INDUSTRY TEAMINGS
09 Jul 08. Boeing Co. has teamed with Canada’s closely held SkyHook International Inc. to combine a blimp and four helicopter rotors into a behemoth airship capable of hauling heavy drilling, mining and timber equipment into remote wilderness areas. The two companies say they hope to have the 302-foot long airship ready for commercial service by 2012, although the marriage of helicopter and lighter-than-air technologies will require them to overcome some significant hurdles that doomed an attempt at a similar contraption in the mid-1980s. The SkyHook JHL-40’s ability to carry dense items into remote areas will limit ecological damage caused by road construction. The aircraft will break new ground by achieving what is known as neutral buoyancy, in which the helium-filled blimp will provide enough lift to bear the weight of the aircraft, including the engines and rotors. By doing this, all the lift generated by the rotors will be available for lifting payloads, a significant advantage over conventional helicopters that expend much of their energy getting the aircraft to fly. The plan is for the ship to carry loads as heavy as 80,000 pounds as far as 230 miles. (Source: WSJ)
10 Jul 08. Tangent Communications PLC (“Tangent”) in joint venture with De Villiers Walton Ltd. Zui Ltd. (“Zui”), the new joint venture between Tangent Communications PLC and De Villiers Walton Ltd, is at the forefront of user interface (UI) design with one massive point of difference – Zui makes new state of the art interfaces for SAP. Drawing data live from applications such as ERP and CRM, Zui’s revolutionary interfaces radically increase productivity by bringing together multiple screens and tools on a single screen. The interfaces are beautiful and can be adapted for individual organisations or departments. Enhancing effectiveness and corporate image both internally and externally, Zui’s application interfaces can add years to the life of an SAP installation, potentially saving £millions. Zui will launch in June 2008 and Jie Zhao, the head of De Villiers Walton SAP NetWeaver Division, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. The new company will focus on developing business solutions and application development services on the SAP platform utilising cutting edge user interface technologies such as Adobe Flex, Flash and dynamic HTML etc. Zui’s core offering is “off the shelf” SAP add-on products development utilising innovative UI technology and SAP backend business logic and data. This core offering is supported by bespoke application development and support services.