Top Honours at Barclays Supplier Awards 2015-16 for Intelenet Global Services

Intelenet Global Services, a leading Indian exporter of BPM services is recognized as the ‘Supplier of the Year’ for year 2015-16 by Barclays, a transatlantic consumer, corporate and investment bank offering products and services across personal, corporate and investment banking, credit cards and wealth management. Intelenet has been acknowledged for its outstanding contribution in delivering service excellence and coming up with innovative solutions that provide sustainable benefits to Barclays.

Barclays organized the third edition of its annual ‘Go-To’ Supplier Awards to celebrate the contributions of those suppliers that have exceeded expectations. Intelenet was chosen and felicitated the award by Ashok Vaswani, Chief Executive Officer – Barclays UK.

From a global supply base of many thousands, Intelenet was announced as the winner of the Supplier of the Year award in recognition for implementing colleague development programmes, tools and processes, reducing takeover fraud, increasing customer advocacy and also providing incredible support during the Chennai flood disaster.

Intelenet has been investing in newer technologies as well as tapping in-house tools with an agenda to enhance customer experiences in an era that is seeing disruption and design thinking across sectors. Always keeping its clients first, Intelenet presents its clients with solutions that meet basic goals from cost savings to business transformation. Clients also derive tremendous value from Intelenet’s ability to consistently provide operational excellence, significant cost reduction and energized partnerships. The entire Intelenet team, from executives to front-line agents, puts the customer first.

Microsoft & 100 NGOs Partner Globally to Close Computer Science Education Skills Gap

Today, Microsoft Philanthropies announced grants for over 100 nonprofit organizations in 55 countries, including NASSCOM Foundation and QUEST Alliance in India. The grants are a component of the $75M commitment Microsoft made to increase access to computer science education around the world through Microsoft YouthSpark, as announced by Satya Nadella last year. 

Microsoft is partnering with these nonprofits by providing cash grants, content and other resources they need to bring computational thinking and problem-solving skills to young people in local communities, important building blocks to help them succeed in today’s tech-fueled economy.

“Computational thinking and problem-solving skills will be relevant to every job in the future,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Through our partnerships with nonprofit organizations around the world, we aim to empower all youth to prepare for this future with the foundational knowledge of computer science to dream and create the innovations of tomorrow.”

Here in India, the grant that Microsoft Philanthropies made to NASSCOM Foundation and QUEST Alliance will enable under-served youth to embrace computer science through developingcomputer programming curriculum and integrating IT and computer science training into current employability & entrepreneurship curriculum respectively.

NASSCOM Foundation:  Through the Code A Future project, NASSCOM Foundation will introduce and promote Computer Science to under-served youth and encourage them to pursue higher courses in advanced computing and leverage these skills for future employment. Nasscom will develop basic and advanced computer programming curriculum and partner with local organizations to deliver the training to 12,000 youth.

QUEST Alliance: With support from Microsoft YouthSpark, Quest Alliance will develop a toolkit focused on integrating IT and computer science training into current employability and entrepreneurship curriculum. The computer science modules will be customized for the Indian context and will include easy to understand classroom activities, work sheets, interactive peer engagements and video case studies. Instructor training and orientation materials will be included to ensure trainers are able to easily adopt methodologies and content, with continuous virtual support provided by QUEST through its online trainer support platform. The program aims to reach 20,000 youth with a special focus on reaching young women. All materials, approach and tools developed under this initiative will be scaled across QUEST and Microsoft India partners in order to build capacity of youth serving organizations to integrate computer science in existing employability & entrepreneurship programs for under-served youth.

Manju Dhasmana, Lead – Community Affairs at Microsoft India, said, “Microsoft is deeply invested in the success of India’s youth by empowering them in three core areas - education, employment, and entrepreneurship. We see our work with nonprofits as a partnership where we can bring to the table our resources and tech expertise to some of the organizations that are already making impact with young people in our community.”

Closing the computer science skills gap and reaching young people on a global scale is a multi-faceted challenge that cannot be solved by one organization or solution alone. Microsoft’s partnerships with nonprofit organizations mean that more young people around the world—particularly underserved communities, girls and ethnic and racially diverse populations-will have access to computer science education, helping build skills critical for future success.

Design Conclave 2016 Aspiring Designers in Bengaluru on April 23

Aiming at inspiring creative minds, ‘Design Conclave 2016’ is here to create a breakthrough in the Indian Education System by playing an important catalyst in the field of design. To be held on April 23 in Bengaluru, the Design Conclave aims at comforting aspiring designers with vast opportunities that design has to offer and how students can make the best out of a career in Design.

The premier design conclave to witness design stalwarts, students, creative evangelists, design and engineering professionals and educators from the field of architecture, engineering and construction and media. The conclave aims at disseminating actionable knowledge that people can use and apply immediately in their creations for conceiving new products and improving the existing ones. This conclave is all about experiencing how design can create a competitive advantage for aspiring designers and help them to discover new opportunities for further growth.

To be held at The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru, this conclave is one such unique initiative that brings together industry experts to share their views and experiences related to design. This year, the conclave will provide an opportunity to come face to face with illustrious speakers from design industry, such as Biren Ghoshe, leader in animation and visual effects and country head of Technicolor, India, Manoviraj Khosla, leading fashion designer of international repute, Sanju Mathew, Manager Digital Sculpting at General Motors, India, and Ninad Panse, CEO of DSK International Campus in Pune.

Through panel discussions, these industry experts will share their experiences about the trends, technology developments, case studies, design processes and the role of design and other forms of media in building and sustaining a brand’s value. “Design has played a crucial role in bringing a change in the industry. The future is completely based on innovation as India is becoming a trendsetter with respect to the contribution made in the field of industrial designing that has been well accepted globally. The get inspired sessions at the conclave will definitely leverage one’s experience and expertise to create unique learning opportunities,” said Ninad Panse, CEO of DSK International Campus. 

Fourth Batch of the Target Accelerator Program Will Work Wellness, IoT & Retail Technologies

Target India has announced the launch of its accelerator program’s fourth batch. Five startups, Preksh, MintM, Uncanny Vision, Lechal and Lawbot were selected to develop disruptive ideas relevant to Target’s business. Broadening the scope of Target’s accelerator program, the latest batch will work in the areas of wellness, Internet of Things (IoT) and retail technologies.

“Our sustained effort to tap into India’s innovation potential has led to the success of our accelerator program,” said Navneet Kapoor, President and Managing Director, Target India. “We’re excited to have this latest batch focus on potentially game-changing technologies as well as areas of opportunities for Target like wellness and IoT.”

The five startups selected for the Target Accelerator Program include:

·         Preksh leverages visual merchandising in the store to create rich online experiences

·         MintM is an in-store customer engagement platform

·         Uncanny Vision is a computer vision processing library

·         Lechal is an interactive, haptic footwear

·         Lawbot is an automated platform that analyzes legal contracts

As a part of our commitment to foster Target’s entrepreneurial spirit, the fourth batch also includes two internal teams in addition to the startups. These are as follows:

·  A versus C will provide tools to better understand online shopping cart abandonment

·  Hashtag Shopping will enable shopping on social media through conversational commerce    

First India’s Private Sector Bank to Open Dedicated Branch for Startups

RBL Bank, one of India's fastest growing private sector banks today announced the launch of an exclusive branch for start-ups. RBL Bank will be the first private sector Bank to open a specialized branch for start-ups offering a bouquet of banking products to service the end-to-end needs of the emerging entrepreneurial eco-system.

The branch was inaugurated at Koramangala, Bengaluru, has by Nandan Nilekani, noted entrepreneur and former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India. RBL Bank’s Chairman, Narayan Ramachandran and Rajeev Ahuja, Head – Strategy were present on the occasion.

The dedicated branch will assist entrepreneurs in setting up new companies or enterprises and offers a host of banking products including, foreign exchange services, remittances and cash management. The Branch will also provide a range of value added services including registration, legal and tax formalities etc. through its affiliates and partners.

RBL Bank Chairman Narayan Ramachandran said, “At RBL, we stand at the intersection of entrepreneurs, ideas, technology and banking services.  We provide a full range of banking services to fast-growing start-ups, in the language they speak — seamless technology, ease and speed. Our rapidly growing set of innovative start-ups has demanded that we rise to the challenge and deliver services that are responsive to their fast-evolving needs.  As an established bank in a renewed startup avatar, we can empathise with the journey of our startup clients, and have organised the Bank's technical capabilities and speed of response to match this requirement.”

Rajeev Ahuja, Head - Strategy, RBL Bank, noted, “Our latest offering in this comprehensive bouquet of services for innovative companies and start-ups is an exclusive branch for start-ups, located in Koramangala, at the epicentre of India's start-up revolution.  This is not merely a branch where a startup entrepreneur will walk up and ask for a current account or a remittance.  There will be all that and much more.  We expect to have conversations about Application Program Interface (API) banking, large volume electronic payments (IMPS/NEFT/RTGS) and receivables, prepaid cards-based solutions, escrow services, Universal Payment Interface (UPI), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), Direct Money Transfer (DMT) and so on.”

As another arrow in the quiver of offerings, the Bank is also at the forefront of supporting the emerging venture debt market in India. The Bank was an anchor investor in Trifecta Capital’s Venture Debt Fund, the first Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) of its kind in India. As part of its strategy, the Bank is also focusing on industry-wise specialists in wholesale lending, e-commerce and new-tech business. It has also made significant strides in e-lending through tie-ups and partnerships.

Earlier this year, RBL Bank launched India StartUp Club (ISC), a fast track program to support early stage companies with a basket of banking services to jumpstart their operations. This includes a Green Channel for Account Setup, Payroll Services, Cash Management, trade and foreign exchange service, escrow accounts, transaction banking solutions (API banking for managing various payment/receivable needs), Customised Debit Cards and a dedicated hotline to address the 24x7 needs of these high growth companies.

India StartUp Club also partners with various referral service providers and forums to provide a host of value added services for the startup community. The non-banking solutions offered through referral partners include, enterprise registration services (online CA), office space/meeting room services, human resource management system, social media marketing and branding, and customer relationship management. This empowers the start-ups to build and grow their businesses by offering multiple options under one roof at a special price.

BT & CIOs Together Work to Achieve the Digital Transformation

BT has announced the launch of “The Digital Possible”, a global initiative aimed at empowering CIOs to better embrace ambitious digital transformation agendas for large services, building on insight from its most recent research, “The BT CIO report 2016 – the digital CIO”.

According to BT’s survey of 1030 senior IT decision makers based in eleven countries, CIOs around the world are embracing digital transformation to reinvent their organisations’ processes and systems. The impact of digital is such that the importance of the CIO at boardroom level continues to rise; 72 per cent of senior IT decision makers say that the CIO has become more central in the boardroom over the last two years and 43 per cent of CIOs say that they now spend more time dealing with corporate issues.

The flip side of this trend is that CIOs find themselves increasingly challenged to find the time to develop creative solutions for the business. Close to two-thirds (61 per cent) of senior IT decision makers feel that the CIO is spending more time maintaining current IT systems than searching for new solutions. That is a drop from 2014, when the figure was 74 per cent, but shows that despite ambitions for digital transformation, the CIO still has to deal with legacy systems.

The BT CIO report 2016 also shows that CIOs are clear on the most disruptive technology trends – cloud, mobility and collaboration, and data. According to the report, a fifth of global organisations are already completely cloud-centric, and a further 46 per cent have more than half their applications and infrastructure in the cloud.

With the CIO acting as a catalyst, 76 per cent of large organisations across the world have, or plan to adopt, a ‘multi-speed’ approach to technology-led initiatives. This involves more creativity, more flexibility and a more dynamic operating model. According to BT’s research, 65 per cent of CIOs are also noting rapid changes in the KPIs measuring their own performance, with a clear trend putting digital transformation at the centre of all their activities.

In 72 per cent of organisations covered by BT’s latest research, multiple teams are sourcing and commissioning core IT products and services without the involvement of the IT function. The latest research suggests that the IT function is growing more comfortable with providing an overall enablement role, with a particular focus on data security, a suitably powerful infrastructure and ensuring there are no duplications of effort across the organisation. These changing responsibilities underlie the new role of the digital CIO which operates horizontally, across the business as an enabler.

Responding to digital transformation’s remarkable acceleration, BT will announce in the coming weeks and months a new wave of innovative services, accelerating the execution of its Cloud of Clouds portfolio strategy. They will cover the technologies identified by the BT CIO report 2016 as being the most disruptive: cloud, mobility and collaboration, and data.

These new launches will cover all areas of the Global Services portfolio, and include:

·         UK and global mobility services leveraging BT’s recent acquisition of EE;

·         unique real time big data analysis capabilities put to the service of customer relationship management;

·         further expansion of cloud connectivity as well as additional software defined networks and consultancy capabilities;

·         new ways of customising cloud services to meet the needs of individual organisations and industry sectors;

·         new security and professional services capabilities will accompany those investments, empowering CIOs to make the bold decisions required on their digital journey.

“The pace of digital change is creating new opportunities for our customers and those opportunities require quick responses. The role of the digital CIO is one of the most demanding in business. They need to be strategic, creative, growth-minded and cost conscious,” says Luis Alvarez, CEO of Global Services. “They have to understand technology and people, and balance control and safety with enablement and speed. They are becoming the pioneers of change. To be successful, they now require strategic partnerships within and beyond their organisation. We are well placed to be their digital enabler. Today, we are committing to accelerate investments in our Cloud of Clouds portfolio to help them fully uncover and realise their own ‘Digital Possible’.”

73% Indians View Entrepreneurship Positively: Amway India Entrepreneurship Report 2015

Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge), Rajiv Pratap Rudy released the India Entrepreneurship Report 2015 by Amway. The reports aims to understand the latent enthusiasm for entrepreneurship in the country, as well as factors that motivate and obstruct the creation of new enterprises.

Research partner Nielsen India surveyed 250 households in each of the 21 states across 50 different cities. One male and one female member in the 21-65 age group were interviewed from each household taking the total no of respondents to 10,768 individuals (Male 5,402 and Female 5,366).

Unveiling the report, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said, “The contribution of MSME sector (Micro, Small and medium enterprises) in India, is much less as compared to some of the developed nations. This needs to change. It is critical that there is entrepreneurship led boom at the grass root level so that India can leverage the demographic dividend to the maximum possible extent. The understanding of motivations, attitudes towards entrepreneurship, offers valuable insight to the policy makers.”

Anshu Budhraja, CEO, Amway India, said, “We are aiming to engage different stakeholders on what drives entrepreneurship in India and contribute to the on-going discussions on the role of skill development and self-employment in improving employability of the youth.

Entrepreneurship is a way for people to realise a better life for themselves and their families. Entrepreneurs also create jobs and encourage competition. They spur economic growth and bring opportunities to communities. So, it’s important that businesses like Amway know how entrepreneurs think and act in order to better support and encourage them.”

Two-Thirds of Indians view entrepreneurship positively

Entrepreneurship is valued in India. India Entrepreneurship Report 2015 reports tangible enthusiasm for entrepreneurship as being a good prospect to earn a livelihood in India, with nearly two-thirds of the respondents viewing it favourably. Kerala (78 percent), Punjab (77 percent) and Uttarakhand (76 percent) were the states with most positive attitude towards entrepreneurship.

 Access to finance (41 percent) and Family support (35 percent) emerged as the most important factors to start one’s own business. 73 percent of the respondents believe that anyone can be trained/ educated to be an entrepreneur. 62 percent of all respondents thought that the education they had right now was sufficient to start their own business.

Nearly 50% of respondents considering to start their own business

Almost one in two respondents (47 percent), said that they had either thought about starting their own business or are actively pursuing one. Overall, 19 percent of respondents said that they are “very open to starting a new business and in fact are actively pursuing one”. Jharkhand has the highest number of respondents (60 percent) who say that they are actively pursuing a new business, followed by Uttarakhand (40 percent) and Uttar Pradesh (29 percent).

Environment for entrepreneurs to start business in India has improved

Nearly half of all respondents (45 percent) said the environment to begin a business in their state has improved over the past five years. 11 percent of the respondents felt that the environment has ‘improved significantly’.

Financial institutions play a key role

83 percent respondents voted banks as their main port of call for starting a business. This insight clearly point to the role of financial institutions in fostering and facilitating entrepreneurship. Friends and family came second on this index with 78 percent.

Fear of Failure

Across gender, income and age, the fear of failure emerges as a clear obstacle to starting a business with 63 percent of the overall respondents saying so. The fear of failure is composed of different factors. 31 percent of respondents found “financial burdens up to bankruptcy” as the “most important” cause for the fear. Non-conducive market conditions (24 percent) and fear of unemployment (23 percent) were the other key causes of the fear.