Mphasis Wins Silver In ContactCenterWorld’s 2014

Mphasis, a leading IT services provider, has been awarded the Silver medal in the prestigious Contact Center World’s 9th annual APAC Top Ranking Performer Awards – 2014. This award, widely recognized as the Number 1 Global Contact Center accolade, recognizes the breadth of Mphasis’ offering, the strength of its partnership-style of working, the quality of its people-related processes in addition to the strong impact of its results on the client’s business. Mphasis was awarded the Silver medal under the APAC Large Outsourced Contact Center Category. The award was presented at the regional Contact Center World 9th annual APAC Top Ranking Performer Awards, held in Singapore in early June 2014.

Mphasis was selected as a finalist in a long process, from around 700 entries in APAC, and went on to compete and present at the APAC event, and win the Silver. The Mphasis Banking & Capital Markets BPO team will later compete for the Global Awards amongst the Silver Awardees to be held at Las Vegas in November 2014.

Over the past eleven years, the winning team has grown from a 40 Full Time Equivalents (FTE), single-work stream, simple back-office processing operation, to a multi-channel, 350 FTE center (plus 75 managers and support staff) that provides the full gamut of inbound and outbound customer-facing services for our client’s customers. In the past year, the team has produced excellent customer satisfaction scores (Fizzback Average of 4.6), exceeded targets in key areas, and was awarded an unprecedented score of 100% by the client’s independent UK auditors for LSB (Lending Standards Board) call compliance.

Obi Mobiles Brings Octopus S520 Smartphone

Obi Mobiles has announced the launch of its much anticipated smartphone, Octopus S520 which shall be available initially for purchase through the largest online Marketplace-Snapdeal at Rs. 11,990.

The flagship smartphone from Obi Mobiles packs extreme performance and multitasking capabilities in a sleek metallic design powered by a 1.7 GHz Octa Core processor. As expected in the device of this class it sports the current version of Android Kit Kat 4.4 and an HD IPS Touch Screen.

While introducing the Obi Octopus S520, Ajay Sharma, CEO, Obi Mobiles said, “S520 is a beautifully designed product. It is engineered to highest quality specifications to reliably deliver a superior performance. This flagship device is an affirmation of our stated commitment to extend the best in class smartphone experience. From hardware specifications to the quality of accessories there are no compromises whatsoever, because we know our young customers conduct their lives around their smartphones.”

Speaking about this launch, Tony Navin, Senior Vice President, Snapdeal.com said “The Mobile market in India is growing by folds as customers are increasingly demanding newer technology and innovative products and are willing to support brands that deliver this. In order to meet the growing demand of new technology we have tied up with Obi Mobiles to further enhance the shopping experience of the 25 million+ users of our portal. The latest launch by Obi Mobiles comes packed with features and is sure to offer a great smartphone experience to its users. We are very excited in launching this phone and we look forward to a long term and mutually beneficial relationship with Obi.”

With a full touch 12.7 cm, the Dual SIM, 3G device comes in a sleek minimalistic design with a maximum thickness of just 8.4 mm, 1GB RAM and 8GB Internal Memory expandable to 32GB.

The device is optimised for seamless rendering of media content while all standard smart phone functions are supported in multitasking situations by the powerful octacore processor. The phone package contains a Flip Cover, a Screen Protector along with a best in class USB Charger and in-ear bud type ear phones as a standard offering. The phones are supported by country wide network of over 95 service centres for after sale support.

PayPal Wins Top Technology Leadership Award

PayPal India was honoured with top accolades at the 2014 Zinnov Awards in Bangalore today, establishing itself as a leading technology company in India. Zinnov, a reputed globalization and market expansion advisory firm, recognized PayPal India for excellence in four technology categories — ‘High Impact Global Roles,’ ‘Potential to Solve Large Scale Problems,’ ‘Ecosystem Enablement – Startups,’ and ‘Thought Leadership.’ The jury focused on key attributes such as sustainability, drivers, best-in-class practices and impact. PayPal India stood out in the face of competition from over 250 other nominations from 70 organizations to receive one of the highest number of awards won by any company at the event, setting a new benchmark for industry recognition.

“This is a recognition of our relentless efforts towards becoming one of India’s top technology companies. We are at the forefront of building innovative and impactful solutions for our global customers and the larger ecosystem,” said Anupam Pahuja, General Manager, PayPal India Development Centers. “We are honoured to be recognized in multiple categories by Zinnov, one of the most prestigious awards programmes in the industry. It is a moment of great pride for PayPal in India, and we will continue to focus on enabling connected commerce for a better world through innovation, execution, and technology leadership.”

PayPal India emerged as the winner in the ‘High Impact Global Roles’ and ‘Potential to Solve Large Scale Problems’ categories. Recognizing PayPal for creating a global platform for its employees, the award for ‘High Impact Global Roles’ acknowledged the company for having global leaders from India responsible for delivering the overall PayPal product experience to customers and merchants alike. The award for the ‘Potential to Solve Large Scale Problems’ category recognized PayPal for enabling the development of tangible strategies and state-of-the-art products that can solve customer problems around the world.

PayPal was also awarded for its support for the entrepreneurial community through ‘Start Tank,’ which earned the company the accolade for the ‘Ecosystem Enablement – Startups' category. PayPal Start Tank provides early-stage start-ups with a world-class incubation space and access to global mentors, angel investors, and venture capitalists. The Start Tank runs globally across PayPal offices in Boston, London, and Chennai. PayPal formally launched its Chennai startup incubator in association with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Chennai in November 2013 and currently hosts four startups.

Pragati Rai, Chief Technology Evangelist at PayPal, received the ‘Thought Leadership Contribution’ award, which recognized her work across various ecosystem initiatives that ensured the success of global campaigns for technologies such as mobile and cloud for engineers. A member of eBay Women in Technology (eWIT), Pragati has made Open Source contributions to the LiMo Foundation for security policies of open source Linux-based mobile operating system, and authored the best-selling book Android Application Security Essentials. 

Significant Growth In Digital Wallet Services In India

Mahindra Comviva, the global leader in providing mobility solutions, in collaboration with Ovum Consulting, has published a whitepaper tracing the growth and uptake of digital wallet services across developed and developing regions over the last 18 months.

The whitepaper examines why these services are becoming increasingly important, along with the benefits offered to customers and the overall ecosystem of operators, banks and merchants. It further highlights the growing trend amongst operators of inking partnerships and deploying white label platforms to enable merchant acquisition, transaction processing and functions pertaining to the role of trusted service manager.

“The potential for digital commerce and payments is extremely promising. However, the true value of digital wallet goes beyond the transaction. Digital wallets have the potential to generate an unprecedented amount of customer transactional data. Service providers can harness this information to design engaging, contextual experiences for each stage of the customer’s interaction on the path to purchase. As the customer progresses through a transaction, service providers for instance, can leverage customer location and transaction data to “listen and respond” to customer’s needs in real-time– e.g. deliver personalized offers”, said Srinivas Nidugondi, Senior Vice President and Head, Mobile Financial Solutions, Mahindra Comviva.

“Realizing the benefits of a customer centric payments strategy requires an open platform that can seamlessly integrate with multiple systems. The underlying wallet delivery architecture must support an open services framework to integrate with payment networks, payment terminals, loyalty and personalization platforms. This drives acceptance at merchant locations, as well as allows consumers greater accessibility to more third-party services, such as price comparisons, offers and deals, accelerating consumer adoption”, he added.

Service providers need to capitalize and further accelerate the uptake of digital services by addressing critical issues like security, possible misuse of personal data and lack of information pertaining to the same. To overcome this, the whitepaper recommends that security credentials be made visible to customers by adopting a simple approach. Moreover, customers require adequate information pertaining to the benefits of using this service, particularly vis a vis other payment mechanisms.

What’s Modi Dream Of 100 Smart Cities? Find Out All From Experts?

Modi’s dream project is building 100 Smart Cities across the country and the 2014 Budget has laid out a roadmap by providing the fund of Rs 7,060 crore? But what are these smart cities? Are they good investment options? Magicbricks asks the experts.

In his Budget-day speech, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Smart Cities will be developed as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernizing the existing mid-sized cities.

Apart from the allocation of Rs. 7,060 crore Magicbricks reveals the other key steps aimed at encouraging the development of Smart Cities and their impact on the Property Market. These include, requirement of built-up area being reduced from 50,000 sq. m to 20,000 sq. m and capital conditions for FDI that have been brought down from US$10 million to US$ 5 million, with just a three year post-completion lock-in period.

What are Smart Cities?

So will these Smart Cities be planned on the same lines as upcoming cities, such as Lavasa, Auroville and Pallava?” asked Magicbricks. “Cities like Lavasa are not considered home for lower or middle-class income groups but are targeted towards the upper middle class. The government is keen on focusing housing for all and that can be possible only through affordable housing.” replied Dr. PR Swarup, director general, Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), at the `Magicbricks Budget Discussion on Real Estate & Urban Infrastructure’ organized by Magicbricks recently.

But are these efforts enough to convert this vision into a reality? Is this enough? Magicbricks asked real estate experts to find out.

“The seed has been sown, the vision is bang-on, the intent is there and it is a welcome move. But the actual question is how and when will this be implemented,” added Dr. Swarup.

Speaking to Magicbricks he added “The allocated money is just like `token money’. The amount translates into a meager Rs. 70 crore per city, which is not enough to develop one whole city. The blueprint of this dream is still in the pipeline. Identification, time-lining and definition of the concept still remain to be executed. There is also a question mark on how they will provide 24×7 water and electricity, transit, jobs, etc.”

Why Smart Cities?

Magicbricks data clearly shows that development in the country is city-centric and is thus, making a large number of people migrate to the fast-developing cities. The Finance Minister substantiated this fact when he stated, “The pace of migration from the rural areas to the cities is increasing. A neo-middle class is emerging which has the aspiration of better living standards. Unless new cities are developed to accommodate the burgeoning number of people, the existing cities would soon become unlivable.”

Impact of Smart Cities on real estate

Speaking to Magicbricks, experts were upbeat about the impact this decision would have on real estate and on infrastructure across the country. Navin Raheja, chairman, National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco), said, “With the Smart Cities project, there will be a surplus of land issued for urban development and housing. This will ensure that with more supply, the prices of property are reined in.”

Raheja also pointed out to Magicbricks that because of lack of regular planning and small-term perspectives, land utilization is sub-optimal. By freeing up land for planned urban development and long 50-year term plans, cities can continually regenerate themselves and adapt to changing demographics.

V Suresh, principal executive officer, HIRCO, added to the Magicbricks discussion, that Smart Cities should boast of good infrastructure, well-maintained drainage and sewerage facilities, good connectivity and more.

What else does the real estate sector gain from the Budget?

Discussing the impact of the Budget 2014 on the Indian real estate market, the Magicbricks discussion panelists unanimously agreed that the Budget was a positive move towards reviving consumer sentiments in the real estate sector. Vaibhav Sankla, director, H&R Block India Private Limited said that the additional incentive on home loan and the tax rebate is comforting to the business community and the tax payers. “The housing loan rebate raised from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh may also boost youngsters to buy homes,” he said.

Speaking to Magicbricks, Partner and Head Real Estate and Construction, KPMG India, Neeraj Bansal said, “Accepting the modified version of the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) was also felt to be another positive move. “It will help in easing liquidity requirement for developers, paving the way to raise easy capital and also provide access to retail investors to benefit from regular income and appreciation benefits from the real estate.”

“Overall the government’s commitment to boost the real estate sector seems to be well intentioned. The idea to create Smart Cities was welcomed, but it is still to be seen how this vision of PM Narendra Modi will get off the ground.” summarized Jayashree Kurup, Head of Magicbricks Research and Content.

Now Buy Arsenal’s Exclusive PUMA Merchandise

With the football fever gripping the nation like never before, Myntra.com, India’s leading fashion hub, is metamorphosing itself into a football fan’s paradise. After the launch of its dedicated ‘Football Store’, Myntra.com is now unveiling the much anticipated, new Arsenal Football Club Home and Away kits from PUMA.

Arsenal fans in India will now have the unique opportunity to be the first few to have the privilege of owning their favorite club’s latest season merchandise by PUMA. The collection is spread over 34 different styles, across 43 Arsenal products, priced from Rs. 599 to Rs. 12,999

Myntra’s association with PUMA takes a new leaf with the Arsenal merchandise being available exclusively online first on myntra.com, aligned with the global PUMA-Arsenal launch. Over the next few days Myntra and PUMA will host a series of fan engagement initiatives through social media contests and other activities which began on 11th July and will be open till 25th July 2014. The winners of the contest will be announced on 10th August and Myntra will provide them with a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch an Arsenal match LIVE, in addition to winning a host of Arsenal merchandise.

Speaking on the launch of this exclusive online collection, Vikas Ahuja, Chief Marketing Officer, Myntra, said, “It's a huge honour to be involved with one of the most successful clubs in English football. We are excited to launch PUMA’s exclusive Arsenal collection at a time when the football fever is at its peak, creating more demand for our exclusive World Cup store. With the launch of original Arsenal merchandise, we are actively engaging shoppers who live by the game and aim to create a strong brand loyalty.”

The exclusive Arsenal collection for the 2014/15 season will also be available in PUMA stores across New Delhi (South Extension, Connaught Place, Pacific Mall), Bangalore (100 Feet Road and Brigade), Mumbai (Linking Road and Colaba), Pune (Aundh) and Goa (Panjim). It will be available in all other PUMA exclusive outlets from 1st August onwards.

In May 2014, Myntra launched an exclusive ‘Football Store’ where seven exclusive country team merchandize by popular sports brands like PUMA, Nike, Adidas, FIFA etc. were offered to football fans across the country. The online store has also been providing engaging content around the game and fashion tips to look one’s sporty best this football season.

Microsoft & Cisco Sign Agreement For Data Centre

Today at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Cisco announced a multi-year sales and go-to-market agreement with Microsoft designed to modernize data centers through the delivery and acceleration of integrated solutions.

Building on a rich history of solution development, Cisco and Microsoft will both invest in sales, marketing and engineering resources to drive global alignment, while delivering deeper technology integration across cloud and data center markets. The companies will focus on integrating market leading technologies, including Cisco Unified Computing System™ (UCS), Cisco Nexus® switching and Microsoft Cloud OS solutions including Windows Server, System Center, SQL Server and Microsoft Azure.

Highlights:

Go-to-Market: 

·      Cisco and Microsoft agree to a three-year go-to-market plan focused on transforming data centers through the delivery of integrated solutions for enterprise customers and service providers.

·      In year one, the companies will focus on six countries—the United States, Canada, UK, Germany, France, and Australia—with expansion to additional countries in the following years.

·      Cisco and Microsoft will align partner incentive programs to accelerate solutions selling via mutual channel partners. 

·      Cisco and Microsoft sales teams will work together on cloud and data center opportunities, including an initial program focused on the migration of Windows 2003 customers to Windows 2012 R2 on the Cisco UCS® platform.

Integrated Solutions:

·      Integrated solutions will focus on private cloud, server migration, service provider, and SQL Server 2014

·      Cisco technologies to include Cisco® UCS, Cisco Nexus switching, Cisco UCS Manager with System Center integration modules, and Cisco PowerTool.

·      Cisco-based integrated infrastructure solutions will include FlexPod with NetApp and Cisco Solutions for EMC VXPEX. 

·      Microsoft technology includes Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2, PowerShell, Microsoft Azure and SQL Server 2014

·      Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure and Cisco InterCloud Fabric to be integrated in the solutions in future releases

Frank Palumbo, Senior Vice President, Global Data Center and Virtualization Sales, Cisco says, “From innovative technologies and global brands to specialized channel partners, Cisco and Microsoft have the ingredients to transform the traditional data center. Now we’re expanding our long-standing technical partnership with Microsoft with an aggressive global go-to-market and sales initiative. By providing our customers and partners with greater sales alignment and even deeper technology integration we will help them transform their data centers and accelerate the journey to the cloud.”

Stephen Boyle, Vice President, Worldwide Enterprise & Partners Group, Microsoft remarks, “Enterprise customers worldwide are betting on Microsoft and Cisco to realize the benefits of our combined cloud and datacenter technologies. Now, together, we’re strengthening our joint efforts to help customers move faster, reduce costs and deliver powerful new applications and services for their businesses.”