CellularManager Cellular POS Point of Sale Software

Data Guard Systems Recognized As Laureate By The Computerworld Honors Program

2007-05-29T02:47:00.000-04:00

Global Technology Awards Foundation Pays Tribute to Organizations that Use Information Technology to Benefit Society

CAMBRIDGE, MA, MAY 30, 2007 - Data Guard Systems has been recognized as a Laureate by IDG’s Computerworld Honors Program. This year’s Honorees will be commemorated during the Annual Laureates Medal Ceremony & Gala on June 4, 2007, in Washington, D.C. In its 19th year, Computerworld Honors is the longest running global program to honor individuals and organizations that use information technology to benefit society.

This year, Dell, Inc., nominated Data Guard in recognition of its positive work in reducing datacenter energy consumption. Data Guard’s consolidation efforts reduced their datacenter power consumption by 80%, allowing the cost savings to be passed on to countless small businesses that depend on the company for services while simultaneously minimizing the impact on the environment.

“Each year, the Computerworld Honors Program seeks to recognize organizations, from a variety of sectors, for their ongoing efforts to utilize technology in order to benefit society,” said Ron Milton, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation and Executive Vice President of Computerworld. “We are proud to provide a platform to publicly acknowledge these contributions.”

The technology achievements honored by this program are preserved in over 350 universities, museums and institutions worldwide as well as online at the Computerworld Honors website: www.cwhonors.org.

“We are truly honored to be recognized as a Computerworld Honors Laureate,” said Timothy Maliyil, President of Data Guard Systems. “The acknowledgement by our peers and colleagues for our work to help conserve energy and the continuing positive impact for our clientele are truly gratifying."

About Computerworld
Computerworld is the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide. Computerworld’s award-winning weekly publication, Computerworld.com website, focused conference series and custom research form the hub of the world’s largest IT media network. Computerworld is a business unit of International Data Group (IDG). http://www.idg.com.

About Data Guard Systems
Data Guard Systems, Inc., based in Cambridge, MA, is a leading developer and marketer of online business management software. Its premier product, CellularManager Cellular POS, offers a comprehensive suite of data management, enterprise synchronization tools, and paperless document management with complete point-of-sale integration to independent wireless and cellular distributors, retailers, and master agents.

Contact:
Public Relations, Data Guard Systems
(617) 702-1100
pr@dataguardsystems.com
www.dataguardsystems.com

Data Guard Systems, CellularManager, and Prepaid OnDemand are registered trademarks of Data Guard Systems, Inc.

Advanced Business Intelligence Reporting in CellularManager

2007-05-18T13:09:00.000-04:00

Data Guard Systems, Inc., announces the debut of CellularManager Advanced Custom Reporting, a powerful upgrade to the company's CellularManager point-of-sale and enterprise management software platform. This new upgrade is a one-of-a-kind suite of business intelligence tools for the cellular retailer and provides cellular retailers and master agents with more customization features and analytical tools than ever before.

CAMBRIDGE, MA (PRWEB) May 16, 2007 -- Data Guard Systems, Inc. a developer and marketer of online business management software, today announced the debut of CellularManager® Advanced Custom Reporting, a powerful upgrade to the company's CellularManager point-of-sale and enterprise management software platform. This new upgrade further expands on the already productive and scalable reporting in CellularManager and gives cellular retailers, wholesalers, and master agents more customization features and analytical tools than ever before.

With a constantly changing and evolving marketplace, cellular retailers have unique business needs. Advanced Custom Reporting directly addresses these needs by pairing its superior proprietary business intelligence and analytical tools with the specific business requirements of the cellular industry. The end result is highly scalable, enterprise-class reporting in a highly accessible and affordable package for smaller and mid-market cellular companies.

Via Advanced Custom Reporting, clients obtain a comprehensive suite of tools that manages everything from customer data mining to advanced user security controls. With real-time customization tools, users can filter and color-code results as well as design vibrant charts and graphs. As an added bonus, master agents can export and share custom reporting templates with their subagents to enhance their intra-office data collection capabilities.

"CellularManager Advanced Custom Reporting is a one-of-a-kind suite of business intelligence tools for the cellular retailer," said Timothy Maliyil, President of Data Guard Systems. "In this new era of 'on demand' information, the businesses that most effectively analyze and use their data will ultimately be the most profitable and most successful. This powerful, comprehensive, and scalable application simply outshines, outpaces, and outclasses our competitors' offerings. Once again, Data Guard Systems leads the way in providing superior enterprise-class software at entry-level pricing and accessibility to our clients."

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About Data Guard Systems

Data Guard Systems, Inc., based in Cambridge, MA, is a leading developer and marketer of online business management software. Its premier product, CellularManager Cellular POS, offers a comprehensive suite of data management, enterprise synchronization tools, and paperless document management with complete point-of-sale integration to independent wireless and cellular distributors, retailers, and master agents.

Data Guard Systems, CellularManager, and Prepaid OnDemand are registered trademarks of Data Guard Systems, Inc.

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Source: PRWeb

Data Guard Systems Debuts New Advanced Business Intelligence Reporting in CellularManager Cellular POS

2007-05-16T11:36:00.000-04:00

New Offering Gives Highly-Customizable, Enterprise-Class Reporting to CellularManager Users

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 16, 2007 -- Data Guard Systems, Inc. a developer and marketer of online business management software, today announced the debut of CellularManager® Advanced Custom Reporting, a powerful upgrade to the company's CellularManager point-of-sale and enterprise management software platform. This new upgrade further expands on the already productive and scalable reporting in CellularManager and gives cellular retailers, wholesalers, and master agents more customization features and analytical tools than ever before.

With a constantly changing and evolving marketplace, cellular retailers have unique business needs. Advanced Custom Reporting directly addresses these needs by pairing its superior proprietary business intelligence and analytical tools with the specific business requirements of the cellular industry. The end result is highly scalable, enterprise-class reporting in a highly accessible and affordable package for smaller and mid-market cellular companies.

Via Advanced Custom Reporting, clients obtain a comprehensive suite of tools that manages everything from customer data mining to advanced user security controls. With real-time customization tools, users can filter and color-code results as well as design vibrant charts and graphs. As an added bonus, master agents can export and share custom reporting templates with their subagents to enhance their intra-office data collection capabilities.

"CellularManager Advanced Custom Reporting is a one-of-a-kind suite of business intelligence tools for the cellular retailer," said Timothy Maliyil, President of Data Guard Systems. "In this new era of 'on demand' information, the businesses that most effectively analyze and use their data will ultimately be the most profitable and most successful. This powerful, comprehensive, and scalable application simply outshines, outpaces, and outclasses our competitors' offerings. Once again, Data Guard Systems leads the way in providing superior enterprise-class software at entry-level pricing and accessibility to our clients."

=============================

About Data Guard Systems

Data Guard Systems, Inc., based in Cambridge, MA, is a leading developer and marketer of online business management software. Its premier product, CellularManager Cellular POS, offers a comprehensive suite of data management, enterprise synchronization tools, and paperless document management with complete point-of-sale integration to independent wireless and cellular distributors, retailers, and master agents.

Data Guard Systems, CellularManager, and Prepaid OnDemand are registered trademarks of Data Guard Systems, Inc.

Source: MarketWire

Virtualization by the numbers: ROI not just about hardware

2007-04-20T16:29:00.000-04:00

ROI STRATEGIES - Virtualization by the numbers: ROI not just about hardware

Linda Tucci, Senior News Writer, SearchCIO.com
02.13.2007

NEW YORK -- It's not your daddy's virtualization anymore. That was the message at last week's Virtualization Forum 2.0 in New York. In the space of just two years, virtualization has morphed from a tactical technology deployed mainly to consolidate infrastructure to a tool that increasingly is used to test and run mission-critical applications.

"It is extremely eye-opening to see how quickly this technology has progressed and how deeply it has penetrated the organization," said John Humphreys, program director for enterprise platforms at Framingham, Mass.-based research firm IDC, which hosted the one-day conference.

Lack of virtualization know-how resulting in failed projects
A survey conducted by IDC in December shows that more than 50% of all the virtual machines at roughly 500 organizations in North America are running production-level applications. Survey respondents said that nearly half of all the servers in their organizations will be virtualized by the end of 2007. Moreover, most new applications deployed going forward will run on virtualized servers, respondents said. Those that don't will be required to make "a strong business or technical case" for getting a dedicated physical device.

Proponents of virtualization like to point to its ROI. As recently as 2005, the business case for deploying virtualization was two-fold, Humphreys said: cost savings on hardware, as well as the energy and real estate costs related to operating those assets.

"So you had the capex side and opex side," Humphreys said. "When we talked to customers then, the return on investment was roughly 25%, and that primarily was driven by the number of servers they had to maintain and the ongoing costs associated with power and cooling of those physical assets." Of the dollars saved, about half were returned to the company and half reinvested in other projects in IT.

Bottom line takes center stage
But the reasons for deploying virtualization are changing rapidly. While consolidation is consistently cited by 45% as the major impetus for going virtual, high-level business services, including business resiliency, disaster recovery and availability, are coming to the forefront as reasons for going virtual, accounting for about 25% of spending today, according to IDC data.

As CEO and founder of Data Guard Systems Inc., Timothy Maliyil's interest in virtualization is all about the bottom line. Started five years ago, the Cambridge, Mass., company develops and sells business software applications for the retail industry. The company experienced tremendous growth between 2004 and 2005.

"We were to the point where we were adding servers almost very other week, and our data center was getting out of control," said Maliyil, a panel speaker at the conference. The company is in a hosted data center. Rather than running fiber all over the building to all its cages, and buying 60 new servers, the company invested in four large VMware ESX boxes and a storage area network, saving $12,000 a month in data center expenses, on top of numerous other savings. "We increased profit margins tremendously. The investment paid off in about 18 months."

For David Rossi, managing partner and co-founder of Sapien LLC, virtualization is a revenue driver. Sapien, based in Morristown, N. J., delivers enterprise human resource management systems and human capital management solutions as Software as a Service. Rossi said the company considered virtualization as a cost-saving measure but quickly came to see it as a "vital component of our business model" to grow the company. "I'm sure it saved us gobs of money in terms of availability or duplicating our infrastructure rather than buying it," he said. Rossi emphasized that vitalization's real value has been in improving customer service, including economically developing new delivery models for customers by trying them out in a virtual environment.

Manpower and mobility
Going forward, IDC predicts that "virtualization 2.0" will focus on reducing manpower costs and increasing application mobility. The number of servers worldwide has exploded, from 6 million in 1996 to an estimated 45 million servers by 2010. The increase is driven by the proliferation of both the number of applications needed to support today's economy and the new technologies used to do business. Most servers are being used at only 15% to 20% capacity.

"Virtualization will be used to drive automation and to drive down the cost of managing and administering" those large environments, Humphreys said. Interest in using virtualization for application mobility is rising dramatically already, according to IDC data. In 2005, 25% of all customers surveyed by IDC identified live migration as the primary reason they were purchasing vitalization. Just 12 months later, Humphreys said, that percentage jumped to 44%.

Application migration today is primarily used for planned downtime, but that will change, Humphreys said. The IDC data predicts that the technology will be used for unplanned downtime.

But Humphreys cautioned that going virtual brings its own set of challenges, many of them related to the managerial cost and political fallout of deploying a virtual environment.

The time, effort and energy to transform an organization -- not just to lay down the hypervisor layer, but changing processes to accommodate virtualization, Humphreys warned -- is a major hurdle. Saving on manpower means lost jobs. Budgeting for virtualization projects is a challenge, both in terms of getting the funds and figuring out how to charge for the services, as applications are shared between departments. Training the staff to manage this abstract environment, including assigning responsibility and authority for managing virtual machines, is another challenge.

Mass High Tech Journal Feature Article about Data Guard Systems and Prepaid OnDemand

2007-01-10T15:32:00.000-05:00

The following article is an excerpt from the December 22, 2006 issue of Mass High Tech - The Journal of New England Technology.

Data Guard Launches Phone Card Line
by Efrain Viscarolasaga

DECEMBER 22, 2006 -- Data Guard Systems Inc., traditionally a maker of back-end accounting software for cell phone retailers, has launched a new product into the high-growth, low-margin arena of prepaid calling cards.

Or, more specifically, the lack thereof.

Last week, Cambridge-based Data Guard debuted its CellularManager Prepaid OnDemand, a software suite aimed at helping retailers of prepaid cell phone services eliminate the need to maintain an inventory of physical calling cards. Using the suite, retailers such as the T-Mobile franchise store at a local mall would be able to offer personal identification numbers for new and recharged prepaid calling plans.

"We've eliminated the need for retailers to hold inventory," said Timothy Maliyil, president of Data Guard. "This increases the margin on prepaid programs while decreasing the risk for a retailer."

A recent report by Yankee Group analyst Keith Mallinson notes the prepaid market is the fastest growing market segment in wireless, with 60 percent of worldwide users on a prepaid plan in 2006. Mallinson's report predicts that by 2009 about 2.4 billion wireless devices will be in operation, with prepaid users exceeding contract users by a 2-to-1 margin.

In fact, in a recent earnings call, Sprint Nextel CEO Gary Forsee credited part of the company's recent growth to its prepaid Boost Mobile division, which has grown to almost 500,000 subscribers.

But while the prepaid market is growing, post-paid subscriptions and new activations have been decreasing, according to both Mallinson's report and Maliyil.

"This year has been a lousy year to be in (the retail) business," said Maliyil. "Sometimes you hit a saturation point with subscribers. Now, it is just very difficult for retailers, and they have to be very creative to get their store noticed."

Maliyil said he believes Data Guard's move into the supply-chain side of the prepaid space will help Data Guard's 3,400 existing customers differentiate themselves and take advantage of the growing market.

Data Guard, which employs 50 people, has been successful with previous offerings, reporting $4 million in revenue this year and riding four consecutive years of triple-digit growth, according to Maliyil.

In January 2007, he said the company expects to add a feature that will automatically notify both prepaid and subscription customers when they are close to reaching limits on minutes.

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The article itself can be downloaded directly from the Data Guard Systems website:
Go HERE for the article.

Data Guard Systems Lets Cellular Retailers and Wholesalers Market Prepaid, PIN-Based Minutes via New CellularManager(R) Prepaid OnDemand

2006-12-12T11:11:00.000-05:00

Data Guard Systems Lets Cellular Retailers and Wholesalers Market Prepaid, PIN-Based Minutes via New CellularManager(R) Prepaid OnDemand

New Offering Promises Up to 40% Increase in Profit via Company's Preferred Rates
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 12, 2006 -- Data Guard Systems, Inc., a developer and marketer of online business management software, today announced the debut of CellularManager® Prepaid OnDemand, an enhancement to the company's CellularManager® point-of-sale and enterprise management software platform. CellularManager Prepaid OnDemand allows cellular retailers, wholesalers, and master agents to sell prepaid cellular minutes in real time over the Internet via PINs that are made available to the end user.

With the maturation of the cellular industry and the shrinking of new account activations, cellular retailers are looking for new ways to generate revenues. Prepaid wireless is currently the fastest growing sector of the cellular marketplace, with 15% of the overall market, according to statistics from The Yankee Group. "Unbanked" users, youth, and budget-conscious or infrequent users are the groups who most often use prepaid.

Through the use of Personal Identification Numbers (PINs), CellularManager Prepaid OnDemand quickly and cost-effectively serves the prepaid wireless market. It also allows retailers, wholesalers and master agents to eliminate stagnant plastic card inventory, minimize shrink and fraud, and gain added profit via the most aggressive wholesale prepaid rates on the market today.

"CellularManager Prepaid OnDemand is a natural evolution of the prepaid market," said Timothy Maliyil, President of Data Guard Systems. "Beyond the obvious savings brought about by eliminating prepaid card inventories, this new Web-based concept is the lowest-cost method yet to market prepaid minutes. Even more, Data Guard Systems has leveraged its substantial customer base to obtain the most aggressive rates for our clientele. Our clients will see, on average, a 40% increase in profit per PIN from CellularManager Prepaid OnDemand."

Data Guard Systems' CellularManager Prepaid OnDemand can be fully integrated into the company's CellularManager Cellular point-of-sale software. To learn more, visit www.dataguardsystems.com.

About Data Guard Systems

Data Guard Systems, Inc., based in Cambridge, MA, is a leading developer and marketer of online business management software. Its premier product, CellularManager Cellular POS, offers a comprehensive suite of data management, enterprise synchronization tools, and paperless document management with complete point-of-sale integration to independent wireless and cellular distributors, retailers, and master agents.

Data Guard Systems, CellularManager, and Prepaid OnDemand are registered trademarks of Data Guard Systems, Inc.

Prepaid OnDemand in the News

2006-11-17T20:21:00.000-05:00

Prepaid company dismisses card in favor of code
By Kelly Hill
Nov 17, 2006
Prepaid is a fast-growing segment of the wireless market. The industry's third-largest carrier Sprint Nextel Corp.'s growth in the past few quarters has been fueled by sales of its prepaid Boost Mobile L.L.C. product. During the fourth quarter of 2005, a large percentage of customer additions for No. 1 carrier Cingular Wireless L.L.C. came through resale partner Tracfone Wireless Inc., a prepaid product with low average revenue per user.
With the cellular market becoming saturated and high-quality customers getting harder to come by, a larger percentage of prepaid users are expected to be in carriers' customer mixes, as they take another look at providing services to customers they might have once snubbed when postpaid pickings were easy.

Prepaid dealers have a new way to reduce their inventory of top-up cards and personal identification numbers, with a system designed to work much the same way as a gas pump dispensing a receipt with a code for a prepaid car wash.

Data Guard Systems Inc. already sells a software platform, CellularManager, to help retailers manage their sales; the relatively new piece, Prepaid OnDemand, integrates with that system to allow independent retailers to use a Web-based system to sell prepaid PINs on request, instead of relying on a physical inventory.

Data Guard serves 3,500 retail locations in the United States and Canada, and about 600 of them have added the Prepaid OnDemand product since it was launched in August, according to Timothy Maliyil, president of Data Guard. The new feature is compatible with the company's other products, which offer dealers a real-time look at profit and loss and other business management features.

The new product is the company's first move into the supply chain, Maliyil said. He added that Data Guard was able to leverage the size of its customer base in order to negotiate better bulk prepaid prices for its customers.

Maliyil noted that dealers typically must purchase a large inventory of prepaid cards or PINs in order to anticipate customer demand. Prepaid OnDemand is designed to eliminate the need for physical cards, because the purchase takes place over the Internet in real time. Customers are then presented with a receipt that includes a code which they use to top up their minutes. The system prevents dealers from having to worry about prepaid cards being stolen, Maliyil said, and offers the option for the dealer to limit which employees can sell prepaid minutes.

Maliyil said that Data Guard's prepaid product will include offerings from all major carriers and some small carriers, including large mobile virtual network operators such as Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C.; however, he added that the company has not yet seen enough demand to warrant including all MVNOs.

Maliyil said that Data Guard might consider expanding its role to use its size and negotiate discounts on other products or services for its clients. RCR

CellularManager is a Prepaid Leader

2006-11-02T14:51:00.000-05:00

Hybrid Payment Plans: the New Alternative
With pay-as-you-go and higher-end phones in the mix, the line between prepaid and postpaid is getting even finer.

By Monica Alleven
November 1, 2006
Wireless Week

Remember when prepaid meant buying a plastic card and refilling minutes as needed? Although those cards are still available, today's prepaid options range from the traditional prepaid phones and cards to the non-traditional hybrid plans that look more like postpaid.

And talk about options. By at least one analyst's estimate, about 50 companies offer some sort of viable prepaid offering – and that's not counting the lesser-knowns.

These days, the definition of prepaid may vary. Committing to a monthly plan upfront each month essentially would seem a form of prepayment, but to Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services for J.D. Power and Associates, prepaid means topping up every month, where the customer must proactively go out and pay more money to continue service as opposed to getting a statement each month.

Then there are plans known as pay-as-you-go, which Virgin Mobile successfully promoted to avoid any negative connotations associated with the word "prepaid." Add hybrid plans into the mix and you've got more flavors. Amp'd Mobile, for example, recently unveiled what it calls its hybrid plans, which look more like postpaid and allow customers to get service on a month-to-month payment plan by routing their billing through a debit or credit card. There is no contract, and customers also can access multimedia content such as live concerts and 99-cent songs.

GROWTH DRIVERS Many operators offer prepaid hybrid plans, although they're not always called "hybrid." Such plans will drive prepaid growth in the future, but not significantly for a couple of years as newer MVNOs get off the ground, analysts say. Overall, about 11 percent of wireless subscribers are prepaid – and that may rise to 12 percent or 13 percent in a year, with most of the growth coming in 2007 and 2008 when the effects of hybrid plans show up, says Marina Amoroso, analyst with the Yankee Group.

Of the estimated 55 MVNOs that have launched in the United States, the majority are prepaid. The postpaid trend started to materialize after Qwest sold its infrastructure to Verizon Wireless in 2005 and transitioned its subscribers to Sprint's network, Amoroso says. Dozens of new MVNOs popped up, the most prominent being Amp'd Mobile, Helio, Disney Mobile and the now exiting Mobile ESPN.

One of the more mature prepaid MVNOs is 4-year-old Virgin Mobile. In a J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Wireless Prepaid Customer Satisfaction Study earlier this year, Virgin Mobile ranked highest in overall customer satisfaction among current wireless prepaid customers.

"It hasn't always been easy, and it's not as easy as it looks," says Howard Handler, chief marketing officer at Virgin Mobile. "But we were able to kind of change the way the people think about wireless and give people more options. What we said coming out of the gates is we want to take the mobile phone from behind the glass case and put it on a peg so it's easy for people to grab it and go."

One of Virgin Mobile's main sources of competition these days is the family plan, which national operators offer alongside their own versions of prepaid. To counter that, Virgin Mobile points out that its target market is heavily skewed toward teens and young adults who value their financial independence and who don't necessarily want to be on their parents' plan. Handler likens it to buying a car; a parent can buy the teen a phone and say, "You're responsible for the gas," thereby giving them more independence.

MORE TO THE PARTY Although Virgin Mobile received the highest rank overall in the J.D. Powers study, it had company. Verizon Wireless followed Virgin Mobile in the rankings and performed particularly well in call quality and company image. Other prepaid carriers that scored at or above the industry average were T-Mobile USA, Boost Mobile and TracFone, Parsons says.

With such a crowded market, why does prepaid continually attract so many players? The cost of getting into the business is relatively low, and prepaid provides higher profit margins than postpaid. That said, "it's not an easy market," Parsons says, noting the price competition and challenge of attracting customers who already may have a contract with another carrier.

Still, new entrants keep coming even as others are leaving. Tim Maliyil, president and founder of Data Guard Systems, which offers software that eliminates the physical prepaid calling cards and allows retailers to sell prepaid cellular minutes in real time over the Internet, sees all kinds of potential for prepaid growth in the U.S. market. Retailers are looking for any and all opportunities for new revenue and increased profit, he says, noting that more than half of the mobile users in Europe and Asia are prepaid cellular users. The same can happen in the United States, he says.

During the past five years, the effective price of a postpaid minute has dropped from 22 cents in 2000 to 0.067 cents in 2005, an average decline of 21 percent per year, according to the Yankee Group. The price per prepaid minute is still high compared to postpaid – on average, prepaid is about 20 cents per minute. But prepaid MVNOs have enough room in their margins to remain competitive and lower their prices toward an average of 15 cents or 10 cents per minute, Amoroso says.

Airlink Mobile, a Sprint MVNO, is shipping prepaid phones to about 5,000 convenience store locations, and its main problem now is keeping up with demand, according to Airlink President and CEO David Stanek. Airlink's handsets sell for about $30 but are free after a mail-in rebate. "We have very strong margins," he says, attributing much of the company's success to a strong distribution network. The company expects to be in 7,000 stores by the end of this year.

As long as the margins are good and the cost of entry is low, there's little doubt that the prepaid offers will keep coming, regardless of how they're defined.

MarketWire: Data Guard Systems Announces New Dynamic E-Mail Marketing Included in CellularManager Cellular POS

2006-09-11T20:09:00.000-04:00

CellularManager Cellular POS has added the ability to send dynamic e-mail marketing to its robust software platform at absolutely no additional charge to users. Now, instead of getting charged by and sharing confidential customer information with third-party e-mail services, business owners can create personalized, vibrant, and targeted e-mails to their customers and prospects directly from the safety of their CellularManager software.

For more information about this and other great features in CellularManager Cellular POS, please visit the CellularManager DemoCenter.

http://www.dataguardsystems.com/democenter/democenter.asp.

Data Guard Systems Announces Enterprise-Level Document Management for CellularManager

2006-09-11T16:12:00.000-04:00

Data Guard Systems Announces Enterprise-Level Document Management for CellularManager

CellularManager® - Real-time, Online Enterprise Management Software for Wireless Retail

CAMBRIDGE, MA, SEPTEMBER 11, 2006 — Data Guard Systems, Inc. is proud to announce the release of a new, enterprise-level document management system to be fully-integrated in CellularManager® its popular Internet based point-of-sale and enterprise management software platform for cellular retailers, wholesalers, and master agents. These new features expand on the software's existing document and contract storage to provide a comprehensive company intranet solution with unlimited storage potential — at absolutely no extra cost to CellularManager® clients.

Following up on the massively-popular integrated contract and document storage in CellularManager was a monumental task, but one that was eagerly embraced and easily accomplished by Data Guard Systems' eFormis subsidiary. The new advanced document manager offers a completely secure, entirely online company intranet where CellularManager users can create and manage a comprehensive library of company documents in a fully-collaborative online environment. Document distribution is accomplished via an intelligent system that sends secure, encrypted document links only to designated users. Since the documents themselves are not directly distributed, this solution ensures complete document security and helps protect a company's confidential and proprietary information while streamlining the overall processes of the document management system.

"Recent research shows that companies lose one out of every twenty-five important documents. Considering the large amount of paperwork and contracts accumulated daily by cellular retailers, they can ill-afford such losses," commented Timothy Maliyil, President of Data Guard Systems. "By creating an online document library for our clients, these organizations can go completely paperless while saving great amounts of time and energy searching for paperwork. As always, Data Guard takes the extra steps to make this solution so much more than simple online document management, by allowing full administrative customizability and control of the company intranet as well as a system of user notifications and integrated document distribution. Through the elimination of many of the human processes, this software can help streamline communication and employee interactions."

Data Guard Systems Announces New Dynamic E-Mail Marketing Included in CellularManager

2006-09-06T13:14:00.000-04:00

CellularManager® - Real-time, Online Enterprise Management Software for Wireless Retail

CAMBRIDGE, MA, SEPTEMBER 6, 2006 — Data Guard Systems, Inc. is proud to announce the release of a dynamic new customer marketing and e-mail campaign system to be fully-integrated in CellularManager® its popular Internet based point-of-sale and enterprise management software platform for cellular retailers, wholesalers, and master agents worldwide. These new features give CellularManager® clients not only an extremely robust customer tracking and marketing list generator but also the ability to create personalized and dynamic e-mail campaigns — at absolutely no extra cost.

Direct e-mail marketing is quickly becoming one of the most effective forms of marketing due to the potential low deployment costs of launching an e-mail campaign. Through the use of CellularManager's extensive Customer Resource Management (CRM) technology, cellular retail organizations of all sizes can achieve measurable results by taking advantage of their network of contacts, leads, and existing customers. Via dynamic list generation and e-mail marketing with Variable Data Processing, clients can provide a highly targeted and personalized marketing experience for customers. Additionally, because the CellularManager software platform is entirely self-sufficient, business owners don't have to worry about customer confidentiality or privacy issues. The system is fully-compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

"On an average day, dozens, if not hundreds, of people can walk through a cellular retail store. Retailers collect customer information for use by the carriers, and many times never take advantage of the wealth of information and customer data that they have collected," commented Timothy Maliyil, President of Data Guard Systems. "With CellularManager, our clients have the ability to create very specific sets of customers, send them targeted, personalized e-mails, and then track the resulting sales — all in the same software platform. If the basic tenet of marketing is 'know your customer,' CellularManager users are some of the most knowledgeable business owners on the planet."

RSA Security Delivers Information Security Solutions to Data Guard Systems, Inc.

2006-07-20T21:42:00.000-04:00

From RSA Security - July 19, 2006: "We recently purchased RSA BSAFE® Crypto-C Micro Edition technology to enhance security measures for our CellularManager® application and lock down the sensitive data on our servers using 256-bit encryption. Since we are hosting sensitive consumer data within our infrastructure, we wanted to make sure that no one could make use of the data on our servers in the event of a network breach," said Timothy Maliyil, President and CEO, Data Guard Systems, a leading developer and marketer of online business management software. "Data security is incredibly important to us, and I am confident that our information is safe within the systems using the encryption libraries from the RSA BSAFE solution."

MarketWire: Data Guard Systems Consolidates Hardware and Slashes Data Center Power Consumption by 80%

2006-07-17T15:22:00.000-04:00

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- July 11, 2006 -- Data Guard Systems, Inc. is pleased to announce the successful deployment of new Dell hardware that replaces myriad backup database servers and storage devices and further consolidates them to four servers and one storage-area network. The addition is expected to reduce monthly utility costs by $10,000, slash power consumption by 80%, and increase overall administrative productivity.

Data Guard Systems and Dell replaced forty-five (45) backup database servers with four Dell™ PowerEdge™ 6800 servers running VMware® ESX virtualization software. This software senses available capacity within a server and assigns the computing tasks to be processed at that location without interruption. Massive amounts of data were also migrated from various storage devices onto a Dell/EMC CX500 storage area network to simplify its management.

Dell Services was an integral part of Data Guard Systems' migration to a consolidated infrastructure. "The Dell team prides itself on being a trusted adviser to enterprise customers who come to us to design and build their data centers," said David Marmonti, vice-president of Dell's preferred corporate accounts division. "With the work completed for Data Guard Systems, they're now capable of handling their business expansion for years to come."

Since the migration, Data Guard Systems is saving as much as $10,000 a month in power costs. "Our new Dell and VMware solution is projected to reduce the power required by as much as 80 percent, and the resulting savings should be sufficient to pay for the new servers and software within a year," explained Timothy Maliyil, President of Data Guard Systems. "And with the knowledge that we had avoided spending millions on power improvements at three distinct data centers, everyone was pleased. We've had zero downtime with the new configuration, and the performance has been stellar."

About Data Guard Systems

Data Guard Systems, Inc., based in Cambridge, MA, is a leading developer and marketer of online business management software. Our premier product, CellularManager Cellular POS, offers a comprehensive suite of data management and enterprise synchronization tools with complete point-of-sale integration to independent wireless and cellular distributors, retailers, and master agents.

Data Guard Systems and CellularManager are registered trademarks of Data Guard Systems, Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

"Calling on Consolidation"
http://media.marketwire.com/attachments/200607/271095_dataguard-dell-consolidation.pdf

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Contact:
Public Relations
Data Guard Systems, Inc.
(617) 702-1100
Email Contact: pr@dataguardsystems.com

SOURCE: Data Guard Systems, Inc.

Did You Know that Data Guard Systems is Saving $10,000 a Month in Power Costs?

2006-07-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

The best part about this new consolidation? EVERYONE BENEFITS.

With oil prices rising, power is becoming more and more expensive every day. Shipping companies raise their rates to offset gas and oil prices. Airlines are forced to increase their fares to offset their fuel costs.

Data Guard's consolidation efforts not only save the company money on power, but these savings are passed along to well over 3000 storefronts nationwide who will not see raised rates to offset increasing power costs.

Now, that's something everyone can smile about.

You can read more about how this was accomplished here.

Link: Data Guard Systems: Calling on Consolidation

Data Guard Systems Consolidates Hardware and Slashes Data Center Power Consumption by 80%

2006-07-11T11:39:00.000-04:00

Dell Case Study on the Data Guard Systems Infrastructure

2006-06-26T14:13:00.000-04:00

Data Guard Systems sees power savings with SAN rollout

2006-05-26T14:16:00.000-04:00

May 16, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Moving to a storage-area network (SAN) has saved Data Guard Systems Inc., a provider of a hosted online accounting package for 3,000 independent cell phone stores, enough money to pay for the new storage arrangement within a year.

Data Guard Systems, which president and founder Timothy Maliyil describes as being "like Salesforce.com for a specific niche," had been using 60 servers in a data center, plus another 60 servers for redundancy and backup to prevent any downtime. Those servers required 240 amps of power. And the Cambridge, Mass., company was faced with having to buy another 30 servers -- plus an additional 30 backup servers -- to handle the tripling in business it had experienced the previous year.

Instead, it moved in March to a SAN comprising EMC Clariion CX500 arrays totaling between 6TB and 7TB of storage from Dell and four Dell PowerEdge 6800 servers with dual-core processors.

The Dell servers run VMware to virtualize the company's older servers, and the entire SAN uses just 24 amps of power, Maliyil said -- a tenth of what was needed before. Virtualizing the servers also resulted in much higher utilization.

Because Data Guard was using three data centers -- in Boston, Denver and New York -- Maliyil saved $20,000 a month in data center costs, money that primarily went for electricity. The SAN itself cost $150,000, and the servers and other incidentals another $75,000, for an overall price tag of $225,000.

"It paid for itself in a year," Maliyil said. "I'd rather spend money on hardware than on a data center."

Moreover, adding data center space would likely have meant the expense and effort of setting up hardware in a different part of the building and running fiber between the two operations, Maliyil said.

Data Guard approached several vendors, and "Dell beat out the competition by a significant amount," Maliyil said. His company, which started as a consulting project three years ago, now has 35 employees. Support costs are unavoidable with the servers, but the company can run the SAN with a lean staff, meaning Maliyil didn't need to add more employees when business tripled.

The SAN has also made backups and disaster recovery easier. Previously, the servers at one data center were backed up over a point-to-point connection to another data center, using compression to reduce the amount of data transferred. Now Maliyil can push data from an entire server to another data center using EMC Corp.'s SAN Copy software, he said.

"If we had a physical disaster, we have the data stored remotely," he said, noting that the company doesn't do backups to tape any longer because restoring from a disk is faster -- and his customers demand the speed.

With the new setup, Maliyil said, he is ready for more corporate growth.

"Because we bought this, we have room to grow -- even if we had another explosive year like last year," he said.

Data Guard SAN Could Pay for Itself in a Year

2006-05-26T13:08:00.000-04:00

May 22, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Data Guard Systems Inc., a provider of a hosted accounting system for independent cell phone stores, expects that a $225,000 storage-area network installed in March will pay for itself within a year.

Timothy Maliyil, president and founder of Data Guard, said the monthly electric costs for the new SAN will likely be $20,000 less than the alternative storage upgrade.

The new SAN includes two EMC Clariion CX500 arrays capable of handling between 6TB and 7TB of storage and four Dell dual-processor PowerEdge servers running EMC 's VMware virtualization software, he said.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company installed the SAN to support its rapid growth, Maliyil said, noting that DataGuard's sales tripled between 2004 and 2005. It also uses 60 smaller Dell PowerEdge servers to store data.

Before buying the SAN, Data Guard had looked at doubling the number of PowerEdge servers to support the growth, but it chose the SAN for its reduced electric costs.

Moreover, adding servers likely would have required additional data center space, increasing expenses, Maliyil said.

The SAN will "pay for itself in a year," he said. "I'd rather spend money on hardware than on a data center."

Maliyil said using support services from Dell Inc., which supplied the Clariion systems under its reseller agreement with EMC Corp., eliminates the need for additional staffers to run the new systems.

With the new setup, Maliyil noted, Data Guard can support rapid growth. "Because we bought this, we have room to grow -- even if we had another explosive year like last year," he said.

Data Guard SAN Could Pay for Itself in a Year

2006-05-26T12:18:00.000-04:00

Data Guard Systems Dials Dell To Consolidate Enterprise Network

2006-05-10T10:58:00.000-04:00

Cell Phone Software Maker Rings Up Savings in Utility Costs, Power Consumption

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Round Rock, Texas, May 10, 2006

Data Guard Systems expects to reduce monthly utility costs by $10,000, slash power consumption by 80 percent and increase administrative productivity through a recent hardware purchase from Dell.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based software maker for cell phone providers is ringing up the savings by consolidating myriad database servers and disparate storage devices to four servers and one storage-area network.

Dell replaced Data Guard System's network of 45 database servers with four DellTM PowerEdgeTM 6800 servers running VMWare® ESX virtualization software. The software senses available capacity within a server and assigns the computing tasks to be processed at that location without interruption. Terabytes of data were also migrated from different storage devices onto a Dell/EMC CX500 storage area network, simplifying its management.

Data Guard Systems' software helps cellular retailers manage sales activities such as opening new customer accounts and managing inventory. With the company experiencing tremendous growth, its computer infrastructure was showing signs of strain.

"Many of our 3,000 cell phone retailers expect us to be open 24 hours a day so it is essential that our software operate on reliable hardware,"said Tim Maliyil, president, Data Guard Systems. "We also said we needed a vendor that could simplify information-technology operations to make us more nimble and competitive. Dell delivered on both fronts."

"The Dell team prides itself on being a trusted adviser to enterprise customers who come to us to design and build their data centers," said David Marmonti, vice president of Dell's preferred corporate accounts division. "With the work completed for Data Guard Systems, they're now capable of handling their business expansion for years to come."

About Data Guard Systems

Data Guard Systems, Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass., is a leading developer and marketer of online business management software. Its premier product, CellularManager® Cellular POS, offers a comprehensive suite of data management and enterprise synchronization tools with complete point-of-sale integration to independent wireless and cellular retailers, distributors and master agents. For more information, visit http://www.dataguardsystems.com.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell sells more systems globally than any computer company, placing it No. 25 on the Fortune 500. Company revenue for the last four quarters was $56 billion. For more information, visit www.dell.com. To get Dell news direct, visit www.dell.com/RSS.

Data Guard recognized by Dell for IT Excellence

2006-05-10T10:57:00.000-04:00

PRESS RELEASE (MarketWire): Data Guard Systems Announces New Integrated Calendar and Scheduling Software

2006-02-13T14:57:00.000-05:00

CAMBRIDGE, MA --(MARKET WIRE) -- 01/31/2006 -- Data Guard Systems, Inc. is proud to announce the release of a new and fully integrated suite of Time Management tools in CellularManager® its popular Internet-based point-of-sale and enterprise management software platform for cellular retailers, wholesalers, and master agents worldwide. These new features offer CellularManager® clients the ability to better manage their company, their employees, and -- most importantly -- their time with minimal time and financial investment. By providing an all-in-one solution for retailers, Data Guard Systems and CellularManager® helps to streamline business processes by eliminating the need for piecemeal, non-integrated software.

Data Guard Systems Announces New Fully Integrated Online Calendar and Scheduling HR Software

2006-02-01T10:29:00.000-05:00

Data Guard Systems Announces New Fully Integrated Online Calendar and Scheduling HR Software

Data Guard Systems, Inc. Company Overview - TheSoftwareNetwork.com Business Software Directory

2006-01-31T15:17:00.000-05:00

Data Guard Systems, Inc. Company Overview - TheSoftwareNetwork.com Business Software Directory

PRESS RELEASE Data Guard Systems Announces New Fully Integrated Online Calendar and Scheduling HR Software

2006-01-31T10:05:00.000-05:00

PRESS RELEASE Data Guard Systems Announces New Fully Integrated Online Calendar and Scheduling HR Software