Newsletter - November 2004

In this Issue:

1) Symposium Teams Up with Point to Point Communications to Deliver GPS and Location-Based Services using ASP Model

2) Data Migration and Symposium Technologies – Making it Simpler

Symposium Teams Up with Point to Point Communications to Deliver GPS and Location-Based Services using ASP Model

A screenshot of Symposium’s newly redesigned Web EME Module, providing the type of full Internet-based system access especially useful to ASP-based clients.

Symposium Technologies is pleased to announce an agreement with Point to Point Communications to provide centralized GPS/AVL, Mobile Data, Dispatch and other location-based services for their diverse portfolio of public and private sector clients.

Point to Point Communications has been recognized by Motorola as one of its largest systems dealers, and services clients in a wide range of fields such as trucking, utilities, concrete, public safety, transit, public works, and many others. More and more over the last several years, clients have been asking for software systems that will help them track mobile assets, enable real time data sharing between head office and the field, and provide customized dispatch, scheduling and other applications that will reflect their needs and enhance their effectiveness.

Point to Point for its part, has been actively evaluating different systems that could be used in an “ASP” or “Application Service Provider” Model, wherein the software applications and computer infrastructure are housed centrally with the provider, who is responsible for all service, administration and support.

Clients in turn connect to the application over a network via their own private account and receive all benefits for a monthly or yearly fee. The advantage is that clients get access to powerful software applications while avoiding the overhead involved in up-front license fees and service contracts, as well as avoiding the need to deal with such issues as system administration and hardware.

While the ASP model has held out a lot of promise as a way to help businesses and agencies put powerful new technologies to work for them, until now the applications that were available were either highly specialized, or very generic. As a result they couldn’t reflect the actual mission and requirements of business and government clients to the degree necessary to make them useful beyond a small range of potential users.

As Ken Micks, co-owner of Pont to Point put it, “None of the systems we looked at were flexible enough for the job. With Symposium, it was the opposite – it runs over our networks, can be easily customized to the specific needs of each client, and offers the centralized architecture we need to provide one-stop service, support, and administration.”

“We’re very excited about the whole project” says Robert Day, President of Symposium Technologies. “We’ve had the ability to provide this type of service from the beginning, and based on our success with Point to Point, we expect to begin offering the ASP model to a number of clients and partners who’ve expressed a strong interest.”

Point to Point’s clients also seem very keen about the new service, with the first client already moved over and several more in trials, the feedback to date has been excellent. “The future of our business is value-added” Ken went on to say, “and our agreement with Symposium is a major step to ensure we meet client’s evolving needs, providing the highest value at the lowest cost”.

For more information, or for those interested in seeing the system in action, please contact Symposium by emailing us at info@symposium911.com.

Data Migration and Symposium Technologies – Making it Simpler

One of the big concerns clients have when looking at a new system is retaining their existing historical data. At first glance this might not appear to be a prime consideration, but for any government agency or business operating in the information age, data is an invaluable asset that has to be guarded and preserved.

Traditionally, this has often had the unintended result of tying clients to one vendor, many of whom used proprietary technology that helped ensure that data wasn’t easily convertible to other formats and systems. In other cases, data was readily-convertible, but companies simply didn’t place the same priority on data conversion that their clients did. In the end the result was the same – clients felt constrained, choice suffered, and decisions on what system to go with were being made not on how well client’s needs were being met, but on how they could best preserve the data they’d accumulated.

The Symposium approach is a little different. We recognized from the start that the key to any solution is that it has to work for the client on ALL levels – not just in terms of technology or new features. As a result, we’ve ensured that our systems are fully open – able to send and receive data from different systems and formats in real time – and that we ensure data migration is accounted for in every project we undertake.

In concrete terms, this means that Symposium clients have full ownership and control of their own data, and are not tied to our system based on any other consideration aside from how well it fulfills your needs.

Because of our approach, we have a earned an excellent reputation for helping clients successfully migrate data; If you are considering a project where you have concerns about data migration or would like an objective second opinion, please feel free to contact us – we’d be happy to help Make Technology Work for You.

Next Issue

More contract announcements, new system enhancements, and lots of other great stuff!

Previous Newsletters : Dec 2003, Mar 2004, June 2004, July 2004, Oct 2004

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