Companies Empowering SMEs with Superior Technology in India

Technology has emerged as a key enabler in the economy today, helping businesses achieve economies of scale and scale up their ventures. However, while India is covering significant leaps in digitalisation and other advanced technologies, not every business enjoys an easy access to the same. To bridge the gap between the burgeoning Indian enterprises and the latest technology, several tech companies have come up with their unique offerings.

Let’s take a look at these ventures that help small businesses successfully ride the growing wave of technology and achieve business growth.

Cybage: Ensuring Digital Excellence & Better Value per Unit Cost

Catering to the enterprise business segment, Cybage works at applying digital platforms, techniques and technologies to enable more profitable business models. It solves complex problems for businesses by using new-age advancements in cloud, data analytics, mobility, social collaboration, and e-commerce. Furthermore, the tech enterprise helps small businesses through its scientific, data-driven system called DecisionMinesTM that removes the risks in the methodology and provides more predictable outcomes while ensuring better value per unit cost.

Till date, solutions by Cybage has yielded successful results for industries in diverse verticals like Media & Entertainment, Online Retail, Travel & Hospitality, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and Technology. Cybage a worthy partner to technology startups, mid-size companies, and Fortune 500 corporations alike, and a proud partner of several industry leaders like Microsoft, AWS, Adobe, and Oracle.

Qlik: Empowering businesses through data management & analytics

Helping businesses make complete sense of business data, Qlik offers an end-to-end businesses intelligence, data management and analytics platforms. Solutions offered by Qlik have been instrumental in achieving a deeper understanding of customer behaviour, reimagining businesses processes, discovering newer revenue streams while balancing the risks with rewards.

With Qlik Sense Enterprise, enterprises have access to a full-spectrum of flexible and scalable analytics use-cases on a modern multi-cloud platform and Qlik Sense® Cloud enables your group or team to get analytics up and running fast. Qlik has its presence in more than 100 countries and serves over 48,000 customers in key Verticals including Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, BFSI, amongst others, and its clients include TCS, United Nations, HDFC Life, Lupin Pharmaceuticals and more.

Telebu: Enterprise Communication Made Easy

Telebu solves the critical need of timely and efficient communication for the fast-growing enterprises. Even if the teams are remotely spread out, Telebu’s complete suite of enterprise communication products including audio conferencing, bulk SMSs etc. ensure time- and cost-efficient communication without any lags.

With its marquee product and audio conferencing solution, grptalk, Telebu allows instant conferencing (dial-out calls) for enterprises with 3 to over 10,000 participants. The cost-effective solution removes any delays in conference calls, with the participants only having to answer the call from the bridge, not requiring any pin code, password etc.

Other enterprise solution products by Telebu include bulk text and voice SMS solution, in-bound and out-bound call centre software, emergency alert system, and API platform. The technology solutions by Telebu serve businesses of varying scale, right from start-ups, MSMEs, to multinational conglomerates.

Amplify.ai: AI-driven Virtual Assistants

Being the industry’s first and only enterprise-class AI-driven engagement platform, Amplify.ai provides conversational virtual assistants to digital businesses. The global platform has tied up with a number of social media platforms including Facebook, FB Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and so on for seamless deployment of virtual assistants over these platforms. The same can also be deployed to proprietary website of a business using its API (Application Program Interface).

The virtual-assistant-led approach helps businesses to drive better engagement with their customers as compared to conventional marketing channels such as emails and phone calls. Lately, the brand has also partnered with Google’s AdLingo to further bring conversational AI to display advertising. Till date, the Silicon-Valley-based start-up has led more than 2 billion engagements with more than 100 million end-customers across the globe.

HT Media Ltd Acquires 51 Percent Stake in Next Mediaworks Limited

HT Media Limited (HTML) has acquired 51% majority stake in Next Mediaworks Limited (NMW), which operates seven FM radio stations across major metros [through its subsidiary Next Radio Limited (NRL)], under the brand “Radio One”, including some in international genre. NRL’s FM stations across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune and one more have now come into HTML fold.  This has positioned HTML as the strongest radio player, with three stations each in the biggest metro markets of Delhi & Mumbai and two stations each in Bengaluru, Chennai & Kolkata. Apart from the above, key metro market of Pune has also got added to the network.

HT Media Limited, along with Next Radio Limited, now has 22 stations, and a national footprint spanning 15 cities.

Harshad Jain, CEO – Radio & Entertainment Business of HTML has been named as CEO of NMW/NRL. He will lead all the three brands of Fever FM, Radio Nasha and Radio One. Talking about the development, Mr. Harshad Jain said, “This acquisition aims to provide the widest array of content, music and advertising options for our listeners and advertisers. Needless to mention, the combined set-up will provide growth opportunities for the talented employees on both sides. The company is now detailing the synergies of operations both at the front and the backend.”

While Fever FM and Radio Nasha are leaders in the Hindi contemporary hit radio (CHR) and retro radio space respectively, Radio One is a pioneer in the international format.

HT Media Limited is the printer & publisher of three leading dailies of the country viz. “Hindustan Times”,  “Mint” and “Hindustan” (through subsidiary company), and operates popular Hindi FM Radio channels “Fever FM” and “Radio Nasha”. 

17 High Schoolers from India Live Like Astronauts for Two Weeks at US Space Camp

Honeywell has announced that 17 Indian students were among 292 students from 41 countries to attend a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience at the Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy (HLCA).

This two-week long unique leadership program at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (USSRC) in Huntsville, Alabama, encourages students to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers through real-world, hands-on challenges in coding, computer sciences, and astronautics.

Sakshi Bhavsar, a student-participant from Pune said, “At the academy, I sat in the cockpit of a flight simulator, learned how to fly a jumbo jet, and launched a model rocket – is there anything cooler than this? I felt as if I was part of a Mars exploration mission!”

At the academy, students between 16 to 18 years participated in numerous team-building challenges like assembling, coding and testing rockets, and participating in simulated astronaut training, shuttle missions, and a moonwalk. Students also met scientists, engineers, and former astronauts who reinforced core leadership competencies and shared their first-hand professional experiences.

“Engaging students in science and engineering is now as fundamentally important as learning to read and write,” said Dr. Deborah Barnhart, CEO and executive director, USSRC. “By investing in these young students, Honeywell is helping to prepare them to become the global STEM-literate citizens who will change our world.”

Rohith Tirumalasetti, a Hyderabad participant, who was among the eight students selected globally as ambassadors and mentors to the U.S. Space Camp, said, “Not many students get an opportunity to return to the Space Camp as a student-mentor. I am privileged to have relived my dream of being in a space mission again! Last years’ experience was phenomenal, and this year I was thrilled to share tips with my friends, helping them achieve their goals.”

“Fortune favors the bold! This camp has instilled leadership abilities in me that will help me in the future. It also taught me how to be independent in life,” said Srikar Desu from Bengaluru.

Echoing a similar sentiment, Tanmay Taneja from Gurugram, said, “Meeting students from around the world who share the same passion for rockets, jets, space shuttles, and the moonwalk was extremely exciting. What’s really great is the program combines science and engineering with fun and friendship for life.”

This year, Honeywell chose seven students from Bangalore, eight students from Pune, and one each from the Delhi/NCR and Hyderabad.

“As a world leader in software and industrial technology, Honeywell sees the need to increase educational opportunities for students by blending technical knowledge with team-building, communication and leadership skills. The Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy aims to do that,” said Mike Bennett, President, Honeywell Hometown Solutions. “In partnership with the USSRC, we’re pleased to offer this program to our future leaders.”

Since 2010, Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company’s corporate citizenship initiative, has awarded 2,709 scholarships to children of Honeywell employees. Students are selected through a rigorous application and review process based on academic achievement and community involvement. Honeywell and its employees help fund the scholarships, which cover the cost of tuition, meals, accommodations and program materials.

About Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation

Honeywell India is committed to improving the world we live in by creating, supporting, and nurturing outstanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and initiatives that make real, sustainable, and measurable impact on communities that Honeywell serves. Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF) is a not-for-profit organization that deploys Honeywell India’s CSR efforts. Working within the government’s guidelines and the company’s CSR framework, HHSIF builds programs that deliver results it can quantify: one community, one home, one teacher, and one student at a time. To learn more, visit https://www.honeywell.com/worldwide/en-in/csr at a time. To learn more, visit https://www.honeywell.com/worldwide/en-in/csr

New MCAfee Research Reveals 61 Percent of I.T. Professional Have Experienced a Sserious Data Breach

Key Findings

Top three vectors used to exfiltrate data are database leaks, cloud applications and removable USB drives
Nearly three-quarters of all breaches require public disclosure, putting brand reputation at risk
Eighty-one percent of IT professionals report separate policies or management consoles for cloud access security broker (CASB) and data loss prevention (DLP)
Intellectual property (IP) surpasses payment card data to tie personally identifiable information (PII) as top target for thieves

McAfee, the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company, today released Grand Theft Data II – The Drivers and Shifting State of Data Breaches, which revealed that despite improvements in combating cybercrime and threats, IT security professionals are still struggling to fully secure their organization and protect against breaches with 61 percent claiming to have experienced a data breach at their current employer. Adding to this challenge, data breaches are becoming more serious as cybercriminals continue to target intellectual property putting the reputation of the company brand at risk and increasing financial liability.

McAfee’s study demonstrates the need for a cybersecurity strategy that includes implementing integrated security solutions combined with employee training and an overall culture of security throughout the organization to reduce future breaches.

“Threats have evolved and will continue to become even more sophisticated,” said Candace Worley, vice president and chief technical strategist at McAfee. “Organizations need to augment security measures by implementing a culture of security and emphasizing that all employees are part of an organization’s security posture, not just the IT team. To stay ahead of threats, it is critical companies provide a holistic approach to improving security process by not only utilizing an integrated security solution but also practicing good security hygiene.”

The McAfee report highlights the following:

Savvier thieves: Data is now being stolen by a wide range of methods, with no single technique dominating the industry. The top vectors used to exfiltrate data are database leaks, cloud applications and removable USB drives.

IP tied for 1st: Personally identifiable information (PII) and intellectual property (IP) are now tied as the data categories with the highest potential impact to 43% of respondents. Notably, PII is of greater concern in Europe (49%), most likely due to the recent enforcement date of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In Asia-Pacific countries, intellectual property theft is of greater concern (51%) than PII. 

Blame game: IT is looked at as the culprit with 52 percent of respondents claiming IT is at fault for creating the most data leakage events. Business operations (29 percent) follows as the next most likely to be involved. Highly regulated internal groups including finance (12 percent) and legal (6 percent) were the most secure.
The great divide: Security technology continues to operate in isolation, with 81 percent reporting separate policies or management consoles for cloud access security broker (CASB) and data loss prevention (DLP), resulting in delayed detection and remediation actions.

Taking responsibility: There is a rift in regard to accountability – 55 percent of IT professionals believe that c-level executives should lose their job if a breach is serious enough, yet 61 percent also state that the c-level executives they work with expect more lenient security policies for themselves.
Future proofing: IT professionals are taking action, with almost two-thirds stating they have purchased additional DLP, CASB and endpoint detection solutions over the last 12 months. Respondents believe that between 65 and 80 percent of breaches experienced would have likely been prevented if one or more of these systems had been installed.

The stakes are higher as multiple attack methods are now used in a breach as cybercriminals continue to target personal data and intellectual property. Furthermore, IT security teams are increasingly concerned about external threat actors compromising their network, which has forced more organizations to publicly disclose when breaches occur. The severity of publicly disclosing breaches results not only in financial repercussions but damage to brand and reputation as well.

Resources

Report: Grand Theft Data II – The Drivers and Shifting State of Data Breaches
Executive Summary
Infographic
2015 Report: Grand Theft Data
McAfee MVISION Cloud
McAfee Data Protection
McAfee Database Security
McAfee MVISION EDR
McAfee Secure Web Gateway

Study Methodology

This study was conducted by MSI-ACI Europe, on behalf of McAfee. Survey respondents had to have experienced a serious data breach incident sometime in their career as an IT professional. Data was collected via online interviews between December 12 and 31, 2018. To qualify for the survey, organizations had to have more than 1,000 employees, and were evenly split between commercial (1,000 to 5,000 employees) and enterprise (more than 5,000 employees). The resulting global group represented the Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Singapore, the U.S., the U.K., and a wide range of industries.

A 28 Year Old Girl Suffering from Wilson Disease Successfully Underwent a Liver Transplant at Fortis Hospital

A 28 year old girl suffering from Wilson’s disease successfully underwent a liver transplant at Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta road. Wilson disease is a rare inherited disorder that causes copper to accumulate in liver, brain and other vital organs. The team of doctors was led by Dr. Mahesh Gopasetty- Sr. Consultant Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary and Liver Transplant Surgery, Fortis Hospitals, Bangalore.

The patient came with a complaint of inability to consume food and water. Being specially-abled since birth, the patient was also unable to perform her daily chores. Further it was diagnosed that she had repeated infections and there was water accumulation in her body. The patient’s condition was deteriorating and there was an urgent need for liver transplant, so a cadaver liver transplant procedure was followed for her.

Dr. Mahesh Gopasetty, Sr. Consultant Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary and Liver Transplant Surgery, Fortis Hospitals, Bangalore, said, “It was a complex case for us as the patient has Wilson disease. It was difficult for us to understand the symptoms, as mostly in such cases, patient with wilson disease also suffer from neurological and psychological disorder. In this case also, the patient had psychological issues since her birth. On diagnosis, we found out that there was copper accumulation in her liver, so we had to perform immediate liver transplant surgery. Post consent from the family, we went ahead with the liver transplant and the patient withstood the procedure well. We hope that with this transplant, she would have a healthy life ahead.”

Ms Hemalatha (name changed), Mother of the patient said, “We are grateful to the doctors, staff and Hospital who guided and treated my daughter well. We are fortunate enough to get the liver transplant done successfully.

According to reports by NCBI, “Approximately Wilson disease affects 1 in 30,000 to 40,000 individuals. Around 15-20 cases are registered annually, out of which two-thirds are a cause of acute liver failure.”

Subex Wins Multi-Year Deal from Econet Wireless Zimbabwe to Deploy Analytics Centre of Trust

Subex, a leading telecom analytics solution provider, has announced a deal with Econet Wireless Zimbabwe (EWZ), a leading telecom operator in Zimbabwe, for the deployment of its Analytics Centre of Trust (ACT) offering. Through the deployment, Econet will be able to transform into an independent data driven organization, thereby improving operational efficiency.

Licensed as a mobile telecommunications operator in 1998, Econet is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, and is part of the pan-African, diversified Econet Wireless Group. Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is building a strong, consumer-centric ethos that is committed to providing innovative, accessible and refreshingly simple communication solutions that suit customers’ everyday needs.

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe was looking to further improve their operational efficiency by effectively leveraging their data to make business decisions. To this end, Subex was selected based on its proven expertise in implementing an analytics solution which is flexible across business cases around Customer, Technology, Product, Sales & Distribution, Risk and Revenue.

Through the deployment of ACT, Econet will have access to an array of benefits. The ACT deployment, beyond optimizing Econet’s day-to-day operations, will also allow the telecom player to employ predictive & prescriptive analytics in areas such as Customer 360, Product Optimisation and Cell-Site intelligence.

Moreover, Subex’s ‘Man + Machine’ model will provide Econet with the flexibility to shift from one focus area to another and make accurate business decisions faster. ACT will also help Econet build intelligence to analyze performance of products, identify new products, and explore areas where consumption can be increased. The deployment will also help Econet identify potential sites for 4G upgrades, identify critical and competitive zones based on customer segmentation and deliver many other additional benefits.

“Subex has been a pioneer in the telecom analytics domain, and we are delighted to extend our ACT solution to Econet Wireless Zimbabwe. Our expertise in handling large volumes of data to derive digital insights significantly help our customers in both strategic and operational aspects of their business. This win with Econet allows us to increase footprint for our Analytics solution, which is an important part in our growth strategy towards being the leaders in Digital Trust,” said Vinod Kumar, Managing Director & CEO, Subex.

“Econet’s focus is to continue being Zimbabwe’s preferred telecommunications provider, which will be achieved only by evolving into a stronger and future-ready organization. The analytical support from Subex will give impetus to Econet’s strategic expansion. This partnership will further improve the telecom sector in Zimbabwe and reinforce our ability to tap into the power of our services and make demonstrable difference in many areas of our customers’ lives,” said Mr. Douglas Mboweni, CEO, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Group.

Innoviti Bags ‘Innovation Wizards’ Award at REACH – Mastercard Acceptance Summit 2019, Mumbai

Leading payments company, Innoviti Payment Solutions won “Innovation Wizards” award at REACH – Mastercard Acceptance Summit 2019 in Mumbai for its product Innoviti POS which is designed to accelerate the adoption of digital payments acceptance amongst small retailers in Tier 2/3 towns across India. The prestigious event is one of India’s largest conferences focusing on accelerating merchant digital payment acceptance and witnessed exciting talks and panel discussions with senior executives from Mastercard, leading banks like SBI, RBL Bank, Yes Bank and Axis Bank, and leading fintech players.

The award-winning Innoviti-POS product focuses on specific concerns of merchants who are used to cash acceptance and see little or no benefit in going digital because they feel their cost of doing business goes up by 1-2% due to applicable Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) processing fees.  Further, they perceive an unwanted loss of flexibility in not being able to immediately use their daily sales proceeds from transactions on a given day, as typically settlement of digital transactions happens on the next bank working day, which can be even 2-3 days later in case of intervening holidays. Moreover, they prefer not to get entangled into the intimidating installation-onboarding-activation cycle that takes upwards of 20 days.

To ease the transition from cash-to-cards for such first-time card-accepting merchants, Innoviti-POS is designed as a ready-to-use product which can be unpacked, installed and activated on the spot. In keeping with its positioning, the Innoviti-POS package also relieves the merchant of the need to open new current accounts to receive card settlements or sign new bank agreements, as they can now simply route them to any of their existing bank accounts by entering their basic KYC details into the Innoviti-POS Onboarding App. It transfers settlement funds for all transactions done on a particular day till 6 p.m., to merchants’ accounts by 8 p.m. on the very same day, thus enabling withdrawal of the day’s sales proceeds via an ATM or via issuance of cheques on the very same day. Moreover, Innoviti-POS assures this same day settlement service on all 365-days of the year irrespective of bank holidays.

Innoviti POS is targeted specifically at speeding up the enrolment of such small retail stores in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns across India, like Jaipur, Jammu, Ambala, Karnal, Dehradun, Surat, Nagpur, Indore, etc. Its unique benefits have attracted over 1500 merchants across 12 mainly Tier 2/3 cities, during the pilot between September 2018 to March 2019, to adopt Innoviti-POS and start migrating their business from cash to card. The average monthly transaction on these terminals is ₹ 98,000.

Innoviti will now be commercially launching this product across the country for smaller retail merchants. The company’s payment platform serves a marquee client base of merchants including Reliance Retail, Titan, Landmark Group, INOX, Indigo, Walmart and several others. Leading banks such as HDFC, ICICI, Axis, SBI, Standard Chartered, Kotak and Citibank use their platform to access customers for processing their payments and distributing loans to them.

“Innovating to find solutions to real-life problems of Indian retail merchants is at the core of Innoviti’s DNA, and we are naturally delighted at receiving the Innovation Wizards award at such a prestigious forum for expanding digital payment acceptance.  Small town merchants till now have only seen the cost side of accepting digital payments and increased hassles. With Innoviti-POS, they are being exposed to the real power of digital technology, where their hard-earned money can earn more money for them. We strongly believe our same day, everyday fund transfer technology will help new merchants enter card acceptance with an experience that is as good, if not better than cash. This potentially holds the key to plugging the currently yawning supply-demand gap in terms of POS infrastructure in India retail.”– said Mr. Rajeev Agrawal, CEO, Innoviti.

Vikas Saraogi, Vice President, Acceptance, Market Development, South Asia, Mastercard, said “Merchants are a critical element of India’s digital economy. In Mastercard’s vision of reaching 10 million merchants by 2020, partnerships with stakeholders in the digital payments ecosystem play a vital role. We are delighted to acknowledge Innoviti’s contributions to help make this vision a reality and congratulate them for winning the award for ‘New Innovation Wizards’. Innoviti’s instantly-installable Innoviti-POS with its Same Day Money promise is an excellent example of innovative acceptance solutions that address key merchant challenges and deliver a more friction-free on-boarding experience. We look forward to strengthening this partnership in the long run.”