Anirban Dey Quits SAP Labs; Likely Shift To Infosys

SAP Labs India announced that Anirban Dey has left the organization for personal reasons. He was associated with SAP Labs since 2008 and was appointed as the Managing Director of SAP Labs India in January, 2013. Sources in the industry reveal that, Dey is most likely to join the newly formed team at Infosys led by Vishal Sikka, his former colleague at SAP.

Additional information on Anirban’s replacement will be forthcoming. Clas Neumann, Senior Vice President and Global Head of the SAP Labs Network will work closely with the SAP Labs India leadership team to ensure a smooth transition till a new MD is appointed.

“I want to take the opportunity to thank Anirban Dey for his leadership and contributions to SAP over the years. I would like to wish him the very best for his future endeavors”, said Clas Neumann, Senior Vice President and Global Head of the SAP Labs Network. “SAP Labs India will continue to play a key role in the SAP eco-system by contributing significantly to SAP’s products and technologies.”

SAP Labs India is the third largest R&D center outside Germany for SAP and contributes to a wide spectrum of SAP’s product portfolio ranging from developing technology platform and enterprise software, to providing customer support, accelerating sales and partnering with a rich and vibrant SAP ecosystem in India.  SAP Labs India has facilities in Bangalore, Gurgaon and Pune.

Major Revamp In Avaya Channel Partner Program

Avaya Inc. has announced changes to its Avaya Connect Channel Partner program to advance partner expertise in successfully solving  customers’ challenges using Avaya Collaboration technologies. The program changes will help channel partners differentiate their respective companies and help drive a high-quality end-to-end, customer experience.

Changes to the Avaya Connect Partner Program includes revisions to the requirements for achieving Silver, Gold and Platinum level status and the introduction of six new Solution Experts designations: enterprise unified communications and contact center, midmarket unified communications and contact center, networking and video. To achieve the Solution Expert designation in any one of these areas, partners need to acquire credentials in sales and design, achieve certain revenue thresholds as proof of their experience, and demonstrate customer satisfaction.  The Silver, Gold and Platinum level status will be determined based on the number of Solution Expert designations achieved by each partner company.

The changes to the program make it easier for channel partners to achieve a higher level status for their chosen business model and to distinguish themselves based on their expertise.  Highly flexible, the program supports both capex and opex sales models, allowing channel partners to support premise, cloud and hybrid cloud models. They can also take a ‘full stack’ approach to the Avaya solution portfolio, or they can focus on a particular area such as networking or contact center and still differentiate their expertise and gain the financial benefits for their solution area.

The program changes go into effect on October 1, 2014 with Avaya’s fiscal 2015, allowing partners a transition year during which they can earn their status levels based on current or new requirements, whichever works in their favor .

Avaya Connect Channel Partners can view a replay of Worldwide Channel Vice President Richard Steranka’s presentation and the announcement being made today in the Avaya Virtual Partner Forum.

“Business challenges require the expertise of a trusted partner who understands how technology can be applied to achieve the desired business outcome. It’s rare that a customer will require a single isolated product. The changes to Avaya Connect address what we as a vendor need to do to encourage our channel partners to develop the expertise to help ensure customer needs are met to the highest level of their satisfaction and reward them for doing so,” says Richard Steranka, vice president, Worldwide Channels, Avaya.

“It’s great to be recognized for the value we provide to our customers. I know our customers appreciate us, but now Avaya rewards us based on our dedication and capabilities to delivering a great customer experience,” says Dayal Hemrajani, Chairman & Managing Director, Enkay Technologies (GGM Authorized Partner).

Juniper Networks Bags 2 Major Italian Telecom Customers

Juniper Networks, the industry leader in network innovation, today announced that Telecom Italia, a leading infrastructure telecommunications company, offering fixed, mobile and Internet services and solutions in Italy with operations also in South America, has adopted Juniper Networks MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers on its service point of presence (PoP) infrastructure.

Juniper's MX Series acts as an edge services aggregation node -- or "Service hub" -- for Telecom Italia's PoP infrastructure; the solution will also be used as a universal software defined networking (SDN) gateway to seamlessly connect physical and virtual networks.

News Highlights

• Telecom Italia is currently trialing Juniper Networks Contrail SDN and NFV controller with OpenStack to transform its service creation complexity by integrating virtual and physical network functions as well as creating flexible, dynamic service chains.

• Juniper's open approach to SDN/NFV networking enables Telecom Italia to integrate physical and virtual network functions from Juniper Networks as well as third party vendors, enabling a true ecosystem of best-of-breed solutions to achieve differentiated services and subscriber value faster and at lower operating cost.

• Telecom Italia's "Service hub" is a point of flexibility for inserting physical and virtual appliances. The Contrail technology could be used as an enabler to deliver a SDN model of dynamic service-chaining capabilities including flexibility and improved time to market.

"The integration of Juniper Networks high performance technology as a "service hub" brings increased flexibility to introduce new service features to our customers. We leverage Juniper's expertise to make SDN/NFV technologies the key to shortening time-to-market and improve cost effectiveness," Paolo Fasano, Data Networks Innovation, Telecom Italia. 

"Telecom Italia's selection of Juniper's MX Series to evolve the service PoP will help provide a High-IQ network that is massively scalable and automated to enable rapid service provisioning. We're thrilled they chose to test Juniper Networks Contrail to help create a dynamic services environment," says Mike Marcellin, senior vice president of strategy; marketing, Juniper Networks.

Personal Interaction Still Trumps Technology In India

Today, organizations use technology extensively for the screening process, but, as a TimesJobs.com survey revealed, in the overall hiring process it is still just an enabler. 55% organisations claim to use online job portals to source candidates and a similar number use personality profiling tests to assess the candidates. However, when it comes to making the final decision, 82% organizations still rely on face-to-face interviews. 

Organisations believe that though technology has made an impact on the global hiring landscape, some traditional methods like personal interaction with the candidates still hold a lot of significance in hiring the best. 

Hiring on ‘face-value’ 

Hiring managers are certainly open to new age techniques in hiring and interviewing but only at a nascent stage. Most organizations indicated that a telephonic or video interview is always followed up by an in-depth face-to-face interview.

According to the TimesJobs.com survey, nearly 15% organisations indicated that while they use telephonic or video interview techniques they are followed by face-to-face interactions. Only 3% reported using just video interviews for selecting a candidate reveals the TimesJobs.com study.

A sector-wise glimpse

98% of organisations in both the Automobile sector and BPO industry rely solely on in-depth face-to-face interviews, followed by the IT/Telecom sector (90%).

Healthcare was one of the key sectors to report using video/telephone interviews followed by face-to-face interactions. About 50% organisations in the Healthcare sector use video/telephone interviews followed by face-to-face interactions states the TimesJobs.com study.

Demographical variations

The trend for video interviews is a little better in metros and key job hubs including Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

Nearly 11% of representative organisations in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore conduct video interviews but they are followed by face-to-face interactions. Same is the case with 22% organisations based in Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

About 84% organisations in metros and 78% organisations in Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad prefer using only face-to-face interviews. Nearly 80% organisations belonging to tier I cities/state capitals use the in-depth face-to-face interview process, while 20% do video interviews followed by a face-to-face interaction, the TimesJobs.com study reveals.

Video interviews will take time to evolve

The advent of websites such as YouTube, Metacafe, etc. has made conducting video interviews easier. “Globally there’s a growing trend of putting a corporate video along with the job posting which not only gives a preview of an applicant’s career graph, but leaves a lasting impression as well. Recruiters these days prefer a video interview on Skype or Hangout for conducting preliminary rounds of interviews,” said Ravi S Singh, founder, Insiders Research Solutions LLP in an exclusive interaction with TimesJobs.com.

Industry experts believe that while the trend of video interviews is popular globally, it will take another five years for technology-enabled solutions to overtake face-to-face interviews. In India, however, it will take longer because of awareness and accessibility issues.

San Jose To Be Intel’s First Smart City

Chip vendor Intel today announced its Smart City contract with San Jose city. This is Intel’s first smart city implementation in the United States.

Intel did not share financial details of Smart Cities USA pilot program.

It is expected that the project – as part of the city’s “Green Vision” goals – will create 25,000 clean-tech jobs, create environmental sustainability and enhance the quality of life for residents.

The pilot program in San Jose will the deployment of a range of smart city solutions including air and water quality, traffic and parking management to communications systems and other city infrastructure, said Intel.

The Smart Cities USA pilot project will give San Jose residents real-time, local data that can inform their personal decisions. For example, when there is a local air quality alert, residents can choose to take public transit, bicycle or carpool to get to work or school and thus reduce emissions and improve air quality.

San Jose is installing a network of sensors to create a sustainability lens that uses Intel technology to measure characteristics such as particulates in the air, noise pollution and traffic flow.

Intel for Smart Cities

City governments are projected to collectively invest approximately $41 trillion over the next 20 years to upgrade their infrastructure.

San Jose city has installed a sensor demonstration platform using Intel Gateway Solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) with an Intel Quark processor and third-party sensors. Each gateway incorporates Wind River Intelligent Device Platform software with McAfee security features connected to Intel’s Hadoop distribution in the cloud.

Stephen Peters Appointed VP APAC of ACI Worldwide

ACI Worldwide, a leading international provider of electronic payment and banking systems, today announced the appointment of Stephen Peters as Vice President, Solutions Consulting for its business in Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific. Widely respected in the finance and technology sector, Peters joins ACI Worldwide with over 24 years’ experience in enterprise solution sales and account management with banks and financial institutions. After spending the last eight years at Clear2Pay, a bank payment technology company, Peters joins ACI Worldwide to help drive and lead the next wave of innovation in the global payments industry.

Based in Sydney, Peters will shuffle between Sydney and Singapore and will be responsible for driving business growth for ACI Worldwide, utilising his extensive experience and understanding of financial institutions to bring its software solutions to market.

“We are excited about having Stephen join the ACI group given his vast knowledge and experience in the finance and payment space,” said Paul Henaghan, Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan. “In his new role, Stephen will manage our solution consultants across the Asia Pacific region and focus on accelerating time to market, growing our business and strengthening our solutions across the software space.”

“Having helped deliver payment solutions to some of the region’s biggest financial institutions, I’m looking forward to working with a company that offers the most integrated suite of solutions to power electronic payments,” said Peters. “ACI is committed to investing regionally and we’ll be looking to not only drive new business opportunities but also continue the discussion on how financial experts, retailers and technology leaders can navigate the disruptive payments landscape and continue to meet the needs of the world’s most demanding technology environments.”

Peters holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Informatics from Griffith University, Queensland and a Post Graduate degree specialising in Financial Markets from the Securities Institute of Australia, Melbourne.

New Modular Miniature Camera Series From AXIS

Axis Communications, the world leader in network video, today introduces a modular camera series that not only gives customers discreet surveillance solutions that provide high image detail, but also great flexibility in choosing the units that are ideal for the installation.

“AXIS F Series enables great flexibility and discreetness with superb video performance, even in high-contrast lighting conditions,” says Erik Frännlid, Axis’ Director of Product Management. “The series is based on a divided network camera concept, where the camera is split into a lens and image sensor unit, and a main unit. This concept was first introduced in the AXIS P12 Series. When we developed the AXIS F Series, we took into account the feedback we received from AXIS P12 to provide customers with even better solutions.”

The divided network camera concept allows a small sensor unit to be installed discreetly in tight places and the bigger main unit to be placed elsewhere and away from public view. AXIS F Series consists of units that are all sold separately. The series includes AXIS F41 Main Unit and four compatible AXIS F sensor units with different form factors and lens types for different field of views. AXIS F41 Main Unit houses the processor, network, power, SD card slot and other connections, and can connect to one AXIS F sensor unit. Each sensor unit, which consists of a lens and image sensor, comes with the choice of a 3-m or 12-m (10-ft. or 39-ft.) pre-mounted cable for connecting to the main unit.

“The small sensor units give users the flexibility to easily and discreetly install them, even in very tight spaces,” says Frännlid. “They can be flush-mounted in walls, ceilings, doorways, elevators and behind sheet metal with only the small lens surface visible—in the case of the pinhole unit, just a tiny hole for the lens. Certain AXIS F sensor units can also withstand tough conditions such as vibrations, shocks and temperature fluctuations, which make them ideal for use inside and outside of emergency vehicles. The modular concept also gives customers the flexibility to purchase the sensor unit that is ideal for their application.”

AXIS F41 Main Unit supports the following features:

·         Axis’ Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) – Forensic Capture, which enables details from both bright and dark areas of a scene to be visible; ideal for scenarios such as at entrances or in front of ATMs where the subject may be dark against a bright background, or in nighttime situations where the camera must handle low-light environments together with bright lights from vehicles, street lamps, signage and stores

·         HDTV 1080p video at up to 50/60 frames per second, ideal for capturing fast-moving objects and generating smoother video

·         Two-way audio

·         Input/output ports to external devices for enhanced alarm management

·         RS232 port for integration of external data to the video

·         Full-sized SD card slot for local storage

·         Power over Ethernet, as well as the option of connecting to an external power supply

·         Intelligent video capabilities such as video motion detection, active tampering alarm and downloadable applications through the AXIS Camera Application Platform 

The four compatible AXIS F sensor units (with two different cable lengths to choose from) consist of:

·         IP66-rated AXIS F1005-E Sensor Unit with a fixed lens and 113° horizontal field of view

·         AXIS F1015 Sensor Unit with a varifocal lens for a 53° to 108° horizontal field of view

·         AXIS F1025 Sensor Unit with a pinhole lens and 89° horizontal field of view

·         IP66-rated AXIS F1035-E Sensor Unit with a fisheye lens for a 194° horizontal field of view.