Jaguar Land Rover Announces New Retailers in Lucknow City

 * Jaguar Land Rover India has appointed JSV Motors as its new Retailer Partner, operating from the 3S facility located in the prime area of Amar Shaheed Path

* The fully integrated state-of-the-art 3S (Sales, Service and Spare parts) facility is spread over a total area of over 3 500 m2 with 08 cars display and 10 service bays

* Jaguar Land Rover India distribution network is spread across 27 outlets in 24 major cities across India  

Jaguar Land Rover India today announced the appointment of JSV Motors as its new Retailer Partner in Lucknow, with Jatin Varma as its Director. JSV Motors has started operating from the fully integrated 3S facility at Amar Shaheed Path, near the airport area of Lucknow.

This Retailer facility is spread over 3 500 m2 and is designed to provide the highest quality of sales and after-sales experience for its customers. The premium 3S facility displays a wide range of products from the Jaguar and Land Rover portfolio. The facility also displays Approved Pre-owned cars, and showcases a whole range of Jaguar Land Rover branded accessories and merchandise. It has a fully equipped service workshop and state-of-the-art tools and equipment to handle all service needs. The service facility is manned by a team of highly trained staff, including technicians and other service personnel to offer unmatched customer delight.

Rohit Suri, President & Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd (JLRIL), said: “We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with JSV Motors to service our customers in Lucknow and adjoining areas. With its convenient location and an ultra-modern facility with sales, service and spares under one roof, our customers can now enjoy a world class experience of owning a Jaguar Land Rover product in this region.”

Customers can even book their cars by visiting the online booking platform at www.findmeacar.in for Jaguar and www.findmeasuv.in for Land Rover.

For more information on Jaguar and Land Rover product range in India, please visit www.jaguar.in and www.landrover.in

Jaguar Product Portfolio in India

The Jaguar range in India includes XE (starting at ₹ 46.64 Lakh), XF (priced at ₹ 55.67 Lakh), F-PACE (priced at ₹ 66.07 Lakh) and F-TYPE (starting at ₹ 95.12 Lakh). All prices mentioned are ex-showroom prices in India.

Land Rover Product Portfolio in India

The Land Rover range in India includes the Range Rover Evoque (starting at ₹ 58.67 Lakh),  Discovery Sport (starting at ₹ 59.99 Lakh), the New Defender (starting at ₹ 69.99 Lakh) the Range Rover Velar (priced at ₹ 73.30 Lakh), Discovery (starting at ₹ 75.60 Lakh), Range Rover Sport (starting at ₹ 87.02 Lakh) and Range Rover (starting at ₹ 196.74 Lakh). All prices mentioned are ex-showroom prices in India.

Jaguar Land Rover Retailer Network in India

Jaguar Land Rover vehicles are available in India in 24 cities, through 27 authorized outlets in Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bengaluru (2), Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi (2), Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Karnal, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mangalore, Mumbai (2), Noida, Pune, Raipur, Surat and Vijayawada.

Infogain Achieves Google Cloud Partner Specialization in Application Development

Infogain, ​a leading provider of technology solutions, today announced that it has achieved the “Application Development Partner Specialization” in the Google Cloud Partner Specialization Program. The program provides Google Cloud customers with qualified partners that have demonstrated their expertise and success in advanced application development using Google Cloud technology. Infogain’s​proven success in building and managing applications using the best of Google Cloud in both web, and mobile environments led to this specialization. 

Infogain helps enterprises, ISVs, and innovative start-ups build modern software products and applications on Google Cloud. Infogain was one of the first to deploy and integrate Automation Anywhere RPA platform to Google Cloud Platform (​Press Release​).​Infogain’s experience spans modern application development and deployment architectures, Google Cloud IaaS, and PaaS platform development and DevSecOps driven application delivery. 

Nishith Mathur, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, ​Infogain, said, “We are pleased that Infogain achieved the Google Cloud ​Application Development Partner Specialization​. The specialization from Google Cloud is a validation of our commitment to provide the most innovative and best solutions for our clients by leveraging Google Cloud environment​. This accreditation enables us to help our clients achieve agility and security, leading to better business outcomes, using advanced Google Cloud solutions.”

About Infogain

Infogain is a Silicon Valley headquartered company with digital platform and software engineering expertise in the travel, retail, insurance, healthcare, and high technology industries. We accelerate design-led transformation and delivery of digital customer engagement systems and platforms. Infogain engineers business outcomes for Fortune 500 companies and digital natives using technologies such as cloud, microservices, robotic process automation, IoT, and artificial intelligence.   A ChrysCapital portfolio company, Infogain has offices in California, Washington, Texas, London, Dubai, India, and Singapore, with delivery centers in Austin, Kraków, New Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, and Mumbai.

Microsoft Kicks Off - Microsoft Inspire 2020: Empowering Partners to Make More Possible Via Digital Platform

Microsoft has kicked off its annual global partner conference, Microsoft Inspire, via an all-digital experience. In its 17th year, the event on July 21 and 22 (PDT) unites partners in new and exciting ways and encompasses a wider community than ever before, allowing partners to develop increasingly valuable business relationships. Along with industry leaders and motivated partners from around the world, this is a unique platform to strengthen partnerships, learn from experts and help one another thrive in unprecedented times.

Here's a quick snapshot of the top announcements from Microsoft Inspire:

Enhancements to Azure Lighthouse bring Multi-Factor Authentication and Privileged Identity Management support

Two new playbooks help partners build an effective cloud practice to last: the Microsoft Azure Center of Excellence playbook guides partners on how to scale an Azure-focused practice, and the App Innovation Practice Development playbook outlines how partners can be successful using Microsoft’s cloud-based applications

New Power Platform solutions enable customers with Location Readiness, Employee Health and Safety Management, Workplace Care Management, and Location Management tools, which will help bring employees back to the workplace safely. Innovation across Dynamics 365 applications including Customer Voice, Connected Store, and Fraud Protection are focused on making sure we’re helping customers weather the current crisis while also setting them up for future agility and resilience

Azure Stack HCI, the latest in Microsoft’s hybrid portfolio and now in public preview, brings hybrid capabilities to customers’ datacenters while enabling them to leverage existing skills and investments

New capabilities in Teams help Firstline Workers connect and engage with information, apps, and coworkers, while enabling organizational agility. New public preview of Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention in Microsoft 365 helps customers identify and protect information on endpoints. New enhancements to the Power Platform experience within Teams make Teams an even more powerful hub for teamwork and business process.

You can get to know more about these announcements from the blog post by Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft. News and highlights from Microsoft Inspire will be available at https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire.

Will BT take back 2,000 Desi jobs to UK?

BT chief executive Ian Livingston has announced that the company will revert at least 2,000 call centre jobs from India back to Britain.

The company has a significant presence in India where the telecom major has a customer service staff of 11,000 employees.

At the group's annual meeting Livingston was asked by an investor, about the group's planning to close call centres in India. Livingston disclosed the plans to revert jobs in his response to the question.

However, BT said the move had nothing to do with the quality of service offered in India. A BT spokesperson said, “This is not about customer service as the service in our operations around the globe is of very similar standards. It is about the effective deployment of our resources.”

“We have opportunities to bring some activities, carried out by our partners, back from outside the UK to permanent BT employees in the UK who are skilled to do this work,” he said.

CNet.com

Why Indian Internet startups fail to meet VCs expectations?

Internet Services companies in India are one of the largest venture capital [VC] funded companies in India. However, these firms have not delivered as per the expectations of the VCs. "With broadband penetration and PC affordability still an issue, internet companies have not met the expectations we had set two years back," said Sachin Maheshwari, Principal at Draper Fisher Jurvetson [DFJ] India. DFJ has funded many Internet startups like naseeb.com and seventymm.com. VCs had earlier expected the number of internet users in country to grow to 80 million by 2012. But so far it has just reached 40 million and therefore the traffic is too low to generate good revenue.

Many internet companies rely on online advertisement for revenue. They might find it difficult to survive due to low internet users. The internet advertisement revenue in country is $200 million, but majority of it is generated by Google. Few VCs feel that internet companies have not found the correct business model. "The business models that work abroad do not necessarily work in India," says Ritesh Banglani, Senior Investment Advisor, IDG Ventures India.

According to Alok Mittal, General Partner, Canaan Partners, the most successful internet companies in India are subscription based or lead generating like Naukri.com. But despite not meeting expected results, internet companies are still amongst the most favored by VCs. "We expect these companies to do better as when the internet penetration picks up and monetization models are clearer," said DFJ's Maheshwari.

According to Venture Intelligence, 21 percent of the VC deals struck between July 2008 and June 2009 were in internet services. The value of these deals was around $120 million.

Amazon.com finds competitor in Google in e-books

Seeking to find common ground with authors, who have complained about copyright violations through search services, Google plans
later this year to begin distributing and selling e-books on behalf of its publishing partners.

"We've consistently maintained that we're committed to helping our partners find more ways to make their books accessible and available for purchase," Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said confirming the move first reported by the New York Times.

"By end of this year, we hope to give publisher partners an additional way to sell their books by allowing users to purchase access to partner programme books online," he said in an e-mail to InformationWeek, a leading source for information technology news.

"We want to build and support a digital book ecosystem to allow our partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any Web-enabled device."

Google is anxious to find common ground with authors, who have complained about copyright violations in the past through services like Google Book Search.

Formerly known as Google Print, Google Book Search was introduced in 2004 and targeted by publishers and their lawyers the following year for digitising books without the permission of copyright holders.

A proposed settlement of that lawsuit is currently being reviewed by the courts and the US Department of Justice.

Google's e-book sales service will be made available to participants in the Google Book Service Partner Programme, a marketing programme for promoting books through Google Book Search.

If Google succeeds in making peace with authors and publishers, it may find itself competing more directly against Amazon.com, the publication said.

Amazon gave up competing against Google Search in 2006 when it closed its A9 search engine, but Amazon Web Services, the company's on-demand computing infrastructure service, remains a strong contender against Google App Engine.

With its Kindle e-book reading devices, Amazon has been building the infrastructure and market for electronic texts on portable devices, a transition in reading technology that's been anticipated for a decade, but never fully realised.

Apple too will soon release its iPhone 3.0 operating system, which will bring e-book sales opportunities to the iPhone's many e-book reading apps, InformationWeek said.

Apple is rumoured to be working on tablet computing device, a form factor ideal for reading e-books. Other players, like Sony, see a future in e-books, too.

Agencies

SAP Unviels Co-Innovation Lab in Bangalore

SAP AG formally launched its Co-Innovation Lab in Bangalore, the third such lab in the world by the company. The lab that started its operation in October last year, joins the league of similar labs in Palo Alto and Tokyo. "The main goal of this lab is to create a platform for collaboration between SAP and its customers and partners on solutions to different challenges in the industry", said Satyajit Singh Mecker, Senior Vice President, Global Ecosystem and Partner Group.

The SAP Co-Innovation Lab hosts a simulated heterogeneous datacenter, integrating hardware and software from SAP and other participating sponsors. "This lab is not like a R&D lab, but it is a real lab, where partners and customers can solve their problems by collaboration", said Satyajit.

Wipro Technologies, a SAP partner, was one of the first to benefit from this SAP initiative. An Insurance Claims Analytics solution was developed by Wipro by working on a platform that was developed in the SAP Co-Innovation Lab. Some of the other partners associated with the lab include Cisco, HP and Intel.

SAP India that now has over 3,800 customers with 2,900 SMEs in the list, wants to tap the potential in the Indian market by this collaborative effort. "India, especially Bangalore has been a region that has seen explosive growth and the global meltdown has not diminished its stature in the global market", said Dr. Axel Henning Saleck, Vice President and Head of the Global SAP Co-Innovation Labs.

"In 2006, SAP had announced a total investment of one billion dollar in India over 5 years and establishment of this lab is part of the investment", said Satyajit. According to Satyajit, the company sees tremendous potential in the Indian market in segments like information technology, engineering, construction, chemicals and automotive. "The current challenge that we see in India is to maintain a balance between customers and partners and keep the focus right", added Satyajit.

Agencies

Samsung partners BSNL, MTNL for 3G services

Korean electronic major Samsung said it has partnered state-run telecos BSNL and MTNL to provide high-end handsets for their 3G services and is looking at up to 45 per cent of its total sales being generated from multimedia and touchscreen phones.

"We have partnered BSNL and MTNL to promote 3G services in India. We are currently giving a special bundling offer for BSNL consumers on our select handsets for 3G services," Samsung India Electronics President and CEO Jung Soo Shin said.

He said, "We have also provided handsets to MTNL to offer 3G services in Delhi."

Samsung today launched an 8 megapixel touchscreen, 3G enabled phone 'Ultra' priced at Rs 27,500 in India. The handset is capable of offering speedy internet access, video telephony, streaming and multimedia services.

"Samsung already has four touchscreen phones available in the Indian market, all of these are 3G enabled," Shin said.

"We are looking at touchscreen and multimedia phone portfolio to contribute 40-45 per cent of our total sales by the end of the year," Samsung Telecom Division Country Head Sunil Dutt said.

Agencies

Progress Software target insurance, airlines sectors in India

Progress Software Corporation is targeting the insurance, logistics, BFSI and airlines sectors that are mushrooming with many foreign players coming into India.

The provider of application infrastructure software for the development, deployment, integration and management of business applications is looking to partner with domestic consultants with large working knowledge in these sectors.

Talking to CXOtoday, Jezmynn Koh, marketing manager, Asia, of Progress Software, said, "We see a very large potential for us in these sectors and, along with the business knowledge of our partners, we expect to grow big in India. This year we see big-time growth for the BFSI, telecom and insurance sectors."

In fact, the company has already selected a partner - Hasel Fre Solutions - who have business knowledge in the insurance sector. "Likewise, we are now looking for partners in the logistics, BFSI and airlines sectors," she said.

Progress Software's OpenEdge platform enables companies like QAE and Epicor to build an ERP solution on top of it. So, several companies in the BFSI, telecom and also public-sector undertaking sectors have customized the platform as per their requirements.

OpenEdge has been the "cash cows" for Progress Software for many years and contributes almost 70% to the company's revenues.

In the telecom space, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has been managing data backend integration using Progress COBRA software so that switch-makers can integrate a totally different billing system. "With the fast growth in the telecom sector, most telecom companies face system integration challenges," said Koh.

Similarly, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has built a customized ERP solution on top of OpenEdge software for buying, selling and distribution for the last many years..

Besides, Progress also sells through their strategic partners - Wipro, TCS, Infosys and Satyam. Regarding continuing partnership with Satyam, Koh said her company will continue to partner as long as there is a business need for different projects.

CXOtoday.com