3G services From Idea Now Available in Punjab

Committed to providing affordable and seamless mobile data services across India, Idea Cellular, the country’s 3^rd largest and fastest growing mobile operator, announced the launch of 3G services in Punjab today. Idea’s national 3G footprint now covers 28 Indian states, with its own network set up across 13 large states, and through Intra Circle Roaming (ICR) agreements in the rest of the country. 

Idea’s 3G network in Punjab will offer an experience ‘Like Never Before’ to customers who have waited anxiously for the state’s oldest, and most preferred mobile operator, to launch 3G services. Starting from - the Capital city of Chandigarh; to the progressive, agricultural belts of Nawanshahr, Jagraon, Malerkotla and Nabha; to the industrial hub of Ludhiana – Idea’s 3G network will grow to cover 170 towns across the state with 1800 3G cell sites by the end of FY15.

Speaking at the launch event, P Lakshminarayana, Chief Operating Officer - Corporate, Idea Cellular said, “Having witnessed consistent growth over the last 5 years, Idea is now well poised for the next wave of mobile broadband revolution, and has been investing in spectrum acquisition, network expansion, enhancing sales and service delivery channels, to proliferate mobile data services across the country. Our recent spectrum win in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz band has now given us the ability to further expand our 3G network, and launch 4G services in key revenue markets including Punjab, at an appropriate juncture.”

Idea is one of the leading mobile operators and the fastest growing in Punjab with a revenue market share of 21.3% as on Q3 FY14. With a network footprint of 4,553 sites, Idea offers 2G coverage across 227 towns and 12,103 villages in Punjab. The company is now investing in setting up a robust 3G network in the state and has the ability to launch 4G services, as well, in future. This will make Idea the only operator to offer all three mobility technologies - GSM, 3G and 4G – in Punjab, in the next few years. 

Talking about Idea’s 3G offerings, Sudhir Pradhan, Chief Operating Officer – Punjab, J&K and HP, Idea Cellular said, “Idea is the only pan-India GSM operator to offer 3G services in Punjab and we assure our customers of a 3G experience ‘Like Never Before’. Idea’s 3G services will offer enhanced user experience to subscribers, allowing them to stream audio and video files at high speed, enjoy social networking, and watch movies, mobile TV and play HD Games. With a wide range of 3G data usage plans and Idea-branded 3G devices at attractive prices and affordable EMIs, Idea customers can now conveniently switch from 2G to 3G in Punjab.“

Idea’s robust distribution channel comprising of over 800 distributors, 60,000 retailers and more than 100 Idea showrooms, including special 3G Experience Zones, will enable customers to avail and enjoy 3G  services ‘like never before’.

Idea’s 3G tariff plans in Punjab have been designed to suit all pockets. From packs priced at Rs. 19 for 80MB data valid for 2 days, to Rs. 56 for 200MB for 7 days, and Rs. 98 for 300MB valid for 28 days, it also has unlimited 3G plans starting from Rs. 645 for uninterrupted data services for heavy data consumers. Idea will also be introducing a range of affordable 3G devices like high speed 3G NetSetter, Idea Netsmart Wi-fi Dongles, and Idea Smartphones in the Punjab market.

2 New Apps From The Beer Café for Beer Enthusiasts

The Beer Café recently launched an eponymous mobile app available on the Google Play Store and the App store (iOS). The app developed by SnapLion has brilliant features wherein you can browse through menus, photos, upcoming events & weekly promotions. The user interface is clean and simple with graphics that tempt you to head on over for a chilled mug. The app also includes a playlist wherein you can choose to download or buy the featured songs. There are special offers for loyal customers as well. You may also order “Beer on Wheels” directly from the app with just so much as lifting your finger! 

Says Rahul Singh, founder and CEO, The Beer Cafe "We wanted to tap into technology to reach out to our customers directly, keeping them up to date with all our events and promotions. The official app gives patrons an easy access to information as well as exclusive offers at The Beer Café. We also have a loyalty program, the idea of which is to increase repeat visits."

The Beer Café also launched another cool and exciting jukebox app with Hopp- Mylo. Just scan the QR code and you can now control the jukebox at The Beer Café location you are visiting. You can choose 3 songs on each visit/per hour from their featured playlist.

"With the Hopp app we want to engage our customers by allowing them to play their favourites or dedicate a tune. It's great beer paired with great music- The perfect combination! Hopp is jukebox re-invented that queues every song request. We have popular rock and commercial songs playing at the outlets and the playlist gets updated every 15 days.", adds Rahul Singh.

The Beer Café is India’s first PYOB (Pour your own beer) chain, the only café in India with a range of 50 different varieties of Beer from across 17 countries in the world. With 10 outlets “pouring” and 21 more locations planned for this year, The Beer Café is poised to become the largest, fastest and most profitable alcobeverage service brand in India.

The Beer Cafe app is available for download on the Google and App Stores. It carries details about all the outlets.

Wonderla Topline Grows at 12% in FY 2014; Recommends 15% Dividend

Wonderla Holidays Limited, which had a spectacular debut on the bourses earlier this month has declared its financial results for the full year ended March 31, 2014 at the Board Meeting held in Bangalore today. The company has reported operating income of Rs 15362.58 lakhs as on March 31, 2014 which is an increase of 11.44% compared to Rs 13785.05 lakhs earned on March 31, 2013.

The total turnover has grown by 11.94% to Rs 15600.60 lakhs in FY ’14 as against Rs 13936.90 lakhs on March 31, 2013. The Profit after Tax (PAT) has grown 18.76% to Rs 3989.20 lakhs  from Rs 3358.93 lakhs a year ago. The company has also recorded an impressive EBIDTA growth of 13.48% at Rs 7274.29 lakhs last year compared Rs 6410.27 lakhs  registered on March 31, 2013

Commenting on the company’s performance, Arun Chittilappilly, Managing Director, Wonderla Holidays Limited said, “We are happy to report robust growth in an overall challenging business environment. We recently had a good debut on the bourses and once again would like to thank all our stakeholders and investors. We will continue to innovate and take amusement park entertainment to greater heights in India.”The Board of Directors of the Company at their meeting held on May 28, 2014, inter alia, have recommended a final dividend of Rs. 1.50 per share (15%) for the year ended March 31, 2014 subject to the approval of shareholders in ensuing Annual General Meeting.

The company recorded a total footfall of 22.92 lakhs  as on March 31, 2014  compared to the total footfall of 23.40 lakhs for the year ending March 31, 2013.

SAP Empowers Partners to Strengthen Indian Ecosystem

Acknowledging the resounding success and power of a vibrant ecosystem SAP AG today reinforced its strategy of accelerating the Indian ecosystem by announcing an integrated approach to strengthen its newly launched OEM and ISV programs and encouraging partners to leverage the Managed Cloud as a Service (MCaaS) model to provide enhanced value to businesses. The announcement was made at SAP India Partner Summit 2014, being held in Mumbai, India on May 28-29.  

SAP has ambitious goals for 2015 – to double the size of our addressable market, achieve revenue of euro 20 billion and reach 1 billion people – goals which can only be reached as an open innovator in collaboration with our rich partner ecosystem.  With more than 420 partners today in India, SAP provides both local and worldwide support for all SAP markets and solutions to help fuel innovation and provide choice for customers of all sizes. By 2015, at least 40 percent of SAP’s software revenue will come from partners.

“Speed-to-market is the winning edge in today’s highly networked economy, and that’s why our partners are adopting SAP technologies for use in their solutions. They want to expedite development and create innovative offerings without having to invest more in R&D. When they turn to SAP business innovation platforms they accelerate their development, they help grow the ecosystem, which in turn fuels more innovation.” said Anthony McMahon, Senior Vice President, Global Partner Operations, SAP Asia Pacific Japan.

Developed to support partners with latest innovations, often tailored to a specific industry or use case by the ecosystem, SAP’s new approach aims to lead to a future of personalized products and services. Some of the key highlights announced at the Partner Summit include:  *  Strategic Roadmap for strengthening Partner Programs: So far, SAP has supplied only some of its products, such as Sybase DB and BusinessObjects, to its OEM and ISV partners, but it will now begin providing additional offering such as enterprise applications, mobility, SAP HANA and cloud solutions, to its partners. This means that OEM and ISV partners can provide offerings combining their industry-specific products with SAP solutions.

* OEM Program: Going forward, partners can embed SAP’s world-class solutions and platforms directly into their own applications – for greater market potential – by becoming an SAP OEM Partner. This will enable them to build more robust, more reliable products for less – and give customers the best of both worlds: unparalleled SAP functionality backed by a deep industry knowledge and expertise. SAP is cooperating with 2,000 companies around the world based on OEM partnerships.

* In India, Rolta- a leading provider of innovative IT solutions, leverages SAP’s big data, mobility and cloud technologies for managing its OneView Enterprise Suite and recently won the SAP Pinnacle Award for ‘OEM of the Year’.

* iCreate, a Banking Decision Sciences pioneer, delivers enhanced enterprise information management capability to the global banking sector in collaboration with SAP. iCreate has integrated its banking solution with BI solutions with SAP. This partnership is aligned with a shared vision between iCreate and SAP to help banks run their businesses faster and better with informed decisions. 

* Broader ISV Program: SAP also extended its commitment to a broad-based program for ISV’s in this market called “PartnerEdge for Application Development”.  Through this program, ISV’s of all sizes can develop, embed or migrate their products to SAP platform, currently consisting of 6 innovation packs ranging from Analytics, In-Memory computing, Mobile development platform and Database. With this exhaustive portfolio, SAP is ideally positioned to co-innovate with ISV’s to help take their products to the next level and exploit market opportunities today and in the future. India is a strategic market unit for SAP’s ISV business and SAP aims to grow its ISV engagement three-fold in the current year.

* Some of the key partners who have enrolled for this program are: TAKE Solutions, Arteria Technologies, Vantage Agora Inc, Defiance Technologies.

* Betting Big on MCaaS: Partners are increasingly embracing SAP’s MCaaS deployment model to reach out to a broader customer base and penetrate segments for whom on-premise deployments are either unmanageable or unaffordable. MCaaS reduces total IT costs by 30% compared to an on-premise deployment. SAP continues to encourage its partners to leverage this innovative program to cater to unique needs and growth ambitions of customers in India. 

* Partners like NTT Data Solutions is taking SAP HCM solutions to a large number of customers by leveraging their domain expertise in the HCM area and the simplicity of the managed cloud offering.

* Similarly, IT Champs, a premier consulting house that offers ERP in Cloud through MCaaS for customers based in upcountry locations in Karnataka and rest of South India.

* Compuage Infocom Ltd., leading IT Distribution Company based in Bangalore has partnered with SAP to offer SAP Business One offering to its target customers through managed cloud.

Additionally, reinforcing its commitment to building and expanding a qualified ecosystem, SAP India today felicitated 14 winners with the SAP Partner Awards 2014. The award recognized the best partners in India for having supported high business value for enterprises of all sizes and in every major vertical segment.

App Gives Android Users New Shopping Convenience

Myntra.com, a leading fashion e-tailer today announced the launch of its mobile shopping application for Android phones. The design and user interface of the app have been optimized for all Android devices and is intended to serve as an alternate vista to the large number of shoppers that log on to Myntra.com on the move. With high quality fashionable imagery, simplistic and clutter free layout, the app is designed to make browsing convenient as shoppers can maneuver through the 60,000+ products with ease.

India is currently the world’s fastest growing smartphone market fueled by the dominance of sub Rs 15,000 smartphones. The year 2013 saw a Y-o-Y growth of 172.2% with over 41 million units shipped across the country. According to IAMAI, India will have 185 million mobile internet users by June 2014.

Speaking on the launch, Shamik Sharma, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Myntra, said “We have seen an incredible amount of activity on the m-commerce front. Several studies conducted by us project that smartphones will be the preferred mode of shopping online in the next 12 – 18 months. Already, close to 30% of our business is driven by m-commerce and with the launch of our mobile app, we expect this number to grow to 50% by end of this fiscal (March 2015).”

To assist quick browsing through the vast collection is the user friendly and powerful ‘filter’ option. The elaborate filter not only sorts through common parameters like size, brand, shades, and price, but is also equipped to sort through nuanced requirements like waist rise, distressing, material treatments etc.

Shoppers have the option to share their shortlisted products with their family and friends via sms, email and social media channels. After finalizing one’s purchases, the checkout process is easy to follow with various payment options such as Cash on Delivery, Credit Card, Debit Card and Net Banking.

Blue Star & Grasp Tech Broadens Partnership

Blue Star Infotech, the global software services and solutions provider today announced the broadening of its strategic partnership with Grasp Technologies Inc., a leading provider of custom reporting, data management, and data consolidation solutions. Through this expansion, both organizations will continue to build a 360 degree relationship that will include joint product development, service delivery, go to market and customer engagement.

Blue Star Infotech will offer solutions based on Grasp’s platform and will bolster its implementation services / solutions delivery. Furthermore, a joint go-to-market strategy will complement both Blue Star Infotech and Graph’s plan to cross leverage mutual synergies and address business reporting problems for their customers worldwide.

After Blue Star Infotech’s strategic investment in Activecubes India Pvt. Ltd., a leading provider of Business Intelligence and Analytics Solutions in the last fiscal year, the partnership with Grasp will further enhance its capacity in the analytics sector with diverse world class solutions. Commenting on the occasion, Sanjeev Sethi, President, Blue Star Infotech (America), Inc. said, “We see this association as an opportunity to utilize Grasp’s expertise to expand our prospects and build even more robust solutions. By combining our strengths, we are well suited to handle the increased traction in BI and Analytics across any number of industry verticals. This will further enhance our capabilities and strengthen our foothold in the global analytics market which is growing exponentially.”

As a part of this partnership, the two companies will work together to develop solutions that will address the emerging needs of their customers in the BI and Analytics sector. It will provide a significant potential for both companies to accelerate their growth momentum and strengthen their ability to serve a large base of customers.

“Partners have always been a key part of our growth strategy at Grasp and we are pleased to work more closely with our partners at Blue Star Infotech.  We have found that our companies, teams, and cultures complement each other very well.” said Dave Lukas, Vice President, Grasp Technologies, Inc. "With Blue Star Infotech, we have a strategic partner that brings a lot of experience and knowledge across many different business verticals and is committed to innovation in the same way we are at Grasp. Our partnership provides us with access to their deep knowledge, capacity and delivery excellence in product engineering which will allows us to accelerate solutions delivery while sustaining world class quality and service standards. We also see great opportunity for creating new engagement opportunities and extending the benefits of our expertise in BI and Analytics space to more businesses across the globe. ”

Marie Hattar Appointed New CMO of Check Point

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, has announced the appointment of Marie Hattar as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Hattar will lead Check Point’s brand and global marketing efforts, including product and solutions marketing, corporate marketing, field marketing, corporate communications and partner marketing. She and her team will drive Check Point’s corporate positioning strategy, messaging and communications to both internal and external audiences.

Hattar brings over 20 years of marketing leadership experience spanning the security, routing, switching, telecom, and mobility markets. Prior to joining Check Point, she was vice president at Cisco where she led the company’s enterprise networking and security portfolios. Prior to Cisco, she worked at Nortel Networks, AlteonWebSystems, and Shasta Networks in senior marketing and CTO positions.

Amnon Bar-Lev, president at Check Point Software Technologies said, "Marie brings a unique blend of marketing leadership, analytical thinking, sales focus and thought leadership to Check Point. She is a key addition to our executive team; her knowledge and insights will enhance our strategic focus on delivering best-in-breed products, while increasing Check Point’s brand awareness and accelerating our growth in the security marketplace.”

Hattar received her Master of Business Administration from York University and her Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto.She will be based at the Check Point U.S. headquarters in San Carlos, California.