JDA Soft To Host 5th Edition of Supply Chain Practitioners’ Council

JDA Software Group, Inc., today announced that it is hosting the 5^th Edition of the Supply Chain Practitioners Council (SCPC) at its Bangalore office on July 18. The daylong event will bring together supply chain experts from different industry verticals and organizations. Presenters include Vinay Krishna, Supply Chain Director, Cypress Semiconductor, Manish Ghosh, Global Vice President Global Consulting Partner - Manufacturing, JDA Software, Vijayakumar Seelam, Project Manager, SanDisk, and Narasimha Kamath, Product Director, JDA Software.

SCPC provides senior supply chain practitioners a great platform to deliberate and discuss industry issues and solutions. It is a great event to network and collaborate. The event will include presentations on supply chain reorganization journey, adaptive supply chain, designing profitable supply chains through differentiation, and caselet discussions.

“SCPC, an event by invitation only, helps senior supply chain practitioners come together and facilitates interaction with a panel of eminent speakers. It is a great opportunity to share current challenges, discuss their problem solving approaches and learn industry best practices,” said Dr. Narasimha Kamath, Director, Product Management, JDA Software India. “We hope these presentations and discussions will enrich every attendee’s understanding and experience.”

Senior supply chain experts from Accenture, AT Kearney, AXA Technology, Biocon, BPCL, Britannia, BSNL, Caterpillar, Chainalytics, Cisco, Cypress, Dell, FlipKart, HCL, Honeywell, HP, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Madura fashions, Metro C&C, Miebach, Mindtree, Motorola, MuSigma, Phillips, PWC, Renault, Sabmiller, Schneider Electric, Target Corp, Tata Hitachi, Tata Steel, TCS, Titan, TVS Logistics, TVS Motors and Unilever will also be present at this event.

JDA has a large client base in manufacturing, distribution, retail, category management and store operations. It is our privilege to provide a platform that helps supply chain professionals to actively collaborate, think collectively and act decisively. It helps promote understanding of the current market problems, the way they are currently being solved and provides guidance on moving enterprises to the next level of supply chain maturity.

Over 100 Participants For Techathon Event

Avaya, a global provider of business communications, collaboration systems and services hosted India’s popular technology event Techathon 2014 today in Bangalore. The event, attended by more than 100 of Avaya’s key customers & partners in India, and the keynote was addressed by Avaya’s new Managing Director, India and SAARC, Priyadarshi Mohapatra. Participants at the event received an update on Avaya global strategy and innovation focus, and enjoyed a showcase of the entire portfolio of Avaya’s solutions and services. The Techathon event is being held in three cities - Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon - over a 3 week period and enables Avaya customers and partners to experience first-hand the latest innovation in the company’s rich portfolio of communications and collaborations solutions.

Avaya’s innovation focus is on bringing to market revolutionary business transformation solutions for both medium sized businesses and larger enterprises, focused on mobile video collaboration, next-generation data networking and cutting edge collaboration and customer experience management solutions-Avaya has signed recent deals across multiple sectors including IT/ITES, financial services, BPOs, hospitality, manufacturing, Government  and transportation. The company brings organizations into the new age of connectivity, communications and collaboration with simple, intuitive solutions providing simplicity to its customers by reducing their Total Cost of Operation (TCO) and optimizing their maintenance costs.

India is at the heart of Avaya’s innovation focus, and represents the largest R&D center globally, spread across Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. The Bangalore R&D center has a large pool of talented engineers, researchers and product management staff with a state-of-the-art research and engineering lab and infrastructure with Data Networking and Unified Communications being the primary focus areas. 

The Bangalore team contributes significantly to the Avaya Fabric Connect technology and associated data center, core and distribution switch platforms, the Avaya Identity Engines Access Control and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) platform, WLAN, Unified Branch, and common network management and orchestration software product suites. 

The Bangalore R&D facility also contributes to the Avaya Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) architecture that includes orchestration and monitoring software interfaces with Open Stack,cloud orchestration and the innovative full-stack Avaya Collaboration Pod that includes an end-to-end solution with 3^rd party compute, storage and virtual machine products.

 The Bangalore R&D center also contributes significantly to Avaya’s strategic focus in mid-market unified communication solutions including its flagship IP Office solution. The Bangalore R&D team works closely with the Avaya sales team in providing the most appropriate products and solutions to Avaya’s customers in India spread across business functions and verticals, including leading companies and public sector institutions.

“Avaya Techathon is a great platform to unveil Avaya’s portfolio to all our customers and partners. This is a great opportunity for enterprises to gain insights of our customer’s experience with the latest Avaya solutions and meet the dedicated R&D team. India has Avaya’s largest R&D center and is brimming with a set of most talented workface. 

Avaya takes organizations into the new age of collaboration with simple, intuitive solutions that address the core needs of Indian businesses. The company works towards providing a strategic direction to Indian operations, managing business priorities, and enhancing Avaya’s position as a leading business communications company. Strengthening channel partner relations and driving significant growth in the mid-market segment will be my key priorities for now. The motto of the organization has been to drive more effective collaboration and a superior customer experience to drive business growth in India and that’s where our focus would be in this year,” says Priyadarshi Mohapatra, MD, India and SAARC, Avaya.

Lenovo Pledges Support To YUWA SuperGoats

Football is the flavour of the season all over the world. Lenovo, the No.1 PC maker worldwide (according to IDC) and an emerging PC Plus leader, is associating with YUWA, an NGO empowering rural girls through football, to represent India in the USA Cup. The talented team called the SuperGoats comprises of 18 girls from Jharkhand who have been trained and led by Franz Gastler, Founder of YUWA, an NGO empowering rural girls through football.

Hailing from a small village in Jharkhand, these 18 girls have overcome many limitations and societal barriers to achieve the extraordinary. They impressed millions across the world with their show of skills, determination and perseverance at the Donosti Cup in Spain last year and are now poised to win laurels for our country at the USA Cup being held in Minneapolis this July.

Lenovo as a brand has always believed in supporting the indomitable spirit of the ‘doers’ who beat all odds and achieve the extraordinary. This belief has led to a strong collaboration between Yuwa and Lenovo, where Lenovo attempt to document the SuperGoats amazing journey and also provide technological support through this journey. Lenovo shall also create awareness and buzz on what these girls are set to achieve at the US tournament with the #BleatforIndia initiative, urging all football fans to come together and root for their own homegrown team – YUWA SuperGoats.

Speaking about this association, Bhaskar Choudhuri, Director, Marketing, Lenovo India said, “The SuperGoats story is a celebration of the indomitable human spirit. We are proud to be associated with this team. We are privileged to document their achievement and aid their preparation with our Lenovo devices. For them as for us, technology is not just a badge; It is a tool “for those who do”.

“In rural Jharkhand, one lakh girls are trafficked every year, six in ten can't read or write, and seven in ten drop out of school before passing 10th standard.  Six in ten girls get married when they are still children.  The future changes when a girl joins Yuwa. Girls in Yuwa spend an average of 1,000 hours in our program every year. Society teaches girls to fit in. Yuwa coaches girls to stand out. We're grateful to Lenovo for joining this campaign to take the first team ever from India to USA Cup, the biggest football tournament in the United States.” said Franz Gastler, Executive Director and Co-Founder of YUWA.

The team is geared up to compete in the tournament between 15-19 July. They will be playing with the world’s best teams and are looking forward to better their impressive performance in Spain last year.

Blue Slate Acquired by BPO Firm EXL

Business process solutions company EXL has acquired New York-based Blue Slate Solutions to enhance its business process management capabilities.

Through this acquisition, the Nasdaq-listed EXL will also strengthen its ability to apply technology solutions to improve clients’ business operations.

“This acquisition brings us a set of domain experts who have significant experience advising large enterprises, optimising their business processes and also architecting and implementing changes to their technology applications and infrastructure,” Rohit Kapoor, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, EXL, said.

Blue Slate specialises in transforming operations through business process optimisation, data integration and analytics, leveraging innovative techniques and technologies, he said.

It has domain experience and success in delivering services within insurance, financial services and manufacturing industries and the team is comprised of industry leaders who come from senior positions within healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and software industries.

Its clients include 11 Blue Cross Blue Shield organisations, national and Governmental health plans and multiple Fortune 500 organisations.

EXL recently unveiled its Business EXLerater Framework, which combines operations management expertise, sophisticated analytics and technology tools to reduce costs and improve performance for clients.

Volvo Adds More Cities To Its Intra-City Travel In India

In June, Puducherry and Solapur became two new cities to opt for Volvo 8400 city buses, while Kolkata augmented its existing fleet of Volvo city buses. With this, the presence of Volvo in the high-performance city bus segment in India expands to 15 cities.  

Volvo is among the first to be ready and commence delivering city buses under the recent Urban Bus Specification (UBS) scheme to State Transport Undertakings (STUs). 

By end of this year, one can expect to see more cities in India opting for Volvo city buses, besides existing cities working towards augmenting their current fleets. 

The new Volvo 8400 city bus, built to meet the current Urban Bus Specifications comes with a host of new features, and enhances standards in safety, and passenger convenience & comfort.

This includes features such as rear under-run protection; lateral protection; wider wheel chair ramps; walking crutch holders for passengers with special needs; new high-comfort seats with headrest & greater reclining; automatic fire detection & suppression system in the engine area and finally on-board telematics for better passenger information systems.

Xerox Rolls Out Next Generation MPS In India

Xerox India, a part of Xerox Corporation, the world's leading enterprise for business process and document management services expanded its services offering with the launch of Next Generation MPS for the India market. The Next Generation MPS is designed to build momentum and deliver new value that help customers of all sizes realize cost savings upto 30% with increase efficiencies, allowing them to focus on their core business. Xerox’s Next Generation MPS is an innovative solution with a shift in focus from optimizing printer fleets to optimizing business processes.

“As an enterprise’s knowledge capital grows – in both paper and electronic form – the challenge of unlocking it increases exponentially. Without proper management it becomes lost; since it lives in so many places and formats,” said Vishal Awal, Executive Director-Services, Xerox South Asia. “Our three-stage strategy – assess and optimize, secure and integrate, and automate and simplify – continues to evolve with these new offerings. The enhancements help clients manage their information demands more effectively, especially in the area of security and automating document workflows.”

He also added “As per E&Y survey, the Indian MPS market is slated to grow at 30% CAGR to $250Mn by 2015. This obviously presents a great opportunity for Xerox Corp. The enterprise and SME landscapes are changing and more and more customers are shifting from a Cap-Ex driven captive print infrastructure to an Op-Ex led Managed Print Services model. While we have seen good traction of MPS in verticals like BFSI and Telecom, other verticals viz Consumer Goods, Retail, Manufacturing, healthcare and Utilities are also showing great promise towards MPS adoption.”

Xerox’s MPS portfolio is designed to:

·* Analyze how and why documents are printed, and use that analytical intelligence to change the way information is accessed. It is way beyond merely managing customers’ existing fleet

* Enhance information security without disrupting the IT infrastructure

* Make mobile/cloud printing easier and more convenient

* Evaluate, simplify and improve everyday document-intensive business processes through workflow automation.

Alcatel-Lucent Addresses Challenge With New Switch, Analytics & SDN Capabilities

The Enterprise division of Alcatel-Lucent is today launching in India new technologies to address the challenges created by pervasive mobility and the explosion of new applications being introduced within enterprises. This comes amidst IDC predictions that the enterprise mobility sector in the Asia-Pacific region is set to boom, and is expected to reach a value of $2.3 billion by 2017.

As part of its Unified Access approach for both wired and wireless networks, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise has introduced an innovative access switch and additional network capabilities. This will give IT departments across India and the Asia-Pacific region more visibility and control of the network, while employees and customers will gain flexibility to use the applications they need.

Fueled by cloud services, a booming smartphone market growing at 166.8%and the ‘BYOD’ phenomenon in India, the number and type of applications used in enterprises is growing, requiring IT teams to be armed with new tools and capabilities that ensure business goals are met and the network remains secure.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is adding deep packet inspection at the wired and wireless access layer, expanding its Application Fluent Network capabilities. It can now consolidate this information with network analytics tools that help IT teams gain improved visibility into the applications, and also create policies and enforce them at the edge of the network to secure and optimize delivery of applications to employees and customers.

Additionally, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise helps businesses create more agile networks needed to deploy applications now that its entire portfolio has Software Defined Networking (SDN) capabilities. Its end-to-end SDN architecture is completed in this launch with the support of SDN interfaces reaching across the access, to the core and into the data center, providing customers investment protection and enabling interoperability with third-party solutions. The SDN capabilities include REST API’s, OpenFlow 1.0/1.3 and the ability to leverage OpenStack plug-ins for full orchestration across the entire network. 

Product details:

OmniSwitch 6860

The new OmniSwitch 6860 (OS6860) family, with embedded analytics and programmability is one of the industry’s most advanced gigabit access switches. Highlights include:

* An innovative ASIC and coprocessor providing wire-rate deep packet inspection (DPI) and policy enforcement right at the edge of the network. IT has more visibility of applications being used, how much bandwidth is being consumed, and the immediate ability to enforce policies to control prioritization, QoS and security.

* SDN-enabled with the support of OpenFlow and OpenStack.

* OmniSwitch 6860 models also support four unique 1G PoE ports that offer up to 60W Power over Ethernet (PoE) to support next generation devices that require high power, such as small cells that combine cellular and Wi-Fi, and high definition video surveillance cameras.

* The OmniSwitch 6860 is also data center and IT friendly: All ports are in the front, with front-to-back cooling and an innovative Bluetooth management connection so smart devices can be used to manage the switch. In addition, it can be used in the data center as a 1GbE top-of-rack switch.

Wireless LAN

Building on its Unified Access approach, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise makes every network service offered consistently available on the wired and wireless network. The enhancements include:

* DPI capability of up to 1500 applications and programmability support on Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OmniAccess WLAN controllers.

* New OmniAccess Access Points to better address the growing adoption of Gigabit wireless (802.11ac) and the diverse deployment needs with outdoor AP, low cost APs and Instant APs.

* The Aruba Networks’ AirGroup service enhancements to support Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) devices. Customers can use consumer devices for screen-sharing and media-streaming in the corporate network not only from Apple but also from manufacturers like Sony, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, etc. AirGroup enables end users and IT administrators to self-register devices and define who can access them. In the higher education environment, students can register their printers, TVs, games consoles, and other consumer devices, and set access limits for select friends’ use, all without IT involvement.

OmniVista 2500 Network Management System

OmniVista is redesigned to better support network analytics and provide the foundation for future consumption models as more enterprises move toward cloud-based services. The new OmniVista 2500 provides:

·         Multi-tenancy and a distributed architecture for resilience, scalability, and future cloud-based service offers.

·         Open northbound/southbound APIs for future interoperability in an SDN architecture.

·         New Web-based user interface allows IT to access the NMS from any device such as tablets and smartphones, anywhere.

·         Unified policy engine and cohesive visibility of both wired and wireless networks simplifies IT operations.

·         Centralized network analytics for wired and wireless provides IT a comprehensive view of the users, devices and applications in the network and enables them to apply the appropriate policies to the network devices.