Tech Watch: HP presents new software at Airport City

Following HP's purchase of Mercury, the parent company moved its worldwide software R&D center to Yehud and appointed Boaz Halamish, former CEO of Mercury, to head the operation.

By MATTHEW KRIEGER
HP Software-Israel last week held its annual conference in Airport City, the first conference staged after the technology giant's $4.5 billion acquisition of software company Mercury. The focus of the conference, which was attended by more than 1,000 Hewlett-Packard customers, was on the company's new software and IT solutions that it has developed with Mercury. It is one of the most important gatherings for Israel's software industry. In addition to highlighting HP's current and future plans with Mercury, it featured products that HP has developed with its partner companies, including Xor, ICT, Marathon, Ness, John Bryce and Sela. Following HP's purchase of Mercury, the parent company moved its worldwide software R&D center to Yehud and appointed Boaz Halamish, former CEO of Mercury, to head the operation. HP's Israel customers include many of the country's largest companies and institutions, such as Nice Communications, Israel Electric, Bank Leumi and the IDF, which purchased HP software for use in its computer monitoring system. HP Israel is headquartered in Ra'anana and has operations in Yehud, Rehovot and Haifa. Herzliya-based information technology company Matrix and virus protection company Symantec recently held a one-day conference entitled "Things that every organization needs to know about information protection." Symantec unveiled its antivirus product Control Compliance Suite v8.5. Matrix, one of the world leaders in information technology, employs about 3,000 IT experts who provide solutions in software, infrastructure and integration. For Israelis who depend on the Internet to communicate, ooVoo, an innovator in the way people communicate on-line, announced its free, real-time video technology that allows consumers to experience face-to-face conversations over the Internet. Its new video communication service features clear, high-quality video and audio in real-time. Users need a broadband Internet connection, web camera, speakers and microphone. In addition to video, ooVoo allows consumers to send video messages to both ooVoo and non-ooVoo users. Telenor Satellite Services, a publicly traded company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, announced last week it is developing a new broadband communications line of services for the maritime industry that enables seamless global roaming for data and voice communications at sea. Regardless of location, OceanRoam will provide vessels worldwide Internet and telephone connections around the clock using the ships' assigned IP addresses and telephone numbers. Commercial availability is planned for the fourth quarter of 2007. EMOBILE Ltd., Japan's newest mobile operator, has selected Comverse Insight Open Services Environment (OSE) and Comverse SMSC SMS text-messaging solution to provide subscribers with a broad range of messaging and call-completion value-added services, Comverse announced. Comverse is a subsidiary of Comverse Technology Inc. and the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communication and billing services.