Thursday, February 14, 2019

Land Rover's 'Never Stop Discovering’ Campaign Aims to Raise Awareness on Wildlife Conservation


Land Rover in India has launched its latest digital and social media campaign, ‘Never Stop Discovering’ to create conversations around India’s wildlife and thus recognizing the stupendous work being done to protect our diverse wildlife by some of the most passionate and knowledgeable minds in India. This follows the very successful ‘Discovery With A Purpose’ journey, undertaken in February 2018 in Land Rover Discovery vehicles that covered   1 200 km across various forests and terrains of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, to create awareness and conversations around India’s endangered wildlife. 

Rohit Suri, President & Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd (JLRIL), said:
“Our Discovery family, with class leading versatility and capability, is a great enabler for the curious minds, for those who want to get out there and explore more, and share these explorations and new experiences with their family and friends. Through the 'Never Stop Discovering' campaign, we want to reach out and connect with all such people and inspire them with purposeful stories.”

The ‘Never Stop Discovering’ campaign focusses on stimulating stories of journeys in Land Rover Discovery Sport to Nagarhole National Park to showcase initiatives in the field of eco-tourism, which is providing impetus to wildlife conservation in India. The films feature big cat specialist, wildlife photographer and cinematographer Shaaz Jung for the Indian Leopard and the very elusive Black Panther, Aly Rashid for the Sloth Bear in Satpura National Park and Harshawardhan and Poonam Dhanwatey for the Bengal Tiger in and around the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve.

Speaking on the release of the first film, Shaaz Jung, said: “Life is a safari and utilising eco-tourism as an integral tool for conservation has always been my priority. We created The Bison and BCRTI (Buffer Conflict Resolution Trust of India) to address the conflicts in our buffer regions whilst also providing vocational training and creating awareness. Helping people understand the importance of our flora and fauna is the key to saving our country and retaining India’s culture and it’s great that Land Rover is bringing this to the fore through ‘Never Stop Discovering’

The first story under the campaign may be viewed at https://bit.ly/2GlUlSG with others to follow in March and April 2019. 

Honor Sets Up 100+ AI Consumer Experience Studios Across India


Honor, the leading smartphone e-brand under the Huawei Group, recently announced the Honor 10 Lite in India, and starting today the most stylish AI smartphone will be available in all leading offline stores across India. The AI smartphone will be available in 6GB + 64GB variant at INR 17,999 in Sapphire Blue and Sky Blue colors.

To further enhance the customer experience, Honor has also set up an amazing AI studio in 100+ stores across 12 different cities where users can get a hands-on experience of the 24 MP AI Selfie feature at the customized Selfie Studio. Honor aims to spread across leading 4000+ stores.

“We’re pleased to see that our latest smartphone the Honor 10 Lite has seen an overwhelming response via the online sales efforts so far; and we’re excited to roll-out the smartphone offline as well, across all major cities in India. We welcome the youth of the country to experience the powerful AI camera at their nearest Honor store, where we’ve for the first time set up customized AI studios across the country. We hope to continue the momentum in the future sales for the device,” Suhail Tariq, CMO Huawei Consumer Business Group.

Honor 10 Lite is also available on Flipkart with No cost EMI and exchange offer T&C*.

Honor 10 Lite specifications:

The Honor 10 Lite comes with an impressive 24MP AI selfie camera, AI scene detection technology on both rear and front cameras, latest Kirin 710 processor with 12nm process technology, Dewdrop Display, first Honor phone with Intelligent EMUI 9.0 on top of Android 9 (Pie) out of the box and 3,400 mAh battery.

Honor 10 Lite features 15.77cm (6.21”) Dewdrop display, 91% screen-to-body ratio with 19:5:9 aspect ratio, has support for GPU Turbo 2.0 and runs Android 9.0 (Pie) with EMUI 9.0 on top.

The AI Selfie camera can recognize eight different scenes (Sky, Beach, Plant, Flower, Stage, Night, Room and Snow) and adjust camera settings to click best ever selfies. The front camera also features AI based facial recognition and light fusion technology, ensuring you always look your best in every scenario and light condition.

Dual Rear AI Camera is capable of detecting 22 different scenes to give best ever photographs in every scenario and condition. Low light photography is enhanced by its big f1.8 aperture and AIS mode which enables it to capture beautiful and detailed shots even in low light conditions.

Special Features:

*  AI Shopping: Shop what you see with Intelligent AI shopping experience on various shopping e-commerce platforms in India.

*  Calorie Detection : Detect calories in food items just by looking them through camera

*  AI Enhanced calls: AI noise reduction accurately recognizes noise and suppresses it

*  Wi-Fi Bridge: Now you can share any Wi-Fi network as hotspot and connect maximum 4 devices

*  Paytm Pay: One click pay option for Paytm users

*  App Assistant: Enjoy uninterrupted gaming experience

*  Dual VoLTE: You can access internet from 1 sim, while you are having a phone call with the other sim

*  AI Smart Face Unlock: Lock Screen with Privacy Protection - By face recognition, only the phone owner can see more details

*  Smart Fingerprint: Apart from unlocking phone, you can use it from taking photos & videos, answer call, stop alarm, show notification panel & browse photos

*  Smart Triple Bluetooth Connection: Connect 3 devices - Like Bluetooth headset & Smart Watch

*  Ride Mode: Specially for bike rider safety & Keep them away from the unwanted distraction of call

*  Party Mode: Connect up to 6 Honor devices and play your favourite song in all the device at the same time

The Honor 10 Lite is the successor of the Honor 9 lite that was launched in India earlier in the year 2018. Honor has sold more than 1.5 million Honor 9 Lite devices so far.

  

LTI to Acquire Germany Based Temenos WealthSuite specialist NIELSEN+PARTNER


Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd., a global technology consulting and digital solutions company, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire NIELSEN+PARTNER (N+P), an independent Temenos WealthSuite specialist, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany.

N+P is a leading partner of Temenos in Europe and APAC. The company is well-recognized for its market-leading capabilities in Temenos WealthSuite, including Triple’ A Plus, Data Source and Channels. With  presence in major Banking and Wealth Management hubs like Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Singapore, N+P also provides IT Consulting, digital and software engineering services to major enterprises.

This acquisition is synergistic to Syncordis acquisition that LTI announced in 2017. Syncordis is the leading Temenos T24 Core Banking Platform specialist with widespread presence in Europe, whereas N+P has built comprehensive expertise in the front office of Temenos WealthSuite. Together with Syncordis, N+P strengthens LTI’s capabilities as a global expert of Temenos suite of products and enriches company’s offerings to Banking clients. Upon integration, N+P’s Temenos business will be consolidated under the brand of Syncordis, while software engineering business will operate and expand as part of LTI Germany.

Sanjay Jalona, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, LTI, said: “Temenos is the world leader in banking software. Since the Syncordis acquisition, this has been a fast-growing practice for us, enabling resilient relationships and rich, cross-selling opportunities. The acquisition of N+P will help us further establish LTI as a formidable player in the fast-growing market for Temenos and help our clients navigate their digital transformation journey. I welcome the employees and clients of N+P to LTI family.”

Manuel Brunckhorst, CEO, N+P said: “Joining forces with strategic and complementary partners like LTI and Syncordis is the next logical step to accelerate our growth, enhance our capabilities and extend our services, both for Temenos, as well as software engineering services. We are very excited about the future and continuing our journey with our existing and new clients, employees and partners.”

Guillaume Desjonqueres, CEO, Syncordis said: “Syncordis has been growing at a faster pace since its acquisition by LTI. With LTI acquiring N+P, we are entering into a new phase, expanding both our Temenos offerings and our footprint outside of Europe. In line with our strategic vision, Syncordis and N+P together with LTI will provide complete and innovative services to Temenos clients in the Banking and Wealth Management space, globally.”

This is the fourth acquisition by LTI since the company got listed in 2016. In January 2019, the company acquired Ruletronics, a boutique Pega Consulting company.

Haptik Joins Hands with vCommission to Boost Adoption of Conversational AI in Performance Marketing


Haptik, one of the world’s largest conversational AI platforms has announced its alliance with vCommission, leading Global affiliate network, to implement Conversational AI solutions in performance marketing. While Haptik will work with publishers in integrating chatbots on their digital properties, vCommission will work closely with marketeers to offer performance based advertising options which is  non-intrusive ad experiences within these properties.

With affiliate marketing set to grow in leaps and bounds in times to come, the association is the most opportune. The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 27% and be worth USD 835 million by 2025, as per the industry reports, resulting in a staggering 8X growth when compared with the current valuation of USD 96 million.

Conversational AI is expected to usher the sector in its next stage of disruption and growth. In the past, most of a marketer’s attention has been devoted to engaging with audience across screens via taps, clicks, likes, comments, and shares. However, chatbots are moving the metrics of engagement by turning the attention towards conversations. As industry pundits are often heard saying, marketing as a discipline is headed towards ‘interactions’. Thus, every kind of user engagement must appear as a conversation, a feat easily available with the adoption of chatbots in the domain.

In order to simulate an interactive experience with the help of conversational AI, one requires experienced storytellers to help chatbots humanize the conversations. In this domain, Haptik has an experience of building over 100 chatbots, processing more than a billion conversations across multiple industry verticals including e-commerce, banking, insurance, telecom, hospitality, healthcare and automotive.. This experience has come in handy when the promise of technology is a reality and the market is ripe for adoption.

“Chatbots are the future and we are glad to bring about this new media in the affiliate marketing space, by partnering with Haptik. Their expertise in the domain will help vCommission bring innovation in otherwise cliched engagement & lead generation space. Having personally witnessed their complete stack of tech brilliance, we also look forward to creating awareness about Haptik’s chatbots amongst our sprawling network of associates and brand partners,” said Parul Bhargava (Co-Founder & CEO, vCommission).

Commenting on the association, Mr Aakrit Vaish, Co-Founder and CEO, Haptik said, “Leading the space of conversational AI, we have been looking for the right opportunity to diversify our reach and touch upon the performance marketing space. By associating with vCommission, we believe that the time is ripe for us to introduce chatbots for marketeers. With our domain expertise, we will be able to humanize the experience and further help the brand partners of vCommission to successfully reach and engage with their audience, despite the bottlenecks arising out of ad-blocks and frauds.”

Elaborating on the same, Pratyush Kukreja - Business Head, Monetisation, Haptik said, “Evolving with the rapid pace of technology, AI and tech-focused advertisement is the way ahead for marketers. In keeping with this vision, we associated with vCommission for homegrown brands to optimize their web and mobile marketing game. Through this association, we hope to extend our diverse marketing oriented tech solutions to vCommission’s affiliates and bring conversational AI for marketers to the fore.”

Chatbots also aim to resolve the challenges daunting the rise of affiliate marketing in India. These challenges include ad-blocking, which causes significant revenue loss to the performance marketing industry. Furthermore, the industry also suffers at the hands of its own fair share of frauds. For instance, using stolen data for lead generation or stolen credit card details to generate sales. Typosquatting or URLs hijacking domains that sound similar to a company’s name or products and thus picking up referrals from redirects, or cloning the affiliate’s site to steal traffic are other unfair hacks and frauds. Fraudsters may also buy Google AdWords on which the company or the product is ranking high or cookie-stuff all visitors to a website and benefit from unrelated sales. Lastly, scammers may also get people to download adware or spyware that automatically insert the affiliate code.

Since chatbots orchestrate a 2-way interaction, thus the user engagement with chatbots is organic, minimising the risk of fraud and completely by-passing ad blockage.

Zillious Solutions Offloads 80% Stake to Ebix Inc Supplier of On-Demand Software and E-commerce Services


Zillious Solutions Private Limited, an on-demand SaaS travel technology solution, with market leadership in the corporate travel segment in India has offloaded 80% stake to Ebix Inc., a NASDAQ listed leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial, healthcare and e-learning industries through its Indian arm Ebix Software India.

Zillious is a pure-play on-demand technology initiative which enables end-to-end technology needs of travel management companies (TMCs), corporate, travel agents and Online Travel Agents(OTAs) in the travel industry. The Company is a market Leader in the Indian Corporate Travel technology space, serving 7 out of top 10 TMCs.  The Zillious Exchange processes over 8 Million travel bookings annually, with Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of approximately $1.4 billion per annum.
Zillious will remain a non-aligned technology platform, and Ebix will promote it internationally in key markets like the Middle East, US and Asia, besides further establishing it as a pure-play on-demand travel technology exchange within India. Both the promoter founders of Zillious, Harsh Azad and Rohit Gaddi, along with all their domain intensive team will continue to work towards this endeavor. Accordingly, the Zillious platform will continue to be offered to the entire travel industry with a glass wall protection for the client base.

Ebix is funding the transaction in cash, using its internal cash reserves. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Ebix earnings immediately.

“Our decision to offload a majority stake to Ebix was based on our Long term Vision to have a Global footprint by expanding to US, UK, Asia, Australia & New Zealand. With Ebix’s Global reach we will be able to fulfill this vision faster and seamlessly. We at Zillious have been passionately Non-Aligned and independent. In Ebix, we found a partner which was in tune with our core philosophy. This decision will benefit our existing and potential customers immensely”, says Mr. Harsh Azad, Co-founder and Director Zillious.

“Ebix will help us grow across the globe and the Zillious team will continue to grow with us. Infact, to meet the increased volume of work, we will look at hiring tactically, shortly. Our customers will not only be serviced by the same Zillious teams but will also have access to cutting edge technology on a global level. We remain committed to working with our clients and spearheading the team in the best way possible. We will remain at the helm and lead from the front”, says Mr. Rohit Gaddi, Co-founder and Director Zillious.

Ebix Chairman of the Board, President and CEO Robin Raina said, “Ebix has a successful track history of two decades in terms of providing non-aligned technology solutions, with Ebix bullet proofing its clients from data privacy or data sharing or any alignment concerns. We have been in the business of setting up technology airports to power transactions, without taking any sides for decades now. Thus, this acquisition was a natural one for us as it allowed us to do the same in India’s fast-growing travel industry.”

End-to –End Functional Solution for Travel Industry

The Zillious product range is a complete end to end technology suite which encompasses its industry leading booking engine using multiple sources of fares and availability to ensure the lowest and most accurate fares, combined with comprehensive reporting and management capabilities. It provides a single window to address all the travel booking needs of the travel agency staff and business travel center staff to serve all their booking queries.

Zillious platform is interfaced with all the key GDS service providers globally.

With powerful reporting and corporate compliance, multi-channel consultant, implant and Self Booking Tool (SBT), comprehensive user management and auditing, highly sophisticated mobile booking application, multi-product booking engine etc., the Zillious platform is today seen as the most powerful travel technology platform for the Corporate sector.
The Company has the unique solution of offering its core travel technology platform (SBT) to corporates directly apart from the TMCs.

The Company recently expanded its operations in Middle East and has already successfully on-boarded three large travel accounts in Middle East.

Fujifilm India Launches its First ‘WONDER PHOTO SHOP’ at Whitefield, Bangalore

Following the success of its ‘WONDER PHOTO SHOP’ in Chennai and Mumbai, FUJIFILM India today unveiled its exclusive experiential store in Bangalore – ‘Wonder Photo Shop’, making it the third concept store of its kind for the ultimate photo printing and brand experience in India.

Located at Phoenix Market city, Whitefield Main Road, the latest Wonder Photo Shop in the city aims to celebrate Bangalore’s love for photography, art and culture. The store embodies a holistic vision of photography, from picture taking to printing, sharing and social networking, as a creative life experience. With the theme ‘Photo Renaissance’, the store offers an opportunity to experience an immersive and interactive retail space with Fujifilm’s state-of-the-art products and services to meet the aesthetic taste of discerning customers especially the youth.

Today the consumers are passionate about exploring their creativity to print photos and organize them in a fun and imaginative manner. Staying true to its commitment to spread the joy of photo developing, Fujifilm’s Wonder Photo Shop enables customers to discover the wonder of photography and learn how they can bring their favorite photos from smartphones and cameras to life by printing, personalizing, decorating and framing their image creations based on their personal preferences and artistic palate along with unique DIY photo creations.

Wonder Photo Shop will be a learning center, giving customers an opportunity to experience the various product features thus enhancing the ultimate customer experience.

With the full range of Fujifilm’s instax instant print cameras and Share Printer SP-2, the award-winning line of X Series digital cameras and high-quality lenses on display to touch and try, consumers will see the true photographic heritage of Fujifilm and develop their own vision of how to creatively use their photos.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Haruto Iwata, Managing Director, Fujifilm India said, “After the success of our Photo Shop stores in Chennai and Mumbai, we are delighted to take another step towards our goal of bolstering our imaging business with this third store launch in Bangalore. With this expansion, we are confident that we will receive the same recognition and appreciation from our consumers.”

“Bangalore is renowned for its food, culture, art, architecture and diversity. We hope that with the launch of Wonder Photo Shop in the city, customers will experience an ultimate photography experience with memorable prints.”

This Wonder Photo Shop has been shaped in line with the brand’s philosophy of “Value from Innovation’ to create a warm, welcoming environment for guests to spend their time and discover new ways of enjoying photos and to raise the level of creative output to newer heights. A few of the exciting products and services include: Personalized Value Added Printing Products, Wonder Print Station Printings, Photo Related Goods and Accessories.

Store hours

The Wonder Photo Shop will be open all days from 10:30 AM - 10:00 PM.

TKM Sets-Up Centre of Excellence at Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering, Bengaluru


Reiterating its long-standing commitment towards Skill Development, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today inaugurated the Toyota Centre of Excellence at Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering, Bengaluru. The concept of establishing Toyota Centre of Excellence at various colleges and institutes is in line with Toyota’s focus to enhance the skill sets and offer well trained-qualified workforce to the automotive industry. Through this skill initiative, the institution can be elevated to impart high quality skill standards, by providing expert trainers, facilities, and equipment.

In order to facilitate in-depth knowledge of engine composition at the grass-root level, Toyota handed over one cut section of the vehicle engine and an assembled engine. The key focus is to provide comprehensive learning opportunities for the students, offering them a first-hand experience of the vehicle engine, that being the most important aspect of a vehicle. The engine cut section will showcase the component set-up in an engine and its related functioning. While the engine assembly section enables the students to gain an insight of the real orientation of the assembled engine including the dismantling and re-assembling techniques, thus achieving high quality skill sets in engine operating mechanism as part of the Skill Enhancement program.

This initiative is basically incorporated to pursue Toyota’s main objectives to promote, setup, monitor, govern and regulate institutions and academies for skill excellence through development of core employability skills, competency standards and to train on advanced technologies to meet the industry demands globally.

The event was graced by Dr. Shashidhar Muniyappa - Chief Executive Director and Dr. Suresha – Principal of Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering in the presence of senior representatives of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Mr. K V Rajendra Hegde – General Manager and Mr. M K Swamy – General Manager.

Commenting on this initiative, Dr. Shashidhar Muniyappa - Chief Executive Director, Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering, said, “Skill enhancement is a key aspect for the socio-economic development of the nation and being a member of the fraternity, I feel it is our responsibility to impart quality education amongst our students.

It is heartening to see Toyota leading by example being a responsible corporate citizen through its various initiatives to cover broader societal issues. Over the years Toyota has pioneered in manufacturing cars of global standards, Quality and Excellence being their DNA.

It is our absolute honour to partner with Toyota in a noble cause as this. Through this program, we are confident that the students would gain a better insight into the complexity associated with the engine, which is an essential part of a vehicle, while enriching their overall learning experience.”

Expressing his views on the occasion, Mr. Naveen Soni - Vice President - Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “The pace of learning and innovation in a country is critical to economic success. Specialist skill shortages often emerges affecting the quality outputs. Governments, Corporates and Training providers need to work together to fill these critical skills gaps.

Toyota focuses to create a platform to make available steady supply of highly skilled workers to boost productivity and sustain the growth momentum. One way to do this is by establishing centers of excellence, which can help drive rapid, targeted improvements in the quality of training.

We, at Toyota, stand strong for this noble cause through our social initiative of establishing Centres of Excellence in association with various colleges and institutes across the country, providing more comprehensive learning opportunities for the students at the grass-root level. Being a responsible corporate citizen, our objective is to empower the students to be future ready with desired skill sets and competencies, while contributing to the nations’ growth and Industry’s employability ratio.” he added.

The company has been tirelessly working towards enhancing the employability quotient in the automobile manufacturing industry across India, by promoting unique skill sets.

As a part of its commitment towards developing world class skilled workforce for the emerging Indian Auto Industry, Toyota in 2007 established the Toyota Technical Training Institute (TTTI) which offers a three-year rigorous full-time training in – Automobile Assembly, Automobile Paint, Automobile Weld and Mechatronics (a combination of mechanical and industrial electronics) to financially challenged students hailing from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families from across Karnataka. This institute exclusively emphasizes on over all development of the trainees as per industry requirements & towards “Perfecting people” and there by contributing young multi skilled, energetic, ideal students to the nation. Training Curriculum is a unique blend which focuses on the holistic development of Knowledge (16%), Skill (34%), Body and Mind (50%) of the students. Last year Toyota’s TTTI institute accomplished the key milestone of being selected for “Manufacturing Skill Transfer Promotion Programme” under the MoU signed by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Government of Japan (METI) and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Government of India (MSDE).

Some of the key highlights of TKM’s other skill initiatives follows:

* Gurukul is a well-equipped learning center at TKM imparts diverse training to employees at all levels which helps them to improve their abilities and thoroughly fulfill their roles. Everyone who works in Toyota experiences 70% of their development through the job itself; and the experience serves as a driving force in developing the next generation.

* Toyota Technical Education Program (T-TEP) provides technical know-how training to ITI students across India along with providing hands-on real-time experience within Toyota dealerships

* Toyota Apprentice Scheme (TAS) – Under TAS, TKM has trained over 12,000 Apprentice Members (ITI, Diploma and Engineer) since 2002, which makes it one of the largest sources of providing such manpower to the industry.

* National Skill Contest– Launched in 2014, National Sales & Service Skill Contest is an initiative that provides Toyota’s dealer sales & service personnel to showcase their skill levels with a view to identify gaps and improvise. Held at three levels – across dealership, regional and national levels, the contestants are evaluated on various parameters such as knowledge, process demonstration, soft skills and role plays among others. Continuous training skills are imparted to hone the dealer personnel skill sets to meet the growing expectations and deliver Toyota’s best-of-all Quality, Durability & Reliability for ultimate customer delight.

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