Tech Startup PlayShifu Launches Augmented Reality Globe in India

Adding the magic of Augmented Reality to physical toys is doing wonders for PlayShifu, an Indian tech startup. The company has recently launched a product that redefines the educational toy segment in India - Shifu Orboot, a one-of-its-kind globe enhanced by AR that allows children to explore the world beyond boundaries.

Through the power of Orboot and the connected mobile app, children can travel the seven continents from the comfort of their homes. They can explore the cultures, inventions, monuments, wildlife, cuisines, maps, and weather relevant to each location. The digital gameplay is enriched with realistic 3D figures, engaging voice-overs, and regional music.

The new product from Playshifu sensitizes the young minds to understand the cultures and people around the world making them global citizens. With a passport, country flags and travel stamps included, Orboot completes the experience for the little globetrotter. It is a perfect educational toy for the ever-curious child that sparks curiosity and helps build knowledge, linguistic and cognitive skills.

“We strongly believe in technologies that bridge the gap between physical and digital worlds, specifically in the case of early learning. The tremendous global response for Shifu Orboot has given us a major boost in the tech industry and we plan to bring many more innovative Augmented Reality toys in the market focussing on interactive learning” said Vivek Goyal, Co-Founder & CEO, PlayShifu.

In India, Orboot (globe) is available on www.playshifu.com, Amazon, Flipkart, Hamleys, Toys”R” US, Crossword, Landmark and many other retail stores in metropolitan and Tier II cities at an affordable price of INR 1999. The free companion app ‘Orboot’ is available on Android and iOS and works with both smartphones and tablets.

PlayShifu’s consumer technology products are creative, innovative, and extraordinary, which is apparent by its rapid expansion and popularity in 11 countries and recognition in the largest global trade fairs including the New York Toy Fair, Hong Kong Toy Fair, and the Nuremberg Toy Fair. Along with other products from Playshifu, Shifu Orboot also sells globally in countries like US, UK, Canada, Poland, Germany, Japan, Australia, and the Middle East. 

Over 24 Percent of Bengaluruites are Tested Diabetic Patients

A recent data analysis done by RV Metropolis, the subsidiary of Metropolis Healthcare, India’s Leading Pathology Chain reveals that 24 % of samples tested from Bengaluru have been reported as Diabetic. In order to understand the intensity of the disease, RV Metropolis conducted a comprehensive data study; ahead of World diabetes Day which falls on 14th November. The study included 1,95,162 random samples of people between the age group of 20 and 80 years that were collected for a period of over three years.

Why is HbA1c, The Test Important?

The most critical analysis arising from the study is that only over 16.28% of the samples tested had desirable HbA1c (glycated haemoglobin) Levels. Over 24.01% of samples were reported to be having poor glycaemic control and management. HbA1c is an important test because it helps the clinician suggest appropriate lifestyle changes.

For every 1% reduction in results of HbA1c blood tests, the risk of developing eye, kidney, and nerve disease is reduced by 40% while the risk of heart attack is reduced by 14%.

Over 24.68 % of all samples tested for Fasting Blood Sugar were reported to be Diabetes Mellitus and 27% were found to be Pre-diabetic, a borderline condition if unchecked will lead to Diabetes Mellitus.

Interestingly, the percentage of samples tested Diabetic and Borderline were slightly higher for males than that of females. Over 28.67% of Male blood samples of Fasting Blood Sugar were found Diabetic, where as 20.86 % of Women blood samples of Fasting Blood Sugar were found Diabetic.

Explaining more on this, Dr Ravi Kumar, Head, RV Metropolis Healthcare said, “This is an alarming sign for the health of citizens in Bengaluru. The change in lifestyles and faulty food habits is a cause for concern. Prolonged diabetes could lead to life-long and serious complications like cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease, foot ulcers, and damage to the eyes. It is important to be aware of your blood sugar levels and regularly monitor your levels to stay in optimal health.”

QuEST Global Partners with Siemens to Develop Innovative Connected Engineering Solutions on MindSphere

QuEST Global, the pioneering engineering services provider, has announced it has joined Siemens’ MindSphere Partner Program to develop innovative connected solutions using MindSphere, the cloud-based, open IoT operating system from Siemens. This partnership will enable QuEST to deliver on the connected engineering objectives of its customers across industries using data insights from advanced engineering analytics.  It is an expansion of the ongoing partnership with Siemens, providing customers with a closed-loop end-to-end digital twin capability and a complete range of connected manufacturing solutions.

MindSphere connects products, plants, systems and machines, enabling businesses to harness the wealth of data generated by the Industrial IoT and provide powerful industry applications and digital services to help drive business success. The platform delivers a wide range of device and enterprise system connectivity protocol options, advanced analytics and an innovative development environment with access to private and public cloud platforms.

QuEST will initially roll out solutions and services built on MindSphere for customers in the Aerospace and Power verticals.  IoT and digital transformation have already gained significant traction in these industries, however the volume of data generated is not effectively utilized. Connected engineering solutions built with MindSphere using advanced engineering analytics can address this challenge and deliver the benefits of the convergence of mechanical and software capabilities.

QuEST aims to improve the competitiveness of OEMs and manufacturers in automotive, industrial and hi-tech industries by tapping into the real-time data generated by their products and manufacturing plants. This will be complemented by the insights gained from after-sales usage of devices and also real-time consumer insights.

Commenting on the partnership, Todd Ashley, Vice President, Digital and Industrial Solutions, QuEST Global said, “QuEST joining the MindSphere Partner Program is a part our commitment to enhance the value of our digital and software offerings to customers. With the convergence of digital and mechanical worlds, there is an increasing need for industrial companies to accelerate their digital journeys and deliver innovative services. QuEST’s existing partnership with Siemens, focusing on Digital Manufacturing Solutions, is now augmented by the advanced capabilities of MindSphere, as we can add more value to customers in their digital transformation journeys."

Paul Kaeley, Senior Vice President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Siemens PLM Software said, “Siemens is delighted to expand our existing partnership with QuEST Global and welcome them to the MindSphere partner ecosystem to develop innovative connected solutions. QuEST’s new solutions built with MindSphere can help our joint customers evaluate and utilize the data from their products to generate new insights and provide value-added digital services and solutions.  It is this type of innovation that helps our joint customers accelerate their digital transformations.”

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.”