Getaroom.com (getaroom.com’s guaranteed low rates.

“Our new mobile phone application is a convenient, simple and basic solution to support the needs of travelers on the go who don’t have access to a computer,” said getaroom.com President and co-founder Bob Diener. “We wanted to provide a service to a broad range of mobile phone users. We kept the application simple so it can be supported by most mobile phone devises,” continued Diener.

Travelers will be able to easily find information on hotel availability and rates. Once the city and date information is inputted available properties are displayed on the screen. Listings include color photos of the property, the average nightly rate, guest satisfaction ratings, and location descriptions.

By clicking the” getaroom” button the desired hotel booking information is immediately sent to the getaroom.com call center and the mobile phone user receives a special phone number to click, which connects them directly with a booking agent who has simultaneously received the travelers desired itinerary to complete the booking. Travelers then also have access to getaroom.com’s low unpublished rates as well, for savings of as much as 50 percent off Internet rates.

“Providing simple, low-cost travel solutions is key to the getaroom.com philosophy. This new mobile phone app is another example of how we strive to offer consumers the best tools to satisfy their travel needs,” said Diener.

About Getaroom.com Getaroom.com provides travelers a state-of-the-art lodging website (800-HOTELS-8 (800-468-3578) can also receive the benefits of unpublished pricing, with rates typically 10 to 25 percent less than published rates on its site and other internet sites and as much as 50 percent less. There is full disclosure about the property at time of booking including the hotel name and exact location. Getaroom.com offers accommodations at hundreds of national chain and independent boutique properties in the U.S. including New York, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Anaheim, San Diego and Reno.

Businesses across Latin America are using the global recession as an opportunity to call on past economic experience as they review and reshape their operations and prepare for economic recovery, a new survey by KPMG International revealed.
According to the survey — issued today in a report titled “Out of Adversity” at KPMG’s Ibero-America Tax Summit in Santiago, Chile — Latin American businesses appear to have taken the recent global recession in stride, drawing on their experiences during past difficult economic times within their own countries to manage through the current downturn.
The KPMG poll, which surveyed 165 business executives in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela on their reactions to the current recession and plans for the recovery, indicates that only 5 percent of Latin American respondents had no past lessons to help them deal with the downturn.
“The survey results tell KPMG that in many Latin American countries the global problems are viewed as an almost routine part of business, and executives are adapting quite well by responding thoughtfully and moderately,” said Shaun Kelly, chair, Americas Tax, for KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm.
“Their responses indicate that the financial crisis has had a different impact within Latin America than in regions whose economies had been enjoying unprecedented prosperity for some years, such as Europe and the United States,” Kelly said.
The KPMG survey reports that 61 percent of Latin American businesses said they are making substantial changes to their near-term (12-month) business strategies, ranging from finding new markets to focusing on cutting costs and optimizing business processes.
Mexico leads in this area, where 80 percent of companies surveyed planned changes in the year ahead and 76 percent planned longer-term changes. In addition, 59 percent of respondents are also radically rethinking their long-term strategies, considering significantly changing their business operations or developing new products.
Latin American companies also have a sharp focus on tax management, according to the KPMG survey, with 45 percent of respondents reporting they have identified tax as a potential source of cash savings and have stepped up their tax planning to take advantage of these opportunities.

Despite the HMRC claiming that a VAT registration application is typically turned around within two weeks, new businesses are reportedly experiencing lengthy delays. UK business owners are now worried that they are facing yet another obstacle, in these uncertain financial times.

One such business owner recently told the Financial Mail that after registering his company for VAT in April 2009 he was informed that there would be a six week wait due to a processing backlog. Despite chasing up the application on numerous occasions, he did not receive his registration until last week – almost 5 months later.

Kevin Kinsella of Kinsella Tax Investigations, one of the UK’s foremost HMRC tax investigation specialists, notes that, “If the HMRC are leaving our clients waiting for 3-5 months, this could cause a great deal of aggravation later on.”

“It used to be satisfactory to issue a VAT invoice with the words ‘VAT applied for’ but that is not really a VAT invoice, which again could cause problems if there was an investigation by HMRC.”

Accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young have also warned that if firms have to wait for VAT registration numbers, their ability to trade can be harshly restricted; not good news during a financial downturn.

A source at UHY Hacker Young said “The backlog at Revenue and Customs has never been worse, despite assurances over the past few years that the issue was being resolved. These delays are causing serious problems for small business trying to set up in a tough environment and are hampering wider economic recovery.”

A spokesman for HMRC denied there were extensive problems, still stating that, on average, it takes just two weeks to process a VAT application. However, he did admit that HMRC was taking an observant approach to applications in the light of an increased number of fraudulent applications in recent years.

Kinsella Tax Limited has over 120 years’ experience of the tax investigation industry and operates nationwide. For more information, visit their website at: http://www.kinsellatax.co.uk/

CyanGate, McLean, Virginia based media technology company has announced their newest application S-Drive. Leading CRM service provider Salesforce.com’s both professional and enterprise edition customers will now be able use S-Drive to securely store and share their files without any storage limits.

S-Drive uses Amazon’s storage cloud for secure and scalable file management while providing a user friendly interface within Salesforce.com platform. Bulent Dogan, Senior Solution architect at CyanGate, states that companies leveraging Salesforce.com CRM platform will be able to store and share their sales and marketing collateral, product documentation, customer documents and even any type of media files via S-Drive. He also added that companies can allow their customers to upload and download case files, product updates and documentation directly from Salesforce.com’s customer portal without file size and storage limitations.

Salesforce.com just announced that they have released a new Adobe Flex Builder recently complimenting their rich internet application (RIA) initiative. S-Drive is a showcase for these type of applications that will enhance the CRM experience for companies and allow eye catching applications to be built on the typically business oriented Salesforce.com platform.

Since the launch of S-Drive’s newest edition on AppExchange, customer feedback supports that this application is easy to use and is an improvement to Salesforce.com’s document management. To get started companies need to sign up for a single company account from AppExchange.

For more information go to http://www.cyangate.com/products/products/s-drive.html

500 employees who have internet access at work were surveyed on web and software application usage during work hours.

The study has shown that most popular non work-related websites accessed are;
• News (81%)
• Personal email (61%)
• Online banking (58%)
• Travel (56%)
• Shopping (52%)

Among those employees surveyed who access the internet at work, men are more likely than women to view online pornography at work. 23% of men surveyed who access the internet at work said they had visited a porn site on company time, while only 12% of their female counterparts had done so. Of those surveyed who admitted to viewing explicit sites at work, 17% of men and 11% of women admitted it was intentional. 66% of visits to pornography websites occur during working hours as do 60% of all online purchases.

Employees surveyed who admitted to personal surfing at work (50%) said they are spending 17 hours per week on average. It is estimated that approximately 85% of UK office workers have internet access at work.

According to government statistics, the average wage in the UK is GBP24,908. From these figures, employers are paying each employee GBP5,292.95 a year to browse the internet for personal reasons. Shockingly, this equates to a total loss of GBP70 BILLION a year to UK businesses.
About CurrentWare

CurrentWare is a global leader of Internet and Endpoint Security solutions. The company is committed to delivering products with the immediate benefits of increasing productivity, enhancing security and improving cost saving.

CurrentWare’s BrowseControl and BrowseReporter software can help manage the internet at work to ensure maximum benefit and productivity while minimizing wastage.

Find out more at http://www.currentware.com

In line with increasing business demand, IBM (NYSE: IBM) has opened a new Business Continuity and Resiliency Services (BCRS) Center in Izmir, Turkey, replacing the former facility, which has been in operation since 1995. The new facility features advanced data center capabilities and workplace-recovery technologies designed to help companies safeguard and recover critical information and ensure uninterrupted operations.

The BCRS center offers tailor-made business continuity services to allow companies to continue business operations under the most challenging circumstances, including natural disasters. The facility provides technology hosting services to clients, allowing them not only to store valuable data at the secure data center, but also to continue to work from wherever they have access to a computing device and internet connection.
The Interbank Card Center (BKM), a system-level services provider, that aims to provide solutions to the common problems and developing the rules and standards of credit and debit cards in Turkey, has used one of IBM’s BCRS Centers since 1995.
“BKM offers 24/7 seamless computing services to 28 private and public banks across Turkey. It is essential for us to be able to ensure continuity of computing services regardless of the situation and environmental conditions,” said Ercument Buyuksumnulu, Technology Services Director Interbank Card Center (BKM). “This new facility affords us even greater levels of service and reliability and provides the ideal environment for us, including advanced, energy-efficient technologies, a high degree of security and excellent support services.”
The Turkish-Austrian constructed building is a 4000 m2, 3-floor state-of-the-art facility, which hosts nearly 300 working seats that can be easily extended to 500 seats. The current working space is accommodated on 1000 square meters. The center’s equipment includes storage appliances called data protection vaults and recovery software. With its own emergency power supply, the facility is capable of operating for a minimum of 48 hours independent of an external power supply The technologies installed at the new facility were selected not only for their reliability and high-performance, but also for their energy efficiency.
“IBM’s new Business Continuity and Resiliency Service Center has been designed to meet the growing needs of our customers and helps to ensure that they can continue critical operations even in the most difficult circumstances,” said Michel Charouk, Country General Manager, IBM Turkey, .
With over forty years of global experience in the business continuity arena and more than 150 business resilience centers worldwide, IBM has deep industry-specific knowledge and a broad range of major clients and leading services, for an unmatched end-to-end portfolio. For more information, go to www.ibm.com/services/continuity
About IBM
For more information, please visit www.ibm.com/services

According to research from BT Business, supported by the Design Council and Prince’s Trust, small businesses at the forefront of technology adoption have been the least impacted by the recession, with those most reluctant to bring in new technology suffering the most. Companies with a positive attitude to technology adoption had a 69% better than average experience of the recession, whereas technology laggards suffered a 34% worse recession experience than the average.

The 2009 Business Pulse report is the UK’s largest survey of SMEs this year. The survey shows widespread recognition of the importance of technology in reducing costs and increasing efficiency and competitiveness. 30% of businesses said that they have saved money through using technology, 32% use technology to network and obtain advice and 28% have found more customers through its use. Nearly one in five cited the use of technology to support flexible working as having one of the most significant impacts on how they have managed the recession.

The Business Pulse survey identified the positive steps firms have taken to manage the downturn. Nearly twice as many technology innovators have seen an increase in turnover of 10+% compared to those small businesses reluctant to embrace new technology, the majority of which have seen their turnover decrease since the recession began.

Mick Hegarty, strategy director, BT Business said: “The small business community has fought bravely to survive the downturn. Our findings show that many small businesses believe we are now at a tipping point with a recovery almost upon us. We can also see that now more than ever technology has a critical role to play in the future success of these businesses, helping them to find new customers, market themselves more effectively and reduce costs. Investing in better technology is emerging as a measure of success in the future for many businesses”

In terms of the technologies having the biggest impact, 61% said faster broadband speeds have had a positive impact on their business. Better web sites, better e-commerce and mobile devices were also particularly beneficial. More than 1 in 10 small businesses are looking for more advice and support on using technology to manage their business.

Smaller organisations are also increasingly turning to social media to improve the way they operate with one in five respondents turning to support forums, Twitter and blogs to market their business and attract and retain customers.

Lord Digby Jones, said, “The Business Pulse highlights that optimism is on the rise. Equipping firms with the right technology and support will help tip the economy from recession onto the road to recovery in 2010″

Full findings of the Business Pulse will be revealed in Small Business Week 2009 and debated by a business leadership panel including business experts Peter Jones and Lord Digby Jones at the launch.