Subex Setsup IoT Security Lab and Hosts Cybersecurity Symposium with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Subex, a pioneering entity in the Cybersecurity space, hosted the first edition of its Cybersecurity Symposium with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The Symposium aimed towards creating a collaborative platform for the industry and academia to discuss ideas and initiatives around cybersecurity education. Representing NTU Singapore was esteemed NTU Academician and cybersecurity practitioner Prof Lam Kwok Yan, who provided his overview of the cybersecurity landscape in Singapore and perspectives on how the lessons learnt can be applied to the Indian ecosystem.

Also taking place on the same day was the launch of Subex’s IoT Security Lab, which will solve threats specific to IoT industrial control systems (ICS) and IT Systems. Using the world’s most comprehensive IoT and ICS focused honeypots of over 400 different architectures and over 4000 devices, Subex IoT Lab collects threat intelligence across multiple verticals including Telecom, Academics, Enterprises, Defense and Smart City projects. As part of the lab inauguration, Subex also announced that it will be opening its lab up to public-private partnerships with universities such as NTU and other colleges in Bangalore with a goal to create specific IoT security threat detection and prevention mechanisms for IoT ecosystems.

The Cybersecurity symposium also witnessed the formation of a Cyber Security Academic Forum with the objective of establishing an ecosystem in the country for cyber security research to emerge and grow, with the main mission to foster “A Safer Cyberspace”. This forum will provide a unique opportunity to meet and discuss the current issues of cyber disruption and the ever-changing landscape of cyber security and IoT security related threats.

Speaking at the Cybersecurity Symposium, Vinod Kumar, CEO and MD, Subex said, “With increasing threats in the Indian and Global cyberspace, we believe that education and awareness around cybersecurity will play an important role towards preparing and securing our critical assets against these threats. However, the topic of cybersecurity is yet to gain prominence within colleges in India, leading to gaps in the available talent pool. We are extremely proud to be partner with NTU Singapore to host the Cybersecurity symposium, and play a part in addressing this gap. The symposium witnessed collaborative discussions and brainstorm sessions between the industry and academia to identify ways to improve cybersecurity education in the country. Having Prof. Lam Kwok Yan provide his expertise on the topic was of tremendous value.

Further, we also inaugurated our IoT Security Lab that will now be open to public-private partnerships with universities. The lab provides research opportunities on IoT Security threat intelligence using a one-of-its kind honeypot network. This along with the continuous monitoring of over 8.5 million customer devices have enabled us to obtain 30% more IoT and ICS threat signatures and thereby offer a comprehensive IoT threat intelligence and prevention solution to our customers.”

Smart Parking Startup Get My Parking ; Acquires Bangalore-based Constapark in a Consolidation Move

Delhi based smart parking platform Get My Parking has acquired Bangalore based Constapark. Post-acquisition, the Constapark founders and team will join the Bangalore office of Get My Parking. This acquisition is a sign of consolidation in the rapidly evolving mobility industry and will help strengthen the domestic market leadership of Get My Parking.

This acquisition comes on the heels of Get My Parking’s recent $3 Million Series A funding. Investors who participated in that round included their existing pre-series A investors, IAN Fund, BEENEXT and others. They have raised $4.5 million in total so far.

Get My Parking  (GMP) was founded in July 2015 by Chirag Jain and Rasik Pansare with the aim to digitize the fragmented parking industry. Since then the team has grown to 65 members with offices in Delhi and Bangalore. GMP has digitized more than 300 parking locations that process 2 Million parking transactions monthly. They have done some stellar projects like Maha Kumbh Mela in 2016 where they digitized 400 hectares of parking space in Ujjain for 200,000 car spaces. They were recently awarded the Amazon AWS Mobility Awards 2017 for Travel App of the Year (emerging).
GMP provides an interoperable, plug-n-play platform to parking operators and smart cities. This enables any type of parking to be digitized and connect to consumer mobility, offering seamless parking experience across all touch points.

Talking about the acquisition, Chirag Jain, CEO GMP, said, “We value the immense experience that the Constapark team brings to the table, especially now that we are expanding our footprint both domestically and globally.” Co-founder Rasik Pansare added, “For any organization, including ours, the team forms the core foundation. As such, we are enthusiastic about this deal as the Constapark team has a proven passion and execution expertise around solving parking.”

Get My Parking now has 2 projects outside India and is hiring across technology and business profiles for international growth. This global outlook in strategy came after they won the Tech Rocketships Award by British government at the UK-India Tech Summit and were taken to UK for exploring opportunities. They plan to be in 16 countries by next financial year.

Constapark was founded by Chetan Chauhan and Mehul Pangtey in the year 2015, with a vision of creating digital parking ecosystem. Constapark manages 30,000 parking spots on its platform and parks 4000 vehicles on daily basis across Bangalore. In year 2015, CNN IBN & Ericson chose it as Top 5 startup. It implemented on street parking management for Electronic city, Bangalore, and subscription and ticketless parking for BMRCL (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited).

Talking about the move, Chetan Chauhan said, “We started Constapark, with a desire to solve the parking problem and Get My Parking shares like-minded mission to create sustainable parking ecosystem.” Mehul Pangtey added, “Both the teams are aligned on common objective and we are glad to consolidate our efforts to achieve the same.”

Globally, the smart parking space is seeing a spree of consolidation. In recent months, BMW has acquired American startup Parkmobile, Dish Network has acquired ParkiFi, and Volvo has acquired valet parking startup Luxe. This is not surprising, considering that the global parking market is worth over $100 Billion as per Frost and Sullivan. Unorganized parking affects citywide mobility, congestion, pollution, and government revenues. This long ignored problem will finally get innovative solutions now that startups like Get My Parking are aggressively making a move.

RaaS Champions the Case for Relationship as a Service Held Recently in Bangalore

Talocity RaaS Talks, is a CXO’s round table, that focusses on conversations around RaaS: Relationship as a Service where-in Human focusses on relationships & machine manages the rest. The Talks bring together some forward looking discussions around future technology trends, disruption in industry’s best practices in the areas of Talent Hiring and Talent Management & successful case studies of implementation across growth companies. The latest edition of the RaaS Talks took place in Bangalore, Hotel Shangri-La and was graced by some of the top CEOs, CHROs, TA Heads and CTOs; who engaged and brought out ways to drive change and adopt new TECH within hiring & talent management.

Currently, Talocity RaaS Talks happens over breakfast across major cities in India. This is a focused group meet-up (invitation only) of CHROs, TA Heads & CTOs to discuss the current and future technology trends, disruptions and industry best practices sharing, in the space of Talent Hiring and Talent Management. We also envisage partnering with many research studies and presenting expert views going forward.

Invigorating CXO roundtable on TECH adoption in Talent hiring & management touched more points that include:
a)        The problem is that the core is not defined. The people strategy is not in place & HR is searching for which TECH to use
b)       Driverless HR function for transactions will be a reality, anything transactional will be automated by 2025
c)        Companies that take the leap forward on HR TECH will move ahead. Its all going to change in 5 years
d)       TECH is not a band-aid. We need the strategy first and that has to come from HR
e)       Patience of the HR TECH sponsor is key to change management. Patience will come with defining success parameters
f)         It’s a candidates market. Do what it takes to reach a candidate. Video interviews makes it easy
g)        The recruiter is a millennial, the candidate is a millennial but the hiring manager is not. So who has to change is clear
h)       Mr CEO if your HR is not working its your problem & it’s your mistake

Post the Talks, Ketan Dewan, founder and CEO, Talocity said, In the digital & connected world, the power of relationships is the key & the core to all our people related strategies and agendas. I know him very well | He did so much for me that I am... | I am indebted to her for the support…| He got me my first job & many more thoughts that we all experience in our lives around people and relationships. Isn’t it !. While we all have access to each other and our employees & prospective employees; yet there is a need for connect beyond an electronic connect.  And no machine can provide that connect. It can at best provide the access. Having said that, we spend so much of time evaluating the access points that we are left with no time to create the connect. The time for human love for transactional work has to go away. If humans manage relationships then machines can do the rest.

Thus the people strategy and agenda comes to the core yet again at the Talocity RaaS Talks that was conducted with a full house of CHROs, Talent Leaders and a distinguished CEO who graced the Talks. Dhiren Kanwar, President & MD of Griffith Foods; who is a top CEO and TEDx speaker started the Talks with the thought,’ HR TECH is too less & too late.’

The What we need to do has to be very clear- our people strategy and what we want to achieve as an outcome of it, in the near term and the mid-term, is core to Talent management & recruitment. The How can be solved using TECH & there are some very interesting niche technologies providing point solutions available in the market.  The Talks revolved around the change management around The What & The How and the leaders who graced the occasion include: Raj Narayan: CHRO, Titan Industries Limited; Karthik SM: Director Talent Acquisition, IQVIA; Balachandar N: Group Director- HR, Coffee Day Group; Sudhir Mattoo: Director- Talent, IBM; Sumathi Sampath, Head Talent, Infosys BPO, Amreeta Mazumdar: Head of India Tech Staffing, Google; Paneesh Rao: CHRO L&T Technology Services Limited; Somnath Bhagavatula: HR Director- Atkins; Hirendra Badhiye: VP- HR, Northern Trust; Uday Shetty: Head HR, Stanley Lifestyles; Rajnesh Khosla: Head HR, LG, Om Sahay: Associate Director- HR, Neilsen; Ashok G: Chief Working Officer, Nexleap; Prithvi Shergill: Founder, Tomorrow; Srinivas Yelandur, Venture Advisor and many more friends from HR & media.

On one side the business is burning & on the other side good TECH in Recruitment & Talent management is waiting to be deployed; but still companies take a long time to decide. Lets wish good morning to RaaS. Talocity had representation from its core team members including: Debi Prasad Das: Growth Founder & Chief Mentor & Ketan Dewan, Co-founder & CEO.

Standard Chartered Bank Launches Retail Digital Banking Initiatives with Anushka Sharma as Brand Ambassador

Standard Chartered Bank has announced the launch of its retail digital banking initiatives which will empower customers to avail of a seamless digital experience across various banking services - from opening accounts real time to interacting digitally with relationship managers (RMs). The Bank today launched the instant digital account opening capability which enables customers to instantly open a savings account using their AADHAR details through online or mobile interfaces.

Launching a suite of digital banking capabilities, the Bank announced that customers can now also make investments in mutual funds and initiate payments through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Bharat QR. Additionally, customers can chat online for their service requests and Priority and Premium Banking clients can seek advice or resolutions much quicker through video conferencing with RMs.

The banking landscape is changing rapidly with digital platforms becoming a dominant form of interaction between banks and their clients. Consumers, particularly millennials, expect banking services to be faster and seamless on the back of smart digital interfaces. The launch will help the Bank take its rich product-suite to the young and emerging affluent customers, even as it reinforces its strong position with the affluent audience.

To create a strong connect with this ever increasing young working audience, the Bank is bringing on board actor Anushka Sharma as its brand ambassador. Anushka, as one of India’s top actors and youth icon, personifies the affluent youth and their upwardly mobile aspirations while representing the values and ethos of the Bank.

Speaking on the occasion, Zarin Daruwala, CEO, India, Standard Chartered Bank, said, “Recognising the rapid adoption of technology in a young and aspirational India, we had embarked on a journey of Retail transformation, with the clear intent to use technology with a human touch, transforming the entire client experience; making it digitally capable and seamless, but keeping customer centricity at the core of all we do.

Today is an important milestone of this journey. We are launching a suite of digitally powered banking services across account opening, UPI transactions and virtual RMs and are delighted to partner with youth icon, Anushka Sharma on this. The freshness, positivity and ambition she reflects is a great match with our digital initiatives and our ambition to be the preferred digital bank for the youth,” Zarin Daruwala added.

Anushka Sharma said, “I am glad to partner with Standard Chartered - a Bank which combines great vintage of 160 years in India and the drive to stay contemporary and cutting-edge. I was impressed with the spirit of continuous digital innovation at Standard Chartered coexisting alongside great trust and solidity. As an artist, I strive to challenge myself through my choice of roles and the films I produce through my production house Clean Slate Films. The subtext of never settling in this campaign was the reason I identified with and became the brand ambassador for their products and services.”

Keys Hotels Spices Up its Food Menu this Cricket IPL Season

Keys Hotels, part of the $2 billion Los Angeles-based Berggruen Group, has introduced an inimitable cricket-driven menu inspired by the on-going cricket season. So for those ardent fans who cannot make it to the stadium; Keys Hotels have got you covered.

This unique menu comprises fun food items such as Cheesy Over, Clean Bowled Mushrooms, Full Toss Bruschetta, Chicken Timeout, Royal Gosht ki Shami, Spice Riders Chicken, “MAHI” Tikka Matwala, Kings Basket (Assorted Fries), Challengers Potato Chilli, and many more mouthwatering selections to choose from. Enticing deals such as Hattrick (3 draught beers for Rs.550), Super Six Beer Bucket for Rs.800, Short Pitch for Rs.399 (3 shots of Kamikaze or Mojito) Five Wicket Haul for Rs.966 (5 pints and a starter) and a lot more will be available across Keys Hotels in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ludhiana, Pune (Pimpri), Mahabaleshwar, Port Blair and Goa.

Sharing the enthusiasm, Corporate Chef Manish Kusumwal said, “Cricket is an unrivalled religion in India with the widest number of adherents. Therefore we have thoughtfully designed the menu to keep the spirit of game and fun quotient high. Our guests will have a great time enjoying the delicious food and sporty atmosphere at their favorite Keys Café.”

Acer Wins 13 Red Dot Design Awards 2018 at Prestigious Red Dot Design Awards for Design Excellence

Acer has announces that thirteen of its products have been honored with the prestigious Red Dot Design Awards for design excellence. These wins come on the heels of Acer’s twelve wins at the recent iF Design Award 2018. This year, with industry-leading innovations such as the Swift 7, the world’s thinnest notebook[1], and the Acer Chromebook Tab 10, the first Chrome OS tablet for education, the Red Dot award-winning Acer products cover a broad range of categories, ranging from notebooks, desktops, headsets, monitors, to projectors. This exemplifies Acer’s commitment to making outstanding design an integral consideration for the user experience, regardless of product type and price point.

“We are thrilled that thirteen of Acer’s products have been endowed with such a prestigious honor, and equally excited that so many of our product categories are represented among the winners” said Tiffany Huang, President of Corporate Marketing, Business Planning, and Operations at Acer. “Not only are we motivated by our mission to make technology accessible to as many people as possible, but also to provide exceptional experiences via user-centric designs and functionalities on all classes of devices.”

Acer’s Red Dot Design Award 2018 winners are as follows:
Predator Triton 700 Gaming Notebook
The iF Design Award 2018-winning notebook’s svelte 18.9 mm (0.74 inch) thin, 2.45 kg (5.4 pound) aluminum chassis houses a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display and best-in-class computing technologies for just the right balance of size and performance without sacrificing thermals, features or rigidity. Its understated black chassis features a minimalist design, with straight contours and angular front corners.

Predator Galea 500 Gaming Headset
The Predator Galea 500 gaming headset puts gamers right inside the game, giving them the ability to hear and not just see the exact location of elements within the game. It achieves this with Acer’s TrueHarmony 3D Soundscape technology, and recreates the acoustic space based on the orientation of the player’s head, convincing the brain that sound is coming from a fixed direction.

Acer Swift 5 Notebook
The Swift 5 is designed for users who want superb portability, solid performance, and a touch of style. The elegant chassis weighs just 970 g making it ideal for people always on the go. A sophisticated selection of materials include ultra-light magnesium-lithium alloys for the top and bottom covers, and magnesium-aluminum alloys for extra sturdiness on the palm rest area.

Acer Spin 5 Convertible Notebook
The Acer Spin 5 features a major breakthrough in design, namely its speakers. In the past, speakers found on convertible notebooks were easily obstructed while in certain usage modes. Acer overcame this with a practical design that ensures the speakers are never obstructed in any of the device’s four modes to ensure uncompromised audio.

Acer Swift 7 Notebook
At just 8.98 mm thin the Acer Swift 7 is the world’s thinnest laptop. The premium aluminum unibody is pleasing to the eye and gentle to touch, perfect for modern professionals seeking a sophisticated looking device. It has built-in, blazing-fast 4G LTE connectivity which keeps users productive and always-connected, especially useful for professionals who wish to eliminate tedious wireless connection problems on the road so they can stay focused on the task at hand.

Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Notebook
Built for the casual gamer, the Acer Nitro 5 features a striking design that lets them stand out from the crowd. It sports a mysterious black carbon fiber laser-engraved pattern combined with a menacing red hinge that evokes the spirit of gaming, while also offering outstanding rigidity.

Acer Chromebox CXI3
With solid performance powered by up to 8th Gen Intel® Core processors, the Acer Chromebox CXI3 is a great choice for desktop scenarios in computer labs and libraries. The Acer Chromebox CXI3 features a compact design that fits neatly into all sorts of environments, and can be placed freestanding with the included stand, or secured to the back of the monitor with an optional VESA mounting kit.

Acer Chromebook Tab 10
Designed for education, the Acer Chromebook Tab 10 will be used in K-12 classrooms to expand and enhance student learning by bringing the speed, simplicity and security of Chrome OS into the tablet form factor. It will support augmented reality in the future to allow students to experience new ways of learning with Expeditions AR. Expeditions AR is Google’s augmented reality technology that maps the classroom and places 3D objects in it for students to study, making subjects such as biology, geography and astronomy easier to comprehend.

Acer Veriton N Series Desktop
The newest generation of Acer Veriton N modular desktops feature a space-saving, customizable mini PC designed that allows the addition of 1 liter module add-ons for M.2 SSDs, ODDs, HDDs, I/O ports, card readers and graphic cards for easy tool-less expansion and upgradability.

Acer Nitro RG0 Series Gaming Monitor
The Acer RG0 series gaming monitor is small in form, but big on gaming. The Full HD monitor features an incredibly slim 7 mm profile and is designed to enhance the gaming experience with a ZeroFrame design that maximizes its viewable screen area, Radeon Freesync technology, vivid IPS panel and 1 ms MPRT.

Acer Nitro VG0 Series Gaming Monitor
The Acer VG0 series gaming monitor is an entry gaming monitor that offers a true-to-life color experience. It is able to do this with Radeon FreeSync and IPS technologies, while its ZeroFrame design further enhances the gaming experience by maximizing the viewable screen area. The display sits atop of a sharply-cut three-pronged stand that exudes gaming.

Acer VL7860 Projector
The Acer VL7860 projector raises the bar for home cinema entertainment with laser image quality. It is equipped with an innovative laser diode that provides 3,000 lumens brightness and 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160) resolution with 8.3-megapixel on-screen display. The VL7860 features a compact design that allows it be easily set up in a wide range of environments.

Acer C200 Projector
The C200 LED projector features an amazingly compact (110 x 120 x 30 mm) and lightweight (350 g) form factor that makes it ideal for use outdoors, such as during camping or a day at the beach. With its built-in battery, the C200 can go just about anywhere. The C200 is also a handy tool for work on the go, especially when an impromptu presentation is required.

CleverTap’s Advanced Mobile Marketing Platform is All Set to Empower Growth Marketers at Seamless Asia, 2018

CleverTap, the advanced mobile marketing solutions provider, today announced that they will be participating at the Seamless Asia, 2018 event in Singapore. To be held at the Suntec Convention Centre on May 3-4, 2018, Seamless Asia promises to bring together the biggest names in the retail, e-commerce, and digital payments space from across the region - under one roof. Over 6,000 attendees, 150 exhibitors, and 200 speakers are slated to attend the event, as the future of a tech-driven and mobile-first Asia takes shape.

CleverTap will showcase the dynamic capabilities of its data-driven mobile marketing solution suite that empowers marketers to intelligently identify, segment, engage, monetize, and retain users across the entire app user lifecycle. In an extremely competitive ecommerce Southeast Asian market that continues to grow rapidly on the back increasing smartphone penetration, falling data charges, and rising popularity of online payments, building loyal segments of repeat users across both web and app is extremely challenging.

Highlighting the pressing need and underlying significance of an advanced mobile marketing approach relevant to the ecommerce industry, Anand Jain, Co-founder of CleverTap will also be speaking at the event on May 3 at 10.30AM SGT.

“We are excited to be a part of Seamless Asia, 2018. Our dynamic platform can enable web and app businesses to address diverse use cases that help them eventually drive greater user engagement and retention”, said Anand. He further elaborated, “Southeast Asia is an extremely promising market. We believe that our cutting-edge marketing automation solutions will empower marketers to not just drive top-line revenues, but also contribute towards the socio-economic growth in the region. We look forward to interacting with some of the brightest minds in the business and share our own insights at Seamless Asia, 2018.”

Today, marketers need to embrace the power of AI/ML-driven omnichannel marketing that accounts for user-level behavioral, geographic, and smart device-specific information. This lays the foundation for delivering hyper-personalized, contextual, and timely interactions across channels such as push notifications, in-app messages, email, and/or SMS. Delivering differentiated and satisfactory user experiences at scale help brands create long-term customer relationships.

CleverTap has offices in San Francisco, Mumbai, New York, Los Angeles, London, and Bangalore.

Bookings Open for Toyota Yaris Launch in May; Focus on Safety, First in Segment to Offer 7 SRS Airbags Across all Variants

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has announced the opening of pre-launch bookings for the highly anticipated Toyota Yaris. Designed to be as Advanced as it is Prestigious, the world-class sedan has garnered much appreciation ever since it’s unveiling at Auto Expo 2018. 

Customers can make their bookings at any of the authorized Toyota dealerships across the country with deliveries beginning from May 2018.  The Toyota Yaris comes at an Introductory price in the range of  ₹ 8,75,000 to  ₹14,07,000.

Toyota has decided to keep the prices same across the nation.

Marking Toyota’s entry into the mid-size sedan segment; Toyota Yaris promises to deliver the true Toyota experience with its unique presence and advanced functions for the discerning Indian customers. Toyota Yaris built on the Toyota philosophy of QDR (quality, durability & reliability) offering is loaded with a wide range of best in class features:

Safety:
·         7 SRS airbags (SRS D+P airbags, SRS side airbags, SRS Curtain Shield Airbags (CSA) and SRS knee airbag)
·         Anti-Lock Braking System(ABS) with Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD)
·         Tyre-Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)
·         Vehicle Stability Control
·         Front & Rear Parking Sensors
·         All 4-wheel Disc Brakes
Comfort:
·         High Solar Energy Absorbing (HSEA), IR cut, Acoustic & Vibration Control Glass for Windshield & Doors for quieter cabin
·         Power Driver Seat
·         Roof mounted air vents with ambient illumination for rear passengers
·         Adjustable Rear Centre Headrest
·         60:40 Split Rear Seats
·         Smart Entry with Push Start
·         Hand /Air Gesture controlled Infotainment system with Touch Screen Navigation
·         Paddle Shift for CVT + Cruise Control
Design:
·         LED Line Guide in Headlamp & Tail Lamps
·         Piano Black Interiors
·         Waterfall design Instrumental Panel

Speaking to the customers on this announcement, N Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “Toyota Yaris has already won nationwide appreciation for its class-leading features, superior comfort, top-notch quality and excellent performance. We thank our customers for such a heartening and exciting welcome for Toyota’s debut in the B-High sedan segment in India. As a sedan with great individuality and intuitive functions for people who constantly seek for something better, we aim to offer quality that exceeds its class.  We hope customers well accept the world class sedan Toyota Yaris for the value propositions it has to offer in the segment. Toyota Yaris will be on display across all Toyota dealerships in India and customers may book for the test drive immediately.”

The Yaris, which underpins Toyota’s presence in the Indian car market, will be offered in a 1.5L Dual VVTi Gasoline Engine with a 7 speed CVT (Continuous Variable Transmission) or 6 speed MT (Manual Transmission) options. Catering to the emerging need for automatics in the segment, the CVT option will be made available across all trims.

Prices will be same across the country at ex-showroom level, however the final on road price may vary based on local road tax and levies. Booking amount will be Rs 50,000.

Artificial Intelligence Promises EUR 60 bn in Incremental Value for German Industry

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in manufacturing could create EUR 60 bn in additional value for German industry. That is the conclusion of the study “The Ghost in the Machine: Artificial Intelligence in the Factory of the Future”, for which the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) surveyed manufacturing and technology managers from about 1100 industrial companies worldwide about their applications of and willingness to invest in AI. Almost 90 percent of executives say they aim to integrate AI in their processes in the next three years. Nonetheless, so far only 28 percent have created a clear strategy for AI in manufacturing. In Germany only 23 percent, or one in four German industrial companies, have developed an AI strategy. 

“When it comes to AI, Germany only ranks around the middle of the pack internationally and is in danger of falling further behind. If German industrial companies want to maintain their leading international position, they must greatly increase the scale and speed of their commitment to new technologies and intelligent automation”, says Markus Lorenz, partner and head in machinery and automation at BCG.

While Germany is still planning, China is already optimizing
As the study shows, companies that already use AI in manufacturing, employ more agile working methods: they test prototypes at an earlier stage and are quicker to readjust their work processes.
The proportion of pioneers is highest in the USA (25 percent), China (23 percent) and India (19 percent). In Germany only about 15 percent of companies currently use AI to any significant extent in manufacturing.

“While most German executives are still wrestling with the basic question of whether and how to apply AI, businesses in China and India are already optimizing their smart factories”, observes the study's author Daniel Küpper, a BCG partner and global head of the firm’s Innovation Center for Operations (ICO). “Emerging market players show more courage when it comes to AI and they keep identifying opportunities to apply the new technologies and improve them on an ongoing basis.”

Ranking of the leading countries in terms of AI implementation
1.  USA 25;
2 China 23;
3. India 19;
4 Canada 17;
5 Poland 16;

AI as a lever to increase productivity
The global sector comparison shows that the automotive and technology industries are at the forefront in applying artificial intelligence. One company in five has already integrated AI in their business in those sectors. At the other end of the scale are the pharmaceutical, medical technology, machine construction and process industry sectors. There, only about one in seven companies uses intelligent manufacturing systems.

“German machine construction in particular stands to gain a lot from artificial intelligence. It enables companies to harness the enormous amounts of data generated by manufacturing machines. This lays the foundation for new business models, making use of predictive maintenance and optimized operations”, says Markus Lorenz, partner and global head of consulting in machinery and automation at BCG.

Almost 70 percent of executives surveyed admit that their company lacks the AI skills to speed up the introduction of new technologies. That applies particularly to data management, analytics and programming. “Companies can no longer advance purely on the basis of their engineering knowledge. Employees have to know how to use AI”, says BCG partner Küpper. All the more reason for industrial companies to upgrade their employees’ skills in the basics of AI in manufacturing systems. “The opportunity for companies now lies in training their employees and attracting AI experts, for example in the field of Deep Learning“, says the study's author Küpper. “You need both to successfully integrate AI in your company: experts who know artificial intelligence and experienced staff who can identify beneficial avenues for its application.”

Atos and Google Cloud Form Global Partnership to Deliver Secure Hybrid Cloud, Machine Learning and Collaboration Solutions to the Enterprise

Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, has entered into a global agreement with Google Cloud to address the digital transformation needs of enterprise customers. This agreement will see the creation of secure solutions in areas including hybrid Cloud, data analytics & machine learning and the digital workplace.

Going beyond the traditional IT landscape, today’s data-centric digital transformation generates an ever-increasing need for data lakes, data management, analytics and cognitive technologies. Machine Learning (ML) is key to discovering and leveraging new business and marketing opportunities, but also demands secure solutions to protect data against cyber risks and ensure compliance.

Addressing this fast-growing demand, Atos is working with Google Cloud to provide businesses worldwide with secure cutting-edge solutions.

Secured Hybrid Cloud. Atos will develop and expand its Canopy Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud with Google Cloud Platform as Atos’ preferred public Cloud platform, leveraging its scale, security, reliability and availability while ensuring data localization. In addition, Atos will also take advantage of specific technology, such as container orchestration with Google Kubernetes Engine, to drive hybrid Cloud adoption in global enterprise organizations. The expanded Atos solution will also complement Google Cloud’s advanced and comprehensive set of security features with a multilayered defense approach delivering enhanced security to customers. The Atos platform will support clients in meeting access and control requirements that European and global regulations demand.

Data Analytics & Machine Learning. Atos will develop a machine learning practice that will leverage Google Cloud’s ML APIs to create industry specific solutions across multiple verticals. 

Digital Workplace. Atos will develop a G Suite practice to further enrich its market leading Digital Workplace offering for enterprise customers. As a Cloud-native intelligent productivity and collaboration suite, G Suite is completely interoperable with other collaboration tools, and will enable Atos to further transform and automate the digital workplace and enhance user experience and productivity.

Thanks to these solutions, Atos will offer enterprises a fast and frictionless way to use Google Cloud technologies alongside their existing assets and processes, while at the same time leveraging data to create new insights and value for their own customers.

Three R&D Centers and Innovation Labs in France, UK and the US to help customers solve business challenges and innovate

To accelerate product availability for customers, Atos will establish three ML/AI customer innovation labs and R&D centers in France, UK and the US. Atos will leverage training from machine learning experts in Google Cloud’s Advanced Solutions Labs to bring the latest advancements in ML to their customers.

“I’m extremely pleased to announce today this first global partnership with Google Cloud, one of the world’s leaders in Artificial Intelligence. Together, we will enable fast and smooth adoption of AI for enterprises,” said Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO of Atos. “By combining Atos integration capabilities and technology expertise with Google Cloud technology, we enable organizations to thrive in the most innovative and trusted environment, in compliance with global regulations. With this partnership, Atos becomes the “last mile” of the digital information chain.”

“We are excited to collaborate with Atos to bring Google Cloud to more companies,” said Diane Greene, CEO of Google Cloud. “Together with Atos we will allow companies to transform and improve their business by enabling access to the most advanced Cloud infrastructure, cutting-edge machine learning capabilities and intelligent collaboration tools.”

Starting today, Google Cloud will be Atos’ preferred public Cloud partner. The first phase of the global partnership will concentrate on working with Atos global customers. In parallel, Atos will open new innovation centers for future business transformation projects with its customers.

KNOLSKAPE Expands its Global Consulting Team Globally

KNOLSKAPE, a leading provider of talent transformation solutions for the modern workplace, is proud to announce another milestone for the company. Committed to service the growing learning needs of the world’s largest corporates, KNOLSKAPE announces the expansion of their solutions consulting team across their offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai.

The expanded team includes five key hires, who come with diverse corporate experience, and have worked with some of the largest corporations in various industries, across the globe. Collectively, the team comes with experience in human resource management and consulting, strategic HR and Leadership, capability development, succession planning, organizational culture and climate, workplace assessment, facilitation, psychometric testing and assessment, statistical modelling, and program evaluation.

This team’s growth is well matched with KNOLSKAPE ‘exponential global expansion planned in the year 2018-2019. Investing resources in expanding the global solutions consulting team will allow KNOLSKAPE to better anticipate learning needs of organizations across the globe and deliver learning solutions to support just-in-time, accelerated results for capability development, preparing global workforces for the Digital Age.

“KNOLSKAPE has always believed in personalized and accelerated learning, and customer needs are growing; to ensure that we continue to provide the same experience for all our customers as we focus on exponential business growth at a global level, having the right team is important. I am very excited about ournew regime, because they possess a diverse mix of capabilities, and are already adding tremendous value to our clients,” states Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder and CEO at KNOLSKAPE.

Transformative Productivity Efficiency of Over 30 % via Robotic Process Automation is Intelenet's Focus at UAE's MECC 2018

Intelenet Global Services, a renowned global Business Process Services player - backed by Blackstone, today announced that it will be showcasing its BPM-based client centricity value proposition during the Middle East Contact Centre and Customer Experience Conference (MECC) to be held at Dubai from April 24-25, 2018. The company will highlight in particular how its Phantom Robotic Process Automation (PRPA) promises to enable disruptive productivity efficiencies thereby allowing companies to upscale their financial performance quotient. 

Intelenet's Phantom Robotics Automation solution (PRPA)is designed to efficiently expedite complex manual processes which are otherwise plagued by human errors. This state of the art virtual workforce has already been successfully deployed for over 40 pc of its client processes.

Intelenet's PRPA capability covers various back-office functions entire employee lifecycle, which offers our clients access to virtual workforce by automating manual processes, and supporting live agents with intelligent data/reports for decision making. This solution prides itself over the 'one-click' approach with results in as high as 80% straight through processing thereby reducing staff requirement to process transactions.

Another deployment from a workflow optimisation perspective involved accelerating user workflows by Data Masking Field Validations Compliance Logic that resulted in significant reduction of TAT by eliminating verifications process through custom algorithm deployment.

"The possibilities arising out of the convergence of physical with digital are limited only by imagination. In a business environment where unpredictable challenges emerge at a frequency that is undesired, new age solutions such as PRPA offer a tremendous avenue to gain lead start in the transformation pursuit," said Piety Gonsalves Managing Director- Middle East, Intelenet Global Services. 

Intelenet Global Services is a flag bearer of the Government Emiratization Programme has a 3000 strong workforce presence in Middle East. It has a strategic centre of excellence for Customer Management Services for government and multinational clients. 

For more information about the MECC / CX Conference 2018 was held from April 24-25, 2018 in Dubai, UAE

Accelerating Digital Transformation through Automating IT Managed Services

By Nilesh Gupta, Vice President & Global Head – Digital Infrastructure Management Solutions & Strategy (IMS)

The evolution of digital technologies such as Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) is having a significant impact on IT within enterprises. By 2020, a staggering 20+ billion connected devices will be in place, which would be about three times the size of the current world’s population, enabling us to crave for a perfect synchronization with just about everything around us. You will need to decide if you are one of the early adopters of technologies that will drive your business just ahead of your competition, working with the newest and most advanced solutions and leaving your competition to play the catchup game.

Transformation today begins with digital Infrastructure and data is the key theme within the orchestration layers of digital infrastructure. Enterprises have been accumulating data and literally have not even come close to exercising the real worth of it. Empowering business with actionable information can fundamentally change the way business can operate and transform. Here is where automating managed services operations will accelerate digital transformation journey within an enterprise.

So what are the areas one can possibly apply intelligent automation within the IT operations framework? Let’s look into the top three areas where automation is already underway.
Automating Service Desk Operations: We need to relook at how enterprises engage service desk for end-user support. With digital transformation accelerating at very high speed, information technologies are changing rapidly in the way businesses are getting done today. With rapidly changing technologies there are high turnover of services desk engineers that leads to lack of knowledge and experience. This leads to high risks and low quality of services. Besides providing a 24x7 support takes a toll with the costs going north. Enterprises can look into building AI / RPA into their service desk support operations. In fact, with roughly 30-40% of Level 0/1 services desk support cases being repetitive, you can leverage the power of Natural Language Interpretation (NLI) and cognitive automation in the form of AI bots. AI powered RPA and cognitive automation are quickly becoming the main driving force for digital transformation today. Traditional service desk and being transformed to Digital Service Desk providing end users the flexibility to talk to someone anytime from anywhere with 50-70% reduction of costs to handle each incident.

Automating IT Operations Management: Modern enterprises that are adopting Hybrid-IT will need a solution that will allow them to discover everything they have in real-time. Auto-discovery of IT assets and complete visibility of all your IT resources, no matter where they are will also require automation in management of incidents. Automation in streamlining the process of creating and managing incidents, as well as notifying the right teams with correlation between the resources in real-time basis, it becomes even more important on how you handle the false positives from here on. Escalation and alert on critical events to ensure rapid problem resolution and consistent service performance will lead to meaningful insights to providing the actionable information to the CIO organization to better manage the business of IT today.

Integration of RPA/AI in IT Operations Management: The network operations center or the digital command center (as I would like to put it in today’s scenario) is the focal point for a 24x7 IT Infrastructure /Application and Data Monitoring and Management. With everything-as-a-service, connectivity becomes the principle driver for any digital journey. Ensuring health of these connected devices to ensure 24x7 availability is the key element for a greater customer experience (CX).

Enterprise will need to plan to bring in RPA that will perform health check (including security checks) of systems and applications and take corrective remedial actions to ensure the environment performs giving the experience that is needed. Automation on service requests post work-flow approvals coming out of IT service management needs to be automated.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the important step in the evolution of new business models since it significantly reduces the need for IT service agents to perform routine, rule based, high volume activities, enabling them to instead focus on more innovative ideas.

 Thinkers, enthusiasts, market researchers and many others place 2020 and 2025 as an important milestone in the coming years. Is this because of ‘conversational’ banking, ‘self-driving’ vehicles, and ‘drones’ to deliver packages?  You are talking to ‘robo-advisors’ on market trends and investments, ‘cognitive’ coach on your phone designing your next day diet based on your previous days workouts and the list keeps adding up. To make all this a reality, enterprises that develop or adopt such innovation must have their IT Services automated to handle the kind of demand in implementing Hybrid IT in their journey of digital transformation.

2nd Generation AMD Ryzen Desktop Processors Deliver Best-in-Class Compute Performance and Even Faster Gaming

AMD has announced the global availability of its 2nd Generation Ryzen Desktop processors, starting with four models optimized for gamers, creators, and hardware enthusiasts: Ryzen 7 2700X, Ryzen 7 2700, Ryzen 5 2600X, and Ryzen 5 2600 processors. Using the world’s first 12nm process technology, these 2nd Gen Ryzen processors can offer up to 15% higher gaming performance2,3 than 1st Gen Ryzen processors, while delivering the highest multiprocessing performance you can get on a mainstream desktop PC[iv], and enhanced capabilities including Precision Boost 2 and Extended Frequency Range 2 (XFR 2), an included Wraith Cooler, unlocked performance accessed with the new Ryzen Master Utility[v], and more.

“Last year we started changing the PC industry with the introduction of our first wave of Ryzen processors – delivering more performance, features, and choice to our customers than before. Our 2nd Gen Ryzen CPUs continue this pursuit by raising the standards for enthusiast gamers and creators,” said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Computing and Graphics Business Group, AMD. “With this launch we’re also demonstrating that we are just getting started, that we are committed to delivering a multi-generational roadmap of leadership high-performance processors that will drive innovation and competition into the industry for years to come.”

Building on the original award-winning 2017 “Zen” architecture, the 2nd Gen Ryzen processors combine the improved “Zen+” core with other major performance, feature, and platform advancements.

Performance Advances
The new “Zen+” core increases IPC[vi] and reduces both cache and memory latencies[vii] compared to 1st Gen Ryzen processors. AMD’s SenseMI[viii] technology is updated with Precision Boost 2, which enables 2nd Gen Ryzen processors to intelligently analyze the workload and computing environment and contributes in delivering the highest multiprocessing performance in their classes1.

Higher effective clock speeds on all 2nd Gen Ryzen processor cores can improve the performance of Ryzen processors in popular real-world applications like games, creativity and productivity applications2,3,4,5. Gaming experiences are beautifully smooth across popular resolutions from 1080p Ultra to 1440p High to 4K. And, select 2nd Gen Ryzen processors offer up to 20 percent faster content creation than the competition[ix], [x].

With XFR 2 technology on all AM4 platforms with 2nd Gen Ryzen processors, enthusiast PC builders will enjoy even higher performance[xi] in the presence of premium cooling[xii],[xiii]

Feature Advances
Designed with enthusiasts and high performance in mind, 2nd Gen Ryzen processors feature soldered integrated heatspreaders for superlative thermal transfer[xiv], and unlocked multipliers for simple, powerful overclocking5 control. Performance tuning, enabled by the new Ryzen Master 1.3 software, is easier than ever before, and now offers per-core overclocking5 with automatic identification of the potentially fastest cores.

For the first time, the entire line of 2nd Gen Ryzen processors include a world class AMD Wraith Cooler inside the retail box. The flagship AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU includes the new Wraith Prism cooler featuring premium thermal performance, an upgraded fan profile, and enhanced lighting capabilities with per-RGB controls.

Platform Advances
Optimized for the 2nd Gen Ryzen processors, new AMD X470 chipset is available on Socket AM4 motherboards now. In addition to enhanced memory compatibility and overclocking5 capability, these new motherboards come with a free download of the new AMD StoreMI technology software, which combines the speed of an SSD and the capacity of a traditional spinning hard disk into a single easy-to-manage drive for faster, smarter, and easier storage[xv].

Compatible with all current AM4 processors, the new X470 motherboards augment the existing 300-series motherboards, which are also compatible with the new 2nd Gen Ryzen processors with a firmware (BIOS) update. Many in-market motherboards already come with the updated BIOS, indicated by a “Ryzen Desktop 2000 Ready” label on the package.

NPCI Wins Golden Peacock Award for BHIM UPI in UAE

 

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been awarded the prestigious Golden Peacock Innovative Product/Service Award for the year 2018 for its revolutionary product Bharat Interface for Money – Unified Payments Interface (BHIM UPI).

The award was conferred at the presentation ceremony in Dubai last week by His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Cabinet Member & Minister of Tolerance, Govt. of UAE.

Vishal Anand Kanvaty, Senior Vice President – Innovation & Product, NPCI said, “We are pleased to note that BHIM UPI is gaining wide acceptance from consumers and merchants since its launch in August 2016. We dedicate this award to the commitment and zeal of our member banks and non-bank entities who leveraged this innovative technology for benefit of our economy. This award also assures us that NPCI is heading in the right direction to achieve our vision of being the best payments network globally.”

Manoj K. Raut, CEO & Director, Institute Of Directors (IOD) said, “BHIM UPI has brought out the next level of inter-operability in the retail payment system wherein a consumer can download any of the BHIM UPI mobile app – not necessary his/her own bank application – and still link their existing bank account. Launched with mobile app as the access mechanism, BHIM UPI has also successfully expanded to cater to the needs of users who either do not have smart phones or have smart phones without internet.”

Golden Peacock Awards, instituted by the Institute Of Directors (IOD), India in 1991, are regarded as a benchmark of Corporate Excellence worldwide. The Awards Jury that selected the winners was chaired by Justice (Dr.) Arijit Pasayat, former Judge, Supreme Court of India.