Roundup: Lima-Microsoft, VMware, SAP, intellectual property database

Peruvian capital Lima's regional government has signed a cooperation agreement with IT giant Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), set to benefit the local authorities and thousands of teachers, the government said on its Twitter account. Under the agreement, the regional government will use Microsoft technology, and more than 1,900 teachers will receive training to incorporate ICT use into the teaching and learning process. The goal is to improve the quality of education in Lima department and its provinces. *** California-based virtualization software firm VMware is hosting its VMware Forum on October 7 in São Paulo, the company said in a statement. The forum will focus on the advantages of virtualization in terms of reducing capital and operating costs, ensuring business continuity, strengthening security and being environmentally friendly, as well as on cloud computing to meet specific business needs. The event will include presentations by EMC, Dell, AMD, HP, Trend Micro, CA, Cisco and Symantec. *** SAP (NYSE: SAP) has appointed Alejandra Franco as human resources director for Spanish-speaking South America, the company said in a statement. Franco will report directly to SAP's human resources VP for Latin America, Jairo Fernández, and will be responsible for directing the department for Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Caribbean. *** Panama's trade ministry is implementing software to streamline the intellectual property database's registry, search and update features, the ministry said on its website. Users will be able to access information online and make corrections if necessary. Additionally, the database was updated to the latest version of the Java platform. The database contains more than 5,500 intellectual property rights registered between 2000 and 2010, including software, websites, multimedia, books and contracts.