Everymedia bags Digital Duties for India Kids Fashion Week 2015

The prestigious India Kids Fashion Week (IKFW) has recently associated with Everymedia Technologies to create a stronger digital presence. IKFW is an initiative by Event capital & Craftworld. IKFW 2015 is the third season of the property slated for February 20th& 21st, 2015 at the Lalit Hotel, Mumbai and February 28th and March 1st, 2015 at The Grand Hotel, Delhi. The past two years have seen top designers, brands and Bollywood celebrities as a part of the event.

India Kids Fashion Week is an effort to bring Indian kids fashion industry on the global map for kids industry. IKFW is a large-scale event that provides a platform for kids from all over India to present their talent, walk the ramp for top designers and offers brands and designers the scope to get to the untapped audience by exhibiting clothes, footwear, toys and a lot more. With this esteemed collaboration, Everymedia will be solely responsible for creating, building and executing ideas for IKFW digitally.

Government in favor of data tariff reduction

Data tariff is expected to reduce further with the scaling up of data services by way of innovation and surge in content. While speaking during the inaugural session of Broadband Tech India 2014, Shri AK Bhargava, Advisor (Technology), Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India said that Government of India is in favor of reducing data tariff, as the country is getting ready for 3G and 4G spectrum auctions.

The announcement comes as the Department of Telecommunications is preparing to roll out spectrum auctions, which is expected to intensify the competition between service providers, which may push up spectrum prices.

'Unicorn bug' in action spotted

ESET alerts Internet Explorer users on the latest patch of a Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerability allowing remote code execution, which had lain undiscovered for almost 20 years, has prompted significant interest among cyber-attackers. 

Earlier this week ESET researchers spotted the first proof-of-concept showing the CVE-2014-6332 vulnerability, or 'Unicorn Bug', in action.

Following original research by a Chinese researcher, the proof-of-concept shows that by using this vulnerability attackers can run arbitrary code on any remote machine and, moreover, bypass various anti-exploitation tools. The same Chinese researcher also found out that arbitrary code could also run on a machine with unpatched Internet Explorer that visit a specially crafted website. ESET researchers started looking for such websites.

Gartner positions CommVault as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant

CommVault has been positioned by Gartner. in the “Leaders” quadrant of the “Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving” for the second consecutive year.

According to Gartner, “the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving profiles vendors that offer, at a minimum, integrated email and some other content archiving utilized predominantly for information governance and eDiscovery, with storage capacity management as a secondary benefit. Leaders have the highest combined measures of ability to execute and completeness of vision. They have a proven track record of financial performance and established market presence.”

Vdopia launches Mobile Video Programmatic Marketplace

Vdopia, a player in mobile and online video advertising, announces Asia-Pacific (APAC) launch of programmatic buying and selling platform exclusively for mobile video advertising. The new marketplace product, called ‘Chocolate’, is built from the ground up solely for mobile video advertising. It is designed for brand marketers and demand partners who want a highly functional marketplace platform that offers top quality mobile video inventory at significant scale with complete transparency. Chocolate is being launched with a potential audience reach of more than 200 million unique users globally.

The Xbox One Debut of the Master Chief

Today, more than 13 years after the first Halo game launched in 2001 on the original Xbox, the legendary franchise has arrived on Xbox One with the worldwide release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Leading up to the official launch of the title worldwide, Halo Nation came out in full force with millions of people around the world tuning in to live streams previewing the game’s content, and an estimated 285,000 fans lined up at more than 4,300 midnight madness retail events around the world to get their hands on the highly anticipated game.

“Halo has always been synonymous with Xbox,” said Director - Interactive Entertainment Business, Anshu Mor. “‘Halo: The Master Chief Collection’ allows us to thank our fans and celebrate with an amazing package that will introduce a new generation to the epic Halo universe.”

Happiest Minds Ranked Second Fastest Growing Technology Company

Happiest Minds Technologies announced that it ranked Number 2 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2014, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in India. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over three years. Happiest Minds grew 2,377percent during this period.

Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman, Happiest Minds Technologies, credits company’s sharp focus on disruptive technologies and a unique happiness and wellness centric culture, for the company’s 2,377 % revenue growth over the past three years. He said, “It is gratifying that despite so much competition out there in the market, Happiest Minds has bagged the second spot in this prestigious ranking.” 

India PoS Printer market records 55,322 unit shipments for 1H CY2014

India PoS Printer shipments were driven by thermal printers, which contributed 68% of overall shipments in 1H CY2014 with an impressive 17% sequential growth over 2H CY 2013. Impact printers, which contributed 32% of shipments during the same period, observed an 8% sequential decline over the previous half-year due to reduced shipments by market leaders Epson and TVSe.

Epson led the overall India PoS Printer market with a 45% share in terms of unit shipments during 1H CY2014. However, the vendor registered an 8% decrease in absolute number of shipments during

1H CY2014 vis-à-vis 2H CY2013. TVSe maintained its position at the second spot.

Social Routing in the Contact Centre

By:Dave Paulding

regional sales director UK & Middle East at Interactive Intelligence

Social routing is an emerging trend, a way in which contact centres can more accurately meet the needs of their customers. But how is this different from what we’re doing at the moment? The answer lies in describing the modern day customer.

New media - new environment

Consumers, especially the younger demographic, are more empowered today, through the use of technology and social media. When interacting with an organization about a product or service they increasingly using channels other than the telephone.

Instead, the proliferation of social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, web chat, video chat and other communication methods have seen a decrease in the use of the humble telephone. In addition, this empowerment has created a virtual buying experience online, characterized by more choice, and the availability of product videos, other customer reviews, descriptions, and technical information.

AccessData to split into two: AccessData and Resolution1 Security

AccessData Group announced the split of its industry leading businesses into two independent, global companies, AccessData and the newly formed Resolution1 Security. This new corporate structure will allow each company to capitalize on its unique business model by delivering deeper, more focused customer engagement and support.

The separation will afford each company the agility to move quickly and grow their distinct businesses. Each company will focus on its market dynamics and customer specific-needs while extending its technology leadership to transform the investigation and incident response (IR) markets, respectively. The company split will go into effect January 1, 2015.

Dell bolsters digital services and analytics software solutions

Dell introduced a series of solutions that help enterprises take advantage of analytics to enable improved customer relationships and transform data into actionable business insights. Dell Services introduced comprehensive, digital business services that help customers redesign business processes to improve operational efficiency and engagement at every point in the customer experience through digital technologies. In addition, Dell Software announced the start of a collaborative effort with Microsoft aimed at delivering predictive analytics in a hybrid cloud setting. Dell Software is also upgrading its Statistica (formerly StatSoft) advanced analytics platform with enhanced big data capabilities through integration with Kitenga.

Dell Services is focused on helping its customers in three primary areas: modernization, transformation and digital services. Today, the business unit has unveiled a new, dedicated service line called Dell Digital Business Services (DBS), which includes Digital Transformation Consulting and Digital Technology Services, to help customers better understand their end users’ preferences and transform business processes using digital technologies.

NetIQ gets Cisco Compatibility Certification

NetIQ Sentinel 7.2 has successfully achieved Cisco compatibility certification with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) through integration with Cisco Platform Exchange Grid (pxGrid). The Internet of Everything (IoE) continues to bring together people, processes, data and things to enhance the relevancy of network connections. As a member of the Cisco® Solution Partner Program, NetIQ is able to quickly create and deploy solutions to enhance the capabilities, performance and management of the network to capture value in the IoE.

For security teams, visibility into user activity and the context of those activities is critical in determining if behaviors are appropriate or if they could result in a breach. NetIQ Sentinel 7.2, a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platform that goes beyond the traditional SIEM capabilities, including the collection, monitoring, and analysis of system log data, integrates identity information as context into security monitoring data to deliver actionable security intelligence to security teams. Teams can then use this intelligence to quickly decide if user activities are risky, unusual or business appropriate, reducing risk of an external attack and identifying potentially malicious or accidental insider activities quickly. Now compatible with Cisco ISE, NetIQ Sentinel 7.2 provides network and security analysts the ‘identity context’ they need to rapidly assess the significance of security events, decreasing the time required to detect, assess and respond to security events.

Tom Klein moves to Persistent Systems as General Counsel

Persistent Systems has appointed Thomas alias Tom Klein to the position of the General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development. He will be based in the Company’s North American headquarters in Santa Clara, CA.  Tom is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Chicago School of Law.  He has more than 20 years of experience in technology law including an extensive focus on start-up and venture capital transactions, mergers and acquisitions as well as the domestic and international intellectual property transactions. Most recently, Tom was a partner in the Silicon Valley office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP and before that he spent 20 years with Wilson Sonsini  Goodrich & Rosati, the last 13 as a partner.

Lenovo launches zero percent financing for PCs in India

Lenovo rolled out finance schemes to sell computers in India at faster rate. The company is facing challenges due to low demand for computers in the countries as the population has surpassed computers to buy tablets and smartphones. In India current computer penetration is 10%, which is the lowest among developing countries like Vietnam (16%), South Africa (18%), Turkey (49%) and Malaysia (64%). For this scheme, Lenovo has joined hands with Intel in its effort to promote this initiative across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Lenovo will offer 100% financing with zero down payment and zero interest on the purchase of high performance laptops and AIOs. The company further says that the payment can be broken up across multiple EMIs with no interest fee.

InMobi increases to 872 Million Uniques

InMobi announced its network growth numbers. InMobi reaches 872  million active uniques spanning over 200 countries, bringing a truly global audience for advertisers wanting to reach their target consumers. InMobi now serves nearly 138 billion ad impressions every month.

Mobile brings an entirely new set of data and signals to marketers that allows them to do far more than they could  in other media. These signals include consumers’ location, mobility, the weather, and tactile elements. InMobi’s decision sciences enable creation of high-confidence Consumer Experience Profiles, which brings together a clear understanding of consumer preferences and how they vary across moments. For instance, InMobi Geo Context Targeting showed 2x CTRs on campaigns and comes with 651 million Points of Interest mapped across 50 countries. InMobi for Brands also has over 75 audience personas across 15 industry verticals.

Snapdeal.com launches Bigg Boss House, Online

Snapdeal.com has launched what it claims is a one-of-a-kind virtual Bigg Boss house on its website.

After successful integrations like ‘The Designer Studio’, ‘Order Order’ and ‘Bigg Boss Merchandize Store’, Snapdeal.com will now enable the consumers to get a complete 360 degree view of the Bigg Boss house and allow them access to each and every corner of the property. Users will also get a chance to purchase products similar to the ones on display in the Bigg Boss house. These products will include a range of home furnishing and home décor items, kitchenware and electronics.

Talking about this unique initiative, Sandeep Komaravelly, Senior Vice President - Marketing, Snapdeal.com said, “Big Boss 8 is only getting bigger and better with every episode. We joined hands with television’s most popular show with an objective of engaging with our audiences on a daily basis. The virtual Bigg Boss house will provide consumers with an option of buying the products as well, which is a very strong proposition for the users, given the popularity of the show.”

Opinion: Powering STEM Classrooms with Social Media

By Kathy Pretz, IEEE

Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and almost any other social media platform that comes to mind have found their way into STEM classrooms. Not because the students are peeking at their smartphones but because educators are using the platforms to add pizzazz to their lectures.

Whether through scientific experiments on YouTube, do-it-yourself projects demonstrated on Pinterest, or tweets about research papers, forward-looking educators are harnessing the power of social media and other technological innovations to inspire youngsters about STEM topics.

“We need to open the classroom to embrace technology, social media, online learning, the DIY maker movement, and all kinds of new things,” says Dusty Fisher, chair of the IEEE-USA Precollege Education Committee and a long-time STEM advocate. “We’ve known for years that if students are physically engaged instead of being lectured to or shown slides, they will learn more and retain more.”

Fisher and other IEEE members involved with STEM education are using social media in a number of ways.

Ericsson bags deal from Ozone Networks

Ozone Networks has signed a Small Cell as a Service agreement with Ericsson to provide a neutral carrier-grade Wi-Fi network across India.

Ericsson offers Small Cell as a Service with a variety of different business models to suit environments such as connected venues, connected streets and connected enterprises. This deal is an example of the connected venue application, as Ozone’s Wi-Fi network will serve restaurants, cafés, shops and malls.

Sanjeev Sarin, Chief Executive Officer at Ozone, says: “In today’s world, consumers like to be connected at all times, which means that network capacity becomes an extremely important factor. Deployment of Ericsson’s Small Cell as a Service offering will enable us to better manage consumer expectations in ultra-dense environments. The partnership will also ensure that Ozone is able to establish the neutral Wi-Fi model in India, which will help the Indian Government make the right to internet access a reality for every Indian.”

Keysight Tech signs MoU with IEEE India

Keysight Technologies announced that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with IEEE India to develop tools, programs and activities to help increase technical engineering capabilities In India. Their mutual interest is focused on workforce development, technical advocacy, and creating technical communities to assist the industry at-large.

The work will include private and government sector involvement to setup technical labs with state-of-the-art equipment, hosting seminars and creating certification programs to benefit engineering students across India.  Among the various programs offered will be the IEEE Labs Initiative and Wireless Certification and Electronic Test Program. 

“We understand that knowledge, skills and resources are critical to advance economic and industrial development in India,” said Mr. Sudhir Tangri, country general manager, Keysight India. “As the need for knowledge workers with high levels of technical and soft skills increases, we will require intensive focus on advancing the technical know-how and growth of individuals in test and measurement.”

IKYA Group forms Global Technology Services Group

IKYA Group entered into a definitive agreement with Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited to acquire a 49% stake in MFXchange Holdings, Inc.

The integration of MFX with IKYA will result in the formation of the Global Technology Services Group marking IKYA’s entry into IT Services and Solutions space in the North American market.

Based out of Morristown, NJ (US), MFX is a leading provider of hosted information technology applications and outsourcing solutions for the U.S. commercial property and casualty insurance industry.

Microsoft TechEd Conference kicks off in Bangalore

Microsoft is hosting TechEd, its largest annual technology conference, November 5-6, The Lalit Ashok, Bangalore. TechEd is Microsoft's premier technology conference and is expected to bring together over 2000 developers, technology enthusiasts and IT professionals, providing them with opportunities to learn about and explore productivity and endless possibilities in the cloud.

TechEd will be addressed by speakers and experts from Microsoft, its partners and leading research, consulting and academic institutions. The topics will address trends and developments in Cloud technologies like Azure, datacenters, SQL server, Internet of Things (IoT) among others.

Telefónica Argentina Selects Amdocs to Manage Business Support Systems

Amdocs has announced that Telefónica Argentina, the leading multi-play service provider in the country serving 27 million wireless, wireline and high-speed Internet customers, has selected Amdocs to manage a range of its business support systems (BSS) applications. The multi-year application management agreement covers key BSS areas including Amdocs billing and ordering solutions as well as interfaces to non-Amdocs legacy systems. This marks an expansion of Amdocs’ relationship with Telefónica Argentina for the previously-announced wireline and wireless transformation projects, which aim to provide a seamless experience across all customer interaction channels.

Under the new agreement, Amdocs will assume responsibility for managing, maintaining, configuring, testing and training across multiple Telefónica Argentina BSS systems, including interfaces to applications from third-party vendors - thus increasing Amdocs’ role in the overall transformation, enabling Telefónica to focus on its core business activities.