A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on July 13th to commemorate the installation of Bluebird Technologies’ new solar electric system. In attendance were Rockaway Township’s Mayor Louis S. Sceusi, Bluebird Technologies President Angela Margolit, and The Solar Center CEO Ed Steins, along with staff from both Bluebird Technologies and The Solar Center. The solar electric system will work to save substantial electricity by cutting back on Bluebird’s usage from the grid. Also, the system will have environmental benefits equivalent to the absorption of CO2 from planting 3.2 acres of trees or cutting back annual green house emissions from roughly taking three cars off of the road.

“IT Solution companies such as Bluebird Technologies have sizable electric consumption. This new solar electric system installation allows Bluebird Technologies to build sustainable practices into their business while enjoying great savings on their electric bills. At the same time, and just as important for any business owner, Bluebird Technologies, generates revenue for their business through the sale of New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program, SREC (Solar Renewable Energy Credits) Program”, noted Ed Steins, CEO of The Solar Center. “The total electric saving and SREC income for the system is over $300,000 during the twenty year plus life of the system. The first year solar incentives of $79,000 include a federal grant which Bluebird Technologies will enjoy through the Federal Stimulus Package. In total, the system will pay for itself in less than six years with a 20% rate of return making this a great investment for Bluebird Technologies. Bluebird Technologies has shown great environmental leadership in the business community, and we are proud to have installed this solar electric system for a local Rockaway/Dover based company.”


RentWorks Version4 Passes Credit Card Certification
RentWorks version 4 has been approved as a secure payment application by the PCI-DSS Security Council.  By definition, a "secure application" must pass the rigors of PA-DSS testing by a Qualified Security assessor or QSA and meet or exceed the standard as defined on the council's website:

PA-DSS is the Council-managed program formerly under the supervision of the Visa Inc. program known as the Payment Application Best Practices (PABP).  The goal of PA-DSS is to help software vendors and others develop secure payment applications that do not store prohibited data, such as full magnetic stripe, CVV2 or PIN data, and ensure their payment applications support compliance with the PCI DSS.  Payment applications that are sold, distributed or licensed to third parties are subject to the PA-DSS requirements.  In-house payment applications developed by merchants or service providers that are not sold to a third party are not subject to the PA-DSS requirements, but must still be secured in accordance with the PCI DSS.

The testing process not only required approval of the way Bluebird products handle and store sensitive cardholder data, but also demanded we provide the proper documentation for the product implementation, support, and secure processing of data.  This process entailed a significant effort by the Bluebird team over several months.

With this certification, auto rental companies can deploy RentWorks version 4 with confidence, knowing they are properly protecting card holder data within their POS application.  This is an important step toward PCI-DSS certification for merchants.

Below is the link to the PCI-DSS Councils list of approved payment applications that have passed testing by a QSA:

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/vpa/