IBM previewed new software that will help cellular phone, Internet and other communications service providers to analyze and improve the quality of their services to a degree not possible before. Before a customer has the chance to complain about a service problem, the software will help allow operators to pinpoint problems ahead of time and facilitate the resolution of network issues more quickly–which can help them realize their goals of increasing customer satisfaction and reducing call center costs.

The new IBM Tivoli Netcool Customer Experience Management solution–available in the first half of 2008–will help provide instant access to data that enables service providers to manage user accounts by customer, location, device, time, grouping and service–all through one dashboard view. The solution will bring proactive management of individual customer’s experience which can help users achieve rapid problem resolution, greater customer confidence and increased per customer revenue growth.

About 8.3 million U.S. residents–nearly 4 percent of the nation’s population–were victims of identity theft in 2005, but few victims identified computer-related crime as the culprit, according to a U.S. Federal Trade Commission report. The FTC data, obtained through telephone surveys, found that 56 percent of ID theft victims didn’t know how their personal information was stolen. Only 1 percent of victims identified computer hacking as the cause of the ID theft, and another 1 percent identified a computer-based phishing attack, where ID thieves typically send out bogus emails that look like they come from banks or retailers and ask for log-in information.

Sixteen percent of the victims knew the ID thieves personally, and 7 percent said the data loss came from a purchase or financial transaction, including online, in-person, and mail purchases. Five percent of victims said their data was taken from a company that held their personal information, according to the FTC report.

NetOp Tech has launched NetOp Mobile and Embedded Guest in the United States, remote control software allowing technical IT support from mobile devices such as handheld PC or cell phones. The new software provides a high degree of flexibility and mobility by allowing company helpdesks to not only provide support to field workers with mobile devices, but to provide that support from another mobile device.

NetOp Mobile and Embedded Guest is an extension of Danware’s NetOp Remote Control software and allows corporate IT and helpdesk management to remotely control and support the mobile devices being used by personnel from the field. It can be used for securely transferring files, updating software, messaging and technical support. Before, remote technical support remote had to take place from an administrator’s PC or workstation, with NetOp Mobile and Embedded Guest technical assistance can take place from mobile devices anywhere a network connection is available.

Axceler announced the expansion of its IBM Lotus Notes and Domino product portfolio to include a new monitoring product named greenLight. Axceler will be selling greenLight in North America and Europe.

greenLight is a central Domino monitoring, analysis and reporting product that proactively analyzes Domino network performance so administrators can detect and prevent Domino server issues. greenLight gives Domino administrators additional insight into their Domino environments so they can improve the performance, reliability and service levels of their entire Domino network. Most importantly, greenLight is the first and only monitoring product to combine real-time performance data with historic data to display relevant and reliable performance indicators.

greenLight is the first product from the strategic partnership between Axceler and panagenda, an Austrian-based development firm well known for its extensive IBM Lotus Notes and Domino development experience. Both firms bring significant experience developing products for the IBM Lotus Notes and Domino platform and solving Lotus Domino administrative and development challenges.

Learn about the new content management features in IBM Workplace Collaborative Learning V2.7. See how to import courses using three different mechanisms for three different uses and how to determine the optimum way to manage learning content.

Exploit code is out for an extremely critical Apple QuickTime flaw that affects Windows and Mac OS X systems, and researchers say attacks are likely soon to follow. The vulnerability, found in the way QuickTime processes RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) replies, can lead to remote attackers hijacking vulnerable systems. This proof of concept code was posted on Nov. 23 by security researcher Krystian Kloskowski.

The flaw, caused by a boundary error when processing RTSP replies, can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow if an attacker sends a rigged audio-streaming file that contains an overly long Content Type header. Otherwise, an attacker can successfully exploit the vulnerability by modifying an existing program to listen for RTSP requests and to respond with malicious code.

European competition regulators said Tuesday they have stopped the clock in their in-depth investigation into IBM’s planned $745 million takeover of Swedish software maker Telelogic. The European Commission, Europe’s top competition authority, has asked the companies for more information about the deal in order to assess whether it breaks European Union competition rules.

The Commission was due to conclude its investigation by a Feb. 20 deadline. A later date will be set once all the required information has been submitted, a Commission official said, asking not to be named. The Commission opened a probe of the deal after reaching the preliminary conclusion that the acquisition would cause competition problems. The companies compete head-on in the areas of software modelling and building development tools.

IBM announced that Lotus Sametime Standard 8 and a new product, Lotus Sametime Entry, will be available the week of December 3 to help improve the unified communication and collaboration experience for millions of users.

IBM Lotus Sametime Entry software is designed for businesses looking for an alternative to public instant messaging services or costly proprietary offerings. Small to medium-sized businesses will benefit from the encrypted and authenticated business-ready instant messaging of Lotus Sametime Entry that is easy to install and has lower list price than full IM suites. Additionally, the Sametime Entry offering supports multiple server and client operating systems and does not lock an organization into a single proprietary operating system or directory, nor does it typically require desktop or server upgrades.

IBM unveiled a new release of the free IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition enterprise search software with Web search services powered by Yahoo! that enables users to further customize and personalize their searches to quickly and easily find, access and capitalize on information stored inside organizations and across the Web.

The new version of IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition offers the ability to easily separate content into different searchable document collections, an improved administration console that simplifies set-up and management of the search tool, and enhanced search support based on the latest open source Lucene indexing library. Other enhancements improve the performance, indexing and custom search field capabilities, as well as support for additional browsers.

Hewlett-Packard is adding another virtualization option to its blade server line. The OEM signed a reseller agreement with Scalent Systems Nov. 26. Under the deal, HP will begin reselling Scalent’s Virtual Operating Environment, or V/OE, in December. The software allows users to increase hardware utilization and flexibility in the data center by decoupling the application from the physical resources. This allows users to view the hardware as a single pool of resources that can be quickly repurposed depending on demand.

With the announcement, HP is looking to offer customers more options when it comes to virtualization technology, including software that is less expensive than the high-end enterprise offerings from market leader VMware. The fact that HP is offering the software through its BladeSystem c-Class portfolio could keep the company competitive with IBM at a time when the two companies control about 75 percent of the blade market.