Zendesk Launches Sunshine, an Open and Flexible CRM Platform

Zendesk, Inc. has launched Sunshine, an open and flexible customer relationship management (CRM) platform built completely in the public cloud on Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS). Zendesk Sunshine enables businesses to connect and understand all their customer data, wherever it lives, and gives their developers the ability to build and deploy customer apps and services faster. Sunshine is built entirely on open standards, with the security, scalability and reliability of AWS built into its core.

Zendesk launched Sunshine, as well as a new sales force automation tool, Zendesk Sell, and the data analytics product, Zendesk Explore, at its global user conference, Relate 2018, taking place this week in San Francisco.

A New CRM Platform for Evolving Customer Experiences

Businesses are trying to keep up with customers’ changing expectations, but are being held back by legacy technology. Traditional CRM platforms force companies into proprietary technologies that limit their view of customers and make it difficult to connect customer data spread across internal and external systems and services. At the same time, these closed CRM tools are directly at odds with developers’ need for flexibility and freedom.

“It’s time to break free from CRM platforms that think they’re the center of the universe and lock you into an outdated view of the world,” said Mikkel Svane, Zendesk founder and CEO. “We built Sunshine to shed light on the many different dimensions of customers and their data, while giving developers the freedom to build the way they want in the public cloud.”

“The Zendesk platform gives us the ability to adapt to our customers’ changing needs and expectations,” said Gerardo Soto, director of innovation at Stanley Black & Decker. "Our developers also see tremendous value in the possibility of using the open source tools they already know and love on AWS, which would ultimately serve our customers and the business better.”  

According to the Gartner report, The Eight Building Blocks of CRM: Information and Insights published in February 2018, "Customer information and insight is the lifeblood of successful CRM systems and is essential for superior customer engagement. Relevant customer data can power, among other things, customer service interactions, personalization, marketing campaigns, field sales opportunities, lead management, social interactions and cross-sell/upsell activities."[1]

Introducing Zendesk Sell and Integration with Sunshine

Today the company also announced the launch of Zendesk Sell, a new sales force automation (SFA) tool built to enhance productivity, processes, and pipeline visibility for sales teams. Sell  marks the first step in integrating SFA software into the Zendesk family of products.

With Sell, information will be able to flow seamlessly between support and sales on the Sunshine CRM platform, resulting in a single conversation with customers and better alignment between teams.

Sunshine Capabilities

Today, Sunshine launches with powerful capabilities including Profiles, Events and Custom Objects that allow customers to store and connect to all their customer data.

With Profiles, businesses can create a single, unified view of the customer across all applications. Using Events, companies can capture any customer activity such as customer service interactions, website visits, purchase transactions, and shipping history in a historical timeline. Custom Objects allows companies to collect additional relevant information like products owned, equipment rented, or even telemetrics from a connected car from outside sources, then store this data directly within Zendesk.

With this information, customers can use Sunshine to not only create a complete picture of their customer but also model the relationship customers have with the data and the business. 

Introducing Zendesk Explore

As data and analytics become increasingly important to how businesses build and scale personal, connected experiences for their customers, Zendesk also announced the general availability of its data analytics tool, Explore.

Integrating seamlessly with all of its products, Zendesk Explore makes it easier for companies to see and analyze data across all Zendesk support channels. With Explore, businesses can now get a single view of the customer across all teams and channels so they can focus on measuring and improving the experience they deliver.

“Les Recettes De L’Atelier” roughly translates to “recipes of the artisan's shop” and this indulgent treat will be available in four variants - three in dark chocolate and one in milk chocolate. The range includes Milk Chocolate Raisins Almond Hazelnuts, Dark Cranberry Almonds, Dark Roasted Almonds, and Dark Raisins Almonds Hazelnuts. All four variants are crafted with carefully chosen natural and superior ingredients that are combined in their true nature. The fruit and nut pieces are mixed into the chocolate base in a manner that makes every bar visibly authentic, showcasing the whole fruit and nut in a bed of chocolate, making the overall experience uniquely artisanal or simply “L’Atelier”! These variants will be available across select e-commerce players and select stores in major cities.

Nestlé India Introduces Handcrafted, Artisanal, Super Premium Chocolates – Nestlé Les Recettes De L’Atelier

Nestlé India introduces Nestlé Les Recettes De L’Atelier– a premium collection of visibly authentic and irresistibly uneven chocolate tablets in India. Made in Switzerland at the iconic Maison Callier or the ‘Chocolate Museum’, which has been making chocolates since 1899, the range is crafted with handmade spirit using only all-natural ingredients. Whole pieces of natural fruits and nuts - carefully selected from the best global sources- are combined together with exquisite chocolate in an artisanal manner that creates the unique rugged looking chocolates- offering an unforgettable chocolate experience with inspiring taste and texture combinations.

Commenting on the launch Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nestlé India Ltd said, “We are always seeking to deliver authentic and iconic products to our consumers. Nestlé Les Recettes De L’Atelier is a testament to our rich chocolate making legacy, providing a genuine experience in taste, texture and look. The new offering celebrates yet another milestone of providing exciting new offerings in the premium range. We want our consumers to truly value the authentic, uncomplicated experiences in life and find pleasure in things which are simple but high quality.”

Digital Academy 360 Expands its National Presence with Six New Training Centers in India

Digital Academy 360, a fast-growing chain of digital marketing training centres has announced the launch of six new training centres in Mysuru, Bengaluru and in New Delhi respectively. The new centres are expected to cater to an additional 3000 plus students annually from these geographies. Digital Academy 360 imparts training in content writing and digital marketing that includes - SEO building, understanding the digital landscape, social media marketing, content development among others.

Adds Yogesh Shashi, Founder CEO of Digital Academy 360, “We are seeing a revolution of sorts from our youth in the country. With very high penetration of the internet in our country, our youngsters are connected more than ever. This has led to an increased demand for digital marketing training curriculum and content like never before.  Our rapid growth in the last few years is a testimony to this demand.”

He further adds, “We are happy to welcome Six new branches to our growing family of training centres across the country. The new centres are in Vani Vilas Mohalla, Mysuru; Malviya Nagar, Delhi and Whitefield, JP Nagar, Electronic City & Yelahanka in Bengaluru. All these facilities will host state of the art infrastructure including high-speed internet, the latest video and audio equipment etc among others. Proficient trainers have been empanelled in each of the centres armed with an elaborate training of our curriculum and courseware.”

Digital Academy 360 was founded with a vision to become India’s largest training institute chain providing quality education in the field of internet marketing and content writing at affordable cost. The team behind Digital Academy 360 works hard towards developing advanced techniques that can be easily implemented to produce a workforce that is proficient and capable. The company is confident that its courses powered by emerging and latest technologies can witness a manifold increase in the employability of a student easily.

Digital Academy 360 has notched up several milestones within a year’s time including the establishment of 16 centres across Bangalore, Mysore, Pune. Digital Academy 360 has also completed training 15000+ students to date.

Synechron Partners with Singapore Polytechnic to Develop Blockchain Courses Amongst Students

Synechron, a leading Digital Consulting firm and technology services provider for financial services, today announced its partnership with Singapore Polytechnic to co-develop a curriculum for Blockchain courses. The partnership is significant, given the focus on digital transformation for institutions globally.

Synechron and Singapore Polytechnic’s partnership to develop curriculum for Blockchain courses will enable further innovation in the region and reinforce the importance of re-skilling and education in emerging technologies. Blockchain experts from Synechron will collaborate with Singapore Polytechnic’s academic staff to develop three courses across different skill levels:
                                       
Level 101: For anyone who is keen to know more about Blockchain
Level 110: For anyone with basic tech skills and is interested to launch their own Blockchain-based startup
Level 120: A Train the Trainer program

Starting from February 2019, these courses will be available progressively for full-time students and adult learners at Singapore Polytechnic. International students taking the LEXicon Entrepreneurship programme offered by Singapore Polytechnic’s SPiNOFF Centre also will have the opportunity to enroll in the new courses.

Set up in May 2018, the SPiNOFF Centre aims to develop entrepreneurial mindsets amongst students and alumni and provide them with opportunities to connect with industries, government agencies, and investors in the region.

“Today, emerging technologies and digital transformation are at the top of the list for enterprises globally, including financial institutions and beyond. Given this, and Synechron’s niche focus on digital innovation for financial services, our ambition is to accelerate digital transformation,” said Mihir Shah, Head of Synechron APAC. “The true power of emerging technologies is not how technology can replace humans, but how they can work collaboratively with human workers to create the most efficiency. To achieve this, today’s workers, and the workers of tomorrow, need to understand these technologies at a deep level. At Synechron, we are committed to this innovation, and given our entrepreneurial spirit from the start, we are glad to partner with Singapore Polytechnic to create opportunities for the leaders of tomorrow.”

“As one of the leading institutes of higher learning, Singapore Polytechnic aims to equip our students and the community with skills and knowledge in emerging technologies such as Blockchain,” said  Neelesh Bhatia, Director of SPiNOFF, Singapore Polytechnic. “The collaboration with Synechron will empower our students to nurture their entrepreneurial spirit by allowing them to tap on emerging technologies that will solve current and future challenges.”

SHOPTIMIZE is Now PCI DDS Compliant, Joining a Group of Elite Global Service Providers

Shoptimize Inc, India’s leading and most advanced AI (Artificial Intelligence) powered brand e-commerce platform has now achieved the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)certification, the most thorough global payment-card security standard within the industry. Shoptimize is the first and only PCI compliant end-to-end ecommerce platform that not only enables and operates brand websites but also helps them grow with digital marketing and conversion optimization.

On receiving this certification Mangesh Panditrao, CEO & Co-Founder, Shoptimize Inc said, “With a steady rise in penetration of internet and smartphones, the ecommerce business is booming. As business grows and technology advances, brands are constantly running the risk of becoming more and more vulnerable to external threats. Security thus becomes a very crucial factor. Being Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant allows us to offer a higher level of assurance to all our clients.”

Incepted in November of 2012 by Mangesh Paditrao & Vivek Phalak, Shoptimize has been pioneering the brand e-commerce space by partnering with leading brands to help them setup and grow online sales through its AI powered growth engine. Shoptimize drives growth for a multitude of marquee Indian and global brands with the likes of Haldiram’s, Luminous, Schiender Electric, Lotus Herbal, Gits, Mother’s Recipe, Liberty Shoes, Camlin Kokuyo, Zippo, amongst others.

SonicWall Secures Hybrid Clouds by Simplifying, Enhancing Deployment for Enterprises, SMBs

Today, SonicWall announced new Capture Cloud Platform capabilities that include Zero-Touch Deployment and Secure SD-WAN (software-defined WAN) designed for distributed enterprises and organizations with hybrid cloud environments. The company also announced enhancements to the Capture Security Center with personalized Risk Meters that deliver company-specific, real-time threat intelligence and risk scoring, as well as Hyper-V, Azure and AWS support for its virtual firewall series.

“Organizations are invested in hybrid cloud strategies where they’re able to harness the power of both public and private clouds, but they require solutions that help simplify and secure their cloud migration initiatives,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner. “Whether they are pursuing the benefits of a vendor’s specific capabilities, looking to reduce the cost of hiring staff or seeking to reach compliance standards, SonicWall helps protect their migration while simultaneously giving more visibility and control of their environments.”

Reducing Cost with Zero-Touch Deployment

SonicWall Zero-Touch Deployment allows organizations to quickly and securely configure firewall hardware at new locations without requiring advanced and costly on-site personnel. Once new products are brought online in remote locations, administrators can manage local and distributed networks through a single pane-of-glass using Capture Security Center, SonicWall’s flagship cloud-based management and analytics SaaS platform.

“We are very excited about the recent addition of Zero-Touch and SD-WAN from SonicWall. Cerdant has been deploying SonicWall next-generation firewalls for over 15 years and these new additions will allow us to deliver even faster deployments for customers,” said Cerdant Vice President of Technology and Operations Joshua Skeens. “The agile and simplified deployment capabilities will help reduce labor costs with centralized cloud management.” 

To reduce wire clutter and the complexity associated with PoE injectors and switches, the company is introducing SonicWall TZ300P and TZ600P unified threat management (UTM) firewalls that provide power directly to connected PoE/PoE+ enabled devices, such as wireless access points, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, printers, cameras and other IP devices.  

Leveraging Public Networks Securely 

With strong and proven security provided by SonicWall, SD-WAN can be leveraged to use readily-available, low-cost public internet services to reduce the cost and complexity commonly associated with building distributed private networks based on MPLS technology. 

“SD-WAN is a highly effective technology for distributed organizations like retailers, banks, manufacturers and campuses to simultaneously improve performance and reliability while reducing operational overhead,” said 451 Research analyst Mike Fratto. “However, the use of the direct, connected public internet for business opens up security challenges for organizations.

For SD-WAN to be a viable alternative to private WANs, enterprises need to ensure they have the same level of inspection and enforcement at the branch and remote sites as they have at the data center. Integrated security features with SD-WAN are table stakes for most enterprises adopting the technology.”

A new capability of SonicOS 6.5.3, the operating system for SonicWall next-generation firewalls, SonicWall Secure SD-WAN enables distributed organizations to safely deploy and connect branch and remote sites for sharing data, and enhancing the resiliency and performance of applications and services.

SonicWall Secure SD-WAN ensures the consistent performance and availability of business-critical and SaaS applications with intelligent failover, application-based load balancing and quality of service (QoS) capabilities.

Personalized Threat Intelligence, Risk Scoring

The rising growth of applications, endpoints, mobile devices and databases also means a larger attack surface for cybercriminals. To shrink it, the SonicWall Capture Security Center Risk Meters service provides enterprises and SMBs with data-driven analysis about evolving threat vectors that include networks, web, clouds, applications, endpoints, mobile devices and databases.

Because no two organizations are alike, SonicWall Risk Meters deliver personalized threat data and risk scores that are adapted to individual situations and environments, promoting immediate and precise defensive actions.

To better guide business and security objectives in a more timely manner, computed risk scores and threat levels are continuously updated based on live threat data relative to existing defense capabilities. Organizations can leverage their scores when performing security effectiveness planning, policy and budgeting decisions.

Virtual Firewall Extended to Cloud Deployments

The SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform continues to deliver security for businesses of any size and now extends next-generation virtual firewall capabilities to cloud deployments, including Hyper-V, Azure and AWS, with the NSv Firewall Series.

As an added benefit, new and existing customers using SonicWall NSa or NSsp next-generation firewalls and who also have active Advanced Gateway Security Suite (AGSS) or Comprehensive Gateway Security Suite (CGSS) services, will receive a SonicWall NSv firewall for one year at no additional cost.

SonicWall Zero-Touch Deployment is available immediately. The TZ300P Series, TZ600P and SonicOS 6.5.3 with Secure SD-WAN will be available in December 2018.

CENIC Simplifies Infrastructure with Juniper Networks Globally

Juniper Networks, an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks, today announced that CENIC, a large nonprofit network provider connecting California’s education and research institutions with each other and with the world, has simplified its infrastructure by moving from multiple network platforms to a unified network based upon Juniper Networks® MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform for current 10GbE and future 100GbE service growth. A common operating system and routing platform across hundreds of its network service edge sites means CENIC can better contain operational costs and meet surging bandwidth requirements as its customers require 100GbE connectivity.

As scientists working in fields such as genomics, climate change and galaxy exploration continue to push the limits of research that require massive data collection and sharing across campuses, network traffic has exploded. Most research institutes, including the University of California and other leading universities to which CENIC provides network connectivity, now require 100GbE capacity to meet their current and future needs. CENIC had a variety of different networking platforms to support their growing needs and ultimately saw this complexity as a hindrance to its growth.

The Juniper MX 5G Universal Routing Platform will allow CENIC to meet the demands for delivering current and future 10GbE and 100GbE services at scale while containing operational expenditures by implementing a single unified operational experience across the entire network. Juniper’s MX routers empower CENIC with one platform and one operating experience across its approximately 700 edge sites.