L&T Technology Services Expands Collaboration with Microsoft to Offer Solutions for Workplace Transformation

L&T Technology Services Limited (BSE: 540115, NSE: LTTS), a leading global pure-play engineering services company, today announced that it has expanded its collaboration with Microsoft Corporation and launched its latest and enhanced version of the state-of-the-art i-BEMSTM solution on Microsoft Azure to transform buildings into future-ready smart campuses.

With growing digital transformation, there has been a clear impetus on the need for organizations to revamp their office premises to be eco-friendly, taking into consideration sustainability aspects including greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. Another important aspect for office and facility administrators today is to find balance in their buildings to ensure health, safety and wellbeing of their workforce.

LTTS’ award-winning Intelligent Building Experience Management System i-BEMSTM is a system-of-systems solution that focuses on creating digital experiences and intelligent space management. The cloud-based smart buildings/campus/spaces solution helps monitor and manage building operations and optimize business metrics leveraging advanced IoT based Edge Analytics and machine learning algorithms.

i-BEMS™ uses advanced energy analytics and fault diagnostics for energy savings, and net-zero energy compliance. i-BEMSTM has enterprise-grade security features and can create a digital twin to test changes in a virtual build of the building.

LTTS has earlier collaborated with Microsoft to develop a smart campus in Israel for a leading technology company. The two companies have also partnered to leverage  Azure IoT platform for Sustainability solutions and connect with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service to enable real-time optimization, improve ROI and employee productivity for Facility Management and Operations globally. In 2018, LTTS furthered their working relationship with Microsoft by setting up a Digital Industrial Transformation Applied Innovation Centre for shared enterprise customers.

The current expanded collaboration leverages Azure to enable i-BEMSTM to act as a Facility Information Broker, unifying data from all systems making the building/campus a single entity rather than a heterogeneous collection of systems focused on employee health and safety and preservation of the immediate environment.

Experts from LTTS and Microsoft also shared the latest best practices on the holistic approach for enterprises planning eco-friendly and safe smart buildings, which can be read here: Smart buildings: From design to reality.

Alind Saxena, Chief Business Officer - Transportation & Alliances, L&T Technology Services said, “With digital transformation, enterprises are also increasingly focusing on finding sustainable ways to grow, while protecting the planet and its resources. Another important determinant for companies is maintaining employee safety and wellbeing within a building by reducing resource usage and improving operational efficiency. i-BEMS covers the best practices from designing to construction to operations for enterprises planning environmentally friendly and socially responsible smart building projects. We are excited to further expand our partnership leveraging Microsoft Azure IoT & Edge technology to serve enterprise customers with industry-leading solutions.”

Sanjay Jacob, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation said, “As a leader in engineering solutions for smart and sustainable campuses, LTTS’ Smart Building solutions enable modern workplaces by leveraging cutting-edge Microsoft Azure IoT, Edge & AI technology. Employee safety, energy-efficiency and sustainability is the need of the hour and LTTS delivers an integrated, advanced Azure based Smart Building solution for global enterprises to deploy smart and sustainable campuses. The whitepaper provides an excellent template with the most current best practices for enterprises to go from design to reality of their smart buildings.”

About L&T Technology Services Ltd

L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS) is a listed subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Limited focused on Engineering and R&D (ER&D) services. We offer consultancy, design, development and testing services across the product and process development life cycle. Our customer base includes 69 Fortune 500 companies and 53 of the world’s top ER&D companies, across industrial products, medical devices, transportation, telecom & hi-tech, and the process industries. Headquartered in India, we have over 16,600 employees spread across 17 global design centers, 28 global sales offices and 51 innovation labs as of June 30, 2020.

Gen X and Boomers More Willing to Return to Work, While Gen Z and Millennials Prefer to Wait: LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, today announced the findings of the sixth edition of the LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index, a fortnightly pulse on the confidence of the Indian workforce. Based on survey responses of 1,351 professionals in India, findings from the fortnight of June 1-14 reveal how India’s workforce feels about returning to work, and how professionals from different generations exhibit varied confidence levels towards returning to the physical workplace.

This fortnight’s LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index shows that India’s overall confidence remains steady with a composite score of +48, as India gets ready to return work. The cautious optimism also reflects in the strong short-term and long-term employer confidence levels of professionals from sectors such as Corporate Services and Manufacturing. India’s workforce is also beginning to feel more confident about their personal finances as 1 in 4 professionals in India expect their earned incomes (25%) and personal spending (26%) to increase in the next 6 months. In fact, about 1 in 3 professionals also expect their personal savings (31%) and personal recurring debt payments (29%) to increase in the next 6 months. This financial confidence comes at a time when India’s economy is gradually restarting.

Commenting on this rise in financial confidence, Leadership Coach Harsh Johari says, “Professionals will continue to be prudent about money management, given the prevailing uncertainties. While some businesses in the digital space are seeing growth, the actual financial impact on India Inc will only become clear when listed companies unveil their results for the quarter ending June 30.”

Working remotely for the past three months has encouraged businesses to adapt innovative and digital measures for business continuity. However, as India ‘unlocks’ and workplaces reboot, findings of the sixth Workforce Confidence Index underscore a pronounced difference in how the older and younger professionals feel about returning to the physical workplace.

About 1 in 3 Gen Z and Millennials will continue working remotely until safer

As the business landscape resumes, older professionals appear keen on stepping out into the post-Covid-19 world while younger professionals are not rushing to embrace it. Findings reaffirm this difference in perception as 38% of Gen X and 29% of Baby Boomers said they will willingly return to the workplace as soon as they are allowed, whereas 1 in 3 Gen Z (29%) and Millennials (32%) said they will continue working remotely until they feel safer about being around others. One reason for this, as HR expert Abhijit Bhaduri states, “Younger workers are adept in using digital means of communication. Senior professionals may find it challenging to hire and manage performance of remote teams.” Hence, varied levels of digital prowess could be one of the reasons behind such contrasting outlooks from different generations.

Risk of exposure, commute to work, and close proximity worry Indian professionals

While the nationwide lockdown is gradually being lifted, the stigma around COVID-19 prevails due to uncertainty around safety measures. Findings reveal that more than half (55%) of Indian professionals think being exposed to people neglecting safety precautions is a key concern. 58% of Millennials and 56% of Gen X professionals are shown being concerned about the same problem. Probing further, findings highlight that 42% Millennials are concerned about commuting to work while nearly half (46%) are worried about eating and sharing resting/collaborative spaces. The report also shows that inadequate space between workstations is cited as another primary concern with returning to work, as it could make it tough for professionals to practice healthy measures of social distancing.

Corporate Services and Manufacturing professionals most confident about the future of their companies

This fortnight’s findings also gauge how Indian professionals feel about the short-term (6 months) and long-term (1 year) future of their companies. With regards to short-term employer confidence, survey findings show that 50% of Corporate Services professionals, 46% of Manufacturing professionals, and 41% of Education professionals think their companies will be better off six months from now. When it comes to long-term employer confidence, findings reveal that 64% of Manufacturing, 60% of Corporate Services, and 59% of Software & IT professionals believe their companies will be better off one year from now. Based on these findings, it is observed that professionals from Corporate Services and the Manufacturing sectors have the strongest short-term and long-term company outlook, respectively.

New Web site for US imigration agency

The Obama administration launched a new Web site on Tuesday that U.S. officials hope will make citizenship and other immigration services more accessible.

The new Citizenship and Immigration Services Web site was unveiled Tuesday at an event with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, as well as White House and Homeland Security staff.

Napolitano said USCIS' Web site gets 230,000 visits a day, therefore it is important that it be easy to use and provides ``the kind of information that people seek.''

The site was revised in 90 days using in-house resources, officials said. CIS officials could not immediately provide a total cost for the revisions. Parts of the service, including its Spanish-language sections, were still under construction.

Citizenship and Immigration Services is responsible for processing millions of applications for citizenship, immigration to the U.S. and legal residency as well as claims for asylum and refugee status.

One of the highlights of the new site is a tool allowing users to get e-mail updates or text alerts about the status of their cases, as well as to check them online with their case number.

www.ImmigrationDirect.com/USCIS

Agencies

Can alerts of search engines help you?

Having problems with a search engine, then change the search terms to get the information you need. But what if the search engine did it for you?

A Penn State researcher analysed nearly one million web searches to detect patterns of query reformulation and create models to predict them -- models that may help create more advanced search engines.

"The key finding in the research is that we are moving from descriptive aspects to predictive models in web searching," said Jim Jansen, associate professor of information sciences and technology and study co-author.

Researchers found that the search terms in 22 percent of queries were reformulated or changed to more precisely convey the information for which the user was searching.

"They typically moved to narrow their query at the start of the session, moving to reformulation in the mid and latter portions of the sessions," Jansen said.

"It appears that the assistance to narrow the query and alternate query terms would be most beneficial immediately after the initial query submission."

Researchers also found low rates of users asking for system assistance in helping to find the desired information -- perhaps because they are too focused on using their own search terms to find information.

"The implication is that system assistance should be most specifically targeted when the user is making a cognitive shift because it appears users are open to system intervention," Jansen said.

Jansen said this research is a critical step in helping to design more advanced search engines, said a Penn State release.

These findings have been published in the online edition of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

Agencies