ITGumbo: spicing IT up

Israel's hi-tech scene was in a bit of a lull during the week of June 29, 2008, perhaps because of July 4th in the United States. The biggest news was about Google AdWords killer, Peer39, which has a semantic search engine that brings back more accurate results and can thus display better ads. It also has the ability to differentiate between positive and negative contexts of words. After Peer39, Microsoft made headlines with two announcements. The first announcement was that it has partnered with Ben-Gurion University and the second was that MSN Israel will now be controlled fully by Microsoft and no longer jointly with Internet Gold. There was also a lot of technology investment-related news that took place. For these and the rest of the 12 technology-related headlines from the week of June 29, 2008, as well as a special bonus check below.


Technology
Microsoft and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev announce agreement

A First Look Inside Peer39 & Its Semantic Advertising Technology

Microsoft to take full charge of MSN Israel

Alvarion® Sets Off First Mobile WiMAX™ Internet Service in the U.S.


Business
Cleantech Index (CTIUS) Expands Globally, Adds 33 New Companies

Israel's high-tech culture must rejigger, VC says

Options trade points to stronger shekel

VMware Completes Acquisition of B-hive Networks

IncrediMail and Google Sign AdSense Direct Agreement

Metalink files to raise $25m


Miscellaneous
What Determines the Price of Oil?

Destination: San Francisco. And Still NoGoBoingo


Bonus
This past Tuesday, popular Israel Web 2.0 blog, the.co.ils hosted its annual web startup competition, TWS2008. Ten Israeli Web 2.0 companies were selected by an impressive list of judges and gave brief presentations about what they do. Some of the winners included, Nuconomy, Dapper, HiveSight and WorkLight. WorkLight securely brings personalized Web 2.0 into the enterprise. Here are two video clips of part of WorkLight's presentation:





About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Coming soon to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dining halls throughout Israel: Automated time and attendance management software developed and supplied by Synel Industries Ltd.

Globes reported earlier this week that the Synel-provided terminals "will include options to define meal times and types" and "are equipped with a printer that issues meal coupons." The automated process can keep track of and "identify what meal type has been consumed in which dining room and on what time." The intended result will be reduced expenditures on food and food-related administration and the amount of food wasted.

For those IT professionals who aren't touched by how Synel's technology can lead to less food waste in the Israeli army, there are plenty of other ways Synel's products and solutions can be deployed in your company - especially since it is about to be distributed by SYNNEX Corp.

According to the Globes article, Synel recently signed a strategic distribution partnership agreement with SYNNEX Corp that

"will enable Synel to offer its time and attendance and access control solutions - TimeLOG and Falcon through SYNNEX's information technology distribution channel."

IT professionals looking into better time and attendance management solutions can consider Synel's TimeLOG for medium organizations and Falcon PRO - a full access control software (including security) for employees and the workplace - for the enterprise.

Company Facts

Founded in 1990.

Gabi Buganim, President and CEO.

David Ashkenazi, V.P. R&D.

Products: TimeLOG Pro, Falcon Pro and Harmony.

Website: www.synel.com.


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Aternity, Inc., a leader in frontline performance intelligence for Global 1000 enterprises, is a very hot Israeli company to watch right now. As with VeNotion Technologies, the company has been making headlines with regards to its partnerships and developments several times monthly. In the past few weeks, Aternity has announced that it is joining the Red Hat Inc. ISV Partner Program as a Red Hat Ready Partner and that it has earned Certified Partner Status in the Microsoft Partner Program.

Aternity's Frontline Performance Intelligence Platform lets IT professionals get a birds' eye view of what programs users are running and monitor their interaction with the company's information. The software can also detect problems in the early stages before most users can, and can provide the organization with the valuable information it needs to make sure it is running smoothly and meeting its goals.

How important is software, such as Aternity's, to IT professionals and the enterprise right now? Aternity recently sent over some facts and figures to a colleague of mine that should provide IT professionals (and investors) with enough information and reasons to at least keep an eye on Aternity and the field, if nothing more:  

    -  According to Jean-Pierre Garbani of Forrester Research, there are more than 30,000 enterprises that have more than 100 servers today – and 40 percent of these enterprises are potential targets for deploying end user experience monitoring solutions.

    -  According to Forrester Research, 74 percent of end user problems are not detected by IT, which means these organizations are negatively impacted from a productivity, revenue, customer service, and delivery-time standpoint. Any enterprise interested in dramatically reducing business disruption and increasing user productivity needs to understand how IT services are consumed by end users, and how end user experience impacts business results.

    -  Aside from its partnership with Red Hat, Inc, [and Microsoft] Aternity has already gained the attention of major industry players - the VC arm of Intel recently led a $5 million investment earlier this year, and Oracle is engaging in a joint venture with the company to provide Oracle E-Business suite users with easy access to Aternity's platform.

    -  Aternity secured Series A funding in 2005 totaling $7.5M and a Series B round of $6.5M was closed in April 2007.  

Company Facts

Founded in 2004.

Trevor Matz, President and CEO.

Eden Shochat, CTO and Co-founder.

Orit Kislev-Kapon, VP R&D and Co-founder.

Product: The Aternity Frontline Performance Intelligence Platform.

Website: www.aternity.com

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Last week, 15 Israeli web companies had the opportunity to meet with investors and various executives in Silicon Valley, CA during the Israel Web Tour 2008. ClickTale Ltd., one of the selected 15, was chosen to participate for its innovative technology that allows Website owners and staff to record, watch and analyze user behavior on their sites as part of its hosted service.

According to ClickTale CEO, Tal Schwartz's LinkedIn profile,

"ClickTale (www.clicktale.com) is a web analytics service that captures and analyzes customer interactions inside web pages, revolutionizing traditional web analytics that measure activity between pages. ClickTale records and plays back customer's every online interaction, every mouse movement, click, scroll, keystroke, and window resize. Subscribers to ClickTale have been able to increase revenues and improve usability by minimizing abandonment of shopping carts, maximizing completion of online forms, optimizing landing pages, and running usability testing."

ClickTale's software can provide IT professionals with vital business intelligence to help meet the company's bottom line. 


Company Facts

Founded in 2006.

Dr. Tal Schwartz, Co-Founder & CEO.

Arik Yavilevich, Co-Founder and CTO.

Website: www.clicktale.com

Globes is reporting that Israel-based Amdocs Ltd has deployed its Compact Convergence suite with Mobile Virtual Network Enabler, Effortel in Belgium. The news release announcing this states that the deployment is intended to "help one of the world's largest retailers offer mobile phone service in Belgium."

According to the Amdocs website, Amdocs is a

"leader in customer experience systems innovation, enabling world-leading service providers to deliver an integrated, innovative and intentional customer experience(TM) at every point of service."

Its solutions integrate software, service and expertise, making it easier for customers to meet their goals. It is expected that Compact Convergence's network-connected complete service platform will give Effortel,

"the operational flexibility and agility needed to efficiently and cost-effectively create, deliver and manage new value-added services."

In general, the Compact Convergence suite can help mobile services expand into emerging markets in a manner that is cost-effective while meeting aggressive growth targets and launching services quickly. Cellcom Telecommunications also selected Amdocs Compact Convergence suite recently.


Company Facts

Founded in 1982.

Dov Baharav, President & CEO.

Bruce K. Anderson, Chairman

Eli Gelman, EVP, COO.

Website:  www.amdocs.com

Israel-based ClickSoftware Technology Ltd. recently won a contract to "optimize the scheduling operations of several hundred technicians responsible for [IT] break/fix, installation and maintenance work" at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing using its ClickSchedule and ClickAnalyze solutions.

According to the company's website, ClickSoftware is a mobile workforce management and service optimization solutions provider whose solutions
 

"create business value for service operations through higher levels of productivity, customer satisfaction and cost effectiveness. From proactive customer demand forecasting and capacity planning to real-time decision-making, incorporating scheduling, mobility and location based services, ClickSoftware helps service organizations get the most out of their resources."

IT professionals looking for real-time performance solutions should pay attention to how ClickSoftware's products handle the pressures of the Olympics later this year. Few situations get more real-time and demanding than that.


Company Facts

Founded in 1997.

Moshe BenBassat, Chairman and CEO.

Hannan Carmeli, Chief Operating Officer.

Products: ClickSchedule, ClickAnalyze and ClickMobile.

Website: www.clicksoftware.com

Globes is reporting that Gilon Business Insight Ltd., "a subsidiary of Dovrat Group unit D-Partners, has acquired Tachlit Database Marketing for an estimated $1 million." The move, which will "complement [Gilon's] own business intelligence activity," provides additional assurance that the company will continue to dominate Israel's business intelligence market.

Here's a list of some of Gilon's partner Israeli BI software companies that benefit from Gilon recommendations to its customers:

YaData- Its software solutions helps Direct Marketers with discovering and managing micro-segments in target marketing.

Hiposoft - Its SAP solutions, especially BSignal, supplements SAP environments by immediately alerting the company to any unusual activity within the system, all with the option of doing so in a Web 2.0 way.

Verix - Its Verix Discovery Suite is intended to make the task of business analytics more efficient for sales teams by automatically "discovering emerging changes in purchasing behaviors" and "giving them the information they need to plan and schedule calls so they can influence the outcome."