Kursverdoppelung bei Actua Corporation (vorm. Internet Capital)

wo Internet Capital am 30.9.2005 etwas mehr als zwei Millionen Aktien hielt, dürfte Internet Capital bei Kursen über 30 Dollar im letzten Quartal einige Stücke verkauft haben. Ich vermute allerdings nur 10 bis 20%, denn die Aussichten von Blackboard sind nachwievor exzellent und momentan werden sie vermutlich die Verkäufe eingestellt haben, da die Aktie unterbewertet ist und Internet Capital ehe in Liquidität schwimmt.


Students prefer online courses
Classes popular with on-campus students

Friday, January 13, 2006; Posted: 3:18 p.m. EST (20:18 GMT)


Andy Steele takes an online course in the library of Black Hills State University.  
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Manage Alerts | What Is This? (AP) -- Andy Steele lives just a few blocks from the campus of Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota, so commuting to class isn't the problem. But he doesn't like lectures much, isn't a morning person, and wants time during the day to restore motorcycles.

So Steele, a full-time senior business major, has been taking as many classes as he can from the South Dakota state system's online offerings. He gets better grades and learns more, he says, and insists he isn't missing out on the college experience.

"I still know a lot of people from my first two years living on campus, and I still meet a lot of people," he says. But now, he sets his own schedule.

At least 2.3 million people took some kind of online course in 2004, according to a recent survey by The Sloan Consortium, an online education group, and two-thirds of colleges offering "face-to-face" courses also offer online ones. But what were once two distinct types of classes are looking more and more alike -- and often dipping into the same pool of students.

At some schools, online courses -- originally intended for nontraditional students living far from campus -- have proved surprisingly popular with on-campus students. A recent study by South Dakota's Board of Regents found 42 percent of the students enrolled in its distance-education courses weren't so distant: they were located on campus at the university that was hosting the online course.

Numbers vary depending on the policies of particular colleges, but other schools also have students mixing and matching online and "face-to-face" credits. Motives range from lifestyle to accommodating a job schedule to getting into high-demand courses.

Classes pose challenges
Washington State University had about 325 on-campus undergraduates taking one or more distance courses last year. As many as 9,000 students took both distance and in-person classes at Arizona State Univesity last year.

"Business is really about providing options to their customers, and that's really what we want to do," said Sheila Aaker, extended services coordinator at Black Hills State.

Still, the trend poses something of a dilemma for universities.

They are reluctant to fill slots intended for distance students with on-campus ones who are just too lazy to get up for class. On the other hand, if they insist the online courses are just as good, it's hard to tell students they can't take them. And with the student population rising and pressing many colleges for space, they may have little choice.

In practice, the policy is often shaded. Florida State University tightened on-campus access to online courses several years ago when it discovered some on-campus students hacking into the system to register for them. Now it requires students to get an adviser's permission to take an online class.

Online, in-person classes blending
Many schools, like Washington State and Arizona State, let individual departments and academic units decide who can take an online course. They say students with legitimate academic needs -- a conflict with another class, a course they need to graduate that is full -- often get permission, though they still must take some key classes in person.

In fact, the distinction between online and face-to-face courses is blurring rapidly. Many if not most traditional classes now use online components -- message boards, chat rooms, electronic filing of papers. Students can increasingly "attend" lectures by downloading a video or a podcast.

At Arizona State, 11,000 students take fully online courses and 40,000 use the online course management system, which is used by many "traditional" classes. Administrators say the distinction between online and traditional is now so meaningless it may not even be reflected in next fall's course catalogue.

Arizone State's director of distance learning, Marc Van Horne, says students are increasingly demanding both high-tech delivery of education, and more control over their schedules. The university should do what it can to help them graduate on time, he says.

"Is that a worthwhile goal for us to pursue? I'd say 'absolutely,"' Van Horne said. "Is it strictly speaking the mission of a distance learning unit? Not really."

Then there's the question of whether students are well served by taking a course online instead of in-person. Some teachers are wary, saying showing up to class teaches discipline, and that lectures and class discussions are an important part of learning.

But online classes aren't necessarily easier. Two-thirds of schools responding to a recent survey by The Sloan Consortium agreed that it takes more discipline for students to succeed in an online course than in a face-to-face one.

"It's a little harder to get motivated," said Washington State senior Joel Gragg, who took two classes online last year (including "the psychology of motivation"). But, he said, lectures can be overrated -- he was still able to meet with the professor in person when he had questions -- and class discussions are actually better online than in a college classroom, with a diverse group exchanging thoughtful postings.

"There's young people, there's old people, there's moms, professional people," he said. "You really learn a lot more."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Nachdem das Management über Jahre versucht hat, mit einer uralten Website mit überholten Elementen Käufer der Aktien abzuschrecken, damit sie billig weiterkaufen konnten, haben wir jetzt eine Neugestaltung. Ich vermute einmal, dass sie Angst vor der SEC bekommen haben, die ihnen wegen gezielter Fehlinformationen auf den Pelz rücken könnte. Wenn sie jetzt auch noch davor Angst bekommen, dass ihnen die SEC für das auf den Pelz rückt, was sie verschweigen (z.B. jedwegliche Information über die wohl momentan umsatzsstärkte und erfolgreichste Kernbeteiligung Credittrade), dürfte der Kurs auch auf ein dem Fair Value näheres Niveau rücken.

www.internetcapital.com/

Das ist nicht spektakulär, aber andererseits sind wir weit vom Fair Value entfernt. Wenn wir schon beim Fair Value gewesen wären und wir hätten dieses Wachstum hätte ich gesagt, dass sich das meiste nicht tun wird. Aber wir wissen ja aus der Präsentation von vor wenigen Tagen, dass wir für alle anteiligen Internet Capital-Umsatz von voraussichtlich ca. 130 bis 140 Millionen in 2006 ein Kurs-Umsatz-Verhältnis von 1,2 haben. Selbst ein Anstieg auf einen immer noch extrem niedrigen Wert von 2 würde den Kurs schon um drei Dollar nach oben hieven.


ICG Core Partner Company Information

On September 30, 2005, ICG disposed of its ownership interest in LinkShare. During October 2005, CommerceQuest was merged into Metastorm. To aid in the comparability of the ICG Core Partner Company Information, ICG is presenting pro forma financial information assuming that the LinkShare sale and CommerceQuest and Metastorm merger occurred on January 1, 2004. Set forth below is pro forma information relating to ICG’s eight Core companies: CreditTrade, Freeborders, GoIndustry, ICG Commerce, Investor Force, Marketron, Metastorm and StarCite. Our ownership positions in these eight companies averages 51%.

Aggregate pro forma revenue of ICG’s eight Core companies grew 19% year over year, to $59.2 million, in the third quarter of 2005 from $49.8 million in the third quarter of 2004. Aggregate pro forma revenue of ICG’s eight Core companies grew 20% year over year, to $174.8 million, year-to-date 2005 from $146.2 million year-to-date 2004. Aggregate pro forma EBITDA (loss) for the Core companies improved to $(3.3) million in the third quarter of 2005 from $(4.8) million in the third quarter of 2004. Aggregate pro forma EBITDA (loss) for the Core companies improved to $(7.6) million year-to-date 2005 from $(16.1) million in the year-to-date 2004. Please refer to the supplemental financial data at the end of this release for a reconciliation of such amounts to the nearest comparable GAAP measures.

Peter Oppenheimer, Goldman Sachs:

"Wir favorisieren unentdeckte oder unterbewertete Wachstumswerte. Sie bieten momentan eine Menge Value. In den vergangenen drei, vier Jahren haben Investoren sehr stark auf Unternehmen mit hohen Dividenden- oder Cashflow-Rendite gesetzt. Das führte zu einer kräftigen Outperformance dieser Wertpapiere und Einebnung der Bewertung. Überdurchschnittliches Wachstum wird nicht angemessen honoriert."

The software development market in India is rapidly reaching saturation, Walker said. He agreed with the conventional wisdom of India critics that the country's tech sector is undergoing rapid wage inflation and that corporate loyalty extends only as far as the biggest signing bonus. "When you have teams that are turning over, and you have wage inflation of 15 to 25 percent, then India is running into issues," he said.

One Freeborders customer, software vendor BroadVision, found the outsourcer on target. Jim Harrington, senior vice president of human resources at BroadVision, said his company's decision to have some product development done by Freeborders in China was not about cost alone, although he acknowledged that BroadVision is spending only about one-fifth of what it might in the United States for the same development services. BroadVision is no newcomer to offshoring, having established a Moscow development center in 1997 and having some development work done by Indian partner Infogain.

Harrington said his company wanted to put down roots in the next offshore destination that's soon to explode with demand. "We view China as the next site of industrial revolution. We want a foothold long term in the enterprise China software market," he said. Harrington said his company's hope is that the group developing BroadVision's software will spread its expertise in China, creating a pool of talent from which BroadVision will later benefit. This will help in the future when BroadVision sells its wares in China; company executives figure the more Chinese people who are familiar with the BroadVision product line, the better the chances of future sales in that country.

One gripe of outsourcing customers is that the team working on their project is subject to change without notice. A customer may think it has signed up with the "A" team, only to have the "B" team swapped in later. But according to Harrington, BroadVision was able to meet and check out the Freeborders team that would be handling its work, with the understanding that the team would stay intact. "We did complete due diligence on the employees, HR, compensation and incentive compensation," said Harrington.

India—old news? China—the happening place? Conventional wisdom is under attack.

Out and about

Alsbridge—that's the new name for the company formed by the recently completed merger of Trowbridge Group and ALS Consulting. Trowbridge was an outsourcing consulting company based in Dallas, and ALS was a European shared services and outsourcing consultancy based in London. The company will continue to advise clients on both outsourcing and insourcing strategy and vendor selection. The combined contract value of all deals negotiated by Alsbridge executives is greater than $50 billion, the company said.

Stan Gibson can be reached at stan_gibson@ziffdavis.com.

Click here for an archive of Stan Gibson's columns.

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Check out eWEEK.com's Outsourcing Center for the latest news, views and analysis on outsourcing.

       

lautet die Überschrift eines Artikel in der heutigen FTD:

"Der Boom der indischen Technologie-Industrie stößt an seine Grenzen. Der Mangel an Fachkräften und rapide steigende Löhne gehen zu Lasten der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit.

Doch auf die IT-Firmen, die in Indien Talente und Kostenvorteile suchen, kommt ein großes Problem zu: Knapp 15 Jahre nach den ersten sanften Anfängen droht die rasant wachsende Branche die Grenzen des Wachstums zu erreichen - weil es zu wenig qualifiziertes Personal gibt. Der Bedarf wächst schneller als das Angebot: Bei einem Berufsvermittlungstag des "Goa Instituts of Management" im Dezember blieb für 33 Unternehmen die Suche nach Mitarbeitern ohne Erfolg."

Wer Abhilfe schafft, habe ich im vorstehenden Posting aufgezeigt: IT-Outsourcing nach China wird ein großes Thema werden. Die Internet Capital-Beteiligung Freeborders ist hier an vorderster Stelle dabei. Ärgerlich ist lediglich, dass sie nur 33% halten, weil wohl aus stragischen Gründen noch andere Wagnisfinanzierer mit ins Boot genommen werden mussten, insbesondere FTVenture - mit dem hofft man den schon vorhandenen Erfolg bei Software-Dienstleistungen für den Finanzbereich noch weiter auszubauen. FTVenture ist ein bsonderes Investmentvehikel: Hier haben viele größe Banken und andere Finanzdienstleister Geld investiert und sind gleichzeitig auch Abnehmer von Produkten von Beteiligungen in den dieser spezielle Wagnisfinanzier finanziert hat.

Our partnership with Freeborders to build and host a scalable solution has been instrumental."
- Vice President, Invista

"We've found savings with Freeborders in China are a five-to-one ratio. In India, it's three-to-one."
- SVP, CommerceQuest

"Wages are rising 15% a year as call centers and software firms throw money at the increasingly shallow pool of youngsters who can hit the ground running. Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. says India's information technology industry could face a deficit of 500,000 workers as soon as 2010."
– Wall Street Journal

"The largest competitive advantage will lie with those companies that move soonest. Companies that wait will be caught in a vicious cycle of uncompetitive costs, lost business, underutilized capacity and the irreversible destruction of value...Their question is not 'Why Outsource?' .... but 'Why not?' "
- Boston Consulting Group

"China has a significant cost advantage with 'up to 30% annual increase in IT wages in India.' "
- Wall Street Journal

"Wage inflation will result from low labor supply. India has 'geopolitical risk which requires diversification.' "
- McKinsey

© Freeborders 2006, All Rights Reserved

The expansion of the Shenzhen facility is a reflection of Freeborders' growing business in the US and European markets. "The Chinese outsourcing industry is poised to become a dominant outsourcing location," Liang said. "We have the talent and our infrastructure is world-class. Our education system produces engineers of the highest quality and we adhere to international standards in project management.

With Western companies keen to enter the China market, Liang sees this development as another factor that will drive the growth of the outsourcing market. "Investing into China is the number one priority for many US and European MNCs. It is only natural for a Western company to want to work with partners that understand the Chinese market and the Chinese way of doing things. For Freeborders, having customer touchpoints in the US and Europe will again put us in good position when US and European companies target the China market."

Freeborders China development center is located on High Tech Industrial Park North in the NanShan District of Shenzhen. Work on the next construction phase will begin sometime in 2006.

About Freeborders

Freeborders is the leading provider of technology solutions and outsourcing from China. Freeborders provides vertical expertise to North American and European companies in financial services, technology and retail/consumer goods. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in three continents, Freeborders has developed a track record of service delivery to the Fortune 1000 by combining world-class project management in both hemispheres with one of the largest technology centers in China. Freeborders believes China's massive and growing supply of IT talent and the country's emerging importance in the global supply chain make China a strategic imperative for any company seeking cost-effective world-class technology solutions.


© Freeborders 2006, All Rights Reserved

The dean of American IT academics, McFarlan's interest in China dates back to 1979, when he led the first Harvard Business School delegation there. In addition to his position as the Baker Foundation Professor and Albert Gordon Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at HBS, he has coauthored Seizing Strategic IT Advantage in China, in 2003, a book available only in Mandarin Chinese.

CIO Insight spoke with McFarlan from his office in Allston, Mass., about the risks and rewards of IT in China.

CIO INSIGHT: How does the state of IT in China compare with India?



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McFARLAN: First, China has a much more robust internal IT structure, networks and so forth, than does India. They've had a massive telecommunications expansion, and they have more networking capacity than people think. All of that has been a direct result of national economic policy.

Second, China is graduating about 400,000 technical graduates each year. And their university structure is good at the high end. These people coming out have strong technical skills. So they're quite competitive with the people coming out of India.

The third thing is the issue of English. The British left the English language and the university system in India, so there's a lot more work scrambling for English in China.

Can the infrastructure keep pace with the growth?

A colleague who's seen a lot of both India and China says the basic problem with India is they can't build a highway from the airport to the center of the city because of all the public interest. When that kind of decision is made in China, bang, it's done. And at this stage, IT infrastructure is high on the [Chinese] government's agenda.

Why do people in the U.S. have the wrong impression of Chinese IT?

The language issue is a problem. And all the publicity they hear about is India, India, India. When you think about India, you think about companies such as Tata, Infosys, Satyam. The comparable ones in China are much smaller.



Spread of open source could reduce piracy in China. Click here to read more.

What can you tell us about the differences between China and India when it comes to outsourcing?

India's advantage has always been the large pool of inexpensive, English-speaking talent. But now salaries in India are jumping at 25 percent or more annually. So India's cost advantage may not endure. We don't see that in China yet.

What are the risks of outsourcing to China?

The biggest risk I see is political. All of the growth in China has been heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. That has intensified the divide between rural and urban life. But as long as the government can deliver 7 percent or 8 percent growth annually, the poorer people will remain patient. The Chinese government's problem is trying to maintain a fast-enough growth rate that the citizens on balance will buy into it.

Worst case scenario, how does this play out?

The worst case scenario is that you have a revolution.

       

Tell us what you think: onlineeditors@cioinsight.com  

Günstiger Einstieg bei 9 Dollar möglich, da vermutlich Shortseller bei diesem Preis momentan leer verkauft. Der 15. des Monats ist vorbei, wo man seine Leerpositionen abbaute, um nicht aufzufallen - und jetzt kann man wieder mit Leerverkäufen zuschlagen. Das sollte Anleger zum Positionsaufbau nutzen.

Fall is one of the most popular times to announce new automobiles. It's also vendor announcement season in the information technology (IT) business. The August to November timing is not just to give you an alternative to kicking the tires or comparing engine performance. It's all about laying the groundwork for your budget year, which typically begins in January. Not surprisingly, almost all of the "top 10" suppliers in the IDC measurement of the business process management (BPM) software market announced new functionality from August to October 2005. So did many of the other 50-plus BPM software suppliers that IDC follows. Now, as new 2006 calendars pop up on your desks and desktops, those software suppliers want you to stop looking under the hood and move to the new model year in BPM.
In earlier-model-year BPM systems, it was typical for one supplier to offer only one dimension of BPM: human workflow-centric or straight through processing (STP), intranet support or Internet support, event-driven or data-driven, and so forth. Some of the larger suppliers offered two or more BPM products to cover different dimensions. However in the second half of 2005, Adobe, BEA, FileNet, IBM, Metastorm, Microsoft and Sterling Commerce all rolled out major new initiatives that moved two or more dimensions of BPM into the same chassis. Most put some interesting new performance characteristics under the hood as well.Also, in the second half of 2005, Oracle and TIBCO were already beta-testing or shipping similar functionality in the latest versions of their BPM products. Very few smaller cross-industry BPM suppliers can offer a hybrid vehicle with two or more dimensions covered, but many of the large industry-specific BPM products such as Advent Geneva, QuoVadx, Cloverleaf BPMS, and Sungard OMGEO are well along the multidimensional BPM functionality curve, albeit for their specific industries.The genesis of the convergence of functionality from the multiple dimensions of BPM lay in the formation of the BPM market itself. BPM is not really a product but a value proposition. Many types of product functionality can provide that value, and that explains why suppliers from around the "market circle," established and startups, are converging on the opportunity to compete for your budget. In Figure 1, the leaders in the market, as measured by IDC, are highlighted in bold (we call it the business process automation deployment software market in our subscription research, if you wish to search on idc.com for more details). For example:· You can use content management products to enable BPM; that is an especially good choice if your processes are frequently based on unstructured information and are totally human-centric. · You can use very industry-specific products to enable BPM; that is a good choice, especially for high-performance STP in that one particular industry. · You can use the workflow or rules engine built into your favorite application packages; that makes sense if you are totally committed to the package and like the way it already automates many of your business process sets out of the box. But in bringing disparate functional advantages to the business process automation party, each supplier needs to add functionality that its base BPM chassis lacks. In terms of functional enhancement trends, that convergence is probably the most important and most meaningful for you as you look to commit to new BPM software in 2006. In particular, the ability to handle workflow and STP under the same hood is based on increased use of powerful rules engines and modeling tools built right into the BPM software. Other trends include:· The move toward suites or frameworks and away from point products. · Functional support for business-to-business (B2B) and other variations of e-commerce and e-business, not away from but in addition to support for intranet-centric BPM. Functional support for extra-enterprise and totally public exchanges appears to be the near-term driver of the BPA deployment software market's growth. If IDC's research is correct, that is why you are looking at upgrading your BPM in 2006 (of course, often your leading customers and suppliers are larger than you, and they are demanding it). · Incorporation of metadata-based mediation and transformation features to begin to provide the industry- and role-centric master data management and semantics support that BPM deployment software needs to support these trends. The new rules engines and modeling tools not only allow support of both workflow and STP, but also permit "programming by nonprogrammers" (what some vendors are calling composition, rather than coding). The section that follows highlights the announcements made by a majority of the leading players in fall 2005. We expect to see some of that functionality from all of the other suppliers we are tracking in the market as well. Or at least we will see this functionality from those suppliers that hope to survive to take advantage of the forecasted double-digit compounded annual growth rate in this market.Adobe Adobe's position in the IDC BPM deployment software leader board is based on both earlier versions of the LiveCycle product and especially the market strength of Adobe's content applications, which have been a driver of workflow since 1990. In September 2005, Adobe announced enhancements to its Adobe LiveCycle server platform, more tightly integrating long popular document services to people-centric processes. With that release, which was generally available at the time of the announcement, LiveCycle provides visual assembly of BPM models and includes business activity monitoring (BAM) for visibility into business processes. The LiveCycle visual assembly capabilities include a workflow designer and more than 50 Quick Process Action Components (QPACs), which enable drag-and-drop integration of steps in a process, such as routing tasks to a user, sending an e-mail or integrating with back-end systems. Technology from Celequest (celequest.com) is the foundation for LiveCycle's BAM solution, which measures and manages workflow performance through customizable dashboards for monitoring business process performance and key performance indicators. Adobe's BAM solution also has an integrated event engine and rules, which enable on-the-fly process optimization.
Companies Mentioned
FileNet Corporation
BEA BEA makes the IDC BPM leader board even though the company did not really begin to emphasize its BPM capabilities until 2005. In August 2005, BEA launched BEA WebLogic Integration 8.5 and enhanced its BPM, BAM and B2B offerings. That portfolio of integration products addresses complex enterprise integration challenges, including application integration, business process integration and integration with trading partners. BEA WebLogic Integration 8.5 supports the BPEL4WS 1.1 standard. Developers can develop business processes in WebLogic Integration 8.5 and export them as BPEL processes; likewise, BPEL processes developed in other tools can be imported into WebLogic Integration 8.5.
Administration enhancements focus on process monitoring and reporting, new enterprise console compatibility with HP OpenView and BMC Business Services Management, and support for a new ProActivity release designed to enhance BPA and BAM capabilities for BEA WebLogic Integration. BEA WebLogic Integration 8.5 covers most of the dimensions noted above with process management, data transformation, connectivity, developer productivity, administration and tools for nonprogrammers driven from a shared metadata cache. Given its heritage, it is not a workflow-centric BPM product.FileNet As with Adobe, FileNet's position on our BPM leader board is based especially on the market strength of FileNet's content applications, although FileNet gained a lead in the BPM market by bringing a separate integration product (the Business Process Manager) to market in 2003 based on its P8 platform. In September 2005, FileNet announced it had integrated Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor rules management technology into the FileNet Business Process Manager (BPM) suite (although other leading business rules engines can still be used). The combined solution lets business users across the enterprise respond to customer demands and changing regulatory standards, and react to other compelling business events.As with other suppliers' Q3 '05 announcements, the idea is to get the IT department out of the loop as much as possible. The ability to make immediate policy changes to business processes without using additional IT resources places decision management strategies in the hands of business managers, helping to reduce unnecessary steps and improve business performance and responsiveness. In October 2005, FileNet added a business activity monitor to catch up with other suppliers in the market. FileNet Business Activity Monitoring provides real-time event management and visibility of business performance data to enhance operational responsiveness and decision making.IBM IBM's position on our leader board is based on a variety of successful product offerings over the years and reflects everything from the venerable Flow Mark content management software, the range of process capabilities in various WebSphere-branded products, as well as the workflow capability available with Lotus Notes and MQ Workflow. In September 2005, as part of a wide-ranging WebSphere announcement, IBM took the next step in pulling its BPM offering together under both the WebSphere banner and—more importantly—under WebSphere technology. In that announcement, IBM released its Process Server 6.0 deployment product (an upgrade to WebSphere Business Integration 5.x), as well as WebSphere Business Modeler, WebSphere Integration Developer and WebSphere Business Monitor--which are tools for both programmers and business analysts--and a BAM.Process Server is an eventual replacement for IBM's MQ Workflow software and adds STP functionality to that long popular human-centric capability. Process Server is not only built on WebSphere Application Server but also uses the new "basic" WebSphere ESB to mediate among metadata, business rules and process, human tasks and business state machines, and what IBM calls "selectors." To varying degrees, depending on the product and package (of which IBM offers many), the tools support simulation management enhancements, such as the ability to define and view simulation attributes using a table format, dynamic analysis performance and scalability enhancement, swim lanes and similar BPM techniques, and standards. That combined IBM BPM lineup provides native deployment support for BPEL4WS processes, a common event infrastructure, the features already available in WebSphere Application Server and many other development features not specific to BPM.Metastorm Metastorm makes it onto the IDC BPM deployment software leader board based on its acquisition of CommerceQuest. The position results primarily from the successful product offering of e-Work over the years, but it is also buoyed by the CommerceQuest Traxion B2B strengths, which we expect Metastorm to build into e-Work. (Brand names may change completely of course.) In September 2005, Metastorm announced e-Work Envision, a process modeling and simulation product designed to enable analysis of business processes to identify problem areas and model effective changes before getting to runtime deployment. e-Work Envision also provides customers forecasting and predictive analysis capabilities that allow users to both model new processes and simulate the impact of changes to existing processes. The new software allows processes built in the e-Work Designer to be simulated and provide answers to questions such as: How long will it take to complete the process? What is the cost of processing a business process set?The real power of e-Work Envision comes from its integration with the rest of Metastorm's BPM suite. Before the acquisition of CommerceQuest, Metastorm characterized Envision as the delivery of the final piece of the company's round-trip product strategy. We now expect Metastorm to expand the product strategy by incorporating many of CommerceQuest's features (which at a minimum will have the advantage of providing multiple routes to make the round trip and addressing the high-performance system-to-system integration aspects of complex business processes).
Microsoft Microsoft's ranking on the IDC BPM leader board is based primarily on the success of Microsoft collaboration and integration server products (i.e., BizTalk Server). Remember in IDC's opinion, BPM is a value proposition, and you can accomplish BPM via Exchange as well as BizTalk, depending on your needs. In addition, the latest news from Microsoft in September 2005 is the beta release of Windows Workflow Foundation (Windows WF), a potentially more robust implementation of BPM than in either Exchange or BizTalk (and an enabling technology for the next generation of both).
Windows Workflow Foundation incorporates a mainstream development platform and will support both human and system workflow across client and server scenarios. Workflow capabilities will be available to developers via the WinFX development framework, the programming model for Windows Vista. Developers can workflow-enable applications using Visual Studio development tools. Windows WF is part of Windows and has a full rules-based engine underneath it, which Microsoft, its VARs/ISVs and its customers can all use to enable their future applications. Microsoft hopes that will make developers even more eager to use the Microsoft platform/development tools. Microsoft's Windows WF features support both STP and workflow modes, and Visual Studio developers will be able to build applications that include those features from within VS.Oracle Oracle  joined the IDC BPM deployment software leader board based on its June 2004 acquisition of Collaxa, and on the calendar year success of Oracle integration server functionality (which has been marketed in various ways under various brand names). In September 2005, as part of a general announcement of new Oracle technology software, Oracle showed how its various deployment software products are modular components that run on a range of popular platforms and interoperate with development and deployment technologies and business applications from other software vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and SAP.Of greatest significance to the Oracle BPM value proposition in this component-based rollout was rules engine technology, licensed from Sandia labs and incorporated into Oracle integration server functionality in its various packages. With the business rules engine, customers will be able to modify or add business rules without rewriting the underlying application. Oracle also announced a business activity monitor function in September 2005. The next version of Oracle's application deployment software is currently in beta test and is scheduled for general availability by May 2006.Sterling CommerceThe Sterling Commerce position is based primarily on the company's long-term success in the B2B world, which is the growth engine of BPM. Its leading product is the Gentran Integration Suite, but Sterling's acquisition of Yantra in early 2005 also helps it provide a compelling BPM value proposition. In October 2005, Sterling Commerce announced the Visibility Manager, its first hosted supply chain application within the BPM lineup, and an example of what we are beginning to measure as industry-specific BPM.Visibility Manager represents a blending of Sterling's business integration technology with supply chain management technology from Yantra. Because of Sterling's networking culture, it claims that no migration is necessary for Sterling customers to take advantage of that combination. Visibility Manager provides document and process visibility into business transactions as they are traded among partners. It offers a view into supply chain activity with a single interface that lets customers control the multienterprise business process as a single process in the ongoing business transaction. The BPM suite, of which Visibility Manager is a part, is delivered via what Sterling calls Collaboration Network Services, powered by Gentran Integration Suite and Yantra. Gentran Integration Suite 4.0 itself was released in March 2005.TIBCO TIBCO's position is based equally on the successful product offering of Staffware Process Suite over the years and the BPM capabilities built into TIBCO BusinessWorks and EMS. The TIBCO BPM value proposition is also helped by the acquisitions of Praja (BusinessFactor business activity monitor), General Interface (an AJAX-compliant rich Internet interface product) and Velosel for metadata management. It also provides XML Canon, a design-time repository that manages the development and deployment of XML assets (of all types, whether or not they are part of the BPM value proposition).Rightly so, TIBCO does not look at its BPM offering as those separate products but as the five clear functions the products provide: user interface, process design/modeling, integration, process intelligence and underlying technology. The products are tightly integrated at runtime as of October 2005 (except for Velosel, of course, which was just acquired). This offering will be extremely strong competitively both at design time and at runtime as integration of all the point products proceeds.Reader advice This roundup of recent announcements is intended to just whet your appetite for what's out there--a very different set of BPM functions than just a year ago, not to mention than way back at the turn of the century, when your choices were almost horse and buggy like. As Figure 2 illustrates (See P.10, KMWorld January 2006), the convergence in functionality diagrammed and discussed above is happening because underlying technology is converging as well.BPM is primarily the culmination of a variety of middleware technologies converging to support both the run-time and non-programmer features that make the BPM value proposition meaningful. It's not a case that putting workflow and STP together, inside the fire wall or out, is a new concept. It is just that the underlying technologies such as transaction monitors, message-oriented middleware (MOM)/enterprise service buses (ESBs) and integration servers have now matured and converged to a point that can support all of the various dimensions you are looking for.But that leaves you with some questions:1. Do you want all the BPM dimensions in one product? There is no silver bullet in BPM or anywhere else; there are industry-centric and performance tradeoffs you will have to make if you are looking at one of those all-in-one offerings (or their clones from smaller suppliers on the IDC market share list). But in general, we believe you will like the suite approach over rolling your own with a litany of point products.2. Do you want all your infrastructure software from one supplier? Nothing has changed in the industry for 2006. Suppliers still want to lock you in just as auto manufacturers offer their "brand loyalty discounts." There are reasons that you might not find that lock-in a problem (if the product is for a specific business process set that is unlikely to change, for example, and the ROI is rapid). But in general, especially if you are a larger enterprise, we believe you will like the products that are not dependent on any particular operating software, database or other middleware component.3. Do you need to make your next BPM move in 2006? Just as nothing has changed among the suppliers, nothing has changed among the user community; inertia has its advantages unless you are driven by a customer, supplier, merger, acquisition or potential SEC investigation. The emphasis in the 2006 model year is to move work not only from the professional developer to the business analyst (that is what 2003-era leading products are starting to enable), but also from the business analyst to the power user. But standards and new functionality are coming with the objective that we will reach a point where no user involvement at all is required.Will you trade up and hit the road this year (our statistics say about 15 percent of you will), or will you nurse the old Chevy around the block a few more times?
Companies Mentioned
FileNet Corporation
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Process ViewPoints – Improving process capture and design by increasing the participation of process owners – providing the right level of information including process data, metrics, and KPIs that map specifically to the context of each process. The result will be a closer link between process design, execution, and performance.
New Platforms – Providing new options for the deployment of BPM and Integration technologies, addressing the reality of most organization’s heterogeneous IT infrastructure.
Improved User Experience – For all people involved in a process regardless of role – owners, participants, administrators – Metastorm will add features such as configurable process portals and more powerful reporting dashboards.
Process Pods™ – Metastorm will encapsulate the best solutions it has developed over the years into packaged “pods” that will provide the starting point for implementing a new process. Metastorm Process Pods will include maps, forms, sample data, and APIs for specific industries, horizontal applications, technology solutions, and services. The goal is to get customers up and running on multiple processes as quickly and effectively as possible and enable them to take advantage of Metastorm’s years of process management experience.

“Last year proved to be an exciting time for Metastorm, our customers, and for organizations looking to embrace business process challenges,” stated Greg Carter, CTO and VP of Product Development for Metastorm. “We certainly saw the pace, profile, and number of process projects jump in 2005 and predict that 2006 will see an even more significant increase, not only in the volume of process initiatives but in the scope of processes being automated. We look forward to remaining a leader in this exciting market and continuing to help our customers achieve success in 2006.”

About Metastorm
As the first breakaway BPM vendor, Metastorm is a leader in business process management (BPM) software and best practice methodologies for modeling, automating, integrating, and improving both human and system-based processes. Metastorm BPM™ is a complete solution for roundtrip process improvement, designed specifically to address complex processes that are unique to organizations. Metastorm’s 1200+ global client base in manufacturing, retail, financial services, business services, healthcare and government are achieving rapid ROI and Enterprise Process Advantage® in customer service, supply chain operations, risk management, and internal operations. For more information visit www.metastorm.com.

Copyright 2006, Metastorm, Inc. All rights reserved. Metastorm BPM and Enterprise Process Advantage are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Metastorm, Inc. Other product, service and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.


Press Contact Information:
Gina Karr
Metastorm
T: +1 410-290-0101
gkarr@metastorm.com

Jayson Schkloven
Merritt Group
T: +1 703-390-1529
schkloven@merrittgrp.com

Amy Redhead
Strategic Alliance
T: +44 1494 434 434
amyr@strategicpr.net

Im letzten Monat kamen 68% der Umsätze von von den Non-I-watch, 28% von den Institutionals und 4% von den Privaten.

Heute kommen 96% der Umsätze von den Non-I-watch, 0% von den Institutionals und 4% von den Privaten.

Man kann daraus schießen, dass massiv leer verkauft wird - andere Leerverkäufer aber auch eindecken. Bei den Privaten gehe ich davon aus, dass hier Kursabstauber kaufen, wie ich das heute ja auch schon oben empfohlen habe. Hierbei macht es wenig Sinn, nach Tiefstkursen zu fischen, sonst steht man dann ohne Stücke da.

Entschuldigung, sein Computergropgramm. Wer jetzt schon steigende Kurse von Internet Capital braucht und abergläubisch ist, sollte sich jetzt von Deutschland bestem Kontraindikator, einem gewissen Arnie, wünschen, dass sein Computer ein Verkaufssignal generiert. Hoffentlich sitzt er, wenn das kommt, nicht gerade am Klo und er verpasst es wie gelegentlich.

bzw. dort Interessierte, die in den normalen Gang von Angebot und Nachfrage eingreifen

thomson.finance.lycos.com/lycos/iwatch/...w_ticker?ticker=icge

Wenn Ihr die obige Adresse anklickt und bis zum Ende durchscrolled, könnt Ihr den neuen Weltrekord erkennen - 98% der Umsätze sind durch Non-I-watch erzeugt. Ein schier unglaublicher Wert. Wenn jemand so extrem den Kurs zu beeinflussen versucht, kann man bedenkenlos kaufen - zumal wir eigentlich einen verkappten Internetfonds haben, dessen Inventarwert, wenn die Beteiligungen börsennotiert wären, um mindestens das Doppelte höher liegen würde.

Nicht ganz klar ist mir allerdings, wer heute vielleicht ein halbe Million Aktien verkauft hat, die er noch nicht hat. Aber andererseits sollte das allen, die dadurch heute billig reingekommen sind, auch egal sein. Wer noch nicht drin ist und rein will, sollte morgen in Frankfurt einsteigen. Die Limits würde ich großzügig legen, sonst geht der Zug ab und ihr sitzt nicht drin.

Die letzten 45 Sekunden hat der Shortie für rund 135000$ ICGE rausgehauen um den Kurs auf 8,85$ zu drücken.

The e-auction tool will be available in January for American Express' U.S.-based clients, with a global release to follow later in the year.

"The new, ground-breaking American Express e-auction technology supports an historically complex event management bidding process, making it easier than ever for corporations to realize greater value from their meetings investment, better leverage preferred supplier relationships, and more closely link meetings purchasing to their overall travel procurement strategy," said Jay Roseman, Vice President of Corporate Meeting Solutions, American Express Business Travel. "When used in conjunction with our strategic purchasing programs, the American Express e-auction tool helps to further streamline deal-making, allowing meeting and procurement buyers and hotel suppliers to more effectively negotiate and together generate the best overall meeting package."

"This tool is just the latest example of StarCite's long and productive partnership with American Express Business Travel. We're pleased to have been asked by American Express to develop such a complementary addition to their Corporate Meeting Solutions practice," said Michael Boult, President and CEO of StarCite. "Meetings management is one of the last great frontiers of unmanaged corporate travel spending. As a leader in strategic meetings management technologies we're excited to provide the tool that will help pave the way for smarter, more efficient and cost-effective bid negotiations for all participants."

How It Works

Using the American Express e-auction solution for meetings management is simple and straightforward. First, corporate buyers identify a threshold volume for meetings and events that must be competitively bid via the e-auction tool. For each unique event, American Express Business Travel procurement specialists then initiate a site search based on the client's stated meeting requirements, preferred supplier strategy and travel policy. Based on the tailored availability report generated, the buyer narrows its venue options down to a short list of suppliers and properties that appear best prepared to provide the value clients require. Finally, American Express hosts the actual e-auction via a secure extranet-site allowing the buyer to customize the bid process and receive a formal offer within minutes. The auction thereby gives buyers significant flexibility during the bidding process, allowing buyers to tailor their requests.

About American Express Business Travel

American Express Business Travel, a division of the American Express Company, is dedicated to helping its clients realize the greatest possible value from their investment in travel through increased cost savings, outstanding customer service and greater spend control. For small businesses, medium-sized enterprises and multinational corporations, American Express Business Travel provides a combination of industry-leading booking technology, travel management consulting expertise, strategic sourcing and supplier negotiation support and customer service available around the world, around the clock, online and offline. American Express operates the world's largest travel agency network, recording nearly $20 billion in worldwide travel sales in 2004.

American Express Company (www.americanexpress.com) is a diversified worldwide travel, financial and network services company founded in 1850. It is a world leader in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel, business services and international banking.

About StarCite, Inc.

StarCite, Inc. is the provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions(TM). StarCite optimizes global investments in corporate meetings and events delivering visibility, savings and control. StarCite provides process efficiency, enabling technology and proven adoption management support to drive significant cost reduction to buyers and enhanced revenues to suppliers. StarCite is based in Philadelphia. Investors in StarCite include Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE); Maritz Travel Company; Seaport Capital; and TL Ventures. For more information about StarCite, or its technologies and services, please visit www.StarCite.com.

American Express acts solely as sales agent for travel suppliers and is not liable for the actions or inactions of such suppliers. CST# 1022318-10, TA# 002- Registered Iowa Travel Agency, NV# 2001-0126, ML#1192, Washington UBI# 600-469-694


CONTACT: for American Express Business Travel
Gregory Papajohn, 212-640-3414
gregory.n.papajohn@aexp.com
or
John Hartz, 212-446-1872
jhartz@sloanepr.com

SOURCE: American Express Business Travel

O.C. Tanner is in the business of employee recognition, through products and services that help companies acknowledge the contributions of their workers. The goal of O.C. Tanner is not just to supply awards and certificates, but also to support organizations in developing a culture of appreciation that creates a sense of value on the part of employees. With more than 10,000 clients, the company faced challenges in establishing, tracking and maintaining its highly customized recognition programs. Growth of its management systems had not kept pace with its increasing business base--the company was getting by with a mix of Microsoft Access databases, Excel spreadsheets, manila folders and a custom Visual Basic workflow application.

Wanting a more robust system for its process management than was provided by the Visual Basic application, O.C. Tanner began exploring BPM solutions.

"When we started out, we did not know what BPM was," says David Berg, senior VP and CIO of O.C. Tanner. "We ended up evaluating 21 companies against our set of criteria." Based on the company's specific needs, the evaluation team found that Fuego was the best match. Consultants from Fuego advised the company to start with a simple process, but O.C. Tanner opted to tackle the new account setup process, a complex but critical part of the business.

In the course of defining its processes, O.C. Tanner also simplified them, in one case reducing a 50-step list to just four steps. The time to get a new customer on-stream dropped from 12 days to seven, and the process became completely visible, as well as more accurate. Next on tap for Fuego at O.C. Tanner is the processing of administrative files, such as lists of employees who are scheduled to get awards at a particular time.

"Developing a BPM system needs to be a collaborative effort," says Berg. "You can't just write specs and throw them over the wall. You need to sit with the businesspeople on a daily basis and learn their processes." He also points out that considerable development effort is required to make the most of a rich functional environment.

BPM fills an important gap in enterprise applications. "We do not address the same needs that ERP, content management or collaboration applications do," says Rick Mattock, VP of product strategy at Fuego, "but we touch all of them." Often, a problem emerges because those applications do not talk with each other, and BPM can help them work together.

Compliance and more

Blue Rhino sought out a BPM solution to support its financial compliance initiative. The company sells propane in tanks for barbequing, and also designs and markets outdoor appliances such as grills and heaters. Its tank exchange program is widely available throughout the United States. Relying on a relatively small IT staff, Blue Rhino wanted to document, implement and test a set of formalized controls in its financial department. For example, bank deposits needed to be verified by several individuals, and the routing needed to be visible. After reviewing a variety of options, the company selected e-Work from Metastorm, a product that has since been rebranded as Metastorm BPM.

Automation was a significant shift for Blue Rhino, which promotes a corporate culture based on trust and interpersonal relationships. In order to make the transition easier for employees, the controls imposed by the system were introduced gradually. At first, deadlines for responses were matched to existing habits, and then they were tightened as employees got used to the process.

In addition to achieving the day-to-day control over financial transactions that Blue Rhino wanted, e-Work has reduced the time requirements for the IT department during audits. The auditor is seated at the e-Work application and can view the routing and dates of various financial transactions.

"Compliance was made easy for Blue Rhino," says Tamria Zertuche, senior director of information systems at Blue Rhino, "because the system offers both visibility and self-documentation." The new compliance system has been well accepted in the financial department, and now other departments are interested in automating their processes. Examples include replacing two paper and fax systems, one for ordering materials used in point of purchase and installation for customers, and another for incident reporting.

Yahoos und Intels Zahlen werden schlecht geredet weil die "Analysten" keine Ahnung haben.So bleiben die Käufer aus und der Shortie kann die Chance für sich und seine Spießgesellen nutzen.

nicht nur die Strategie des "Shortsellers" nicht.

Im Grunde genommen kapierst du überhaupt nichts :-)

Aber du hast dir jetzt eine zweite ID zugelegt - macht ja keinen Spaß, immer nur ganz alleine seinen Mist vor sich hin zu brabbeln. Jetzt kannst du dir zustimmen, dir Fragen stellen und sie dann auch selbst beantworten.

Schön, wenn man Freunde hat ... :-))))

Metastorm was selected to be the foundation of a highly specialized solution for the paperless processing of the Miles & More program. The solution was designed and implemented by Metastorm partner, arvato systems and arvato direct services, the long standing outsourcing provider for the Lufthansa Miles & More program since the first day of its existence.

Solution

Using Metastorm BPM™, arvato developed a project called SWIMM – Scanning & Workflow Integration Miles & More – to redesign and automate Lufthansa’s Miles & More procedures.

SWIMM can process 100,000 documents daily of varying form and quality – from hand written letters to boarding passes that include paper documents, e-mails, and faxes. After the first processing step, which includes high-performance scanning and the subsequent ICR/OCR identification, the documents are sent electronically to Metastorm BPM as inbound cases. These cases are the content basis for a complex process that is fully mapped by Metastorm BPM.

Metastorm BPM has supported a complete overhaul for processing all documents related to the Lufthansa Miles & More program. The use of Metastorm BPM has resulted in a more collaborative work environment that ensures documents are processed as quickly as possible. The solution also provides employees with visibility across the entire process so that they can see the status of cases at any given point in time. In addition, users can simultaneously review work-in-process on the system – a collaborative capability that leads to more efficient communication.

Results

With the help of Metastorm BPM, the incoming mail processing time at Miles & More has been substantially reduced while cutting transport and logistics costs to a minimum. The entire processing procedure has become transparent and includes many process control capabilities. Customer requests are answered faster and more effectively – resulting in increasing customer satisfaction and all around better customer service.

Lufthansa Miles & More has reached its goal of accelerating response times by simplifying complex manual procedures, integrating worldwide service with 24x7 availability, and increasing the speed of information sharing.

The company has endorsed Metastorm BPM as a critical system and plans to continue working with arvato to extend its use of Metastorm by automating and improving additional processes throughout the organization.

dass man einsteigen muss, wenn die Aktien billig sind:

Tages-Vol.
62.675,60

Gehandelte Stückzahl
8.877

Bei einem Papier, das bis zum Jahresende auf Werte zwischen 15 und 25 Dollar gehen kann, sind Kurse unter 9 Dollar bzw. 7,50 Euro ein Schnäppchen ohne Ende - und das bei dem jetztigen Kurs fast ohne Risiko, da allein 5 Dollar durch Cash und Wertpapiere abgesichert sind und die restlichn knapp vier Dollar durch Beteiligungen, deren Kurs-Umsatz-Verhältnis knapp über 1 liegt - statt Bewertungen von im Schnitt fünf bei vergleichbaren Beteiligungen.

ist wichtig, um beim Investieren in Internetwerte Erfolg zu haben. Insbesondere auf den US-Aktienboards, aber auch sonst überall auf der Welt, gibt es eine Rattenplage, die durch Verzocker aus der Zeit der New Economy verursacht wird. Die sind z.B. bei Internet Captial zu 4280 eingestiegen und bei 3,40 Dollar raus und platzen, wenn sie sehen, dass andere zu den Tiefstständen reingehen und ihre Einsatz verdoppeln. Ein besonders schlimme Landplage sind die Verzokcer von Commerce One, wo viele ihre letztes Hemd verzockt haben. Allerdings sind nur wenige derart unständig, verlogen und dreist, die damals Haus und Hof verzockt haben, die meisten bewältigen ihren Frust auf anständige Weise.  

Hab mal deine Seite rausgesucht.Da kann man nur sagen,nichts. Also sehr aufschlussreich.hehe

Du kapierst ...  18.01.06 11:26  
 Endlosschleife  22.12.05 15:52  
 An SnagLibuda  22.12.05 10:34  
 Ergänzende Informationen zum letzten Posting (82.)  21.12.05 17:29  
 @therealgamko: Richtiger gamko? Fake? Häh?  21.12.05 17:05  
 An LibudaSnag  21.12.05 14:23  
 Snag, alter Paranoiker ... zu 67 & 68  21.12.05 13:47  

aber es reiht sich in die uns bekannte Informationspolitik von Internet Capital ein: Verschweigen, was das Zeug hält - insbesondere positive Nachrichten. Das mit American Eypress hatte ich hier schon einmal gepostet - und zwar die Ankündigung. Jetzt kann man zum Beispeil auf Businnes Wire den Vollzug lesen. Bei Starcite, wo Internet Capital mit 61% das Sagen hat, wird über das Nachstehende sicher sehr Positive beinhart geschwiegen. Denn die Herren vom Management von Internet Capital kaufen eben immer noch beinhart und fühlen sich durch steigende Kurse dabei gesört, weil das ihre zukünftigen Kursgewinne schmälert und sie weniger Stücke kaufen können.

17.01.2006 14:00:00 (BUSINESS WIRE)
American Express Business Travel Launches First Electronic Arena for Negotiating Corporate Meeting Venues

... American Express Business Travel, the world's largest travel management company, today announced the first electronic solution for negotiating corporate meeting venues. The web-based application was developed exclusively for American Express Business Travel by StarCite, the provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions, to complement the services offered by Corporate Meeting Solutions, a meetings procurement practice at American Express. ...

Dass da weiterer Traffic für den von Starcite betriebenen Marktplatz abfällt ist klar, auch wenn sie wohl einen Teil der Provisionen an American Express abliefern müssen.