Microsoft Announces The General Availability Of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central In India

 ·   A single, end-to-end cloud business management solution for small and medium businesses

·    Enables management of finance, operations, sales, and customer service on the go in a secure manner

Microsoft India has announced the general availability of Dynamics 365 Business Central, a comprehensive business management solution for small and medium-sized businesses. An all-in-one cloud solution, Dynamics 365 Business Central helps companies ensure business continuity by connecting sales, service, finance, and operations teams to help them transform faster and deliver better results. It brings the rich functionality and full flexibility of Microsoft Dynamics Navision, the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) app, to deploy in the cloud or on-premises. It can be accessed from any mobile device to conduct business on-the-go. Customized for India, the solution comes with inbuilt features that address local regulatory and market requirements for ease of business, including a tax engine comprising over 500+ pre-configured use cases and business scenarios for Goods and Services Tax (GST), Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), and Tax Collected at Source (TCS).

The availability of the new solution was announced at Building a Resilient Future, a summit organized to discuss building resilience among India’s small and medium businesses (SMBs). Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways and the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India, Rajiv Sodhi, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft India, Rekha Talluri, Chief Financial Officer, Microsoft India, Harish Vellat, Country Head – Small, Medium & Corporate Business, Microsoft India, Praveen Mellacheruvu, Lead - Business Applications, Microsoft India, and Mike Morton, General Manager, D365 Business Central, Microsoft, were some of the key speakers during the summit.

Speaking at the event, Shri Nitin Gadkari said that digitalization is of utmost importance in the development of MSMEs, and could make the system more transparent, time-bound, and result-oriented. He emphasized on the need for technical collaboration, cooperation, and guidance from technology organizations. He also stated that in future, this would create efficiencies, create more market, and would be important for the growth of MSMEs in the country.

SMBs are looking for simple, productive, secure, cost-effective solutions that can accelerate their digital transformation journey – business critical to be future proof.  Some of their major concerns include an unconnected set of on-premises ERP systems, manually updating and scaling current ERP tools, and lack of data protection. Dynamics 365 Business Central aims to address these with new modular applications, expanded analytics, and software improvements built on Microsoft’s secure and hybrid Azure platform.

Commenting on the announcement, Rajiv Sodhi, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft India, said, “SMBs are the backbone of the Indian economy and are driving the country’s digital transformation wave with rapid cloud adoption. With Dynamics 365 Business Central, we aim to empower and strengthen the SMB ecosystem in the country. It offers customers affordable and easily manageable tools that simplify and expedite everyday business processes. We believe it will help small and medium-sized organizations move to the cloud confidently and be future proof.”

Dynamics 365 Business Central automates and streamlines business processes including finance, manufacturing, sales, shipping, project management, services, and provides an opportunity for organizations to upgrade from their current accounting software and legacy ERP systems. Fast to implement, easy to configure, it fast-tracks innovations in product design, development, implementation, and usability. It integrates with other Microsoft cloud services including Microsoft 365 and can be customized or extended for specific industry needs with PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, and Power BI. The solution also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, and enables businesses to easily share information with team members and respond faster to inquiries. As a single, end-to-end application, Business Central enables.

·       Business without silos. Organizations can unify its business processes, and boost efficiency with automated tasks and workflows – all integrated within familiar Microsoft 365 tools.

·       Derive actionable insights. Organizations can gain a holistic view of their business data, business analytics, and actionable insights delivered by Microsoft’s leading intelligent technologies, increasing agility. It empowers leaders and employees to react quickly to changing business needs with intelligent insights – anywhere and on any device. 

·       Solutions built to evolve. A business can start quickly, grow at its own pace, and adapt in real time with a flexible platform that makes it easy to extend Dynamics 365 Business Central based on its changing needs.

Dynamics 365 Business Central also provides frequent updates allowing ERP systems to stay on the latest version without additional cost. It can be customized to support organizations operating in highly specialized industries such as manufacturing, travel, and financial services.

Benefits across functions

·       Move faster to the cloud: Enables faster adoption of new business models with flexible deployment, reliability, security, and scalability. This also enables businesses to work from anywhere and on any device.

·       Unlock productivity and business insights: Connects people, processes, and insights to facilitate, unified view, better and quicker decisions with embedded guidance, dashboards, and interoperability with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.

·       Increase financial visibility and performance: Improves financial forecasting and provide real-time performance metrics while ensuring compliance and security.

·       Boost sales and improve customer service: Manages the entire sales process for organizations from within Microsoft Outlook and delivers better outcomes.

·       Finish projects on time and under budget: Ensures successful project execution and profitability with planning, resourcing, tracking, costing, billing, accounting, and real-time intelligence.

·       Optimize inventory and supply chain management: Delivers products on time, minimizes wastage, and adapts to changing business models with visibility across purchasing, manufacturing, inventory, and warehouses.

Migrating Dynamics Navision customers

Microsoft is enabling SMBs transition seamlessly from Dynamics NAV to Dynamics 365 Business Central with specially designed configuration packages and a simple process of extracting, importing, and updating their existing data to Dynamics 365 Business Central. In addition, Microsoft is helping customers familiarize themselves with the solution with ease through two simple steps:

1         Learning:  SMBs get access to Business Central Learning Catalog on Microsoft Learn, which provides SMBs with Business Process Walkthroughs such as Managing financials, setting up inventory & configuring reports.

2         Customization: SMBs can connect, extend or embed Dynamics 365 Business Central with applications & services such as Payroll, E-Shipping, Document Capture and more, from AppSource to meeting all their business requirements with a single solution.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is available through Microsoft Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs) in India.

Trend Micro Appoints Vijendra Katiyar As Country Manager, India & SAARC With Immediate Effect

Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), the leader in cybersecurity, has announced the appointment of Vijendra Katiyar as the Country Manager for India & SAARC. The appointment is with immediate effect. 

Based in Mumbai, Vijendra Katiyar will be leading Trend Micro’s India and SAARC operations, focusing on steering customer and business growth and increasing the company’s overall market share across India. His remit will also include strengthening engagement with channel partners to help deepen customer engagement and success. 

His experience spans diverse portfolios ranging from sales and thought leadership in cybersecurity to technical consulting across industries. Under his well-versed leadership skills, Trend Micro India’s existing customers will continue to receive the same level of service and commitment they have come to expect from Trend Micro. 

Vijendra has had a long and successful journey with Trend Micro. In his nine-year stint at the company that began in 2012, he held different positions, from Regional Account Manager to National Sales Manager - India & SAARC and led the mandate of growing the cloud security business for Trend Micro. Before his new role, he served as the Director - Enterprise Business, India & SAARC. He has driven strategic business decisions with effective tools and processes, translating to 100% revenue growth in the last four years.  

Commenting on the appointment, Nilesh Jain, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Trend Micro, said, “India is an important strategic market for us, and we are excited for Vijendra to take on this new leadership role. His proven capability of leading high-performance teams, astute business acumen, and deep expertise in cybersecurity is extremely valued, particularly as customers look to Trend Micro to help them navigate through newer and more advanced cyber threats during these challenging times. With cybersecurity continuously evolving and becoming more complex, our offerings to customers have never been more integral in ensuring business continuity with faster and better-automated protection catering to all workloads.” 

Speaking about his new role, Vijendra Katiyar, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Trend Micro said, “We have experienced significant growth in the past year, and I look forward to build on this momentum to lead Trend Micro through the next phase of growth. With strong tailwinds supporting our business and growth levers in place, I’m confident that we are well placed to meet the demands and challenges in cyber security and helping enterprises in securing their digital transformation journey. I look forward to work more closely with our customers, channel partners and other key stakeholders to build stronger collaborations, build synergies and scale business.” 

Vijendra holds a master’s degree in business IT from RMIT University, Australia and is a BE graduate in electronics and telecommunication from Bharati Vidyapeeth University. He has also successfully pursued team leadership program at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad among many others. 

About Trend Micro 

Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity leader, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fueled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro's cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organizations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. As a leader in cloud and enterprise cybersecurity, the platform delivers a powerful range of advanced threat defense techniques optimized for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. With 7,000 employees across 65 countries, Trend Micro enables organizations to simplify and secure their connected world.

How A Moving Platform For 3-D Printing Can Cut Waste And Costs

* Researchers at USC Viterbi have developed a unique low-cost dynamically-controlled surface for 3-D printers that reduces waste and saves time.

3-D printing has the potential to revolutionize product design and manufacturing in a vast range of fields—from custom components for consumer products, to 3-D printed dental products and bone and medical implants that could save lives. However, the process also creates a large amount of expensive and unsustainable waste and takes a long time, making it difficult for 3-D printing to be implemented on a wide scale.

Each time a 3-D printer produces custom objects, especially unusually-shaped products, it also needs to print supports­–printed stands that balance the object as the printer creates layer by layer, helping maintain its shape integrity. However, these supports must be manually removed after printing, which requires finishing by hand and can result in shape inaccuracies or surface roughness. The materials the supports are made from often cannot be re-used, and so they’re discarded, contributing to the growing problem of 3-D printed waste material.

For the first time, researchers in USC Viterbi’s Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering have created a low-cost reusable support method to reduce the need for 3-D printers to print these wasteful supports, vastly improving cost-effectiveness and sustainability for 3-D printing.

The work, led by Yong Chen, professor of industrial and systems engineering and PhD student Yang Xu, has been published in Additive Manufacturing.

Traditional 3-D printing using the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technique, prints layer-by-layer, directly onto a static metal surface. The new prototype instead uses a programmable, dynamically-controlled surface made of moveable metal pins to replace the printed supports. The pins rise up as the printer progressively builds the product. Chen said that testing of the new prototype has shown it saves around 35% in materials used to print objects.

“I work with biomedical doctors who 3-D print using biomaterials to build tissue or organs,” Chen said. “A lot of the material they use are very expensive­–we’re talking small bottles that cost between $500 to $1000 each.”

“For standard FDM printers, the materials cost is something like $50 per kilogram, but for bioprinting, it’s more like $50 per gram. So if we can save 30% on material that would have gone into printing these supports, that is a huge cost saving for 3-D printing for biomedical purposes,” Chen said.

In addition to the environmental and cost impacts of material wastage, traditional 3-D printing processes using supports is also time-consuming, Chen said.

“When you’re 3-D printing complex shapes, half of the time you are building the parts that you need, the other half of the time you’re building the supports. So with this system, we’re not building the supports. Therefore, in terms of printing time, we have a savings of about 40%.”

Chen said that similar prototypes developed in the past relied on individual motors to raise each of the mechanical supports, resulting in highly energy-intensive products that were also much more expensive to purchase, and thus not cost-effective for 3-D printers.

“So if you had 100 moving pins and the cost of every motor is around $10, the whole thing is $1,000, in addition to 25 control boards to control 100 different motors. The whole thing would cost well over $10,000.”

The research team’s new prototype works by running each of its individual supports from a single motor that moves a platform. The platform raises groups of metal pins at the same time, making it a cost-effective solution. Based on the product design, the program’s software would tell the user where they need to add a series of metal tubes into the base of the platform. The position of these tubes would then determine which pins would raise to defined heights to best support the 3-D printed product, while also creating the least amount of wastage from printed supports. At the end of the process, the pins can be easily removed without damaging the product.

Chen said the system could also be easily adapted for large scale manufacturing, such as in the automotive, aerospace and yacht industries.

“People are already building FDM printers for large size car and ship bodies, as well as for consumer products such as furniture. As you can imagine, their building times are really long—we’re talking about a whole day,” Chen said. “So if you can save half of that, your manufacturing time could be reduced to half a day. Using our approach could bring a lot of benefits for this type of 3-D printing.”

Chen said the team had also recently applied for a patent for the new technology. The research was co-authored by Ziqi Wang, previously a visiting student at USC, from the School of Computer and Communication Sciences, EPFL Switzerland, and Siyu Gong from USC Viterbi.

SBI General Insurance Launches “24X7 Healthline For Its Health Insurance” Customers

SBI General Insurance, one of the leading general insurance companies in India, has announced the launch of its ‘24X7 Healthline’, a helpline for its health insurance customers. ‘Healthline’ has dedicated tollfree number and mobile number that will be attended by customer service team 24x7 to address the queries of SBIG customers related to health policies.  

SBI General is helping customers with queries related to any of their health policies ranging from policy covers to the claims process with this health line.  

Mr. P C Kandpal, MD and CEO, SBI General Insurance, said, “At SBI General, customers are always at the center of everything we do with a ‘Customer First’ approach. Considering the situation with regard to the pandemic, we felt our customers would need servicing and support for their health insurance. Hence, through this ‘Healthline’ we intend to strengthen our commitment to our customers by being there to answer all their health policy related queries at any hour.” 

About SBI General Insurance Company Limited:  

SBI General is one of the fastest growing private general insurance companies, with the strong parentage of SBI, we, at SBI General Insurance, are committed to carry forward the legacy of trust and security; and to become the first choice for every Indian’s general insurance needs.  

Ever since our establishment in 2009, from 17 branches in 2011, we have expanded our presence to around 123 branches pan-India.  

We follow a robust multi-distribution model encompassing Bancassurance, Agency, Broking and Retail Direct Channels. Today, our distribution family includes over 22,900 IRDAI certified advisors including the State Bank Group employees, and over 12,000 Agents to make insurance easily available even in the remote areas of the country. 

On the distribution network front, we have strong distribution partners adding up our reach to every nook and corner of India, with SBI’s over 22000 branch network, other financial and digital partners. Our current geographical exposure covers 125+ cities pan-India with a presence of another 350+ locations through satellite resources.  

We currently serve three key customer segments viz. - Retail Segment (catering to Individual & Families), Corporate Segment (catering mid to large size companies) and SME Segment; and are future-ready to serve the growing needs of Indians with new age-processes and services at affordable prices.  

SBI General Insurance closed the financial year 2019-20 with a Gross Written Premium of Rs. 6840 cr at a YoY growth of 45%.  

Paytm Money Introduces Mirae Asset's NYSE FANG+ ETF & MF To Make Investing In American Stocks Easier, Cheaper & More Exciting

 ·  Paytm Money launches Mirae Asset's NYSE FANG+ ETF & Direct Mutual Fund

·  Offers exposure to 10 leading tech stocks in the US - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Apple, Alibaba, Baidu, Nvidia, Tesla, and Twitter

·  NYSE FANG+ Index has delivered more than 102% return over the last year, and the offering is expected to attract good demand in the markets

·  NYSE FANG+ ETF instrument with an expense ratio of only 0.33% is expected to be the lowest cost alternative for most investors

·  ETFs are a great way to build long-term wealth and have been gaining popularity in India, with 27% of Paytm Money’s equity users already having ETF exposure

India’s homegrown digital financial services platform Paytm, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary 'Paytm Money' is empowering the country's retail investors with access to top tech stocks from the US in association with Mirae Asset’s NYSE FANG+ ETF. The country is already one of the largest markets for companies like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet) - FANG, and its importance will only rise over the next decade. 

NYSE FANG+ Index is a focused index and includes the original FANG companies + 6 tech leaders in the global Markets - Apple, Alibaba, Baidu, Nvidia, Tesla, and Twitter. Most of these are household names for millions of Indians, and the NFO is expected to be a success, driven primarily by the impressive 102% return delivered by NYSE FANG+ Index over the last year. The underlying tech stocks like Tesla delivered 390% return, and Google (Alphabet) delivered 80% return during this period.

Along with the NYSE FANG+ ETF, Mirae Asset is also launching a mutual fund scheme (NYSE FANG+ ETF Fund of Fund) which will predominantly invest in NYSE FANG+ ETF. From an investor’s perspective, there are certain things to be considered before deciding on the right instrument. 

NYSE FANG+ ETF is the lowest cost alternative, followed by a direct mutual fund. ETF also offers the most amount of flexibility vs other alternatives, and for the majority of investors, NYSE FANG+ ETF should be the preferred route. For a small proportion of users who intend to invest a small sum and are unable to open a Demat account, the Direct MF route might be suitable. Regular MF turns out to be the most expensive because of the distributor commissions involved. 

Paytm Money will enable its massive user base with the opportunity to bolster its portfolio and have international exposure. The company's stockbroking initiative is helping bring in more active direct equity investors in the highly under-penetrated segment. It expects this to be one of the biggest drivers of wealth creation over the next decade. It has opened over 1.6 lakh Demat accounts, with over 50 percent of the users being from smaller cities & towns. Paytm Money Stocks aims to more than double the number of accounts to over 3.5 lakh by year-end. It hopes to provide all this to the users in the most cost-effective, reliable & secure manner to both new and experienced investors.  

Varun Sridhar, CEO of Paytm Money said, “NYSE FANG+ index represents some of the most dominant tech players globally, and has delivered more than 40% CAGR over the last 3 years. The retail Indian investor today is increasingly looking to diversify beyond traditional funds and asset classes, and Mirae Asset’s NYSE FANG+ ETF is a very attractive proposition at an expense ratio of only 0.33%. We are expecting a lot of demand for this offering. ETF as a category has been very popular in the US markets for quite some time, and we are now seeing ETFs gain acceptance in India as well, with 27% of Paytm Money’s equity users already owning at least one ETF in their portfolio. ETFs are a great way to build long-term wealth, and we believe it will be one of the most important investment instruments for the next decade of investing in Indian capital markets”. 

Ways To Celebrate Earth Day On Snapchat Across Indian Market

This Global Earth Day, check out this collection of creative tools only on Snapchat to help celebrate our planet and raise awareness of environmental issues amongst our friends and family. Sustainability and caring for the environment are integral to our own health, and we all have a part to play to ensure we protect the planet.

Snapchatters can play with and share AR Lenses created by Official Lens Creators Nick Kazakov, Wayne Lambo and Jonah Cohn as well as members of the global Snapchat community by searching for ‘Earth Day’ on Snapchat. There are also Bitmojis with which you can share a few simple tips such as switching off lights and remembering to recycle.

Citi Bank To Shut Its Retail Banking Operations In Indian Market

 

Citigroup is going to shut consumer banking operations in 13 countries including India. The banking group said the move is aimed at shifting focus to wealth management and exiting retail banking in places where it is small.

While it has not yet announced a timeframe for the exit, the bank will exit the consumer banking market in India, China, Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Korea, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Poland and Taiwan. Citigroup will continue to focus on its global consumer banking business (non-US consumer banking) in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and the United Arab Emirates.

The announcement was made by Citigroup’s Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser. Fraser, who moved into the CEO role in March, said the decision is part of an effort to “double down” on wealth management, where the growth opportunities are better.

The decision was announced after Citigroup announced its first-quarter profits of $7.9 billion, which is more than three times the level in the year-ago period. However, the banking group’s revenues fell seven per cent to $19.3 billion.

It is unlikely that Citigroup’s decision to exit banking operations in India will have an immediate impact on its employees working in the country.

Ashu Khullar, India CEO, CitiGroup, said, “India is a strategic talent hub for Citi. We will continue to tap into the rich talent pool available here to continue to grow our five Citi Solution Centers which support our global footprint. There is no immediate change to our operations and no immediate impact to our colleagues as a result of this announcement. In the interim, we will continue to serve our clients with the same care, empathy and dedication that we do today.”