Azure Catapults MartJack To eComm Leadership

MartJack ‘Enterprise’ today announced that it has signed on more than 250 Enterprise customers globally for its Multichannel Commerce Platform, making it the leader in the Enterprise eCommerce Platform space across India and Middle East. The company also said that moving to Microsoft Azure has helped Martjack ‘Enterprise’ acquire this large a customer base in record time.  

“The flexibility, scalability, agility and security offered by Microsoft Azure helped us focus on customer acquisition and bring in customized deployments at quick pace with minimal investments,” said Abhay Deshpande, Founder and CEO, MartJack. “Our core interest remains in fulfilling the needs of retail businesses and helping them to win in multichannel commerce world.  To achieve this, we were looking for a cloud platform that could power up businesses online, while also being flexible to deal with sudden growth and reduce investment in infrastructure.  With the migration to Azure, we have not just added more customers but also supported existing customers to enhance their eCommerce services to offer superior value to their end consumers,” he added

“MartJack is truly optimizing the power of Azure for its business and customers.  The open and flexible architecture of Azure has helped the company achieve great success in little time,” said Srikanth Karnakota, Director, Server and Cloud Business, Microsoft India. “Azure has helped MartJack innovate by allowing them to customize workflows quickly and at the same time improve cash flows by reducing infrastructure cost.  MartJack users are also able to access their favourite retail brands anywhere across devices of their choice”, he added.

MartJack ‘Enterprise’, is the leading enterprise class ecommerce platform across India and Middle East.  It provides customers with not just a multi-tenant SaaS based ecommerce platform, but also offers end-to-end multichannel commerce capabilities. This includes, seamless catalogue, inventory, order, marketing management, integrated logistics, payments and third party application integration facility.

The platform also enables retailers/brands to leverage the power of mobile site, mobile application and social media integration to engage with digitally savvy consumers. It enables retailers to provide a seamless brand experience across multiple channels – web, mobile, social, and in-store, thereby increasing footfalls, revenues and profits. The platform has an elite clientele of brands such as Future Group, Lulu, Godrej Nature basket, Metro Shoes, The Body Shop, Wildcraft, Casio to name a few.  Martjack is now looking at expanding into other global markets such as South East Asia and US.

MartJack ‘Enterprise’ has built several eCommerce innovations on the Microsoft Azure Platform. With these, MartJack is able to provide its retailers with:

One Brand, One Experience across all digital channels

The Multichannel commerce platform has enabled retailers to provide a unified brand engagement and shopping experience for demanding consumers through web store, mobile store, Facebook and in-store channels. 

Seamless omni-channel commerce operations and customer loyalty program

Integrated customer processing systems such as ERP with the eCommerce store enable pricing, discounts and inventory data to be automatically fetched from the systems, eliminating manual intervention to update pricing and inventory for eCommerce store. This also integrates offline loyalty systems with the ecommerce platform to let consumers seamlessly earn and redeem loyalty points seamlessly across in-store and online transactions.

Increase footfalls and digitally influenced sales

With more than 50% of internet users doing a preliminary research before purchasing a product (Zinnov Research 2013), the digitally influenced product sales for retailers is growing at a rapid speed. The multichannel commerce platform provides avenues such as ‘order online - pickup in store’ (consumers can place the order online and pick up the product in store), store based stock (retailers can map the products with store-specific inventory level so that the end consumer can check the availability of the products at a particular store).  

Advanced sales assistance and customer engagement using digital media

Preloaded tablets are used by in-store sales force to showcase rich product catalogs (videos and images) and detailed product specs to consumers, especially for electronics goods. They are also able to capture consumer details while showcasing the products, which is seamlessly synced with POS systems where the residual part of billing is completed. This reduces the billing time per consumer from 18 minutes to 8 minutes. It also allows banks and insurance companies to extend offers to their debit/credit card holders by providing promotions on purchases through their market place.

Maxx 20 GB Smartphone - AXD21 - Priced Rs 4020

Maxx Mobile, a leading manufacturer and marketer of mobile phones and accessories, today announced the launch of their new model AXD21, which runs on Android KitKat Operation System and comes with 20 GB Memory. Available at an extremely affordable price of Rs, 4020/-, the handset will be offered exclusively on Snapdeal.com, India’s largest online marketplace.

Commenting on the launch, Ajjay Agarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of Maxx Mobile said, “We are delighted to announce AXD21, which is a combination of great features, best quality and attractive pricing. The phone is aimed at fulfilling the ‘value for money’ mindset of the Indian consumer and is all set to become one of the most affordable KitKat handsets. It comes with all features of the latest Kit Kat Android operating system, providing a rich consumer experience. We are glad to partner with Snapdeal and make our new offering easily available to our customers.”

Tony Navin, Senior Vice President, Electronics, from Snapdeal.com said “We at Snapdeal.com, endeavor to offer high quality products across varied categories to our 25 million users at best prices. The smartphone category on the portal has been getting an extremely encouraging response. The strategic tie up with Maxx Mobile will help us cater to our large customer base with interesting products such as the AXD21 - Kit Kat. We hope to see a positive response from our customers and look forward to a long term relationship with Maxx Mobile”.

The Kit Kat based AXD21 model has a 4” screen and comes with 20 GB Memory (4GB ROM +16 GB memory card) and 512MB RAM. It comes with a 1 GHz Dual Core Processor, powered by Mediatek and a 3.2 MegaPixel Camera with Flash+ 0.3 MegaPixel Front Camera. The front camera supports features like panaorama shot, face and smile detection, HDR and other camera effects. The phone boasts of a 1450 mAh Battery and 3G Connectivity, GPRS /Edge, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The back panel has a premium leather finish. The phone will be available in 4 colors, black, white, red and yellow.

Wego.com’s Travel App Simplifies Bookings

Wego.com, a leading travel search site in the Asia Pacific and Middle East, has released a free simple and effective travel app for android and iOS. As a convenient extension of the popular travel search platform, the app instantly provides mobile users with hundreds of airfare options and hotel rates in 20 languages.

Wego simplifies the uneven world of online travel options by gathering all available airfares and hotel rates on one app to provide travellers with unbiased and channel neutral prices in real time from local and international hotels, airlines and online travel providers.

“Today's travellers are more mobile than ever and with 110 million smartphone users in India alone, it was imperative that Wego provide a smart and intuitive app to meet the needs of mobile users,” said Jackson Fernandez, Managing Director of Wego India. “The app allows travellers to search hundreds of travel sites in one place which also makes it perfect for last minute travel requirements.”

The app features easy, gestured navigation, advanced filtering and sorting options, clear and concise images along with a highly optimised logic for lower data and battery consumption. It also offers the convenient option to email travel search results to a friend or yourself for subsequent booking at a later time. In addition the iOS app indicates which hotels feature a mobile-friendly site.

“Sometimes you need to make travel arrangements fast, especially as a corporate traveller. Wego’s free travel app is intuitive and flexible giving you the ability arrange a quick hotel booking, last minute flight, or just plan your future holiday arrangements while you’re stuck in traffic,” added Fernandez. “Apart from the convenience, travellers can be assured they’re given the choice of the best possible travel rates available.”

The Wego app has been rated as the number one travel app in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia by the iTunes Store and has featured among the top ten travel apps in the Middle East and other regional markets.

KDK Softwares To Be Acquired By Intuit For Tax Solutions

Intuit Inc today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire KDK Softwares India Private Limited a market leader in providing professional tax solutions in India. This acquisition will further strengthen Intuit’s commitment of becoming the ecosystem behind small business success and establishes a strong position for the company to reach accountants in India. Intuit looks to add a significant base of over 20,000 of KDK Softwares’s customers. KDK Softwares states that with its current market base it is serving 1 in 5 practicing chartered accountants in India.

Intuit will also expand its portfolio of offerings to include simplified tax filing for accountants, bookkeepers and their small business clients. KDK Softwares is a leading provider of professional tax computation and e-filing solutions, both in desktop and cloud models, with a base of over 100 channel partners in over 60 cities in India.  

With this acquisition and its integration with the popular worldwide solution Intuit QuickBooks, Intuit will be able to offer a robust solution for accounting, tax computation and e-filing. Accountants usually spend 50 percent of their time filing taxes. The new Intuit QuickBooks will create significant time savings by improving their workflow and the ability to complete a tax return in a single step. 

The closing of the acquisition is subject to the satisfaction of certain customary closing conditions by the parties.

Intuit is the world leader in business and financial management solutions for small businesses and accountants. QuickBooks is used by more than 5 million users worldwide, including 300,000 accountant users.

“Our vision is to become the ecosystem behind the success of Indian small businesses and accountants.  By 2020, we want one in four small businesses in India to use Intuit products. With this acquisition, we will in the near term be able to provide our customers with an end-to-end workflow of integrated accounting and tax capability which would be the first of its kind in the country,” said Nikhil Arora, Vice President and Managing Director, Intuit India. “The addition of KDK Softwares builds on Intuit’s QuickBooks small business ecosystem offering in India, providing for the first time a seamless and collaborative tax filing solution,” he added.

 Kapil Goyal, Founder and Managing Director of KDK Softwares, said “KDK Softwares is committed to partnering with small businesses and accountants across India and providing them with solutions that makes tax filing easy and compliant.  Today we serve 1 in 5 practing chartered accountants in India and we are very excited to join Intuit. Together we will be able to add  efficiency, ease-of-use and time savings for small business ecosytem in India.  Also, KDK Softwares accountants are early adopters of online solution and thus are an ideal fit to take advantage of the QuickBooks integration.”

Hackathons for Good at NASSCOM HR Summit 2014

NASSCOM Foundation organized a panel discussion on ‘Finding Talent, Finding solutions: Hackathon, your new and progressive HR strategy’ at the recently concluded NASSCOM HR Summit, at Chennai.  The goal for the session was to establish Hackathons as an integrator of HR practices and how they are poised to change the traditional landscape of hiring, nurturing talent, promoting innovation, and incubating leaders and as a tool for doing social good.

Technology has always been an enabler to efficient HR practices, but with Hackathons, it is expanding its role to create a platform that cuts across Talent Acquisition, Learning and Development (L&D) and Employee Engagement among other HR functions for the technology companies.

The panel discussion featured Gaurav Ahluwalia, Managing Director and Head - Human Resources, J. P. Morgan, Hari Vasudev, VP & Head, Yahoo India R&D and Kumar Sachidanandam, Senior Director - Innovation Group, Cognizant and was moderated by Rita Soni, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation.  The panelists collectively concurred to the increased relevance of Hackathons within the larger HR policy of an organization and suggested on how the Hackathons may work as a vital integrator of multiple HR practices while contributing towards society.

Of late, NASSCOM Foundation has been actively involved in Hackathons like JP Morgan Chase’s Code for Good challenge and Code for India’s twin city Hackathon. Both combined, saw over 430 coders from India and the US participate. The Foundation understands that apart from being a great HR tool, Hackathons can be driven towards finding new and innovative solutions to real world problems like natural disasters, traffic issues, environmental protection or any other cause the coders and developers can identify with or feel passionate about. 

Rita Soni, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation, stated “With representation from a leading IT services company, a financial services company and an Internet corporation, it was amazing to see a panel, so diverse in their lines of business and thought processes, talk in unison, for the adoption of Hackathons as a main stream HR tool and synergizing the vast coding potential in India towards solving social issues”

NASSCOM HR Summit 2014, titled ‘Change, Change, Change – Reimagining HR’ saw HR teams participate from across the 1600+ strong NASSCOM member community. This provided with the best possible setting to promote Hackathons as a paradigm shift in how the new age HR domain may evolve, to be in sync with the ways of the Gen Y.

Avail High Speed Broadband Of 60 Mbps From ACT

ACT (Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt Ltd), the fourth largest internet service provider in the wired broadband category has launched its new broadbrand brand, ACT Fibernet.

Fibernet, a unified brand has symnetric data tansmission that is the same speed for download and upload. The company has reached a mark of half a billion customers and Bala, Group CEO of the ACT group is confident that the company can reach a million mark with their existing market.

Bala said: "Just as the company has evolved, our brand must evolve and reflect the impact of our technological advancement and the value it brings to more than half a million subscribers. ACT plans to invest a substantial amount of money to reach the milestone of one million subscribers in the next 18 months."

With the launch the company which has a strong presence over Southern India, are providing offers with immediate effectiveness. Fibernet has been launched 60mbps for Rs. 1999 with a download limit of 100GB. The existing offers has been upgraded and the existing customers will be upgraded to the new plans without any extra cost. 

3D Printing To Revolutionise Rapid Tool Applications

Altem Technologies, a strategic vision partner of Stratasys Ltd - a world leading manufacturer of 3D printers and 3D production systems for office-based rapid prototyping and direct digital manufacturing solutions, today showcased “Trends and applications in 3D Printing” in a seminar at My Fortune Hotel in Bangalore .

The event focused on how professional 3D Printers could be used in RAPID TOOLING applications like Injection Molding, Blow Molding, Investment Casting and Jigs & Fixtures among others. Recent developments in 3D Printing and Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM) technologies are redefining the design & manufacturing processes across all the segments. The event highlighted how 3D Printing offers a fast and affordable way to produce injection molded prototypes.

Over 250 engineers from the Research, manufacturing and academic segment who work on rapid prototyping and tooling attended the event and witnessed how 3D printing revolutionizing this field. 3D Printing enthusiasts working in aerospace, automobile and R&D sectors were also present at the seminar and explored how best they can use 3D printing in their area of work.

3D printed Injection Mold tools are suitable for small production series but since tools cost is low, they are commercially viable also when only a few parts are needed. The Stratasys Polyjet-based 3D printed injection molding tool (PIMT) can be built very cheaply and rapidly, and are typically ready to inject in a matter of a few hours. PIMTs can be used to inject polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, ABS, and thermoplastic elastomers. PIMTs are printed using Objet ABS-like material which is a tough and heat resistant polymer. 

Speaking on the event, Ido Eylon, GM (South Asia) – Stratasys Ltd said, “3D Printing is an extremely valuable tool in the injection molding industry worldwide. It can help shorten the overall product development cycle and is more cost effective when only a few parts are needed. PIMTs (3D printed injection molding tool) can be built really cheaply and fast, ready to inject in a few hours.”

Prasad Rodagi, Founder Director – Altem Technologies (P) Ltd., said, “Altem Technologies is pleased to host a seminar of this nature, which will benefit manufacturers and eventually bring in a paradigm shift in the way tooling and manufacturing is done. Altem Technologies’ endeavor is to bring in an industrial revolution in the field of 3D printing in the country by innovating new ideas and solutions to enable manufacturers and product designers to realize their product faster and in an economical manner. The wide applications of this technology can soon be seen in various fields such as consumer goods, electronics, engineering, medical equipment, automobile, architecture, education, aerospace, defence, and design and art.”