NextNews 02 | April 2010 by Nextsense

Nextsense Ltd. Customer Magazine / Issue 2 / April 2010

IN THIS ISSUE: We present T-Mobileâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website, mobile portal versions and My T-Mobile

Everyone loves success stories. This is ours. Nextsense and T-Mobile build successful partnership page 06

COVER PAGE: Nextsense develops different mobile versions of the T-Mobile Macedonia website www.t-mobile.mk

1 i.t-mobile.mk 2 m.t-mobile.mk 3 m.t-mobile.mk/min

Nextsense in the media Interview with Vasko Kronevski CEO of Nextsense page 10

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Credit and leasing process management page 17

PRODUCT REVIEWS: Assessment of the utilization of ICT Project in the Assembly of Kosovo page 13

Symantec Security Information and Event Management solution

Event Management

Premier implementation in Macedonia

ExploringMacedonia.com

page 19

page 25

www.nextsense.com

03 04 06 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Editorial News T-Mobile & Nextsense Partnership Nextsense in the media: Vasko Kronevski interview Macedonian e-Parliament Solution presented on the World e-Parliament Conference 2009 Assessment on the utilization of ICT in the Assembly of Kosovo Case study: Employment Service Agency of RM Microsoft EBS Implementation: Gradski Parking Microsoft CRM Implementation: vrabotuvanje.com Credit and leasing process management software solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Software Licensing: Germanos (One to One) Symantec SIEM solution implementation: Stopanska Banka AD Bitola Symantec Data Loss Prevention Nextsense accepted into the Symantec Authorized Technical Assistance Partner Program Symantec Protection Suite Enterprise Edition overview Symantec Protection Suite: 3-years-for-2 maintenance offer from Nextsense Httpool: Start conversations with your target audience ExploringMacedonia.com: Event Management Nextsense Internship Program Nextsense Profile

Table of Contents To subscribe send address details to: nextnews@nextsense.com For more information, please contact: sales@nextsense.com

Editorial Dear colleagues and partners, These are interesting times for the software development industry. The wave of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 brings a whole bunch of new and exciting technologies and techniques like SharePoint 2010, Silverlight 4, Windows Phone 7, to name a few. All these new technologies promise faster development for building better and more affordable applications without compromising quality. Very large part of our job as developers is to learn and keep our skills up to date with all these new technologies. Sometimes it can be an art to recognize and select those that will become industry standards and to avoid those that will soon be forgotten. We must choose smart and act smart. It is common knowledge that real success means creating something bigger than yourself. A value that extends beyond personal goals. This is exactly what we are trying to create for our clients, at the same time transferring what we know best: both industry specific professional solutions and the thrill of putting into play the new technologies. This NextNews issue will present some of the latest solutions that our company has created together with our clients or better say - our partners. One of the highlights is the Web solution for T-Mobile Macedonia that includes public portal of the company and its version for smart phones and mobile devices as well as customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; self-service portal, My T-Mobile. There is a summary on the successful implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM in vrabotuvanje.com. Last but not least, one of latest projects developed for Employment Service Agency of Macedonia, at service to every prospective job applicant in the country. We hope that this journey will be as exciting for you as it is for us.

NextNews team: Lead Editor: Dragana Spasovska Copy Editor: Nora Buklevska Creative Director: Irena Popovik Designers: Dejan Kostic, Filip Misevski Nextsense Ltd. address: Partizanski Odredi 62, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia phone: +389 2 3075 111; fax: +389 2 3075 333; e-mail: contact@nextsense.com website: www.nextsense.com

Aleksandar Tokarev Chief Software Development Officer

03 04 06 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Table of Contents To subscribe send address details to: nextnews@nextsense.com For more information, please contact: sales@nextsense.com

Aleksandar Tokarev Chief Software Development Officer

IT Mark

news

Excellent results of the Customer Satisfaction Index Survey In order to achieve continuous product and service quality improvement, Nextsense constantly examines client satisfaction by conducting periodic surveys. The processing of the survey data is done by TNS Prognostics, a third party market research organization. This survey is mandatory for all the Microsoft Gold Certified Partners and is highly regarded by Nextsense since it helps us to determine the satisfaction of our customers, identify the areas for improvement as well as help us achieve better results. This year participants of our survey were software beneficiary, executive & procurement contacts. The target group consisted of 134 contacts. We are proud to announce that this year we have achieved tremendously good results, which mark significant improvment from the previous survey conducted in March 2009. The customer satisfaction of 91%, overall performance of 85% and Net Satisfaction of 188 are the best indicators of the hard work that we have invested in order to fulfill our clients’ requirements, to offer them the best service possible and to become their lifelong partner.

100

CMS

done

- www.sojuzkomori.org.mk - www.ikbanka.com.mk - www.nbrm.gov.mk - www.amcham.com.mk - www.alarmzaprirodata.mk - www.ads.gov.mk

80 loading

what’s next?

Web Solutions

- Stopanska Banka

- www.etcetera.mk

- Makedonski Sport

- www.berlitz.com.mk

- Ekonet

- www.soraviaresort.com.mk

- Giveko

- www.bistra.com

- Seat Club

- www.skimavrovo.com

- GCS

- www.zcgm.mk

- USAID project

- www.acerola.com.mk

- Trust

- marketcomconsultancy.com

- Leasing 1

- www.renault.mk

- Rio cafe

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

Nextsense is proud to announce that this March we have obtained the IT Mark certificate. Nextsense is among the eleven Macedonian companies that have succeeded in obtaining this certificate. IT Mark is the first international business and technical process certification service designed for IT SME’s that provides a quality and maturity assessment from 3 complementary points of view: • Business Management (strategic, commercial, financial, marketing, etc) • Information Security Management • Software and Systems Processes (CMMI)

Nextsense & FEIT cooperation

news In the recent years Nextsense has closely collaborated with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies, at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. The students from the 2nd and 3rd year were assigned to work on the integration of the Nextsense e-Parliament system with Facebook and Twitter, as part of the course for software engineering. So far, the cooperation between Nextsense and FEIT has been very successful for both parties: the students have the possibility to do their internship under the • Nextsense organized e-Government internal workshop in mentorship of one of the best IT Popova Kula Winery, Demir Kapija professionals in the country, and Nextsense has the possibility to • Aleksandar Tokarev, Daniel Danilovski, Aleksandar Gelevski and Vlatko Ivanovski attended the prestigious conference enlarge the team with talented Microsoft TechEd 2009 in Berlin, Germany young proffesionals.

event calendar

past:

• Irena Trendafilova and Aleksandra Georgieva presented the Microsoft CRM solution as a powerful tool for improving customer relationship and sales at the TSL Management Forum 2009 organized by Triple S Learning

USAID regional catalogue

MASIT ICT Excellence Awards 2010 On February 17th 2010 the Macedonian Chamber of commerce MASIT organized the 3rd contest of MASIT ICT Excellence Awards 2010. The MASIT ICT Excellence Awards are locally organized awards that nominate their winners for the WITSA (World Information Technology and Services Alliance) Global ICT Excellence Awards. MASIT members had an opportunity to nominate their solutions in the following categories: Public Sector Excellence, Private Sector Excellence and Digital Opportunity. The Nextsense e-Parliament solution was nominated in the Public Sector Excellence category and was chosen among the three Macedonian representatives on the WITSA 2010 Awards that are to take place on May 26th in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Certificate of Appreciation from the Official Gazette of Republic of Macedonia On February 18th, the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia celebrated the 65th anniversary. At the ceremony for the anniversary, Nextsense, as one of the business partners of the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia, received a Certificate of Appreciation as recognition for the cooperation and contribution for the development of the Gazette.

The USAID funded RCI (Regional Competitiveness Initiative) project issued the first edition of the IT 2 BUSINESS catalogue for successful practices and Information Technology (IT) solutions. The catalogue contains a selection of 71 software products and services of highest quality presented by 33 companies from the region of Eastern Europe and Caucasus. Nextsense was among the presented companies with its solutions: the e-Parliament solution, ApplyOnline, the e-banking solution, and the portal www.uslugi.com.mk. The electronic version of the catalogue is available at the following site: www.it2business.org.

Nextsense - Partner of the Macedonia Case Challenge 2010 As a company that aims at opening up opportunities and new perspectives for excellent students, Nextsense was one of the partners and sponsors of the Macedonia Case Challenge 2010. This event is a Sub-Competition of the Balkan Case Challenge (BCC) and was organized for the third time in our country. The Macedonia Case Challenge 2010 took place at the Business Start–up Centre from 26-28 March, and consisted of four independent competitions. As a partner and sponsor of this year’s event Nextsense provided the case studies for the Business Case Competition and the ICT Competition. The students showed their knowledge and skills in the area of their specialization and prepared a marketing plan for an e-ticketing portal and a software architecture design for the e-ticketing software.

• Nextsense was honored with a Certificate of Appreciation from the USAID Macedonian Competitiveness Project. • Vlatko Ivanovski and Boban Stojanovski were speakers at the 7th Microsoft Vizija Conference, at the session “SQL Server 2008: .NET Developer side”. • Trajce Koskarovski attended the Storage Networking World EMEA Conference in Frankfurt, Germany.

upcoming: • 12 May, Congress Business Center, Skopski Saem “Client Relationship Management in the process of credit mediation” Presentation of Credit and leasing process management software solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM organized by Nextsense and Credit 1, supported by Microsoft

Quality Assurance • 13 May, Hotel Queens, Skopje Launch of the Integrated Software Solution developed for the Certificates Employment Service Agency Presentation of the integrated software solution for ESA – speaker Vasko Nextsense Kronevski is dedicated to constant improvement of

products and services quality. We manage to accomplish

• 14 May, Multi Business Center, Skopski Saem that with implementation of standards and best practices Business Forum on e-Commerce: that will ensure consistency and standardization in “Innovative Way to Improve Your Business”, everyday operations. speaker Aleksandar Tokarev That is why in July 2008 Nextsense became ISO

• 18-19 May 2010, Chisinau, Moldova 9001:2000 certified company, implementing the quality Moldova e-Government Summit 2010, ICT for better management system that refers to Information technology governance design, development, sales, education and support. ICT solutions for successful e-Democracy implementation, speaker Vasko Because Kronevski customer satisfaction is our focus we strive to

improve

the

service

management,

reaching

• 18-20 May, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina agreement for cooperation with IFC and the Bulgarian 5th Annual Regional Event on Competitiveness, Finance and consulting company ITCE for implementation of the Economic Growth organized by USAID and RCI ISO/IEC 20000 standard and ITIL framework. ISO/IEC “Regional Tourism Portal - Need, Sustainability and Partners”20000 standard promotes the adoption of an integrated speaker Sasha process Gavrilovic approach for effectively deliver managed services to meet the business and customer requirements with use

• 25-27 May, Amsterdam, Netherlands of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) WITSA’s 17th World Congress on Information Technology in best practice for IT Service Management. 2010 WITSA Global ICT Excellence Awards Ceremony In cooperation with GTZ, Nextsense started the process of

IT Mark certification. ITMark is aimed specifically at SMEs

• 9-10 June, Yerevan, Armenia and provides the software companies with means to Digitec Business Forum for SEE ICT cluster development enhance their business and improve information security speaker Vasko management. Kronevski It will also improve software development processes, in order for them to gain recognition for their level of capability through the ITMark certification.

IT Mark

news

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- www.sojuzkomori.org.mk - www.ikbanka.com.mk - www.nbrm.gov.mk - www.amcham.com.mk - www.alarmzaprirodata.mk - www.ads.gov.mk

80 loading

what’s next?

Web Solutions

- Stopanska Banka

- www.etcetera.mk

- Makedonski Sport

- www.berlitz.com.mk

- Ekonet

- www.soraviaresort.com.mk

- Giveko

- www.bistra.com

- Seat Club

- www.skimavrovo.com

- GCS

- www.zcgm.mk

- USAID project

- www.acerola.com.mk

- Trust

- marketcomconsultancy.com

- Leasing 1

- www.renault.mk

- Rio cafe

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

Nextsense & FEIT cooperation

event calendar

past:

USAID regional catalogue

products and services quality. We manage to accomplish

improve

the

service

management,

reaching

IT Mark certification. ITMark is aimed specifically at SMEs

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

COVER STORY

Everyone loves success stories... T

This is ours.

7 Task requests and progress reports

The maintenance of the public website, as well as all its sub-portals (WAP, web’n’walk, iPhone version, smartphones versions - in three different languages - Macedonian, English and Albanian) is also a responsibility of Nextsense. The methodology and the system we use for regular updates require continuous communication with all members of the Nextsense team. The person authorized for sending requests (T-Mobile’s web manager) sends an e-mail to a dedicated mailbox, which is monitored by all team members responsible for web portal maintenance - the Account Manager along with all other experts for each field (development issues, flash animations, design suggestions, web authoring). After each update, the new content is uploaded to a test environment, and after being reviewed, T-Mobile performs content synchronization with the live website.

by Irena Popovik

he excellent cooperation between Nextsense and T-Mobile Macedonia on the t-mobile.com.mk websites started in June 2007 and it extends until this very day. Throughout this period of time, Nextsense has proven to be a reliable provider of products, services, know-how and maintenance, but also a partner in the process of finding the best possible solution for the specific needs and requests of T-Mobile. Using given brand standards and T-Mobile's team requirements, we developed a well-organized website based on a custom designed Content Management System, making the process of publishing information on the public T-Mobile portal much easier.

www.t-mobile.mk is a significant communication channel between the largest mobile operator in Macedonia and its customers. Our professional team has designed and built a public web portal which fully integrated T-Mobile’s brand attributes and corporate standards. Given the combination of the innovative product portfolio and latest technology trends, T-Mobile website is one of the most visited corporate websites in Macedonia.

Using this well-designed system for maintenance and support, the website is continually maintained, monitored, appraised and always ready for technical, design and user interface upgrades. The solution also offers a sub-system for submission and tracking of requests from T-Mobile to Nextsense, which makes the entire process more formal and easier to follow. Each service takes place on weekly basis, depending on our weekly schedule and tasks reports.

From branding standards to website

PROCESS FLOW T-Mobile web manager update / design / development

REQUESTS TRACKING & REPORTING Project account manager

@nextsense.com

APPROVAL & PUBLISHING

Staging server UPDATE, DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT

Live server ://www

Dedicated Nextsense teams

DELIVERY Nextsense

CURRENT PROJECTS

BENEFITS

Web portals

Intranet portal

My T-Mobile self-care portal

development and maintenance of different mobile versions, corporate and client e-newsletters, WAP portal, web’n’walk portal

based on Microsoft SharePoint technologies (since 2003)

(development and maintenance)

www.t-mobile.mk i.t-mobile.mk m.t-mobile.mk m.t-mobile.mk/min www.t-mobile.mk/wnw wap.t-mobile.mk NEXTNEWS Issue2 | April 2010

Business Process Management System for paperless decision making

my.t-mobile.com.mk

Foundation T-Mobile for Macedonia (development and maintenance)

www.tmobileformacedonia.org

DESIGN - Highly creative design solutions - Professional experience in design implementations with branding standards included - Several design and layout proposals for each new implementation

WEB AUTHORING - Dedicated team of professionals: designers, web authors, flash developers and animators, web developers

PROJECT CARE - Committed Account Manager for the project - Dedicated mailbox @nextsense.com for further communication

- Flexible teams - Timely response and delivery

- Detailed weekly report for our work on the project, with current status of each request and work plan for the next week

- Consistent style and user experience - Flash animations, scenario suggestions and development - Proactive services through continuous recommendations for improvement of the portal’s look & feel

- Experience in e-business strategy - Continuous and planned updates and web portal management

- Proactive management team with proposals for improving the complete user experience based on previous relevant experience

COVER STORY

Everyone loves success stories... T

This is ours.

7 Task requests and progress reports

by Irena Popovik

From branding standards to website

PROCESS FLOW T-Mobile web manager update / design / development

REQUESTS TRACKING & REPORTING Project account manager

@nextsense.com

APPROVAL & PUBLISHING

Staging server UPDATE, DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT

Live server ://www

Dedicated Nextsense teams

DELIVERY Nextsense

CURRENT PROJECTS

BENEFITS

Web portals

Intranet portal

My T-Mobile self-care portal

development and maintenance of different mobile versions, corporate and client e-newsletters, WAP portal, web’n’walk portal

based on Microsoft SharePoint technologies (since 2003)

(development and maintenance)

www.t-mobile.mk i.t-mobile.mk m.t-mobile.mk m.t-mobile.mk/min www.t-mobile.mk/wnw wap.t-mobile.mk

Business Process Management System for paperless decision making

my.t-mobile.com.mk

Foundation T-Mobile for Macedonia (development and maintenance)

www.tmobileformacedonia.org

DESIGN - Highly creative design solutions - Professional experience in design implementations with branding standards included - Several design and layout proposals for each new implementation

WEB AUTHORING - Dedicated team of professionals: designers, web authors, flash developers and animators, web developers

PROJECT CARE - Committed Account Manager for the project - Dedicated mailbox @nextsense.com for further communication

- Flexible teams - Timely response and delivery

- Detailed weekly report for our work on the project, with current status of each request and work plan for the next week

- Consistent style and user experience - Flash animations, scenario suggestions and development - Proactive services through continuous recommendations for improvement of the portal’s look & feel

- Experience in e-business strategy - Continuous and planned updates and web portal management

- Proactive management team with proposals for improving the complete user experience based on previous relevant experience

NEXTNEWS Issue2 | April 2010

„My T-Mobile is Your T-Mobile!“

T-Mobile: The next level New mobile portals for T-Mobile

by Vlatko Ivanovski

This T-Mobile catch phrase was our starting point for creating a fully personalized self-care portal in order to meet the needs of the demanding customers of T-Mobile. While working on this project, two requirements were of major importance: Richness of Functionalities and their Easy and Simple Use This was a real inspiration for the Nextsense team, and the two collaborating T-Mobile teams: Business Integration and Marketing.

The result of this cooperation was a successful story: an ideal combination of variety of services, which is available for all users of T-Mobile services through its simple usage and rich user interface. In addition, all of these services are provided through secure connection (SSL) and are developed based on specific security concepts and recommendations. The My Т-Mobile self-care portal, as part of Т-Mobile’s website, helps customers manage their profile. Customers have a simple, fast and safe access to needed contents and services at their disposal, with specific information and possibility to take direct action, from their computer, without having to call the Contact centre or to visit a POS.

WHAT ARE ALL THE THINGS MY T-MOBILE OFFERS? Check the status of your bill

Activate numbers in My Circle

Review your calls, duration, bill amount and traffic type. Control used minutes and print your detailed bill or check which number you have talked most with.

Activate a list of phone numbers which are part of your circle. Keep in touch with those you love most, talk for lower prices and save money.

View your services

Current invoice amount

Consider the palette of services available to you and adjust it to your needs, check the date of their validity and status.

Check your current invoice amount for the current month. Monthly subscriptions and roaming calls are not included in the amount.

Review your past invoices

Setting your phone

Be practical. Review your invoices from the previous months.

Set up your phone via the automatic configuration set up for Internet, ММS and WAP.

Send free SMS messages You now have the possibility to send up to 5 free SMS messages a day via My Т-Mobile. Complete the list of your SMS messages, have an overview of sent messages and, last but not least – have lots of greeting cards at hand for all the important dates.

Club 360 Now you can easily order the gifts you like the most.

My Minutes and packages Activate your favorite services and talk for a great price with your friends.

by Ivo Markov

Mobile portal Detailed user account on My T-Mobile

ADDITIONAL APPLICATIONS XSync synchronizes pre-production (test server) with production environment (live server)

A modern and aspiring brand needs a suitable way of informing and advertising for its products. Mobile telephones and devices are part of our everyday life and one of the most advanced ways of communication. The need for “mobile” advertising has been already felt in Macedonia and many people have mobile devices listing mobile web portals. T-Mobile had desire and idea to be closer to its customers wherever they are - the rest was done by Nextsense.

T-Mobile needed a medium for presentation of its range of services via mobile devices. Therefore, we created the T-Mobile mobile portal. It was designed by .NET technology and divided into three sections depending on the mobile device used. In case you have an iPhone and navigate the t-mobile.mk website, you will be immediately redirected to the iPhone version of the portal which has many visual characteristics of iPhone applications. If you change the vertical orientation to the horizontal one, the portal will be adapted to the new display resolution. This portal version is maximally optimized in order to quickly get the information required and having the iPhone native look. The second part of the project deals with the devices based on Microsoft Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian operation systems and devices

DailyUpdate activated daily, generates specific data structures which are used for presentation of elements that need them

with relatively large display. You will be also redirected to this version if you navigate the T-Mobile Macedonia website from the above mentioned mobile devices. In this version we focused on the web page complexity and image sizes because of the different resolutions characteristic of this

MultiTouch generates specific XML document which is used for presentation of the newest offers on multitouch devices in the T-Mobile shops

group of mobile devices. Unlike the iPhone version, this version scales down the web pages which are not supported by these mobile devices. The other mobile devices with very small

Indexer activated daily, loads the data structure as well as all links and content. It enables complete search of Desktop and iPhone T-Mobile portal solutions PDF Generator generates daily updated PDF pricelist for T-Mobile’s flexible product offer

display resolutions can display very small images which will be redirected to the minimal portal version containing small graphics and

effects

ensuring

swift

access

information from these devices of very small processor power. Generally, the main advantages of the portal include improved speed, better adaptability and modern look of all mobile devices which are already a reality for the leading world companies.

„My T-Mobile is Your T-Mobile!“

T-Mobile: The next level New mobile portals for T-Mobile

by Vlatko Ivanovski

WHAT ARE ALL THE THINGS MY T-MOBILE OFFERS? Check the status of your bill

Activate numbers in My Circle

Review your calls, duration, bill amount and traffic type. Control used minutes and print your detailed bill or check which number you have talked most with.

Activate a list of phone numbers which are part of your circle. Keep in touch with those you love most, talk for lower prices and save money.

View your services

Current invoice amount

Consider the palette of services available to you and adjust it to your needs, check the date of their validity and status.

Check your current invoice amount for the current month. Monthly subscriptions and roaming calls are not included in the amount.

Review your past invoices

Setting your phone

Be practical. Review your invoices from the previous months.

Set up your phone via the automatic configuration set up for Internet, ММS and WAP.

Club 360 Now you can easily order the gifts you like the most.

My Minutes and packages Activate your favorite services and talk for a great price with your friends.

by Ivo Markov

Mobile portal Detailed user account on My T-Mobile

ADDITIONAL APPLICATIONS XSync synchronizes pre-production (test server) with production environment (live server)

DailyUpdate activated daily, generates specific data structures which are used for presentation of elements that need them

MultiTouch generates specific XML document which is used for presentation of the newest offers on multitouch devices in the T-Mobile shops

group of mobile devices. Unlike the iPhone version, this version scales down the web pages which are not supported by these mobile devices. The other mobile devices with very small

display resolutions can display very small images which will be redirected to the minimal portal version containing small graphics and

effects

ensuring

swift

access

NEXTSENSE IN THE MEDIA:

10 pr

INTER

VIEW What do you believe are the main barriers to widespread implementation of e-Commerce solutions in Macedonia?

VK: At this point there are no barriers per se, other than local company’s understanding of both parts of that term: the “e” and the “Commerce”. Of course, not every traditional business makes sense as an e-business and the advent of e-Commerce has created many new business models. As a trendsetting IT solutions company in the region, we continue to make a huge investment in helping local companies first shape a viable and realistic e-business concept including logistics, tax issues, customs process management and transportation. There is, of course, some risk that this work will not result in concrete business down the road, but we feel there will be dividends for early movers and those that invest in their customers’ knowledge. So far, a few companies have developed a complete concept and we have succeeded in providing them with a full solution. What is most important to us is that we are on their short list of implementing partners when they are ready to move forward. What are some of the misconceptions local companies have about e-Commerce?

Nextsense’s CEO explains the long e-Commerce solution sales cycle in Macedonia as well as the need for intense local business strategy development

VK: The good news is that more and more companies are showing interest in e-Commerce. At first, they are generally interested in having everything at once, the whole package – and at a very low price. When they realize that the cost of e-enabling their business is directly related to its complexity, they begin to consider what is really business-critical. It is fairly predictable and necessary process.

AMCHAM MACEDONIA - EMERGING MACEDONIA ISSUE 2

What are the e-banking trends in Macedonia? VK: Nextsense is one of the leading e-Banking solution providers in Macedonia. To my knowledge, there are at least 3 banks already offering fairly advanced e-services to their clients. This really depends, again, on their strategy. I believe that the current global economic crisis will force banks to cut costs, fight to keep key clients and seek new revenue streams through more advanced e-Banking services. Today, essentially all banks offer similar services to a very broad and disparate group of customers. Banks that place a high value on customer satisfaction must increase their focus on e-banking solutions. Customers do not want to conduct every small bank transaction in person.

Aleksandar

Tokarev,

the

Chief

Development Officer of Nextsense, took part in the TV program “Bez

What about utility company payments? VK: Some utility companies are introducing electronic bill payment for their customers. Also some of the banks enable simplified bill payments through e-Banking payments. The biggest problem in utility payments through credit cards is that these are very low margin businesses and today’s average credit card transaction cost is simply too high to make this attractive. I don’t expect this to change in the near future. Again, this depends on local banks realizing the potential of reducing foot traffic in their branches, including teller workload and benefitting from a high number of relatively small credit card transactions. I believe a lot of customers would pay their utility bills online, if given the opportunity.

pardon” that was aired on The Macedonian National Television. Being one of the country’s best and most recognized experts in the field of e-commerce, Mr. Tokarev was invited to discuss current issues regarding

the

development

e-commerce in Macedonia together with

representatives

from

the

In addition to e-Commerce solutions, what are some of Nextsense’s other activities?

Organization

VK: We are implementing various e-Government projects (e.g., paperless Government sessions, paperless parliament sessions, online employment services for civil service positions, online license application and distribution, mobile parking) implemented throughout the region, Nextsense has also invested in the spin-off business with www.httpool.com.mk, an online advertising business that provides a one-stop-shop for Serious companies realize web promotion tailored to our customers’ that this is a necessary requirements. We also invested in investment to ensure success. www.exploringmacedonia .com, a There are no shortcuts. nation-wide tourism portal, which we feel is a critical link in promoting and selling the Macedonian tourism offer abroad.

protection, NLB Tutunska Banka

for

consumer

and the online shopping site, www.tc.mk. The program guests also discussed latest trends in e-commerce in Macedonia, tackled the issue of e-commerce awareness and the benefits that our companies could achieve, provided they overcame the current challenges.

If an existing consumer goods retail chain wants to simply start selling their products online for home delivery, what is the process?

VK: That depends on how integrated it needs to be with other systems (e.g., those for tracking inventory, coordinating logistics) as well as the number of products offered and whether the entire process will be automated. For example, some local companies offer a sort of half e-Commerce solution whereby their site presents the product catalogue and accepts orders, and then a human intervenes to arrange for delivery and payment offline (so called “post-payment”). That is still e-Commerce, and can work well for small operations. Though it may not be apparent to customers, e-Commerce for big retail companies is extremely complex. For the whole process to be successful it is important to develop the right concept and then seek the right IT solution. Generally, they need to first develop a special catalogue listing unique system-compliant names for each product, then the corresponding customer- facing names, product images, corresponding prices, e-discounts, temporary promotional prices, etc. For large projects, this process alone can take months before a single transaction is processed online. This can be even longer if you want to sell highly-regulated products such as alcohol or tobacco. Serious companies realize that this is a necessary investment to ensure success. There are no shortcuts.

eCommerce for Souvenir shops, Fast-food restaurants, Artists merchandise (CDs, t-shirts, posters...)

PACKAGE SUPPORTS: Limited number of products

Large number of products

Fixed product catalog

Dynamic product catalog

5-10 transactions per day

Stock management Shopping basket Returning customers Up to 20 transactions per day

What about the e-transaction management part of the equation? VK: Until 2008, it was impossible to process e-transactions in the country because no local bank offered such services. Even today, there is no bank equivalent of a “one-stop-shop” for e-Commerce. Companies need to sign at least 2 separate contracts and

eCommerce for Bookstores, CD/DVD shops, Travel Agencies

PACKAGE SUPPORTS:

Manual shipment fulfillment process

Online e-shop

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

establish 2 specialized e-Commerce merchant accounts to be able to accept all major credit cards on their site. To my knowledge, there are only 2 banks currently offering these accounts, so there is little competition and choice among service providers.

Standard e-commerce

eCommerce for Electronics retailers, Tourism portals, Ticket offices, Distribution companies, Fashion $ Cosmetics stores

PACKAGE SUPPORTS: Large number of products Dynamic product catalog Stock management Shopping basket Order fulfillment Returning customers Strong back office ERP Existing logistics

Corporate shopping center

NEXTSENSE IN THE MEDIA:

10 pr

INTER What do you believe are the main barriers to widespread implementation of e-Commerce solutions in Macedonia? VK: At this point there are no barriers per se, other than local company’s understanding of both parts of that term: the “e” and the “Commerce”. Of course, not every traditional business makes sense as an e-business and the advent of e-Commerce has created many new business models. As a trendsetting IT solutions company in the region, we continue to make a huge investment in helping local companies first shape a viable and realistic e-business concept including logistics, tax issues, customs process management and transportation. There is, of course, some risk that this work will not result in concrete business down the road, but we feel there will be dividends for early movers and those that invest in their customers’ knowledge. So far, a few companies have developed a complete concept and we have succeeded in providing them with a full solution. What is most important to us is that we are on their short list of implementing partners when they are ready to move forward. What are some of the misconceptions local companies have about e-Commerce?

Nextsense’s CEO explains the long e-Commerce solution sales cycle in Macedonia as well as the need for intense local business strategy development

AMCHAM MACEDONIA - EMERGING MACEDONIA ISSUE 2

Aleksandar

Tokarev,

the

Chief

Development Officer of Nextsense, took part in the TV program “Bez

the

development

e-commerce in Macedonia together with

representatives

from

the

In addition to e-Commerce solutions, what are some of Nextsense’s other activities?

Organization

protection, NLB Tutunska Banka

for

consumer

If an existing consumer goods retail chain wants to simply start selling their products online for home delivery, what is the process?

eCommerce for Souvenir shops, Fast-food restaurants, Artists merchandise (CDs, t-shirts, posters...)

PACKAGE SUPPORTS: Limited number of products

Large number of products

Fixed product catalog

Dynamic product catalog

5-10 transactions per day

Stock management Shopping basket Returning customers Up to 20 transactions per day

eCommerce for Bookstores, CD/DVD shops, Travel Agencies

PACKAGE SUPPORTS:

Manual shipment fulfillment process

Online e-shop

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

Standard e-commerce

eCommerce for Electronics retailers, Tourism portals, Ticket offices, Distribution companies, Fashion $ Cosmetics stores

PACKAGE SUPPORTS: Large number of products Dynamic product catalog Stock management Shopping basket Order fulfillment Returning customers Strong back office ERP Existing logistics

Corporate shopping center

12 project

Macedonian e-Parliament Solution Presented on the World e-Parliament Conference 2009

Assessment of the utilization of ICT in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo

by Dragana Spasovska

The World e-Parliament Conference 2009 took place on 3, 4 and 5 November 2009 at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. The event is co-organized by the United Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the United States House of Representatives and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament and is intended to promote the effective use of modern technologies in legislative systems. The Macedonian delegation was headed by Mr. Trajko Veljanoski, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia and Mr. Jani Makraduli, Vice-President of the Assembly. Nextsense representatives were also part of the Macedonian delegation, representing the company that developed the solution. The Macedonian e-Parliament was presented on the opening session of the conference “How ICT can strengthen Parliaments in young and emerging democracies”.

project

by Dragana Spasovska

The e-Parliament solution of the Macedonian Assembly, developed by Nextsense, was chosen as one of the most successful examples in the world

The e-Parliament solution of the Macedonian Assembly was chosen as one of the most successful examples in the world by the Global centre for ICT in parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Union IPU. The chair of the session, Mr. Justin Koumba, President of the National Assembly of Congo, emphasized that this solution has improved the Assembly’s functioning, and supported the Vice-President Makraduli’s initiative towards inviting the development countries to follow this example, because the implementation of ICT in parliaments can strengthen their democratic capacity. After the presentation, many representatives from the other parliament delegations expressed their interest for future collaboration with Nextsense.

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

We are glad to announce that Nextsense and Komtel Project When it comes to governance, Engineering from Kosovo have technology provides started a project for opportunities for citizen comprehensive assessment on discussion and public the utilization of information engagement; it strengthens and communication technology accountability; ultimately, it in the Assembly of Kosovo. The will help democracies be more project sponsor is the National democratic Democratic Institute - NDI Kosovo and the project NANCY PELOSI, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives beneficiary is the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. The project will also access the state of readiness of the Assembly for the implementation of an e-Parliament system that will automate the processes in the Assembly. The Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, as the legislative body in a young democratic country must be able to harness ICT in order to be more representative, transparent, accessible, accountable and effective. The project team from Nextsense and Komtel has analyzed thoroughly the current situation regarding the use of ICT in the Assembly and has given further recommendations about how to make the Assembly more effective and efficient by using the technology. The given recommendations will help fill the gap between the current and desired state in order to direct the Assembly towards the implementation of an effective e-Parliament system. Nextsense’s experience from the previous successfully implemented e-government solutions on the regional market and Komtel’s local expertise will help the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo become an organization where the collaborating stakeholders can use information and communication technologies to support the primary functions of representation and law-making more effectively. This will be only the first step in order to prepare the Assembly of Kosovo for its transformation into Assembly with integrated e-Parliament system, implemented modern technologies and standards that will foster the development of transparent and democratic information society.

project partner Komtel Project Engineering is a Kosovo industry leader in the area of Information Technology and Communication as well as in Electrical Engineering and Automation. The company was established in 1990 and since then has become a fast growing multi-disciplinary company with 45 employees. Komtel offers ICT solutions (hardware, software, communications and ISV solutions) from many vendors. In its portfolio Komtel has solutions that are based on products of some of the biggest computer companies and system-integrator houses with which Komtel has longterm partner relations. The company also offers the following services: project planning, project management, system integration, installation and configuration, training and maintenance.

12 project

Macedonian e-Parliament Solution Presented on the World e-Parliament Conference 2009

Assessment of the utilization of ICT in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo

by Dragana Spasovska

project

by Dragana Spasovska

The e-Parliament solution of the Macedonian Assembly, developed by Nextsense, was chosen as one of the most successful examples in the world

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

14 case study

Em plo ym ent S e

of y c n rvice Age

lic b u Rep

ac M of

ia n o ed

by Boban Stojanovski

We took part in a project collaboration for upgrading an already existing Windows client-server application. Our target was to create an intranet web application from scratch. One of the biggest challenges was to gather all old database requirements and documentation from the clients and design

Challenges

completely new ones.

Working with large quantity of data from few different databases: a very big MS SQL and a few smaller MS Access databases

Even though the existing application is functional, the new

Deployment of the new version on all web servers

application will have several new modules.

Limited links between central location and other local centers

To illustrate the depth of the project, the old database has 150

Limited project time frame

tables and the new one will have about 400. We decided to use C#.NET programming language, SQL Server 2008 database engine and IIS Web server. ESA is organized in one Central Office in Skopje and 30 Local Employment Centers around Macedonia (including Local Employment Center of Skopje). The new architecture has 30 single local web servers for all the local employment centers and 2 network balanced web servers for the central location in Skopje. All web servers use single database server located in central location in Skopje. The project was implemented in partnership with Neocom and Edusoft.

Solutions After defining the team members of both companies, we started to define the rules and standards for the project. Once the project modules and architecture were defined, we agreed on the project template and coding standards. We jointly worked on one Team Foundation Server and single database server. Every team member analysed tables from the old system which coresponded to certain modules, and created import scripts for transferring and transforming old data to new database. The new database is relational, and this is taken into account for the import scripts. Writing CRUID procedures and data layers manually was challenging with such a small project timeframe and a significantly large database. Therefore, we used a code generator to generate stored procedures and classes for data layer and business objects. More than 70% of the code was generated automatically. Deployment of the new version is being done from one server to all other web servers using our synchronization tools. Network connection between central location and other local centers is limited, so the synchronization process has to copy only the changed content of the web application. Limited links between central location and other local centers forced us to implement a functional caching mechanism that deals with the centralized database server and local web servers. To do this, new technology features were used so that only changed data are transmitted over the slow link. If there is some data that has not been changed, it will be retreived from local cache. After the base modules are finished and tested, the intranet application is required to go live; thus a release date has been defined, together with a suitable preparation. With such a big database, the process of transferring and transforming the data can be long and risky, unless you have a well trained and experienced team, together with a good support from the IT department of the client. Taking in consideration the public service that the client provides transferring and transforming data had to be completed in limited time frame. After finishing this process in three days, the application was launched. The greater part of the application is already in function for two months now, without major problems. We are only adding some final touches and creating reports.

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

Gradski Parking

Microsoft EBS 2008

roduct

Implementation by Alek Gelevski

Windows Essen

hoice of products that are included in Windows Essential Business Server bundle like: Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition, Microsoft System Center Windows Essen ows SharePoint Services 3.01, Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Threat Management Gateway Medium Business Edition. This Windows Essen centrally infrastructure. Esse right choice of products that are included in Windows Essential Business Server bundle like: Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition, MicrosoftWindows Windows Esse

ev i c e bu l This is achieved thorough the right choice of products that are included in Windows Essential ice s. Business s. A A lEssentials Server bundle like: Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition, Microsoft System Center 2007,Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Standard, Windows SharePoint Services 3.01, Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Threat Management Gateway Medium Business Edition. This plethora of products guarantees reliable, safe and centrally administered infrastructure.

The Gradski Parking Public Enterprise was seeking a modern, advanced, robust, secure and reliable business infrastructure and collaboration solution. The infrastructure had to be designed and built from scratch, sized at serving 100 to 150 users in two distinct physical locations, providing advanced collaboration between the employees, remote access from the internet and increased security and availability of their data.

Having acknowledged their requirements, the Nextsense`s systems department team did not hesitate over the product choice of Windows Essential Business Server 2008.The Public Enterprise moved from a Workgroup to a Windows Server 2008 domain based infrastructure providing centralized user account management, centralized document storage, scheduled backups of data, improved name resolution for third-party applications used by the Enterprise, secured internet access, direct e-mail access, better collaboration thorough the use of SharePoint portal. One of the business requirements that was crucial over the choice of product was enabling two distinct offices to be fully connected over the internet, thus providing seamless access to the same data, files and collaboration resources. That’s why the Nextsense team configured a fully functional site-to-site vpn using two of the servers providing access from the Enterprise`s branch office direct connection to its Headquarters.

The implementation of Windows Essential Business Server 2008 presented numerous benefits to the company’s users like being able to log in with their user accounts on each computer in the company, not having to type their credentials each time they access a document over the network, access to the corporate mail from anywhere and from any device as technologies like Oultook Anywhere and ActiveSync (DirectPush) were configured and enabled. EBS implementation also presented new values to the company like limiting the access and centrally storing the employee My documents and those being backed up daily, granular restriction and control over the access to shared files through access control lists, granting each user only the permissions they are required and many more. The network also got mature security and is fully protected with the implementation of the newest Microsoft firewall product Forefront Threat Management Gateway providing controlled access to restricted This is a follow-up on the “Multiply your power!” content, web sites and applications from article published in the previous Nextnews issue. Printed copy is available upon request. and over the internet. g rtgheooursands oaidtlu ac of users. This is achie pyrw h osbnb eiid risze, a dtth y a large organization with thousands e d e ussaenne d frg equalwith full thousands scale capaofou u d with thousands rganization oorganization eerovides geser,eoo g laclratgrp ass, anes , theisd pbdryo ya larrbe ba u tuorf usenr eed eede y naautm feearres , ass , as n b d bhefuem de nd t n n d a t u u re ee stahine s ad fe feat s nitiiened itiean nd , a bteild it tbieil s ies a es pmai m ili i lit uriscali pab ab

bilities and features, as needed by a large organization wit fsers. users. is achieved thoroosoft System Center Essential ThisThis is achieved thoroosoft System Center Essentials 2thoEssential ofved users. This is the achieved thoroosoft System Center thorough choice of products that are es asright needed by aSystem large organization withincluded thousan in rs.and Thisfeatures, is achieved thoroosoft Center Essentials 2007,

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Nextsense is proud to prove itself once again as a valuable partner, from supporting the client to make the right product choice, through full-scale implementation of the product features and providing an expert and prompt support to the clients’ needs and the business. We are also glad that our company is one of the first in Macedonia that has successfully implemented Windows Essential Business Server 2008 in full scale. ra of products guarantees reliable, safe and cent

Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition, Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007,Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Standard, Windows SharePoint Essential Busin Windows SharePoint Services 3.01, Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Threat Management Gateway Medium Business Windows Esse

vird oo eetshaenqu r rm rodutcftop 3a 0l0f uull s thissupppor c s ersn,not number of users , this producet rpsaoler c rovidaep f utsc a the deviacbil r oe i d in b e r o f u s e r s , t h i s p ro d e i s u c beinc ite t e e num p qsu. tAies ms s lim i n th ore than 30 0 use rovide allthan nuse is p o r t fo r m rs o r s e ited fuo d e e s it t sup m o u n l l of users , this product p devicqeual th i n g h t i s l i sg fe can umb e r rovid s i n usou th e n es e . Afultll chal at e it f u s e r s , t h i s p ro d u c t e hs nc umber o gh q p th d in n i r o u e e v t a id es l fu ocuagl ss ou i n th mi e qu ll s eh i th s s e s li ited al c t it i l i m f a s u ne l e is l l l si g h it i s ca i ca ou gh le pa th o u ca h

e and business solution for midsize businesses since it cannot support for more than 30 0 users or devic ppotrrtufcotrurm ntial Busrastructure and business solution for midsize businesses since cannot su es . A ntial Business Server 2008 provides customers and partners with a it complete infras e oarnedth ba un si n 3e0s0s lthou ntial Busrastructure and business solution for midsize businesses since it cannot suppor t for more so u selurt gh i Windows Essential Business Server 2008 provides customers and partners with a tial Business Server 2008 provides customers and partners with a complete infrastructure and bu than 3 sioon t is sin e s 00 r fdo li s ssupport tial Busrastructure and business solution for midsize businesses it cannot suppor t forsince o l ut us e r s complete infrastructure and business solution for since midsize businesses more thit can ervm mi ion tial Busrastructure and business solution for midsize businesses since it cannot suppor t fo r more an 30 or iceid te t h 0 f de an product or up to 300 users or devices. Although it is limited in the number of users, this 30 0 use r provides ss. ized i mi vi c u se s o A b d e r r s o d ofsiusers. l equal full scale capabilities and features, as needed by a large organization with thousands s . z e r

Please contact: sales@nextsense.com

Multiply your

! R E W O

www.microsoft.com/ebs NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

ds of users. This Exchange is achievedServer thorough the Standard, right c s 2007,Microsoft 2007 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Standard, Wind h thousands of users. This is achieved thorough the s 2thora of products guarantees reliable, safe and

Windows Essential Business Server bundle like:

16 product

Customer relationship management (CRM) is an important business strategy that differentiates an organization from its competition. Organizations that pay attention to customers and take actions to improve the customer experience gain a competitive advantage. It is important to understand that CRM is a business strategy. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an application designed to help an organization achieve this business strategy. Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides the tools that help an organization move forward, but to achieve the maximum value, the organization must develop a CRM strategy and then use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to execute the tactics that will achieve its business goals. Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides automation tools that reduce the time salespeople (and their managers) typically spend performing administrative tasks.

CRM Implementation:

vrabotuvanje.com by Irena Trendafilova

Client

Benefits

Vrabotuvanje.com is a professional employer organization from Skopje which provides outsourcing of payroll, workers' compensation, human resources and employee benefits administration. It does this by hiring a client company’s employees, thus becoming their employer of record.

This software will contribute for:

For improving its internal organisation, efficiency and professionalism the management decided to invest into new and more advanced Management Information System called Microsoft Customer Relationship Management - CRM. The software contains sophisticated and up-to-date tools for:

Centralized location

Automation of the business process

• Centralized location for clients’ data storage: - CVs of candidates - Results from interviews - Candidate responses - Communication history with the client/candidate • Centralized place for storing projects/campaigns data and candidate lists

• Standardization and automation of the process for organizing employment campaigns • Reducing the duration of the whole process of organizing employment campaigns • Proper task distribution among employees • Properly defined data access

• • • • •

Growth of sales services Introduction of new services Time and costs savings Reaching higher standards Enhanced quality and increasing number of clients • Employee management improvement and career development • Improvement of costs structure in the search process and salary calculation

Reports and analysis • Easy and fast search of the appropriate data • Easy, fast and simple generation of reports and analysis

Credit and leasing process management software solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Credit and leasing process management is a solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform, designed specifically to meet the needs of banks, leasing companies, credit intermediaries and insurance companies. The Credit and leasing process management software solution is a completely integrated software solution designed specifically to meet the needs of client-facing staff of financial institutions. The solution is designed for the specific workflows and terminology used by today’s financial service companies for credit and leasing application management, pre-collection, collection and monitoring of the processes. It is a fast, flexible, affordable solution that can help the financial service companies drive consistent and measurable improvements in everyday business processes. By using the workflow engine in the Microsoft CRM, the whole processes of loan production, application management, monitoring and pre-collections, collection can be significantly improved and automated. Loan application management The whole loan production process management consists of loan requests processing and disbursed loans monitoring modules.

by Aleksandra Gjeorgjieva

A key business imperative for all financial institutions is to attract and retain more profitable clients and improve efficiency through cost-effective, widely adopted, easy-to-use tools that provide a consolidated view of client data for greater customer intimacy and offer more effective identification of cross-sell/up-sell opportunities

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Features Automated document generation Compliance management Credit assessment Pipeline management Contact and account management Multi-currency support E-Mail Workflow Robust reporting engine Familiar look and feel Outlook integration Fast, flexible, and easy to deploy

• Loan management module The loan management module provides processing of credit requests. It automates the entire processes of communication with client and credit disbursed, providing the financial service department with information overview about the applicants, their requests and solvency. • Collection Operations Management This module covers the entire process of disbursed loans. By using this module, the clients receive monthly reminders and notifications, mails or letters for their monthly installment, and information for other products.

Leasing application management The leasing application module is one-tool-solution for risk management, funding administration, automated payment management. This module is used to track the steps, reminders and required documents for efficient and timely performing of the work. By using powerful analyzes and reporting tools as well as having detailed insight into client information, the sales staff can select the right opportunity, and achieve maximum profitability. Sales By using CRM to access and manage all of the key customer contact data, sales personnel can spend less time entering data and more time engaging directly with clients. Whatever the leads’ source, workflows route them to the proper employee and track the actions they take. Sales staffs have more time to track leads, close deals, and actively pursue prospective clients instead of converting paper-based notes into potentially inaccurate data records.

CRM EVENT NEWS

Nextsense presentation in collaboration with Credit 1: “Client Relationship Management in the process of credit mediation”

12.05.2010, Skopje Fair Congress Business Center

Nextsense continues with the presentation and education of customers about the benefits of the Customer Relationship Management software. After the event organized in April last year where the solution was presented to small and medium sized companies from the advertising and HR industry, this year’s event targets financial institutions and credit intermediary companies. Business decision makers from financial institutions, banks, credit intermediaries, automotive and IT companies find these presentations most useful, since Microsoft Dynamic CRM is the perfect foundation for their business models that helps them perform all the activities related with the management of the credit and leasing applications at a new quality level.

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

The implementation of Nextsense CRM enables these companies become compliant with the legal requirements of the Consumer Protection Law in consumer credit contracts and the Data Protection Law in terms of processing of personal data, special personal data categories, privacy and protection of the data, security and data storing.

16 product

CRM Implementation:

vrabotuvanje.com by Irena Trendafilova

Client

Benefits

This software will contribute for:

Centralized location

Automation of the business process

• • • • •

Reports and analysis • Easy and fast search of the appropriate data • Easy, fast and simple generation of reports and analysis

by Aleksandra Gjeorgjieva

CRM EVENT NEWS

Nextsense presentation in collaboration with Credit 1: “Client Relationship Management in the process of credit mediation”

12.05.2010, Skopje Fair Congress Business Center

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

18 case study

Software Licensing ONE TO ONE Nextsense demonstrated its expertise and readiness to help client license software managing. Possessing License Delivery Competence just affirms Nextsense expertise in its scope of work. Licensing proves to be a complicated problem that every client is facing, regardless of its size.

With the Microsoft OVS agreement Germanos has access to the following benefits: • Three year license hire • The latest software editions in the next three years • Financial beneﬁts • Payment by installments (spread payments) • Information Work Solution Services • Training vouchers • eLearning Courses • TechNet Plus Subscription • Home Use Program • Microsoft Employee Purchase Program

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

19 case study

Security Information and Event Management solution implemented in Macedonia by Trajce Koskarovski

What is a Security Information and Event Management solution?

Security information and event management technology performs two main functions, according to Gartner*: 1. Security event management: Analyzes log and event data in real time to provide threat monitoring, event correlation

and incident response. Data can be collected from security and network devices, systems and applications. 2. Security information management: Collects, analyzes and reports on log data (primarily from host systems and applications, but also from network and security devices) to support regulatory compliance initiatives, internal threat

Possessing the Microsoft License delivery competence positions Nextsense as an expert company in providing licensing solutions for its clients. Regardless of the company’s size, industry or IT infrastructure, the Nextsense team can analyze its needs and requirements which will lead to choosing the right licensing model. This was the case with our client Germanos before its rebranding into One Telecommunications. Germanos needed a licensing model in order to be fully compliant with the merging company. Nextsense team of experts in the field of licensing analyzed the Microsoft licensing models and programs and how they could be applied in the case of Germanos. We presented the features of each licensing model to the Germanos executives. After considering the recommendations from the Nextsense team, mutual decision was reached about the optimal licensing solution that will be perfect for the needs of Germanos. The chosen solution was the Open value Subscription licensing program. This program was chosen because it can offer Germanos the needed flexibility and ability to increase or decrease the number of licenses depending on the needs during the three year agreement. The desktop computers in Germanos were fully licensed with GetGenuine licenses, OEM operating systems and Microsoft packs for desktop standardizations: operating system upgrade, Microsoft Office and Client Access Licenses and Microsoft Visio applications. The re-branding is an opportunity for the company to make some changes to the business internally, to define more effective processes, improve communication lines etc. One of the things in Germanos that required immediate change was the software licensing. Having an expert like Nextsense to work with made the software legalization process to run smoothly, which allowed the company to focus on preparing the rebranding process.

management and security policy compliance management.

Why we chose the SIEM solution from Symantec?

Implementation in Macedonia – Stopanska Banka AD Bitola

SSIM Reference list

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to customers – from consumers and small businesses to the largest global organizations. secures and manages their information against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently than any other company. The company’s unique focus is to eliminate risks to information, technology and processes independent of the device, platform, interaction or location. Symantec’s Security Information Manager (SSIM) is a real-time security information management solution that collects, correlates, and stores event, vulnerability, and compliance logs and documents the actions that your security staff takes to help keep your information systems secure. It provides compliance reporting that lets you and your auditors see, firsthand, the state of your security environment to provide the accountability and transparency required to comply with stringent mandates and regulations. Symantec has competed in the SIEM market since its inception and continues to be designated as a “leader” in the Gartner report. SSIM is an all-inclusive solution that has only 1 optional component, with no excessive “add-on” costs, for example, there is no DBA required - no hidden costs for dedicated database expert for database tuning. It’s a single deployment for log management and correlation using one appliance for the whole solution. Symantec doesn’t limit any features and capabilities of SSIM for smaller deployments (there are no Express, Lite or any other limited versions) which suggests that every SSIM reference is valid. Symantec’s Global Intelligence Network integration continues to provide unique capabilities that remain unmet by the competitors. An example is in the ability to conclude incidents of malicious IP activity that are emanating from within a customer environment by correlating it to an integrated global intelligence source. It’s responsible for identifying malicious traffic coming to or targeting your network (like incoming Botnet commands and controls from a malicious host, or port scans against the network), coming from your network to a malicious source (like Bot communicating information back to a malicious host, or proprietary data leaks) or originating malicious IP is an internal address (like network used as a proxy by hackers to conduct their business, or network bandwidth compromised).

Symantec Security Information Manager is implemented as all-in-one server appliance that collects and correlates events from the complete infrastructure of the bank - around 30 servers, over 20 network devices and over 300 computers on over 10 locations. It includes various Microsoft operating systems, SQL database versions, web servers, Cisco security and networking equipment, Symantec security and availability products etc.

1. Fortis Bank – Turkey (+5000 users, 100s of servers) 2. Yapı ve Kredi Bankası A.Ş.- Turkey (+10.000 users, 100s of servers) 3. ING Bank – Turkey (+5000 users, 100s of servers) 4. Novacoast Inc.- USA 5. Tribunal de Justiça do Espírito Santo – Brasil 6. Municipality Government Vitória - Brasil 7. MTR Corporation Ltd – Hong Kong 8. ALC a joint venture of Amey Plc & VT Group Plc – UK 9. Alaska USA Federal Credit Union - USA 10. Democratic National Committee – Washington 11. Texas Children’s Hospital - USA 12. Bank of America - USA

For more information about SSIM visit: http://www.symantec.com/business/security-information-manager

Also worth reading are the following articles: SIEM - Security Info and Event Management Dos and Don'ts: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/120209-siem-security-info-and -event.html Symantec SIM brings friends: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/07/02TC-Symantec-SIM_1.html

*Gartner, Inc. is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. It delivers research and insight to global technology leaders to make strategic informed decisions.

18 case study

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

19 case study

Security Information and Event Management solution implemented in Macedonia by Trajce Koskarovski

What is a Security Information and Event Management solution?

management and security policy compliance management.

Why we chose the SIEM solution from Symantec?

Implementation in Macedonia – Stopanska Banka AD Bitola

SSIM Reference list

For more information about SSIM visit: http://www.symantec.com/business/security-information-manager

*Gartner, Inc. is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. It delivers research and insight to global technology leaders to make strategic informed decisions.

20 product

Symantec Data Loss Prevention Discover. Monitor. Protect. Manage. The issue of data loss encompasses everything from confidential information about one customer being exposed, to thousands of source code files for a company’s product being sent to a competitor. Whether deliberate or accidental, data loss occurs any time employees, consultants, or other insiders release sensitive data about customers, finances, intellectual property, or other confidential information (in violation of company policies and regulatory requirements). Identify and protect confidential information to prevent data breaches, stop data leakage, demonstrate compliance and reduce the risk of external attacks and the insider threat with Symantec Data Loss Prevention. Symantec Data Loss Prevention (DLP) delivers a unified solution to discover, monitor, and protect confidential data wherever it is stored or used. DLP offers comprehensive coverage of confidential data across endpoint, network and storage systems. By measurably reducing risk, DLP gives organizations new confidence to demonstrate compliance while protecting their customers, brand, and intellectual property

Key Features • Discover – Find confidential data wherever it is stored, create an inventory of sensitive data, and automatically manage data cleanup. Supports a wide variety of file types, databases and document management platforms. • Monitor – Understand how confidential data is being used – whether the user is on or off the network. Inspects all network communications such as email, IM, Web, FTP, P2P and generic TCP; monitors end-user activities when downloading files, copying to removable media, printing, faxing, emailing or transferring over the Internet. • Protect – Automatically enforce security policies to proactively secure data and prevent confidential data from leaving the organization. Capable of protecting confidential data by quarantining, copying or moving; stops, quarantines or routes network traffic for encryption; blocks end-user actions at the endpoint. • Manage – Define unified policy across the enterprise, remediate and report on incidents, and detect content accurately, all within one unified platform.

Key Benefits • Symantec Data Loss Prevention reduces the proliferation of confidential data across enterprise data centers, client systems, remote offices and end-user PCs

SYMANTEC

IS SECURITY. Proven choice of global market leaders 25 percent of the FORTUNE 100 9 of the top 10 commercial and investment banks 6 of the top 10 insurance companies 4 of the top 5 healthcare providers 4 of the top 5 credit card companies 6 top energy and utilities companies 8 top manufacturing companies 12 top technology companies 13 top retail brands 14 top public sector organizations

More than five million employees covered

• Gain visibility into employee activity on and off the corporate network and at the endpoint; identify broken business practices due to transmitting confidential data. • Stop the loss of confidential data over the network or through end-user PCs. • By measurably reducing risk Symantec Data Loss Prevention gives organizations new confidence to demonstrate compliance while protecting their customers, brand, and intellectual property.

“You have to understand what kind of sensitive data you have, and do a risk evaluation of what happens if data is exposed or gets in the wrong hands.” Thomas Raschke Senior Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc.

“The average information leak costs organizations approx. $182 per record, averaging roughly $4,800,000 per breach in total.” SOURCE: The Ponemon Institute

Find some additional reading in the January issue of Symantec CIO Digest: http://www.symantec.com/business/ciodigest/article.jsp?aid=january10_solutions

A podcast interview with Lee Weiner on data loss prevention is available at: http://www.symantec.com/podcasts/detail.jsp?podid=ent_data_loss_prevention NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

21 19 Nextsense accepted into the Symantec Authorized Technical Assistance Partner Program

partners case ase study stud udy

by Daniela Gavrilovska

It is our great pleasure to inform you that in February Nextsense has officially been accepted into the Symantec Authorized Technical Assistance Partner Program (TAPP). The Symantec Authorized Technical Assistance Partner Program (TAPP) is designed to increase partners’ ability to deliver improved levels of technical assistance to customers on two key volume products, Symantec Backup Exec™ and Symantec Endpoint Security. TAPP allows partners to provide a high level of assistance by leveraging Symantec's technical expertise with the benefit of direct access to the Symantec advanced support team and training.

Nextsense as a Symantec Gold Partner, with the fully staffed 12x5 call centre, software case tracking system and the in-house technical assistance lab fulfills all the necessary requirements to become authorized Symantec TAPP Partner. With this authorization, Nextsense has direct access to Symantec advanced technical support staff and the latest online technical training which allows us to offer the following benefits to our customers: • Highly-qualified technical assistance – Nextsense staff are empowered with Symantec technical training, exclusively available within the TAPP program • Expedited technical assistance – Nextsense staff have direct access to Symantec advanced level support in case any technical cases need to be escalated to Symantec • Streamlined assistance – our customers will receive value added services • More internal resources avaliable – Nextsense will be the customers’ single point of contact, allowing more effective and efficient use of their resources and time • Helps the customers increase the value and return on investments of Symantec technology

Now we are able to offer to our customers numerous value-added services such as: • Telephonic and onsite assistance with issues installing Symantec products - Backup Exec and Symantec Endpoint Security • Health Check offerings for remote monitoring of end user's technical environment or proactive system issue alerts With this kind of authorization, Nextsense is able to help the customers in a better, easier, and quicker way, and to build better relationships and provide truly great service levels. The only requirement that the customers should fulfil is that they must have a current support and maintenance contract with Symantec in order to be able to receive these benefits.

NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010

GREAT 3-YEARS-FOR-2

product

PROTECT your information... so you can FOCUS on business SYMANTEC PROTECTION SUITE ENTERPRISE EDITION

Key Features

These days, you need more than just antivirus to protect your critical business information. Stay ahead of the ever-changing threat landscape with greater efficiency, cost savings, and confidence with the new Symantec™ Protection Suite - market-leading endpoint security, messaging security, and data and system protection solution from Symantec. Designed to provide superior protection, Symantec Protection Suite helps you completely protect, manage, and recover the vital information your business depends on. Symantec offers market-leading endpoint security, messaging security, and data and system protection solutions designed to provide superior protection for information in your Windows® environment. Now get comprehensive protection all in one easy-to deploy suite: the new Symantec™ Protection Suite Enterprise Edition. Symantec Protection Suite Enterprise Edition creates a protected endpoint, messaging, and web environment that is secure against today’s complex malware, data loss and spam threats, and is quickly recoverable in the event of failure. Reduce the cost of securing your environment and more effectively manage the inherent risks of today’s

infrastructures

with

Symantec’s

market-leading

technologies.

• Proactive protection for laptops, desktops, servers, mobile devices, messaging and web environments that includes more than traditional antivirus and antispyware. • Effective and accurate antispam and antivirus protection for email and instant messaging (IM). Advanced content filtering and data loss prevention further protects email and IM by identifying and controlling the flow of sensitive data. • Web gateway security that protects organizations against Web 2.0 threats, including malicious software such as spyware, botnets, viruses, and other types of malware. • Rapid data and system recovery recovers individual files and folders in seconds or complete Windows systems in minutes reliably and with confidence, even to dissimilar hardware or virtual environments - now including support for Windows 7. • Flexible and scalable solution that provides granular control over policies and features, and makes them easily configurable and selectively deployable based on the needs of your environment.

the risk inherent in today’s IT infrastructures. By delivering Symantec’s proven endpoint security, messaging security, and system

recovery

technologies,

enables

you

protect,

automatically control, and easily manage the information most crucial to your business.

Safeguarding critical information is a key to driving your business and securing your future. We can offer you a solution that defends against all varieties of malware and security threats - while reducing your costs! Our special 3-years-for-2 maintenance offer is available to new or renewing customers until the end of June through the Express License Buying program only. The following products are eligible for this offer: • Symantec™ Endpoint Protection • Symantec™ Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition • Symantec™ Protection Suite Enterprise Edition

Symantec Protection Suite Enterprise Edition reduces the cost of securing your environment and helps you more effectively manage

MAINTENANCE OFFER.

• Symantec™ Protection Suite Small Business Edition

Key Benefits

• Symantec™ Multi-tier Protection

• Multiple layers of protection from the market-leading endpoint security, messaging security, web, data loss prevention, and data and system recovery vendor. • Eliminates environment complexity by deploying integrated essential endpoint and messaging security technologies as unified solutions with coordinated management.

• Symantec™ Multi-tier Protection Small Business Edition Act now to take full advantage of the opportunities that a year’s free maintenance cover will offer you. Contact Nextsense as your authorized Symantec Distributor to find out more at sales@nextsense.com. The offer is valid until 30 June 2010.

• Automatic controls help you achieve, prove, and enforce adherence to IT policy and regulatory objectives with ease. • Simplified implementation & operations by quickly deploying with minimal disruption to your environment through easy management and optimized utilization of system resources. • Centrally manages backup and recovery tasks for multiple desktops/laptops across your entire organization. NEXTNEWS Issue 2 | April 2010 .

e-mail: sales@nextsense.com website: www.nextsense.com address: Partizanski Odredi 62, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia phone: +389 2 3075 111; fax: +389 2 3075 333; Nextsense - Symantec Gold Partner

GREAT 3-YEARS-FOR-2

product

PROTECT your information... so you can FOCUS on business SYMANTEC PROTECTION SUITE ENTERPRISE EDITION

Key Features

infrastructures

with

Symantec’s

market-leading

technologies.

the risk inherent in today’s IT infrastructures. By delivering Symantec’s proven endpoint security, messaging security, and system

recovery

technologies,

enables

you

protect,

automatically control, and easily manage the information most crucial to your business.

Symantec Protection Suite Enterprise Edition reduces the cost of securing your environment and helps you more effectively manage

MAINTENANCE OFFER.

• Symantec™ Protection Suite Small Business Edition

Key Benefits

• Symantec™ Multi-tier Protection

e-mail: sales@nextsense.com website: www.nextsense.com address: Partizanski Odredi 62, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia phone: +389 2 3075 111; fax: +389 2 3075 333; Nextsense - Symantec Gold Partner

25 httpool.com.mk

Start conversations with your target audience By „targeting“ we mean that we can show ads to different age groups and gender. Targeted advertising is becoming more and more popular in this region, because it gives very good results. Macedonia is the leader in the region with 650.000 active accounts on Live Messenger.

A Messenger Tab allows clients to host their own content using Windows Live Messenger as a distribution vehicle via a Tab icon. When users click on the Tab icon, a new window, filled with advertising content opens.

THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND THE EVENT MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT OF EXPLORINGMACEDONIA.COM by Nora Buklevska

Cost per click (CPC)_ Sanja Božik Project Manager, Httpool Macedonia

user sees Tabs, when they are in the client

Online payment model by which advertisers pay for each click through made on their advertisement

Cost per impression (CPI)_ Online payment model by which advertisers pay for each impression

Brand association with Windows Live Messenger and content integration – The Tab

Nextsense’ team of experienced developers deployed an online platform for event management integrating registration process with online payment and complete workflow for submission of abstracts.

icon is integrated into the Messenger client and appears below the What’s New feed

Control - Advertisers have the option to create and host the Tabs themselves

functionality. With targeting capabilities, more relevant messages will be delivered to users. Advertisers will be able to reach different audience with different messages

Advertise with Windows Live Messenger and start conversations with your target audience.

Cost per thousand impressions - Online payment model by which advertisers pay for every 1000 impressions

We integrate various modules: ● Registration process ● Abstract workflow process including Submittion, Approval and Publishing ● Payment process, for advanced and complete payment ● Web site

Frequency cap_ The maximum number of times or length of time that one or related advertisement will be shown to a site visitor

Event organisation via exploringmacedonia.com

Hyperlink_

Website

HTML code that when clicked on, redirects one’s browser to another web page. Most banners are hyperlinked to the advertiser’s web page

Conference organizer

Hits_

Abstract book

A hit occurs when some person opens (downloads) a Web page for viewing in his/her Internet browser. For example, a Web page containing text and three images, registers four hits one hit for the HTML page and one for each graphic file. Hits are not the best measure of how many people are visiting your site. However, they do tell you exactly what your visitors are viewing

Registration form

Registration

A b s tr a c t s

Abstract material

Submit

Advanced payment

Approve

Publish

Credit card payment

Pay m ent p lat fo r m Online

Rooming list / Booking list

Participant

Fax

The conference organizer receives: ● List of registered participants ● Advanced payments, processed online through ExploringMacedonia, by fax or e-mail ● Rooming list ● Transfer list, for transfers from/to airport ● Booking list, for all extra activities ● Abstract book

E-mail

We also provide: Accomodation

Transfers

Tours

Landing page_ The page on a web site where one is taken after clicking on an advertisement. While this can be any page, it is often a page designed to expand on the service or product mentioned in the initial advertisement

Clicks to Tab icons and Tab icon impressions can be measured via ad report for each individual Tab icon.

ExploringMacedonia.com is a one stop shop for all your travel needs in Macedonia. We can offer a variety of accommodation options, rent-a- car and transfer services, guided personalized tours, boat tours on Lake Ohrid, wine tours including unlimited wine and lunch/ dinner at a winery, recreational tours: biking, hiking, paragliding and visits to the most beautiful churches, mosques and monuments in Macedonia, from the Neolith, Roman, Byzantine and more recent history.

Event management in Macedonia reached a new level with the introduction of the Nextsense’ powerful and intuitive technology and innovative approach that combined conference and event tourism with IT.

In Macedonia, companies, organizations and associations can organize their events, conferences and Hi-Tech presentations at a single point, effortlessly and cost- effectively.

CPM_

Ad served functionality - Tabs have targeting

Tabs are a unique ad experience in Messenger. They offer the reach while delivering a rich and deep content experience within Messenger.

Number of times an ad banner is downloaded and most probably seen by visitors

The percentage, or number of clicks divided by number of times the ad banner is seen. For example, imagine 10 people do a web search. In response, they see links to a variety of web pages. Three of the 10 people all choose one particular link. That link then has a 30 percent click-through-rate

High visibility – Every Windows Live Messenger

Messenger offers many options and variations for interesting and new type of advertising. One of these options is the advertising through Messenger Tab.

Event Management

Ad views (impressions)_

Click-through-rate (CTR)_

In October 2009, Httpool has become a major representative for advertising on Windows Live Messenger in the region.

KEY BENEFITS

Advanced Level:

by SEEbiz.net.mk

ADVERTISMENT

Windows Live Messenger offers targeted advertising through Httpool Macedonia.

Internet Marketing Glossary

All these technologies improve the performance of the ExploringMacedonia team as well as shorten the time needed for the organization of what would otherwise be long and complex process. Event management with ExploringMacedonia.com has become an easy and pleasant process, a solution to many companies and organizations, for their planning, budgeting and execution of small and high scale events.

● Accommodation (logistics and tracking) ● Venue selection and facilities ● Catering ● Transfers and transport ● Extracurricular activities (tours, sailing, wine tasting, ...)

BUSINESS KNOW-HOW PORTAL The Internet Marketing Glossary in macedonian language is available on the SEEbiz.net.mk portal