Driving innovation in restoring HDD , SSD and data for its customers in India – ReStor Lab, a unit of dStor Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has successfully serviced 200,000th drive. Within a short span of less than three years, the company has achieved this major milestone.

In the year 2013, ReStor saw a need in market to service out-of-warranty drives and providing a cost effective solutions to customers who were having out of warranty HDD drives sitting with them and having junk value.

Since then the company commitment towards serving the Indian market paved this huge success story. The company has opened India’s first testing and repair facility for hard disk drives and solid-state drives with an ISO-9001:2008 certification in Gurgaon.

“This is indeed a great achievement for our business as we have served two hundred thousand drives. As we took a major leap in 2013 by launching India’s first HDD & SSD testing and repair center in Gurgaon. This gave Indian data recovery and drive recertification industry a boost. The journey is long but the start which we have made is really good,” says Sharad Srivastava, Founder Director, ReStor Lab. “It also shows our commitment for cleaner and greener environment. HDD components generally have more than 5 years of useful life. By recycling, recertification and restor of out-of-warranty HDD & SSD, we, not only reduce the e-waste, but also provide a low cost HDD solution for first-time-user (FTU) PC market and help in increasing the profitability customer support organizations”

While giving insightful information, Srivastava also commented, “The biggest problem or the challenge ahead of this industry is to educate the concerned stakeholders regarding proper handling of faulty hard drives. Usually, the hard drive often gets broken or dead while getting badly handled in transit. This can only be sorted out by education and awareness. We have developed a proper mechanism and boxes which are designed to handle the faulty drives. Proper handling itself increases the scope of data recovery and drive recovery.”

ReStor Lab’s facility in Gurgaon incorporates a class 100 Clean room for data recovery services and a completely clean room environment type Lab for HDD & SSD repair. Lab also have electro-static discharge (ESD) safe set-up, a combination of indigenously developed testing bays/ racks and imported diagnostics jigs, backed by a trained technical team.

ReStor Lab’s key clients include most of the leading PC and CE OEMs in India, HDD retail partner, MSMEs and end user.

ReStor Lab is a unit of dStor Technologies P Ltd, The dStor Technologies group company incorporated in India (2010) and singapore(2009). ReStor Lab offers HDD & SSD repair services, Data Recovery services from HDD, SSD and other storage devices.

ReStor Lab is initiative by HDD industry veteran Sharad Srivastava who was Country Manager – Indian sub-continent for Seagate Technology from 1996 to 2005 and Director Sales -South Asia for Western Digital from 2005 to 2009.

Today, the Dutch National Police, Europol, Intel Security and Kaspersky Lab join forces to launch an initiative called No More Ransom, a new step in the cooperation between law enforcement and the private sector to fight ransomware together.

No More Ransom (www.nomoreransom.org) is a new online portal aimed at informing the public about the dangers of ransomware and helping victims to recover their data without having to pay ransom to the cybercriminals.

Ransomware is a type of malware that locks the victims’ computer or encrypts their data, demanding them to pay a ransom in order to regain control over the affected device or files. Ransomware is a top threat for EU law enforcement: almost two-thirds of EU Member States are conducting investigations into this form of malware attack. While the target is often individual users’ devices, corporate and even government networks are affected as well. The number of victims is growing at an alarming rate: according to Kaspersky Lab, the number of users attacked by crypto-ransomware rose by 550%, from 131 000 in 2014-2015 to 718 000 in 2015-2016.

NoMoreRansom.org

The aim of the online portal www.nomoreransom.org is to provide a helpful online resource for victims of ransomware. Users can find information on what ransomware is, how it works and, most importantly, how to protect themselves. Awareness is key as there are no decryption tools for all existing types of malware available to this day. If you are infected, the chances are high that the data will be lost forever. Exercising a conscious internet use following a set of simple cyber security tips can help avoid the infection in the first place.

The project provides users with tools that may help them recover their data once it has been locked by criminals. In its initial stage, the portal contains four decryption tools for different types of malware, the latest developed in June 2016 for the Shade variant.

Shade is a ransomware-type Trojan that emerged in late 2014. The malware is spread via malicious websites and infected email attachments. After getting into the user’s system, Shade encrypts files stored on the machine and creates a .txt file containing the ransom note and instructions from cybercriminals on what to do to get user’s personal files back. Shade use strong decryption algorithm for each encrypted file, with two random 256-bit AES keys generated: one is used to encrypt the file’s contents, while the other is used to encrypt the file name.

Since 2014, Kaspersky Lab and Intel Security prevented more than 27 000 attempts to attack users with Shade Trojan. Most of the infections occurred in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Austria and Kazakhstan. Shade activity was also registered in France, Czech Republic, Italy, and the US.

By working closely together and sharing information between different parties, the Shade command and control server used by criminals to store keys for decryption was seized, and the keys were shared with Kaspersky Lab and Intel Security. That helped to create a special tool which victims can download from the No More Ransom portal to retrieve their data without paying the criminals. The tool contains more than 160,000 keys.

Public – private cooperation

The project has been envisioned as a non-commercial initiative aimed at bringing public and private institutions under the same umbrella. Due to the changing nature of ransomware, with cybercriminals developing new variants on a regular basis, this portal is open to new partners’ cooperation.

Wilbert Paulissen, Director of the National Criminal Investigation Division of National Police of the Netherlands: “We, the Dutch police, cannot fight against cybercrime and ransomware in particular, alone. This is a joint responsibility of the police, the justice department, Europol, and ICT companies, and requires a joint effort. This is why I am very happy about the police’s collaboration with Intel Security and Kaspersky Lab. Together we will do everything in our power to disturb criminals’ money making schemes and return files to their rightful owners without the latter having to pay loads of money.”

“The biggest problem with crypto-ransomware today is that when users have precious data locked down, they readily pay criminals to get it back. That boosts the underground economy, and we are facing an increase in the number of new players and the number of attacks as a result. We can only change the situation if we coordinate our efforts to fight against ransomware. The appearance of decryption tools is just the first step on this road. We expect this project to be extended, and soon there will be many more companies and law enforcement agencies from other countries and regions fighting ransomware together”, says Jornt van der Wiel, Security Researcher at Global Research and Analysis Team, Kaspersky Lab.

“This initiative shows the value of public-private cooperation in taking serious action in the fight against cybercrime,” says Raj Samani, EMEA CTO for Intel Security. “This collaboration goes beyond intelligence sharing, consumer education, and takedowns to actually help repair the damage inflicted upon victims. By restoring access to their systems, we empower users by showing them they can take action and avoid rewarding criminals with a ransom payment.”

Wil van Gemert, Europol Deputy Director Operations, finally: “For a few years now ransomware has become a dominant concern for EU law enforcement. It is a problem affecting citizens and business alike, computers and mobile devices, with criminals developing more sophisticated techniques to cause the highest impact on the victim’s data. Initiatives like the No More Ransom project shows that linking expertise and joining forces is the way to go in the successful fight against cybercrime. We expect to help many people to recover control over their files, while raising awareness and educating the population on how to maintain their devices clean from malware.”

Langoor, the full service digital-first agency, has now extended its creative wingspan in Dubai. With its maiden office in the city of trade & global city, Langoor is looking at bringing its skilled team to win hearts in the Middle East. Excellent data driven strategy, visual design, content excellence and campaigns with real impact has always won them client accolades in the marketing world. After a firm foothold in Sydney, Australia, Ahmadabad, Bengaluru, Hong Kong, Melbourne & Singapore, these creative veterans are all set to launch in Dubai.
In the first year of their presence in the region, Langoor is set to invest one million AED. 

                                                                   
Commenting on the arrival in Dubai, Ruchir Punjabi, Founder, Langoor, said “With the start of our Dubai office, we have added yet another strong footprint to our presence in the MENA and Asia Pacific regions. Our focus will be on Return-On-Investment (ROI) oriented business models along with cutting edge design and effective communication for our clients in the region. With special attention on the retail, infrastructure and e-commerce segments we will be looking at adding more clients in these sectors.”

Adding another feather to the cap, Langoor has appointed Rebecca Jacobsson as the Head of Client Services at their Dubai office.

Rebecca comes to Langoor with over 12 years of experience in the digital world, working with large multinational corporations. She will bring processes and solutions that will help shape our company and provide growth in the GCC region for Langoor and it’s clients.

Commenting on the new role, Ms. Jacobsson said, “I am excited to join Langoor, Dubai and I look forward to learning and applying their systems thinking approach along with my own experience. Working across the digital world has been an enriching experience and at Langoor, I will be able to merge it with my innovative solutions to bring about creative ideas to the forefront of digital campaigns. ”

Commenting on his appointment, Ruchir Punjabi, Founder, Langoor says “We are happy to have someone with Rebecca’s  experience and caliber on board. Her experience and knowledge will be an asset to the growing team. She will also bring in renewed energy, ingenious creativity and focus to our business. I am confident that our business in the Middle east will now see  fantastic growth  under Rebecca’s leadership. I wish her all the best in her new role.”

C-Zentrix, global leader in software products for contact center today announces its growth plans for Bangladesh. 

Partnering with a Dhaka-based company, Digicon Technologies Ltd., C-Zentrix aims to leverage its Bangladesh expansion plans. The esteemed partnership is in sync with the country’s vision for a ‘Digital Bangladesh 2021’. With increased opportunities and the digital transformation, Bangladesh shall soon scale up with advancements in customer experience.

As a key participant at the 2nd BPO Summit Bangladesh, Mr. Saket Setu, CEO, C-Zentrix said, “The Call Centre industry globally is pegged to be worth U.S. $2 billion annually, with established South East Asian markets in India, Sri Lanka and Philippines. With our tie-up with Digicon Technologies Ltd., we are bullish about growing the segment and make meaningful contribution to the economy as a whole.”

The Bangladesh Call Centre industry currently employs approximately 25,000 professionals. With an increased awareness amongst the qualified and employable resources, Bangladesh would be able to mobilize and become South East Asia’s emerging customer experience market.

Speaking on the association, Mr. Azmal Haq Azim, Director, Digicon Technologies Ltd. said, “Our partnership with C-Zentrix has cemented a robust future for the Contact Centre industry in Bangladesh. We will not only provide C-Zentrix’s world-class solutions, but also be able to leverage great strengths, deep values and evolve state-of-the-art product innovation.”

C-Zentrix product suite includes unique world-class Single Box solution, Enterprise Suite, Cloud and Hybrid Contact Centre solution. These solutions empower enterprises with higher prospect outreach, increased agent productivity and help to maximize establishment of right party contacts. C-Zentrix solutions addresses a full range of touch points for the customers across Omni-channel platforms including voice, web, email, chat, video, mobile apps and business analytics.

India’s leading Contact Centre solution provider, C-Zentrix currently serves over 500+ customers and has its presence across Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Philippines, Dubai, South Africa, Ethiopia and Brazil. C-Zentrix’s Contact Centre infrastructure can run up to 50,000 live licenses concurrently. The company has been recognized with a Honourable Mention in the Gartner Magic Quadrant Contact Centre Infrastructure Worldwide Report 2016

Microsoft has announced that Anant Maheshwari will join Microsoft on September 1 as President, Microsoft India. He will take over the operations of the company from Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India, with effect from January 1, 2017. Pramanik will retire from the company in March 2017.

Maheshwari, who will be joining from Honeywell, will be responsible for all of Microsoft’s product, service, and support offerings across India and continuing the company’s transformation into the leading productivity and platform company for the mobile-first, cloud-first era.

Commenting on Maheshwari’s appointment, Jean-Philippe Courtois, EVP and President of Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing & Operations said, “I am delighted to announce that Anant is joining Microsoft India. As we continue to transform as an organization and to support our customers’ digital transformation, Anant’s leadership will be pivotal to our continued growth. Our mission at Microsoft – which we all care deeply about – is to enable every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. I know that in India, Anant will help us to continue to deliver against this, in one of the most vibrant, diverse and exciting markets anywhere in the world.”

Courtois continued, “I would also like to acknowledge the contributions made by Bhaskar Pramanik, who has been an inspiring leader of Microsoft India over the past five years. He’s worked closely with our customers, employees, partners and government stakeholders, and has been a truly passionate supporter of Digital India initiatives. In the coming months before he retires, I know he will work side by side with Anant, to ensure we have a smooth transition of leadership and continue to drive our business forwards.”

Maheshwari commented, “Microsoft’s mission – empowering people and organizations across the planet to do more – is deeply energizing, especially at India’s current growth inflection point. The ambition of a mobile-first, cloud-first world complements India’s growth themes of Smart Cities and Digital India. The global mission and the ambition of the company are fully aligned with India’s needs and priorities, and enable a wide range of creative growth opportunities. I am excited to join the company at this transformational point and support the growth objectives globally and in India.”

Pramanik commented, “I am privileged to have participated in the growth of the Indian IT industry over the last four decades – from the days of the mainframe computing to the mobile first cloud first world of today where computing is all pervasive. I have seen the Indian IT industry grow from a few million dollars to the $200 B global behemoth that it is today.

Today, the IT industry has some of the smartest people in the world. I am proud to have groomed many of the leaders of the IT industry in India.”

Pramanik continued, “As I plan my transition out of Microsoft by March 2017, I am very happy and proud of the strong team we have built in Microsoft India. It is a team that truly embodies our mission of empowering every individual and organization to achieve more. I am excited that Anant will be taking over from me. He brings strong operational rigor, strategic competence, excellent leadership and a proven track record of bringing together diverse teams to drive big impact.”

Anant Maheshwari joins Microsoft from Honeywell where he was their President for India. In this role he was responsible for the continued growth of India operations across all three strategic business groups of Honeywell: Aerospace, Automation and Control Solutions (ACS), and Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT). An experienced global technology leader with a proven track record, Maheshwari has held various business leadership roles in Honeywell for over 12 years. Among his prior roles, as Managing Director of public listed Honeywell Automation India Ltd. (HAIL), he led the transformation of the ACS business portfolio. He successfully tapped the Asia-Pacific region’s high growth potential, adapting its global distribution business model to Asian markets. He also successfully conceptualized and set up the security operations in India for Honeywell.

Prior to Honeywell, Anant was with McKinsey & Company for six years where he worked with clients across multiple industries including telecom, IT and e-commerce, private equity, engineering equipment, automotive, steel and pharmaceuticals.

Driving innovation to the next level, Pitney Bowes, a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce, has named six startups to the summer session of the Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program.

The company also announced a new six-month program called “Scale-Up” designed to give young and emerging startups an opportunity to expand using Pitney Bowes cloud services and APIs. The global Pitney Bowes Innovation team leads the programs.

They recently trained 1,100 engineers and software developers in technology areas such as mobile, SaaS, AI, analytics and IoT. The new Pitney Bowes brand is at the center of the company’s Design System which integrates Design Thinking, Globalization and Talent Acquisition.

In April 2016, the Company launched the Pitney Bowes Commerce Cloud, a commerce enabler providing access for clients and developers to Pitney Bowes solutions, analytics and application programming interfaces (API’s) across the full commerce continuum.

The Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program provides mentorship, access to venture funds and networking to innovative startups in the areas of customer information management, mobile, data analytics, location-based services, ecommerce management and machine learning.

The Accelerator startups will have access to select Pitney Bowes software and APIs for six months. In addition, Pitney Bowes will provide mentorship with leading engineering and innovation experts for technical and business guidance. The startups will be placed in Pune or Noida for incubation and will have opportunities to network with prospective investors.

The six startups named to the Accelerator Program are:

· eCourierz – an online automated shipping tool

· Infinite Analytics – a big data and social analytics company for a 360-degree-view of the customer

· Medimojo – a digital health platform for simplifying healthcare

· Niki – an Artificial Intelligence-powered bot that simplifies the ordering experience

· Sponsifyme – a real-time geolocation-based marketing platform for offline businesses

· Wedosky – a drone-based startup with a mapping and analytics platform

“One of the greatest drivers of innovation is collaboration,” said Roger Pilc, Chief Innovation Officer of Pitney Bowes. “The Accelerator Program brings our people together with startups and emerging technology companies to develop APIs on our Commerce Cloud platform, network with peer startups and our global teams, and collaborate together on emerging technologies.”

“These six startups are developing technologies for the physical and digital worlds of commerce,” said Manish Choudhary, Senior Vice President, Global Innovation and Managing Director, Pitney Bowes India. “We’re especially pleased to host two women-led startups in the Accelerator Program, because diversity is also a great driver of innovation.”

Last year, Pitney Bowes incubated four startups as a part of the program: Ipsator, Fetchon, Kayeura, and Shipdesk, and two to an Accelerator Collaboration Program: Loginext and Primaseller.

Ranga Jagannath, Co-founder of Fetchon, said, “Through the Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program, we were exposed to technologies and products that reinforced our belief in the prospects for proximity driven experiences for brands and consumers.”

The Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program has entered into a partnership with Microsoft. Microsoft will provide subscriptions to Microsoft’s Visual Studio and Azure Cloud Credits up to USD$ 27,000 over three years via the BizSpark program.

Technopak and Simplilearn, a global Ed-tech company, have jointly published a report titled, “Technopak & Simplilearn Whitepaper on the Digital Learning Market in India”.

Covering the most significant trends expected to impact the digital learning landscape in India. The report highlights that the online professional education market globally is expected to exceed US$9bn by 2020, growing at compound annual growth (CAGR) of 14% from 2016 – 2020.

Rapidly Growing Ed-Tech Sector – Online Certification Training

With the growing demand for skilled talent in the IT industry today, the report highlights that working professionals are increasingly looking to enhance their employability by up-skilling with online certification training in emerging technologies like Big Data, Cloud Computing and Salesforce, Project Management, Mobile App Development and Digital Marketing. Technological advancements in the IT industry has raised awareness about certification training, which is reinvigorating the Indian online professional education space.

Emerging Learning Trends – Gamification, Augmented & Virtual Reality

The report also indicates emerging trends, and forecasts the gamification of learning and simulation as well as the implementation of augmented and virtual reality in education. It states that the global market size of simulation-driven learning is ~US$4.4bn. With a share of 0.25%, the simulation based learning market in India is estimated to be worth US $13mn in FY’16, and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of over 100% in the next 4-5 years.

“Skilling is one of India’s most critical needs today. However, given the pace of development, there’s a growing realization that skilling needs to be seen from the perspective of lifelong learning. Digital-Learning and online certifications open up a gamut of options for students looking to enter both traditional and non-traditional fields. It also makes learning more interactive, personalized and self-paced. Students get access to world class content, faculty, pedagogy and certification – anytime, anywhere and at a much affordable cost”, says Aurobindo Saxena, Vice President at Technopak Advisors. According to Technopak’s analysis, India’s digital learning market is currently estimated at US$2bn, growing at a CAGR of 30% and is expected to reach US$5.7bn by 2020. There’s a huge demand emerging from working professionals as well to reskill themselves. This rapid demand is supported by the increasing requirement of skills such as data analysis, project management and digital marketing.

Krishna Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of Simplilearn said, “The whitepaper summarizes the different growth drivers of the Indian digital learning market, along with the opportunities and challenges they bring for the online education service providers. Keeping in mind the current skill-gap and the advances in Ed-tech, it’s indeed exciting to see how online certifications have opened up a gamut of opportunities for students and professionals in a world where technologies are changing every few years.”

Technopak education analysts also highlighted the various factors that are contributing to the growth of the digital-learning market in India:

· Increasing integration of world economies

· Rise in Internet penetration in India

· Reduction in prices leading to rise in ownership of mobile devices

· Rising aspiration for world class education backed by willingness to pay for it

· Government focus & support

Internet and digital penetration

India currently has 462 million internet users with a penetration of 35%. This growth is driven by the adoption of mobile internet, with 65% of internet traffic originating from mobile devices. With programs such as the Digital India Initiative, digital literacy and penetration is projected to increase significantly in the next few years.

MOOC enrollment

India has the second largest MOOC user base after the US and its rapid expansion means that an increasing number of courses have a majority of people from India. Being affordable and accessible, MOOCs are helping address the quantity and quality education gaps in India by supporting traditional classrooms.

Government Support

The government of India’s Digital India initiative is a flagship programme that envisions to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Around 20+ new initiatives have been launched to widen the scope of the Digital India Programme to include projects in the areas of digital infrastructure, digital empowerment, on-demand government services and promotion of industry with the aims of universal digital literacy and universally accessible digital resources.

The report further outlines that while there are positive trends regarding the adoption of Digital Learning in India, lack of content in regional languages and poor internet connectivity in smaller towns and semi-urban areas poses the key impediment towards widespread adoption of this technology-driven learning.

In its bid to enable cloud driven innovation in the VR space, Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, is partnering with HTC Corporation to explore high scalable and price-competitive virtual reality (“VR”) solutions for customers worldwide.

Leveraging the advanced cloud computing technology of Alibaba Cloud, the companies will focus on developing breakthrough innovative solutions to tackle bandwidth allocation, data transmission and data processing needs in areas such as VR video production and VR broadcasting. The partnership will also bring together industry developers to build a VR cloud ecosystem, and extend ‘Viveport’, HTC’s VR app store to Alibaba Cloud’s cloud computing platform.

“Cloud computing has continuously broken the boundaries of what we thought possible, accelerating the rate of innovation. The partnership between Alibaba Cloud and HTC will bring two of the world’s most disruptive technologies together to bring more value to businesses looking to leverage VR and cloud. This partnership will accelerate the development of VR technology in China and encourage widespread, global adoption.” said Ge JIN, Business Architect Director at Alibaba Cloud.

“We are excited to partner with Alibaba Cloud, as we believe it will be a landmark collaboration between VR and cloud computing industries. By leveraging computing expertise and the developer ecosystem built on Alibaba Cloud, HTC Vive will provide more reliable, stable services to VR solution developers with better access to China market,” said Alvin Wang Graylin, China Regional President of Vive, HTC.

Cloud computing and VR technology complement each other on commercial applications. With the algorithm capacity and infrastructure provided by cloud computing technology, the ultimate experience of VR can be greatly enhanced by increasing definition, minimizing system crashes and conserving bandwidth. On top of that, the development of VR technology requires powerful and flexible infrastructure support from the backend to supply visually rich and interactive contents to the audiences, in which cloud computing technology can improve the efficiency and lower operation costs.

Alibaba Cloud has successfully helped a VR team from Zhejiang University to render a three-minute 360degree 3D VR video in only 3 days. The required computing capacity for the video was 100,000 processor cores and is the equivalent to non-stop processing by a 12-core high performance server for more than 8,000 hours.

This marks a major comeback for the once iconic brand Kodak in India, this newly launched TV series starts with an attractive retail price of INR 13,500
Noida based Super Plastronics Pvt. Ltd. (SPPL), a Kodak brand license partner, has unveiled innovative range of KODAK HD LED TV in India. This strategic licensing partnership will bring the global brand to India’s TV market. The initial product line up will comprise of five HD LED TVs varying over a range of 32, 40 and 50 inches. The KODAK HD LED TV line will aim to carve out a niche by offering superior products at a competitive price point. Within this line up, the KODAK Smart HD LED TVs (3 models) will offer internet connectivity and Wifi capability.

The product range will be made available on all leading online ecommerce platforms starting with Shop Clues, Flipkart and Amazon. Shopclues will be launching the 32 inch series exclusively on its site. Sales will begin post 15th August, 2016.

Commenting on the launch, Avneet Singh Marwah, Director, SPPL said, “It is our endeavor to leverage Kodak’s legacy as one of the leading imaging companies in the world to drive its growth in the Indian home entertainment industry as well. Not only will KODAK branded TVs be a game changer in this segment but also set new benchmarks in terms of specifications, accessibility and affordability. Our association with Kodak will enable us to capitalize on the company’s global experience and knowledge. Interestingly, the Indian TV segment is currently undergoing a transition phase fueled by the aspirations of the youth in the country, looking for products and services which match their values and expectations. To give a perspective, in 2015, over 14.5 million TV sets were sold across India and over 83% of these were LED/ LCD sets. Furthermore, as a leading TV manufacturer in India we understand the pulse of our customers and look forward to a healthy response we foresee for our product range.”

“We are very pleased to partner with SPPL to address the burgeoning market for TV sets in India,” said Steven Overman, President of Kodak’s Consumer and Film Division and Global Chief Marketing Officer. “Kodak has played a key role in the development of the entertainment industry in India and around the world. We look forward to providing consumers in India with a new range of great Kodak-branded products.”

Key Specifications:

 Wide viewing angles (178X178) the HD LED TVs comes with intelligent features such as ‘Progressive scan’, ‘YPrPb resolution’ and response time less than 8 ms.

 For connectivity the televisions support HDMI, USB and VGA ports as well as others. The Smart versions have the added feature of WiFi and are supported by ARM Cortex A7 and ANDROID system version 4.4.

This Independence Day, as India celebrates its 70th year of Independence, Canon India is strengthening its social commitment to the country through its ‘Support a Life’ Campaign.

Canon, with a vision to have a proliferating India has partnered with SOS Children’s village across the country to support the education and overall development of children in these villages. The first phase of Canon’s campaign took wings today as it celebrated the Independence Day with children at SOS village, Faridabad.

As part of ‘Support a Life’ initiative, Canon employees have adopted 187 children across SOS Children’s Village in the country to take responsibility of their wellbeing. This initiative furthers Canon’s corporate philosophy of ‘Kyosei’, which means ‘living and working together for the common good’. To celebrate this association, employees from Canon India Headquarters visited the SOS village to interact, play and engage with over 200 children.

Speaking about the latest development and significant expansion of Canon’s CSR ambit,  Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO of Canon India, said, “At Canon, we are deeply involved in meaningful, welfare driven initiatives that impact lives and make people future ready. And what better way to prepare for our future than to invest in our children – the building blocks of the nation. This partnership with SOS Children’s village has given the Canon family a way to express our dedication towards the upbringing of children of the country. Canon has been devoted towards the causes of education, eye care and environment and now we are proud to be expanding our social trajectory with empowerment of children and youth in the country through our most recent initiatives”.

The ‘Support a Life’ initiative expands Canon’s horizon of commitment to the country, adding ‘Empowerment’ to its existing ‘3E’ framework of social outreach. As part of Canon Involve, its ‘4E’ initiatives will continue dedicated efforts in the fields of Education, Eye care, Environment along with Empowerment.

The day was a celebration of the upcoming Independence Day to inspire students to learning, showcase and celebrate life. Various activities were organised to build the team spirit amongst children. A painting competition was organised for various age groups and winners were recognised and awarded. A cricket match was also organised where the Canon India CEO, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi along with Canon employees played a friendly match with the SOS village children.

Anuja Bansal, Secretary General, SOS Children’s Villages India, shared, “At the SOS Children’s Villages, our focus is on bringing up children in a secure and healthy home. Since last five decades, our organisation is focusing on the holistic development of young lives by providing them the love and care of a “Mother” and a family of brothers & sisters. Partnership with like-minded institutes like Canon, provides us further encouragement to continue towards our goal with more vigour and commitment. Their support will help put smiles on the faces of the children in our villages and add value to their growth and development.”

Strengthening its vision to empower the youth of the country, under the 4E’s, Canon India is set to introduce Vocational and Skill Development Training under its flagship CSR initiative “Adopt a Village”. The campaign will launch in the month of September in its first adopted village in Ferozpur Namak in Haryana.

Both the initiatives by Canon India are a commitment to handhold the future of the country into meaningful, well-developed and holistic lives ahead.

C-Zentrix, a global leader in customer experience platform expands its base in North America. Partnering with a California based ticketing solution provider HappyFox, C-Zentrix aims to offer the next generation customer experience platform to its end users by bringing the power of multi-channel along with HappyFox.

Speaking on the occasion, Saket Setu, CEO, C-Zentrix said, “We are delighted to have partnered with HappyFox who are specialists in the space of offering omni-channel customer contact solutions. We are confident, that through our partnership, we would be able to leverage C-Zentrix’s strength in offering world-class customer experience solution with multi-channel, backed by robust ticketing infrastructure of HappyFox.”

With over 30% market share in India , SEA and MEA  region, C-Zentrix now aims to expand in North America market.

“HappyFox is a customer support platform serving thousands of customers worldwide with our helpdesk and live chat solution. Through our partnership with C-Zentrix, we are now able to add an enterprise-grade voice solution to our robust multi-channel customer support platform.
This partnership will help our customer’s worldwide get a perfectly integrated contact center solution.” said Shalin Jain, CEO, HappyFox.

HappyFox offers the most comprehensive help desk and 24×7 contact centre solution, with a wide array of features suiting the needs of diverse industries including Education, Retail, Travel, IT Support, Non-Profit, Government, Telecom, Healthcare, Insurance and Banking & Financial Services.

WaterHealth India (WHIN) and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) have partnered to provide clean, safe and affordable drinking water to people in Delhi.

WaterHealth is the next generation water ‘micro-utility’, delivering a sustainable service that purifies local water sources to WHO-quality drinking water standards. It installs, operates, maintains and quality monitors decentralized community water (Purification) systems called WaterHealth Centers (WHCs).

This collaboration expects to bring about a positive and healthy change in the drinking water habits of underserved communities in Delhi and provide clean and safe drinking water at an affordable price. Under this partnership, WaterHealth India (WHIN) will install 29 WaterHealth Centers (WHCs) and 250 Water Dispensation Units (WDUs) in the urban slums of Delhi.

A Water Dispensation Unit (WDU) is a ‘small footprint’ stand-alone water vending machine that can be installed in high footfall locations thereby extending the ‘safe water’ coverage area. The unit comprises of a water storage tank, dispensing pump, dispensing tap, dispensing controller and a power system.

WaterHealth has recently inaugurated three (3) WHC and three (3) WDUs at Alipur, Batla House and Mubarak Dhabas in Delhi. This community based water distribution system will provide safe and affordable drinking water to the underserved communities in the area.

Speaking on the occasion, Vikas Shah, Chief Operating Officer, WaterHealth International (WHI) said, “WaterHealth has associated with Delhi Jal Board to provide safe drinking water to underserved citizens of the National Capital. This partnership will be instrumental in bringing the Company closer to achieving its mission of providing safe water to over 100 million people by 2020.”

While Delhi Jal Board will provide infrastructural support i.e. land, the water source and electricity connection for setting up the WHCs and WDUs, while WHIN will install and operate the plants (WHCs) and machine (WDUs) in the designated areas of Delhi.

The project builds on WaterHealth India’s successful track record of installing and managing over 500 WHCs in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu since 2006. The Company’s award winning water purification and disinfection technology, combined with creative business approaches has enabled the delivery of affordable, clean and safe drinking water to even the most underserved communities. Raw water undergoes six (6) stages of purification in a WHC, including reverse osmosis (RO) and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection and the treated water meets the stringent IS10500 and World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

Plants set up under this partnership provide clean drinking water at an affordable price and will filter 10,000 liters of water per day. WaterHealth has provided RFID cards to consumers for WDUs, wherein the consumers, just need to touch the screen with the card for water dispensation. Initial recharge would cost ` 100 and subsequent recharge can be done from ` 25.

In the last ten (10) years of its operation, WaterHealth India has not only provided access to clean and safe drinking water to underserved communities but has also driven social marketing programs to transform their habits and mindsets through awareness programs. Studies have shown that WHCs have positively affected lives of households consuming WHIN’s brand i.e. dr. water by reducing morbidity and drudgery (time spent mainly by women and children in fetching water) and increasing the number of workdays (earlier lost to sickness or in fetching water from distant sources), annual income and savings.

After the recent acquisition of six companies in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, Middle East’s leading supplier of aggregates and asphalt has chosen 3i Infotech’s flagship product ORION ERP Suite to consolidate its country operations. In line with its development strategy in the Middle East, the company, which specialises in road construction, deployed ORION ERP Suite to set up the business processes at the ground level.

After the acquisition, the company’s key requirement was to establish an integrated view of its business processes at the various country locations. 3i Infotech’s ORION ERP Suite helped shape the newly acquired companies’ business processes into a consolidated whole. The parent company was able to gain real-time access of all business processes across locations, leading to swifter decision-making and cost reductions.

Suryanarayan Kasichainula, EVP and Business Head (ERP) of 3i Infotech said, “ORION has comprehensive multi-utility dashboard functionalities that are in complete alignment with the client requirements. The superior real-time management dashboards, corporate performance management and enterprise workflow management will give the client greater visibility of their country-wide operations based on which they will be able to make better decisions. We are delighted that the new management chose ORION to meet their needs.”

Langoor, the leading digital agency, has been selected by MoneyGram International to manage company’s digital channels in the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The agreement also includes Langoor managing the company’s Twitter Cricket account (@MGCricket). Langoor will support the money transfer organization through a wide range of expertise that includes insightful marketing strategies, building innovative web systems, e-commerce platforms, relevant campaigns, creating engaging experiences, effective analytic’s and impactful digital marketing.

On their win in Dubai, Ruchir Punjabi, Founder & Chairman of Langoor,commented, “This is an exciting win in the Middle East region. MoneyGram has a history of bringing people closer and we are excited to be associated with helping them to fulfill this mission. Across both MoneyGram Cricket and MoneyGram media mandate we intend to support MoneyGram’s digital transformation. With this win we have added yet another strong footprint to our presence in the Asia and Pacific regions.”

“We are excited to work with Langoor. They have shown a great, in-depth understanding of our target audience. What made our choice easy was the strategy based on data, their insights and focus on ROI. I am looking forward to working with Langoor on MoneyGram’s digital media strategy for the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions,” said Julie Filion, Head of Digital and Ecommerce atMoneyGram International.

Langoor is already making heads turn in the region with this win. Wait to hear more exciting news from them soon!

NTT DATA Global Delivery Services Private Limited, India, (hereinafter referred to as NTT DATA) today announced that it has won the SAP Partner Awards 2016 in the SAP Cloud Partner of the Year for SuccessFactors. The award was received by Mr. Srinivasa Katakam Rao, Senior Vice President & Head of India Sales, NTT DATA in a ceremony held at New Delhi on September 6, 2016.

To acknowledge and appreciate this contribution of the partners, SAP India engaged with them at its Annual Partner Summit 2016 in New Delhi. SAP Partner awards recognizes the importance of the partner ecosystem that have helped customers go beyond ERP and adopt SAP’s innovation solutions – SAP S/4HANA, SAP Hybris, Analytics and Cloud solutions SuccessFactors and Ariba. The summit witnessed participation from other partners from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

This prestigious award showcases NTT DATA’s capability to service customers on all modules of Success Factors and facilitated up-gradation of HR process knowledge and tools at various customers end. This is the second consecutive award for NTT DATA as they were recognized for the “SAP Cloud Partner of the Year” award last year as well.

Leveraging its strong HR process background, service capability in SAP, geographical scale and cost effectiveness, NTT DATA provides a clear differentiation to its customers with industry-focused pre-configured templates and tools. Our agile 80-10-10 methodology accelerates the implementation process – from strategic planning, through deployment, to support and training – through an iterative, adaptable and demonstrable process. Having completed many large SuccessFactors implementations around the world across and in multiple industries including life sciences, discrete manufacturing, distribution, professional services, retail, hi-tech and healthcare, it is now poised to encourage more entities to adopt the HCM solution on the cloud.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Srinivasa Katakam Rao said, “We are extremely delighted to have been recognized by SAP. This honour is an assurance of our growing presence in the market, thereby facilitating growth and expansion in the segment. We consider that our customers’ success is our success. We have mainly designed our strategy to excel on deliveries making our client’s businesses future ready.”

“This recognition puts us on the front-runner in the category, thereby facilitating growth and expansion for us ahead. We would like to thank SAP for their on-going trust, support, training and guidance extended to us during the years we have grown leaps and bounds,” added Mr. Rao.

“Adoption of transformational business application on Cloud is one of the key milestones of an organisation’s journey towards digital transformation,” said Mr. Atul Sareen, Vice President and Head of Cloud Sales, SAP India. “Winning the SAP Partner Award is a testament to NTT DATA’s great value towards their customers. We congratulate team NTT DATA and will continue to support them grow along with SAP to enable our customers journey in the Digital Economy.”

In today’s global workforce, HR solutions must be flexible and extensible, and they must support local and global compliance needs. These solutions must be able to work based not on a solution provider’s rigid requirements, but on your organization’s business drivers.

Investments in the staffing and recruitment solutions sector are surging as businesses are realizing the importance  of the HR function.The times have never been more opportune to address the complex and multi-lateral issue of integrating the human resource element in the core philosophy and ideals of an organization.

For organizations,digital transformation is the new reality. Digital now determines the way organizations think and operate.

Spanning recruitment and recognition to performance review, SAP SuccessFactors is an end to end cloud-based HCM system, for any device at any time, giving organizations visibility to their talent pool and helping this solution give a complete view of the workforce to organizations. Its implementation and service support till date has streamlined processes across organization’s disparate divisions and optimized workforce performance while accelerating results for the business.

More and more organizations are selecting SAP SuccessFactors for their cloud HR solution, as it helps make better workforce decisions, saves time and avoids risk. With pre-packaged integrations and templates on the cloud, it has made even processes like hiring completely paperless.

SAP SuccessFactors is a complete, cloud technology-based core HR system of record that combines HR transactions, processes and data with social collaboration features and mobile functionality. It is standards-based, flexible technology, so you can deploy it in your organization at your pace. It is highly configurable to your business processes and adaptable to changing business needs.

Organizations can now manage payroll in house with the flexibility of the cloud, reducing the burden of maintaining often costly and complex compliance and regulatory system upgrades, and lowering overhead costs associated with running payroll applications.

Organizations can now deliver support to one of their most treasured assets: their employees.Accelerate your implementation and get optimal time-to-value for your core HR processes in the cloud.

Leader’s Speak –

Human resources have always been one of the most important assets of a company. From the most basic to the very core of the organisation is built on the foundation that is human resources. Every contribution regardless of its proportion adds great value to an organisation in the long run. Much like a well-oiled machine, an organisation requires its most valued assets that is their employees to work together to reach the ultimate goal successfully.

By Anuj Gupta, COO, hSenid

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia leading bank, Saudi Hollandi Bank (SHB) has deployed Wearable Banking Solution developed by Vayana for Apple Watch, to further enhance the customer experience for its retail banking customers. This will see the bank introduce more innovative ways to engage with its retail customers in KSA.

Wearable Banking Solution developed by Vayana will enable SHB to deliver number of services on Apple Watch which works as an extension of the iOS – Mobile Banking Application. These services include Reporting (Balances & Mini Statements), Notifications and Payments (Due Bills & Violations). Wearable Banking adds another feather to the cap for both SHB as well as Vayana.

While mentioning about the deal, Vayana’s CEO Kannan Ramasamy mentioned “Exciting opportunities have been presented by emerging technologies and form factors. This has made it possible for us to “Reimagine Channels” in partnership with our clients. We have had a unique opportunity to work with Saudi Hollandi Bank in their journey to create an OmniChannel experience. The Wearable Banking is another milestone in positioning the Bank as an innovator.”

SHB and Vayana have been working together last few years to digitize Retail Banking Channels. SHB is currently using Vayana’s “SolutionNET: Channel Re-imagined platform” for Retail Internet Banking, Tablet Banking Application and Mobile Banking Application. SHB has won Best Mobile App Award in 2016 and Best Internet Banking Award for consecutive 2 years (2014 and 2015). With 72 retail banking services on Mobile Banking Application, SHB is undoubtedly a leader in KSA Market.

Source: Vayana

ITN Bureau : Call it ‘Talent Acquisition’ or ‘Acquiring Skilled Professionals’ or simply ‘Hiring’- in any manner this is a complex yet one of the most important procedures that every company, no matter the size and field, has to carry out.  It is no secret to any entrepreneur of any level that that the organization’s workforce is its most important asset. In fact, some may say that the future of the company depends on the dedication level of its human resource. The Human Resource Team and Human Resource Management is an integral part of every successful or struggling company. We can go on to say that the survival of a company depends on it.

With the changing times, the rise in the importance of ‘work culture’ and with the evolving technology and its direct impact on every office – human resource and technology have to find a link. The world is now online. The personnel are therefore online too. It’s time to welcome technology that aids the daily functions of its employees, right from recruitment to payroll to attendance to tracking performance and to appraisals. If the economy is turning digital, it is essential that HR turns digital too. Can HR go digital though? Yes, it can. With the right technology and software support systems, HR can not only become digitized but also reduce the risk of manual errors such as errors of omission and duplication to name a few.

Formal communication in most companies is done through e-mail which as a technological development has now become the blood line of every firm. These days’ people look for employment online. On digital platforms there are a plethora of HR related sites that already exist. One of the most popular is LinkedIn – which was made so that interaction between professionals could become easier. It sticks to its agenda of being a social media website, but keeps its standards absolutely professional. It is employment –oriented and one of the best places to look for a perfect fit for your company. The veils are being lifted too. If a company’s HR policy is not up to mark, they are being publicly reprimanded. www.glassdoor.co.in is one of the finest examples of this. Feedbacks from the employees are being taken seriously. The company has to shoulder with the employees instead of having a perpetual upper hand on them.

Above all, the requirement of digitized HR services arises because of the global reach of companies. The geographical constraints and the need to keep a tab on the employees through various branches can be simplified. Networking also becomes easier and hassle free. The HR can initiate an easier two way communication with the employees of the firm where their ideas, comments or grievances can also be heard. The alignment of the company goals and the personal goals of the employees is crucial. It is to ensure that both are moving in the same and right direction.

Today’s workplace witnesses abundance and variety of technological instruments. The amount of time spent on devices has increased. Therefore communicating through technology has become easier and more relevant than before. HR communication, if done digitally, can be done timely, smoothly and it can have a better impact

Energy is infectious. If a good vibe is generated in the work atmosphere daily, it cultivates a better working environment. This can be done with a more mindful HR team and policies. The loyalty of the employee will remain with the company if their needs are taken care of. The labor turnover rates will reduce and the company can thus, prosper.

By : Akriti Seth

In every company which is the one department which is taken for granted? Everyone knows the answer to this one – The Human Resource department of course. It is assumed that every other department contributes directly towards the progress of the company. The unsung heroes of the company remain the HR officials. One should ask why they are not appreciated for undertaking the most crucial job of the company – which is managing the workforce of the company?

On 6^th October, 2016 in an event arranged by NTT Data we saw the coin flip and HR officials speak up about how technology needs to pace up to daily HR functions. HR officials took it onto themselves to discuss each and every point on the agenda with detailed nuances. The very engaging discussion left us with one conclusion. Technology needs to offer its benefits to this department as well. Enter, SAP Success Factors.

Why is it important to keep HR on the loop of technological developments? It is simple actually. When the entire company runs on updated technology but the HR department is left behind it becomes a weak link and can pose as a threat to the advancement of the company.

The human touch is necessary, yes, but if aided by THE RIGHT technology it can influence the daily functions to become more efficient. The top HR officials who participated in this event were- Mr. Nishant Kolgaonkar, Recipient of “Young HR Achiever Award by World HRD Congress- 2003”, who leads the HR function for SOTC and is responsible for various strategic HR initiatives and programs in alignment with the business objectives at SOTC; Ms. Nithyanandini Subburaj, Sr. Business Transformation Advisor, HR – SAP India; Ragini Talati, Human Resource, Lubrizol India Private Limited and many more.

These well established HR professionals found this event as not just a great opportunity to network with each other but to also address common problems faced by HR departments across various fields. Ideas were pitched; common obstacles in daily functioning of the company were discussed for the betterment of the companies. In this context Mr. Ojas Chhaya, Deputy General Manager Procurement Lead & BU HR Partner of L&T said, “The challenge now would be on how to remain focused on the ‘Human’ aspect of HR management and not to miss-out on need to stay connected to the most vital asset of an organization while implementing these digital tools. We should strive towards elimination or at best optimize mundane, monotonous activities/tasks and enable effective engagement. Key to real success shall be the judicious utilization of organizational data in order to refine HR policy framework and ultimately bring about desired change that help build world-class organization culture. Leveraging these revolutionary technology advancements, taking appropriate measures shall foster Human Resource Management in true spirit.”

The path ahead of HR should have more solutions than problems. Managing Human resources is not something can be taken lightly by any firm, especially the budding ones with a scope to multiply drastically in the near future.

“HR technology should have a more people centric approach.” On 6^th October, 2016 in an event arranged by NTT Data, which was graced by HR professionals of various companies, Sneh Pandey, Assistant HR Manager of Omax Autos Ltd. emphasized on developing technology’s need to focus on HR. She went on to say that, “These days we need integration with a lot of different business processes. HR is moving towards that automation. Companies should focus their strategy on integration of the people approach with the technological approach. The need of the hour is adaptation. HR is not yet evolved. There is a lot of filing and data management which needs the help of technology.”

While discussing the Human Resource department, the millennials could not be ignored. Keeping them in mind Deeksha Saxena, Head HR, PayU, said that “People are important. Especially, the dynamic nature of the younger generation is a challenge for technology. HR and technology needs to develop a stronger link. People are more tech savvy these days.
They would prefer smoother, faster communication. It is important for us to become technology friendly and move with the pace of the industry.”

HR transformation of any kind takes place with the employee’s perspective. Technology can make employees life much easier, comfortable and engaged while they work at the organization. The ease of use facilitates daily functions. Daily hygiene work like your performance appraisal, attendance, on boarding, salary, reimbursements and many more can also be taken care of by technology. The employee can remain focused on the business.

If a company is careful about all these features, it gives you an insight into what the organization is all about and provides a glimpse into the ethos of the company.

Rohit Khurana, Vice President-Rewards and HR Operations, Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company Ltd said that “Technology needs to change and be updated. That is a no brainer. We cannot go back to our ‘Excel sheet’ days. They have to be abreast with the employees’ requirements. We need a consolidated and integrated feature.”

It is true that the right technology can help solve a lot of employee grievances for example – problems related to pay roll, salary, leaves etc. In this regard, Mr. Ashish Vyas, Deputy Manager HR, Suez Environment said that “We need to have an IT system that facilitates self help. It would help to save the time of HR and employee both.”

Naveen Singh, Corporate HR, Jay Bharat Maruti Ltd said, “We can see the measured performance of people with the help of technology. It is actually eliminating many boring jobs. Even for smaller companies, who are resistant to change.”

Thus, if it is important to the HR, it is important to the company.