Microsoft Devices & WWF-India Launch Fellowship 2014

Following the success of “Create to Inspire” Fellowship 2013 in Kolkata and Ahmedabad, Microsoft Devices has partnered with WWF-India to launch the 2014 edition of the program in Delhi today. Create to Inspire Fellowship provides a platform to young people to use their creative arts to build innovative social action projects under the guidance of established mentors from various fields of art. These projects, in turn, aim at creating awareness and initiating conversations around effective and judicious consumption and management of water, energy, transport and e-waste.

The 2014 Delhi fellowship will focus on Urban Biodiversity. Under the fellowship, 50 young creative people in the age group of 18 to 25 years will be selected and mentored by 5 renowned artists and 2 subject matter experts for a period of 4 months (July to October). The fellows will have an opportunity to learn about issues plaguing Delhi and NCR’s biodiversity and use that knowledge to create exciting projects through dance, theatre, film, photography, and other art forms. This will help create a new social context in the city with the aim of encouraging people to preserve its biodiversity. The final projects will be showcased in Delhi starting September.

The mentors include Arunkumar H.G., contemporary artist; Dinesh Khanna, professional photographer and co-founder of the Delhi Photo Festival; Geeta Chandran,  Indian classical dancer; M.K. Raina, one of India’s best-known theatre actors and directors and Vandana Kohli, renowned photographer and musician.

Two experts on Delhi’s Biodiversity will guide the program content, using their knowledge on the matter to help the fellows make their projects more meaningful and impactful. They are Manoj Kumar Misra, Executive Director of the PEACE Institute Charitable Trust and Convenor, and head of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, the Yamuna Forever Campaign; and Pradip Krishen, well-known environmentalist, naturalist and author, and an ‘ecological gardener’ who works with native flora wherever he creates planted landscapes.

Speaking at the launch of 2014 Delhi edition of "Create To Inspire” Fellowship, P. Balaji, Managing Director, Nokia India, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobile Oy., said “Over the years, Nokia has been committed towards sustainable consumption of resources and Create to Inspire is another step taken towards the same commitment. We believe for the creation of a sustainable future, it is essential to inspire people, especially the youth, to make sustainable choices in all spheres of their lives. The inspiration and the unbelievable response we got from the last season of our Create to Inspire Fellowship program has been the key driving force for us to expand this program to other cities”.

He further added, “We are very happy to launch the second edition in Delhi, a city that has long been known for its rich culture and ethnicity. With all the creative inspiration the program aims to bring among the youth, we are looking forward to some great talent from this culturally rich city.”

Speaking about the partnership with Microsoft Devices, Dr. Sejal Worah, Programme Director, WWF-India, said: “WWF is delighted to collaborate with Microsoft Devices in this endeavour to promote awareness on biodiversity among young people through a creative medium. Over the years, WWF India has engaged with children and youth in many different ways and this partnership takes these efforts a step further by focusing on the creative arts for conservation. We urge the youth of Delhi to seize this opportunity and showcase their talent while creating much-needed awareness about Delhi’s dwindling biodiversity”.

Intel Unveils SoFIA Based Smartphones At Computex

As computing continues to evolve and expand beyond the traditional PC, Intel Corporation President Renée James said Intel and the Taiwan technology ecosystem have the exciting opportunity to build on the long history of collaborative innovation to deliver seamless and truly personal computing experiences.

Processor technology continues to get smaller with greater performance and lower power thanks to Moore’s Law, expanding the scale and potential for Intel technology and that of the Taiwan ecosystem, from infrastructure for cloud computing and the Internet of Things to personal and mobile computing and wearable technology.

“The lines between technology categories are blurring as the era of integrated computing takes hold where form factor matters less than the experience delivered when all devices are connected to each other and to the cloud,” said James. “Whether it’s a smartphone, smart shirt, ultra-thin 2 in 1 or a new cloud service delivered to smart buildings outfitted with connected systems, together Intel and the Taiwan ecosystem have the opportunity to accelerate and deliver the value of a smart, seamlessly connected and integrated world of computing.”

James highlighted the Intel technologies, products and collaborations with the Taiwan and broader ecosystem aimed at making a new wave of computing devices smart, integrated and connected to each other, the cloud and to people’s lives.

Personal Computing Comes in All Shapes, Sizes and Experiences

 James said Moore’s Law is the foundation, while also reducing costs for increasingly smaller form factors with the performance and lower power people have come to expect.

 Underscoring that point, she talked about Intel’s commitment to deliver a broad choice of SoC and communications options for tablets and smartphones across a range of form factors, price points, and operating systems. James noted that Intel currently has 130 tablet design wins that are either in market or will be in market this year, from global OEMs and ODMs. More than a dozen Intel-based tablets are launching in the Computex timeframe. Approximately 35 percent of Intel Atom processor-based tablet designs currently include or will include Intel communications solutions.

James also said the category 6-capable Intel XMM 7260 LTE-Advanced platform is now shipping to customers for interoperability testing and emphasized this puts Intel into a leadership position. This new technology is expected to appear in devices in the months ahead.

Foxconn executive Young Liu joined James on stage to showcase more than 10 Intel-based tablets available now or coming soon, ranging from the entry to performance segments. The tablets are based on Intel Atom processors (codenamed “Bay Trail” or “Clovertrail+”) SoCs, and many include Intel’s 3G or LTE communications platforms.

Noting progress toward bringing the company’s first integrated mobile SoC platform for entry and value smartphones and tablets to market in the fourth quarter of this year, James made the first public phone call using a smartphone reference design based on the dual-core Intel SoFIA 3G solution. Intel will also bring a quad-core SoFIA LTE part to market in the first half of 2015 and last week announced a strategic agreement with Rockchip to add a quad-core SoFIA 3G derivative for entry-level tablets to the SoFIA family, also due in the first half of next year.

James also revealed the world’s first 14nm fanless mobile PC reference design from Intel. The 2 in 1 is a 12.5-inch screen that is 7.2mm thin with keyboard detached and weighs 670 grams. It includes a media dock that provides additional cooling for a burst of performance. The innovative design is based on the first of Intel’s next-generation 14nm Broadwell processors that are purpose-built for 2 in 1s and will be in market later this year. Called the Intel Core M processor, it will deliver the most energy-efficient Intel Core processor in the company’s history ¹. The majority of designs based on this new chip are expected to be fanless and deliver both a lightning-fast tablet and a razor-thin laptop.

Intel is also delivering innovation and performance for the most demanding PC users. To that end, James introduced the 4th generation Intel Core i7 and i5 processor “K” SKU, the first from Intel to deliver four cores at up to 4 GHz base frequency. This desktop processor, built for enthusiasts, provide higher performance and enable new levels of overclocking capability. Production shipments begin in June of this year.

For the performance-hungry data center I/O needs, James introduced the Intel Solid-State Drive Data Center Family for PCIe to meet the increasing need for high-performance, consistent and reliable storage solutions in the data center while helping to lower total cost of ownership. The drives will be broadly available in the third quarter of this year.

In order for computing to become more personal, James said it needs to meet people on their own terms, making interaction more natural and intuitive. She highlighted collaborations and new advances to bring Intel® RealSense technology and 3-D cameras and supporting applications to a growing number of 2 in 1, all-in-one, tablet and other personal computing devices. James said that the Intel RealSense software development kit 2014 will be made available to developers in the third quarter of 2014, providing opportunity for developers of all skill levels to create natural, intuitive user interfaces. Emphasizing Intel’s support and commitment to the software ecosystem, the company will hold the $1 Million Intel RealSense App Challenge 2014, and the ideation phase will begin in third quarter of 2014.

G7 CR Tech Launches HAPA Powered By Azure

G7 CR Technologies India Pvt Ltd, a part of G7 Group of companies, a niche global IT Solutions and Services Company, today announced the launch of HAPA, an integrated software offering for HR solutions, powered by Microsoft Azure. HAPA provides an end to end integrated human resources solution - from recruitment to retirement. Designed specifically for small & medium size enterprises, the app acts as a platform in the cloud that provides customers a comprehensive set of HR features in a cost-effective manner.

HRMS applications empower the HR functions in an organization to manage talent and its retention processes more effectively, thereby enabling HR to focus on qualitatively increasing the talent pool. HAPA is an easily deployable and customizable HRMS that can improve the existing processes, unify various HR systems, and create tremendous impact on the organization’s bottom line. Microsoft Azure provides HAPA with durable cloud storage and a secured cloud platform compliant with key industry standards.  

Says, Christopher Richard, Managing Director, G7 CR Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., "With this new launch we aim to take the HRMS experience for SMEs to newer levels. Equipped with a varied set of web applications & geo-redundant cloud storage for back up, archiving & disaster recovery, HAPA provides our customers with an edge over other HRMS apps. The Microsoft Azure platform allows us to scale as  our install base grows. It also enables creating, managing & distributing media on the cloud - everything from encoding to content protection to streaming & analytics support....everything that the HR function has ever asked for."

“Microsoft Azure is an open & flexible cloud platform that enables customers to rapidly build, deploy and manage applications,” said Vibhor Kapoor, Director, Microsoft Azure Product Marketing. “The global reach of Azure enables G7 CR Technologies to serve their geographically diverse customer base with a solution that will scale to accommodate growing customer demand.”

The HAPA app, powered by the Microsoft Azure platform, brings multifarious advantages to human resource management for SMEs & gives them a strong and compelling reason to experience the benefits of the HRM solutions. Some of its advantages include:

* It provides a rich set of application services including SDKs, caching, messaging and identity. This is in line with Microsoft's goal to enable customers to develop  using any language, tool or framework

* The app makes it easy to integrate on-premises IT environment with the public cloud

* With Microsoft Azure data centers across the globe, HAPA allows you to enjoy the advantages of massive investment in data centre innovation and a worldwide content delivery network. It also allows customers to build applications for users irrespective of their location.

KKR Uses SAP Analytics To Win Pepsi IPL 2014 Title

SAP Labs India has announced that on June 1, powered by SAP Technology, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) claimed the seventh edition of the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL). SAP HANA based platforms - SAP Auction Analytics, SAP Game Analytics, and SAP Lumira enabled KKR to evaluate players during the auction, derive post-game analytics following each of the team’s games, and drive fan engagement respectively, during the Pepsi IPL 2014.

During this year’s auction, KKR sought to gain a competitive advantage over other teams by picking the right players at the right price. To objectivize their selections, they applied SAP Auction Analytics. Developed using the principles of Design Thinking, SAP Auction Analytics leveraged the predictive analytics capabilities of SAP HANA through a live dashboard that enabled KKR to derive intelligence on players featured in the auction. With the help of SAP Auction Analytics, KKR put together the winning team of 19 players

“With SAP’s solutions, we gained a multi-dimensional analysis of every player and were able to devise a playing 11 that had the maximum chance of winning the tournament. During the game too, SAP’s solutions helped us strategize better and provide a great experience to our fans,” said Venky Mysore, MD and CEO, KKR, adding “Partnering with SAP was lucky for us.”

A data visualization software, SAP Lumira, provided fans with statistics to learn more about how KKR performed over the course of the 16-match campaign during the Pepsi IPL 2014. Furthermore, the SAP Game Analytics solution helped analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each player competing in the IPL to help KKR increase team readiness and performance versus its opponents over the course of 60-match event en route to the title.

“The business of sports and entertainment is at an inflection point with new technologies driving significant changes to the business and creating vast amounts of qualitative and quantitative data,” said Anirban Dey, Managing Director, SAP Labs India. “SAP solutions help sporting organizations turn data into action to gain a competitive edge by increased player availability, reliability, readiness, and performance. KKR’s victory in the seventh edition of the IPL is the perfect confluence of team strategy, player performance, and the use of insights from SAP to drive immediate action towards the team’s victory.”

Globally, a growing number of sports leagues, teams, and stadiums work with SAP to develop integrated business management solutions that help them run their businesses. The SAP for Sports & Entertainment solution portfolio helps the industry run better, from fans to athletes to teams and leagues. Along with the KKR engagement in India, SAP also boasts several sporting solutions and partnerships, including:

* The National Basketball Association (NBA) for fans to get interactive access to virtually unlimited amounts of official NBA statistics and analysis, including every official box score in NBA history.

* The National Football League to adopt on-demand technology from SAP for its proprietary NFL.com Fantasy Football offering.

* The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to further engage fans, players, and better serve the media through the development of innovative technology and apps.

Bring Your Own Device To Continue Strong Growth: IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) announces that it expects the Asia/Pacific Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) market to continue strong growth in 2014 and into 2015 as consumer smartphone and tablet continue gain market across the region.

In IDC’s latest BYOD studies, “Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Bring Your Own Device End-User Survey 2014” and “Asia/Pacific Bring Your Own Device 2014–2018 Analysis and Forecast”, BYOD is defined as part of enterprise mobility. The practice of BYOD refers to devices that users have personally purchased with their own funds, without help from the employer. The employer is not obligated to subsidize any part of the device nor is it responsible for supporting the devices' hardware and software.  IDC’s findings show that across Asia/Pacific, mobile devices utilized under the BYOD model has accounted for 22.5%, 4.9% and 11.7% of all consumer smartphone, tablet and notebook PC shipped in 2013, respectively.

"The momentum of BYOD has definitely increased over the past 12 month and IDC expects it will continue the upward swing in 2014 and well in 2015," says Ian Song, Research Manager for Enterprise Mobility at IDC Asia/Pacific. "With the user experience of mobile devices improving, end users can start to perform more complex task on those devices. In addition, the price of device has also dropped to a level where increased proliferation becomes possible." Song notes that enterprises across the region are also becoming more open to the idea of BYOD as a way to drive mobility in their organizations.

"Close to 60% of all surveyed organizations across Asia/Pacific stated that they have some kind of mobility policy that cater to the practice of BYOD." He observes that BYOD in Asia/Pacific is being driven primarily by the usage of personally owned smartphones in the enterprise.

IDC expects that close to 155 million consumer smartphones will be used in the BYOD model across the region in 2014, a year-on-year growth of 40.4%. Tablet BYOD will grow to nearly 4 million units, a year-on-year growth of 62.7%. Notebook PC, on the other hand, will see a steep decline as the PC industry slows down and BYOD users migrate to other BYOD platforms. IDC expects just 3.1 million units of consumer notebook PC will be utilized under the BYOD model, a year-on-year decline of 20%. However, IDC does not anticipate the BYOD growth will last.  "BYOD smartphone utilization will peak around 2016 to 2017, and tablets will peak around 2017 – 2018," says Song.

He explains that the bottom line is BYOD is a compromise between users and the enterprise.  “While BYOD has a capability to streamline some of the internal operations, personally owned devices will not be able to drive core business functions without compromising security and management."

To this end, IDC believes that enterprises across Asia/Pacific will begin to revisit the corporate-liable model with a twist: giving employees options to chose the device they want to use. IDC calls it Choose Your Own Device (CYOD). CYOD may eventually take some of the steam away from BYOD, but IDC believes that most organizations will adopt a hybrid BYOD/CYOD policy that address device ownership and usage base on requirement.  "IDC expects that developed markets like Australia or Singapore will see a decline in BYOD adoption as early as the first half of 2016 as mobile devices saturate the market and this hybrid model begin to take hold," says Song. "Developing markets will take quite a bit longer before smartphone and tablet BYOD start to decline as these types of devices are still in high growth phase in those markets, and maturity toward enterprise mobility is low."

BT Helps De Beers Connect To Diamond Resources

BT has won a significant new contract with The De Beers Group of Companies.  The six-year agreement, worth US $37m, sees BT orchestrate a wide range of IT services across 70 De Beers Group sites, including exploration and mining locations across the world.

Established in 1888, De Beers is the world’s leading diamond company. Its diamond exploration, mining and marketing operations directly or indirectly employ more than 20,000 people globally.

De Beers and BT teams are bringing together a full range of BT Connect networking technologies including fibre, microwave and satellite. These will give De Beers staff, whether they are located in the frozen Northwest Territories of Canada, the Bushveld regions of southern Africa or the cities of Europe, Middle East and Asia, access to business applications and data storage as well as voice and conferencing services.

BT is also helping De Beers to tune its network to its business needs.  BT Connect Accelerate allows De Beers to prioritise its critical business applications accessed across its global network to ensure a better and more productive user experience for all employees.

BT One high-definition video conferencing is a crucial application for De Beers. As many of its sites are remote, travel is expensive and time consuming.  Furthermore, it is important that De Beers can extend the reach of its experts wherever they may be, allowing them to work effectively with its global workforce.

Craig Charlton, CIO, De Beers Group of Companies, said: “Whether it’s connecting our mining assets or our global distribution network, we need a partner with a strong track record.  Using BT’s network will better connect our global operations.”

Luis Alvarez, chief executive officer, BT Global Services, said: “IT has become an art as much as a science.  We’re working together with De Beers to orchestrate people, applications and systems around highly-tuned intelligent networks to deliver the best performance at the most competitive cost.”

“BT networks will bring together all De Beers sites whether they’re in the frozen north of Canada, which can only be reached in person for three months of the year, or the far reaches of Botswana.  This is a master-class in the art of connecting, all designed to deliver stunning business outcomes.”

CRMnext Bags Asian Banker Award 2014

CRMnext, a leading global CRM (Customer relationship Management) product company with practice leadership in more than eight industry verticals, has been recognised as the winner of the ‘Best CRM Implementation Project Award’ during the eighth Asian Banker Technology Implementation Awards Programme, held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur on May 21^st 2014. 

The awards ceremony was held in conjunction with The Asian Banker Summit 2014, the foremost annual meeting for decision makers in the financial services industry in the Asia Pacific region.

“We are extremely pleased and honoured to receive this award. This award is yet another feather in our cap showcasing our innovation leadership in the CRM space and highlights our commitment to deliver excellence to our customers as their preferred technology partner.” said Sushil Tyagi, Director Global Sales and Marketing, CRMnext, on the side-lines of the award ceremony.

CRMnext customers include large banks and global financial services brands like HDFC, ICICI, Axis, TATA AIA, Reliance, Max, Fullerton etc. It has enabled its customers to implement a comprehensive CRM project on a single platform to achieve its “One bank” vision. The solution, provided by CRMnext, covers an extensive range of functions including sales force, customer service, business process and marketing automation, digital application platform, document management system, reporting and analytics. Its customers have achieved a 360 degree customer view and an integrated customer service and sales platform.

At HDFC Bank, the solution was implemented across all channels and devices, including branch, internet and mobile banking, covering more than 40,000 users and 73% of workforce. It has brought about impressive improvements in cross-selling, lead conversion rate and sales turnaround time, and reduced customer complaints by 30%.

The awards programme, administered by The Asian Banker and refereed by prominent global bankers, IT consultants and academics, is the most prestigious of its kind. A stringent three month long evaluation process determines the winners from across Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The winners are honoured at a glittering event that recognises their efforts in using the best technology to run their institutions and bring superior products and services to their customers.