Toyota Kirloskar Motor Localizes 'Yaris' with 11 Smart Technology Features to Suite Indian Roads

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has launched its versatile sedan –Yaris in India fueling excitement across country. The sedan from world's leading automobile manufacturer, after rolling out Yaris in six countries globally have now localized the new model with extra safety, performance, comfort and also technology features specially suited for the rugged Indian roads. 

As one of the most anticipated cars of the year, Yaris boasts of advanced and emotional design, superior comfort, shining ride quality and quietness, dynamic efficiency and class-leading safety and technology. Customers can make their bookings at any of the authorized Toyota dealerships across the country with deliveries beginning from today. Toyota expects to deliver around 1000 plus Yaris to customers on first day of the delivery.

Based on the 'one nation one selling price' strategy*, Yaris is now available across all dealerships (All India) at the same price at an attractive range of ₹ 8, 75,000/- to ₹ 14, 07,000/. *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. Unveiled earlier this year at the India Auto Expo 2018, the new sedan comes in four grades and mated to a 7 speed CVT (Continuous Variable Transmission) or 6 speed MT (Manual Transmission) engine, offering effortless and dynamic driving.

Built on the Toyota philosophy of QDR, Yaris offers 11 first-in-segment features such as the Power Driver Seat, 7 SRS Airbags, Roof Mounted Air Vents, Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, Front Parking Sensors, CVT across all grades and more.

Speaking on the occasion, Akito Tachibana, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said “Toyota is here to deliver ever better cars that set a benchmark in safety, quality, durability and reliability. Indian car market is highly competitive and customer preferences are changing with time and exposure to globalized products. Yaris is the most celebrated sedan globally and comes loaded with range of first in segment features.  We have prioritized customer safety in the car offering class leading safety features.  We are happy that the strengths of the product has been recognized, we are confident that Yaris will be a standard on the Indian roads when it comes to matching up with the evolving taste of Indian customers.  We would like to thank customers for the confidence and trust they have shown to Toyota products over the years”

Commenting on the overwhelming response, N. Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “We have received overwhelming response from customers across India. We are happy that in less than a month of announcing the price and opening the bookings, we have collected nearly two months equivalent of customer orders. In line with our customer first approach, we had started our production last month itself to cater to be able to match our supply to the customer demand and reduce the waiting period as much as possible. We look forward to shipping around 4000 plus Yaris across the country for customers by the end of May. We hope to service all these customer orders by the end of this month which will take us amongst the top 3 in sales in the petrol segment.

In addition we have 60000 plus customer enquiries on Yaris which gives us the confidence that the customers are recognizing the value propositions that this product has to offer in the market. With the test drives already having begun across the country we are sure to see more conversions into customer orders taking place.

Toyota has always strived to keep up with the evolving customer needs and with the Toyota Yaris we have ensured that we offer unbeatable safety, comfort, quality and excellent ride handling with advanced and emotional design elements.  We are confident that this car will cater to customers with a discerning taste who are constantly on the lookout for something better. With the CVT option available across all grades it will also be well accepted by woman drivers in India. “

*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.

Societe Generale Invites Fintech, Technology Startups and Universities to Join Forces in Digital Transformation

Societe Generale Global Solution Centre (SG GSC) announces the 2018 edition of Catalyst and calls for Fintech, Technology start-ups and Universities to take part in the digital transformation of the banking industry. Catalyst, a 10-week accelerator program, aims at connecting innovation experts and enterprise-relevant technology startups with Societe Generale business leaders, to deliver actionable solutions and insightful research, in areas of strategic interest to the banking industry.

Hosted at SG GSC premises, from 22nd June to 31st August, the 2018 edition of Catalyst will provide participants with over 250 global business cases, spanning 16 countries. A collaborative platform, Catalyst will provide participants with the required operational skillsets, infrastructure and application to test, iterate and scale their products on real business scenarios and data volumes. 

Rathnaprabha Manickavachagam, Head of Innovation, SG GSC says, “Catalyst is an excellent platform to realise innovation ambitions and design disruptive solutions which can benefit end customers. From the past editions, over 35% of the recommendations have already been adopted. SG GSC has signed commercial contracts with the selected startups to further develop their solutions to the required scale for global implementation within the bank.”

Vijay Nadadur, Co-Founder & CEO, Stride.ai (www.stride.ai), and previous beneficiary of Catalyst says “The Catalyst program by Societe Generale was a defining moment in our journey. At the end of the program, we had the ultimate joy of signing up, Societe Generale as our customer. This has led to our business grow leaps and bounds, and today we have more than 10 large financial services organizations, as our customers. Without Catalyst, this wouldn't have been possible."

In line with its commitment to anticipate the fast-changing customer demand, Societe Generale is developing its innovation strategy by experimenting with disruptive technologies and stepping up its interaction with the digital ecosystem in a spirit of open collaboration. The Group is notably dedicating €150 million euros over three years in an innovation fund to finance internal and external start-ups strategically aligned to digital transformation.

Unity Technologies Increases Commitment to Automotive with Dedicated Team, Industry Bundle, and Two-Day Unity AutoTech Summit

The company, which counts Volkswagen/Audi, Toyota/Lexus and Nissan as customers, is working alongside manufacturers, using real-time 3D to improve the way automobiles are designed, built, serviced and sold.

Unity Technologies, creator of the world’s most widely-used real-time 3D development platform, announced today that the company has declared its commitment to the automotive industry. The company’s newly-formed automotive division -- which hails experts from companies like Volkswagen, Renault, GM, Delphi, and Denso -- is dedicated to bringing the power of real-time 3D to the world’s automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers. Unity is no stranger to the automotive industry and counts eight of the world’s top 10 OEMs as customers, helping improve the way they design, build, service and sell automobiles.

“The real-time revolution in automotive is here. Over the past 15 years, we’ve made great strides leading the game development industry -- now, we’re bringing our real-time rendering technology to a new group of creators, equipping automakers with the tools that will allow them to iterate at the speed of thought,” said John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer, Unity Technologies. “We can’t wait to see what auto creators -- from design and pre-production all the way through sales and marketing -- create with our technology.”

The company also announced its inaugural Unity AutoTech Summit (June 19/20 in Berlin, Germany): a two-day gathering of sessions, tech demos, and networking dedicated to demonstrating how Unity’s real-time solution is accelerating innovation and transforming workflows in the automotive industry. Featured sessions include:

·         Digital Omotenashi: Bringing the Lexus LC500 to Life Through the Magic of Unity: David Telfer (Lexus), Joe DeMiero (Team One for Lexus), Carl Seibert (TiltShift for Lexus)
·         How to Drive VR/AR Use Cases for Enterprises Using the Example of Volkswagen: Torben Volkwein (Innoactive for Volkswagen)
·         Creating Powerful Mixed Reality Applications Across Auto: Jason Yim (Trigger Global for Nissan)
·         Next Level Rendering Quality for Automotive: Arisa Scott (Unity)
·         Unity Training Workshops Taster: Introduction to Automotive Design Visualization: Anuja Dharkar (Unity)
·         Unity in Automotive - The Road Ahead: Tim McDonough (Unity), Ed Martin (Unity)
Unity and PiXYZ Partner to Deliver Unity Industrial Bundle

Unity and PiXYZ recently partnered to launch the enterprise-level Unity Industry Bundle: a bundle built on a combination of PiXYZ products, training, and Unity Pro. The Bundle streamlines the import of CAD data for real-time development while maintaining the integrity of information throughout the process, providing customers with a best-in-class solution optimized for creating real-time experiences in Unity. It scales from automated data prep in a datacenter to individual productivity on a desktop and serves processes including design and engineering, AR/VR training, and the creation of high-impact customer experiences. 

According to Tata Elxsi, the combination of Unity and PiXYZ was able to complete some workflow steps 66% faster and produced a model that was 72% smaller than the next leading competitor. The full report names Unity + PiXYZ the most powerful and performant solution available.

The World’s Leading Automotive OEMs Already Choosing Unity to Gain Competitive Edge For years, Unity has been working alongside the world’s top OEMs. Examples of how leaders such as Audi (VR design review), Volkswagen (interactive VR training for 10,000 employees), Cadillac (Virtual Showroom) and Mercedes-Benz (AMG Powerwall) are leveraging Unity can be found on the Unity Automotive and Transportation website.

“Innovation is a core principle at Audi,” said Jan Plueger, Coordination AR & VR, Audi Center of Competence. “With Unity, we create and deploy immersive, real-time interactivity to accelerate team collaboration and speed our pace of development and innovation.”

Dell Technologies Announces Customer Award Winners in India

Dell Technologies announced the winners of its 2018 customer awards at Dell Technologies World, recognizing two extraordinary sets of its customers: the Innovators realizing significant business impacts from their innovative digital and IT transformations and Trailblazers in the early stages of their groundbreaking transformation journeys.

A panel of senior Dell executives reviewed all nominations against a range of criteria, and winners were deemed to be standout examples of forward-thinking companies making real progress in the areas of Digital Transformation, IT Transformation, Workforce Transformation and Security Transformation. Winners are collaborating with Dell Technologies and the family of businesses including: Dell, Dell EMC, Pivotal, RSA, Secureworks, Virtustream and VMware to realize their digital future.

“As a global technology company with the most diverse portfolio from edge to core to cloud, we are best positioned to optimize the digital transformation opportunity in India. Our portfolio strength coupled with our ability to deploy such transformative projects have resonated with the customers leading us to be best poised for 2018. We value our customers and understand their need to transform their IT landscape therefore, we continue to commission programs and surveys to serve them better. These awards are a celebration of the fantastic work done by our customers in India for their stakeholders,” said Alok Ohrie, President and MD, India Commercial, Dell EMC.

“These awards celebrate organizations across industries and regions using technology to accelerate success in today’s all-digital world,” said Karen Quintos, chief customer officer, Dell. “Not only are these leaders realizing their digital futures through technology innovation, but they are creating an exceptional experience for their employees, customers and communities. We’re honored to be a strategic partner to this extraordinary group and look forward to the continued impact we can make collectively through the power of technology,” she added.

2018 Dell Technologies customer award winners

In the Innovator award category, winners are Ford Motor Company, Bank Leumi, AeroFarms and Johnson & Johnson.

INNOVATORS:

*Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is shifting gears and reimagining the future of transportation with connected car technology and the FordPass mobile app. In partnership with Pivotal, Ford is embracing a startup and software development mentality to democratize mobility and bring innovative solutions to market faster. Learn more here.

*Bank Leumi
By working with Dell Technologies, Bank Leumi, Israel's oldest banking corporation, has been able to challenge the status quo of an industry and bring to life its mobile-only bank, Pepper. The company implemented a hybrid cloud model and software-defined data center that allowed them to move code from development to production within hours compared to weeks, establish new environments faster and do this at less cost. This has helped them to bring a new, innovative product to market. Learn more here.

*AeroFarms
New Jersey-based AeroFarms is on a mission to transform agriculture and show the world how to feed an ever-growing global population while conserving our limited natural resources. In collaboration with Dell Technologies, the company is using data-driven insights from IoT deployments to increase yields, conserve resources and improve flavor at its indoor vertical farming facilities. Learn more here.

*Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson relies on RSA Netwitness Suite as a core component of the cybersecurity fabric that supports its global portfolio of operating companies. It has facilitated the mind shift from traditional threat detection to mitigation of business risks intrinsic to information and operational technology.

In the Trailblazer award category, winners include Volvo Cars/Zenuity, Travelers, Unidad de Conocimiento and State Bank of India.

TRAILBLAZERS:

*Volvo Cars/Zenuity
Zenuity is a joint venture of Volvo Cars and Veoneer (as of April 1, Veoneer is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Autoliv) formed in early 2017 to develop software for autonomous driving and driver assistance systems to help save lives. To manage both the rapid growth of unstructured data and comply with stringent regulatory requirements, Volvo Cars and Zenuity worked with Dell EMC and Virtustream to implement an end-to-end solution – including storage, backup, servers, networking and security – as a managed service, ultimately reducing operational risk and complexity while accelerating the time to value.

*Travelers
Travelers, in strategic partnership with Dell EMC, is successfully implementing a companywide IT transformation. Through standardization, simplification and automation, Travelers is changing the economics of IT and how technology products and services are delivered. This is creating meaningful capacity, operating agility and increasing available funding for a broad array of digital business initiatives.

*Unidad de Conocimiento
Unidad de Conocimiento is a group of five individual corporations, with approximately 50,000 employees in Colombia and another 10,000 in other Latin American operations. The organization, which includes Grupo Bancolombia, was motivated to equip its growing workforce with the latest PCs and laptops to enhance productivity and efficiency. The group turned to Dell to ensure that all employees – whether in banking, healthcare insurance, cement manufacturing or food processing – had the right device for the right job, backed by a full range of services and support.

*State Bank of India
The State Bank of India, the largest public-sector bank in the country, implemented a converged private cloud based on all-flash storage, data protection, services and VMware as part of an overhaul of its branch operations. The bank also recently opened a major innovation center to explore the integration of emerging technology, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

On behalf of each award winner, Dell Technologies will donate $2,500 to one of the following organizations of the winners’ choice supported through Dell’s Legacy of Good program: Save the Children, Deaf Kids Code, Next Wave (via the Lonely Whale Foundation) and Beat Childhood Cancer.

ShareChat Announces Three New Features on its Platform – “Private Messaging”, “Shake N Chat” and “Open Tagging”

Ushering into the new age of rising user demands, ShareChat, India’s fastest growing vernacular social media app, has announced the launch of three new features - “Private Messaging” and “Open Tagging”. With an aim to encourage connections between the users with similar interests and to promote content diversity on the platform, ShareChat has launched these exciting features. ShareChat also announced “Shake-N-Chat” feature which will connect two users engaging with content from similar genres, over personal chat, at random.

Basis a survey undertaken by ShareChat on User Meet-up in 2017 across six Indian cities, more than 88% of ShareChat users wanted a Private Messaging feature on their social media platform. Against this insight, ShareChat developed a feature which allows users to send private messages without having to switch to an alternative app. The “Private Messaging” feature is designed to encourage one to one communication in Indian languages among the vernacular internet users of India.

Additionally with the recently launched "open tagging" feature, users are allowed to create tags and post relevant content under these user generated tags. The most engaging and trending user-generated tags will be visible in the “explore” section of the platform. Shashwat Chandra, Senior Product Manager at ShareChat added “Users have responded better than our expectation with the launch of Open Tagging feature. Users are actively creating diverse tags on the latest events and posting relevant content around the theme.”   

Today consumers expect constant, effortless feature updates. To facilitate connections between unknown users with similar interests, ShareChat introduces “Shake-N-Chat” feature, a personal messaging feature which allows users to connect with other unknown users and chat, simply by shaking their phones.

Commenting on the launch, Sunil Kamath, Chief Business Officer at ShareChat said- “Over the years, we have observed that many users shift to other direct messaging apps for privacy purposes. ShareChat is a unique platform which connects users with similar interests resulting in relevant and meaningful discussions. The launch of new features like private messaging and Shake-N-Chat strengthens the platform’s social experience between both known and unknown users. We are very excited to launch these new features and are confident that they will resonate with users”.

ShareChat takes into account the everyday need of digital content and infotainment of first-time web users in their own preferred dialect. It enables users with an environment where individuals can express their sentiments, showcase their talents, discuss trends and meet new individuals with similar interests. Today ShareChat has a total 30 million unique registered users on the platform.

HVS and ANAROCK Join Forces to Tap into India's $210 Bn Hospitality Market

India's leading real estate services firm ANAROCK Property Consultants has announced its partnership with HVS, the global hospitality sector leader. As a new business vertical under the ANAROCK Group,  HVS ANAROCK will focus on brokerage, feasibility studies, operator searches, appraisals, executive search and other hospitality sector consulting and advisory services throughout South Asia.

Anuj Puri, Chairman - ANAROCK Property Consultants takes on the added role of Chairman - Hospitality at HVS ANAROCK and the Firm’s soon-to-be-appointed CEO will report to him. Shobhit Agarwal, MD & CEO - ANAROCK Capital will head the transactions vertical at HVS ANAROCK.

Stephen Rushmore Jr, President and CEO - HVS, commented, "We are very excited to partner with ANAROCK as we share a strong professional and cultural fit. Together, we foresee rapid expansion in the region and will be able to tap into more resources to serve our clients better than ever. India has always been an exciting market for us, and we are targeting a concentric outward growth into the hottest South Asian markets from here. HVS India has had more than two decades of exposure in the country, and we anticipate the partnership will leverage ANAROCK's proprietary real estate funding platform to increase HVS India’s revenues by up to 75% over the next two years.”

Anuj Puri confirmed that ANAROCK is in the process of rapid expansion in terms of both geographies and business verticals, and the launch of HVS ANAROCK dovetails perfectly with these plans. "HVS is the leading global hospitality player, and we have aligned our synergies to tap into this market in India and beyond,” he said. “Tourism in India is growing by over 15% annually, and the launch of HVS ANAROCK coincides with some of the most exciting times for the Indian hospitality industry.”

Shobhit Agarwal has already concluded hospitality-specific capital markets deals worth over US$ 2 billion in his previous assignments across key markets. "There is a huge number of funding, divestment and acquisition deals to be tapped into, and HVS ANAROCK already has excellent relationships with India's leading hospitality operators,” he said. “Over the past four years, India has seen some 4-5 major hospitality-related deals annually, with leading private equity players being active participants on the funding side."

3i Infotech’s Services BU – ‘Altiray’ Looks to Enter Newer Verticals and Geographies in 2018

3i Infotech Limited , a global Information Technology company which had recently unveiled a new corporate identity for their services business unit, brand-named as Altiray™, has today announced plans to foray into ‘Retail’ as a new vertical this year. The Company also plans to expand into newer geographies like Canada and Kenya to increase their global footprint, which now encompasses North America, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South Asia.  Partnership-driven GTM, Cross-leveraging BU selling, Multi LOB deals, Solution-led sales and Digital transformation are some of the key themes that the Company has embarked on propagating this year, as part of their transformational journey.

With deep domain expertise across the Banking & Financial Services, Insurance & Healthcare and Government spectrum, the Company would gradually look to continue to focus on Digital Transformation as an overarching theme.  In the Government segment, the focus is on consulting and delivering cutting-edge technical work in the eGovernance space. The Company also announced that their BPO expansion is one of the focus areas from a LOB (Line of Business) perspective this year. The expansion envisioned is globally, and within India they would be focussing on RPA (Robotic process automation) based BPO offerings.

Speaking on the renewed focus, Mohua Sengupta, EVP and Global Head of Services said, “We have chosen not to be everything to everybody, but instead focus on those key verticals where we could make a marked difference for our customers. Digital transformation has been our overarching focus area, and will continue to be one of our key strategic themes this year as well. It would percolate across the entire spectrum of our business & operations - be it building our solutions; be it choosing the right people from the market who have joined us with the specific skill-sets; be it cross-training or cross-skilling our existing employees or be it hiring sales people.”

“Solution-led sales is another key theme that we have been driving and which we will continue to focus on. Solutions & Integrated frameworks are our USP and which we plan to leverage on. We are pleased with our solution landscape which is very well integrated across domains and emerging technologies. Of particular interest is the area of ‘Testing’, which is one of our key strengths. We are having maximum discussions around testing solutions and most of these discussions are led by the solutions that have been built over the last one year,” she further added.  

Cross-leveraging the other BUs and Cross-selling across BUs would be another theme that the Company would rely on heavily this year. With Multiple LOBs (Line of Business), which includes ADMS, Testing, IMS, Professional Services and Consulting, their operations were largely disjointed until now. This would witness a paradigm shift.

Altiray solution landscape includes 5 varied offerings, which include AxES, CRUX, Momenta, Flexib and HybridNxT.  Frameworks such as AxES (Accelerate, Enable, & Scale) and CRUX (Customer Reach & User Experience), aim to catalyse the digital adaption for mid-sized and large enterprises with built-in end-to-end framework elements, cutting across B2B and B2C centric options.

Momenta, the Data and Insights Marketplace, a suite of pre-built Analytics apps, supports a multitude of industries and business functions. Each app manages the complete end-to-end process. They also have Flexib, which offers performance, security and automation testing.

The Company also helps enterprises move towards digital transformation with Hybrid Cloud, through their offering HybridNxT. They also invest heavily in the areas of TaaS, DevOps, Agile, and CT (Continuous Testing framework) to meet the demands of enterprises.

MARG Institute of Design and Architecture Opens Admissions for New Batch of 2018

MARG Institute of Design and Architecture Swarnabhoomi (MIDAS) – a Telugu minority institution, affiliated to Anna University, Chennai and approved by Council of Architecture (COA), New Delhi has opened admissions for its flagship Bachelor degree in Architecture (B.Arch) program – 2018 batch.

With an aim to provide world class training in Architectural Education, MIDAS has industry veterans from across the globe as part of the faculty board to offer an extensive industry experience by providing the students both theoretical and practical knowledge. MIDAS campus offers students a space to create, innovate and revolutionize through various live training and workshop session with some of the eminent architects from the industry. With a constant drive to offer students a 360 degree education system, the curriculum and teaching methodologies at MIDAS are designed to integrate international standards of delivery.

Admission for B. Arch is open to all Indians (provided the applicant fulfills the minimum eligibility requirements for admission as per Council of Architecture, New Delhi and Anna University, Chennai). The eligibility criteria for selection as per norms of Council of Architecture and the Anna University include Higher Secondary or 3 year Govt. recognised Diploma with 50% aggregate and Mathematics as a compulsory subject & NATA Score written in the year 2018.

Students can fill in their details in the Application Form from www.midas.ac.in or purchase the application from the admission office. For Admissions and Campus visit, call 7358600536 or write to infor@midas.ac.in. The Admissions Office is located at Old no. 25, New no. 39, Steeple reach, Cathedral Road, Wing A, 4th Floor, Chennai – 600 086. Landmark: Near Stella Maris College, Next to Prince Jewellery.

Infosys Sets Up Blockchain-Based Trade Network in 7 Indian Banks to Prevent Frauds

Infosys said it has set up India Trade Connect, a blockchain-based trade network in India, in partnership with seven lenders, including Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank and RBL Bank. The other partner banks include Kotak Mahindra Bank, South Indian Bank and Yes Bank.

"The network is being used by the banks to run a successful pilot of Finacle Trade Connect, a blockchain technology based solution developed specifically to address the trade finance process requirements of banks," Infosys said in a statement.

Finacle Trade Connect will enable increased automation and transparency, while helping efficiently manage risks in trade and supply chain financing operations, it added.

Infosys said the network is designed to digitise trade finance business processes, including validation of ownership, certification of documents and making payments, while working on a distributed, trusted and shared network.

"The network will create new business opportunities for participating banks, while eliminating the inefficiencies in the existing trade processes and enabling everyone involved in a transaction to have a single source of the truth," the statement added.

It noted that financing decisions (using the system) are more informed since the banks involved in a transaction are aware of the exact position of a bill as well as the exposure of the corporate with its respective partner bank.

The range of functions include Bill Collection, Letters of Credit, Open Account for Trade, Customer to Customer, Transactions for Trade, Business to Customer transactions for Trade, PO financing and Invoice financing.

Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer at Infosys Finacle, said like any innovative technology, the usage of blockchain-based applications will gradually increase from early adopters to others who will join based on proven and tangible benefits.

"We are committed to helping our clients realise the path breaking benefits of blockchain technology and we look forward to many more collaborations to strengthen this consortium and building other networks across the world," he added.

LTI Ranks as the Top Service Provider in France; Results by French IT Outsourcing Study by Whitelane Research

Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. , a global technology consulting and digital solutions company ranked number one in the overall customer satisfaction, in the European IT outsourcing study conducted by Whitelane Research. The French study is part of Whitelane’s annual extensive IT outsourcing survey. LTI is positioned well above the industry average on several Key Performance Indices such as Service Delivery, Relationship, Commercial, and Transformation.

The study compared leading service providers on eight performance indicators viz. Service delivery, Account management, Proactivity, Price level, Contractual flexibility, Innovation, Transformation, & Business understanding. Based on client ratings, LTI scored an impressive average of 80% satisfaction. Whitelane’s IT Outsourcing study was conducted with senior-level executives that have an influence on corporate IT strategy and IT sourcing decisions. Both organizations with large IT budgets as well as organizations that have outsourced a significant amount of their IT processes, receive an invitation to participate in the research.

Sanjay Jalona, CEO and Managing Director, LTI said, “France is an important market for us and our top rank in the customer satisfaction study by Whitelane reflects our investments and strong leadership team in the country. This acknowledgment strengthens our resolve to be the most customer-centric provider globally and to deliver superior services by leveraging our deep domain expertise and strong partnerships”.

Jef Loos, Head Sourcing Research Europe, Whitelane Research said, “France is a highly competitive market, and we evaluated close to 500 unique IT outsourcing contracts held by over 145 of the top IT spending organizations for this study. LTI consistently scored well on all parameters and ranked the highest in Proactivity, Transformation, and Business understanding. The company’s position is a recognition of its investments in building a next generation, best-of-breed services partner.”

LTI has offices across European region and in November 2017, the company announced the acquisition of Luxembourg based Syncordis Consulting alongwith its identified subsidiaries in UK, France and Luxembourg.

NeoStencil.com to Conduct Seminar on IAS Toppers Strategy for Prelims & Mains

NeoStencil.com is conducting   a seminar on IAS Toppers Strategy for Prelims & Mains on Sunday 20th May 2018 at Sagar Party Hall, P.No 827, Vijaya Nagar, 4th Main Road, Near BSVP School, Bengaluru.

 Exam preparation in India has always been concentrated to a few cities. Top teachers in these cities have always been a valued commodity. With aspirants relocating to Kota for IIT/PMT, Delhi for IAS/IES and the like, as a norm. Many have tried to address this in different ways. 

Quite a few have set up VSAT centres, franchise in other cities. Some existing institutes have gone online with their own content.  A few have created open online marketplaces while targeting to enable more than 10,000 teachers to come and teach. More than 90% serious aspirants still continue to relocate to the same cities, to study from the same teachers and spend huge amount of money.  The cutting edge technology platform bridges the challenges of  many aspirants and help them realising their dream.  

BSNL and SAP Unite to Boost GST Accessibility in Rural India; Sign MoU to Bring Together Respective Capabilities as GSP and ASP

State run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and SAP SE has announced signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)to jointly offer innovative GST solutions to enterprises across India. The collaboration leverages the capabilities of BSNL as GST Suvidha Provider (GSP) and SAP as Application Service Provider (ASP).

BSNL, through its network of appx 115 million customer base currently connecting 646 districts, 4519cities/towns & 6.25 lakhs villages across India, will provide enhanced accessibility to companies of all sizes, specifically SMEs, to create, consolidate and file GST Returns through SAP’s ASP solution in an easy, secure and smooth manner. The alliance will thus help realize the full potential of GST on the back of BSNL’s country-wide reach and SAP’s expertise in providing robust technology offerings.

“As an intrinsic part of the Government’s Digital India initiative, we see GST as an important tool in the process for nation building,” said Shri Anupam Srivastava, Chairman & Managing Director BSNL. “Our mission is to ensure that every business in every town & village in the nation successfully adopts GST. Our partnership with SAP is to augment this commitment, and our collective objective is to simplify GST to create a conducive environment that will enable Digital growth.”

“As we complete nearly a year since implementation of GST, the nation’s indirect tax system has streamlined considerably,” said Hemant Dabke, Vice President – Strategic Industries, SAP Indian Subcontinent. “Our collaboration with BSNL is a step further in our continued efforts at fast-tracking GST compliance in the country and will extend this success to tier II& tier III markets of the country.”

Everest Group Names Genpact a Leader and Star Performer in Supply Chain Management

Everest Group, a leading consulting and research firm, has named Genpact , a global professional services firm focused on delivering digital transformation, as a leader and star performer in supply chain management.

Everest Group’s 2018 Supply Chain Management Service Provider Landscape with PEAK Matrix Assessment evaluates 11 service providers, and ranks Genpact as one of only two leaders and star performers. The report highlights Genpact’s strong domain expertise, focus on innovation, and advanced technology offerings as key strengths. Everest Group cites Genpact’s investments in building next-generation solutions in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, cognitive computing, cloud, and analytics, both via enhancements to its AI-based Genpact Cora platform, and through acquisitions and strategic partnerships.

“Genpact helps its clients achieve significant transformative results from their supply chain management operations to enable growth,” said Katrina Menzigian, vice president, Everest Group. “We see Genpact as having key strengths in domain expertise and innovation. Further, Genpact’s clients feel they benefit from a portfolio of strong technology offerings and a proactive client engagement model.”

Transformation for enterprise-wide impact

Supply chain transformation is a key enterprise initiative for growth, and companies need operations that drive speed and flexibly to respond to fluctuating demand levels and market changes. Companies are shifting from tactical, activity-based re-engineering to more strategic, end-to-end transformation, including developing centers of excellence for activities like supply, demand, and sales and operations planning. 

For example, Genpact helped a consumer packaged goods (CPG) market leader transform its supply chain operations to respond to customers faster, free up working capital by 12 percent to reinvest in growth, and increase planning productivity by 65 percent. With Intelligent Supply Chain Automation Index, powered by Genpact Cora, the CPG company made decisions faster, and completed planning cycles in less than an hour compared to previously taking more than a week. Genpact also helped automate and integrate multiple planning roles (such as demand, supply, production, material, etc.) into single enterprise-wide functions.

In addition, a leading foods manufacturer identified more than $150 million to invest in marketing and growth, after initially struggling with integrating operations from a large merger. Genpact helped the company reimagine its entire global supply chain operations, consolidating distributed and fractional roles at numerous business entities around the world into more productive, streamlined operational hubs. New standardized processes also eliminated redundant and duplicate activities, with automation through digital technologies and advanced analytics driving greater efficiencies.

“With increasingly more complex supply chains, visibility, agility, and responsiveness are critical for companies to compete,” said Shantanu Ghosh, business leader, CFO and Transformation Services, 

Genpact. “Everest Group’s ranking underscores our co-innovation with clients to transform their operations and enable growth. Our investments in domain, advanced analytics, digital technology, and design thinking – as well as our global centers of excellence in planning, order management, master data management, and other areas – have delivered hundreds of millions of dollars of business impact.”

ACER Adds Another ‘Exclusive Store’ at Kalyan Nagar for Retail Expansion in Bengaluru

ACER, one of the leading consumer electronics brand in India, announced the expansion of its retail presence in India with the inauguration of another Exclusive Store in Bengaluru, in partnership with 5 Computers. The new store is located on 7th main, 80 Ft road, Stage 1, HRBR Layout, Kammanahalli, Bengaluru – 560043.

Having achieved a stronghold in retail, Acer’s ongoing penetration through the length and breadth of the country to address the varied computing needs of its customers, is one of its top priorities. The new store located at one of the hottest spots in Bengaluru will provide a new destination for people to not just buy Acer’s gamut of products, but also to learn about and be inspired by the latest technology.

Addressing the launch, Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head, Acer India says, “We are elated to announce the launch of our new flagship store in Bengaluru. This city has always been a very important market for us, and this makes it all the more essential to have a complete reach across the map of the city. We think we've struck a chord with our remarkable products by combining cutting - edge technology and outstanding service that has people coming back for more every day.”

This new store is a testimony to Acer’s commitment to their customers and partners and their endeavor to offer an enhanced experience and the widest range of products and services. The store will also display the world-renowned Predator gaming series for customers to experience and buy. It’s part of a drive to create and provide a 360-degree customer experience and retail stores are an important channel for Acer to deliver on that customer promise.

Design and innovation are at the core of Acer’s DNA. Its new store provides a single location where consumers can truly discover, try and buy Acer products with expert technical and product advice. Acer which currently has retail stores across India, aims to further strengthen its customer connect across the region.

SBI Card Collaborates with NSDC to Support Skill India Mission to Train of 1000 Candidates

SBI Card in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and NSDF formally launched their second skill development project today in the national capital region. Earlier this year, SBI Card had signed an MoU with NSDC for a project to train 1000 candidates in sectors such as BFSI, Retail and Green Jobs. The project has been formally launched  at Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra located on Mandir Marg, New Delhi. This training center will be dedicated to training 100 Solar PV installers. Candidates have already been mobilized from Karol Bagh, Sanjay Camp, Razabazar, Paharganj, Bapu Dham in Delhi for the program. Post the training, the candidates are expected to be placed in Kingson Solar, RITZ Enterprise, SRS Global, Solar Universe India, Ultimate Sun.

SBI Card had signed another MoU with NSDC last year to train 1000 candidates in key job roles such as Debt Recovery Agent, Mutual Fund Agent, Retail Sales Associate, BC, EMT & other healthcare sector job roles. This training program was successfully completed in March 2018 and 71 per cent placements were achieved for the trained candidates. Of these 50 per cent of the candidates were women. The successful candidates have been placed in Max Hospital, Rockland Hospital, Future Retail, Tata Business Support Services etc.

Speaking at the inauguration, Manish Kumar, MD and CEO of NSDC said, “We are glad to initiate this second phase of trainings and are confident that we will achieve the same success as last year. CSR activities have become an important agenda for corporates across India. CSR investment in skill training satisfies economic goals by contributing back to the society and empowering youth to earn a better livelihood. The Skill India Mission brings organizations, trainers and trainees on a single platform and helps leverage various synergies to benefit the country at large.”

Hardayal Prasad, MD & CEO, SBI Card said, “We are very pleased to continue our partnership with the Skill India Mission and are confident that the new Skill Development project will replicate the success of the first.  We believe education and skills development are instrumental for enhancing overall social wellness. We are strongly committed to bringing about meaningful social change through skills training for youth in various spheres.”

The quality of the centers has been given utmost importance in structuring this project. Additional steps have also been taken to make the training a value-add proposition for students: Trainees will be given custom-designed induction kits and even a generous travel allowance to make the training center affordable and accessible. Carefully selected training partners will undertake mobilization, counseling, training and job placement of the candidates. 

Over a short period of intense and thorough training, students will be taught an updated curriculum developed in conjunction with the relevant industry, with modules based on modern industrial practices and procedures. The unskilled, semi-skilled and uncertified trainees will be brought up to par, and then certified in line with national standards and guidelines, by the relevant national Sector Skill Council. 

KNOLSKAPE Opens Malaysia Office to Service Increasing Demand for its Learning and Assessments Platform

KNOLSKAPE, an end-to-end learning and assessments platform for accelerated employee development, has recently opened a new office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to support and service the increasing demand of new-age learning solutions for employee development needs. This move comes in light of key Malaysian companies across aviation, manufacturing, media, telecom, and other industries being brought into the KNOLSKAPE global client roster, along with several more in the pipeline.

Malaysian organizations are rapidly growing and expanding their businesses. As a result, they are moving away from the strategies they’ve traditionally deployed, and HR and L&D teams are increasingly seeking out new-age learning solutions to accelerate employee development and become major players in the global market. Realizing this need, the organization’s expansion into Malaysia seeks to provide local Malaysia-based consulting, program management and customer support services to customers.

“The decision to expand our direct presence in Malaysia was a logical step in our customer support and servicing strategy,” said Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder & CEO of KNOLSKAPE. “We have always had our sights set on Malaysia and have been seeing tremendous traction in the market. Having a team on-ground will ensure that we dive head-first into the Malaysian market and deliver the same superior experience as we do for our clients across other geographies. We also have the opportunity to further expand our ability to service current and future markets.”

Intuit Appoints Sanket Atal as VP and Managing Director of the India Development Center

Intuit Inc. has announced the appointment of Sanket Atal as Vice President and Managing Director of the India Development Center (IDC). Sanket will play a strategic role in Intuit’s mission of powering prosperity around the world, strengthen IDC’s position in India and ensure it is future ready to take advantage of game-changing opportunities. In this role, he will also be working closely with Vijay Anand who has expanded his role to lead Intuit’s Global Development Centers (GDC). 

Speaking on the announcement, Vijay Anand, Senior Vice President and Head – Intuit Global Development Centers said, “We’ve been in India with our Development Center for more than thirteen years and today it is a thriving microcosm of Intuit delivering end-to-end product outcomes and strategic capabilities with an ownership mindset. We have a robust and growing India leadership team and Sanket will be instrumental in driving the next chapter of growth for our India journey. He is a visionary leader with a passion for customer centricity, talent development, innovation and global growth.”

Over the last two years, Vijay Anand has supported Intuit’s Global Development Centers (GDCs). One of his key focus areas has been actively partnering with the team in Israel to grow the center, build a strong One Intuit culture and ensure long-term success in Israel. “Our Intuit GDCs are significantly growing in impact and we have a huge opportunity ahead to leverage the combined strength of our sites as we determine higher level vision and purpose for our global centers.’ Added Vijay Anand.

Sanket brings in a wealth of experience leading and growing global development centers. In his previous role with Oracle Corporation he was responsible for the R&D organization in Bangalore, NCR, Pune and St. Petersburg in Russia. He had founded the global program, Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator (OSCA) by establishing its first center in Bengaluru in April, 2016 and lead the expansion of the program to nine centers in seven countries and added a virtual accelerator program.

“I am very happy to be a part of a mission driven organization that continues to deliver customer driven innovation. The number of innovation awards and patents won by Intuit India is a testament to the capability of the1000 strong talented team.  I am excited to take IDC on its next stage of growth; leading with new technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence and data sciences that creates a powerful ecosystem for Intuit’s 46 million customers.

India provides a unique opportunity for us, especially with the emergence of IndiaStack to leverage the best from this thriving ecosystem to deliver cutting edge product innovation. I am confident that we will continue to achieve industry defining and company-first outcomes.  As well as renew our commitment of creating a workplace where we can do the best work of our lives” said Sanket Atal –Vice President and Managing Director, Intuit India Development Center on his recent appointment.

Sanket’s background is in Systems Engineering and has managed large organizations. He started his career in August of 1991 at Sequent Computer Systems on a joint project with Informix Corp.  He has been associated with industry stalwarts like Informix Corp, Oracle, CA Technologies and MakeMyTrip.com

Sanket holds an MBA from University of Oregon and an MS in Computer Science from University of Wisconsin, Madison. His undergraduate studies were at Cornell University where he studied Computer Science and Mathematics.

Subex Takes Home Three Pipeline Innovation Awards at Nice, France

Subex, a leading telecom analytics solution provider, has announced that it has been recognised by Pipeline publishing for innovation in three categories: Big Data & Analytics, Managed Services and Security & Assurance. The Award function was held at Nice, France on May 14, 2018.

The ‘Innovations in Big Data & Analytics’ award recognized the capabilities of Subex’s ROC Insights advanced analytics solution which helps organizations be data-driven through the democratization of data science. For the ‘Innovations in Managed Services’ award, Subex successfully showcased its Managed Services offering which helps CSPs globally to stay on the growth path while driving business outcomes and protecting revenues backed by strong domain, technology, and operational expertise.

In terms of the ‘Innovations in Security & Assurance’ category, Subex demonstrated how its IoT Security solution, Subex Secure, offers comprehensive IoT security coverage from real-time discovery and monitoring to response and recovery. The solution leverages a one-of-its-kind honeypot network that combines physical devices and device emulations to generate IoT / ICS signatures.

"Pipeline is happy to see Subex recognized by the 2018 Innovation Award judges for its ongoing innovation in Big Data and Analytics, Managed Services, and Security,” said Scott St. John, Managing Editor of Pipeline. “The Pipeline Innovation Awards are exclusively judged by a panel of technical executives from service provider and analyst companies, and this year included experts from Telenor, Singtel, Windstream, and Analysys Mason; which only further validates Subex’s continued innovation in these areas by key stakeholders in the industry and, in particular, by those that leverage innovative technology products to deliver the most advanced communications services around the world."

Vinod Kumar, CEO and Managing Director, Subex said, “It gives us great pride and honour to be recognised at the prestigious Pipeline Innovation Awards for our work in Analytics, Security and Managed Services. The Pipeline awards continue to be a fantastic platform for us to showcase our spirit of innovation and technical expertise, and the validation we have received signifies our commitment towards ensuring our customers a smooth digital transformation journey.”

New Surge Free App Service Unveiled in Mumbai by Logistics Firm Bharat Freight

New app-based service S3 Cabs have been rolled out in Mumbai and were inaugurated by Sudhakar Deshmukh, MLA for Nagpur West. The service is an initiative by the Bharat Freight, a logistics company.

S3 service does not have surge pricing or night charges; the cabs are available at a flat rate. Sahayadri Smart Safe Private Limited – the company behind the cab services thought that flat pricing will be a good respite for riders traveling in the peak hours and for regular and corporate travelers. Also, passengers who do not have the application downloaded or without a smartphone, have the option of booking the cab through service representatives designated at different parts of the Mumbai region and also through a phone call. A separate service application has been developed to enable this service. New and innovative ways of deploying SOS service has been planned for the safety of passengers. Not only SOS but the riders will also be able to customize the trip using language options, tourist guide option, etc. 

 At the time when complaints are rampant from drivers against other dominant players of the cab service industry for various reasons, S3 has already drawn strategies around the pain points. Sohel Kazani, Director, Sahayadri Smart Safe Pvt. Ltd. also said the service gave a higher commission to drivers and took their safety and well-being seriously. “Both the drivers and the riders are offered 24/7 phone support, and that drivers are not allowed to spend more than 10 hours driving for S3, in order to prevent driver fatigue. In-cab entertainment options are also being explored and will be rolled out soon.”

Sudhakar Deshmukh speaking on the development said, “Government was trying to create a similar application and that I am very happy to know Bharat Freight Company has taken a CSR initiative and the state will extend its full support for the same. I am also of that opinion that we should give sufficient training to drivers to enhance the standard of taxis and improve the quality of life of the drivers and their families. The company should explore our skill development program to meet the desired objectives.” Actor, screenwriter, producer and director Akbar Khan were also there for the launch along with corporator Harshala More. The idea was the brainchild of Prafulla Shinde, son of a retired police officer from the Mumbai Police. Prafulla is now a director with Sahayadari Smart Safe Pvt. Ltd.  

Prafulla exclaimed, “We are going to charge 3% towards facility charges from drivers on a daily earning of up to ₹1,500 to ₹2,000 and 10% on any amount above it, as opposed to 20-25% charged by others. We have set up a call center. Complaints can be made via mail, WhatsApp, and on the helpline number. Drivers can also be rated,” he said. The app is available on Android and IOS platforms. S3 also developed a service app for restaurants, hotels, bars, etc. who can use it to book cabs for their customers. Shinde said S3 also plans to launch a parcel service in July and they are already in talks with two online shopping companies.

S3 has deployed the most updated technology platform that will greatly reduce the booking v/s delivery turnaround time for customers. It will also minimize the response time for customer calls. The chauffeurs are called, are well-trained in the use of the technology and soft skills. The venture is expected to generate 5,000 direct jobs.  

Vijaya Bank Tags Anil Ambani Group - Reliance Naval as NPA from March Quarter of 2018

The state-run Vijaya Bank has classified the Anil Ambani group-led Reliance Naval & Engineering, whose auditors had recently expressed doubts about the company’s ability to continue as a “going concern”, as non-performing asset from the March quarter.

The company, which was earlier known as Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering, was bought over by Anil Ambani group in 2016 and renamed it as Reliance Defence & Engineering. It owes over Rs 9,000 to over two dozen banks mostly state-run, led by the troubled IDBI Bank.

The Bengaluru-based Vijaya Bank said the action was necessitated by the February 12 changes that the Reserve Bank had brought to the NPA resolution framework, which while scrapping all the existing frameworks, including debt restructuring, asked banks to consider even one-day delay in payments as default which if not cleared in 180 days should be sent to NCLT for bankruptcy proceedings.

“A few accounts, including Reliance Naval, were under various restructuring schemes like the SDR and S4A by all the lenders. With the February 12 circular, the RBI made it clear that all those accounts where restructuring could not happen by then, have to be treated as NPAs. Reliance Naval was under restructuring (SDR), but the implementation could not happen, and so, it slipped into NPA from the March quarter,” a senior Vijaya Ban official told the agency over phone from Bengaluru over the weekend.

The official further said the bank has made adequate provisions for the Reliance Naval account in the March quarter without disclosing how much is its exposure and how much it has provided for. A mail sent to the company last evening did not elicit a response till the time of transmission of this story.

Reliance Naval is the second firm from the Anil Ambani group to become NPAs after its once flagship but now bankrupt Reliance Communication, which is already at the Mumbai NCLT. RCom owes over Rs 45,000 crore to 31 banks apart from a China Development Bank.

Defence Naval, which is into defence ship-building, has also been tagged as NPA by state-run Union Bank of India, according media report, which also said the account was tagged as SMA2 by all the lenders since the past many quarters. But PTI could not verify it with the city-based lender.

An account is called SMA 2 if it is in default for up to 60 days bit if it remains so for another 30 days then it has to be tagged as an NPA account and the bank has to make provision and since the February 12 RBI circular, should be sent to NCLT for bankruptcy provisions. As of March 2017, Reliance Naval had an outstanding borrowings of Rs 8,753.19.38 crore.

In the March 2018 quarter, it reported a threefold jump in net loss to Rs 408.68 crore from Rs 139.92 crore in the previous 12 months period. For the full year to March 2018, its net loss almost doubled to Rs 956.09 crore from Rs 523.43 crore in previous year.

In the March quarter, the IDBI Bank-led lenders consortium recalled their loans to the company and invoked the pledged shares as well as the guarantees available with them. In a note in the FY18 earnings statement, its auditors Pathak HD & Associates had raised doubts about the company’s ability to “continue as a going concern“.

Auditors listed cash losses, net worth erosion, loan recall back by secured lenders, mounting current liabilities which are substantially higher than assets and winding up petitions by a few operating creditors to raise its doubts. Ambani had picked up controlling stake in Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering in 2016 and renamed it as Reliance Defence & Engineering. Last year, it was renamed again as Reliance Naval & Engineering.

Indian Hotels Expands Taj Vivanta by Adding 220 Extra Rooms in Bangalore

The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) on Monday announced a major expansion of Taj Bangalore, adding 220 guest rooms along with additional facilities. The hotel opened its doors in December 2015, with 154 rooms.

Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of IHCL said, “This expansion is in line with Aspiration 2022. I am delighted that Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) has expressed its vote of confidence in us and will invest in enhancing capacity..”

IHCL has eight hotels in Bangalore across its brandscape.

Department of Telecom Approves Bharti Airtel, Telenor India Merger

The Department of Telecom (DoT) on Monday approved the merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel, according to an official source.

“The DoT has approved merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel this morning,” the official source said.

The Supreme Court last week rejected DoT’s petition for security deposit of around Rs 1,700 crore from the companies and directed it to approve the merger.

The guarantee included Rs 1,499 crore for one-time spectrum charge for the radiowaves allocated to Airtel without auction, and over Rs 200 crore for spectrum payment which Telenor has to make.

The merger will bolster Airtel’s spectrum footprint in seven telecom circles, with the addition of 43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band.

Telenor India runs operations in seven circles -- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam. DoT has asked Airtel to reduce it market share based on adjusted gross revenue (money earned from telecom services) in Bihar service area to the limit of 50%, within one year from the date merger of two companies is approved.

World’s Largest Commercial PC Manufacturers Introduce AMD Ryzen PRO Mobile and Desktop APU Powered Systems

AMD has announced unprecedented adoption of its AMD Ryzen PRO processors – including new notebooks and desktops powered by Ryzen PRO processors with built-in Radeon Vega graphics now available from the world’s three largest enterprise PC OEMs. AMD Ryzen PRO APUs for premium commercial desktop and notebooks provide commercial PC buyers with new levels of choice and innovation and enable Dell, HP, and Lenovo to create a range of business systems, from sleek enterprise notebooks to powerful commercial desktops. Combined, these systems make up the broadest portfolio of AMD processor-based enterprise PCs in the company’s history.

“Our mission with AMD Ryzen processors is to deliver more performance, features, and choice to users. We’ve fulfilled this promise over the last year across the premium consumer desktop and notebook markets. Now, we bring those same principles to a full range of commercial notebooks and desktops,” said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Computing and Graphics Business Group, AMD. “The new enterprise platforms introduced by Dell, HP and Lenovo mark an important milestone for AMD, demonstrating that we are addressing the needs of the premium commercial market from top-to-bottom. Ryzen PRO mobile processors can enable all-day battery life[i] up to 16 hours of use, world-class productivity performance, and sensational graphics built on Radeon technology.”

Ryzen PRO processors are designed to meet the fast-changing requirements of today’s business PC users, including both commercial workloads and rich multimedia capabilities that are becoming more typical as the traditional boundaries between work and personal computing merge. Offering desktop-class performance in an ultrathin notebook, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 2700U offers more system performance than the competition[iii] and up to 16 hours of battery life to enable all-day productivity1. In desktop, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 2400G and AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 2200G delivers world-class performance on heavily graphics-intensive commercial and workstation-grade workloads ranging from graphics design to 3D CAD to medical imaging, while also excelling at general office productivity tasks.

Designed specifically for the commercial market, all Ryzen PRO processors provide security, reliability and performance with the award-winning AMD “Zen” architecture. Armed with AMD GuardMI technology, Ryzen PRO processors with Radeon Vega Graphics offer state-of-the-art security at the silicon level from power-on to power-off. Commercial-grade quality and reliability help ensure platform longevity, and open-standard manageability helps safeguard businesses from being locked into proprietary solutions.

Global OEM & Partner Support

During an event in front of global press and industry analysts last week, several top global PC OEMs unveiled a breadth of commercial platform offerings including light but powerful enterprise notebooks, robust enterprise desktops, compact enterprise micro towers and small form factor desktops, all powered by Ryzen PRO processors with Radeon Vega Graphics.

“We’re proud to introduce our first Ryzen PRO based Latitude 5495 laptop that delivers outstanding performance in a beautiful design,” said Andy Rhodes, vice president & general manager, Dell Commercial Mobility Solutions. “The Latitude 5495 complements the OptiPlex 5055 desktop PC and provides our customers with another compelling AMD Ryzen PRO option within the world’s most secure, manageable and reliable commercial portfolio.”

“HP is redefining the commercial PC experience as the traditional boundaries between work and life blend. Our latest offerings with AMD Ryzen PRO processors integrate powerful processing and graphics into innovative solutions built with a focus on design, security, and collaboration to power the modern workforce.” Lorena Kubera, Global Head of Commercial Product Management, HP Inc.

“For more than 25 years, the ThinkPad brand has been defined by simplicity, function, and reliability. And as the digital transformation advances with exponential speed, Lenovo maintains a relentless quest to deliver a no-compromise customer experience,” said Jerry Paradise, vice president, Lenovo global commercial portfolio & product management. “Expanding that portfolio to include the latest Ryzen PRO processors in our ThinkPad A series notebooks and ThinkCentre M715q & M725s desktops helps us to further support our enterprise customers and their ever-evolving business requirements.”

“Modern workers are changing how they work and play – always on-the-go, multi-tasking from basic office productivity work like emailing, word processing, editing spreadsheets and presentations, to web browsing and livestreaming multimedia content all at the same time,” said Roanne Sones, general manager, strategy and ecosystem for Windows at Microsoft. “The new multi-core design of Ryzen PRO processors delivers amazing performance on Windows 10 PCs, while the ‘Vega’ graphics architecture enables a smoother and richer visual experience, ideally suited for today’s modern commercial environments.”