Industry Briefs

NEWS

ENCYCLOPEDIAS PRELOADED.

Hardcopy versions of encyclopedias have evidently become a resource of the past. VitalSource Technologies (www.vitalbook.com), provider of secure digital content solutions, has partnered with IBM (www.ibm.com) to offer students ordering IBM ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCenter desktops the option of having preloaded encyclopedias on their computer systems. With preloaded Encyclopedia Britannica (www.britannica.com) software, students are able to quickly access “Concise” or “Student Encyclopedia” articles, while working on other documents, say IBM spokespeople.

CODIE AWARD FINALIST.

Ingeniux CMS, the Web content management software from Ingeniux Corp. (www.ingeniux.com), has been named a finalist in the annual Codie Awards, sponsored by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA; www.siia.net). The Codie Awards celebrates achievement and vision in software, education technology, and digital content.

M&A, ETC.

MCAFEE DONATES $1M.

The Rochester Institute of Technology (NY) has partnered with intrusion prevention solutions provider, McAfee Inc. (www.mcafee.com ), to launch a new master’s program in Computer Security and Information Assurance. McAfee has donated more than $1 million in next-generation intrusion prevention technology to RIT’s B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences (GCCIS), a comprehensive computing college.

ON THE RISE.

With the significant increase in the number of students choosing accounting careers, global publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. (www.wiley.com) and Boston-based Acadient (www.acadient.com ), a developer and distributor of online learning, recently partnered to create the Wiley CPA e-Prep (www.cpaeprep.com), a new online review of The Uniform Certified Public Accounting Preparation (for the CPA exam). The Wiley CPA e-Prep delivers real-time scoring and statistics, plus, students can save test results and data.

TO THE WOLVES.
NetWolves Corp. (www.netwolves.com), a global network continuity and security provider, has introduced “ECCI Powered by NetWolves,” with ECCI (Education Communication Consortia Inc.; www.campusecci.com), a telecommunications management company serving higher ed, at the ACUTA Winter Conference in San Antonio, TX (www.acuta.org). With their solution, the companies will jointly manage network security, network and Internet connectivity, customer care, long-distance calling, customized calling cards, and student and administrative billing.

PEOPLE
NEW ELEARNING PREZ.
Plato Learning (www.plato.com), a provider of eLearning solutions, has elected Michael A. Morache as its new president and CEO. Morache joins Plato with more than 30 years of experience developing, leading, and growing technology businesses. He was formerly president of Pearson Education Technologies (now Pearson Digital Learning; www.pearsondigital.com ). David Smith, acting president and CEO, will assume the position of executive chairman.
FROM PEOPLESOFT TO POLYCOM.
In Polycom’s effort to grow its converged collaboration space, Kevin Parker (former co-president and CFO of PeopleSoft) has been elected to the board of directors. Parker was responsible for internal operations as well as worldwide finance and accounting functions at PeopleSoft (acquired by Oracle). Now, Parker will lead Polycom (www.polycom.com) as the company works to integrate its voice, video, Web, and data applications with networks worldwide.

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