JSW Steel Introduces Non-Erasable Quality Marking on JSW Colouron+ to Combat Counterfeiting

Determined to fight against counterfeiting of steel products under its brand and more importantly safeguarding the interests of customers, JSW Steel, the flagship company of diversified Indian conglomerate, JSW Group, recently conducted two raids in and around Bangalore, Karnataka.

The first raid was conducted at Baburam Premchand, a manufactuer based in Mothi Nagar Bangalore.  The promoter of this manufacturing unit Satheesh Gupta was arrested. The raid was conducted by officials of Halasurgate Police Station, Banaglore. The officials confiscated and duly sealed over 500 counterfeit steel sheets from the unit during this raid.

The second raid was conducted at Akshay Enterprises, a retailer based in Kolar, near Bangalore.  The promoter of this retail store Mr D Gowda was arrested. The raid was conducted by officials of Vemagal Police Station, Kolar. The officials confiscated and duly sealed over 50 counterfeit steel sheets from the store during this raid.

The arrested persons were allegedly selling sub-standard quality of colour-coated steel under the brand name JSW Colouron+ a (registered trademark belonging to JSW Steel). The counterfeit products sold was causing significant losses and damage to JSW’s long-established trademark reputation, goodwill and trust among customers.

According to Mr Jayant Acharya, Director - Commercial & Marketing, JSW Steel, “JSW Steel believes in offering high quality superior products. But we would like to sensitize that in last few months there has been a substantial import of inferior colour-coated sheets that imitate JSW Colouron+ and customers are getting cheated. These counterfeit products, made by sub-standard material have lower product life and can put safety of our consumers at risk. “

JSW Steel is known for its innovation and high quality products have introduced a quality marking on JSW Colouron+ colour coated sheets. The key feature of this quality marking is that it is non-erasable and can be easily checked by the consumers at the store during purchase.  JSW Steel’s quality marking differentiates its product from counterfeits as the liner marking in counterfeits can be easily erased.  Such malpractices have serious implication on economic health and safety of the industry and individual customers. Counterfeiting and piracy are a threat to every industry sector around the world and India is no exception.

3i Infotech on the Cusp of Major Growth Trajectory: Padmanabhan Iyer, MD & Global CEO

3i Infotech, a global Information Technology company, committed to empowering business transformation, has envisioned major growth plans for itself, in the backdrop of strong tailwinds experienced over six successive quarters through the last two years. With a revenue of over Rs 1000 crores in the last 4 years, the Company has added 139 new customers in FY 17, growing its customer portfolio to more than 1000 customers across 50 countries in 4 continents.

The Company has implemented a 3 phase ‘Protect-Consolidate-Grow’ approach that has been successful and is reflected in the operating margins of the Company. The approach has helped the organization retain its existing customers and win new ones. While maintaining a stable margin of 18 to 20 per cent, the Company improved its CRISIL rating to 'CRISIL BB/Stable'.  The Company reported a net profit of Rs 100.65 crores in FY 2017, with an improved EBITDA over the past 5 years, while achieving an order-book balance of Rs 572 crores as on March 31, 2017. The cash flow from operations has been positive and the Company’s net worth as on March 31, 2017 was Rs 370.09 crores. The Company continues to be profitable and has reported a net profit in H1-FY2018.

Positioning itself as a one-stop, Next-gen IT enterprise, the organization has a balanced mix of business from across all geographies, globally, with Americas (32%), EMEA (22%) & APAC (46%). The organization continues to strengthen its dominant presence across emerging markets, including MEA, APAC and India with continued investments to grow its US business.

Speaking on this fresh phase of growth in 3i Infotech, and positioning it as a future ready IT enterprise of 2020, Padmanabhan Iyer, Managing Director & Global CEO, 3i Infotech said, “3i Infotech’s core strength lies in strategic engagement with customers offering comprehensive IT solutions, made effective by deep domain expertise. Digital transformation is the base of the Company’s end-to-end solution stack and consulting framework, comprising of IPR based solutions and IT Services. With the impetus to expand the impact of our product portfolio, we are focusing on disruptive technologies, such as - IoT, Blockchain, SMAC, Robotics, AI, Machine Learning, Telematics & Cybersecurity to facilitate expansion of market reach of our customers. The organization, driven by over 4800 talented technology specialists across products and services group, is also geared up culturally and operationally to collaborate and offer composite next generation solutions to its customers.”  

With a focus on investment in R&D for its products and services, the Company has more than 20 IPRs and 65 version releases across its product portfolio (Kastle/AMLOCK, MFund, Orion & Premia) which uniquely position 3i Infotech to address dynamic requirements of a variety of industry verticals, predominantly BFSI sector.

To reinforce its customer connect, the Company has re-organized itself into four business units – Banking Products, Insurance & Financial Services Products, ERP Products & IT Services across BFS, IHC, Government and Enterprise. The Company’s business model is a good spread between developed and emerging markets, as well as between IT products and IT services.

Tickets for “OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition” Launch Event Ticket Sale from Dec 8, 2017

The global, premium smartphone company, OnePlus is ready to launch a limited-edition variant of its hugely popular OnePlus 5T exclusively for die-hard OnePlus and Star Wars fans in India. The OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition smartphone will be unveiled at the launch event at IMAX Wadala in Mumbai on December 14 at 7 PM.

OnePlus and Star Wars fans in India can watch the launch event live by purchasing the ticket from Paytm tomorrow at 10 am for Rs. 999 only. With the purchase of every ticket, OnePlus fans will be the first to experience the latest device in person and along with that, get complimentary snacks and exclusive OnePlus Star Wars merchandise including a t-shirt worth Rs. 999 and laptop bag worth Rs. 1,999 and an exclusive grand surprise!

OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition is the latest iteration of OnePlus’ premium flagship- OnePlus 5T. Limited tickets will be available for sale tomorrow.

Chief Data Officers Are Delivering Business Impact and Enabling Digital Transformation

As the role of chief data officer (CDO) continues to gain traction within organizations, a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. found that these data and analytics leaders are proving to be a linchpin of digital business transformation.

The third annual Gartner Chief Data Officer survey was conducted from July through September 2017 with 287 CDOs, chief analytics officers and other high-level data and analytics leaders from across the world. Respondents were required to have the title of CDO, chief analytics officer or be a senior leader with responsibility for leading data and/or analytics in their organization.

"While the early crop of CDOs was focused on data governance, data quality and regulatory drivers, today's CDOs are now also delivering tangible business value, and enabling a data-driven culture," said Valerie Logan, research director at Gartner. "Aligned with this shift in focus, the survey also showed that for the first time, more than half of CDOs now report directly to a top business leader such as the CEO, COO, CFO, president/owner or board/shareholders. By 2021, the office of the CDO will be seen as a mission-critical function comparable to IT, business operations, HR and finance in 75 percent of large enterprises."

The survey found that support for the CDO role and business function is rising globally. A majority of survey respondents reported holding the formal title of CDO, revealing a steady increase over 2016 (57 percent in 2017 compared with 50 percent in 2016). Those organizations implementing an Office of the CDO also rose since last year, with 47 percent reporting an Office of the CDO implemented (either formally or informally) in 2017, compared with 23 percent fully implemented in 2016.

"The steady maturation of the office of the CDO underlines the acceptance and broader understanding of the role and recognizes the impact and value CDOs worldwide are providing," said Michael Moran, research director at Gartner. "The addition of new talent for increasing responsibilities, growing budgets and increasing positive engagement across the C-suite illustrate how central the role of CDO is becoming to more and more organizations."

Budgets are also on the rise. Respondents to the 2017 survey report an average CDO office budget of $8 million, representing a 23 percent increase from the average of $6.5 million reported in 2016. Fifteen percent of respondents report budgets more than $20 million, contrasting with 7 percent last year. A further indicator of maturity is the size of the office of the CDO organization. Last year's study reported total full time employees at an average of 38 (not distinguishing between direct and indirect reporting), while this year reports an average of 54 direct and indirect employees, representing the federated nature of the office of the CDO design.

CDOs shift from defense to offense to drive digital transformation

With more than one-third of respondents saying "increase revenue" is a top three measure of success, the survey findings show a clear bias developing in favor of value creation over risk mitigation as the key measure of success for a CDO. The survey also looked at how CDOs allocate their time. On a mean basis, 45 percent of the CDO's time is allocated to value creation and/or revenue generation, 28 percent to cost savings and efficiency, and 27 percent to risk mitigation.

"CDOs and any data and analytics leader must take responsibility to put data governance and analytics principles on the digital agenda. They have the right and obligation to do it," said Mario Faria, managing vice president at Gartner.

CDOs are responsible for more than just data governance

According to the survey, in 2017, CDOs are not just focused on data as the title may imply. Their responsibilities span data management, analytics, data science, ethics and digital transformation. A larger than expected percentage of respondents (36 percent) also report responsibility for profit and loss (P&L) ownership. "This increased level of reported responsibility by CDOs reflects the growing importance and pervasive nature of data and analytics across organizations, and the maturity of the CDO role and function," said Ms. Logan.

In the 2017 survey, 86 percent of respondents ranked "defining data and analytics strategy for the organization" as their top responsibility, up from 64 percent in 2016. This reflects a need for creating or modernizing data and analytics strategies within an increasing dependence on data and insights within a digital business context.

CDOs are becoming impactful change agents leading the data-driven transformation

The survey results provided insight into the kind of activities CDOs are taking on in order to drive change in their organizations. Several areas seem to have a notable increase in CDO responsibilities compared with last year:

·         Serving as a digital advisor: 71 percent of respondents are acting as a thought leader on emerging digital models, and helping to create the digital business vision for the enterprise.

·         Providing an external pulse and liaison: 60 percent of respondents are assessing external opportunities and threats as input to business strategy, and 75 percent of respondents are building and maintaining external relationships across the organization's ecosystem.

·         Exploiting data for competitive edge: 77 percent of respondents are developing new data and analytics solutions to compete in new ways.

CDOs are diverse and tackling a wide array of internal challenges

Gartner predicts that by 2021, the CDO role will be the most gender diverse of all technology-affiliated C-level positions and the survey results reflect that position. Of the respondents to Gartner's 2017 CDO survey who provided their gender, 19 percent were female and this proportion is even higher within large organizations — 25 percent in organizations with worldwide revenue of more than $1 billion. This contrasts with 13 percent of CIOs who are women, per the 2018 Gartner CIO Agenda Survey. When it comes to average age of CDOs, 29 percent of respondents said they were 40 or younger.

The survey respondents reported that there is no shortage of internal roadblocks challenging CDOs. The top internal roadblock to the success of the Office of the CDO is "culture challenges to accept change" — a top three challenge for 40 percent of respondents in 2017. A new roadblock, "poor data literacy," debuted as the second biggest challenge (35 percent), suggesting that a top CDO priority is ensuring commonality of shared language and fluency with data, analytics and business outcomes across a wide range of organizational roles. When asked about engagement with other C-level executives, respondents ranked the relationship with the CIO and CTO as the strongest, followed by a broad, healthy degree of positive engagement across the C-Suite.

SonicWall Appoints Wias Issa as VP and GM of Asia Pacific, Japan

SonicWall, the trusted security partner protecting more than 1 million customer networks worldwide, announced today that it has appointed Wias Issa to Vice President of Sales and General Manager of its Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) business.

As the latest addition to SonicWall, Issa will be responsible for managing and driving growth and profitability through the definition and execution of business strategies, pursuit of strategic partnerships, and identification and penetration of new markets, while maintaining a relentless focus on securing and defending customer organizations.

“SonicWall has already garnered unprecedented global traction with customers and channel partners since spinning off as an independent cyber security company in November 2016,” said SonicWall Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Steve Pataky. “Wias’ expertise will strengthen the deep partnerships we are building with our customers and channel partners in the next phase of our growth.”

Issa, who will be based in Tokyo and report to Pataky, has nearly two decades of experience in building and leading security businesses across the globe, and is known for his unique blend of international business acumen and technical depth in cyber security.

“I am excited to be joining SonicWall at a time of unprecedented innovation and growth,” said Issa. “As the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks continue to rise, SonicWall is playing a pivotal role in securing and defending customer environments. The value of SonicWall solutions, and the potential to help businesses alleviate their security problems, is incontestable. The growth potential in APJ is nothing short of tremendous.”

Spurred by an ever-evolving and increasingly dangerous threat landscape, the demand for SonicWall’s latest advanced real-time breach detection and prevention solutions has fueled rapid growth in the APJ region. Customers are struggling to mitigate advanced zero-day threats, devastating ransomware attacks, and encrypted threats arising through complex supply chains and distributed networks.

Accenture Brings Coding to Students with ‘Hour of Code’ Activities

Accenture employees across 56 countries have pledged to complete more than 10,000 Hours of Code and lead coding tutorial sessions around the world during Computer Science Education Week, Dec. 4-10, as part of the company’s commitment to helping students around the world build computer and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills.

This year Accenture is leading with the talent and energy of our people, pledging more than 2,000 hours to lead or volunteer at local events in their communities, joining forces with teachers and Code.org to help students learn coding and computer science skills. This follows Accenture’s recently announced pledge of US$10 million to support initiatives to expand STEM and computer science education through Internet Association, a group that represents global internet companies on matters of public policy.

“Technology is creating jobs that didn’t even exist five years ago and learning to code can transform the trajectory of a student’s life and career,” said Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief technology & innovation officer and ‘chief coder.’ “As part of our commitment to working with Code.org to prepare young people for the digital economy, Accenture employees last year dedicated more than 10,000 hours to Hour of Code, inspiring more than 100,000 students around the world to learn basic coding skills. We’ve seen the impact that Code.org is having on students and this year we’re doing more to support that — more hours and more classroom sessions to spark an interest in working with the technologies of tomorrow.”

Hour of Code was launched in 2013 by Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities. The program reaches millions of students through a one-hour introduction to coding and computer science. For the third straight year, Accenture is teaming with Code.org on Hour of Code and other STEM-related educational initiatives. New this year, Accenture Technology harnessed its internal expertise to create a coding tutorial that gives students a better understanding of artificial intelligence (AI). Students will discover how various AI techniques can teach a robot to explore a new planet – including recognizing animals and plants, understanding a new language, and conversing with inhabitants. 

“The Hour of Code campaign has already led to more than 450 million hours of code being completed– it’s mind-boggling. To date at least one out of every 10 students worldwide has participated in the Hour of Code program,” said Hadi Partovi, co-founder and CEO of Code.org. “This year, we are asking for people to not only do an hour of code, but go beyond one hour and think about what they can do to ensure that computer science education continues for years to come.”

“We are living in a software-driven world where technology is becoming the core of every industry and will enable every profession. An hour of code can inspire children to a lifetime journey of technology and computer science. We are proud to partner with Code.org to encourage the next-generation talent to start thinking about technology from an early age,” said Mohan Sekhar, senior managing director, Accenture Technology Services.

As part of this year’s Hour of Code collaboration, Accenture executives will lead Hour of Code activities around the world. Among the executives participating are:

• Yves Bernaert, a senior managing director with Accenture Technology, will host students at Station F, a start-up incubator in Paris.
• Jo Deblaere, Accenture’s chief operating officer, will host students for an Hour of Code event at the Accenture office in Amsterdam.
• Ambe Tierro, a senior managing director in the Philippines, will host students at the Accenture Liquid Studio in Manila.
• Mohan Sekhar, a senior managing director in the Accenture Technology Centers in India, will host students at an Accenture office in Bangalore.
• Christy Sovereign, Minneapolis office senior managing director, will be participating in a special Hour of Code event working with Robbinsdale Cooper High School student athletes to learn about the future of technology and sports, including a special session on how to build and fly a drone.

Amazon, HAX and Kickstarter Partner for Startup C-Cube Challenge for Indian Startups

Amazon Launchpad, the one-year-old global startup initiative of US-based

Amazon.com Inc, has joined hands with hardware accelerator HAX and crowdfunding community Kickstarter to launch a startup challenge in India.

The winner of the Startup C-Cube challenge will get support from the three organisations in different phases of its growth, Amazon executives said at an event in Bangalore.

“This is an opportunity for Indian startups to get access to big consumer markets nationally and internationally,” Sateesh Srinivasan, director and global head of Amazon Launchpad, said at the event where Priyank Kharge, Karnataka’s minister for information technology, biotechnology and tourism, was the chief guest.

The winning startup will get help to grow from a concept to a customer-ready stage, besides assistance in launching the product in India, Europe and the US, depending on the scalability of the idea. Additionally, the winner will receive a set of benefits valued at $500,000, which includes capital infusion and free services, to support product development.

In the first phase, HAX will take the winning startup for a three-month acceleration programme in its work space in Shenzhen, China where the startup will get mentoring from a pool of over 50 international mentors. After the programme, the startups will undergo a six-week ‘go-to-market’ boot camp in San Francisco and receive an investment support of $375,000.

In the second phase, Kickstarter will help the startup set up a campaign on the crowdfunding platform. It will provide a campaign strategist to assist the startup on campaign messaging, promotion, public relations, marketing and fulfilment, along with access to its community of 13 million backers.

Finally, Amazon Launchpad will help the startup gain visibility with marketing exposure and account management and support the winner for launch in multiple markets, depending on the scalability of the idea.

“We expect this unique collaboration will dramatically increase the chances for more startup teams to do well,” said Alan Clayton, head of entrepreneur development at HAX.

Applicants to the challenge must have a software-enabled hardware product that can address existing needs for a large customer base. Also, the startup should at least have a “looks-like and works-like” prototype and, at the very latest, got pre-Series A funding.

A panel consisting of representatives from Amazon Launchpad, HAX and Kickstarter will select and announce the winner of the challenge on 31 January 2018. The last date for application is 15 January 2018.