems nationwide. We have designed hundreds of wired and wireless telecom network systems over the past 23 years.

GL is a DBE/MBE firm certified by Maryland’s Department of Transportation (MDOT), Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).

GLs TDM Analysis & Emulation line of products includes T1, E1, T3, E3, OC-3, OC-12, STM-1, STM-4, analog four-wire, and analog two-wire interface cards, external portable pods, and complete system solutions. Capabilities include voiceband traffic analysis and emulation across all traffic types (voice, digits, tones, fax, modem), all protocols (ISDN, SS7, GR-303, Frame Relay, HDLC, V5.X, ATM, GSM, GPRS, LTE, etc.), and with capacities up to thousands of channels. Our newest products provide astonishing capacity and capture capability up to and including gigabit speeds.

GLs VoIP and IP products generate / analyze thousands of calls and traffic simultaneously with traffic types such as frames, packets, voice files, digits, video, tones, noise, and fax. Almost all codecs are supported including G.711, G.729, AMR, EVRC-A, B, C, GSM, iSAC, and many more. Additional features include visual analysis, real-time listening, and recording. The product line also includes Ethernet / IP Testing capability that simulates and checks frame transport and throughput parameters of Ethernet and IP networks, including delay, errors and other impairments.

GL’s Voice Quality Testing (VQT) product line complements all of GL’s products. Using ITU-standard algorithms (PAMS, PSQM, and PESQ), GL’s VQT provides a widely accepted solution for assessing voice quality in the telecom industry. Voice Quality Testing across multiple networks (T1, E1, T3, E3, OC-3, OC-12, VoIP, Wireless, and Landline) is available.

GLs Wireless Products perform protocol analysis and voice quality assessment on GSM, CDMA, UMTS, and LTE networks. Connections can be made to any wireless phone with automated call control, GPS mapping and real-time signal measurements.

GLs Echo Canceller testing solutions provide the broadest range of simulation and analysis, including line and acoustic echo. GLs compliance testing per G.168. G.167 and P.340 across TDM, IP, VoIP and Wireless networks is widely accepted in the industry.

GLs wireless VQT solutions help assessing impairments to voice quality such as poor mobile phone quality, voice compression and decompression algorithms, delay, loss and gain in speech levels, noise, acoustic and landline echo, and other distortions are easily assessed and accurately measured.

GLs Handheld data testers can test a wide variety of communications facilities and equipment including T1, fractional T1, E1, fractional E1, T3 and E3 modems, multiplexers, CSU, DSUs, T1 CSUs, DTUs, NTUs and TIUs and more. The testers provide convenience, economy, and portability for almost any interface, including RS232, RS-422, RS-530, X.21, T1, E1, T3, E3, and many others.

GLs Network Surveillance and Monitoring products include Probes for TDM, IP, VoIP, ATM, and Wireless networks. An open standards based approach provides a scalable, feature rich, real-time access to network characteristics. Centralized or distributed access, efficient transport and database loading allow compatibility with 3rd party and standards based monitoring systems.

GL Conveys its Expertise in Designing Video Surveillance and Passenger Information Systems for Mass Transit Agencies

LeadMaster Gains Momentum in Advertising Agencies

Roswell, Georgia (PRWEB) September 21, 2012

With marketing budgets under pressure, advertising agencies are being asked to deliver more than just branding and impressions. Their customers want to know what was sold as a result of their investments in advertising and marketing campaigns.

Agencies are discovering that it is easy to show clients a return-on-marketing investment, when they deploy LeadMaster to monitor and report on campaign efforts. Agencies are also discovering LeadMasters all-in-one solution is a perfect fit to help expand their own customer base.

Agencies are deploying LeadMasters integrated tools to help their clients succeed in several ways:

** Providing a unified customer marketing database to capture leads from all sources: landing pages, advertising, trade shows, call center, email, etc.

** Rapid distribution of inquiries to the clients direct and indirect sales channels and introducing a lead scoring methodology to help prioritize a customers sales inquiries.

** Deploying lead nurturing, drip marketing and incubation services for longer term prospect inquiries.

** Tracking marketing-to-sales conversions on all inquiries throughout the entire campaign.

** Enabling real-time marketing ROI dashboards that measure the cost-per-lead, sales per campaign and overall return on investment.

** Landing page and custom forms that provide unlimited options for capturing & storing strategic marketing data.

** Configuring marketing automation, automated workflow and business rules that simplify the entire sales and marketing process.

LeadMaster CMO, Andy Brownell says, “LeadMaster is delivering an all-in-one solution for advertising and marketing agencies of all types and sizes. For example, suppose an agency wants to run an email marketing campaign and then have the inside sales team call people who open the email and click on a link embedded in the message. First, LeadMaster has an easy wizard for creating and sending email marketing campaigns. Second, automating the process of adding callbacks to a caller’s calendar when someone clicks on a link in an email marketing campaign takes a just a few clicks in LeadMaster’s business rules. It’s all point and click, nothing difficult to learn. Then using the marketing ROI report the agency can track what was sold as a result of the email marketing campaign.”

The ability to private-label the LeadMaster solution without a long term contract makes it easy to integrate into existing campaigns. LeadMasters ultra-competitive value proposition and feature rich solution make it attractive for any size agency.

Brownell concluded, “LeadMaster is committed to expanding solutions for agencies. The LeadMaster platform is a huge revenue opportunity for any agency. Agencies can sign up to become LeadMaster partners and bundle a white label version of the system with their marketing programs. This helps their clients measure marketing ROI, score leads, track sales, manage and distribute leads and automate their marketing. LeadMaster helps answer one of the most difficult questions for any marketing manager, ‘What was sold as a result of that campaign?’.”

About LeadMaster

LeadMaster offers a multifunction cloud-computing software solution for sales and marketing professionals. Everything is in one easy-to-use online web-based application. You can choose to implement an end-to-end Sales Lead Management CRM Software solution or select specific point solutions to satisfy your sales & marketing requirements.

Options include:

LeadMaster Gains Momentum in Advertising Agencies