Amadeus, schools ink IT accord

AMADEUS has forged partnerships with some educational institutions in training their students on the use of the latest information-technology platforms for the travel and tourism industry.

Amadeus Philippines general manager Albert Villadolid said through this venture, travel agencies in the country will have competent talent readily available from school.

Amadeus Philippines, he said, entered into long-term agreements with De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde, Far Eastern University, Lyceum of the Philippines University, San Sebastian College, University of the Philippines and University of San Jose Recoletos.

Under the agreements, Amadeus Philippines will provide all the partner-schools with its wide range of e-learning courses that will be used in the training of college students on the intricacies of the travel and tourism industry.

“We expect our partnerships with some of the country’s leading schools to create a steady pool of globally certified travel professionals, trained in using the most widely deployed global distribution system in the world,” Villadolid said.

He said this will also keep the major schools in the country on track with the breakthroughs that Amadeus is achieving in its research and development, to make available to all stakeholders in the tourism industry the most efficient technology.

The Amadeus platform, he said, is the popular choice among travel agencies, airlines, hotels, cruise liners, car rental companies and insurance firms.

Enderun Colleges, the Philippine affiliate of Les Roches International School of Hotel Management in Switzerland and the Alain Ducasse Formation in France, also entered into a partnership with Amadeus Philippines for the training of its students on the use of the Amadeus Property Management System (PMS).

The Amadeus PMS is directly linked to the Amadeus Global Distribution System and includes its inter-hotel chain communication capability and e-mail confirmation facility.

Amadeus started Philippine operations in 1997 and its patented technology is now being used by more than 2,000 travel agencies, leading domestic airlines and hotels.

Kaspersky, ColdSpark ink OEM agreement

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, and ColdSpark, a BakBone Software company, and leader in next-generation enterprise messaging infrastructure, announced that they have entered into an OEM agreement. ColdSpark will leverage the Kaspersky Anti-Virus Engine to provide end-to-end anti-virus protection for enterprises’ messaging infrastructures.

In recent years, spyware, adware, rootkits and other hostile programs have grown at an alarming pace. Protection from these threats is essential given that they pose significant security and legal risks. Currently, in addition to award-winning detection of viruses, Trojans and worms, the Kaspersky Anti-Virus Engine provides superior protection from spyware, adware and other potentially hostile programs. Additionally, the Kaspersky Anti-Virus Engine provides advanced protection from all types of mobile malware, all through a single scanning engine.

ColdSpark’s flagship product, the SparkEngine Mail Transport Platform, enables customers to enhance the power of their email to drive revenue, build customer relationships and improve business efficiency while ensuring security, compliance and performance.

“Extending Kaspersky Lab’s anti-virus technology to our customers will provide large enterprises with automated anti-virus protection to close any potential windows of vulnerability,” said Scott Brown, senior vice president and general manager, ColdSpark. “We feel that the Kaspersky Anti-Virus Engine is a strong fit with our SparkEngine technology based on its high level of protection, performance, manageability and simplicity.”

“Viruses and worms can penetrate hundreds of thousands of computers in just a few hours, making response time to new threats crucial for effective protection from malware. Kaspersky Lab’s reliance on proactive technologies is supported by industry-leading, signature-based protection that yields accurate and timely detection of malware,” said Petr Merkulov, vice president, Technology Alliances, at Kaspersky Lab. “We are excited to be working with ColdSpark to deliver integrated anti-virus protection for secure e-mail communication.”