Latest News July 2008 Ascent Software to participate in Post Expo 2008. For the third time running, Ascent Software will be exhibiting Swift Retail at this year’s Post Expo being held in London on the 30th September - 2nd October 2008. The three-day event annually attracts more than 4,000 top-level personnel from approximately 100 countries and is universally recognised as the world’s premier event for the postal, mailing and parcel industry. POST-EXPO is an international exhibition and conference exclusively dealing with technologies, operational developments and strategies for the world’s postal operators. It serves as the industry’s technology showcase and creates an important environment in which to view and discuss the industry in its widest sense. For further information, come and visit us on our stand 1215. For more information on the event, please click here. For more information on Swift Retail, please click here. June 2008 Ascent Software at the University of Malta Students’ Projects Exhibition 2008. Ascent Software is pleased to be a sponsor at this year’s Students’ Projects Exhibition 2008 being organized by the University of Malta. The ICT Student’s Projects 2008 is the annual exhibition of the students’ work for the various degree programmes offered by the Faculty of ICT. It will be held on the 3rd and 4th July 2008. The aim of the exhibition is to give the general public and particularly those working in different areas of ICT an opportunity to view the projects of the different departments in the Faculty of ICT and to speak with the students involved. This is the ninth year that this event is being organized. April 2008 Ascent participates in London’s OutsourceWorld Ascent Software has participated for the third time in London’s OutsourceWorld. Considered the premier pure play business trade platform for the outsourcing community, OutsourceWorld facilitates commerce between buyers and sellers across the globe. Touted as the largest event in the sourcing field, OutsourceWorld London is now in its seventh year, having drawn on past experiences to place top level executives face-to-face with exhibitors who understand their particular needs and have hands-on experience in delivering solutions and solving problems for like companies. Ascent joined forces with two other Maltese software companies to promote Malta as a near shoring destination – a viable destination when compared to those of central Europe. Together, the three companies employ some 300 IT professionals – a young and dynamic highly skilled workforce that is competitively priced when compared to their UK counterparts. Managing Outsourcing in an Age of Globalisation and Innovation was the title of the conference which ran parallel to the event. Speaking from firsthand experience was Stephen Hand, Group IT Director of the UK-based shipping firm Lloyd’s Register who presented a well received case study on End-user Innovation – Multi sourcing in Lloyd’s Register. Lloyd’s Register has used Malta for much of its work. February 2008 Swift Retail makes its international debut at The European Postal Services Conference in Berlin. Swift Retail makes its first, official appearance on the international stage at this year’s European Postal Services conference in Berlin, 11th-13th March. Swift postal automation software, developed by Ascent Software Ltd of Malta, is, however, no newcomer to the industry. With Swift, Ascent builds on its forerunner product ‘Hermes’ which has successfully served small and medium-sized postal organisations in the Mediterranean, Channel Islands and the Caribbean. Swift Retail represents more than a simple rewrite of Hermes as it extends considerably the scope and functionality of its predecessor. The Swift suite of postal automation software adds value by enabling postal services to automate a wide range of operations, from retail counter services to human resource and customer relationship management. Swift distinguishes itself also by its extensive reporting systems that can provide management with detailed business intelligence on which to base strategy. The key advantages of Swift are its depth and breadth of functionality, ease of deployment and use, and its affordability. It is therefore ideally positioned to assist small- to medium-sized postal organisations grow commercially and restructure efficiently to meet the dual challenge of liberalisation and increased competition. Berlin represents an excellent opportunity for Ascent to showcase Swift to the industry. On the opening day of the conference, Ascent is giving a workshop entitled ‘Capitalising on opportunities in retail networks: improving the customer experience and service offering’, which will demonstrate how Swift helps clients achieve these aims. "Swift may represent a new product, but it comes to Berlin already with a ‘proof of concept’, having been deployed successfully in Malta (as Hermes), Guernsey and soon in some of the islands states of the Caribbean,” said Joseph Sultana, managing director of Ascent Software Ltd. “Swift fills an almost unique market niche by providing a solution to small- and medium-sized postal organisation, who are faced with immense challenges but who have only limited budgets and personnel to achieve their commercial aims." January 2008 Dunstan Thomas signs additional contract with Ascent Software Dunstan Thomas, a UK leading provider of administration technology for the pensions and investment market, has agreed a 12-month contract with outsourced software development company Ascent Software Limited to provide software and integration solutions on demand. Dunstan Thomas’ Imago pensions administration platform is finding favour with a number of major name pensions and investments providers and third party administrators and several companies have declared an intention to augment existing systems with Dunstan Thomas tools in 2007. Christopher Read, chairman, Dunstan Thomas, commented on the agreement: “We are seeing increased demand for our Imago administration tools but need to ensure high quality integration of our tools with a plethora of legacy systems. Ascent engineers are highly skilled in the use of the latest technology which adheres with a SOA (Services Oriented Architecture) and integrates into ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) environments. These tools simplify the process of creating and integrating new tools into existing administration platforms.” “The fact that Ascent is based in Malta and already serves many European software companies gives us reassurance that the right skills and capabilities are there to support us and maintain our current high standards of quality as our order book expands.” November 2007 Ascent Software expands management team Sonya Pecorella Marketing Manager Robert Gonzi Operations Manager Ascent Software is pleased to announce the appointment of two key personnel to their current management structure. Robert Gonzi has been appointed as manager of Operations and Sonya Pecorella has been appointed as manager of Marketing. Robert joined Ascent in October 2007 as Operations Manager and will be coordinating all development of the company’s software products and outsourcing projects. Robert brings with him 15 years experience in software analysis, design and development and has extensive experience in managing IT projects. Sonya joined Ascent in September 2007 and has been responsible for the development of the marketing department. Her responsibilities also include the harnessing of the company’s capacity for European funded R&D projects. Sonya has a background in finance and operations in various sectors and has, through previous occupation, also marketed Malta’s local IT industry internationally. “The appointments of Robert and Sonya add even more value to the positive growth we are achieving at Ascent,” said Joseph Sultana, Managing Director of Ascent Software. “Our already strong management team has been further reinforced by their appointment and we are all looking forward to taking Ascent to yet another level”. October 2007 Retail Hermes POS scores high for Ascent Software Ascent Software successfully exhibited at the annual world-leading exhibition, Post Expo 2007, held in Barcelona in October. The event is an international forum, providing an unrivalled collection of the latest generation technology solutions and services that are driving the postal, parcel and logistics industry forward. Over 150 exhibitors displayed their latest products in fields such as RFID, automation, security, address management, transportation and tracking technology. It was an excellent venue for Ascent to showcase its Retail Hermes Point-of-Sale solution. The Hermes POS system is built on a unique architecture which allows postal organisations to derive competitive benefits from the technology and tap into new revenue streams. The completely integrated solution allows post offices to automate counter transaction services including mail, financial transactions, bill payment, and expanded retail operations. Apart from having a low cost of ownership and being extremely user friendly, Hermes utilises advanced technology to improve counter service and the quality of information available from staff at retail counters. It also acts as a complete data management and monitoring system for senior managers to analyse trends, manage human resources and formulate strategy. “With over 60 visitors to our stand, it’s been a hectic 3 days” commented Joseph Sultana, managing director of Ascent Software Ltd. “Although we are very confident of our winning product, it is always a thrill to experience such great interest from the many decision-makers that visited our stand.” September 2007 Second Generation Outsourcing Company Anantara Solutions signs partnership with Ascent Software Anantara Solutions, a second generation outsourcing firm, has recently signed a delivery partner agreement with Ascent Software, to enhance their spectrum of global solutions. Anantara, a pioneer of Second Generation Outsourcing, combines business consulting services and IT services to deliver unprecedented, measurable business value. It trusts the delivery of many components of its solutions to its partners in the Anantara Ecosystem. Instead of one firm trying to excel at everything that goes into a Business Solution, the partner-enabled delivery model frees Anantara to focus on integration, program management and business value delivery while partners focus on achieving excellence in their chosen areas of speciality. Ascent Software will work with Anantara mainly in the areas of telecom billing, retail software and special skills services. Ascent has extensive expertise in telecom billing, incorporating the whole billing cycle from CDR collection right through to invoicing, while its retail management solutions have been implemented in fashion outlets, supermarkets, shoe stores, and electrical accessories retailers in various sites around Europe. Moreover, the company’s capabilities include the special skills of neural networks for industrial applications and data mining/forecasting; fuzzy logic control; optimization techniques; genetic, routing and financial arbitrage algorithms, pattern recognition and expert systems – among others. “Ascent Software offers high quality capabilities which complement our strategy and existing strengths,” commented Shankar Srinivasan, Partner - European Operations at Anantara Solutions. “We are excited about the opportunities that this partnership offers and look forward to working closely with Ascent Software.” Read the latest news on Anantara Solutions here. August 2007 Malta woos technology wanderers Ascent Software features in the UK press. Article in the BBC News business section includes interview with Joseph Sultana, Managing Director of Ascent Software. Read full article here. August 2007 Ascent Software selected to form part of the Malta eGov Alliance The Ministry for Investment, Industry and Information Technology (MIIIT) on behalf of the various Ministries, Departments and Authorities forming part of the Government of Malta recently setup up an e-Government Alliance Agreement in order to develop a number of e-Government solutions together with the various Ministries, Departments and Authorities. The Alliance will oversee a rapid rollout of e-government services, standardise the quality of the deliverables and expose at an international level the work of the Alliance members. Following a very rigid call for applications, Ascent Software was one of the selected organisations to form part of this prestigious alliance and will be expected to develop and implement a significant number of e-Government services over the next 12 months. May 2007 First UK sales for Allegro for Retail Ascent Software are pleased to announce the first UK sales of their retail software Allegro. Allegro which enjoys a major share of the Maltese retail market has been radically redesigned to cater for the UK market and the initial reactions from potential users have been very positive. In parallel to this Ascent have contracted a leading firm of marketing specialists to assist in the building up of a reseller network for the product, a process which should be in place by the end of 2007. The redesigned version of Allegro will be presented at the Retail Business World exhibition held in London in the first quarter 2008. May 2007 Outsource World 2007 Ascent Software Ltd. has participated in the Outsource World in London between the 1st and 2nd of May 2007 . Currently celebrating its 6th anniversary Outsource World is the largest outsourcing conference and exhibition in the U.K. "The UK market place is our main target market and this exhibition offers the perfect platform for us to promote our services to our selected audience. This event also presents us with the opportunity to monitor our competition at close quarters and identify potential partnerships, particularly in areas in which we are currently not present" commented Managing Director Joseph Sultana. The exhibition also hosted an intensive conference program spread over two days with international keynote speakers in the outsourcing arena. Ascent Software Limited was established in 2002 with a clear strategy of offering outsourced software development resources to European organisations. Working with clients in the UK, Ireland and Germany, Ascent Software consistently delivers quality solutions and high added value resulting in the required financial and operational win-win for both parties thus delivering the envisaged benefits.