IT Center participates in Infrapedia 2010 presenting eFront, Diagramma and SOLO Gateway platforms

IT Center which is the distributor in Greece and in Cyprus of the products of the entrepreneurial esosystem Virtual Trip has announced the participation in the 2nd Exhibition of Infrastructure and Equipment for Educational Centers- Infrapedia 2010.

The participation will be focused on the promotion of the e- Learning platform “eFront”, on the integrated information management system of educational institutions “Diagramma” as well as on “SOLO Gateway”, software which is an excellent solution to computing and communications infrastructure for educational institutions.

In the education sector, the solutions of IT Center, which are based on the software platforms eFront, Diagramma and SOLO Gateway, allow the educational institution to use the new technology both to increase dramatically the quality of educational services and to significantly improve the organization, management and productivity.

IT Center started operating in 2009 creating a national network of partners and operating IT Center stores in select areas. The company aims to bridge the gap between IT and communications needs of SMEs and existing solutions in the market. Promoting the concept of "one-stop-shop" for all IT and communications needs is a strategic partner of small business modernized to overcome the crisis and develop.


Infrapedia 2010 will be held on Saturday 20 and Sunday, March 21 at Zappeion.

Virtual Trip launches the “PANAKEA” Digital Signage Platform in cooperation with Business Information Support

Virtual Trip has completed successfully the pilot phase of the digital signage project “PANAKEA” which is carried out in cooperation with Business Information Support on behalf of the Cooperatives Federation of Greece’s Pharmacists (OSFE).

In particular, the project “PANAKEA” is about the installation of a panhellenic system of Digital Signage which is completed by an e-Learning platform for the Pharmacists as well as a panhellenic management and information network for the emergency pharmacies.

In this context, this system has been installed and now operates in 25 pharmacies while in the forthcoming period it is expected to extend in all of OSFE’s force which overcomes the 5.500 pharmacies.

Among others the platform “PANAKEA” allows the optimal central management of the advertising projection both with geographical and time parameters, adjusted to the peculiarities of each installation point and providing the ability of projecting informational and educational material alongside ads.

Transformation Services Laboratory receives a SERVICE COMPUTATION 2009 Award

A research paper on "Enhancing Service Network Analysis and Service Selection Using Requirements-Based Service Discovery", which had been submitted to the "SERVICE COMPUTATION 2009 - The First International Conferences on Advanced Service Computing" by Konstantinos Zachos, Christos Nikolaou, Pantelis Petridis, George Stratakis, Manolis Voskakis, and Eyaggelos Papathanasiou, has received an award by the reviewers.

The research team is composed by members of the Transformation Services Laboratory at the University of Crete in cooperation with the S-Cube Network of Excellence, lead by Prof. Christos Nikolaou while the paper which received the award is part of the TSL efforts to link requirements engineering to service value networks.

Virtual Trip is a research partner of TSL and proud to support one of its major activities, The Second Service and Software Architectures, Infrastructures and Engineering (SSAIE) Summer School.

Dimitris Tsigos interview on away.gr for the transformation of Virtual Trip to an Angel Investment Fund

[Interview]Dimitris Tsigos' interview on away.gr for the transformation of Virtual Trip to an Angel Investment Fund

Virtual Trip starts Actech LLC, as a new venture in Ohio, US

Virtual Trip Group has announced that Actech’s LLC activity is evolving with great success in Akron, Ohio USA. Actech is a new Virtual Trip venture to act as the distributor of the SOLO Gateway products family Solo Gateway in North America. The company was founded in September 2009 and is developing a rapidly expanding network of Value-Added Reselling Partners. Moreover, it is expected that soon a number of SOLO Telco Gateway deployments will be launched at Internet Service Providers in Ohio and the rest of US.

Actech LLC has a staff of seven professionals with significant experience in the industry of IT and Telecommunications in USA.

At the same time, SOLO Gateway SA, member of Virtual Trip Group and manufacturer of the homonymous product family has announced the expansion of the international VAR Partners network in Argentina, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Poland, along with the addition of IAS Application Systems, IT Works Nigeria, Spike Systems, Weldacy Initiatives, CIRITE Technologies και Danbit Systems.

SOLO Gateway is one of the leading Unified Communications solutions of the international market both for SMEs and SOHO users.

Fujitsu Australia- New Zealand chooses eFront to be their LMS

A recent significant addition to the rapid expansion of Epignosis international customer base is the agreement with Fujitsu Australia- New Zealand. In the context of this project, Fujitsu will use eFront platform for managing its human capital, starting with 2,500 users while it is expected that the total amount of users will have reached the 7,500 users by the end of 2010.

Fujitsu Australia- New Zealand is a provider of integrated information and communications technology solutions. Ranging from strategic consulting to application and infrastructure solutions and services, Fujitsu has earned reputation as the single supplier of choice for leading corporate and government organizations. Therefore, Fujitsu has developed a network of over 10 million customers and 160,000 professional staff in 60 countries around the world. In Australia and New Zealand Fujitsu has 10,000 staff.

EPIGNOSIS Ltd is a fast growing, young, dynamic, and technology oriented ELearning Company. Based in Athens – Greece, it’s a member of the Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, together with other twelve high-tech companies in Greece, Spain and the US. EPIGNOSIS Ltd, is the vendor of “eFront” e-Learning platform, envisages e-Learning 2.0 as the dominant approach for human capital development, education & training services.

Lefteris Trimintzios nominated as "Vtripper of the year 2009"

Lefteris Trimintzios, Senior Software Engineer at Virtual Trip, was nominated as "Vtripper of the Year 2009" at a party which took place at Virtual Trip Group HQ in Athens, Greece on Thursday February 4th 2010.

Being part of the vtrip team from its very early steps, in 2002 at the Science & Technology Park of Crete, Lefteris contribution for materialing the vtrip vision in 2009 has been absolutely great, serving as an outstanding example of appying the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem's corporate values: Entrepreneurship, Usefulness, Innovation, Commitment and Quality.

Lefteris follows Periklis Venakis, Chief Software Engineer of Epignosis Ltd who was the "Vtripper of the Year 2008", and George Dramitinos, Director of Services in Virtual Trip, who was nominated the title of "Vtripper of the Year 2007" in January 2008 when the "Vtripper of the Year" award was introduced for first time.

CIRITE Technologies joins SOLO Gateway VAR Partners community

SOLO Gateway is pleased and honoured to announce that CIRITE Technologies (Pvt) Ltd., www.cirite.com, has joined the SOLO Gateway VAR Partners community as the first partner in Sri Lanka!

CIRITE, based in Sri Lanka and in the UK, is dedicated to providing ICT Infrastructure Management and Application Development Services, to a wide spectrum of international, private as well as corporate clients from SME to large scale.

In SOLO Gateway we are delighted for welcoming CIRITE to our Partners network and committed to exploring opportunities in its very interesting target markets.

Virtual Trip approved as an EBAN Gold Member

Virtual Trip announced today that has been approved to join EBAN as a Gold Member.

EBAN, the European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds, & Early Stage Market Players,is a non-profit association representing the interests of business angels, business angels networks (BANs), seed funds and other entities involved in bridging the equity gap in Europe. EBAN was established with the collaboration of the European Commission in 1999 by a group of pioneer BANs in Europe and EURADA (European Association of Development Agencies).

Virtual Trip recently announced its new strategy for formally operating an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in the sense of providing financing, strategy consulting, business development coordination, human capital development & marketing communication services, financial & accounting management and MIS/IT infrastructure both to its spin-out companies and to other high-tech start-ups to which will invest in the future.

Virtual Trip materialized major international expansion in 2009

The Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is pleased to announce that a major international expansion plan has been successfully implemented in 2009.

Specifically:

-Virtual Trip Spain SL, the first Group Antenna Office started its operations in Madrid - Spain, EU, in January 2009, contributing to the promotion of Group products in Iberia and in Latin America. New antenna offices will be founded in 2010 in New York - US, London - UK, Mumbai - India and Nicosia - Cyprus.

- Actech LLC, a new Virtual Trip venture in Akron -OH, US, was founded in September 2009 to promote Group products, starting from the Group flagship product SOLO Gateway, to the US market.

- eFront, the Virtual Trip e-learning offering by EPIGNOSIS, materialized a major expansion of its international VAR Partners network from 5 partners in January to 33 Partners in December.

- Insurance Manager, Virtual Trip's integrated business software solution for insurance agents and brokers materialized its first sales abroad, having approximately 10 installations in Cyprus.

- Mobile Social, the unique mobile social networking UGC/gaming platform by MVNS has been tested by more than 10 MNOs across EU and relevant services will be launched in Q1/2010

- SOLO Gateway, beyond its introduction to the US market by Actech LLC, is in the process of creating an international VAR Partners network with more than 40 members in Africa, Asia, Latin America and EU

Virtual Trip is committed to continue its international growth at even higher pace in 2010. Beyond eFront e-Learning, SOLO Gateway, Mobile Social and Insurance Manager, a new portfolio of high-tech software products will be promoted to the international market, including OpenVote secure internet voting system, S4Trips electronic tourism services distribution platform, Publisher integrated newspapers publishing platform and the Diagramma Student Information System.

Virtual Trip introduces the concept of the "Entrepreneurial Ecosystem"

Virtual Trip, a leading entrepreneurial group in the ICT field, is pleased to introduce the concept of the "Entrepreneurial Ecosystem":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurial_ecosystem

""An entrepreneurial ecosystem is a group of non-competing companies, including start-ups, established companies and one or more coordination entities, which share the same vision, values, culture, strategy and business processes and decide to form an organization in order to explore economies of scale in business functions such as business development, financing, market analysis, marketing communications, IT / MIS infrastructure, human capital management, legal support, financial & accounting management.""

In Virtual Trip we suggest that this new form of business network is ideal for the development of new ventures in related fields; We announce an open invitation to high-tech start-up companies worldwide which would be interested in joining our ecosystem as well as an open-invitation to angel investors and VC funds who are interested in supporting this first entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Moreover, we would be very glad to share our experience and know-how to other groups of start-ups which would be interested in forming entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Telenor for eFront!

When planning the release of their latest business efficiency system Mobilt Bedriftsnett, Telenor committed to an even higher standard of customer support. An integral link of this effort was to launch a learning portal that would allow users to gain a better insight and a higher competence in the use of the possibilities offered by Mobilt Bedriftsnett. This is provided by Telenor’s new, comprehensive e-learning portal delivered by New Learning As, Epignosis' new VAR in Norway.

Telenor’s e-learning portal is hosted by the Norwegian e-learning company New Learning which also delivers all content, and powered by eFront’s LMS platform. This project takes advantage of eFront’s wide technological support, great customization possibilities and advanced tracking and reporting tools. Courses delivered in the portal take full advantage of multimedia learning, and use sound, video, animations and interactivity.

This learning platform will be the premier learning site for Telenors mobile services in Norway, and will most likely service in excess of 100 000 users, from several thousand companies nationwide. The LMS is adapted for Telenor’s needs by giving it a brand new interface, in keeping with Telenor’s visual profile, as well as a Single Sign-On solution.

New VARs join our Global eFront Community

It is our pleasure to welcome our new VARs that have joined our Global eFront family and will strengthen our efforts to promote eFront to practically all over the world!

Among them, I would like to highlight on ZICON Ltd. our first appointed VAR located in Middle East (Pakistan and UAE), and stress our great pleasure to make eFront available in this Region as well.

Let us introduce our new VARs

1. Skillspark (Canada) http://skillspark.ca
2. MultiEducation (US - Texas & Mexico) http://multieducacion.com
3. RK Software (US - New York) http://www.rksoftwareinc.com
4. Ballistic Learning (India) http://ballisticlearning.com
5. Seminars2you (Germany) http://www.seminars2you.com
6. Click & Learn (Austria) http://www.clickandlearn.eu
7. Zicon Ltd (UAE – Pakistan) http://www.ziconel.com

Our expansion plans are not ended up here as we are receiving a tremendous interest from many organizations that would like to enter into our growing family and serve our existing as well as our potential eFront fans all around the globe.

New VARs to be appointed from Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, India, UK, Brazil and more to come!

Thank you all for your valuable contribution and support!

VTrip Group gets two more member companies

Seeing our stated corporate values, we consider "Entrepreneurship" to be the most fundamental of all. For us, "entrepreneurship" is more than what a strict definition might say; it is about our love and passion for setting targets and achieving every one of them.

In line with our values and strategic plans, Virtual Trip is proud to announce the formation of two new spin-out companies, SOLO Gateway SA and Insurance Manager SA. Both companies are members of the VTrip Group, which holds 70% of each company. Giorgos Kripotos was appointed as CEO of Insurance Manager SA, while Vangelis Mihalopoulos was appointed as CEO of SOLO Gateway SA.

Each company will continue the further development and promotion of the individual product lines formerly distributed by Virtual Trip. All intellectual property rights, personnel, and operations concerning the two former business units will be transferred respectively to the new companies.

Epignosis continues its expansion plans increasing the VAR network across the globe!

eFront is becoming one of the most popular LCMS in the world, as the network of partners is expanding on an increasing pace the last 4 months. As a result, Epignosis has already appointed 17 VARs in 14 countries, 5 continents!

Namely, eFront is currently distributed by local representatives in the US, Argentina, Australia, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, Poland, Greece, India, Singapore and Egypt!!!

Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity and welcome to our global VAR network our new partners:

1. Liquid Knowledge Group (US)
2. MLAKedusoln LLC (US)
3. e-ABC (Argentina)
4. Dgroup Consulting (Australia)
5. e3vision (UK)
6. e-learning solutions (France)
7. Elsa24.de (Germany)
8. Prestin (Poland)
9. Abbris (Russia)

We will keep you updated with more info regarding the new partners that will very soon join our VAR network, facilitating even more the distribution of eFront to worldwide organizations (US, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Turkey, India, Norway …to follow)

Thank you for your support so far!

Evangelos Kotsovinos joins Virtual Trip as Chief Strategy Officer

Virtual Trip announced today that Mr. Evangelos Kotsovinos is joining the team as Chief Strategy Officer. Evangelos, currently VP at Morgan Stanley based in London - UK, will focus to raising the necessary capital to boost Virtual Trip growth, both for our holding company and the spin-outs.

Evangelos Kotsovinos short bio:

Evangelos is a Vice President at Morgan Stanley, where he leads initiatives in the space of hosting, virtualization, and cloud computing. His focus is on improving the business value of global-scale enterprise infrastructures by combining novel technologies with entrepreneurial business models and strategies that improve efficiency, manageability, flexibility, and reliability. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Evangelos was a Senior Research Scientist at T-Labs, where he helped develop an R&D project into a VC-funded Internet start-up. Evangelos has pioneered the field of cloud computing, authored several peer-reviewed publications and served as a program committee member and reviewer in numerous top conferences and journals. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of NewCred Ltd, the UK’s fastest growing credit union.

Solo Gateway and eFront go to the Growth Company Investor Show!

The Growth Company Investor Show (GCIS) is the biggest event in Europe for promoting fast-growing enterprises that seek investment funds, either private or through the PLUS and AIM markets of London. This year it is held in the Barbican Exhibition Halls in London, on June 10th.

We will be there! The V.Trip Group will join this event, presenting it's two flagship products, Solo Gateway and eFront. Both products internationally established, and were presented successfully during the last month on the Training & Development Conference 2009 and Telecommunication, Media and Technology Conference 2009.

Additionally to the GCIS, the V.Trip Group is an active participant to the 10th International Venture Capital Forum which will take place on June 16-17th at the Hilton Hotel in Athens, were International VCs seek investment opportunities in greek enterprises.

The OESYNE (Federation of Greek Young Entrepreneurs Groups) is leading the greek mission to the GCIS, while it promotes VC and high-risk funding to Greek Start-Ups through the initiative of "One Hundred Start Ups" which aims to attract international funding interest to the very promising greek start-up market.

Virtual Trip at the FT Telecommunications, Media and Technology Conference

Virtual Trip presents Solo Telco Gateway at the region's major Telecommunications event of the year, presented by Financial Times Global Events, Telecommunications, Media and Technology Conference.

Solo Telco Gateway is a new, one-of-a-kind integrated platform for Telecommunications Providers, that allows them to deliver Unified Communications services to Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs).



It is based on a device that is installed in the SMB's premises which in turn is always connected with the Telco's Data Center, via the broadband service chosen by the SMB. While all services appear local to the SMB user, critical ones like Web and e-mail are hosted at the Telco's Data Center, thus making the best of both worlds: fast and efficient local services -such as telephony, fax and surveillance, and robust, always-on website and email service.


The solution is offered as a service to the SMBs, only adding a small monthly fee to their telephony and broadband bill. The return is immediate, since there are major savings in running costs and a significant increase of the SMB's productivity.

That combined with zero investment from the SMB side and a huge competitive advantage in the critical SMB market for the Telco, Solo Telco Gateway is an offer that is hard ofr any party to refuse!

Next Generation Learning Services (NGLS) presents its innovative elearning services & tools at the Training and Development Conference 2009

NGLS a member of the V.Trip Group of companies, is participating at the Training and Development Conference 2009 that takes place on May 25th, 2009 at the OTEAcademy, Pelika & Spartis 1, Marousi, Athens.

On behalf of NGLS, Mr. Tsigos Dimitrios, General Manager, is going to present the views of the company on the subject :"eFront: A new approach to Social Learning - eLearning 2.0"

NGLS brings together technology, educational methodologies and synergies through strategic partnerships in order to offer unique services in the fields of education and training making use of advanced methods of mixed education/training and technologies of information and communication .

NGLS's solutions are aiming to help companies to:
• Test the knowledge of (candidate) employees (gap-analysis)
• Organize training materials as training courses
• Build user-tailored training paths based on organization needs
• Minimize the organization's training costs
• Pin-point the best candidates for tasks
• Fulfill the inner-organization communication needs
• Preserve the company knowledge
• Certify the employee knowledge

Virtual Trip delivers High-Performance Computing in Computational Molecular Biology

The R&TD dept. of Virtual Trip has successfully completed in 2008 the PA.MICH ("PAthogenous MECHanisms") project, a co-funded, R&TD, computational molecular biology project in the framework of the Regional Enterprise Program (PEP) of Crete, run in collaboration with the Lab. of Crystallography, dept. of Biology, Univ. of Crete.

The project developed a methodology and related computational tools that assist in the design and synthesis of durgs, that are capable of inhibiting the undesired actions of certain proteins and enzyms. Virtual Trip developed a tool that scans through world-wide databases of small molecules, (e.g. the "Cambridge Structural Database", containing ~400.000 molecules), and superimposes each candidate on the "active center" of a given target-protein. Subsequently, all candidates are reported and new "lead compounds" are synthesized. The project's results have been successfully demonstrated with the BcZBP protein of the Bacillus Cereous, a protein with significant similarity (3 homologues) with the highly hazardous B.anthracis. 111 compounds were computationally synthesized and have been proposed as candidates to inhibit the infectuous activity of this protein.

The above outcomes, combined with recent global research results from cancer research, immunology and cardiology can potentially lead to the development of a wide range of antibiotics, to the cure of certain forms of cancer and to the reduction of cholesterol and the atheromatic plaque (which cause cardiovascular diseases).

Virtual Trip and the Univ. of Crete are committed to followup this research work and proceed with the real synthesis and clinical testing of the PA.MICH results, as well as to extend the application domain of this methodology and tools to other areas.

Virtual Trip submits five business plans to the Athnes 10th Venture Capital Forum

The Virtual Trip Group has announced that participates to the 10th Venture Capital Forum via the submission of five independent business plans of equal group spin-out companies. Specifically, the plans that have been submitted are of the following companies:

- EPIGNOSIS Ltd, vendor of the eFront e-learning platform
- MVNS SA, vendor of the mVision mobile services platform
- NGLS SA, provider of the StudyBox on-line learning service
- Solo Gateway, new spin-out, vendor of the homonym unified communications gateway
- Insurance Manager, new spin-out vendor, of the homonym information system for insurance agencies and brokers

Virtual Trip, after having grown organically 60 times in revenue and 12 times in human-resources since its foundation in September 2000 at the Science & Tecnology Park of Crete - Greece, aims to raise capital for boosting its expansion to the international markets while retaining the technology edge and publishing new products both with VC Funding and with entering the PLUS stock-exchange.

IT Center signs digital signage contract with OSFE - Hellenic Federation of Pharmacists Cooperatives

IT Center Ltd, the new Virtual Trip Group Spin-Out, has signed a strategic contract with OSFE - the Hellenic Federation of Pharmacists Cooperatives, in a J/V with BIS, a systems integrator specialized in VoIP solutions.

The OSFE contract includes a digital signage project, where high-quality monitors will be installed to a large number of Pharmacies around Greece leading to the creation of a highly targeted, interactive and centrally managed advertising infrastructure as well as an e-learning facility for the continues learning of the members of the Federation. Last but not least, web- and mobile-surveillance tools and VoIP access will be offered tou Federation-members, countrywide.

The technical infrastructure for the digital signage project is the Solo Gateway while for the e-learning part it's the eFront platform and the mVision Surveillance provides for the security surveillance service.

IT Center Ltd aims to the provision of cutting-edge systems integration services specially designed for small & medium enterprises. IT Center operations will be based on a B2B portal and a network of stores around Greece. The portal and the first store will be launched in June 2009.

April CLO Summit in Florida

April 09 CLO Summit - What an event! Intense timeframes, multiple meetings, overlapping attendance on the stand and great fun! I really believe we did a fantastic job as a team and worked well to achieve the unofficial "Most Talked- About Company" award. And lets not forget the dance of century, on stage with Thanos and those beautiful Polynesian grass skirted girls! (George set that YouTube up as soon as possible ok?)

However, apart from he self congratulatory emotions I must say that the event contained a staggering number of Fortune 100 companies and C level executives who may not have the technical buying power but certainly have the internal needs and therefore influence, in other words they are the internal customer for IT.

I fervently believe Epignosis is building a good reputation in the US now, its the 2nd CLO event and clearly we were recognized by some and welcomed by others. Commitment to the industry and these high profile customers is a key action at this stage of our development and go-to-market plan. We must be seen and heard at all levels starting from the top so that when our network of VARs is selling they are met with confidence.

It was clear from the CLO that the market is growing, developing and open. Our competitors have had a head start but by no means blocking entrance for us and perhaps even paving the way for the next gen platform of which we are. It was commented many times that our Features and Benefits far out weigh many of the others and if there was any way they could switch to eFront they would there and then!

We met with VARs too. Both from the technical and content standpoint, which is healthy mix to extend the reach from all sides and we will be perusing them with equal vigor. VARs will be the weapon of choice to increase the sales delta as rapidly as possible as they are keen to leverage our understanding, easy to use next generation platform.

Here is to great success in the States!

Thank you to all who participated and supported us.

Multirama becomes the first Solo Gateway Platinum VAR

The Greek IT retail giant Multirama (MULr.at) is the new VAR for Solo Gateway, and the first one to be awarded the Platinum Partner level.

Solo Gateway is a Unified Communications solution that can fully address the ICT needs of organizations of every size, since the different versions of the product range from the Small Business Edition for SoHo environments starting at €600 for up to 5 users, up to the Enterpise Maximum Security Edition that can cover for multi-point VPNs and high-availability Data Centers.

All versions include Security packages (antispam, antivirus, backup), Collaboration tools (address books, calendar, instant messaging), various Server functions (File / Web / Mail / Proxy Server), while the proposal stands out by incorporating a complete PBX (Analogue, digital and VoIP with full Fax Server) and CCTV + DVR system (that records and transmits the signal from IP cameras to the Web, and mobile at all times)

"We are very proud that through the B2B channel, as well as the country-wide retail network of 70 Multirama stores, Solo Gateway -the flagship product of the v.trip Group- will cover the needs of Greek small businesses and beyond. It is a great opportunity to provide a complete solution that confronts the current recession period, with very low initial investment and immediate cost savings", said Georgios Glinos, Solo Gateway Sales Manager for Solo Gateway.

"By adding Solo Gateway to the B2B product range of Multirama, we indicate once more our persistence in choosing leading edge technologies to cover the needs of Greek businesses. We hope to kick-start the fruitful collaboration with v.trip Group by bundling of Solo Gateway with branded Server hardware" said George Kassiteropoulos, Senior Product Manager of Multirama.

Virtual Trip moves in new HQ bulding in Athens

The Athens-based team of Virtual Trip has recently moved in a new building which will serve as Group HQ. This brand-new, six-floors, 480 m² establishment is one more major milestone to the Group's development path, which keeps on steady growth, even during this challenging crisis-era.

The interior design is based on the concept of open spaces and designed to boost team-members collaboration. Providing a high-end working environment in terms of usefulness, easiness and design remains a key-objective for Virtual Trip which is greatly materialized in this exciting new workspace.

EPIGNOSIS partcipates to the Chief Learning Officer Summit 2009

Epignosis will participate to the Chief Learning Officer Summit 2009 that will take place in the Sawgrass Golf Resort & Spa, Ponte Vedra, FL from 1-3/4/2009. The aim of the CLO Summit is to provide the CLO executives the opportunity to interact with pioneering providers of technology solutions and services, geared entirely to the needs of the CLO. In this context, Epignosis was invited to present its flagship product "eFront" to the CLO Summit, attend the conference sessions to keep informed on the latest developments in the eLearning business, implement new strategic partnerships and pursue business opportunities in the pioneering US eLearning industry.

Virtual Trip joins the Hellenic Semiconductor Industries Association

Virtual Trip recently become a member of the Hellenic Semiconductor Industries Association, a very dynamic, non-profit, organization for the promotion of Greek Semiconductor Industry by facilitating Contacts, Interaction and Coordinated Activities among partners, with a target to further develop hi-tech and semiconductor industry in Greece.

In 2007 Virtual Trip had announced its decision to enter the semiconductor market through the creation of the Integrated Systems Group as a part of its Division of Services. The ISG personnel includes five in-house engineer, highly skilled, with solid theoretical background and broad practical experience gained during their involvement in large scale projects for customers such as Hewlett Packard Labs, Sun Microsystems, ST Microelectronics and AMCC.

Professor Christos Nikolaou honours Virtual Trip Group undertaking the position of the Group Non- Executive Chairman

Professor Christos Nikolaou, is joining Virtual Trip as the Non-Executive Chairman. Christos Nikolaou, Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of Crete, with an outstanding academic and research career, has between others chaired the National Council for Education, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) and has served as Rector of the University of Crete.

Such a significant academic, will play a vital role to the Group’s strategic growth plan. Vtrip is already close to finalize agreements with private investors, while recently has established a branch in Spain in order to expanded its activities.

Moreover, the group is preparing for the necessary procedures in order to enter Britain’s stock market, PLUS. A key role is played by the non-executive board which will be chaired by Christos Nikolaou. He will be responsible of ensuring the Group’s strategy in compliance with his personal principles and values.

In welcoming Prof. Nikolaou, Dimitris Tsigos Virtual Trip’s Chief Executive Officer, has noted “In Virtual Trip, we are putting a great effort into creating a Greek Group of cutting edge companies which will find the path to success towards the Global market. I believe that our core values, venture, innovation, quality, worth and commitment, comprise a strong foundation to help us achieve this difficult goal, which Professor Christos Nikolaou will crucially fortify by undertaken the role of Non-Executive Chairman.

V.trip Group Visit to Sri Lanka and India: A Great Success for Business and Pleasure

The call was quick and the stakes were high, eFront was shortlisted for the eLearning bid of a SriLankan Airlines. The team comprising of George Kalfas, eFront Sales Manager and Sakis Papangelis, Technical Director, Epignosis was mobilized immediately. Taking into consideration the large number of requests for partnerships from neighboring India, made it logical to also visit this great country, as well.

Of course Solo Gateway, the flagship product of the group could not be missed out on a venture to an area where small businesses - the main target group of Solo - are counted in millions, so Georgios Glinos, Solo Gateway Sales Manager was to follow along.

Since there was little room for Solo to prepare for Sri Lanka, the team was initially split and while the eFront team were supporting their bid in the uproar of Colombo, Georgios visited Mumbai (Bombay), where he met with teams of Tata Communications a member of the Tata Group, as well as Reliance Globalcomm, a member of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The Solo Strategy for India is to gain acces to the vast and ever-growing small business market of the country, both via retail channels as well as a value added product for the broadband product lines of ISPs.

The two teams joined up in N. Delhi, where the took the chance of a sunny Sunday to also pay a visit to one of India's marvels, the mausoleum of Taj Mahal.

The week started off with marathon meetings with local eFront partners Deeksha Systems and newly agreed C2 Workshop, as well as many other potential partners for Solo and/or eFront. Tuesday continued with meetings with @Soft Services that we had met in Patras as well as e-learning giant NIS Sparta, another member of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

Tuesday evening was concluded with the celebration of Georgios's 35th birthday and then Wednesday was sightseeing day until we had to part with that charming and welcoming country.

The TIGER project awarded CELTIC-Gold

The TIGER PROJECT Receives CELTIC GOLD!

[21/1/2009]

The TIGER project ("Together IP, GMPLS and Ethernet Reconsidered"), a EUREKA-CELTIC international industrial cooperation project, in which Virtual Trip has participated through GSRT and recently successfully completed, has been awarded the gold CELTIC Excellence Award.

The TIGER (EU) project has been considered a very successful project by the CELTIC organization and its sequel, TIGER-2, has been strongly favoured and encouraged by CELTIC.

Virtual Trip has participated in the European consortium of the TIGER project as partner and work-package (WP4) leader, having contributed innovative network simulation and analysis tools and methods, incl. one conference paper publication. The consortium included partners such as Alcatel-Lucent, Orange - France Telecom, Nokia-Siemens, FORTH, Univ. Politecnica de Catalunya, RAD Data Communications, ENST, IBBT, etc.

The "TIGER Tool", an Approximate Mean Value Analysis Solver tool, has been presented in the 8th IASTED Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Networks (PDCN 2009), in Innsbruck, Austria (16-18 Feb. 2009), by Dr. Fotis K. Liotopoulos, Director of Virtual Trip's RTD dept., who also co-chaired the "Algorithms" sessions of that conference.

The "TIGER Tool" is a unique and very flexible, high-level performance analysis tool, which can be used for the design and sizing of large Metropolitan Ethernet networks, consisting of several thousands of network nodes and millions of customer services.

The tool is highly parametric and solves very complex, closed, fixed-queueing network models of large metropolitan networks in only a few seconds!