Cargotec Transforms into a Digital Leader in Intelligent Cargo Handling with IoT Platform Powered by Cloudera

Cloudera, Inc., the modern platform for machine learning and analytics, optimized for the cloud, announced that CargotecOyj, a leading provider of cargo and load handling solutions, is using Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub to power its Internet of Things (IoT) offering to enable predictive maintenance and develop insightful, data-driven services. Cloudera, together with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), built a cloud-based IoT-as-a-Service platform that will usher in a new era of digital connectivity for the company’s cargo handling operations and enable operational excellence using machine learning.

Cargotec offers solutions and services through various businesses in the areas of cargo and load handling that ensure its customers continuous, reliable and sustainable performance. Operating in more than 100 countries, and with sales of 3.5 billion EUR in 2016, the company and its subsidiaries have delivered half a million loader cranes to customers. They have also moved every fourth container in the world with terminal and port operation solutions, and offered engineering solutions and services for half of the world’s ships to make transport by sea safe and reliable.

The IoT-as-a-Service solution uses machine learning to derive insights from streams of data across the thousands of cargo handling equipment and machinery to enable remote monitoring and predictive maintenance. Using data, cargo handling operation is improved, maintenance becomes predictive and anomalies are detected in real-time. This empowers Cargotec to increase their competitive edge by offering new types of intelligent services and solutions with embedded artificial intelligence to customers. Once collected and cross-utilized, enriched data will be used for driving and boosting new types of ecosystems by exposing the data through API’s in a robust and controlled way to leverage data assets in new contexts.

“It is our goal to be a leader in intelligent cargo handling by 2020,” said Soili Mäkinen, chief information officer at Cargotec. “With our scalable IoT platform, we can offer our customers data-based insights that many of these industrial companies have never seen before. We use IoT data and machine learning to help customers recognize how their cargo handling equipment are performing in different weather conditions, understand how usage relates to failure rates, and even detect anomalies in transport systems.”

To support Cargotec’sIoT goals, Cloudera, together with TCS, built a cloud-based, sensor data analytics framework that helps collect, store, analyze and correlate sensor data streams with data from internal, external and third-party data sources. The advanced analytics and machine learning platform, based on the flagship product Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub, will ingest data from equipment and fleet management, pull in weather patterns and forecasts, and contrast geography — to perform key analysis for remote monitoring, predictive equipment maintenance and anomaly detection, all in real-time.

“We are pleased to enable Cargotec with the Digital Reimagination of its business processes and build a strong data backbone through our solutions and IP,” said Dinanath Kholkar, global head of analytics and insights at TCS. “Our solution allows for real time sensor data acquisition to establish diagnostics and facilitate predictive maintenance. The established big data backbone is scalable, robust and cost effective, and will empower agility in data driven strategies and business growth.”

With Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub, Cargotec derives fuel efficiency and route optimization which end users like ports or ships can purchase to improve their operational efficiencies. This creates new revenue models for Cargotec and keeps its focus on being an intelligent cargo handling solution. Additionally, the Cargotec data science team uses Cloudera Data Science Workbench, a collaborative hub and integrated development environment capable of running Python, R or Scala with support for Apache Spark to build machine learning solutions.

“The IoT solution will enable Cargotec, its partners and customers, to conceptualize entirely new ways of doing business while increasing operational efficiencies and driving incremental revenue,” said David Pieterse, general manager, EMEA at Cloudera. “A key factor in developing the IoT into this type of business tool is employing open source technologies and machine learning analytics because it offers a flexible and diverse solution for the variety of data types coming from manufacturing and cargo equipment.”

Ashok Leyland’s ‘DOST+’ with 2.75 Ton GVW to Address Upper End of SCV Segment

Ashok Leyland, flagship of the Hinduja Group, and one of the largest commercial vehicle manufacturers in India, launched the ‘DOST+’ – the new Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) in Bangalore, today. Ashok Leyland had entered the Light Commercial Vehicle space with the launch of the commercially successful ‘DOST’. With the launch of the ‘DOST+’, Ashok Leyland has further strengthened the DOST brand. ‘DOST+’ will address the needs of the upper end of Small Commercial Vehicle (SCV) segment in the 2T to 3.5T Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) segment and has a payload capacity of 1.475T. The ‘DOST+’ price would start at Rs 5,68,360. Prices are ex – Showroom, Bangalore.

The ‘DOST+’ and DOST would co-exist, helping Ashok Leyland address a bigger pie in the LCV segment, which is poised to grow with the economy booming, focus on hub & spoke transportation model, GST implementation and growth in organized retail, ecommerce and related industries.

Speaking on the launch, Vinod K. Dasari, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland Ltd. said, “With the latest addition of ‘DOST+’ in our product family, the LCV business is poised to be an important game changer for us. We have consistently delivered on our promise of ‘Aapki Jeet. Hamari Jeet’. The DOST brand is a perfect example of our promise and has already made a mark in its segment with its growing market share.”

Speaking at the launch, Nitin Seth, President - Light Commercial Vehicles, Ashok Leyland, said, “With more than 1.7 lakh DOSTs already serving in the markets today, this brand is already a runaway success for Ashok Leyland. With ‘DOST+’ joining the family, we are extending the trust and reliability of this brand to the upper segment of LCVs. The ‘DOST+’ with its superior mileage, excellent pickup, 18% higher payload, 7% more loading space and bigger, 15 inch tyres add more value to every trip made, ensuring higher earnings. With the launch of ‘DOST+’, we have stayed true to our LCV mission – to deliver to the Indian customer, contemporary products that deliver best-in-class user experience, coupled with exceptional fuel efficiency. Moreover, we have doubled the warranty on the ‘DOST+’, a reflection of our confidence in this product. With all this and more we are confident that we will delight our customers and continue the successful, winning streak with ‘DOST+’, like that of the DOST.”

Six Indian Cities Feature Among 100 Leading Global Destinations: Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index 2017

Travel and tourism in India is on an upswing as six Indian cities make it to the leading 100 destinations globally, according to the Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index 2017. The six cities include Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Bengaluru. Chennai leads the pack in India, besides standing out among the top 10 destinations in Asia Pacific when it comes to overnight visitor arrivals.

Ranking the world’s 132 top destination cities, the Index analyzes visitor volume and spend for the 2016 calendar year and provides a forecast for annual growth, insights on the fastest growing destination cities, and a deeper understanding of why people travel and how they spend around the world .As per the Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index 2017, travel and tourism in Asia Pacific are showing no signs of slowing down, with the region dominating visitor arrivals. This is further testified with the top 10 cities in Asia Pacific destinations tracking the highest amount of international overnight visitor spending. Bringing in US$91.16 billion in travel expenditure in 2016, Asia Pacific outpaced Europe (US$74.74 billion), and North America (US$55.02 billion).

Eric Schneider, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Mastercard Advisors, said, “As the fastest growing region for international tourism, Asia Pacific’s travel sector will no doubt continue to serve as a key source of in-market economic growth and development. The rise of leisure and business travel across the region presents a vital imperative for governments and private stakeholders to invest in smart networks and infrastructures that provide seamless experiences for residents, tourists and business travelers. Cities that do so will realize their potential as true global destinations, and reap the economic benefits of increased visitors and greater spending.” 

Asian Destinations Lead Global Visitor Arrivals

International overnight visitors to the Top 10 destination cities were up in 2016. According to the Index, Bangkok tracked 19.41 million visitors, while London came in a close second with 19.06 million visitors. Singapore with 13.11 million visitors inched past New York at 12.7 million visitors into fifth position for the first time in three years, while Seoul with 12.39 million visitors leapfrogged three spots into seventh place.

Home to half of the world’s top ten most visited cities, Asia Pacific’s success as a global travel hub has been supported by strong intra-regional travel. Both Singapore and Seoul tracked significant growths, aided by visitors from neighboring countries, particularly those from China. In the Index’s seven-year history, China has grown from being passive contributors to the region’s travel sector to the main driver of growth for visitor arrivals into Asia Pacific’s top destinations.

Overall, forecasts for continued growth in 2017 are positive except for New York, with Tokyo expecting the largest boom.

Building the Most Desired Destination Cities of Tomorrow

Globally, international overnight visitor arrivals and spend in the 132 destinations have grown by 55.2 percent and 41.1 percent respectively since 2009, significantly outpacing real GDP growth during the same period. More than half of the top destination cities reported an increase in spend consistent with or greater than GDP increases between 2009 and 2016, and are primed to be engines of broad economic growth for countries.

The difference between the Global Top 10 destinations by arrivals and the Top 10 fastest growing destinations continues to demonstrate the increasing importance of watching Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa develop into future destination leaders. Osaka leads as the fastest growing city at 24.0 percent, fueled by strong growth in visitors from within and outside the region including the United States, China, Malaysia and South Korea. In addition, Jakarta and Hanoi’s entrance into the list of top 10 fastest growing cities point to Southeast Asia’s rising significance as a key travel hub.

Insights into Purpose of Travel and Local Spend

Across the Top 20 destination cities, leisure was the main purpose for the majority of travel. Kuala Lumpur led the pack, with 92.2 percent of visitors there on vacation. Conversely, nearly half (48.4 percent) of Shanghai’s visitors are there on business.

Looking closer at the Top 10 destination cities, expenditure categories identified in the Index illustrate how people are spending when they visit:

·         Istanbul stands out as the only city with the greatest percent of visitor spend going to Dining (33.6 percent)

·         People spend most on shopping while in Seoul (56.5 percent), followed by London (46.7 percent), Tokyo (43.1 percent), Kuala Lumpur (31.3 percent) and Dubai (31.0 percent)

·         Travelers can expect lodging to be the lion’s share of expenditure when visiting Paris (44.8 percent) and New York (31.8 percent) 

·         With efficient transport systems in place, less budget is spent on local transit in London (4.3 percent), Singapore (4.6 percent), and Tokyo (6.9 percent)

ITC Infotech with PTC Launches Digital Solutions Innoruption Center and ThingWorx Co-Innovation Lab

ITC Infotech, a global-scale, full-service provider of technology solutions and a fully-owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd,announced the launch of its Digital Solutions Innoruption Center and the ThingWorx Co-Innovation Lab in collaboration with PTC, a global provider of technology platforms and solutions that transform how companies create, operate, and service products. Through this launch, ITC Infotech and PTC will strengthen their longstanding collaboration to deliver advanced digital solutions designed to unlock business value across various industry settings, accelerated by the rapid convergence of the physical and digital worlds.

The Digital Solutions Innoruption Center, supporting PTC products and markets, is an extension of ITC Infotech’s Innoruption Labs. This center will focus on building proof of concepts, developing solutions based on a portfolio of PTC products, and benchmarking other complementary and competing technologies. The ThingWorx Co-Innovation Lab will focus on building easy-to-implement solutions based on the ThingWorx platform, bringing value to customers, and supporting PTC and ITC Infotech go-to-market teams globally.

This expansion of the collaboration is intended to help clients of both companies capitalize on the digital era by enabling clients to unravel and create larger business value with PTC products. The PTC product set, including ThingWorx, supports clients to quickly transform the way they engage with their customers and align their business operations. The center and the lab will be the foundation for ITC Infotech to help customers overcome challenges of integration of digital technologies across their enterprise value chain. Target industries include manufacturing, retail and consumer products, product development, and supply chain and service management.

“The launch of the solutions center and lab is a testament to ITC Infotech’s commitment to providing support, value, and service to customers in their digital transformation journey. We look forward to continuing our integrated and trusted collaboration with ITC Infotech to focus on accelerating the adoption of digital technologies and integration of those technologies with physical things using solutions based on the ThingWorx IoT platform,” said Jean-Pierre Tirault, Senior Vice President, Global Services, PTC.

 Sushma Rajagopalan, MD and CEO of ITC Infotech stated, “We continue to expand our investments and footprint in digital technology and solutions. Continuing our alignment with PTC products and technology is an integral part of our growth strategy in the digital marketplace.” 

Commenting on the launch,  V. Sreenivasan, President, ITC Infotech said,” The launch of this Co-Innovation Lab in collaboration with PTC is a leap forward in our efforts to ensure the best-in-class solutions for our clients. We will strive to address our clients’ business challenges by capitalizing on the digital revolution through innovative products and solutions developed at these facilities. It has been an exciting 16-year long journey with PTC with unified focus in the market place helping clients thrive in this digital era.”

ITC Infotech’s Senior Vice President and Senior Global Client Partner-PTC, Srinivas Kanthadi, said, “ITC Infotech is uniquely positioned to deliver solutions across PTC focused market settings and help clients of both firms ride the “Digital Tsunami” that is engulfing industries and societies. Quoting experts from World Economic Forum, he said, “what used to be done in 20 days can be done in 20 minutes in the digital age, we are preparing to equip our customers with relevant solutions that will make them competitive.”      

Through these new facilities, ITC Infotech and PTC are focused on unlocking the enormous business potential presented by the convergence of physical and digital worlds in industry settings such as retail, factories, health care, homes, and smart cities. For instance, in the retail sector, ITC Infotech intends to design and deliver affordable solutions to clients to develop products faster, provide visibility to wide-spread supply chains, and empower customers with superior customer experience. ITC Infotech is expanding its investments to developing industry focused solutions with the addition of the Digital Solutions Innoruption Center and the ThingWorx Co-Innovation Lab.

GoFly’s Competition to Bring Personal Flying Devices to the Masses; Boeing to Sponsor US$2 Million

A new competition to encourage innovators to create a safe and easy-to-use personal flying device launched today at one of the aerospace industry’s premiere engineering technology conferences. Gwen Lighter, CEO of The GoFly Prize opened registration for the competition at the SAE 2017 AeroTech Congress & Exhibition. The two-year competition, managed by GoFly with Boeing as Grand Sponsor, encourages teams from around the world to leverage recent advances in propulsion, energy, light-weight materials, and control and stability systems to make the dream of personal flight a reality. Prize money of $2M will be awarded to the most innovative teams.  

Teams will be challenged to create a personal flying device that can be used by anyone, anywhere. GoFly is calling upon the world’s greatest thinkers, designers, engineers, inventors and builders to construct safe, ultra-compact, quiet, urban-compatible, personal flying devices capable of carrying a person 20 miles without refueling or recharging with vertical, or near vertical take-off and landing capability. GoFly will provide teams with access to experienced Mentors and Masters in design, engineering, finance, law, and marketing, but the ultimate design and functionality of the device will be up to the imagination of the competitors.

“There is perhaps no dream more universal than the dream of human flight. GoFly is going to make that dream a reality,” Lighter said. “GoFly is a shift towards embracing innovative solutions to expand the desire to explore the unknown and push ourselves to new heights. Today we look to the sky and say ‘look at that plane fly,’ but two years from now we’ll look up and say ‘look at that person fly.’” 

“The GoFly Prize competition aligns with our company’s goals of inspiring people across the globe and changing the world through aerospace innovation,” said Boeing Chief Technology Officer Greg Hyslop. “We’re excited to see how the visionaries of the future will take on this ambitious and exciting challenge.”

Competition prizes will be awarded in three phases: Phase I will include ten $20K prizes awarded based on written technical specifications; Phase II will include four $50K prizes awarded to teams with the best prototypes and revised Phase I materials; and Phase III will unveil the Grand Prize Winner, awarded at the Final Fly-Off in the fall of 2019. The final Fly-Off will be judged by a team of experts from Boeing and other leading organizations.

Teams will have the opportunity to compete for additional prizes during the final Fly-Off, including one $100K prize awarded for disruptive advancement of the state of the art aviation technology, one $250K prize for the quietest compliant entry, and one $250K prize for the smallest compliant entry. The Grand Prize Winner will be awarded $1M for the best overall Fly-Off score, calculated by measuring speed, noise, and size.  

Innovators from all walks of life, including hobbyists, academics, engineers, and students are all encouraged to submit their ideas and participate in the competition. The first registration deadline for teams participating in Phase I is April 4, 2018, followed by a Phase II registration deadline of December 8, 2018.

Hitachi Vantara’s Smart Data Center To Lower IT Operational Cost, Reduce Risk and Increase IT Agility

Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., announced its vision for the smart data center today at NEXT 2017. Smart Data Center from Hitachi Vantara brings together the latest technologies and approaches in infrastructure management, predictive analytics and internet of things (IoT) capabilities to address the challenges customers face in managing today’s complex IT environments. Hitachi Vantara envisions Smart Data Center as the ultimate approach to optimize all aspects of IT operations across data centers, reduce cost, manage risk and increase agility to respond to business change.

This Smart Data Center approach makes IT more agile by centralizing control and automating processes that span systems, data centers and clouds. Smart Data Center differs from traditional IT administration by automating decision-making, insight and guidance through predictive analytics, IoT and prescriptive intelligence. These advanced capabilities centralize the management of IT infrastructure for simple tasks like provisioning as well as more complex operations such as optimization and self-healing across data centers.

The Smart Data Center:

• Speeds time to deploy IT resources and complete administrative tasks.
• Streamlines changing and adding new infrastructure technology.
• Provides holistic, dynamic data center operational and commercial views, on-demand, for data-driven decision-making, risk management and planning.
• Maximizes operational efficiency and cost reduction.
• Improves business alignment and consistent delivery of service levels.

“Our Smart Data Center technologies and services provide powerful new tools and approaches so the next-generation data center administrator can manage more, manage better and improve IT’s ability to become an agile and responsive resource for the business,” said Bobby Soni, chief solutions and services officer, Hitachi Vantara. “Our customers will see exponential gains in efficiency and effectiveness.”

A fully managed Smart Data Center solution is now available through Hitachi Vantara’s early customer adoption program. The solution is a fully managed offering that applies advanced analytics and integrated orchestration, on- or off-premises, to information collected from a customer’s data center. Customers are then provided with the information, insight and guidance needed to manage their heterogeneous infrastructure environments with predictable operational outcomes at lower cost. The Smart Data Center solution provides:

• Service health and alerting.
• Automation of common infrastructure operations.
• Performance management.
• Asset management.
• Capacity management.
• Availability and data protection.
• IT optimization.
• Risk management and compliance information.
• Data center IoT sensor management, including energy and thermal.
• Physical and virtual IT security.
• 
  
• The early customer adoption program is designed to provide an opportunity for initial customers of the Smart Data Center solution to co-create the final capabilities with our partners and us before the solution is standardized for general availability. Co-creation ensures that our service offerings have proven strategic relevance and greater value for our customers, and enable us to develop differentiated solutions with partners. 

3i Infotech’s ‘GST-Ready ORION’ Event Sheds Light on Tech Enabler role in GST Era

3i Infotech Limited, a global Information Technology company recently held the GST-ready ORION event in Mumbai. The event spearheaded by the company’s ERP division, aimed at highlighting the impact of GST on various industries and how ORION 11J ERP Suite, which is a cost-effective and cloud-enabled integrated solution, has been built to meet the GST-specific needs of businesses, which include growing and mid-sized enterprises. It is built on future-ready technology stack, empowering organisations to optimise business processes and make informed decisions through anytime access to dashboards and analytics.

Speaking at the event, Rajesh Kumar (VP, ERP Product Management & Engineering – 3i Infotech) said, “ORION ERP, a complete, modern, and proven ERP platform is now delivered seamlessly through the Oracle Cloud. ORION11J, a modern user interface driven by the latest design innovations delivers GST enabled ORION ERP on Oracle Cloud. I am very happy to share that our customers are extremely happy and satisfied on the on-time seamless GST implementation. From their testimonials, participants could get a feel of how the application is easy to use. We are happy to be part of the nationwide GST initiative as an application provider.”

The panel discussion and sessions by eminent speakers delved into the effect of GST and how technology will enable the country to smoothly transition to the new tax system. The panel discussion was on the ‘Role of Technology to facilitate a smooth transition to GST’.

Narayan (Executive Director, AATCO Foods India) said, “GST is a game changer in India at the moment, it is still unveiling. If your ERP system is thinking ahead of you and is telling you how you have to be equipped for GST then you are one step ahead in the game. IT has to now talk in terms of business rather than just counting the invoices.”

Tushar Vagel (CIO-L&T Realty) said, “GST is a gain for India and not a loss; only thing that businesses have to learn is to implement it properly.”

Hitesh Talreja (Associate Chief Manager-IT, LIC Housing Finance) said, “Challenges are going to be there for every business. Only perspective is GST is a move in right direction, we all should applaud that and move towards to make it a success. I think technology can be base of this success, with right kind of technology, processes and people in place; GST is going to be a Success.”

86% of the attendees said that having a GST-ready ERP will ease their burden of GST related process changes and make work easy for employees. Simplicity and cost-effective ERP solutions were the top two requirements among 65% of the audience. Majority of the audience also believed that the cloud working with an ERP would reduce reliance on people and reduce costs considerably in terms of ongoing and up-front expenses. 50% attendees said too much reliance on people to manage data was the reason for an ERP implementation.