Synechron, the global financial services consulting and technology services provider, has announced the launch of its newest eBook, UX Design for Enterprise Apps. The eBook serves as an instructive reference guide to help firms institutionalize best practices, benchmark their User Experience (UX) Maturity, and innovate their digital and design initiatives.
UX is becoming one of the top priorities for banking and insurance institutions as they face changing user expectations and demands, which have changed drastically over the last decade due to the Digital Revolution. Clients are demanding more intuitive usability, on-demand services, and personalized experiences with just a click. While all firms strive to be on the leading edge of innovation, simplicity is key for great UX, while still delivering streamlined, interactive and intuitive user experiences to transform the approach to client interactions. Given this, it has never been more important within the Financial Services and Insurance industries to design highly useable, data-driven systems that are responsive to a new set of user’s needs and expectations.
As a leader in Digital User Experience Design for Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Synechron provides instructive advice and insight on how to craft a successful and strategic approach to UX in its newest eBook, which focuses on:
What separates UI from UX – and how to move from uniformed design to more strategic design initiatives informed by design thinking, research, iterative design, and more.
User Experience Design (UX, UXD, or XD) – best practices for bringing the human aspect to technology and design through a blend of creative, behavioral, and analytical skills.
Design Trends and Innovations – front-end visual and engineering approaches to achieve strong aesthetic, optimized speed and throughput, and to overcome challenges related to legacy infrastructure. The Role of the UX Designer – to create a design solution that aligns with a user’s mental model and context of use, and effectively delivers business objectives with technical feasibility.
A UX Maturity Assessment – allowing readers to benchmark their UX maturity against a core set of criteria to measure their applications’ effectiveness, identify gaps, and elevate User Experience.
Through the eBook, firms can gain valuable strategies to help increase efficiency and productivity, enhance adoption rates, improve brand loyalty, speed time-to-market, and reduce total cost through design.
“Today, UX is a key differentiator for banks and financial institutions. To remain competitive and keep up with the evolving needs of changing and increasingly digital client demands, it is critical for institutions to have an effective user experience and design strategy,” said Ashish Nangla, Senior Director at Synechron. “To do this, they must have a deep understanding of end user requirements and their different needs in varying contexts. We have created this guide to assess their UX maturity and compile key factors to begin on the path to success.”
Amazon India has announced a new initiative to generate clean energy through installation of solar panels on the rooftops of its fulfillment centres and sortation sites in India. Currently, Amazon India has already installed close to 1600-kilo watts (kW) of solar power panels at its 2 fulfillment centres in Delhi and Hyderabad.
The company plans to further deploy large-scale solar panel systems on rooftops of an additional 5 fulfillment centres and 2 sortation sites located in Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai while further expanding existing capacity in Delhi. With this deployment, by the end of 2018, Amazon India will be able to generate solar energy close to 8,000 kW. Installations at these fulfillment and sort centres would cover an area of approximately 1 million square feet, reduce CO2 emission by around 9000 tons a year and provide energy to support the building’s annual energy needs.
Akhil Saxena, Vice President, Customer Fulfillment, Amazon India, said, “At Amazon, we are putting our scale and our inventive culture to work on sustainability and protecting the environment. We are committed to and invested in this work because it’s a triple win – it’s good for business, good for the planet, and good for our customers and communities. The installation of the solar panels at fulfillment centres in Hyderabad and Delhi reinstates this commitment and by the end of 2018, we plan to expand this installation to an additional 7 Amazon Operations sites in India. The investment in solar energy systems in India is in line with Amazon’s vision to deploy solar systems on 50 fulfillment and sortation centers globally by 2020.”
Amazon India has also extended this commitment to protect the environment, to the communities around its fulfillment centres. It has set up solar energy systems in 4 Amazon Cares Community and Resource Centres in Haryana, which provide solar power to support the community programs in these centres all year round. The company has also donated solar energy systems to 19 government schools and 1 mini-planetarium in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra. This infrastructure supports the needs of children in schools and others from the local communities in 24 villages benefitting more than 2500 people across Haryana and Maharashtra.
Other recent environment-friendly projects include the rejuvenation of the Mahadevpura Lake in Bengaluru where Amazon India has teamed up with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and United Way Bengaluru to construct a sewage treatment plant designed to clean up to 1 million litres per day. In the coming weeks, Amazon India will plant more than 10,000 saplings around its fulfillment centres in addition to rolling out an environmental awareness campaign for its associates across its more than 200 operations sites across the country.
3i Infotech Limited, a global Information Technology company unveiled its latest service offering, ‘Conversational Banking’ at the recently concluded American Banker event in Colorado Springs, US. Voice & chat which are central to conversational banking and advanced analytics such as channel interaction analytics and voice mining are integrated in this solution to increase cross-selling and minimize channel attrition leading to a friction-less omnichannel experience. Conversational Banking is a part of Altiray’s ‘Omnichannel Solution - Conversational Services’ and is powered by Artificial Intelligence. The solution provides a 360 degree and holistic approach to converse with customers and enhance their experience.
The voice-led omnichannel solution finds easy application across various industries like banking, insurance and healthcare. It demonstrates how a customer initiates simple or complex transactions, like applying for a loan, applying for insurance, checking account balance or renewing policies etc., using voice interaction and if necessary continue through other digital channels like bot, mobile and portal. It converses with customers, understands requirements, captures requisite data and pre populates forms where possible, and uses social media like LinkedIn or bank aggregators as source.
Speaking on their Next-gen offering, Mohua Sengupta, EVP and Global Head of Services, 3i Infotech said, “Following the recent rebranding of our services business unit to Altiray, we are pleased to announce one more innovative offering from our stable, which is poised to be a game-changer in the industry. This further reinforces our commitment to help enterprises in their digital transformation journey. What this service provides, essentially, is to allow banks to have seamless interactions with their customers. We have also forayed into Conversational Insurance and Healthcare to extend these benefits to insurers and healthcare providers.”
“In an environment where Voice is the next UI of choice, we want to be the leaders driving the change. There are reports that by 2022 almost 40% of consumers will use voice assistants, compared to 24% today and another 31% will use a voice device instead of visiting a branch or store, compared to 20% today; hence this is a market that’s burgeoning and waiting to be tapped”, she further added.
The key features of Omnichannel Conversational Services include Security, Dialoguing, Persistence and Open API. Here, there is no device dependency. The approach to the conversational services, is to use Q&A to answer generic queries; use cognitive services to answer intelligently; interface with the right backend system through APIs to get responses; create NLP based responses and present to chat client; and handoff to human interactions at appropriate time during conversations.
Infosys, India’s second-largest information technology (IT) services firm, said it has hired 4,000 locals in the US as part of its plans to hire 10,000 locals.
The company’s CEO Salil Parekh, who addressed Morgan Stanley’s Twentieth Annual India Summit, said Infosys has hired 800 graduates from the college campuses so far this year and another 1,000 will be recruited this year and next year. This will help the company to control its costs as well as maintain high margins, he said.
As part of its localisation strategy in the US, Infosys has set up a 50-acre campus in Indiana, where it will be training and reskill its employees. Similarly, the company has identified locations in Europe, Australia and NZ markets.
Parekh also said stricter work visa norms across various markets like the US and Australia will not constrain its business growth as they would be focusing on hiring locals and training workforce in these geographies.
According to a presentation made by Parekh, the US hubs will focus on five things -- access local talent pools, talent refactoring infrastructure, access academia and partner ecosystems, send value chain to clients, studios for agile and rapid prototyping.
Three-year roadmap.
“We have set a three-year roadmap to achieve our objective of stabilisation in FY19, build momentum in FY20 and accelerate in FY21,” Parekh stated during his interaction at Morgan Stanley summit.
Parekh, who took over as the CEO and MD of Infosys in January this year, said the company will be focusing on the agile digital market for growing its business. The market opportunity for digital business is estimated to be $160 billion to $200 billion.
Infosys will invest in enhancing digital capabilities, infusing aAI and automation across projects and also re-skilling talent on these new-age technologies, he said. Parekh said the company’s digital revenues stood at $2.79 billion in FY18, which was about 25.5% of its total revenues.
The Central Board of Secondary Education declared the results of NEET 2018 on 4th June, 2018. The entrance exam, which was held on 6th May 2018, serves a gateway to the top notch medical colleges in the country.
Aakashians created history again with Kalpana Kumari (Classroom student of Aakash Institute), capturing Rank 1 in NEET 2018. Kalpana is a 2 year classroom program student of the institute.
Congratulating the toppers, on their impressive result, Aakash Chaudhry, Director - Aakash Educational Services Private Limited, said, "We are ecstatic to announce that from our classroom program students, Kalpana Kumari captured Rank 1 with 691 marks in NEET 2018 followed by Himanshu Sharma who captured Rank 3 with 690 marks, Aarosh Dhamija who captured Rank 4 with 686 marks, Madhvan Gupta who captured Rank 9 with 680 marks and Ramneek Kaur Mahal who captured Rank 10 with 680 marks.
From our Distance learning program, Rohan Purohit captured Rank 2 with 690 marks and Varun Muppidi captured Rank 6 with 685 marks. The impressive feat achieved by our students in NEET 2018 is a result of their immense hard work, unwavering determination and willingness to succeed. We are delighted that 7 students from Aakash have secured ranks within Top 10 Ranks in NEET 2018.
Heartiest congratulations to all the students who have performed well in the examination. We wish them success in their future endeavours."
The Union government today approved the continuation of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III programmes, together costing more than Rs 10,000 crore, in a move that will help ISRO launch light and heavy-weight satellites.
The operationalisation of PSLV, ISRO's most-trusted workhorse, has made India self-reliant in launching satellites for earth observation, disaster management, navigation and space sciences.For heavy satellites, India is helped by the French, which launches its satellites from Kourou in French Guinea in South America.
The cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also gave its nod for funding 30 PSLV operational flights under the programme.
The PSLV programme is expected to meet the launch requirements of satellites for earth observation, navigation and space sciences and will also ensure the continuity of production by the Indian industry.
The fund requirement is Rs 6,131 crore and includes the cost of 30 PSLV vehicles, essential facility augmentation, programme management and launch campaign.
The PSLV Continuation Programme (Phase 6) will meet the demand for launch of satellites at a frequency of up to eight launches per year, with maximum participation from the Indian industry.All operational flights would be completed during the period 2019-2024, the government said in a statement.
PSLV continuation programme was initially sanctioned in 2008, and four phases have been completed and the fifth phase is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2019-20. The phase-6 approval will cater to the launch of satellite missions from the third quarter of 2019-20 to first quarter of 2023-24.
With the recent successful launch of PSLV-C41 on April 12, PSLV has completed three developmental and 43 operational flights and the last 41 flights have been successful.
The cabinet also approved funding for the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III Continuation Programme (Phase-1), consisting of 10 GSLV (Mk-III) flights, at an estimated cost of Rs 4,338 crore.
The GSLV Mk-III Continuation Programme (Phase1) is the first phase of operational flights that will enable the launch of four-tonne class of communication satellites.
The operationalisation of GSLV Mk-III will make India self-reliant in launching four-tonne class of communication satellites, sustain and strengthen the space infrastructure and reduce the dependence on procured launches from foreign countries.
The cabinet was also apprised of a memorandum of understanding signed between India and Oman in February in Muscat for peaceful use of the outer space.
The MoU shall enable cooperation in areas such as space science, technology and applications including remote-sensing of the Earth, satellite-based navigation, space science, planetary exploration, use of spacecraft and space systems and ground system and application of space technology.
Qlik, a leader in data analytics, today announced the expansion of its existing strategic partnership with the United Nations to deliver critical and actionable analytics insights to positively effect global sustainability and humanitarian efforts. The United Nations, through the Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT), is standardized on Qlik’s visual analytics platform to create applications that advance United Nations’ missions. The partnership has grown over the last five years under the Qlik Corporate Social Responsibility program, and is being highlighted through Qlik’s presence at the UN Science, Technology and Innovation Forum. The STI Forum brings relevant stakeholders together to share in sustainability technology and explore collaboration efforts to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
“Meaningful progress towards our Sustainable Development Goals requires that we continually leverage innovation,” said Salem Avan, Director, Global Services Division, Office of Information & Communications Technology. “The STI Forum brings together key stakeholders who share in our mission to demonstrate how to best further the UN’s impact through their innovations.”
The United Nations has a clearly stated mission outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: “We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path.”
The UN is enabling these transformative steps globally through OICT, driving constant analysis of various Sustainable Development Goals through Qlik applications. This allows OICT to clearly present and share indicators from the massive amounts of available data, identifying and tracking improvements on a wide range of barriers to population well-being.
Through a partnership with Qlik, Secretariat Self-Service Data Visualization Platform
initiated in 2015 and renewed in 2017, OICT has built a self-service visualization platform that enables non-IT staff in all departments and offices within the UN Secretariat (including Regional Commissions, offices away from Headquarters and Field missions) to develop and publish dashboards for internal collaboration and formal/informal reporting. To date there are more than 100 apps published and in use within the platform on topics ranging from administrative topics (budget tracking and procurement) to substantive ones (gender equality, peacekeeping troop deployments, capacity development projects, global crime statistics.)
Secretariat Management Dashboards
Complementing the self-service dashboard effort, OICT worked with senior managers to develop standardized dashboards for reports in key administrative areas within the Secretariat. In March 2017, OICT released a series of management dashboards used by senior management and key focal points in areas such as budget & finance, HR, ICT, procurement, travel, and real estate management. There are currently 20 management dashboards used daily to provide up-to-date and readily accessible management reports.
Security Council Highlights App
The Security Council Affairs Division within the Department of Political Affairs (DPA/SCAD) publishes an annual report detailing the UN security council meetings held during the past year, with details such as adopted resolutions, presidential statements, and decisions. Starting in 2015, Qlik has been used to provide the official report which is now available online. Starting in 2017, Qlik is also used to publish Monthly Security Council statistics which are publicly available.
The UN Comtrade Analytics App
The United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) contains detailed goods, imports and exports statistics from 1962 to the present, reported by statistical authorities of close to 200 countries and areas. UN Comtrade is considered the most comprehensive trade database available with more than 3 billion records. Qlik is used to visualize the trade statistics data and make it easier to report.
Advanced Analytics
OICT is working on several advanced analytics initiatives through Qlik to provide easier ways for staff and senior management to get answers and gain data insight, including:
• Using natural language text to query Qlik dashboards and display relevant charts “on the fly.”
• Using public data on conflict country GDP data to calculate the cost of conflict and visualize the results within Qlik.
• Using management data (travel compliance, budget expenditure etc.) to build prediction models visualized in Qlik.
“Unlocking the power of the UN’s vast and varied data sources through analytics is vital in the effort to effect real and sustainable global change,” said Mike Capone, CEO at Qlik. “We’re proud of our partnership and sharing in the UN’s goal of making the world a more sustainable and prosperous one. We look forward to continuing the expansion of our effort to bring essential insights to those on the front lines of global UN transformation initiatives.”
