Accenture has acquired DAZ Systems, Inc., a provider of Oracle ERP Cloud services with broad experience and assets that help organizations deploy and integrate enterprise performance management and human capital management applications. The acquisition further bolsters Accenture’s robust Oracle capabilities and delivers new value for clients on their journeys to the cloud.
“DAZ has extensive experience implementing Oracle Cloud solutions, which complements Accenture’s established credentials across the Oracle Cloud portfolio,” said Bhaskar Ghosh, group chief executive, Accenture Technology Services. “Organizations demand proven expertise, as well as new innovative solutions and methods to help them transform their businesses. DAZ will help us continue to deliver the very best thinking and capabilities to our clients.”
DAZ’s more than 300 professionals will join Accenture’s Oracle Business Group. Together, Accenture and DAZ combine deep domain knowledge and broad industry expertise to help clients unlock even greater value.
“At Accenture, we continually look for new ways to empower our clients to embrace the power of digital technologies to improve their businesses,” said Annette Rippert, senior managing director, Accenture Technology – North America. “DAZ is a valued Oracle partner and brings an impressive track record and top talent that will help drive significant results for our clients.”
DAZ CEO Walt Zipperman added, “DAZ’s mission is to help organizations implement mission-critical business systems by bringing a contemporary perspective and experience-driven insights. Joining Accenture is an incredible opportunity to advance this goal by combining our strengths with Accenture’s in depth capabilities and global scale. Together, we’ll be able to deliver substantial value for clients around the world.”
Headquartered in El Segundo, California, DAZ was founded in 1995. It is one of the top Platinum-level partners in Oracle’s PartnerNetwork, having delivered more than 500 successful Oracle implementations to-date. DAZ is Oracle ERP Cloud and HCM Cloud certified and was named Oracle’s Cloud Partner of the Year in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
The addition of DAZ builds on Accenture’s recent acquisition of Certus Solutions, a UK-based Oracle Cloud implementation provider, adding to its growing capabilities in delivering digital transformation on Oracle Cloud.
Accenture has been one of Oracle’s leading systems integration partners globally 12 years in a row, with more than 54,000 Oracle-skilled consultants around the world who help accelerate digital transformation by implementing Oracle-based business solutions and new business processes that develop and evolve as their digital business grows. Accenture has teamed with Oracle for more than 25 years and is a Global Cloud Elite and Platinum level member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork. Accenture is also certified as an Oracle Cloud Excellence Implementer.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
CLOUDSEC, the leading global cybersecurity conference, will take place in Mumbai on October 25. Hosted by Trend Micro Incorporated, CLOUDSEC India 2018 provides a platform for the industry to discuss and address cybersecurity issues arising from a hyper-connected world, with this year’s theme being ‘Freedom to Connect’.
CLOUDSEC India 2018 will see renowned experts, industry thought leaders, and CIOs/CISOs from government agencies and businesses come together to re-evaluate and redefine their understanding of threats and risks. The day-long event will feature interesting keynote sessions and engaging panel discussions. Nilesh Jain, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Trend Micro, will open the session with a welcome address followed by keynote sessions.
Steve Quane, Executive Vice President, Network Defense and Hybrid Cloud Security, Trend Micro, will provide his insights on ‘Global Security Trends and the Automation of Cloud Security’. Andras Cser, Vice President, Principal Analyst Serving Security & Risk Professionals, Forrester, will speak on ‘Harnessing Cyber Security Trends for Profit’. And V S Parthasarthy, Group CFO & CIO, Mahindra & Mahindra Group, will also hold a session.
The keynote panel discussion on ‘Digital Transformation: Challenges & Outlook’ will be joined by BS Nagarajan, CTO, VMware India; Dhruv Singhal, Head Solutions Architecture, Amazon, India, among others. Prominent industry experts including Vinayak Godse, Vice President, DSCI; Bharat Panchal, SVP & Head, NPCI, and others are the panelists for another panel discussion on ‘Cybersecurity in Government: Readying to Protect Critical Data for Public Good’.
Col. Pankaj Dikshit, SVP, IT Infrastructure, Goods and Services Tax Network; and Brijesh Datta, VP and CISO, Reliance Jio Infocomm are among the CIO speakers to give a talk at this year’s event.
Leading cloud service providers - Amazon Web Services (AWS) and VMware - will hold a series of breakout sessions, where they will share their insights on securing various types of cloud environments. At the event, Trend Micro researchers will also be sharing findings and first-hand insights around emerging threats such as cryptojacking and other such covert, low-profile attacks that are fast gaining momentum.
"We are increasingly seeing cybercriminals move away from attention-grabbing ransomware attacks, which peaked in 2017, to more covert methods intended to steal money and valuable computing resources of enterprises. Specific to India, the risk of cyberattacks will grow as businesses increasingly go digital, with many of them lagging in terms of implementation of security protocols as well as in their understanding of cyberthreats,” said Nilesh Jain, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Trend Micro.
“At this year’s CLOUDSEC, we are advancing the discussion around cybersecurity. The event will provide the attendees an opportunity to enhance their knowledge on the latest security strategies and also help them make informed decisions around their security choices,” added Nilesh.
CLOUDSEC India 2017 saw close to 800 participants in total. 63 percent of attendees were representatives from government agencies and enterprises and 15 percent identified as CIOs.
CSS Corp, a new-age IT services and technology support company, today announced the opening of its new delivery center in Manila, Philippines. The new center is located in Bonifacio Global City, the financial and lifestyle district of Manila.
The new facility in Manila is the latest addition to CSS Corp’s growing portfolio of delivery centers globally, which are aimed at providing new age services and tech support to the global clientele. The company plans to hire over 400 local employees over the next six to eight months, in areas such as technical support, helpdesk, customer support and account management. This development comes as part of the company’s growth strategy to expand in local markets.
CSS Corp launched its first center in Manila in the year 2009 and continues to focus on building diversified talent and capabilities for its customers. The 24,218-sq. feet new facility will house 400 employees, and will feature state-of-the-art workspaces, two training centers, technical labs, collaboration rooms and recreational areas including a 24-hour cafeteria, karaoke and billiard rooms. The entire center has been designed keeping sustainability and employee-friendliness in mind.
“We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new delivery center in Manila. We are thankful to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) for their continued support, and we look forward to a long-term, strategic and fruitful association that will complement our mutual vision of growth,” said Manish Tandon, CEO at CSS Corp.
Manish further added, “Philippines continues to emerge as an outsourcing hotspot for global players, given its strong understanding of customers in US and EU, coupled with the surge in digital-savvy talent and technical skills. We are confident that the new delivery center will aid our strategic vision of being more to our customers, while remaining committed to the local economy within the country.”
“At CSS Corp, we remain committed to driving growth for our customers, employees and the ecosystem, while delivering digital innovation and superior customer experience to our clients. Philippines, with its ease of doing business, burgeoning tech talent, and exceptional language skills, has become a favored destination for support capabilities, especially with the rise in cognitive technologies. Coupled with strong labor policies and government incentives, the country brings tremendous potential for growth in the near future,” said Arvind Kingsly Appavu, Country Head & AVP – Philippines at CSS Corp.
In 2017, CSS Corp opened two new development centers, one in Costa Rica in December and another in Bengaluru, India in April. With the new center in Manila, CSS Corp has increased its presence in Asia to 8 locations, as a part of its strategic vision to offer infrastructure and tech support capabilities to its customers across the world.
The Philippine IT-BPM industry targets to generate 1.8 million direct employment by 2022 under the Accelerate PH: Future Ready Roadmap 2022 by the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP). It also hopes to help create more than 5 million jobs in other sectors, making it the single largest creator of jobs in the Philippines.
Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) has launched a new CSR initiative, HGS’ Comprehensive School Improvement Programme (CSIP), which aims to promote quality and holistic education for underprivileged children in Mumbai and Pune. HGS has tied up with Plan India, a nationally registered not-for-profit organization striving to advance children’s rights and equality for girls to create six “Model Schools” and provide all-round development opportunities for the children studying in these government schools.
HGS’ CSIP is a three-year project that is expected to help develop adequate school infrastructure to ensure that 5,000 children have a “joyful learning environment” within the school premises and support at least 1,000 children with learning difficulties to achieve age appropriate learning level through remedial education. The programme also aims to educate and increase awareness amongst 20,000 parents about Right to Education to ensure that they actively engage for development of their children.
Speaking about the programme, Srinivas Palakodeti, Global CFO – HGS said, “India has been witnessing a significant rise in drop outs and absenteeism amongst underprivileged children in schools owing to lack of adequate amenities and proper infrastructure. Through this programme, we aim to help these schools to improve their infrastructure to ensure that holistic education opportunities are offered to all.”
HGS, along with Plan India, will upgrade and build science laboratories in schools, improve classroom infrastructure by procuring adequate benches, desks, fans, and paint the walls, etc., renovate/upgrade WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) infrastructure for boys and girls in the schools along with BCC (Behavior Change and Communication) program, and promote changing rooms for girls and installation of incinerators. The team will also promote remedial education for children who lack age appropriate learning level, develop and upgrade child friendly library, support children to set their career goals and positive attitude, promote and strengthen Children Parliament (Bal-Panchayat) and School Management Committee (SMC).
Asif Mohammad, Director – Programme Implementation, Plan India said, “Education is the most powerful tool to break the inter-generational cycle of poverty. It helps to overcome inequalities, promote inclusive development, accelerate social transformation and fosters economic progress. Plan believes that this partnership will support in providing access to quality education and water and sanitation facilities for both boys and girls. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Hinduja Global Solutions for coming on board and supporting us in this endeavor.”
ServiceNow strengthens its commitment to the Japanese market; selects NTT Communications to partner with for launch of two new Japanese data centers
ServiceNow, Forbes’ No. 1 World’s Most Innovative Company will partner with NTT Communications to open two new cloud services data centers in Tokyo and Osaka to serve Japanese customers. They are expected to be complete in the first half of 2019.
These strategic investments in Japan reflect ServiceNow’s success and growth in the Japanese market over the last five years, as well as ServiceNow’s commitment to expanding its business in Japan where digital transformation is accelerating.
ServiceNow is making the world of work, work better for peopleTM through its cloud-based Now Platform® and products designed to simply automate workflows across the enterprise, making routine tasks easier, removing complexity and creating better experiences for workers and customers.
The ServiceNow Nonstop Cloud
The new Japanese data centers are expected to enhance the ServiceNow Nonstop Cloud, which has been designed to support the availability and scalability of global enterprises.
The new data centers will add to ServiceNow’s existing nine data center pairs, which are set up across five continents to meet customers’ location and data sovereignty needs, operating in an “active‑active” mode to provide high-performing and high-availability cloud services for its customers.
At the new Tokyo and Osaka sites, ServiceNow is planning to provide the hardware, network services, and software services to deliver the full Now Platform and all partner services.
New and existing Japanese customers will primarily benefit from the ServiceNow Nonstop Cloud being delivered from two Japanese locations, supported by six global support centers. ServiceNow’s follow-the-sun global data center operational and customer support includes Japanese-speaking customer support personnel.
Mitch Young, VP and GM, ServiceNow APJ comments, “Data residency will continue to be an important consideration in Japan and we want to give our customers choice and control. Japan is a key growth market for ServiceNow and we are investing in the people, skills and talent, as well as physical hardware and software services, that we need to serve market demand both today and in the future.”
Masaaki Moribayashi-san, Senior Executive Vice President, NTT Communications said, "Congratulations on the upcoming launch of ServiceNow's Japanese Data Centers. We are honored to partner with ServiceNow to further promote work-style reform and digital transformation in Japan."
Extending ServiceNow’s Japanese business
ServiceNow does business across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) which includes enterprises across multiple industries and segments.
Leading Japanese brands such as Nomura Securities, Panasonic Information Systems, Yanmar Information System Services and GREE are already using ServiceNow to transform the way they deliver services across the enterprise and enhance the service experience by making the world of work, work better for people.
Bentley Systems Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced the acquisition of Agency9, based in Stockholm. Agency9 has already provided nearly half of Sweden’s larger municipalities with city-scale digital twin cloud services for city planning and related web-based 3D visualization. Since 2012, Agency9 has taken advantage of reality meshes created by Bentley’s ContextCapture reality modeling software as the digital context for visualizing urban infrastructure assets represented in GIS data, terrain surveys, and BIM models. Bentley’s new iTwin™ cloud services, introduced at the conference, add digital alignment and change synchronization for infrastructure engineering digital twins, and will enable OpenCities Planner(formerly Agency9 CityPlanner)to uniquely serve urban planning requirements at fuller levels of detail.
Phil Christensen, Bentley’s senior vice president, reality modeling said, “Our many city users globally have been asking for the useful capabilities which Agency9 has successfully implemented throughout Sweden, to take further advantage of their reality modeling programs. In fact, when we combine Bentley ContextCapture’s 3D surveying advancements (based on hybrid aerial, UAV, and ground-based imagery) with our Connected Data Environment (CDE) technologies for geospatial-to-BIM integration, we make city-scale digital twins as a cloud service broadly accessible. Ultimately synchronizing reality and ‘virtuality,’ OpenCities Planner offers the perfect web solution to enable every city in going digital.”
Håkan Engman, CEO of Agency9, said, “Now that we’re part of Bentley, we’re confident about achieving the full global potential of Agency9’s innovations. My colleagues and I, and our forward-thinking users in the Nordics, have been noted for pushing the envelope of geospatial integration and visual performance to new levels of detail. Now, as contributors toward unique city-scale digital twin cloud services from Bentley, we can foresee the realization of our users’ vision to advance from urban planning to improving cities’ asset performance.”
The Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference – 17 October 2018 – Siemens and Bentley Systems announced today the introduction of PlantSight, resulting from development together based on their highly complementary software portfolios. PlantSight is a digital solution to benefit customers through more efficient plant operations. PlantSight enables as-operated and up-to-date digital twins which synchronize with both physical reality and engineering data, creating a holistic digital context for consistently understood digital components across disparate data sources, for any operating plant. Plant operators benefit from high trustworthiness and quality of information for continuous operational readiness and more reliability.
Every real-world operating plant is characterized by cumulative evolution, both to its brownfield physical condition and to the varied types and formats of theoretically corresponding engineering data. Accordingly, as-operated digital twins must reliably synchronize reflections of both the physical reality and its virtual engineering representations, comprehensively and accurately. Moreover, further frequent changes are inevitable. With PlantSight, every process plant owner-operator can realize the benefits of as-operated digital twins – without disruption to their existing physical or virtual environment.
For process industries, characterized by ongoing capital projects, the effectiveness of digital twins depends upon the integrity and accessibility of as-operated information presented and continuously updated in trusted 2D schematic and 3D model formats. PlantSight provides all stakeholders with cloud/web-enabled visibility and access into existing data and tool interfaces, assuring that changes are timely and accurately captured and managed.
With PlantSight as-operated digital twin cloud services, operational and project-related engineering data is aligned seamlessly. All disciplines and stakeholders have immediate access to consistent representations. Especially for brownfield installations, the time and effort to federate and complete asset information will be significantly reduced, with plant documentation kept up to date, and its quality accordingly improved.
Greg Bentley, CEO for Bentley Systems, said, “From the start of Bentley Systems’ strategic alliance with Siemens, we have together seen our development of PlantSight as having perhaps the most significance for our marketplace. Siemens’ announced combination of its digital offerings for discrete and process plants enables our bringing together, through a cloud service, the complementary elements of COMOS, OpenPlant, MindSphere, and Teamcenter. PlantSight can now realize the process industries’ top priority in ‘going digital’— the digital twin enablement of their operating plant engineering!”
“With PlantSight, we’re stepping up our cooperation with Bentley and extending the possibilities offered by data utilization for the process industry. This joint solution based on the complementary know-how of Bentley and Siemens represents a key step towards making digital twins even more efficient and creating a digitally integrated value chain, which offers even greater consistency. In this way, we’re continuously enlarging our Digital Enterprise portfolio by embracing future technologies,” said Klaus Helmrich, Member of the Management Board of Siemens AG.
Valentijn de Leeuw, Vice President ARC Advisory Group, said, “I believe that Siemens’ and Bentley’s newly-developed PlantSight services will establish a foundation for next-generation asset information and performance management. For as-operated digital twins, this augments the actual plant by integrating operational data with operational intelligence dashboards, immersive operator training simulation, and links with applications such as process simulation, asset strategy, and reliability. The benefits of the environment will increase with the number of microservices provided.”
Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for 170 years. The company is active around the globe, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitization. One of the world's largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is a leading supplier of efficient power generation and power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. The company with its listed subsidiary Siemens Healthineers AG is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment – such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems – and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal 2017, which ended on September 30, 2017, Siemens generated revenue of €83.0 billion and net income of €6.2 billion. At the end of September 2017, Siemens had around 377,000 employees worldwide.
