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Press Release
FLASHMAP SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES PRO BONO CAMPAIGN
FOR NEW HOSTED TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECTURE SERVICE
Low-Cost Subscription Tool Cuts/Manages IT Portfolio and Expenses;
Discounts to 1st 1,000 Subscribers; 1st 100 to Name Charity of Choice
Newton, MA (September 7, 2005) - Flashmap Systems, Inc.
today announced a pro bono campaign targeted to corporate technology architects
and service-provider consultants that will provide a discounted $99/month
first-year subscription access to ITguide™, an architecture tool
that graphically depicts a company’s complete technology portfolio.
Flashmap Systems® will provide the discount to the first 1,000 subscribers
and has included a charitable component to the campaign. The first 100
companies to sign up for the service can choose a charitable/non-profit
organization that will receive an additional subscription of ITguide for
free. This special promotional offer expires September 1, 2006.
“ITguide is a breakthrough, low-cost service that is going to save
enterprises millions of dollars in duplicate, mistaken or over-researched
technology costs and decisions,” said Jeff Tash, President and CEO
of Flashmap Systems, who doubles as an industry speaker/authority on global
IT architecture. “The larger and more complex the organization --
whether it’s private, public or non-profit -- the more opportunity
there is to reap cost-cutting benefits. We see this campaign as a chance
to completely change the IT architecture landscape, while simultaneously
giving something back to the community.”
A highly-intuitive, quickly-deployed tool, ITguide captures and communicates
all of the data pertinent to a company’s technology architecture
-- including their products, product life cycle status and enterprise
architectural strategy. With ITguide, companies can easily access documents
describing their internal corporate initiatives, domain strategies (platforms,
networking, servers, services), corporate and business strategies, technical
reviews, product retirement plans, why products are being used or retired,
when exceptions are acceptable, etc. ITguide also helps to identify:
• What products are not compatible with organizational standards
or a company’s current architecture,
• Obsolete, redundant, or duplicate products in use,
• Software that should be retired,
• Opportunities for re-negotiating key software maintenance and
support contracts.
By providing this technology view in a graphical format understood by
technical as well as non-technical users, large companies can potentially
save millions of dollars in pruning existing licensing costs, avoiding
redundant IT evaluations/purchases, and implement corporate or division-wide
standards.
“The push to establish IT standards in corporations is borne from
the twin desire to reduce both the complexity of technology infrastructures
while increasing efficiencies,” said technology analyst Evan Quinn,
Group Vice President, IDC. “Standards allow an IT organization to
do more with less by consolidating data centers, standardizing platforms
and pruning redundancies.”
ITguide, which is available as an ASP service and can be deployed within
days, navigates via technology product/service/vendor category trees.
The discounted, single-seat solution is projected to cut an estimated
10 percent minimum from a company’s technology portfolio costs in
its first year. It is aimed at a large cross-section of IT architecture
executives, and those who perform technology portfolio auditing services.
Multi-user, read-only licenses are available at $495/month, which can
also be extended to their charity of choice. Flashmap’s standard
pricing will prevail after the conclusion of the campaign, and the first,
1,000 subscribers are signed.
Charities Gain Needed Transparencies in Administration
Over the past decade, charitable and not-for-profit organizations have
been subjected to increased scrutiny in all aspects of their organizations
spending. Boards and other governing bodies, particularly of the largest
organizations, have a growing need to reduce operational/administrative
costs as a percentage of donations. While Flashmap solutions are largely
deployed by large public companies, like QUALCOMM, Inc., Goodyear, Shell
Oil, John Lewis Partnership, The Capital Group and Waste Management, Inc.,
Flashmap executives desire to also help those larger charities that also
rely heavily on technology infrastructures.
“It is more important than ever that charitable organizations clearly
understand and justify all necessary expenditures and that they demonstrate
initiatives that wring out administrative costs to the lowest possible
cost point,” said Carol Rocha, past president of The American Melanoma
Foundation. “The largest non-profit organizations -- cancer, diabetes,
heart, etc. associations -- are national and global, and have tens of
thousands of members and millions of dollars in donations. Having a better
handle on the technology needed to manage such extensive infrastructures
can absolutely help us to channel more dollars out of operations and into
research and service programs.”
To sign up for ITguide, for a product demonstration, or for more information,
companies should contact Lois Aronson at 617-332-3101 or log-on to www.FlashmapSystems.com.
About Flashmap Systems
Flashmap Systems is a pioneer in the field of cost-saving software products
and services that enable IT professionals to manage their technology portfolio
and enforce IT standards across the enterprise. Its flagship software,
FlashAtlas® , is an intuitive, visually driven navigation system designed
to represent, manage, and publish an enterprise's full Technology Portfolio.
Flashmap's software solutions allow technical, service and business people
to communicate within a common environment, enabling senior management
and IT to better align strategic plans with actual operations. The company
is based in Newton, MA.
www.flashmapsystems.com
FlashAtlas is a trademark of Flashmap Systems, Inc. All other products
or company names are used for identification purposes only, and may be
trademarks of their respective owners.
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