Leading Jazz Musicians Perform on Unique iOS Music App - SessionBand Jazz

PRESS RELEASE

LONDON June 27, 2013. 11:00 a.m.GMT PR Newswire

UK Music Apps Ltd this week launched three new versions of its top-selling SessionBand app for iPhone and iPad, including a special jazz edition featuring four of the world's most sought-after jazz musicians.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130620/622531 )

SessionBand is the world's only chord-based audio loop app. In the new jazz edition, users create their own professional quality, copyright-free jazz tracks in minutes by selecting and joining together chord blocks and watching them convert into editable audio loops played by this exclusive jazz quartet.

SessionBand Jazz was immediately picked up and endorsed by Jamie Cullum who described it as "...an extraordinarily useful tool for jazz musicians of any ability".

SessionBand Jazz is positioned as a professional jazz app "...ideal for music students and perfect for the ultimate jam session", while simple enough for non-musicians and beginners to experiment with. Users select from 10 jazz chord variations (per root note) for each of the 15 popular jazz styles included and can instantly listen to the same set of selected chords in any of those styles.

SessionBand Jazz comes with professional features like automated mixing, auto-transpose, one-touch recording, real-time tempo shift plus Audiobus compatibility - allowing users to seamlessly export content into other music apps like Apple's own GarageBand.

The app is powered by over 16,000 precision-cut jazz audio loops (all chord-based), recorded exclusively for SessionBand by four of the world's top jazz musicians: Ralph Salmins - Drums (Wynton Marsalis, Burt Bacharach, Elton John, Madonna, Robbie Williams, Quincy Jones...); Geoff Gascoyne - Bass (Sting, Van Morrison, Georgie Fame, Michel Legrand, Benny Golson...); Andy Panayi - Saxes and Flutes (Wynton Marsalis, Paul McCartney, Peter Erskine, Freddie Hubbard...) and Tom Cawley - Piano (Jack DeJohnette, Peter Gabriel, Charlie Watts, Guy Barker, Andrea Bocelli...). All are either professors or senior lecturers at top London music schools including Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Trinity College and Guildhall.

Geoff Gascoyne, who commissioned and arranged the music said: "This is a ground-breaking app on so many levels, but especially for music students and improvisers who want to practice with their very own jazz quartet".

UK Music Apps Ltd has a number of editions of SessionBand which adopt the same chord-based formula. Dedicated Piano and Acoustic Guitar versions of the app were also launched this week which each include over 7,000 loops recorded by leading musicians.

SessionBand - Jazz Edition is on sale in the Apple iTunes store priced £5.99/$8.99/€7.99. SessionBand Piano and SessionBand Acoustic Editions are £3.99/$5.99/€5.49

For further information email press@sessionbandapp.com or view product videos at http://www.sessionbandapp.com

Source: UK Music Apps Ltd

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Announcing MarketingPilot 15 Designed for the New Marketer - CRM Connection - Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Microsoft Dynamics Community

Announcing MarketingPilot 15 Designed for the New Marketer - CRM Connection - Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Microsoft Dynamics Community

49 Benefits Of Hiring An Experienced Skilled Worker

By hiring more experienced employee, you lower costs of the company car insurance, you lower your health related expenses, and a lots more:

1   Wisdom and Intelligence

2   Maturity to make sound decisions

3   Ability to assume responsibility sooner because less training is required.

4   Ability to assess, identify and act upon situations with colleagues, customers better because of knowledge from  experience in life and work. Not learned in classroom

5    Make good mentors and coaches in their fields of experience

6   You do not lose 2 hours of productivity time per day for texting

7     Less arrogant

8     Valuable long-term relationships and industry contacts built over the years

9     Can provide objective advice to younger managers because he/she isn’t trying to climb the corporate ladder.

10. Less DRAMA

11 Understands the value of “Teamwork” and can work as an individual as well.

12. Real arguments instead of duhh-reactions.

13. Usually able to “make do” when necessary – cobble something good out of odd and unmatched parts. Think school pageant costumes on a moments notice.

14. Older workers are able to speak and write in complete sentences, with correct English. This is helpful in writing and speaking with customers, as well as internal reports.

15. Less expensive car insurance.

16. Able to advise younger manager without threatening his/her position.

17. Given previous experience, better able to separate wheat from chaff; what is critical and what is not.

18. [Hopefully] thinks before commenting, thereby providing a calming influence, easing workplace stress.

19. Experience, experience, experience… nothing beats experience! Not only in our professional field, but in personal relationships, dealing with all types of personalities we’ve interacted with throughout our careers.

20. Not afraid to roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to get the job done

21. Older workers, or at least this one, are less likely to take a job that they will absolutely hate, therefore increasing the likelihood they will remain in the position. Worker loyalty is not dead, it is simply better seasoned.

22. A more experienced employee understands with greater depth and clarity the true risks and rewards that accompany certain tactics and strategies, with a lower risk of repeating the negative aspects of history.

23. Experienced employees also know how to navigate an organization and gain traction for the most valuable and rewarding ideas in a diplomatic manner so as to gain support in a positive way. It is hard to teach these skills. They must be learned on the job.

24. Less maintenance for their manager

25. The ability to take constructive criticism constructively without the drama.

26.     The ability from life experience and travels to relate to different cultures and accept others of different background and beliefs.

27.     We are progressive – blending new technology with life wisdom

28.     Minimal learning curve.

29.     The older — mature — employees avoid office politics, which can be a time-wasting energy drainer in the dynamics of any office.

30.     Mature workers also accept a job with the intent of staying with it, as opposed to too many younger workers today who treat it like a marriage (“If I don’t like it I’ll quit.”)

31.     The value of the law of the harvest that includes, seeding, nurturing, cultivating, protecting and finally harvesting and storage for the future and new crops. This law applies in any industry, organization and job. The seasoned worker will know how to make each step work. The new worker still needs the mentoring.

32.     Knowing the value of learning from past mistakes, and assimilating that into future work decisions.

33.     Having the ability to see the short and long-term effects of various decisions

34.     Appreciate the fact that EVERY interaction I have with anyone can lead to a possible connection, job, assistance, etc., later.

35. The ability to develop lasting collaborative relationships with all levels in an organisation.

36. Older employees have a greater value of time and know how to prioritize tasks.

37. We are not distracted by the bar, or the nightclub, or the latest romance gone wrong.

38. We consider our work a duty and of prime importance in our life, we understand the meaning of loyalty, good ethical behavior comes naturally, we have a sense of duty.

39. Young people are still looking for the best opportunity, whereas older workers understand by a certain age ‘you should have a lot more focus on keeping to a reasonable standard of living

40. Have seen the ups and downs of markets

41. They have already learned how to manage stress.

42. Are willing to stay on task or at the jobsite until the work is done. Determined.

43. Understand a responsible work ethic and appreciate continual learning opportunities as a way to add to skills.

44. Older workers know their areas of expertise and are confident in them.

45. Older workers are not as likely to job-hop or job-shop.

46. Arrives on time and usually before starting time; Leaves after quitting time; Spends less time watching the clock

47. Have lower Health Care costs.

48. Technical issues are not intimidating – we have learned how to dig into the problems and find meaningful long-term solutions.

49. We know when to compromise and when to push. We have learned the techniques needed to find balance in tough situations.

Stefan Baginski
you can click here >> to learn about Stefan, or read more at www.imuswiss.wordpress.com

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CERN and the Wigner Research Centre for Physics inaugurate CERN data centre’s extension in Budapest, Hungary

Geneva 13 June 2013. CERN1 and the Wigner Research Centre for Physics2 today inaugurated the Hungarian data centre in Budapest, marking the completion of the facility hosting the extension for CERN computing resources. About 500 servers, 20,000 computing cores, and 5.5 Petabytes of storage are already operational at the site. The dedicated and redundant 100 Gbit/s circuits connecting the two sites are functional since February 2013 and are among the first transnational links at this distance. The capacity at Wigner will be remotely managed from CERN, substantially extending the capabilities of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) Tier-0 activities and bolstering CERN’s infrastructure business continuity.

WLCG’s mission is to provide global computing resources to store, distribute and analyse more than 25 Petabytes of data annually generated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is a global system organised in tiers, with the central hub being the Tier-0 at CERN. The LHC data are aggregated in the Tier-0, where initial data reconstruction is performed, and a copy is archived to long-term tape storage. The Tier-0 then sends out data to each of the 11 major data centres around the world that form the first level, or Tier-1, via optical-fibre links working at multiples of 10 Gbit/s. Smaller Tier-2 and Tier-3 centres linked over the Internet bring the total number of computer centres involved to over 140 in about 40 countries. WLCG serves a global community of 8,000 scientists working on LHC experiments, allowing them to access distributed computing and data storage facilities seamlessly. Every day WLCG processes more than 1.5 million ‘jobs’, which is equivalent to a single computer running for more than 600 years. High-performance distributed computing enabled physicists to announce on 4 July the discovery of a new particle, which was later on confirmed as being a Higgs boson.

“The experiments’ computing resources needs will increase significantly when the LHC restarts in 2015. Hosting computing equipment at the Wigner Centre to extend CERN’s data centre Tier-0 capabilities is essential for dealing with this expected increase, and to the success of our physics programme. The remote capacity will also contribute to business continuity for the critical systems in case of a major issue on CERN’s site” said CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer. “A number of sciences currently face exponential data growth. This innovative approach with Wigner could point the way for research centres to run their services in the future.”

The CERN Tier-0 data centre extension in Budapest adds up to 2.5 MW capacity to the 3.5 MW IT load of the Geneva data centre, which has already reached its capacity limit. The contract with Wigner started in January 2013 and can carry on for up to seven years. The capacity in Budapest will gradually ramp-up following CERN’s needs. Operating remotely from CERN this capacity helps build knowledge, as well as create expertise and solutions with cloud computing to face big data challenges linked to exponential computing needs in all fields of research.

“The opening of the Wigner Data Centre and the beginning of our IT collaboration is a small step for CERN but a big step for Hungary,” concluded Peter Levai, Director General of the Wigner Research Centre for Physics.



Contacts:

CERN Press Office, press.office@cern.ch

+41 (0) 22 767 34 32

+41 (0) 22 767 21 41



To know more about WLCG:

www.cern.ch/wlcg

www.cern.ch/wlcg//wlcg-google-earth-dashboard



Follow CERN at:

www.cern.ch

www.cern.ch/it

http://twitter.com/cern/

http://www.youtube.com/user/CERNTV

http://www.quantumdiaries.org/

Risk Advisory Services White Paper

Milliman

May 2010

Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a process of assessing and

responding to all risks, including organizational and systemic risks

that impact the ability of an organization to meet its objectives.

The general activities in a formal ERM process include risk

identification, evaluation, prioritization, treatment, monitoring,

reporting, and integration into strategic decision making and key

business functions. It is important to understand the challenges

organizations face in implementing ERM processes before we

look at the value that a sustainable and repeatable ERM process

can bring.

Companies have traditionally struggled with assessing the business

value of ERM. Competing priorities and business line fatigue after

seemingly endless rounds of assessments from Internal Audit,

Compliance, and even external regulators have contributed to failed

ERM initiatives. In addition, some companies have rushed through

what at many times has been a board-mandated compliance effort

to institutionalize ERM as one-off events rather than implementing a

sustainable and repeatable ERM process.

In many cases, the efforts have been under-resourced

and, for the broader risk evaluation and mitigation

initiatives, have not had buy-in from executive leadership.

Executive sponsorship and involvement stand at the

heart of a successful ERM initiative, without which

many companies have failed in their efforts to implement

an effective ERM process. With so many competing

priorities, companies also struggle in setting aside

appropriate resources to launch and sustain an effective

integrated ERM process.

An ERM process and risk management framework has

to find synergy with the organization’s culture and not

the other way around. Too many times we see a company

wanting to implement what another company is doing with

regard to ERM. Although best practices are an excellent

way to start thinking about ERM, this thought process

should be complemented with a good understanding of

a company’s own unique culture, strategic objectives,

structure, risk management practices, and operations.

There is not one universal solution for ERM. A customized

approach is crucial to finding the maturity level of an

ERM solution that works for a specific company, based on best

practices, extensive research, interviews, and in-depth knowledge

of how an organization operates (see Figure 1). The process has

to be embedded and integral to support the mission, vision, values,

and objectives, and not just a snapshot from a single point in time

or an annual risk assessment report.

Additional reasons for failed ERM initiatives are that a company’s

objectives have not been integrated into performance management

and poor collaboration with other risk processes. Aligning

incentives with risk management efforts can be critical to the

success of an ERM initiative. Incentives reinforce the tone and

culture of the organization and motivate employees to respond; this

could have more positive results than a forced compliance effort. It

is crucial to get buy-in from employees on the benefits of an ERM

program prior to implementation, and there is no more effective way

than through incentives based on actions and expected outcomes

around risk-managed activities. The integration of ERM with key

risk processes such as audit, compliance, and business continuity,

ERM: The Value Proposition

Joanna David-O’Neill

Mark Stephens

5

4

3

2

1

Optimized

Risk-adjusted

corporate

performance

Embedded

Risk management

driving the decision-

making process

Established

Consistent compliance

communication and

accountability

Formalized

Basic compliance

audit and

risk

awareness

Undelveloped

Basic non-compliance

audit failure, risk silos

Fully automate

enterprise risk process

Analyze risks

Quantify risks

Delegate action/controls

Manage and mitigate risks

Approve and assess

risk data centrally

Identify and communicate concerns,

issues, risks, or incidents using one system

Respond to risk or

control surveys

Figure 1:

er

M Maturity Stage

S

Milliman Copyright 2010

Milliman

Risk Advisory Services White Paper

May 2010

ERM: The Value Proposition

2

for example, is also essential to realizing the value of an effective

ERM process. Companies in a higher maturity level (See Figure 1)

are seeing the business value in decision making as a result of the

collaboration of their ERM program with other risk processes.

Milliman’s Risk Advisory Services consults with organizations to

develop an optimal ERM solution that matches with specialized

corporate needs. Some companies have fully resourced ERM

departments, while others have very restricted dedicated internal

resources. Milliman can assist companies with their ERM initiatives

using the following approaches:

Review the current ERM processes and determine the steps

•

required to raise the maturity level to the desired state.

Design, build, and test a customized ERM process and

•

framework and develop organizational consensus through

vetting of the initial prototype.

Adapt an outsourced ERM business process model.

•

Companies wanting to protect against the downside of risks often

reach for ERM as a compliance tool, but the true value of ERM is

recognized when it is integrated into the organization’s culture and

embedded into strategic decision making and business planning.

We see the following as significant benefits that organizations can

achieve if they invest the time and resources to select a suitable

approach to their ERM needs:

Performance management

•

: Increase certainty of achieving

critical key performance indicators

Capital efficiency

•

: Align capital more accurately with the risks

being taken and ensure that risks are being suitably rewarded

Stakeholder management

•

: Better alignment with expectations

of key stakeholders

Operational excellence

•

: Reduce impact of surprises and boost

the benefits of a well-managed portfolio of risks

Reduction in Total Cost of Risk (TCOR)

•

: Free up capital to

further invest in growing the business

In February 2010, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) published the

report “Enterprise Risk Management Continues to Show its Value

for North American and Bermudan Insurers,” which links effective

ERM programs to increases in share value and reduced volatility

in earnings. In the report, Howard Rosen, the primary credit

analyst, says in part,

“Although average stock prices declined among all public

multiline insurers in 2008, companies with more advanced

ERM programs experienced smaller stock price reductions.

Those companies whose stock performance was better (i.e.

those whose price declines were smaller) had received higher

ERM scores. On the other hand, those companies whose

stock prices had larger declines had lower ERM scores. This is

consistent with Standard & Poor’s view that more robust ERM

programs are the most valuable in times of more pronounced

stress. Looking at ERM scores relative to stock performance in

2009 reveals a different pattern” (See Figure 2).

Figure 2:

er

M and Share Price

c

hange (Jan. 1-

n

ov. 14, 2008, %)

Excludes mortgage and title insurers. Source: Standard & Poor’s.

© Standard & Poor’s 2010

Rosen continues,

“Companies with Excellent and Strong ERM scores—companies

whose stock prices performed better during the more stressful

2008—still improved during 2009, but didn’t need to perform

as well as companies with lower ERM scores to return to their

pre-2008 levels of performance” (See Figure 3).

Figure 3:

er

M and Share Price

c

hange (Jan. 2-

d

ec. 31, 2009, %)

Excludes mortgage and title insurers. Source: Standard & Poor’s.

© Standard & Poor’s 2010

0

(10)

(20)

(30)

(40)

(50)

(60)

(70)

Excellent ERM

Strong ERM

Adequate ERM

Weak ERM

Share price change, Jan. 1 - Nov. 14, 2008, %

30

25

20

15

5

(5)

(10)

(15)

Excellent ERM

Strong ERM

Adequate ERM

Weak ERM

Share price change, Jan. 2 - Dec. 31, 2009, %

0

10