January 15, 2010 From The Desk of Taylor Macdonald

Dear Infor Channel Channel Partner,     Jim Schaper sent the following message to Infor employees.  As an important part of the Infor team, I wanted to share it with you as well. Please visit www.infor.com to see how Infor is helping with the devastation in Haiti.   Message From Jim Schaper:   Many of us have been watching in stunned disbelief as Haiti struggles with the devastation of Tuesday’s earthquake. The images from Haiti are heartbreaking, and this is a time when personal and business interests become a distant priority as we reach out to help our fellow citizens.    On behalf of each of us at Infor, we are making a donation to the American Red Cross. We are also encouraging others to donate by including a prominent banner on our website (www.Infor.com).   We will be suspending our “Down With Big ERP” ads in the Wall Street Journal next week and replacing them with sponsored ads that simply say “Help Haiti.” Where feasible, we will replace online advertising with ads encouraging people to donate to relief efforts.    While this is a large scale and catastrophic disaster, it is also one that affects Infor and our customers specifically. We have approximately 20 customers in Haiti. Most are either infrastructure providers (telecommunication companies, cellular carriers, hotels, etc.) or major relief organizations, including the United Nations, Habitat for Humanity, and Save the Children.  These customers are part of the Infor family and we are working through their home country organizations to do all we can to help.   I’ve heard that many Infor employees are volunteering and donating to the Haiti relief effort, which is a great testament to the quality of our employees. Thank you!  If you’d like to donate to the American Red Cross, please visit www.redcross.org, or donate to your preferred organization   Regards,   Taylor Macdonald Vice President, Worldwide Channels taylor.macdonald@infor.com

Also First Enterprise Open Source Provider Compatible with Latest Microsoft Operating System Platforms

http://www.aras.com/news/ViewNewsItem.aspx?name=aras-plm-software-enabled-microsoft-windows-server-2008-r2-win7

ANDOVER, MASS. and Solothurn, Switzerland – December 8, 2009 – Aras®, leading enterprise open source Product Lifecycle Management [PLM] software solution provider, today announced the availability of the Aras Innovator® suite of PLM software solutions enabled on Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 R2 and Microsoft Windows® 7 offering customers enhanced security, as well as innovative user interface features and reliability improvements. By being first to take advantage of the latest Microsoft platform technology advancements Aras is delivering the most scalable, reliable, and secure enterprise PLM software solution available on the market today.

“Our ISV community is alive with innovation, and we’re committed to helping our partners drive the next generation of software experiences,” said Ross Brown, Vice President of ISV and Solutions Partners for the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft. “Adding compatibility for the latest Microsoft operating systems helps ISVs to stay ahead of the competition and give their customers access to cutting-edge technologies.”

“Aras is excited to be both the first enterprise PLM software suite and the first open source solution enabled on Microsoft’s new operating system platforms,” said Peter Schroer, President of Aras. “Making our application compatible with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Windows 7 helps us offer our customers compelling benefits including full support for multi-core processing, improved security and reliability features, sophisticated management functionality, and advanced data center virtualization with Hyper-V.”

Aras Innovator is designed and developed on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 to take advantage of the innovative and robust capabilities offered for global corporations that require significant scalability, high availability, and comprehensive administration. By combining advanced functionality with an enterprise open source approach Aras is able to deliver a truly unique PLM value proposition to companies of all sizes: better PLM software solutions that eliminate PLM license expenses forever.

About Aras

Aras® is the leading provider of enterprise open source Product Lifecycle Management [PLM] software solutions. Freedom from licensing eliminates up-front expenses and per user costs while superior technology makes Aras the most advanced enterprise PLM solution suite available. Customers include Motorola, Rolls-Royce, Freudenberg, Lockheed Martin, Ingersoll Rand and ACCO Brands. Aras is privately held with global headquartered in Andover, Mass. For additional information visit www.aras.com

GIV Solutions sponsors the summit managed by Ha'aretz – The Marker Editor. The purpose of this year's conference is to examine the government's investments plans in infrastructure, transportation and energy, their possibilities at the national market and the ability of the private sector to take part in them.

The summit takes place with the presence of Dr. Uzi Landau, the Minister of National Infrastructure, Israel Katz, Minister of Transportation and Shuki Oren, the General Accountant, Ministry of Finance, with the participation of the Market's senior management. The conference's program includes several panels of infrastructure and transportation verticals: railways, sea ports, public transportation, energy and electricity and a special panel regarding "green"
 environmental issues.

Meir Givon, CEO and founder of GIV Solutions Ltd, an Israeli leader in Strategic Consulting, Business Solutions and IT Solutions for the Infrastructure, Transportation and Water industries, will participate in "Last chance for Public Transport in Israel" panel, along with Yitzhak Zochman, senior vice president of development and coordination of transportation infrastructure, Ministry of Transport,  Amit Lang, deputy of the person in charge the budgets, Ministry of Finance ,Gideon Mizrahi, Chairman of Egged secretariat, Ophir Karni, Director of Finance Dan Transportation, Dror Brill, a representative of  the forum of public and private transportation companies.

For more information and registration, please click:

Mitek has been independently running the Aras solutions since July, 2008.  Mitek entertained PLM solutions various executives had used at previous companies including Siemens TeamCenter, Agile and more.  The COO is formerly an executive with GM and was “Completely floored by the Aras Innovator solutions, can’t believe it’s Open Source”.

Aras was selected for comprehensive PLM functionality and the ability to deploy quickly and independently without large up front capital investments.  Superior business process management workflow capabilities and readily available community solutions for CAPA, ITIL and risk assessment have extended their dedication to Aras. The flexibility of the Aras solution was absolutely essential in the decision as Mitek is already developing custom applications for proprietary business processes throughout the company to be rolled
out at a global level.

They have already successfully deployed at their Headquarters and are looking to scale out to subsidiaries across the globe in 2009.

GIV GROUP [consists on GIV Solutions Ltd, GIV-IT Ltd] provides a comprehensive approach to enterprise solution implementations for PLM systems. GIV-IT Ltd will provide PLM services across industries in Israel and Eastern Europe for the Aras solutions. GIV has specific expertise in the complex product packaging life-cycle management processes in the CPG, food & beverage, and pharmaceutical verticals. The constant consumer desire for fresh, new brand images necessitates unique designs and continuous packaging innovation. The complex planning, development and change processes required to rapidly deliver new packaging variations across the product life cycle requires specialized PLM processes for greater coordination and collaboration.

“The myriad of consumer design preferences have combined with increasing international regulatory compliance mandates to create unprecedented product packaging complexity at global CPG and pharmaceutical companies,” said Meir Givon, CEO for GIV GROUP. “GIV has developed a powerful solution yet lean and easy-to-use approach to those verticals. The advanced Aras enterprise SOA for PLM is incredibly powerful enabling the GIV-PLM solution best practices for product packaging with cutting edge technology.”

A product of the strategic cooperation between GIV Solutions and the global ARAS Corporation.

In the prospect of developing the next generation of it's PLM\CPG solution and with setting a goal as to establish its excellent application on the basis of an equally excellent technology; the upcoming GIV-PLM solution will evolve to be the leading solution in PLM\CPG.

GIV has come to agreement with ARAS on a strategic cooperation based on GIV's recognition of ARAS as being the most advanced and superior PLM platform in market today and on ARAS's, a global PLM provider, acknowledgment of GIV's and Pack-IT Solutions' know-how, reputation and expertise in the world of Consumer Packaged Goods' design and development procedures.

On the basis of this cooperation ARAS's is providing its PLM platform, the cutting edge in today's technology, a fully web based solution, developed on Microsoft's .Net environment with the latest SOA standards. The first open source solution to be gold certified by Microsoft.

GIV is developing the PLM solution on its CPG version, the solution is to be globally distributed by ARAS and several local distributors around the world.

GIV shall distribute the ARAS suite to the Israeli market for a wide range of product development industries led by the CPG industry with the PLM\CPG solution.

ARAS is amongst the most fast growing, global leading, companies in then PLM market, highly appreciated by business analysts.

For more information on ARAS and it's positioning in the PLM market, please visit the company's web-site.

1. Traffic, Transportation & Motor race - December 2007
   
   
2. In the car, on the train to Eilat - November 2007
   
   
3. Infrastructures Article - August 2007
   
   
4. Outsoursing article - June 2007
    
5. Routine & Emergency - Transportation, shipping & ports - May 2007

GIV recently completed an implementation of an operational service management system for use by the Israel Railways IT Department's Help Desk Center and IT personnel. The system manages service requests, maintenance and development. It supports all the aspects of the department responsibilities: hardware and communication equipment's inventory management, software development activities and applications assimilation. GIV’s team experts worked hand-in-hand with the IT team at Israel Railways.

The system, based on Israel Railways’ EAM System, interfaced with Microsoft SMS server in order to save efforts in inventory configuration management. Together, the teams defined, designed and implemented a solution that met the Israel Railways’ requirements from the technical and operational level up to the IT Department's management.

The GIV Solutions team, headed by CEO Meir Givon, wishes you a happy New Year—a year of prosperity, happiness and success—in all aspects of your business and life.

The Haifa Port company chose GIV to manage its SAP (ERP) implementation project. After a comprehensive 10 month project and on schedule, the SAP system successfully went live on shchedule in the beginning of September 2006. The system integrates Financial, Logistics and HR modules, and in upcoming phases, additional modules will be added. Zeev Shoshi, GIV's senior enterprise IT consultant, directed the project for the Haifa Port and was responsible for all the aspects and activities of Haifa Port company in the project, and the readiness for business process reengineering, the change management and system assimilation. The project was implemented simultaneously at Ashdod and Eilat ports by EDS & NESS as the vendors. Strong cooperation between all parties resulted in a major project success.

The Israel National Roads Company engaged GIV to develop and deliver training coursework targeting the Project Managers who plan and construct Israel’s road infrastructure! “GIV TEAM” specializes in training development as well as assimilation of change management within organizations. The project team developed and delivered a coursework that certified both internal and external project managers, who direct projects for the Israel National Roads Company.

GIV initiated an integrated project combining enterprise asset management (EAM) and “TEAM” (Training, E-learning, Assimilation and Management) to develop and instruct work procedure courses to Israel National Roads Company Maintenance and Operations Managers. The courses were developed using GIV’s unique training methodology that characterizes the company, its philosophy, expertise and teamwork. The content included demonstrations, event and case analysis and simulations.

The JAZO - Jewish Agency Zionist Organization called upon GIV to consult in analyzing the requirements and determining the scope of work (SOW) for their complex and extensive HR management needs.  

A unique cooperation between GIV "TEAM" (Training, E-learning, Assimilation and Management) and Beit Berl College has resulted in a new unit at the college: The Development of Leadership & Management. The unit develops and delivers to its customers unique programs for establishing and enhancing a variety of leadership skills and is specifically designed for school managers and community leadres.