The Data Driver: April 2015

Thursday, 30 April 2015

Canon Launches 6th Canon Image Square in New Delhi

Canon launched the sixth Canon Image Square (CIS) In New Delhi today. Located in Janakpuri (G-10, Ground Floor, Vishwadeep Tower, Plot No. 04, District Centre), the store offers a complete range of photography and home printing solutions. The new store was inaugurated by Mr. Andrew Koh, Senior Director, Image Communication Products Group, Canon India.

AngelPrime and NASSCOM, in collaboration with UIDAI, will host an online “Aadhaar Application Hackathon” from June 6-7, 2015. Developers are invited to participate in this unique online coding event which will look at building compelling applications that leverage the Aadhaar platform.

UrbanClap has released its Android app making it even simpler for people to find and hire the right professionals for their needs. UrbanClap now provides trusted services across 40 categories including photographers, electricians, home cleaning & repairs, yoga & guitar instructors, and many more.

eInfochips has announced the availability of their NVMe Verification IP (VIP) and Post-silicon Validation Test Suite based on the latest available protocol standards (NVMe 1.2) from NVME.ORG body. This will accelerate product design schedules for R&D teams working on the next gen products, while reducing the product and performance risks. The eInfochips NVMe VIP will reduce the verification environment setup effort for ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) and FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) design verification. The eInfochips NVMe Post-Silicon Validation Test Suite will enable test scenarios including, and beyond the ones defined by UNH-IOL (University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab). The company also offers Design, Verification and System Validation services for NVMe based flash storage products.

MapR Technologies announced the integration of its utility-grade Hadoop distribution architected for real-time, data-centric enterprises with Teradata QueryGrid, providing big data across multiple data sets with a single query.

Black & Veatch’s application of drone technology to reduce the risks and costs of equipment tower inspections was recognized as one of the 20 Great Ideas for 2015 by the editors.

Infosys announced an extension to its partnership with Microsoft Corp. As part of this collaboration, the Finacle suite of solutions will be available on Microsoft Azure. This offering will allow banks to utilize Finacle’s award-winning solutions, along with the robust capabilities of Azure, enabling them to operate at lower costs and with greater agility.

Amdocs announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a substantial majority of Comverse’s business support systems (BSS) business unit assets for approximately $272 million in cash, subject to customary closing conditions. The Boards of Directors of Comverse and Amdocs have approved the transaction which, subject to the satisfaction of the conditions to closing, is expected to be completed before end of September 2015.

Microsoft announced new features in Windows 10 and unveiled a set of software development kits (SDKs) to help developers bring their code for the Web, .NET, Win32, Android and iOS to Windows 10. At the company’s annual Build developer conference, Microsoft also announced new Microsoft Azure data services for intelligent applications; Visual Studio and .NET tools and runtimes for Windows, Mac and Linux; and APIs that enable developers to build rich apps with Office 365.

Cricbuzz has been the dominant cricket destination on mobile, with over 1 billion visits during the World Cup alone. During March, Cricbuzz also extended its leadership to the web.

Leading technology analyst house, Juniper Research unveils the top 5 developments that will impact the smart wireless devices sector this year. GOQii is also featured in the list. Hope you find this useful.

Accenture and Top Banks Call for Applicants for FinTech Innovation Lab

Accenture and a group of 10 leading financial institutions today opened the application period for the second class of the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, kicking off a competitive search for the top financial technology (fintech) innovators in the region.

eInfochips has announced the availability of their PCIe Verification IP (VIP) based on the latest available protocol standards from PCI-SIG. The VIP will reduce effort required to setup the verification environment for ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) and FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) design verification by up to 10X. The VIP is aimed at reducing the time, effort and cost of building verification environments with re-usable building blocks for standard protocols. The PCIe VIP, coupled with eInfochips VLSI verification and VIP integration services will significantly improve the PCIe interfaces, leading to faster and consistent computing performance.

Adobe and Microsoft Corporation announced a strategic partnership that will redefine how enterprises manage their marketing, sales and services to better engage with customers across all touch points. The partnership will include the integration of Adobe’s industry leading Marketing Cloud Solutions with Microsoft’s best-in-class Dynamics CRM and allow brands to deliver experiences that take all customer engagements into account - from reach and acquisition to retention and loyalty. This new integration will help eliminate frustrating customer experiences that result when marketing, sales and service interactions are siloed.

According to new research from Saïd Business School, Oxford and Católica Lisbon Business School, businesses that extend high levels of trade credit to their customers and engage in foreign sales have stock returns that are strongly predictable based on the stock returns of their associated international customers. This means that firms that extend high levels of trade credit may be more vulnerable to shocks to their customers, especially during financial crises.

Microsoft India unveiled the ‘Build Your Business (BYB)’ curriculum for Indian youth, at the second edition of YouthSpark Live event in Bengaluru. A comprehensive package for micro and small businesses, BYB curriculum provides best practices, access to technology, and training tools to help skill entrepreneurs and grow their businesses. The curriculum will be available as a download for all non-profit organizations focused on empowering youth.

More than one in five companies that suffered DDoS attacks found that their problems continued for several days, or even weeks, according to a survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International. The consequences of a DDoS attack can range from limited access to online services to their complete unavailability, but even a small incident can lead to financial losses.

BlackBerry announced a limited period Loyalty Program on select BlackBerry 10 smartphones for its customers in India. Customers can now purchase flagship devices like BlackBerry Passport, BlackBerry Z30, BlackBerry Z3 and newly launched BlackBerry Classic smartphones at attractive prices. This exclusive offer can be availed only at Infibeam.com where existing BlackBerry customers can get a discount of up to Rs 10,000 on BlackBerry 10 Smartphones and assured JPMiles from JetPrivilege. The offer is valid till 30th May, 2015.

Arizona State University and edX announce the Global Freshman Academy, a program that offers a unique entry point to an undergraduate degree. The Global Freshman Academy will give learners anywhere in the world the opportunity to earn freshman-level university credit after successfully completing a series of digital immersion courses hosted on edX, designed and taught by leading scholars from ASU.

Rackspace launches green UK data centre

Rackspace has unveiled its new UK data centre. Based in Crawley, West Sussex, the 130,000 square foot data centre will help to meet the growing demand for managed cloud services in the UK and Europe. The facility has been designed with the specific needs of Rackspace customers in mind, encompassing top speeds, availability and energy efficiency.

Infosys Foundation USA, a non-profit organization focused on bridging the digital divide in America, has announced a partnership with Code.org to expand access to computer science education for millions of students across the United States. The program includes professional development for teachers, curriculum development and social outreach programs.

RAH Infotech claimed that it has achieved 74% Y-o-Y growth at the close of FY15. According to the company claims, RAH Infotech has tapped emerging opportunities in market verticals such as SME, Telco and IT/ITeS. The company has nurtured relationships with over 500 + partners PAN India. However, the company has not shared any revenue figures to match its claim so The Data Driver does not endorse its claims. You can check with the company

Indusface has worked out the potential threats that can lead to data breaches, along with ways to deal with these loopholes. While many organisations do understand the importance of sensitive information as most important business decisions are based on such data, not many organisations take proactive measures to protect the same.

CitiBank is all set to take the challenge posed by various mobile wallet players in the country such as PayTM and Freecharge. The banking industry is under huge pressure from new players in the market whose domain is not banking but are challenging banks a big way. Retailers are behaving like banks whereas wallet players are behaving like everything - banks as well as retailers.

Cadence Design Systems announced the Cadence Indago Debug Platform, a debugging solution which reduces the time to identify bugs in a design by up to 50 percent compared to traditional signal- or transaction-level debug methods. In addition to the Indago Debug Platform, Cadence also announced three debugging apps that plug into the platform and can be used with other verification tools to provide a single integrated and synchronized debug solution for test bench, verification IP (VIP), and hardware/software debug for system-on-chip (SoC) designs.

Elitegroup Computer System (ECS) introduced the mini PC - LIVA X, which it claims is a fan-less design, zero noise and power saving small-size computer. Adopting Intel Bay-Trail M SOC and 15W ultra-low power design; supporting Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Linux, and Ubuntu operating systems. It could upgrade to Windows 10 for free once available. Meanwhile, LIVA X supports USB 3.0 port, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connection technology, and can upgrade storage capacity via mSATA SSD. The most importantly is the size of LIVA X ringing in at only half a liter! LIVA X Mini PC brings a whole new PC experience to the world. Now as, LIVA X is available with sweet spot price as per Indian market expectations.

HyperX announced HyperX Savage, which it calls its next-generation SATA Rev. 3 (6Gb/s) SSD. HyperX Savage is powered by the Phison S10 quad-core, eight-channel controller delivering incredible read/write speeds for both compressible and incompressible data, as well as high IOPS. It replaces the highly successful HyperX 3K SSD.

Celkon Mobiles (www.celkonmobiles.com), one of the leading Indian mobile brands; today launched the new Campus A518. With this Celkon continues to deliver cutting edge features packed smartphones accessible to all income groups under the budget range. 5” Display with 3G video Calling camera is a powerful addition to a mid-range model.

New research from Oracle reveals that nearly 55% of millennials say a poor mobile app experience would make them less likely to use a company’s products or services. According to the global report, Millennials and mobility: how businesses can tap into the app generation, 39% of millennials would also be less likely to recommend a company’s products or services to others following a poor app experience, and 27% admit it would even give them a negative view of that organization’s products or services altogether.

SanDisk Corporation unveiled a new generation of its Fusion ioMemory PCIe application accelerators to dramatically improve performance, while helping to drive data center consolidation and lower total cost of ownership. The new Fusion ioMemory PCIe application accelerators—comprised of SanDisk NAND flash, and Virtual Storage Layer (VSL) data access acceleration software—deliver up to a 4x price performance improvement, with up to a 61 percent list price reduction over the previous generation Fusion ioDrive 2 product.

Ericsson ConsumerLab released a new report titled “The Changing Mobile Broadband Landscape” which highlights the evolving mobile broadband adoption and usage in urban India. The report focuses on consumers from different socio-economic backgrounds who are using mobile internet on smartphones. The study reveals diverse behavior and needs of different mobile broadband users and the need for service providers to offer personalization. Users’ needs are evolving as usage of services and applications on smartphones is becoming a way of life.

Quikr appointed P.D. Sundaras head of the company’s soon to be launched Services vertical - QuikrServices. As the head of this business which has very strong consumer appeal in India, Sundar will be responsible for further extending Quikr’s leadership by verticalizing its product as well as marketing and revenue generation for this category.Quikr has a large business in this category and the company’s step is in line with its strategy of going deeper in areas where it already has a leadership position in India.

HP unveiled new campus networking solutions and services that support customers on their path to a mobile-ready workplace that enhances business productivity. The new campus networking solutions - which include the HP 5400R zl2 Switch Series v3 Modules and the HP Network Visualizer SDN App - lay the foundation for simplified enterprise networks engineered for performance, security, visibility, and optimization of the digital enterprise. Software-defined networking (SDN) capabilities allow IT professionals to easily administer network operations and troubleshooting, as well as enforce security policies in a rapid, simplified, agile manner.

Power management company Eaton inaugurated a Mobile Technology Day at its office in Noida. The Mobile Technology Day is hosted on a fully equipped 45 feet long state-of-the-art trailer exhibiting Eaton solutions for the IT/ ITES industry and data center segment. The initiative is aimed at maximizing the combined strengths of Eaton and HCL Infosystems. This synergy is capable of supporting emerging trends and address rising challenges of the IT/ ITES industry.

Huawei unveiled its OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V3 mid-range storage systems (also referred to as the V3 mid-range storage systems). Carrying forward from Huawei’s overarching philosophy of ‘Making Business Agile, Making IT Simple,’ the launch focused on Huawei’s next generation IT storage solutions which are fuelling the power of data while also forming the foundation of Enterprise of the Future.

Ruckus Wireless signed a new distributor agreement for India and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) with Ingram Micro, a worldwide leader and innovator in technology and supply chain services.

Qlik Introduces Qlik Sense Enterprise 2.0

Qlik previewed Qlik Sense Enterprise 2.0, the newest release of its platform-based approach to business intelligence (BI) available in June 2015. Qlik Sense Enterprise spans use cases across the organisation ranging from self-service data visualisation, to reporting and dashboards, to guided , and embedded , all based on the patented QIX Associative Indexing Engine. At its Qonnections Global Partner Summit, Qlik previewed functionality in areas of self-service data preparation, integrated reporting, and new visualisations.

Envigo, a digital marketing agency, has announced that it has bagged the digital marketing contract from DLF. Envigo will be responsible for all DLF websites - the corporate website and 25+ group websites. Envigo will use its expertise in , usability and technology to enhance the search engine presence and the user experience of DLF’s websites.

GrownOut launches its referral hiring technology solution at the ‘SHRM India HR Technology Conference & Exposition’ organised by SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), India. This SAAS based online tool named “GrownOut” will help HR personnel across varied industries, to streamline and manage the talent acquisition process. Jeremy Ames, CEO of Hive Tech HR, a Massachusetts-based consultancy, Kyle Lagunas, Talent Acquisition Analyst at Brandon Hall Group and Sumit Gupta, CEO and Founder, GrownOut unveiled the product at the conference and exhibition.

The Muthoot Group, one of India’s leading business conglomerates, today announced their partnership with Wiki Technologies, Inc. of USA to open an US-India payment corridor by leveraging the power of the WikiPay platform. Under the partnership The Muthoot Group will initially market the WikiPay platform to its 22,000 employees and subsequently to its 6 million customers in India. Through the platform people residing in the US can use the WikiPay online platform to send payments to friends and family to any bank account in India and more than 8,000 cash pick-up locations across India. Ted DeFeudis, Co-founder and President, WikiTechnologies’ and K.R.Bijimon, CGM, The Muthoot Group announced the tie-up.

Fujitsu announced that it is adding new offerings for customers running or planning to adopt SAP® software, in a further expansion of its PRIMEFLEX portfolio of Integrated Systems. These additions extend the PRIMEFLEX brand, which has received a very positive response from customers and is emerging as one of the industry’s most comprehensive set of pre-configured and pre-tested ready-to-run systems for the business-centric data center.

Travel now has become more of a need than a luxury and Expedia applications are the perfect travel companion and guide which help you in seamless travel experience. Applications serve as a handy tool to make travel arrangements while you are preparing or already on holiday. In addition, it also ends the hustle & bustle of pulling confirmation emails to find flight and hotel details by allowing you to check all trip details in one place. To address travelers evolving needs, the Expedia smart device apps are specifically optimized for mobile exploration and browsing and introduce a handful of unique features.

The results of a new study commissioned by CA Technologies reveal that mobile and desktop applications have become the new battleground for brand loyalty. Software is the most potent factor fueling global competition, while consumers are becoming more discerning about their expectations from an application. The study shows that consumers in India no longer view applications as nice-to-have novelties but as a primary way to interact with brands and an integral component of brand loyalty.

HP announced new software releases designed to help organizations deliver mobile applications that delight customers and score 5-star ratings. The innovations harness HP’s unique assets in big data , application lifecycle management, IT operations management and security to enable organizations to accelerate the delivery of every phase of the mobile app lifecycle, from creation and pre-production, to delivery and post-production management.

Capgemini and IGATE have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Capgemini will acquire IGATE for a cash consideration of $48 per share. The transaction will amount to $4.0 billion and is expected to be immediately accretive to Capgemini’s normalized Earnings Per Share (EPS)[1]. The merger agreement has been approved unanimously by both Capgemini’s and IGATE’s Board of Directors. The transaction has also been approved by the written consent of shareholders holding a majority of IGATE’s shares.

AXIS A8004-VE Network Video Door Station is an open IP-based door station for two-way communication, high-definition video and remote entry control. It is an ideal complement to any surveillance installation and offers new levels of security for effective identification and entry control.

Infosys has been awarded a multi-year contract by House of Fraser (recently acquired by Sanpower Group China), to transform its multichannel business and IT infrastructure. The agreement was signed in the presence of Mr. Yuan Yafei, Chairman, Sanpower Group and Dr. Vishal Sikka, Chief Executive Officer, Infosys.

Samsung R&D India, Bangalore received the most prestigious National Intellectual Property Award 2015 from Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Industry and Commerce, at the ‘National IP Awards 2015’ in New Delhi. The event was organised by the Indian Intellectual Property Office and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Qualcomm Technologies announced a marketing program to introduce consumers to the innovative technologies and differentiated features of the OPPO R5 powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor. Qualcomm Snapdragon processors are a product of Qualcomm Technologies.

Amazon.in now launches Sunday Delivery across 100 cities in India. In line with its vision to be India’s most customer focused company, Amazon.in brings Sunday delivery promises for residential addresses for all FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) products at no extra cost. Customers on Amazon.in can thus count Sunday as a regular day for receiving deliveries from Amazon.in. Beginning with 100 cities, Amazon.in will continue to expand the Sunday delivery promise to other cities.

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