Idea Cellular 4G LTE Roll-Out Goes Pan-India Covering 575 Towns in 10 Key Circles With Over 14,000 4G Sites

Idea Cellular, a leading telecom operator, accomplished the fastest roll-out of 4G LTE services in 100 days in the country. After the company launched its 4G services in December, it has ramped up its presence to 575 towns, thus honoring the commitment made. This successful roll-out comes as a testimony of Idea’s focus towards delivering on its promise to the consumers. Currently available in over 575 towns across its 10 leading circles, Idea also becomes the first 4G broadband service provider in 250 towns out of these 575. With this Idea Cellular, is now servicing over 125 million users with its world-class 4G LTE services, built on a strong foundation of 14,000+ 4G sites across the country. 

Idea also continues its successful 3G journey and has built a solid foundation of 22,000 3G cell sites since the last 2 years, adding 28,500 new sites to create an infrastructure of over 50,000 sites.  Idea has expanded its 3G services on the most efficient 900 MHz band which has high-caliber transmission and propagation capabilities, to create a jam-free, high-speed, superior indoor internet coverage network providing additional data capacity to users in Delhi, and select cities of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Idea’s 4G and 3G customers now have a better mobile telephony experience while accessing services like video telephony, mobile TV, video on demand, music downloads, online gaming, amongst many others.

Idea is the fastest growing telecom operator with an overall RMS of 18.9% as of Q3FY16 report of TRAI. Idea has 6.1 million 4G devices, nearly 6% of its subscriber base in these 10 telecom service areas, registered on its network. In comparison, on an All India basis, Idea has nearly 48.6 million customers owning 3G devices (approx. 28% of EoP) and over 9.8 million customers with 4G devices (approx. 5% of EoP).

Spirit of Womanhood Celebration at Snuvik Technologies

Women are Embodiment of love, empathy, caring and above all celebration of life. To embrace and celebrate the spirit of womanhood, earlier this month, women of Snuvik had a surprise day- off from work, loaded with lots of excitement. “The day started with a special bouquet from our male colleagues, and we had a surprise hunt” says one of the ‘Snuvikites’ as they proudly call themselves. Be it a surprise planned of travelling without knowing the destination, the princess treatment enjoyed by shopping, bowling and a grand luncheonto finish it off; “we are overwhelmed the way we are treated” says another.

“It is not always fun that makes us content, but fighting for a cause also does” say the ‘Snuvikites’ and as part of the greater cause to persevere the dignity of women.Accompanied by their male colleagues, women at Snuvik Technologies, visited Swanthana-A place where the daughters of St. Camillus fight for respect, dignity and caring for the differently abled girl child. They spent time with the kids just to be amazed at their art works and sing along the rhythm of their favorite rhyme, apart from speaking to the sisters to understand the special needs of the kids.

 In this era where we speak about women empowerment, it is heart-breaking to see that most of the kids in Swanthana are not orphans but abandoned. Be it a 4 month old Sruthi (name changed) or a 15-year-oldSwati (name changed) all are subject to discrimination.The children there look forward to meeting outsiders, and in spite of all their health problems we see positive energy filled in the atmosphere; which will give us personal goals on ways to be content and face life with positivity. It is not about the 50 odd kids that we need to think, it is about the enduring cause that gives rise to such homes. We pride ourselves on development, on economic growth and technology; we talk of being a global power but silently ignore those hooded figures roaming amongst us to eliminate gender issues in the womb itself or immediately after birth.

 Somewhere the human in us needs to wake up and the society in which we live needs to be educated on the need of spreading love and care to those differently abled siblings of us, and work towards celebrating spirit of womanhood says Priyanka, HR Manager from Snuvik Technologies.

After everything, Swanthana is one such home which cares for the girl child and Snuvik is one company who is trying to support for the cause. While you read this article there are many such homes which are deprived of help, all we can do is wake-up, educate and stand up for the cause.

Manthan & SnapLogic to Jointly Accelerate Data Onboarding for Big Data Analytics

Businesses now have the ability to instantly consume data from a variety of data sources and generate powerful insights using Manthan’s packaged analytics products, which are now integrated with SnapLogic’s Elastic Integration Platform.

Manthan, a global leader in Big Data Analytics, announced an OEM partnership with SnapLogic, a technology leader offering unified data and application integration platform as a service (iPaaS). This partnership empowers consumer businesses to shrink the time to analytics for users, by making data on-boarding faster and easier.

Manthan’s award winning advanced analytics solutions are designed to make the analytics journey of businesses quicker and simpler with the instant reward of real time actionable insights. Manthan’s solutions come with industry specific pre-packaged data models and data processes to consume and manage data from structured and unstructured sources. This includes data from various operational systems like POS, ERP, Campaign and Ecommerce platforms as well as external systems like social media. 

“Extracting data from disparate systems and connecting with Manthan’s packaged analytics solutions is often the only time required to activate insights. SnapLogic enhances data acquisition and connectivity to multiple data sources, thereby further reducing the time required to onboard businesses”, said Ravi Shankar, Vice President, Professional Services, Manthan.

“The Manthan-Snaplogic partnership will automate the essential step of connecting a variety of data sources in order to generate valuable insights from the Manthan analytics platform. SnapLogic’s intelligent connectors, called Snaps, for cloud and on-premises applications including SAP, Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce reduce the effort required to create integrations and extract the data therein, and improve the quality of the integrated data.” said Jack Kudale, Senior Vice President of Field Operations, SnapLogic.

Manthan’s analytics solutions portfolio provides a comprehensive self-service experience to the business user– from data on boarding, data discovery to analysis, visualization and implementation. With its innovative ‘Switch On analytics’ approach, Manthan has thus enabled enterprises to reduce the friction to onboard analytics and simplify guided decision making.

Persistent Systems Announced Acquisition of Genwi Marketing System

Persistent Systems has announced the acquisition of Genwi, developer of the Genwi Marketing System, a flexible and customizable platform that delivers superior user experience to the sales and marketing teams at many Global 1,000 companies. The acquisition of San Jose-based Genwi by Persistent Systems further fortifies its leadership team with a particular focus on compelling experiences that are fundamental to the embrace of digital transformation.

Rahul Patel, Founder and CEO of Genwi says, “Generation Wireless was the inspiration for Genwi; with the advent of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices our goal is to help businesses build new experiences and extend their reach to wherever the connection points with audiences are. This digital mission has driven us every day and we know our platform will help build the software-driven experiences that are key to the digital transformation of Persistent’s customers.”

Sudhir Kulkarni, President Persistent Digital says, “Our strong differentiator is the ‘how’ of digital, and as such we are keeping laser-focused on bringing together data, APIs and experiences for our customers to become digital. Genwi’s leadership team, its platform to build experiences and its marketing system adds to our unique solution and architecture that drives our customers’ transformation to software-driven businesses.”

Aditya Birla Group Will Offer UL EHS Sustainability Courses to 120,000 Employees across 40 Countries

UL EHS Sustainability, the industry’s leading provider of workplace health and safety solutions, today announced an extensive course licensing partnership with Aditya Birla Group, the third largest conglomerate in India. The Aditya Birla Group, a conglomerate the size of a Fortune 500 company with global holdings in non-ferrous metal manufacturing, cement, telecommunications, textiles, and finance, will use UL’s training library to help ensure that its 120,000 employees worldwide maintain safe workplace practices.

UL’s research has shown that multinational companies often struggle with maintaining a consistent quality of safety training across international worksites. By having access not only to the English language version but to the hundreds of translated courses available through UL EHS Sustainability, the Aditya Birla Group will be able to assign relevant training to a variety of sites and businesses while ensuring the quality of content and language.     

“The Aditya Birla Group has a long-standing reputation as a top company for leadership," said Mark Ward, general manager and vice president of UL EHS Sustainability. “One mark of world-class leadership is an understanding that your human assets are your most important key in a robust bottom line. Keeping workers healthy, safe, and on-the-job in every country helps companies grow and prosper. We are delighted to partner with the Aditya Birla Group on this important initiative.”

“UL’s commitment to increasing safety awareness in India is further solidified with the important partnership with Aditya Birla,” said Bill Conran, UL EHS Sustainability vice president for global strategy and business development. “From preventing unintentional injury in children with UL’s Safety Smart to heightening worker awareness of hazards in the workplace with modern, applicable, training courseware, our mission of 'working for a safer world' is further realized, today.”

UL EHS Sustainability is trusted by more than 2,000 organizations in more than 20 major industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, construction, and energy. Its customized eLearning programs provide an engaging learning experience for employees, which is reflected in both the course content itself and how it is presented. Instructional designers who specialize in adult learning develop the courses to be highly interactive and visually appealing to encourage learner involvement and knowledge retention. UL EHS Sustainability also helps multi-national corporations manage and implement best safety practices across all their locations by offering language translation and country customization. UL EHS Sustainability’s winning combination of safety and instructional design expertise has been proven to enhance employees’ knowledge and positively influence behaviors.

Seventeen Indian Students to Attend Honeywell’s Leadership Challenge at US Space and Rocket Centre

Honeywell has announced that seventeen Indian kids joined more than 300 students from 36 countries for a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience at the Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy (HLCA).

Saurabh Shastri, a Pune participant passionately recalled, “At the space camp, step-by-step demonstration of mechanisms involved in rocket building and space travel fascinated and propelled me to lean towards mechanical engineering.”

The unique leadership program took place for two consecutive weeks at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (USSRC) in Huntsville, Alabama. It offers interactive technology, science-oriented workshops, and team exercises to instill leadership skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for students aged between 16 – 18 years.

 “Honeywell and its employees have a long history of promoting unique math and science education programs around the world,” said Dr. Deborah Barnhart, CEO and executive director, USSRC. “With HLCA, we help students develop confidence in their leadership skills and envisage a successful path for their future.”

Activities are delivered in fun and innovative ways to bring STEM studies to life. Interactive and experiential sessions around rocket designing, building, and testing; participation in simulated astronaut training, shuttle missions and a moon walk, infuse vigor and expands students’ learning curve. They also meet scientists, engineers, and former astronauts, who reinforce core leadership competencies and share their first-hand professional experiences.

Aditya Mehrotra from Bangalore said, “Some of the exercises such as flying an F-16 fighter jet on a simulator enabled me to experience science and technology like never before. Besides helping hone my leadership skills, HLCA has broadened my outlook, and given me a better understanding of different people and cultures.” 

Echoing a similar sentiment, Siddharth Sachdeva from Gurgaon, said, “Meeting students from around the world, who share the same passion for rockets, jets, and space shuttles, was extremely exciting. The opportunity to operate a space shuttle and moonwalk like an astronaut was a dream come true for me.” 

“Many of the world’s most exciting and in-demand careers are based in STEM,” said Michael A. Bennett, president, Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company’s global corporate citizenship initiative and sponsor of HLCA. “Honeywell’s goal is to inspire today’s students to become the next generation of engineers and scientists who will solve tough problems and improve quality of life.”

Since its launch in 2010, Honeywell, in partnership with the USSRC, has awarded 1,770 scholarships to students. Scholarships are granted after a rigorous application and review process based on academic achievement and community involvement. Financial contributions from Honeywell and its employees fund the scholarships, which cover the cost of tuition, meals, accommodations and program materials.

ShoreTel’s New Plug-In Telephony Offers Enhanced Microsoft Skype for Business Integration for Customers

ShoreTel, a leading provider of brilliantly simple unified communications (UC) solutions and phone systems,has enhanced its integration to Microsoft Skype for Business with a new plug-in that embeds telephony controls inside the Skype for Business client. “ShoreTel Telephony for Microsoft” enables ShoreTel phone system customers who use the Skype for Business client to have robust phone controls at their fingertips.

Specifically, with ShoreTel Telephony for Microsoft, users can dial contacts directly from the Skype for Business client, execute conference calls, transfer calls, access their voicemail box, view and set presence information, and control all of their ShoreTel preferences such as call routing.

“We recognize that some ShoreTel customers will use Skype for Business, so this new plug-in provides the power of ShoreTel telephony features inside that client, ensuring users have an easy, seamless experience,” said Eugenia Corrales, vice president of product at ShoreTel. “This is another example of ShoreTel meeting the needs of mid-market and enterprise customers across our entire Connect portfolio. We also offer future flexibility, giving customers the option to move to the ShoreTel Connect™ client when they are ready to harness the full collaborative power of ShoreTel Connect.”

“ShoreTel Telephony for Microsoft delivers a single application footprint for UC, combining ShoreTel’s voice infrastructure with the Skype for Business desktop client to give users the best of both worlds,” said Jason Evans, managing director of Response Data Communications, a ShoreTel Circle of Excellence partner in the UK. “For partners it enables us to deliver a robust, cost-effective voice platform that runs alongside the Skype for Business communications application.”

For the IT department, ShoreTel Telephony for Microsoft is a client-side integration, so no changes are required to the environment. The plug-in supports Lync 2013, Skype for Business 2015, and Skype for Business 2016 clients in both Office 365 and on-premises environments. ShoreTel does not require a separate license – the plug-in is part of the mid-tier bundle for ShoreTel Connect CLOUD and Connect ONSITE.