20 June 2008

On June 20th, in Mountain View, California, Softjourn will be sponsoring the next Visibility Conference hosted by Right-Hand Partners and taking place at the offices of Fenwick & West LLP, 801 California Street.

The event begins at 8:00AM and continues until 2:00PM. Right-Hand Partners has selected seed and early stage (Series A, B, C, & Restart) companies who will each give a 10-minute presentation, and receive 10 minutes of feedback and questions from investors sitting in the audience. Usually there are more than 20 VC's in attendance. For more information go to the Right-Hand Partners site.

Softjourn is very pleased to be sponsoring this event and supporting entrepreneurs and Startups and wishes all presenters the best of luck!

22 April 2008

Softjourn client, Preferred Energy Services, Inc., went live with their new environmental portal, www.go-green.com. Softjourn built the environmental portal on the basis of the open source content management system, Drupal.

Go-Green.com is set to be the premier location for consumers and businesses to find out how they can make their lives and their businesses more environmentally friendly. The site includes detailed definitions on such energy sources as Photovoltaic systems as well as a way for consumers to calculate their own carbon footprint.

About Go-Green.com

Go-Green.com is wholly owned by Preferred Energy Services, Inc. (PES). PES was established in 1988 and provides utility account auditing, service option strategies and contract negotiation for varied commercial and industrial clients. PES clients, many of who are Fortune 1000, range from high-tech, industrial, and retail to government, including the states of Texas and California. PES was founded by Rick Kohl. Rick's experience in the energy field includes being an Energy Engineer for Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Energy Manager for the City of Springfield, MA and as a solar consultant for active systems and passive design. PES' web site is www.prefenergy.com

"This project puts our company in a competitive advantage with regards to our competitors because we were able to emulate what large banks are doing quickly and effectively even before some of them launch their own product, providing unbanked customers with the means to use financial services" -
Luis Gonzalez, Viamericas - CFO

Viamericas was using a Check21 solution provided by a nationwide bank. They were also growing at a rapid pace. Given their agent's acceptance of using the solution, Viamericas knew that they would soon outgrow their current system. Therefore Viamericas decided to build its own solution, with the assistance of their financial institution, and Softjourn. The new solution had to provide operational as well as economic efficiencies.

For more information...

17 October 2007

RHP assists technology and business entrepreneurs in developing their Venture Capital relationships. Services include: Investor Presentation Package Coaching, Investor Strategy Development, test driving your message in front of up to 25 venture capitalists at closed events such as RHP’s Quarterly Visibility Conferences, and personal introductions.

Softjourn is excited to be supporting entrepreneurs to build and grow their companies and to assist RHP in helping start-ups find the right venture capitalists to partner with.

About Right-Hand Partners:

Right-Hand Partners (RHP) is the trusted conduit to reach the VC community. RHP helps clients build relationships with VCs & entrepreneurs, present their "hook", and generate deal flow that leads to transactions. RHP has relationships with hundreds of venture capitalists representing over 150 VC firms mostly in the Silicon Valley. More than 1500 VCs representing over 400 firms subscribe to "Profiles", a RHP produced e-newsletter.

17 September 2007 - PMI Northern California 2007 Symposium

The Project Management Institute (PMI) Symposium sponsored by the San Francisco chapter of PMI is taking place Monday, September 17th, in San Francisco:

Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF
1675 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA

Emmy's presentation is titled: Managing Distributed Software may not be for everyone but it could be for You!

While not quite the dirty word that it once was, offshoring, whether outsourced or with an internal team, is still misunderstood. What is even more misunderstood is the importance of the role of the Project manager who is responsible for getting the most out of a remote team. There is more to this role than thinking that you will be up every night late working with the team in order to make sure that work is getting done. Is it a role for you, and how would you go about carrying it out?

In late 2006, an article in McKinsey Quarterly, "Splitting Demand from Supply in IT", which may have you thinking about a role you can play in an industry increasingly being supplied globally. The growing number of advertisements for those who are familiar with working with offshore teams may also have you thinking and wondering. Do you have the skill set necessary and if not, how do you go about making it work.

This presentation aims to:

• Dispel the myths associated with managing remote software development,
• Assist a Project Manager in determining whether or not managing a distributed team is for them (beyond the usual question of; do you like to chat and see people face to face or can you work with a team that you never met),
• Give practical methods for building trust long distance,
• Zero in on the key differences between managing a co-located team versus a distributed or virtual team (there are but a few, most practices are needed for both types of teams),
• Analyze the hype of cultural differences when managing a remote team, how can culture really affect the project you are working on?

Ms. Gengler is a member of the Project Management Institute San Francisco chapter and Kyiv, Ukraine chapters.

The focus of this year's PMI symposium is: "New Horizons in Project, Program and Portfolio Management" - Identifying and applying Project Management Best Practices, Methodologies, and Trends that Enable Organizations to Succeed in a Global Economy. For further details go to the PMI site for the San Francisco chapter.

Softjourn client, President & Founder, Rick Kohl, of Preferred Energy Services was interviewed by U.S. Business Review magazine, about the savings they provide their customers on their telecommunications and utility bills as well as the next phase of development; the new online service Softjourn helped Preferred Energy create.

Emmy B. Gengler to present to start-ups on the use of offshoring for start-up corporations in Mountain View and Pleasanton, CA.

The seminars are being sponsored by Technology Ventures of Livermore, California.

Dana Chervinska, Marketing Manager, Softjourn, to deliver a presentation, "It is not crazy to Outsource to Ukraine!", as part of this year's Ukrainian Outsourcing Forum taking place in Kyiv, Ukraine. For further information contact Dana Chervinska.

Emmy B. Gengler sat on a security panel, "Third Party Issues in the Global Environment", for the ISSA conference, www.cornerstonesoftrust.com. Also participating on the panel were Sr. executives from Verisign, Sun Microsystems and the California State Auto Association. John Steward, CSO from Cisco Systems and Dave Cullinane, CISO, Washington Mutual provided the keynote addresses. Slides used during the panel discussion will be made available shortly via the www.cornerstonesoftrust.com website.

9 Reasons Why Software Offshoring Won't Work (and Why You Shouldn't Believe Them), written by Emmy Gengler, was published in its entirety at Sourcingmag.com. Dian Schaffhauser, Editor of Sourcingmag.com, decided it was worth it to publish the whole article at once even though it was more than twice as long as their standard articles. http://www.sourcingmag.com/content/c060518a.asp

Emmy B. Gengler presented, "Outsourcing and its Affects on International Trade" to a group of 25 current and retired business persons in Menlo Park. If you would like a copy of the presentation send an email to: info@softjourn.com.

Emmy B. Gengler wrote a featured article for the April 2005 issue of eBIG's (East Bay IT Group, www.ebig.org) newsletter.

"VoIP - One company's study" The article includes the practical experience of how Softjourn uses VoIP within its own company and for assisting its client. Practical steps and what to look out for when choosing a VoIP solution can also be found with in and can assist any company looking at how to take advantage of VoIP within their own firm.

Issue 12, Vol. 2, "Ukraine warms up to IT Offshoring"

In order to access IT Business Edge and the feature section, "Outsourcing for Strategic Advantage", free registration is required.

An unprecedented third round of elections was needed in order to declare an official winner in the race to be the next President of Ukraine. Viktor Yushenko emerged as the clear winner in the last round and was inagurated on January 23^rd.

Emmy Gengler provides a review of Ukraine's software exports market for the 3^rd edition of, "Doing Business in Ukraine", GMB Publishing.

The presentation included 10 common myths surrounding Ukraine and outsourcing offshore.

The study was conducted by Gartner Group and its Finnish partner, Market Visio. A team of experts on Ukraine, including Emmy Gengler, were assembled to outline the format and the extent of the study. The official results to be released by Gartner group at the end of 2003.

The paper, Ukraine and Success Criteria for the Software Exports Industry is an industry perspective written by Emmy B. Gengler of Softjourn. This and other papers can be found at: www.ejisdc.org.

Volume 13 of the "The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries" is a special issue of the journal that focuses on the "emergence of software exporting industries in dozens of developing and emerging economies". It is edited by Erran Carmel of the Kogod School of Business at the American University in Washington D.C., USA and author of: Global Software Teams: Collaborating Across Borders and Time Zones (Available at Amazon.com).

This volume includes reviews of Indonesia, Vietnam, Iran, and other cross-border issues.

Now in her 7^th year working in Ukraine, Emmy B. Gengler, CEO of Softjourn, has been selected to present her latest paper which evaluates Ukraine as a software exports market, at the Outsource World Conference taking place in London, June 3^rd-5^th. To assess Ukraine, the paper uses academically accepted success factors necessary for the development of a country's software exports market (Heeks, R. and Nicholson, B. (2002). "Software Export Success Factors and Strategies in Developing and Transitional Economies". Institute for Development Policy and Management. University of Manchester.) including: Software industry characteristics, human capital and technological infrastructure.

To find out more about the conference go to: http://www.outsourceworld.org/

April 16, 2003

We apologize for any inconvenience, but the TalkBack session scheduled for April 16, 2003 has been postponed. Please check back for a rescheduled date and time.

For those companies that are:

• Currently researching, or always interested in, alternative locations for outsourcing software development
• Interested in former Soviet Union locations where scientists are numerous
• Or have never heard of Ukraine and wonder what is it, where is it and why it may be interesting to them

Emmy B. Gengler, CEO of Softjourn, will be leading a discussion on her latest paper on Ukraine and its software exports capabilities: The paper can be downloaded at: www.rampupsolutions.com.

To assess Ukraine, the paper uses academically accepted success factors necessary for the development of a country's software exports market (Heeks, R. and Nicholson, B. (2002). "Software Export Success Factors and Strategies in Developing and Transitional Economies". Institute for Development Policy and Management. University of Manchester.) including: Software industry characteristics, human capital and technological infrastructure.

By downloading this paper, companies will also have the opportunity to join us for an online discussion where they can ask any questions they may have on the paper and the Ukraine market.

The online discussion will take place on Wednesday, April 16, 2003, at 11:00am EST (8:00am PST). The user id and password created when the paper is downloaded will be used to enter the Talkback discussion at the appropriate time. To enter the discussion, go to this link: www.rampupsolutions.com, enter your id and password and click on: Enter TalkBack.

During the online discussion, you can ask questions specifically related to the paper and Ukraine or related to distributed development in general, for example:

• What is the practical side of outsourcing to Ukraine or the possibility to license technology for your products?
• How do data connectivity fees affect your total cost of ownership?
• What are some ways to transfer concept knowledge to a remote team?

According to Juan Carlos Perez, Latin America bureau chief for the IDG News Service, almost ALL North American IT departments will outsource at least one essential technology operation by 2005. Emmy B. Gengler, Softjourn, has been selected to present: Ukraine: The Breadbasket of Technology. A stable and reliable partner for the 21^st Century, at the OutsourceWorld New York Conference, January 21^st and 22^nd. She will also participate in a panel discussion on Offshore Outsourcing on the 22^nd.

Tuesday, June 18^th, 2002, saw the Co-founder & CEO of Softjourn, Emmy B. Gengler, speaking at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington D.C. at the first Annual, US-Ukraine conference titled: "Information Technology in a Global Economy: Challenge and Promise". Opening the event was his Excellency, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the US, H.E. Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, followed by Mr. Kempton Jenkins, director of the US-Ukraine Business council. The event was attended by those who could be considered old hands in Ukraine and those who were looking to learn more about Ukraine as an emerging market. Presentations ranged from Boeing and the success of the Sea Launch project to updates on the legal environment. Ms. Gengler presented findings from a white paper written by the IT committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, of which Softjourn is a member and administrator for the committee. Additional information provided by Ms. Gengler, included a by-country comparison of DSL data connection fees, and other data directly from Softjourn's own newsletters and research. Findings presented from the white paper included the strengths of Ukraine, a few realities and recent developments in areas such as Intellectual Property protection and business travel. (Click here to view the presentation.) The conference also introduced the beginning of the U.S.-Ukraine Digital Alliance which is aimed at advancing cooperation between US and Ukrainian companies in information technology.

U.S.-UKRAINE DIGITAL ALLIANCE (USUDA)

For immediate release

Contact Information:

Eric Candle, ecandle@ecdata.net 585-703-2527
Igor Mosyak, imosyak@eurosoftusa.com 301-792-7768

USUDA holds the First Annual U.S.-Ukraine IT Conference.

Washington, D.C., - June 19, 2002 - U.S.-Ukraine Digital Alliance has held its First Annual IT Conference on June 18^th, 2002 at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, D.C. The sponsors of this Conference, the Embassy of Ukraine and the Ukraine-U.S. Business Council , are very pleased to acknowledge an unprecedented interest to the event, effective and timely assistance by the NIS Business Information Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce, wide variety of issues covered by high-profile keynote speakers, and an overall success of a new USUDA's initiative to advance cooperation of American and Ukrainian companies in Information Technology. USUDA's mission is to promote and support Ukraine's transition to an economy that provides for widespread use of IT. It's USUDA's strong belief, that global access to IT products and services is one of the key components to dramatically increase purchasing power of individual consumers, private businesses, and the country as a whole.

Softjourn's Michael Dolzhenko was interviewed by Ukraine's leading English language newspaper, The Kyiv Post. In his position as administrator of the IT committee for the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Michael provided the committee's views on the current and prospective software development market in Ukraine. Click here to read the article.

Softjourn will be introducing attendees to the opportunities of assembling dedicated teams of software engineers in Ukraine, at the upcoming Silicon Valley Association of Start-up Entreprenurs (SVASE) trade fair in Mountain View on Thursday, February 7^th. Included also in the trade fair, will be a panel discussion exploring issues such as: Which countries are strong for software, hardware or other technology development? and, Can start-up and emerging companies utilize offshore resources effectively? For further details please refer to: February 7, 2002: SVASE Trade Fair

Continuing the project titled, "Ukraine: A Stable and Reliable Partner for Technology Solutions in the 21^st Century", the IT Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine (AmCham) will be presenting its white paper at the upcoming EuroIndex exhibition in Kyiv, Ukraine on February 21, 2002. The presentation will take place at the USA pavilion with Softjourn and Softline presenting. The audience will include international and local investors. The title of the presentation will be: "Ukraine: The Breadbasket of Technology." Also in the USA pavilion, Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, Lucent, etc. will represent American companies in Ukraine.

At the December meeting of the IT and Telecommunications committee of the American Chamber of Commerce, a paper on the current status of the offshore software development market in Ukraine was presented by the companies Softline, Softjourn, and Kononov & Sozanovskiy.

According to the report, this segment of the Ukrainian market grows at 25% annually. The volume of this market in 2002 is estimated at $30 million.

At the meeting, Softline and Softjourn proposed to establish a subcommittee of the American Chamber of Commerce dedicated to the offshore software development. Such a subcommittee would focus on promoting software development and the related services by Ukrainian companies in the European, US, and Canadian markets.

The meeting was also attended by: Tessart, Miratech International, BMS Consulting, P5 Communications, aVentures, LiveRepair, Altheimer & Grey, and Baker & McKenzie.

An original language (Russian) copy of this article can be found at: ITC Online

Softjourn Note: The $30 million dollar market size was the approximate estimate for the year 2000, the estimate for 2002 will be $50 million plus. Continue watching this web site for a copy of the American Chamber's white paper when it is available.

October found Softjourn becoming an official member of The Women's Technology Cluster (www.wtc-sf.org), a 501(c)3 organization and project of the Three Guineas Fund (www.3gf.org). The Women's Technology Cluster is an incubator located in San Francisco. The move gives Softjourn the benefit of working surrounded by technology start-ups and entrepreneurs and gives the company an office close to many of the companies within its target industry.