The big blue elephant is making its way to Melbourne (Down Under) for the first time!

We're very fortunate to have Gabriele Bartolini and Josh Berkus from the international PostgreSQL community make their way to Melbourne to share their unique perspectives and experiences with us on the this amazing open source database.

Come join other PostgreSQL enthuisiasts at the first ever Australian PGDay as a kick off to the commencement of the Melbourne PostgreSQL Users Group. This is the first event of its kind in Australia and we're hoping Melbournians, and users Australia-wide, attend the event to help us grow and become a vibrant community in the coming years.

The 2013 Australia PGDay will take place on the 4th of February and will be held at the Experian Hitwise office near St. Kilda. The office is located at Level 6/580 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne - directly opposite Wesley College. You can find the full address together with Google Maps and tram directions on the Meetup group site (see below).

Access to the event is free however we require registration as we only have 60 spots for the day. Tea, coffee and lunch will be provided and we'll be heading over to the Belgian Beer Cafe afterwards.

The event will be an all day affair (starting 10am and finishing at 4:30pm) and will be broken up into two parts to cater to different audiences. The morning session will serve as an introduction to PostgreSQL, detail the features found in the latest version (9.2) and discuss the merits of the project. The afternoon session will be focused on existing users (or keen new users :) and be a look into back-up and recovery, replication and other in-depth topics.

The schedule for the day is still in draft. More information about PGDay AU will be provided on the 2013.pgday.org.au and meetup/melpug websites, the postgresql.org website and on the official Twitter account. Stay tuned and subscribe to the feeds!

Save the date and... see you in Melbourne!

• Website: http://2013.pgday.org.au/
• Registrations: http://www.meetup.com/melpug
• Email: info@pgday.org.au
• Twitter: @PGDayAU

REDMOND, Wash. — Jan . 10 , 2013 — As part of its effort to simplify and modernize technology solutions, jcpenney is rolling out Microsoft Office 365 to team members throughout the company. With Office 365 as its communication and enterprise social platform, the company aims to improve customer service and increase information-sharing between team members through the ease and accessibility of the cloud.

“In selecting a cloud solution, we were looking for a partner who would support our goal of becoming America’s favorite store,” said Kristen Blum, chief technology officer, jcpenney. “And when we realized that we could improve customer service even more by providing cloud-based collaboration tools to increase communication between team members, it was easy to choose Microsoft and Office 365.”

Office 365 will improve remote access for employees who can now stay connected virtually anywhere, anytime from smartphones, remote PCs or other mobile devices. And perhaps most importantly, ease of communication will increase between stores, allowing team members to work seamlessly with colleagues at other locations while assisting customers.

“We always aim to help customers at every touchpoint, from entering the store to finalizing a transaction. Office 365 will be a big driver in supporting that pursuit,” Blum said.

Microsoft’s Tracy Issel, general manager for Worldwide Retail and Enterprise Solutions said, “We’re excited jcpenney employees will be able to utilize technology such as Office 365, which is custom tailored to fit their needs. Better yet, I can’t wait for ordinary customers to experience the benefit of this newly connected shopping environment for themselves.”

To try Office 365 for yourself, visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/what-is-office365.aspx. More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 10, 2013 —

Where: National Retail Federation (NRF) 102nd Annual Convention & EXPO, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center

655 W. 34th St.

New York, NY 10001

When: Jan. 14–15, 2013

What: Microsoft Corp. will demonstrate how new technologies and its broad ecosystem of partner solutions can help retailers deliver the future of retailing today — putting customers at the center of their businesses and delivering the personalized, seamless and differentiated experiences that shoppers have come to expect. Microsoft booth No. 1005 will feature these sections:

• Engaging Your Customers. Attendees will have a firsthand chance to experience how they can reinvent the customer experience through connected shopping scenarios across multiple digital channels in-store and online. Advances in digital marketing and location-based awareness for creating more effective and relevant digital experiences will also be on display. A Device Bar will give visitors a hands-on experience with the latest Windows 8-powered devices and apps to help retailers innovate their businesses and deliver new and enhanced shopping experiences to customers.

• Engaging Your Employees. This section of the booth will feature the latest in sales, social and collaborative productivity tools to engage employees and provide personalized access to the information they need. Microsoft will showcase how cloud computing solutions such as Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft SharePoint Online can cost-effectively deliver powerful productivity tools, including store employee portals to deskless workers from virtually any device or location.* By providing store employees with modern productivity tools and multipurpose devices to complete their critical sales, inventory and customer service tasks, retailers can improve their workforce’s level of productivity and service on the front line of customer service and sales.

• Optimizing Your Operations. Demonstrations will showcase the latest in Microsoft technologies and partner solutions designed to help retailers drive greater efficiencies and run their businesses more effectively by optimizing and streamlining their operations and enabling better insight and decision-making across the retail organization, all helping increase profitability and customer satisfaction. Visitors can see the power of 3-D technology for immersive in-store planning experiences and learn how to manage shelf availability and minimize out-of-stock situations using advanced analytics, minimize “show rooming” through a more proactive approach of price and availability analysis, and enable site selection for new stores through geospatial analysis.

• Microsoft Dynamics. The booth will also feature the latest Microsoft Dynamics for Retail innovations, providing enterprise and midmarket retailers with a unified solution for multichannel management, point-of-service (POS), store operations, supply chain, e-commerce, merchandising and financials. This enables the dynamic retailer to be connected across channels, to drive personal shopping experiences, and to be agile in meeting and exceeding customer expectations with superior time to value. Attendees will be able to preview the latest offering from the Microsoft Dynamics product line, Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail, which includes improved omnichannel retailing across all channels, powerful enhancements in POS and new e-commerce capabilities with a fully integrated Web storefront powered by Microsoft SharePoint 2013 to deliver a complete shopping experience. The booth will also feature professionals from Microsoft Services who can help customers build and optimize Microsoft Dynamics retail solutions based on extensive experience and expertise learned from retail engagements around the globe.

• Windows Embedded. In this area of the booth, visitors can experience intelligent systems for retail through a demonstration with a large home improvement retailer. Consisting of three parts, the holistic demonstration spans the retailer’s customer engagement and channel strategy, from shopping at home and visiting a store to driving intelligence for the retailer in the back office, all through connected devices — including smartphones, digital signage, handheld devices, Microsoft Surface and POS tablets, and kiosks working seamlessly together to help the retailer and its store associates deliver a new level of interactive and personalized services.

Other News: Microsoft executives will also lead education sessions in NRF’s BIG !deas Boulevard.

• Jan. 14, 2 p.m., 3D09: “Enabling Great Customer Experiences with Big Data,” ShiSh Shridhar, Microsoft

• Jan. 14, 3:15 p.m., 3D09: “Become a Dynamic Retailer with Microsoft Dynamics & Deliver the Future of Retail Today,” Lynda Barr, chief financial officer, Edwin Watts Golf; Ashvin Mathew, Microsoft, and Michael Griffiths, global product industry director, Retail & Distribution, Microsoft Business Solutions

• Jan. 15, 11 a.m., 3D09: “Modern Productivity Solutions for Stores,” Mike McNamara, chief information officer, Tesco, and Tracy Issel, general manager, Worldwide Retail Sector, Microsoft

Who:

• Brendan O’Meara, managing director, Worldwide Retail Sector, Microsoft

• Fred Studer, general manager, ERP Product Management Group, Microsoft Business Solutions

• John Doyle, director of product management, Windows Embedded, Microsoft

• Michael Griffiths, global product industry director, Retail & Distribution, Microsoft Business Solutions

• Tracy Issel, general manager, Worldwide Retail Sector, Microsoft

More Details:

More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/nrf.

For the latest NRF news, links and photos, follow @msretail, @MSFTDynamicsERP and @MSFTWEB on Twitter.

*An appropriate device, Internet connection, supported browser and/or carrier network connectivity are required. Data charges may apply.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 10, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the appointment of Blake Krikorian as corporate vice president for its Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB). Krikorian will report to Marc Whitten, chief product officer for IEB. This announcement follows the acquisition of Krikorian’s company, id8 Group R2 Studios (R2 Studios).

“We are thrilled to have Blake join the Xbox team,” Whitten said. “He’s a proven innovator and well-respected leader in both the media and technology industries, having created simple, elegant products that have transformed the way people engage with and consume content. We look forward to his contribution to our team as Xbox continues to evolve and transform the games and entertainment landscape.”

“I am excited to join Microsoft and be a part of the Xbox team. As a 10-year Xbox LIVE subscriber, I have seen firsthand how Xbox has delighted us by reinventing how consumers experience games and entertainment,” Krikorian said. “I look forward to helping the team define the future of entertainment and contribute to the next decade of continued innovation.”

Krikorian most recently founded R2 Studios. Before that he served as the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Sling Media Inc., inventors of the Emmy® award-winning Slingbox®, which is now owned by EchoStar Corp. Krikorian served on the board of Amazon.com Inc. and also co-founded the Philips Mobile Computing Group where he co-led the team that created the award-winning Velo 1 handheld PC running Windows CE. He has received numerous lifetime achievement awards including the Lifetime Technology Leadership Award from Broadcasting & Cable, as well as the TechFellow Award for Disruptive Innovation from TechCrunch, Founders Fund and NEA.

About Xbox

Xbox is Microsoft’s premier entertainment service for the TV, phone, PC and tablet. It’s home to the best and broadest games, as well as one of the world’s largest libraries of music, movies, TV and sports. With Kinect, Xbox 360 transformed gaming and entertainment in the living room with a whole new way to play games and find entertainment — no controller required. More information about Xbox can be found online at http://www.xbox.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.