n-gage Messenger Rewards Indian Users with Equity & Loyalty Points

By Manu Sharma

n-gage, a leading private messenger app in India, after having gained more than 8 lakhs of downloads is now launching a program to reward its users. The company is now poised to give away 250 million shares worth of equity to its global users. What’s more, India is the first out of 50 countries to be allocated with equity for its Indian users.

Indian users will get over 60 million shares worth of equity in n-gage.  The first one million founding Indian users to register onto n-gage, will automatically be credited 20 N-Gage Loyalty Points (NLP), equivalent to 20 shares in n-gage, and become partners in a business that they have helped grow.

n-gage has issued 1111 million shares out of which 250 million shares has been reserved for the benefit of its users. These shares are owned by Wemet Loyalty Company, a sister company of n-gage, which is governed by an independent board of directors. n-gage has agreed with Wemet Loyalty Company that n-gage users will be able to exchange their N-gage Loyalty Points, for either n-gage shares, or its value when n-gage is sold, or publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange which it plans to do end of 2020.

n-gage users, or rather the Champions will be able to earn more N-Gage Loyalty Points when they get their friends and family to use the app. Further details can be found in the rewards part of the n-gage app. Each n-gage loyalty point can be exchanged at an appropriate time with either one n-gage share or its cash equivalent.

Speaking on the occasion Ajit Patel, CEO and Founder of n-gage said, “We firmly believe that it is the users who make any app successful. These users normally get no more than the use of the product for their contribution.  With the N-Gage Champions Program, we want our users to partner in our growth and share in the success. The program aims to reward users for their trust and love of n-gage.”

n-gage Messenger Crossed I.4 Million Users

Today, messaging apps are everywhere. According to Harvard Business Review, 6 out of 10 global apps are messaging applications used by 1.4 billion people around the world. What’s more astonishing is that this figure is growing by 12% every year.¹ But where would these messaging applications be without its 1.4 billion users?

We often hear the success of messenger apps such as, WhatsApp, WeChat and Hike gaining a large user base and subsequent popularity. However, the point that is often taken for granted is the users contribution to the success of these messaging apps.  Aside from being able to send messages, what other benefits do these users receive?

Here is an app that is about to add another first to its name. n-gage, the most private messenger, which was launched in January this year has already gained more than 8 lakhs of downloads and is now launching a program to reward its users. n-gage is now poised to give away 250 million shares worth of Equity* to its global users. What’s more, India is the first out of 50 countries to be allocated with Equity for its Indian users.

In addition to benefitting from this exciting reward, users will be able to safeguard their messages and content from being abused by receivers or prying eyes.  With more than 15 unique privacy features dedicated to helping them keep their messages private, they will be able to take back messages they have sent by accident from the receiver’s end with Extract. For complete control, Stop Screenshot or Stop Copy/Share/Forward, prevents users’ contacts from taking screenshots of conversations, or stops them from copying, sharing or forwarding certain messages to other people. As all messages are end to end encrypted, users will now be able to understand the benefit of seeing encryption live on their device with Scramble, a feature that pixelates images, and jumble text.

As each privacy feature has been developed to suit the individual’s needs, even when the user loses his/ her phone, they will be able to erase all their n-gage data remotely with Burn. What’s more, users will be able to transfer their important media images and documents into Safe Gallery, a hidden area which is password protected.

With messaging apps remaining on trend because of its users, now is the chance to grab the opportunity and become a partner and share in its success. n-gage, the most Private and Rewarding messenger is available to download now on Android and iOS across the globe. 

Jacqueline White New Chief Customer Officer at Persistent Systems

Persistent Systems has announced that Jacqueline White has joined the company as Chief Customer Officer. In this newly created role, White is responsible for all aspects of customer satisfaction and success. She will strengthen the company’s partner ecosystem to focus on the “how” of digital for customers, and spearhead new offerings and market-facing strategies that position Persistent as their strategic partner for digital transformation.

White brings over 25 years of experience of consulting services, and enterprise software experience.  Most recently she served as SAP’s SVP of Global Financial Services Consulting and was a Managing Director at Accenture leading a national team across 17 sub-industries.

Persistent Systems Founder and CEO, Anand Deshpande says “Jacque brings success from a broad spectrum of organizations and roles that ideally mapsto our vision for our future. The Persistent brand is strengthening. The value of our product development and technology DNA completely distinguishes us in this new software-driven world. Jacque and her strong experience will lead our customers in their transformation into a software-driven business, and strengthen our partner ecosystem to support our growth strategies.”

Jacqueline White, Chief Customer Officer at Persistent Systems says, “We are at an inflection point in business and technology that we often only recognize in retrospect. This is an opportunity to lead it, to forge a new way of doing things that is fundamentally changing both technology and business. As the world becomes software-driven, it’s clear that Persistent combines the vision, products, alliances and services required to be the leader in the how of digital transformation.”

Big Data Is Up but Fewer Organizations Plan to Invest, Gartner Report

Big data investments continue to rise but are showing signs of contracting, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. The survey revealed that 48 percent of companies have invested in big data in 2016, up 3 percent from 2015. However, those who plan to invest in big data within the next two years fell from 31 to 25 percent in 2016.

The online survey was conducted in June 2016 among Gartner Research Circle members. In total, 199 members participated and shared their investment plans.

"Investment in big data is up, but the survey is showing signs of slowing growth with fewer companies having a future intent to invest," said Nick Heudecker, research director at Gartner. "The big issue is not so much big data itself, but rather how it is used. While organizations have understood that big data is not just about a specific technology, they need to avoid thinking about big data as a separate effort."

Big data is a collection of different data management technologies and practices that support multiple analytics use cases. Organizations are moving from vague notions of data and analytics to specific business problems that data can address. "Its success depends on a holistic strategy around business outcomes, skilled personnel, data and infrastructure," added Mr. Heudecker.

Getting Big Data Projects to Production Is a Challenge

While nearly three quarters of respondents said that their organisation has invested or is planning to invest in big data, many remain stuck at the pilot stage. Only 15 percent of businesses reported deploying their big data project to production, effectively unchanged from last year (14 percent).

"One explanation for this is that big data projects appear to be receiving less spending priority than competing IT initiatives," said Heudecker. Only 11 percent of respondents from organisations that have already invested in big data reported that their big data investments were as important, or more important, than other IT initiatives, while 46 percent stated that they were less important.

 "This could be due to the fact that many big data projects don't have a tangible return on investment (ROI) that can be determined upfront," added Heudecker. "Another reason could be that the big data initiative is a part of a larger funded initiative. This will become more common as the term "big data" fades away, and dealing with larger datasets and multiple data types continues to be the norm."

 A further factor to consider is the lack of effective business leadership or involvement in data initiatives. Too often, pilots and experiments are built with ad-hoc technologies and infrastructure that are not created with production-level reliability in mind.

 "When it comes to big data, many organisations are still finding themselves at the crafting stage," said Jim Hare, research director at Gartner. "Industrialization — and the performance and stability guarantees that come with it — have yet to penetrate big data thinking."

New Desktops Featuring 7th Generation AMD PRO Processors Uveiled

AMD at the Canalys Channels Forum announced the first PCs featuring 7th Generation AMD PRO APUs (formerly codenamed “Bristol Ridge PRO”). Built for business, AMD PRO APUs deliver increased computing and graphics performance, improved energy efficiency, while providing a secure and stable platform to protect customers’ IT investments.

“In the past two years we made incredible progresses in the commercial client segment. Since its inception in mid-2014, AMD PRO processor unit shipments increased more than 45 percent enabling businesses all over the world to simplify IT with secure, high performance, reliable solutions” said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Computing and Graphics Business, AMD. “We are thrilled to have PC market leaders like HP and Lenovo expanding their use of AMD technology in their business client portfolios.”

“We’re delighted to offer 7th generation AMD PRO processors in our new HP EliteDesk 705 G3 desktop series,” said Guayente Sanmartin, Vice President of Product Management, Commercial Desktops, HP Inc. “We are delivering more performance, security and flexibility to give our enterprise customers peace of mind that allows them to focus on their business, not on IT complexity.”

New systems from HP and Lenovo, combine commercial-grade quality, performance, and stability, with exceptional video and audio capabilities allowing businesses to achieve more across key areas including productivity, manageability, and collaboration. In addition, Microsoft Windows 10 Pro features including Device Guard, Windows Hello, Biometric Security and BitLocker Encryption are fully supported, out of the box.

“We at Canalys recognize the ongoing appetite across channel and mid-size businesses globally for more secured, reliable, flexible and cost-effective technology enablement.” said Steve Brazier, President and CEO of Canalys. “As companies embrace digital options deeper in their businesses, their expectations from technology partners will change, making it imperative that IT vendors deliver products that can make an immediate impact on the market through innovation, enhanced performance and increased reliability, amongst other focus areas. The new desktops, featuring AMD processor technology, provide opportunities for businesses to handle critical challenges without sacrificing manageability, security or stability.”

AMD 7^th Generation PRO Processors

7^th Generation AMD PRO processors tackle business needs in three key areas:

·         Help ensure sensitive data and trusted applications remain secure with the dedicated and integrated AMD Secure Processor technology; a system-wide secure environment that offloads and isolates security functions providing an independent hardware based root of trust for secure boot, content protection, application security, and fTPM 2.0 (firmware trusted platform module).

·         To meet users’ growing compute and graphic demands, new AMD PRO desktop processors provide up to 14% more compute and 22% more graphic performance while being up to 31% more energy efficient than 6^th generation AMD PRO processors.

·     Open standards and CPU-agnostic DASH manageability allows IT departments to easily integrate and manage systems. The new AMD AM4 desktop infrastructure provides a stable and upgradable platform for the future.

AMD 7^th Generation Systems

The HP EliteDesk 705 G3 Series desktops, available in microtower, small-form factor (SFF), or mini-form factor, deliver impressive value with uncompromising performance, security, and manageability for an enterprise-class experience. The EliteDesk desktop PCs are more secure with HP Sure Start with Protection of BIOS Configuration and Policy. This helps to protect your PC and ensure uninterrupted productivity by automatically detecting and recovering from BIOS corruption or attacks. The desktops also include TPM 2.0 to secure data and HP’s full portfolio of physical-security accessories for a robust, three-layer security solution.

7^th generation AMD PRO processors aim to deliver the best performance, reliability, and opportunity to handle critical workloads and will be available in new PCs from HP, Lenovo, and other OEMs in the near future.

7 Startups Graduate from Target Accelerator Program’s Fourth Batch

On an average it takes six weeks and $10,000 to create a motion picture promotional video. What if you could create a video every 15 minutes at a fraction of the cost? This was one of the many innovative ideas presented today at the Target Accelerator Program’s Demo Day. Seven startups - Preksh, MintM, Uncanny Vision, Lechal, Lawbot, Charmboard and Story Xpress, pitched ideas in areas like digital marketing, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).

The Target Accelerator Program gives startups a unique platform to develop, scale and test their products in a live retail environment. With unparalleled access to retail business know-how and a community of mentors in India and the U.S., the 16-week program culminated in an impactful Demo Day that saw seven startups pitch to venture capitalists, retailers, serial entrepreneurs and the media. The graduating startups have successfully tested their products across Target stores and its digital channels. The program also provides a platform for Target team members to create compelling solutions. This batch included two internal ideas that were developed alongside the startups.

“We have worked with a broad category of startups and are excited about the initial tests conducted with several of them. The vision of their ideas and the far reaching impact it can have is helping Target stay ahead of the game”, said Navneet Kapoor, president and managing director of Target’s office in India. “Through our accelerator journey over the last three years, we have seen the Indian startup ecosystem mature and are thrilled to see them address deeper and more relevant business problems. We remain invested in partnering with the startups to shape the future of retail.”

The Demo Day in Bangalore comes on the heels of a successful retailer accelerator at Target’s U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis, which was run in conjunction with Techstars. The accelerator programs are being used as a springboard for Target to become more engaged with the startup ecosystem. The Target team in India recently partnered with late-stage startups to provide solutions for other business needs. For instance, UpGrad is providing online trainings for team members and startups to upskill on-the-job, and Blue Birch is solving reverse logistics problems through sustainable solutions for old laptops, phones and workstations.

Target’s long standing commitment to support the communities where we live and work is also being realized through the accelerator program. Target’s team in India is now working with Lechal, who was part of the fourth batch that presented their demos today, to provide haptic footwear to the visually-challenged cricket team from Samarthanam Trust, a partner NGO. Promising to provide ease of navigation, this wearable technology will enable these cricketers to pursue their passion with more zeal.

With a portfolio of 22 startups and counting, the fifth batch of the Target Accelerator Program is slated to launch later this year. Applications can be submitted at: www.f6s.com/targetacceleratorprogram.

Arunkumar Jadhav Appointed VP of Engineering at HackerRank

HackerRank, a company has announced the hiring of Arunkumar Jadhav as the Vice President of Engineering. In his new role at the company, he will be responsible for scaling up HackerRank’s engineering division.

An engineer at heart, Arunkumar brings over eleven years of experience in software development, applying transformative digital solutions and a knack for building robust and scalable products. He joins HackerRank most recently from FreeCharge where he was the Associate Vice President of Engineering. Arunkumar was one of the first developers who bootstrapped FreeCharge at Bangalore. He played a key role in growing FreeCharge to one of the largest digital payments brand in India which culminated in one of the biggest tech acquisitions. Prior to his stint at FreeCharge, Arunkumar worked with a wide range of groups at Amazon such as Payments Platform, E-Commerce and Amazon Appstore.

"HackerRank has disrupted the tech hiring space and established itself a pioneer in the ecosystem. My goal is to continually improve and scale our industry-leading platform so that every developer in the world can access HackerRank to learn, compete, and ultimately to get hired. The platform has been set, now we need to make it more robust," said Arunkumar Jadhav, Vice President of Engineering, HackerRank

"Arunkumar’s deep domain knowledge and experience will help us perform better as a company." Companies want the best talent, but they are simply not using the right approach to find and hire talent. There is no dearth of skilled engineers around the globe and it is our mission to change the way companies hire technical talent," said Harishankaran Karunanidhi, co-founder and CEO of HackerRank.

HackerRank a pioneer in technical recruitment, provides a platform for software developers around the world to hone their coding skills, compete in coding challenges, and ultimately get hired by the best companies. Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, VMware, Adobe, Facebook, LinkedIn etc, use HackerRank to source, screen, interview, and hire software engineers.

LinkedIn recently partnered with HackerRank for their LinkedIn Placements initiative. The standardized test for any tech job on LinkedIn placements is done on HackerRank, which makes HackerRank tests a benchmark for hiring top programmers.

GPTW Ranks EMC Among Top 5 Large Size IT Organizations in India

The most recent Great Place to Work (GPTW) survey ranked EMC (now part of Dell EMC) among the top five large size IT organizations to work for in India. GPTW also identified EMC as one of the 50 Best IT & ITeS companies to work for in India.

In 2016 India ranking, GPTW surveyed 145 companies and identified companies with more than 5000 employees as a large size organization. EMC was ranked amongst the top five in this category. Earlier this year, EMC had been at #4 in GPTW’s list of Great Places to Work for in APJ. The organization’s strong focus on people development and entrepreneurial approach to processes and functions have contributed to its consistent high ranking in the GPTW surveys.

Speaking on the occasion, Sarv Saravanan, Senior Vice President, Dell EMC India Center of Excellence said, “We have a keen focus on team member development and team member centric policies in Dell EMC, because we believe that great talent is the key ingredient for industry leading innovation. These recent accolades are a reiteration of our commitment towards driving value for the company and ultimately for our customers. We are confident that our superlative work will continue to win industry recognition in the years to come.” 

“It is a great honor to be recognized as one of the best IT and ITeS companies to work for in India.  Our team members are our biggest asset, investing and prioritizing in them has a direct impact on customer and partner satisfaction. Our ability to attract, engage and retain talent is a key to customer and partner satisfaction, which in turn has a positive impact on business growth and relative market share. Dell EMC India is proud to have a culture that is based on an inclusion and diversity. Great Places to Work is a journey and it is our constant endeavor to excel at providing the best environment, culture and the work place to our employees. Being recognized for our initiatives is a testament to our excellence in itself and a motivation for us to accelerate our journey in our next phase of Dell EMC”, said Rajesh Janey, President Enterprise Business, Dell EMC.

Dell EMC offers an array of programs to guide team members on their journey at Dell EMC and beyond. Through a number of innovative people centric initiatives, the organization aims to empower employees to develop their careers, and task managers with helping people to hone skills and seek learning and development opportunities. Dell EMC aims at creating and nurturing a diverse and inclusive workforce where each team member’s contribution is respected and valued. 

“In these times of disruption, talent is the key differentiating factor for any enterprise. We understand this and focus on nurturing a diverse, inclusive and creative workforce and providing them with opportunities for innovation, growth and development. Our unique LnD programs, co innovation platforms, D&I approach and open door work culture make us an exciting place to work. We are honoured to be featured in the GPTW list yet again; it is a reaffirmation of our commitment to building an industry leading talent pool”, said Debashis Patnaik, Senior Director – Human Resources, Dell EMC India Center of Excellence.

Pallavi Kapoor, ‎Head HR, Dell EMC said “This recognition as one of the best IT and ITeS companies to work with has captured the attention and energy that we at Dell EMC devote to employee development.  This recognition is a direct appreciation of the effort that goes in an organization as large as ours, a diverse ecosystem as India and the complexities that arise. Despite our scale we have managed and thrived to instill a culture of collaboration and trust where each employee feels entitled to career advancement. A diverse country like India provides unique challenges, and an opportunity to refine our practices, which we have delivered on and been recognized for. Such recognition enables us to continue our pursuit in attracting, retaining and continuing the advancement of the careers of a very talented pool of employees.”