Students Can Now Learn From SAP Cloud Library

SAP AG has announced a cloud-based offering designed for students to incorporate the study of SAP solutions into university coursework. The student edition of SAP Learning Hub offers a comprehensive library of electronic content that universities can provide to students for self-study covering close to 150 SAP solutions. It also includes access to e-learning courses, handbooks and other training materials from the SAP Education organization tailored for students’ needs. Through the student edition of SAP Learning Hub, students can prepare for future employment on their chosen career path or prepare for SAP certification exams. This is the latest edition of the new and expanded version of the cloud-based SAP Learning Hub site announced earlier this year.  

Universities can purchase access to the student edition of SAP Learning Hub on behalf of students who then receive access to the site. With a wide range of high-quality content and optional live access to training systems from SAP, students will be set up to train when and where they choose. Students can also access social learning rooms to collaborate with peers and interact with SAP subject-matter experts. The student edition is offered at a lower entry price point for the academic sector, with optional access to live SAP training systems for select courses.

“The generation currently enrolled in universities around the world represents the workforce of the future and both SAP and our ecosystem stand to gain from this impending influx of talent,” said Markus Schwarz, senior vice president and global head of SAP Education. “With social collaboration features and interactive learning rooms, the student edition of SAP Learning Hub meets the learning needs and habits of today’s students and gives them a firm foundation for pursuing an SAP certification, thereby opening up additional career paths.”

“With the student edition of SAP Learning Hub, we can bring young people a blended learning approach that expands their access to SAP innovations,” said Ann Rosenberg, vice president and global head of SAP University Alliances. “In a move to simplify access for the more than 1,500 universities worldwide that are SAP University Alliances program members, we aim to make SAP Learning Hub the main entry point for all SAP University Alliances curricula.”

Cisco Advances Cloud Strategy with More Partners

Demonstrating accelerating momentum for its new cloud business, Cisco today announced new cloud partners and customers, an updated array of cloud service offerings, and key cloud organization leadership appointments. 

Today’s news builds on plans announced in March by Cisco to build the world's largest global Intercloud together with its partners to address customer requirements for a globally distributed, highly secure cloud platform capable of meeting the robust demands of the Internet of Everything. Designed for high-value application workloads, with real-time analytics and "near infinite" scalability, Cisco’s open Intercloud allows local hosting and local provider options that enable data sovereignty. The hybrid cloud capabilities that differentiate the Cisco Cloud are built upon the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Cisco Intercloud Fabric technologies.

Announcement Highlights

·  Dimension Data and Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) will join Telstra as Cisco Intercloud partners – cloud providers that will invest with Cisco to align their public cloud infrastructure to the Cisco Cloud architecture and deliver Cisco Cloud services to customers and resellers.

·   VCE and NetApp announced they will collaborate closely with Cisco to build “Intercloud-ready” integrated infrastructure solutions.

·   Johnson Controls announced that it will enable Cisco Cloud partners and customers to quickly add computing capacity via modular data center solutions.

·   Accenture has licensed Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud software to expand the cloud management and orchestration capabilities of the Accenture Cloud Platform.

Partner and Customer Momentum in Detail

* Dimension Data and Cisco will expand their 23-year relationship to accelerate and streamline hybrid cloud adoption globally. Cisco will use Dimension Data’s Managed Cloud Platform and SaaS solutions to deliver a suite of midmarket cloud services to its customers and resellers. Dimension Data and Cisco will partner to deliver an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution that will be packaged with Cisco technology and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, including Microsoft SQL Server and SharePoint. The Cisco validated and co-branded solutions will be sold by Cisco through the Cisco channel partner community. Dimension Data’s global cloud service is available via 10 data centers around the world, with plans to expand to 13 locations by September 2014. As a Cisco Intercloud partner, Dimension Data will evolve its Managed Cloud Platform to embrace Cisco ACI and Intercloud Fabric — the building blocks of the Cisco Cloud architecture.

* Sungard Availability Services is a Cisco Intercloud partner, utilizing its cloud infrastructure to deliver new Cisco Cloud services to customers and resellers. As a Cisco Intercloud partner, Sungard AS is expanding its cloud infrastructure utilizing the foundational elements of the Cisco Cloud architecture, including Cisco ACI. Sungard AS is poised to become the first cloud provider to market with a Cisco ACI-based public cloud offer built on an application-centric cloud architecture. Cisco will feature two cloud services from Sungard AS in its service catalog: an IaaS offering that enables customers to rapidly deploy hybrid clouds; and a disaster recovery-as-a-service offering to deliver business continuity.

* VCE today announced it will integrate Cisco’s Intercloud Fabric with Vblock Systems. By providing an onramp to Cisco’s Intercloud workload migration capabilities, VCE Vblock Systems will enable customers to rapidly, seamlessly and securely manage their private, hybrid and public cloud environments. This integration will enable the management of cloud-enabled workloads across heterogeneous environments to be centralized with consistent network and security policies and optimized to fit the needs of the business. 

*   NetApp today announced plans to integrate its industry-leading data management technology with Cisco’s Intercloud technology to simplify secure, cross-cloud interoperability and to accelerate adoption of hybrid clouds by mutual customers. NetApp and Cisco will also incorporate the Cisco Intercloud Fabric into the FlexPod roadmap. By delivering uniform control across workload locations, FlexPod will be able to combine the transformative power of public cloud computing with private cloud deployments. More broadly across their portfolio, NetApp will continue to integrate its clustered Data ONTAP technology with the Cisco Intercloud Fabric and Cisco ACI policy control to centralize and simplify data management and data movement for cloud-enabled application workloads.

*  Accenture has licensed Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud (IAC) software as a component of its Accenture Cloud Platform (ACP). Cisco IAC will provide the cloud management and orchestration software for the next release of the Accenture Cloud Platform (ACP), Accenture’s cloud management platform that provides value-added cloud services to clients, and for public cloud services offered by other cloud providers.  Cisco IAC was chosen as ACP's preferred cloud management software on the strength of its service catalog and orchestration capabilities.

*  Johnson Controls is the preferred global provider of modular data center solutions for the Cisco Cloud. By using modular components for computing, communications, security, power and cooling, the timelines for new data center construction are cut in half, allowing Cisco Cloud customers and partners to quickly deploy “Intercloud-ready” computing capabilities. Johnson Controls also offers the ability to manage and remotely monitor data center facilities for Cisco Cloud customers and partners. As a multi-industrial company and industry leader in facility construction and management, Johnson Controls provides facility management services in more than 250 data centers across 29 countries.

*  The University of British Columbia (UBC) announced that it will use Cisco EnergyWise cloud energy management services, which deliver automated management of electricity usage. UBC will use Cisco EnergyWise cloud energy management services to expand its current EnergyWise networked devices 10-fold and will work together with Cisco to develop custom interfaces so additional devices can be managed by EnergyWise.

Cisco announced that it has surpassed 175 channel partners, including CDW and GTRI, who are now certified to manage and resell Cisco Cloud services.

Employees Prefer Higher Take Home Salary Than Any Other Benefits: Survey Timesjobs

According to TimesJobs.com’s latest Compensation and Benefit survey, rising inflation and increasing cost of living has led employees to re-evaluate their priorities on how they are compensated for their work. Our survey indicates that most employees, across generations, prefer a higher ‘in-hand’ pay out compared to other components of the salary.

‘In-hand’ salary matters more to the junior level employees than the mid or senior level. Kishore Sambasivam, director-total rewards, SAP, attributes this trend to the fact that employees at junior levels are typically single and seek ownership. They do not want money locked up in a PF or superannuation benefit. Employees at this level want to plan their investment strategies which may have a higher risk and return profile.

Factor-in their goals

“Effective management starts by understanding who you are managing. This boils down to knowing the expectation the workers have from the organisation. As indicated by our survey, the future of compensation will be a customised compensation and benefit package to suit the needs of the employee.” explains Vivek Madhukar, COO, TimesJobs.com

 According to the survey, almost 90 per cent employees prefer a customised compensation package. Their priority of what is more important to them depends on the stage of their career and their age.

While salary remains core to all age groups, the Baby Boomer Generation prefer post retirement benefits (24%) such as PF and Gratutity, there is a marked distintion for other perks in the Generation X segment with 29% wanting club memberships, car, and company housing. The Youngest Gen Y Generation is eager to have it all with an equal balance of about 20% for each benefit – be it Medical, Post Retirement or other perks. But by and large salary remains the core consideration for all levels coming in lowest at a considerable 41% for Gen Y and a High of 57% for the boomer generation.

According to Sambasivam, employees prefer flexibility in their compensation structure. This is dependent on the changing demographic profile, priorities, preferences, risk orientation, individuality and ‘live-in-the-present’ mindset. Traditionally, companies focused on long-term orientation such as Provident Fund (PF), superannuation, company provided accommodation, Leave Travel Allowance (LTA), loans etc. Now, employees prefer more cash-in hand as it gives them the flexibility to spend as per their aspirations and lifestyle.

“Companies need to be cognizant of the same and modify their compensation structure and philosophies in line with the changing expectations of the workforce”, added Sambasivam.

Summing up, Raghavendra K, vice president and head human resource development, Infosys BPO, said that a healthy compensation and benefit structure should have a balance between financial and nonfinancial components and should be aligned with the strategic priorities of the organisation.

Mphasis & Basware Delivers Business As-A-Service

Mphasis, a global IT services leader, today announced a partnership with Basware Corporation to provide F&A Business Process Services spanning purchase-to-pay and e-invoicing. Mphasis will embed Basware’s platform and its Commerce Network within its own portfolio and provide transaction based e-procurement and invoice automation services to its clients around the world. Basware is the global leader in providing solutions for better buying, better selling and connected commerce. Mphasis is a leading IT solutions provider, offering Applications, Business Process and Infrastructure Services globally through a combination of technology knowhow, domain and process expertise.

Through the partnership, Mphasis will offer a true and comprehensive “Business Process –as-a-Service,” which organizations can adopt irrespective of the financial systems they are on. This integrated “platform plus services” has the potential to offer significant value through the summation across process optimization, platform consolidation, workforce optimization and business insights to its clients. Mphasis’ trained professionals will deliver the services out of its centers in the U.S., Canada, Poland and India, thereby providing clients the options needed to balance regulatory requirements and cost of operations.

The service features an easy-to-use plug-and-play model with transaction-based pricing, to maximize efficiencies in the F&A function in organizations.

“Mphasis is leading the pack in using end-to-end process automation to provide world-class F&A outsourcing services.  We are excited that Mphasis has chosen our Alusta Purchase-to-Pay automation solutions as the foundation for the Business Process as a Service offering.  In addition to optimizing working capital through automation, Mphasis’s customers will benefit from our analytics, social collaboration, and mobile solutions to identify improvement opportunities, resolve issues quickly, and allow end-users the freedom to connect from anywhere. Basware’s open commerce network with 1 million buyers and sellers will support Mphasis customers’ flawless exchange of purchase and invoice messages, said Ari Salonen, General Manager for Basware’s Global BPO services. 

“Our partnership with Basware enables Mphasis to rapidly introduce true BPaaS services in the field of Procure-to-Pay and invoice automation to the market,” said Anurag Bhatia, SVP & Head of BPO, Mphasis. “This is an ideal solution for business leaders to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their finance operations. The solution delivers a platform-through-services that drives significant business improvement – while being extremely easy to adopt with near minimal upfront investments.”

From Present to Omnipresent, The Legend Lives On…

Tribute To Late Capt. C.P. Krishnan Nair By Mithu Basu

Indian hospitality feels orphaned with your passing away, Honorable Chairman. You have impacted too many lives in overwhelming ways. Twelve years ago, same month was when I first met you. I remember the interview. Three hours at The Great Wall, an elaborate Chinese meal and you relating your life journey through fascinating stories.  Enraptured, I realized, besides a few sounds of exclamations I hadn’t uttered a word and the job was mine! You later once said “I saw in you what you didn’t see in yourself”.  That was one of your sharp acumen and today so many stalwarts of the hospitality industry owe their discovery to you.

Not a man guided by the letters, you could instinctively smell a good idea and back it. Or vice versa deem a person stupid to have thought of an idea that didn’t meet your mind. Bouquets and brickbats would fly in with same speed. Those who didn’t buckle absorbed your mantra “think big, think fast and get into action”.  If ever there was a rating of corporate roller coaster life, The Leela under your stewardship would top the list. One could be hero to zero and back to hero all in a day. This mercurial challenge kept us on our toes. What always inspired me to look beyond your words was the gnawing hunger within you to demand only perfection. 

The Leela brand of hospitality can never be found in books, but books can be written about it. I remember the cine veteran Dilip Saab and Saira Banu were at our restaurant, you called to say ‘go and meet them’ I was uncomfortable, wouldn’t I be intruding on their privacy? But went all the same and we are till date friends for life and there are so many such acquaintances that bloomed because you first pushed. Your joy to meet people and give them your undivided attention is legendary. Your hospitable generosity is history. I remember a guest in our Leela Bangalore once got his breakfast of hot steaming idlis submerged in Sambar, without his asking, surprised he asked how? You had seen his name in the corporate VIP list of guests staying with us and remembered that he loved his idli’s served in this style and had left this specific instruction. Your small but stunning touches taught us that god is in the small details.

Every hotelier plans great welcomes, but you would say see your guest to the door and wave him goodbye, there is warmth in it and leaves lingering memories of a great stay. You always believed that hospitality has got to come naturally, there is no formula. If it gives you unadulterated joy, and makes you forget the ticking clock you were cut out for it. The gems of insights I received can go on to fill books. But most precious to me was when you stood on your toes while introducing me to a gathering of Management students and said don’t be fooled by her petite size, she is truly tall within. Once and for all I threw my grievance of being short and experienced seeing the world from a height. You empowered me with earned height that day.

You always endorsed ‘think on your feet’ rather than know all the rules, because no two situations are the same. That learning came alive in the middle of the Kerala backwaters, I was with a boat full of seven German journalists and the motor suddenly stopped. Panic gripped all for a flash of a second. Emulating the ostrich that digs its head into the sand to think that calamity does not exist. I got them to shut their eyes, saying I have stopped the motor to let them experience yogic silence. Chanting the Gayatri mantra I asked them to stay in meditation until I would chant a countdown and bring them back to open their eyes once again. Meditation under control I signaled the motor boy ‘we are out of oil will take me 10 more minutes to replenish.’ He soon gave me the thumps up, and I got the group back to wakefulness. They felt rejuvenated, I too felt the same but for reasons not the same. A month later our German President walked in saying Honorable Chairman we are in the leading German business paper ‘Die Welt’ for the yogic silence experienced through Leela hospitality. Your wah! when you heard my story, was a 'aha' moment I cherish until this day.

The lingering memory I want to hold is the clap of your hands and joy you expressed when I visited you recently unannounced at the hospital. Amid failing memory you remembered my Santiniketan stint and surprised all. You held my hand and said come home, I will be going home soon. You have comeback home today but forgive me, I could not bring myself to go home and see you 'still'

As I write, you are being consumed by the last rites. The flames believe that now you are with them, but the truth is the trees, gardens, the hearts of the people whose lives you have touched, family, friends, The Leela hotels every nook and corner hold you, your persona, your values and all that you taught by walking the talk.

Footprints get washed by the sand, memories may blur but legends move on from being present to omnipresent and live on forever. Honorable Chairman, sleep well.

YouthSpark Live To Mentor First Time Entrepreneurs

Microsoft India organized the first annual YouthSpark Live event in Bengaluru. Hosted in partnership with QUEST Alliance, YouthSpark Live is a two-day program to mentor first time entrepreneurs and job seekers. This year’s event helped young people explore careers in technology, hone their skills for 21st century jobs, and armed them with tools to kickstart their own entrepreneurial ventures. Close to 100 youth from 10 Indian states attended the event where they underwent two days of intensive training. Another 100 participated via webcast across 13 locations.

Keynoting  at the event here today,  Jean-Philippe Courtois, President, Microsoft International said, “Youth in India can drive positive economic and social impact, but there is a need to empower them with the relevant employability and entrepreneurial skills. At Microsoft, we have many initiatives to help young people succeed. Over the course of the last decade or so, Microsoft India has invested more than $100 million (Rs 650 crores) in various initiatives to help young Indians realize their full potential. Microsoft is committed to taking Indian youth from the classroom to the boardroom.”

Talking about the global YouthSpark program to create opportunities for 300 million youth over three years, he further added: “Through more than 30 programs, and partnerships with 186 youth-serving non-profits, in its first year alone Microsoft YouthSpark has created new opportunities for more than 103 million young people in over 100 countries around the world.”

At the event today, Courtois congratulated the three winners from the YouthSpark Live Challenge and presented them an award of services worth Rs 1.5 lakh each as seed funding to get their business started. The three winners are Chandrashekhar Bhuyan from TERcoms whose project is focused on informing rural poor about their rights and entitlements, with the aim  of empowering them through regular interface with the Government to push for corrective measures; Gaurav Mittal of Eye-D, short for EYE-Device, a microcontroller and phone combination to help the visually challenged with tasks like guidance, bus routing, face identification and colour identification; and Rahul Jacob, for RideIT.in, an online carpool matching service exclusively for working professionals.

YouthSpark Live is one of the many Microsoft youth focused programs. Over the last decade and more, Microsoft has been committed to making Indian youth more employable by arming them with skills that are in demand today. Starting in 2003 with Project Shiksha, Microsoft has been consistently adding to its bouquet of programs aimed at providing relevant skill development, employability and entrepreneurship skills for youth in India.

Manisha Girotra To Head Moelis & Company India

Mindtree, a global technology services company, appointed Manisha Girotra, the India CEO of a leading global independent investment bank, to its board of directors effective May 20, 2014. The board also elected Rostow Ravanan as an Executive Director in addition to his role as the CFO.

“As we move into the next phase of Mindtree’s growth, Manisha’s vast global experience will be a great asset in guiding our strategy and providing us with enlightened oversight. She is a nationally respected business leader known for her ability to drive change,” said Subroto Bagchi, Chairman, Mindtree.

“It is a great privilege to join the Mindtree board. I look forward to helping its outstanding management team in the making of a memorable company,” said Manisha Girotra.

Manisha Girotra is the Chief Executive Officer of Moelis & Company in India. She ran the India operations for UBS and Barclays de Zoete Wedd's investment bank. Manisha is a specialist in investment banking, mergers & acquisitions and wealth management. She has been nominated in Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business Club in 2011 and was honoured as a Young Global Leader 2010 by the World Economic Forum.

Rostow Ravanan, Chief Finance Officer, co-founded Mindtree in 1999. He was part of a team that has led Mindtree from an idea to IPO.  He is responsible for defining and implementing processes for good governance that has taken Mindtree to the list of Top 25 best-governed companies in India. CFO Magazine voted him in the list of Top 100 CFOs in India for four years.