Furia Rubel Recertified as WBE by the Women’s Business Enterprise Council
Doylestown, PA (PRWEB) May 16, 2013
Furia Rubel Communications Inc., an award-winning strategic marketing, public relations and digital agency, is proud to announce that it has been recertified, for the seventh consecutive year, by the Womens Business Enterprise Council PA-DE-sNJ, a regional certifying partner of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), as a Woman-Owned Business (WBE). WBENC certification is one of the most widely recognized and respected certifications in the nation for women-owned businesses.
According to the company’s founder and CEO, Gina F. Rubel, Esq., “We have sought and are honored to have received WBENC certification every year since 2006. As one of just a handful of full-service marketing agencies certified in our region, it is important to us to continue to work with clients with a commitment to diversity.”
WBENC’s national standard of certification implemented by the Womens Business Enterprise Council PA-DE-sNJ is a meticulous process including an in-depth review of the business and site inspection. The re-certification process is designed to confirm the business is at least 51 percent owned, operated and controlled by a woman or women. By including women-owned businesses among their vendors, corporations, and government agencies demonstrate their dedication to fostering diversity and the continued development of their supplier/vendor diversity programs.
Founded in 2002, Furia Rubel Communications, Inc., is a full-service agency that provides strategic planning, marketing, public relations, graphic design, digital communications, website design, social media and media relations to a wide array of professional clients.
Furia Rubel has received many awards and has been recognized nationally for its work. Among the agency’s accolades are inclusion in The National Law Journal Best Of lists, The Legal Intelligencer Best Of lists, the Philadelphia Business Journal’s top agencies and top corporate givers lists. The agency has also won Summit International Creative Awards, Web Marketing Association’s Web Legal Standard of Excellence Awards, PR News Legal PR Awards, Legal Marketing Awards, International Academy of the Visual Arts Communicator Awards, Public Relations Society of America – Philadelphia Chapter Pepperpot Awards and various Webmasters Awards.
Furia Rubel represents law firms, technology companies, educational and religious organizations, accounting and tax providers, nonprofits, municipalities, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and elder care companies. For more information about the company, visit http://www.furiarubel.com, follow on Twitter @FuriaRubel or subscribe to the ThePRLawyer.com blog.
About WBENC: The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council is the nation’s largest third party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the United States. WBENC is a resource for the more than 700 US companies and government agencies that rely on WBENC’s certification as an integral part of their supplier diversity programs.
Enterprise Class E-Commerce Solutions at Affordable Cost, Asahi Technologies …
Enterprise Class E-Commerce Solutions at Affordable Cost, Asahi Technologies Introduces Broadleaf Commerce Services in New York
Published: May 9, 2013 3:47 AM
Broadleaf commerce is an enterprise-ready, configurable and extendable e-Commerce solution designed to meet the complex business and technical requirements of online retailers. Enabling businesses to build customized eCommerce solutions by leveraging the leading platform, the NY-based tech firm today announced Broadleaf commerce services at cost-effective pricing plans.
New York (PRWEB) May 09, 2013
The first eCommerce framework based on the widely adopted Spring framework, Broadleaf is a leading platform to run and build enterprise Java applications. Leveraging Springs features to provide a highly functional and extensible eCommerce framework, Broadleaf offers almost all the key feature sets required by world-class online retailers. It is aimed at the development dynamic commerce-driven sites by providing a robust data model, services and specialized tooling that takes care of most of the complicated programming tasks. Offering simple and easy integration with any database and back end system, its user-friendly merchandising tool enables site owners to manage products, promotions, designate featured products, customize product search and reporting with ease.
The platform supports social integration, catalog browsing, search engine optimization (SEO) and integrates with Google Analytics and any existing business database and fulfillment system. It can also be integrated with social networking sites such like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, etc. Designed to be highly scalable and easy to maintain it enables online storefronts to stand out from the rest with ease. Providing businesses with core functionality required for online transactions, Broadleaf significantly improves business efficiency. And to help online merchants with an open source alternative for enterprise eCommerce at reduced cost, the New York based tech firm has launched Broadleaf commerce services.
Unlike other ecommerce platforms, Broadleaf Commerce offers the unique advantage to extend the application, and easily add and change features. The flexible and extensible framework is easily customizable for specific business needs and lets organizations to relocate software licensing dollars to other business development initiatives. Research has proven that companies using Broadleaf Commerce are able to improve efficiency, capitalize on competitive advantages, and increase revenue. The robust open source ecommerce platform delivers a remarkable end product that is advanced than other e commerce applications.
At Asahi Technologies, the developers offer extensive Broadleaf Commerce services and solutions to help online businesses manage site visitors and clients, sell, promote and market their products and services in the most efficient way. Having experience working with some of the worlds largest eCommerce sites, the development team designs the system for commodity hardware and application servers. “Using Broadleaf commerce we develop highly scalable and customizable applications that are optimized for any type of eCommerce requirement”, stated Mr. Vinod Subbaiah, the CEO and founder of Asahi Technologies.
To help businesses know more about Broadleaf commerce services, Asahi Technologies provide a free online consultation to clients letting them understand their development options.
About Asahi Technologies
Asahi Technologies is a New York based web design and development firm that provides software consulting and Web solutions to small and medium level businesses all across North America. Asahi Technologies specializes in responsive design, cloud computing, online marketing, mobile application development and open source technologies. Under the leadership of Mr. Vinod Subbaiah, who himself started his career as a software programmer, Asahi Technologies’ team comprises of experienced software professionals having extensive knowledge of technology with B2C and B2B operations. The firm’s headquarters is located in New York City, NY.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/5/prweb10716802.htm
DOD business systems under fire — again
The Defense Departments struggle to take its business systems enterprisewide and into the 21st century continues. Once again, the Government Accountability Office has issued a report criticizing the modernization program.
If it sounds familiar, its because GAO designated DOD’s multibillion-dollar business systems modernization program as high risk in 1995 and since then has provided recommendations for DOD to strengthen its approach and reduce risks. Provisions in the fiscal 2005 National Defense Authorization Act mandated transition plans for modernization and DOD-wide business enterprise infrastructure, but the department continues to struggle, according to the latest report.
Even though DOD has spent more than 10 years and at least $379 million on its business enterprise architecture, its ability to use the architecture to guide and constrain investments has been limited by, among other things, the lack of a detailed plan, the reports authors wrote. The departments latest version of its transition plan included data on more than 1,200 covered defense business systems; however, important content, such as time-phased milestones and performance measures, is still needed to address the acts requirements.
The report also outlines DODs troubles in investment management and accountability structure, compliance in reengineering and realignment of its business processes, and management of workforce needs.
Collectively, these limitations put the billions of dollars spent annually on approximately 2,100 business system investments that support DOD functions at risk, the report states. GAOs previous recommendations to the department have been aimed at accomplishing these and other activities related to the business systems modernization. However, to date, the department has not implemented 29 of the 63 recommendations that GAO has made in these areas.
According to the report, officials have blamed three major factors for at least some of the troubles. They are recent turnover, changes to requirements that expand the number of systems subject to certification, and a short time frame for implementing an investment review process for DODs portfolio of business systems and processes.
In the past, officials have also pointed to DODs many legacy business systems and the efforts to upgrade and replace them as major factors in their struggles to bring DODs backend systems up to speed.
Today, DOD is implementing multiple business systems across the military departments and defense agencies to serve as the business backbone of their operations, wrote Robert Hale, DODs comptroller, and Elizabeth McGrath, DODs deputy chief management officer, in joint testimony for Congress in September 2012. Each of these implementations is at a different stage of its life cycle and most have experienced challenges as they have moved from design to implementation. These challenges have led to cost and schedule overruns of varying degrees, and include issues such as insufficient business process reengineering being conducted early and upfront in their life cycles, data quality/cleansing, and changing scope and requirements.
A Roadmap for the Future of Astrobiology – Astrobiology Magazine
The NASA Astrobiology Program has started the process of outlining future research directions at the organization. Roughly every ten years, the program updates NASAs official Astrobiology Roadmap a document that guides research and technology development across NASA and encompass the space, Earth, and biological sciences. This time around, the program is opening the process up to the wider astrobiology community and calling for the public to participate in decisions that will guide research funding and missions for the coming decades.
In May of this year, the Astrobiology Program launched the Astrobiology Future site (www.astrobiologyfuture.org/). The site hosts on-line hangouts and discussions, with each week dedicated to different scientific topics. This week kicks off with talks concerning the Early Evolution of Life and the Biosphere and Planetary Conditions for Life. The webinars begin today (Monday, May 20) at 1pm Eastern Standard Time. Video and transcripts from previous weeks are also available on the site, and there is still time be involved.
Road mapping history
The first NASA Astrobiology Roadmap resulted from a meeting of 150 scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center on July 20-22, 1998. The discussion focused on a set of fundamental questions that were developed at a workshop on astrobiology held in 1996. The group of scientists drafted a document that was designed to guide astrobiology research for the next 20 years (with a particular emphasis on the first 5 years). Since then, the roadmap has been updated with contributions from scientists and technologists selected from government, universities and private institutions.
The 1996 Astrobiology Roadmap outlined ten goals for research at NASA, and in 2008 this list was refined to seven:
- Understanding the nature and distribution of habitable environments in the universe
- Exploring for habitable environments and life in our own Solar System
- Understanding the emergence of life
- Determining how early life on Earth interacted and evolved with its changing environment
- Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms and environmental limits of life
- Determining the principles that will shape life in the future
- Recognizing signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth.
Each of these goals are expanded by objectives in the roadmap that directly inform how research funding is distributed by NASA. Previous versions of the roadmap are available from the Astrobiology Program website at: astrobiology.nasa.gov/roadmap
Plotting a course for the future of astrobiology
The Astrobiology Roadmap is a critical document for the Astrobiology Program at NASA, and serves as a guide for how research proposals are selected and how astrobiology goals are integrated with and inform space missions.
IIT-M paves way for students to do research in 2 fields at once
We have pooled faculty interested in inter-disciplinary research from 16 departments in the institute to guide research scholars. They can be attached to one of the departments for administrative purpose, but can work with more than one, said dean of academic research S K Das. He said that the idea was a hit, with the institute receiving 500 applications so far.
Academics said that such interdisciplinary research is rare in India because only universities with a comprehensive character can afford to take it up, whereas Indian policy has isolated the competency of universities into technical, medical and humanities.
There are very few model universities in this regard in India. Some research and development labs of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have been able to set up interdisciplinary research centres, but not academic institutions, said academics. Only the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has been able to transcend this barrier.
Dean of planning and development of SASTRA University S Vaidhyasubramaniam, said, Lack of interdisciplinary research does not mean that we lag behind in research output, only that we miss out on path breaking research and new knowledge. This is why we still import ideas from outside the country, and reflects on our poor patent output.
The idea of interdisciplinary research follows other initiatives by IIT-M to boost research, and to draw the best minds to the institute. This year IIT-M has also tried to draw the cream of undergraduates from self-financing private institutions by giving them the flexibility to join research courses directly after PhD without pursuing a masters degree. The new schemes have increased PhD and MS research applications by 15% to 20% from last year, with the count touching 10,700 in 2013.
UK government backs power electronics industry
The government is backing a plan to identify opportunities in the £135bn power electronics market.
The aim is to identify important power technologies that will be the most effective, strategic funding opportunities.
This is believed to be the first pan-industry roadmap for power electronics and will examine all sectors, including automotive, aerospace, consumer and energy.
NMI, the microelectronics industry association, is to identify disruptive technologies for the power electronics in a new industry programme.
The technology programme will be part of the PowerelectronicsUK Forum, which was launched last week at the IET in an event attended by the Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts.
“The launch of the forum will be a staging post for the sector,” said Derek Boyd, NMI CEO.
The UK’s power electronics community includes global suppliers, local companies with long pedigrees and start-ups.
Last year, Dynex Semiconductor opened a new Lincoln-based £1.8m Ramp;D centre as part of an £11.25m investment which will create up to 40 engineering.
Dynex designs and makes high power bipolar semiconductors, insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules and electronic assemblies, and the project is a partnership with Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric, a shareholder of Canadian parent Dynex Power.
Dynex’s Ramp;D teams work closely with university groups, such as Nottingham, Loughborough, Warwick and others, on advanced research topics and knowledge transfer projects.
TDK-Lambda designs and manufactures DC-DC and AC-DC power supplies at Ilfracombe on the North Devon coast.
German power management chip firm Dialog Semiconductor has two UK-located design centres at Swindon and Edinburgh.
Thyristors are an important technology for high power systems and the UK has a heritage in thyristor design. Westcode, owned by US firm power semiconductor firm IXYS, makes thyristors in Chippenham and Caledon Controls in Scotland design thyristors into big power converters.
TT electronics Semelab makes power mosfets in Leicestershire, while US suppliers International Rectifier and Diodes have facilities in the UK.
Amantys is a Cambridge-based power electronics start-up is finding international success with its technology for reducing size and power consumption of IGBT-based power switching modules, used in high voltage motor drives and renewable energy systems. (See page 16)
“The NMI will play a role in creating a unique, cross sector technology roadmap for UK industry to guide research and investment decisions,” said Boyd.
“In this way we can proactively collaborate with funding bodies with the benefit of informing government investment for economic benefit,” said Boyd.
The forum, which is supported by IET, Gambica and the ESP Knowledge Transfer Network, is a result of the governmental report Power Electronics A Strategy For Success published in October 2011.
www.power-electronics.org.uk
Ashland creates 3 business enterprise zones
ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ashland has created three enterprise zones to give property tax exemptions to companies that build there and add new jobs.
The Mail Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/ZKV0RS ) the sites are located at a former mill site, along railroad tracks and around the Ashland Municipal Airport.
A new business facility that increases full-time employment by at least 10 percent is exempt from property taxes for three years.
City management analyst Adam Hanks says the zones will help Ashland compete with other enterprise zones.
The Oregon Legislature last year authorized up to eight new zones and the state has authority for a total of up to 60 enterprise zones.
___
Information from: Mail Tribune, http://www.mailtribune.com/
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program disparity study now online
Date:
Friday, May 17, 2013
Contact:
Brenda Nnambi, director, WSDOT Office of Equal Opportunity, 360-705-7095 (Olympia)
Jackie Bayne, business development consultant, 360-705-7084 (Olympia)
WSDOT to host public meetings across the state in June
OLYMPIA – A study to determine whether the Washington State Department of Transportation’s contracting activities are fair and equitable for all is now available for review. The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program disparity study analyzed information about local marketplace conditions for minority-owned and women-owned businesses and the degree to which WSDOT utilizes these businesses.
The studyin its entirety and an executive summaryare available online.
As a next step, WSDOT will hold a series of public meetings to discuss the results of the study and receive comments on the overall DBE goal options contained within the study. The meetings will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at each of the following locations:
Tuesday, June 18 – North Seattle
WSDOT NW Region Headquarters
Cafeteria Conference Room
15700 Dayton Ave. N
Shoreline, WA 98133
Wednesday, June 19 – Yakima
Selah Maintenance Facility
900 E Selah Road
Yakima, WA 98901
Thursday, June 20 – Spokane
WSDOT Eastern Region Headquarters
2714 N Mayfair St.
Spokane, WA 99207
Tuesday, June 25 – Vancouver
WSDOT SW Region Headquarters
11018 NE 51st Circle
Vancouver, WA 98682
Wednesday, June 26 – South Seattle
South Seattle Community College
Georgetown Campus
6737 Corson Ave. S
Seattle, WA 98108
Thursday, June 27 – Tacoma
Tacoma Small Business Incubator
1423 E 29th St.
Tacoma, WA 98404
During these meetings, WSDOT will also talk about the new Small Business Enterprise Program and its benefits, eligibility and prime contractor requirements. Persons wanting to attend a meeting should reserve a spot by calling 888-259-9143 or emailing disparitystudy@wsdot.wa.gov.
A webinar has been scheduled for June 24 from 1:30 to 4:30 pm for individuals who are unable to attend a meeting. Registration for this webinar is at: www1.gotomeeting.com/register/644078352 .
Comments on the overall DBE goal options may also be submitted in writing to: disparitystudy@wsdot.wa.govor mailed to:
Disparity Study
Washington State Department of Transportation
PO Box 47314
Olympia, WA 98504-7314
For more information, email disparitystudy@wsdot.wa.govor call 888-259-9173.
Hyperlinks within the release:
- Executive summary: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/11F45C6F-CEE6-4665-8424-04FEBF047967/0/2012DBEDisparityStudyExecutiveSummary.pdf
- DBE Disparity Study report: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/9F8F685A-9E47-4F13-AA79-F776AC0C576E/0/2012DBEProgramDisparityStudyFinalReport.pdf
###
WSDOT keeps people, businesses and the economy moving by operating and improving the states transportation systems. To learn more about what were doing, go to http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/newsfor pictures, videos, news and blogs. Real time traffic information is available at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/trafficor by dialing 511.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Information
Accommodation requests for people with disabilities can be made by contacting the WSDOT Diversity/ADA Affairs team at wsdotada@wsdot.wa.gov or by calling toll-free, 855-362-4ADA (4232). Persons who are deaf or hard of hearing may make a request by calling the Washington State Relay at 711.
Title VI Statement to Public
WSDOT ensures full compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by prohibiting discrimination against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin or sex in the provision of benefits and services resulting from its federally assisted programs and activities. For questions regarding WSDOTs Title VI Program, you may contact the Departments Title VI Coordinator at 360-705-7098 or 509-324-6018.
Ag knowledge must ‘spill over’ among countries
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has released a report that examines the implications of the increasingly influential roles of global businessBrazil, China and Indiain agricultural research and the limited national research capacity of developing countries.
The report makes the case that greater international collaboration and investment in research is needed to safeguard productivity gains made over the past half century and meet future food demand.
The independent study, Agricultural Innovation: The United States in a Changing Global Reality, is authored by University of Minnesota researchers, Philip G. Pardey and Jason M. Beddow. It concludes that most Sub-Saharan African countries could potentially access at least 25 times their locally produced agricultural knowledge by adapting and adopting scientific breakthroughs produced in other countries.
A new way of thinking about agricultural investments and innovation must be embraced to take advantage of such opportunities to increase agricultural production and increase the efficiencies of investment at all levels, from the local to the international level, said Pardey. A more international approach is urgently needed, as the lag between research investments and commercial adoption is extremely lengthy.
Pardey and Beddow wrote about accumulated knowledge spill over to benefit other countries. These new measures of global spillover potential can help guide research and development decisions in the United States and globally.
The current system does not adequately take advantage of the vast stocks of knowledge that exist around the world that could be adapted to local environments elsewhere, said Beddow.
History has shown that agricultural research and innovation is pivotal to increasing productivity, but the share of Ramp;D investments made by traditional high-income countries, especially the United States, has dropped. Investments in agricultural research in emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India, and South Africa are growing. Business investments in research are playing an increasingly important role. Investments have also shifted away from a focus on productivity improvements in staple crops and been spread across a wide variety of other interests.
The Chicago Council commissioned this report to assess how to better leverage scientific breakthroughs to benefit agriculture in low-income countries and get the most out of Ramp;D dollars and activities, said Marshall M. Bouton, president of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Taking stock of international agricultural Ramp;D efforts is critical given the important role science will play in empowering the agriculture and food system to meet future food demand.
The study takes into account that the global agriculture and food system will be asked to increase production by 60 percent by 2050. It acknowledges that research and development will play a critical role in meeting this challenge given that production increases will occur in the face of rising temperatures, resource scarcity, and the increased frequency of extreme climatic events.
This independent report was made possible by support from the Bill amp; Melinda Gates Foundation; DuPont; and The Quaker Oats Company, a division of PepsiCo. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs was founded in 1922 and is an independent and nonpartisan organization committed to influencing the discourse on global issues.
Crop insurance a viable, economical risk-management tool
By Doug Rich
The Federal Crop Insurance program has evolved from what was basically an experiment started to help farmers recover from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl to one of the most vital programs offered to farmers. Producers and their bankers rely heavily on crop insurance to provide a reliable safety net for crop production.
Art Barnaby, professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University, gave an overview of the crop insurance program and the changes it has gone through for Sorghum U, an educational series sponsored by the Sorghum Checkoff, Sorghum Partners LLC, and High Plains Journal.
Crop insurance dates back to the 1930s when it was a government-run program with government employees doing both sales and service. Barnaby said that changed in 1980 when a public/private partnership was established with the passage of the Federal Crop Insurance Act. Four years later another major change came along with proven yields.
Prior to that everything was set on a county yield number, Barnaby said. Those with lower yield tended to buy insurance and those with higher yields did not buy insurance. This led to unintended subsidies.
Crop insurance continued to change with the addition of Market Value Protection in 1991, and Crop Revenue Coverage/Revenue Protection in 1996. The Agricultural Risk Protection Act came along in 2000 to encourage a greater number of farmers to participate, Barnaby said. The Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act of 1994 was passed, making participation in the crop insurance program mandatory for farmers to be eligible for deficiency payments under price support program, certain loans, and other benefits.
Now about 270 million acres are insured, Barnaby said. A large number of farmers are now enrolled in the program largely due to the law change in 2000.
In the last farm bill debate there were several proposals to reduce the costs of crops. These included limiting the premium subsidy for farmers and having a means test.
It was forecast, as we saw the drought developing, that this would cost the government $40 billion, but that was clearly nonsense from the start, Barnaby said. It was a near impossibility, in fact.
Barnaby pointed out that ad hoc disaster aid, Supplemental Revenue Election, and Agriculture Risk Coverage are just free crop revenue insurance.
If you took the crop insurance program as it is and provided a 100 percent subsidy that would in effect be a disaster program, Barnaby said.
The use of put options in crop insurance is another recent change. Barnaby said all USDA risk management tools including the Average Crop Revenue Election; Supplemental Revenue Election, marketing loans and ARC are derivatives of options and insurance. Adding put options and insurance to revenue insurance is more efficient than insuring price and yield separately. A major change from previous crop insurance contracts is that all contracts now use the same projected price based on new crop futures prices.
As a result all Common Crop Insurance Policy contracts have the same yield guarantee, Barnaby said.
Beginning in 2011 with CCIP contracts any additional revenue that is coming from revenue protection has to be due to the put derivative that is built inside the insurance contract.
So if prices go down the payment will be higher under this contract than under yield only, but all of the additional payment has to come from the price component, according to Barnaby.
Out of the top 12 most common crop insurance contracts for grain sorghum in South Dakota the top three were revenue protection contracts. Barnaby said this is the case all across the country.
This is the cheapest form of price protection you will ever get at less than one cent per bushel, Barnaby said.
Many farmers who would never have used crop insurance in the past have changed their minds. According to the Risk Management Association in 2012 farmers invested more than $12 million in premium for more than 6,600 crop insurance policies. Last year Federal Crop Insurance protected nearly 70 percent of all corn acres, 80 percent of all soybean acres, and 50 percent of all wheat acres.
Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304, or by email at richhpj@aol.com.
Date: 5/13/2013
Recent Posts
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- Enterprise Class E-Commerce Solutions at Affordable Cost, Asahi Technologies …
- DOD business systems under fire — again
- A Roadmap for the Future of Astrobiology – Astrobiology Magazine
- IIT-M paves way for students to do research in 2 fields at once