KALAMAZOO ? BlueGranite has signed an agreement with Microsoft to serve as a Business Intelligence Virtual Technical Specialist, which means employees of the IT consulting company can serve as virtual Microsoft employees with some clients. Matthew Mace, president and CEO of BlueGranite, which has sold and supported Microsoft products since the company was founded in
GRAND HAVEN ? Corporate training solutions provider Media1 has won four awards from the Society for Technical Communication's Effective Communication Competition, including Best of Show. The Best of Show awards was given for its work on the Meijer Effective Selling course. The Western Michigan Chapter will sponsor sending this course on to the STC International
BERLIN - Microsoft is making a new bid to get governments to go with its technology, rather than open-source alternatives such as Linux and OpenOffice. At its Government Leaders Forum in Berlin, which kicks off on Tuesday, the company plans to announce what it is calling the Citizen Service Platform. It's not a whole new
ANN ARBOR ? ProQuest, owned by Cambridge Information Group, has acquired RefWorks LLC, a leading provider of web-based research management, writing and collaboration services for the academic and research communities. No dollar value was announced. Cambridge Information Group has had an ownership position in RefWorks since May 2001. Complete ownership will enable ProQuest to integrate
WASHINGTON - NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, Aviation Safety Program, has awarded $476,000 to the University of Michigan to develop a damage resilient flight planning and guidance system and adaptive flight controls to make future commercial jetliners safer. These awards will foster closer collaboration with and facilitate the exchange of ideas and information among researchers
ANN ARBOR - Research spending by the University of Michigan cracked the $800 million plateau in fiscal year 2007, the first time that has happened. The announcement was made by Stephen Forrest, U-M Vice President for Research at the January Regents meeting. The federal government provided 72.4 percent of the $823 million total. Investments by
FLINT - Russell J. Ebeid, president of the Guardian Glass Group, has donated $500,000 to seed a $1 Million endowment to provide scholarships for students of Arab-American descents attending Kettering University. The fund, a partnership with the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Detroit, will total more than $1 million within 25
GRAND RAPIDS ? Network backbone provider US Signal has added a new data center in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, to serve its metro Chicago network. US Signal?s Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical backbone is based on Cisco technology. ?Providing services in carrier-neutral data centers is an important component of US Signal?s strategy in the
LANSING ? Liquid Web will be playing in the Super Bowl through a new contract with Spotbowl.Com, which will be using the data center's servers to poll viewers on which Super Bowl commercials they like best. Viewers can visit SpotBowl to weigh-in with their opinions on more than 50 Super Bowl ads. Ratings range from
GRAND RAPIDS ? Information technology consultant C/D/H has hired two new consultants, Steve Boersema and Chris Raschke. Boersema brings to C/D/H/ over 10 years experience as a network engineer, technical project leader and network administrator. Most recently, he worked as a network engineer for i3 Business Solutions. Boersema holds advanced certifications in a wide range