Mphasis & Arago Partner for Next-Gen Automation Solutions in AI

Mphasis, a leading IT services and solutions provider, partners with Arago, a pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI) and leader in intelligent IT automation based in Frankfurt/Main, Germany and New York, U.S. Together the two industry leaders will deliver cutting-edge automation platforms, leveraging both Arago’s problem-solving AI HIRO (Human Intelligence Robotically Optimized) and Mphasis’ deep domain expertise across niche verticals. These solutions will enable customers to automatically identify, predict, and resolve tasks of today’s complex IT environment, thus significantly improving their IT functions, the flexibility of IT operations and reaching optimal IT costs over time.

With the partnership, Mphasis will augment its offerings in the automation space and build greater market credibility as an early adopter of autonomics driven infrastructure solutions. Arago’s platform HIRO will empower Mphasis to offer best-in-class automation solutions to its customers, as HIRO achieves astounding automation rates even in heterogeneous IT environments. The continuously self-learning platform automates the entire IT stack – even individual applications. It is able to solve trouble tickets and machine monitoring events at every level of operations, which significantly reduces operating costs while improving speed and flexibility.

“In this digital age, success is driven by swiftly adopting technological innovations, enabling companies to perform better and smarter. Although there are numerous complexities that we encounter in today’s hybrid IT environments, intelligent automation has revolutionized the way operations are managed. We want to offer our clients a truly unique solution that relieves their IT from time-consuming tasks, giving them more time to improve their business, while guaranteeing a seamless integration into their IT ecosystems. This is where Arago steps in. Our partner delivers cutting-edge AI technology. Together, we are looking for a rollout of jointly developed solutions that will help our customers to quickly optimize IT costs, drastically enhance efficiencies of their IT and provide better customer service and satisfaction overall,” said Gopinathan Padmanabhan, Chief Innovation Officer and President - Global Delivery, Mphasis.

“The complexity of corporate IT environments is challenging many businesses. AI based automation has become a significant advantage in the digital age as it enables companies to shift their focus from simply managing current IT operations to innovation and technological advancement. Otherwise, they risk being left behind by their competitors.

India’s First Integrated On-Airport Perishable Cargo Handling Centre Commences BIAL Trial Operations

Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt. Ltd. (AISATS), India’s premier airport services company, commenced trial operations of India’s first integrated on-airport perishable cargo handling centre, “AISATS COOLPORT, at the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB). The state-of-the-art, 11,000 sq. meter facility will meet the ever-increasing demands and handling requirements of temperature-sensitive cargo and will further enhance the State of Karnataka’s status as the pharmaceutical and perishables hub of India.

AISATS COOLPORT, with a handling capacity of 40,000 tons per annum, will cater to an extensive range of perishable commodities such as pharmaceutical products, fruits, vegetables, poultry, sea food and flowers. It is customized to offer the most comprehensive cold storage solutions with 17 dedicated cold rooms with adjustable temperatures ranging from – 25^OC to + 25^OC.  Designed as a “One Stop Shop” to facilitate the Import and Export processes of the air cargo industry, the integrated facility will house a state-of-the-art Drug Controller lab as well as a Plant Quarantine Inspection & Certification office. It will be supplemented by temperature controlled queue lanes for unitized shipments and Cool Trollies to ensure integrity of the cool chain from AISATS COOLPORT to the aircraft and vice versa.

In recent years, Bengaluru has witnessed a steady increase in perishable cargo volume, with a CAGR of 15%. With this new facility, AISATS aims to be a key player in promoting an efficient, safe and secure cool chain handling for temperature sensitive products.

Speaking on this occasion, Mike Chew, CEO, AISATS said, “The Indian economy is on a high trajectory of growth and requires upgraded infrastructure facilities in the logistics space to cater to the growing needs of the trade and the air cargo industry. Keeping in view the significance of Air Cargo to the economic growth of the country, we truly believe that this dedicated state-of-the-art facility will play a vital role in supporting better trade facilitation, and will further boost the exports & imports of temperature sensitive products. AISATS COOLPORT at Kempegowda International Airport aims to bolster the Government of Karnataka’s vision of turning the state into a preferred air cargo hub of South India.” 

“Today, I congratulate AISATS on the trial operations of the new integrated Perishable Handling Center at KIAB, a first for any airport in the country. As we move towards becoming the preferred cargo hub in southern India, it is imperative for such specialized facilities to cater to the burgeoning perishable cargo demand of this region. South India with its established presence in the global logistics network has the potential to create the necessary fillip towards the development of air cargo in India. As an airport that is strategically positioned at the heart of South India, we have the opportunity to take advantage of this momentum and be the single gateway for cargo traffic and shippers aspiring to reach this fast-growing region. We firmly believe new logistics that redefine the cargo business will propel us closer to our vision of being the Cargo Gateway to South India,” said Hari Marar, President, Airport Operations, BIAL

Amazon.in & Yes Bank Partners to Expand its Seller Lending Program

Amazon.in has announced the expansion of its Seller Lending Program through a strategic partnership with YES BANK, India’s fifth largest private sector bank. The partnership aims to develop synergistic solutions for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and SMEs across the country. YES BANK will help sellers on Amazon.in to profitably grow their business during the festive season by providing them comprehensive financial solutions ranging from current account, trade services, forex, payment gateway, business lending and loan products. Under the ambit of this program, YES BANK has already commenced relationships with hundreds of sellers on Amazon India with lending lines at various stages of disbursement.

This partnership marks the beginning of YES BANK as the primary corporate banker to Amazon India and will see the development of customized solutions for sellers of different scale & size on Amazon.in. Sellers will have digital access to the payment and lending solutions of YES BANK, ensuring speed in processes as well as personalization. As part of this agreement, Amazon.in sellers benefit by getting additional unsecured financing at competitive rates without much hassle which in turn helps them increase their business on the Amazon portal resulting in a win-win situation for all 3 parties viz. Seller, Amazon India and YES BANK.

Additionally, Amazon India will provide special services and market access to YES BANK’s SME clients enabling thousands of medium and small business owners and start-ups to access millions of loyal customers of Amazon and become part of India’s growth story. 

 Talking about the program, Gopal Pillai, Director and GM, Seller Services, Amazon India said, “Through our constant engagement with sellers, we realized that lack of financial expertise can hinder the growth of small businesses as they scale up which can impact their expansion rate. To help sellers make the most of the festive season, we have partnered with YES BANK under our Seller Lending Program to help them catalyse their growth on our platform by offering them a comprehensive suite of financial solutions. We have made the end to end process quick and easy allowing our sellers to focus on their core business while we take care of providing them with hassle-free financial solutions.”

Speaking on the partnership, Pralay Mondal, Head, Retail Business Banking, YES BANK said, “As a knowledge driven bank, YES BANK understands the specific needs of MSMEs and we are proud to partner with Amazon India to provide comprehensive banking solutions to Amazon sellers. We are also happy to mentor them by offering subject matter expertise, intelligence and innovative financial solutions driven by digitization.”

Earlier this year, Amazon.in had launched its Seller Lending Program to enable SMEs to easily access secured & unsecured loans between 5 lakh rupees to INR 2 crores at very competitive interest rates. The company had partnered with Capital First, a Mumbai-based independent Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) for this program which has seen loans worth crores being dispersed to date. The programme has been expanded to allow a wider gamut of sellers to scale up before the crucial festive shopping season.

Since its launch in June 2013, Amazon.in has been working extensively to launch services that meet different business requirements of its 1.2 lakh seller base and help them grow their business profitably online. From running an extensive education and skilling program for SMEs called Seller University, offering Fulfilment By Amazon (a pay-as-you-go fulfilment service wherein Amazon.in  packs, ships and delivers products to customers, manages returns and does customer service on behalf of the sellers), innovating Easy Ship (an assisted shipping service that makes it easy for sellers to ship products across India), launching Seller Flex (bringing Amazon’s flagship FBA experience to the seller’s doorstep by implementing the FBA technology at sellers’ warehouses), introducing Amazon Tatkal (a service-on-wheels to help SMEs get online within 60 minutes), to  building the largest storage capacity in ecommerce in India for sellers to the tune of 7.5 million cubic feet, Amazon.in has been helping sellers reach millions of customers across the country.

HDFC Bank Opts for Adobe Marketing Cloud to Deliver Personalized Customer Experiences

HDFC Bank, one of India’s leading banking and financial services company and one of the country’s most valuable brands, today announced that it has selected Adobe Marketing Cloud platform to deliver personalized digital experiences to its 37 million customers. This multi-million dollar deal represents one of the biggest implementations of Adobe Campaign globally, and reinforces HDFC Bank’s commitment to taking the lead in providing a truly world-class digital experience for Indian customers.

In partnership with Adobe, HDFC Bank has developed a comprehensive email marketing solution based on Adobe Campaign that will span multiple outbound channels including email, SMS, social and mobile apps.

“The ongoing digital revolution has opened up an array of opportunities as well as challenges for companies across the world. This is especially true for the BFSI sector in India, where more and more customers are relying on the power of the internet for all their banking requirements. At HDFC Bank, we are making strategic investments in driving a company-wide digital transformation to deliver on the fast evolving needs of our customers today. The implementation of this solution provides us with a comprehensive view our customers’ engagements with our campaigns, allowing us to share relevant, personalised marketing content with them, which enhances the customers’ experience with us with a real time response. As one of India’s leading brands, it’s important to us to maintain the trust and relationship we have built with our customers by continuing to improve and innovate,” said Kartik Jain, EVP, Head Marketing and Customer Analytics at HDFC Bank.  

As part of this partnership, HDFC Bank will replace its current engine for outbound campaigns with an all new solution based on Adobe Campaign that will help the Bank create multi-wave campaigns that will deliver an improved and personalized experience for its customers. This implementation will augment HDFC Bank’s marketing efforts by helping plan, automate, orchestrate, and measure marketing communications across channels. The company will also take advantage of optimized costs, extensive reporting and Marketing Resource Management capabilities that this implementation will deliver.“We are confident that our alliance with Adobe will help us deliver a truly compelling experience for our customers and support business results”, said Kartik Jain. With this new technology, HDFC Bank will be equipped to handle tremendous volumes of 37 million customer enquiries and 400 million emails a month. 

"In today’s digital era, consumers have a low tolerance for irrelevant or meaningless marketing material. A laser sharp focus on delivering the right message at the right time for customers is key to the success of any brand. We are excited about partnering with yet another industry leader and leading brand like HDFC Bank to drive their digital transformation agenda and help them engage with their customers in a multi-screen, digital world,” said Kulmeet Bawa, Managing Director, South Asia, Adobe.

Government IT Spending in India to Reach US$7.2 Billion in 2016

The government in India is on pace to spend $7.2 billion US Dollars (USD) on IT products and services in 2016, an increase of 2.4 percent over 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. This forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data center, devices and telecom services. Government comprises state and local governments and national government.

IT services (which includes consulting, software support, business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support) is expected to grow 9.3 percent in 2016 to reach $1.8 billion $US – with the business process outsourcing sub-segment growing 21 percent.

Telecom services will be a $1.6 billion in US market, with the mobile network services sub-segment recording the fastest growth with 5.2 percent in 2016 to reach $909 million.

“Government spending on software will total $885 million in 2016, a 4.5 percent increase from 2015,” said Moutusi Sau, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The software market will be led by growth in applications.”

Internal services will growth 5.8 percent in 2016 to reach $1.5 billion. Internal services refer to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organization. The information services staff includes all employees that plan, develop, implement and maintain information systems.

“The e-governance initiatives to simplify digital channels and data-driven initiatives are driving investments in the government and are anticipated to grow through 2020. The ‘Digital India’ initiatives are making government processes streamlined and integrating the data repositories,” said Sau.

Further information on government sector IT spending is available in the Gartner report, Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending for the Government and Education Markets, Worldwide, 2014-2020, 2Q16 Update. The forecasts provide total enterprise IT spending, including internal spending and multiple lines of detail for spending on hardware, software, IT services, and telecommunications for vertical industries and 43 countries within seven geographies.

India’s First Free Tech Suite of Custom Solutions for SME Automation

G7CR Technologies (www.g7cr.in) has announced the launch of its Business Enablement and Automation Program (BEAP) for SMEs, the world’s first free suite of custom solutions for SME automation. The ITaaS based solution is aimed at enabling SMEs turn digital disruption into competitive advantage by offering business process automation in an innovative business model giving them the experience of customized as well as standardised low-cost end to end managed solutions scalable to their growing business needs.

Leveraging Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, G7CR would provide software development, migration, adaption, implementation and 24X7 support for SMEs at no cost, while the client would pay only on the cost per click basis for cloud usage, at actuals. BEAP provides an ideal way for an SME to obtain a custom developed business automation application or existing standard solution depending on their specific needs from G7CR at affordable price points.

With capital investment on non-core functions such as IT, being eliminated completely, automation will enable SMEs shift focus more on their CORE business functions while becoming more productive and competitive. G7CR provides solutions across industries as well as the entire stack of industry-agnostic horizontal services to meet the needs of SMEs.

“G7CR’s delivery excellence coupled with innovative and scalable solutions for IT led innovation is working as the backbone for SMEs such as Clinikk (http://clinikk.com) with its mission of providing accessible, affordable and high quality supervised care as the healthcare buddy for physicians and patients alike,” said Suraj Baliga, Founder, Clinikk Healthcare.

 “Lack of financing coupled with fast paced digital disruption are proving to be major constraints for most SME’s today as they try to scale up and become increasingly competent,” said Christopher Richard, MD and Chief Software Architect, G7CR Technologies. “The IT-as-a-Service offering for SMEs would help accelerate their growth while freeing up vital resources such as financing for core business functions”, he added.

OPPO Replaces Apple to Top 2 in Terms of Sales Value: GKF Report

OPPO Mobiles, an evolving global technology brand, has for the very first time overtaken Apple to reserve a spot for itself in the Top 2smartphones in India by value in August 2016 as per GFK data. The brand has also clocked in a growth of 16% in comparison to the previous month.

This feat comes right after the launch of the Selfie Expert OPPO F1s in August. The Selfie Expert F1s came with a 16MP front camera and Beautify function apart from a 0.22s lightning fast fingerprint unlock and good battery endurance - a combination of powerful features desired by the young Indian consumers.

Sky Li, OPPO Global VP, MD of International Mobile Business and President of OPPO India,said, “India is a priority market for us. We have caught the trend that users, especially young generations like taking photos and selfies by phones. That’s why we have invested a lot in offering the consumers high quality camera phones with a strong focus on front camera.  Going forward we will continue investing inphotography technology, design and offering the best consumer experience.”

Besides providing high quality products, OPPO’s fast growth can also be attributed to the aggressive expansion of offline channel strategy and successful marketing campaigns targeted towards reaching out the young consumers. In the Indian market, OPPO has been expanding its offline presence by targeting 35,000 Point of Sales and 180 after sales service centres for giving its consumers a better experience.

By associating with popular platforms like Bollywood, Cricket and Entertainment, OPPO has been able to gain higher recognition in the Indian market. Taking their connection with the youth a notch higher, OPPO has planned something special this Diwali on Oct, 6^th to kick start the festivities and give consumers the perfect Diwali gift!