Amazon announced that Amazon Web Services is acquiring NICE, a software and services provider for high performance and technical computing.
NICE will operate under its existing brand and continue to work with its customers and partners ad well as develop and support its EnginFrame and Desktop Cloud Visualization products.
“Like AWS, we are a customer obsessed company and we are globally appreciated for the excellence of our support and professional services”, said Bruno Franzini, Support and Professional Services Manager at NICE. “With the backing of AWS, we will pamper our customers even more!”
CEO Beppe Ugolotti added, “The entire team will be with us to open this new chapter of our history. Everybody is already dreaming about all the new technologies we will be able to develop working together with our future colleagues at AWS.”
The agreement is signed and the deal is expected to close within the quarter. Terms were not disclosed.
Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline, and is well known for its eccentric and quirky CEO, Michael O’Leary, as well as its rising poor image and rudeness.
According to Reuters, the company has promised that it would change its “abrupt culture” in an effort to bring in customers from more expensive competitors.
You see, Ryanair might have caught some flak over the years for treating its passengers poorly; shareholders retold anecdotes about employees cursing them out at dinner parties, and overcharging for the slightest weight difference in oversize carry-on bags.
“I have seen people crying at boarding gates,” said Owen O’Reilly, a private shareholder. “There is simply something wrong there that needs to be addressed.”
The consumer magazine Which?, which claims to have surveyed 3 million customers, reported that out of the 100 biggest brands serving the British market, Ryanair was the worst. In response, last Friday, the Irish firm said that it would revamp its attitude and communication towards customers, as well as be more lenient towards customers with oversized carry-on baggage by not issuing as many fines.
“We should try to eliminate things that unnecessarily piss people off,” O’Leary said at the company’s annual general meeting, responding to the criticisms of shareholders that the airline’s brash customer service was impacting profits.
O’Leary usually makes light of customer complaints by responding with citied statistics of revenue growth; cash rules everything around me. Back in 2009, O’Leary mentioned in a press conference that a Swedish passenger made a suggestion on Ryanair’s website that the company should install rolls of toilet paper with O’Leary’s face on them, and that customers would be happy enough to pay one euro a sheet. O’Leary responded, saying, “perhaps [I am] the most handsome and most attractive airline chief in Europe, and people want to take away a memento with my face on it.”
Such was not the case at the general meeting, when shareholder’s voiced their concerns over how their own family wouldn’t even fly Ryanair because of the poor customer service.
“I am very happy to take the blame of responsibility if we have a macho or abrupt culture. Some of that may well be my own personal character deformities,” O’Leary said.
Costumers are in for a splendid treat, as O’Leary mentioned how the company’s website will be overhauled. A new team will be hired in the customer service department that will address e-mails.
“A lot of those customer services elements don’t cost a lot of money … It’s something we are committed to addressing over the coming year.”
The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) this weekend issued a draft guidance stating that it does not recommend omalizumab, an asthma medication marketed as Xolair by Novartis Pharmaceuticals. NICE is a U.K. health authority that publishes guidelines for the National Health Service.
Omalizumab currently has a U.K. marketing authorization as an add-on therapy for persistent allergic asthma in adults and children. It works by blocking immunoglobulin E antibodies from attaching to allergens.
NICE stated that new evidence, including new mortality data, that has be come available influenced its decision. It also took into account the dosing schedule for the drug, and the effect that had on its cost effectiveness. These factors and other “uncertainties in the evidence and analysis presented,” influenced NICE to withhold a recommendation for omalizumab. The health-related quality of life benefits of the drug are not currently considered quantifiable, and were not part of the economic modeling used by NICE.
“The Committee is aware that severe, persistent allergic asthma can have a detrimental effect on a person’s life and that omalizumab is an effective therapy for children, adolescents and adults with severe persistent allergic asthma,” said Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of NICE. “But new evidence that has become available since our original appraisal of omalizumab in 2007 indicates that it is not as clinically or cost-effective as was first thought. The Committee explored ways to identify a subgroup of people for whom omalizumab might provide a cost effective treatment, including using favorable assumptions in the modeling. In addition, the Committee recognized that there could be additional health-related benefits for patients and carers as a result of using omalizumab. However, there was no quantifiable data relating to these benefits. Unfortunately, the Committee was unable to continue to recommend omalizumab for use in the NHS. The next step is for the manufacturer and other consultees to respond to the Committee’s concerns.”
