Thursday, 31 July 2014

Oracle claims to Simplify Migration to Cloud Applications

Oracle announced its Customer 2 Cloud Program in India. This initiative enables organizations to confidently embrace the cloud and use it to support business transformation initiatives. Speed, simplicity and flexibility are the key benefits that are attracting customers to this new initiative. The program addresses common financial and technical challenges organizations face in transitioning from on-premise software environments to the newer software-as-a-service model.

The innovative program gives Oracle customers the financial flexibility to determine their best path to the cloud by providing the ability to re-direct existing Oracle Applications investments toward Oracle Cloud solutions in a way that strategically makes sense.

IntellioCRM boasts simplicity

Promising to bring ease and efficiency to broker’s business - Intellio Consulting Pvt. Ltd., an end to end CRM solution provider; launches IntellioCRM solution for Indian Real Estate Consultants.

Tapping  the CRM sector, that currently stands strong with revenues worth over USD 111 million (Year 2011) and forecasted to grow to USD 179 million by 2014 , IntellioCRM is positioned to create a big opportunity in the Indian market. With India -the fastest growing cloud computing market in the Asia Pacific, as its target, the company foresees more scalability and flexibility in business applications.

‘The cloud computing market in India is poised for continued growth.Gartner projects the india CRM software market size at 15% of the overall Asia pacific (APAC) market ,second largest  in the region ,after Australia’, says Mr. Anupam Saha, Co-Founder & Business Head, Intellio Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Panel of Judges for Nikon Photo Contest 2014-2015 announced

Nikon India, the 100% subsidiary of Nikon Corporation Tokyo, leaders in imaging technology, is pleased to announce its selected chief judges and judges of Nikon Photo Contest 2014-2015. The contest which will be accepting entries from 15th September to 15th December, 2014 will be headed by two chief judges and a following panel of international judges to provide their distinguished assessments on all entries.

The judging panel for the global photo contest will be headed by chief judges Stephen Mayes and John C Jay, both world-renowned creative directors with vast experiences, for the photography and video categories respectively.

 Stephen Mayes, who will serve as chief judge for the photography category, is currently Executive Director of the Tim Hetherington Trust*1. He has managed the work and careers of top-level photographers and artists in various areas such as art, fashion, photojournalism, and commercial photography for over 25 years. In addition to serving as Secretary to the World Press Photo competition from 2004 to 2012, Mayes has written successful business plans and reshaped operations for a number of imaging companies around the world.

Amazon Appstore’s Essential App Bundle offers 29 apps for free

Amazon.com announced that starting Thursday, 31st July  (from 1 PM IST) to Saturday, 2nd August (up to 12 PM IST),  Amazon Appstore is giving away 29 essential paid apps worth over $100, for free as part of the Free App of the Day programme!

The Amazon Appstore App bundles provide a vast selection of interesting gaming, travel, utility and finance apps. Apps featured in this bundle include Bills Reminder, Sonic and SEGA All-Star Racing, Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 8thedition and Instapaper.

Ubank Boosts Customer Base With New Credit Capability Platform

Ubank, the worker and community banking and loan provider and Nucleus Software Exports Ltd., a leading provider of integrated software products and solutions for the banks and the financial services industry, have completed the roll out of a new credit and loan system. This initiative, which is part of Ubank’s five year strategy to grow its current portfolio to 1.5 million accounts by 2017, is powered by the best of breed lending technology solution - FinnOne.

According to Luthando Vutula, CEO of Ubank, “Ubank is the first bank in South Africa to implement FinnOneTM.  This new system is expected to increase our lending efficiencies exponentially and will also prepare us to leap into the future of lending. It forms an integral part of our 10 year strategy to grow our capacity to diversify and increase revenues whilst remaining the bank of choice for workers and their families.”

Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Maxx Mobile launches AXD21 smartphone with 20 GB Memory at Just Rs. 4020

Maxx Mobile announced the launch of their new model AXD21, which runs on Android KitKat Operation System and comes with 20 GB Memory. Available at an extremely affordable price of Rs, 4020/-, the handset will be offered exclusively on Snapdeal.com, India’s largest online marketplace.

Commenting on the launch, Ajjay Agarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of Maxx Mobile said, “We are delighted to announce AXD21, which is a combination of great features, best quality and attractive pricing. The phone is aimed at fulfilling the ‘value for money’ mindset of the Indian consumer and is all set to become one of the most affordable KitKat handsets. It comes with all features of the latest Kit Kat Android operating system, providing a rich consumer experience. We are glad to partner with Snapdeal and make our new offering easily available to our customers.”

Startup Village partners Getit to help firms reach new markets

 Startup Village, India’s first PPP model mobile-internet technology business incubator, has teamed up with leading digital information service provider Getit Infomedia to provide technical and marketing support to startups aspiring to make it big in the Indian and Asian markets.

As part of the partnership, Getit has launched a ‘ScaleIQ Innovation Zone’ at Startup Village in Kalamassery which will provide unlimited market access and mentoring to the startups.

“With Startup village attracting applications from across the country, the scale of operations at the village now provides leading technology companies a single window access to talent. We are happy to have Getit on board” said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman, Startup Village. “The partnership with Getit will help the startups to explore the market and gain access to different business verticals,” he added.  

RheinBrücke IT Consulting, Opens India Development Centre in Chennai

RheinBrücke IT Consulting, a Europe based Enterprise Business Systems and ITSolutions and Services company, announced the launch of its India Development Centre (IDC) in Chennai, India. It was inaugurated by Mr. Achim Fabig, Hon’ble Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany and Mr. Keith Deane, EVP & General Manager, International at Epicor Software Corp, today.

RheinBrücke also announced the setting up of a dedicated Migration Factory for Epicor’s EMEA consulting organization. The Factory will support Epicor’s EMEA Consulting organization to migrate/upgrade customers from Epicor e9 to Epicor ERP Version 10, Epicor’s latest and the industry’s most flexible ERP solution that is based on the five principles of Collaboration, Choice, Responsiveness, Simplicity and Mobility. Epicor is a global leader in business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organizations.

Xchanging names Richard Cornish as IoT head

Xchanging announced that it has appointed Richard Cornish as Head of Internet of Things (IoT) to steer the company’s services in the IoT space and drive strategic growth for Xchanging Technology Services.

Richard’s 25 years’ experience in connected technology started with the British Army, using remote sensors for surveillance, asset management and data gathering. After 10 years of service, he left to join Orange, running its Location Based Services proposition, which initially focused on delivering telematics services to the automotive sector.

Wishtel joins hands with Intel to offer Tablets PCs for Enterprises

Wishtel has partnered with Intel for its new range of IRA Tablet PCs for Enterprise Applications. Launched today, the product range includes two Tablets- IRA IA, operating on Android OS; and IRA IW, operating on Windows Tablets.

The new range will be powered by partner Intel’s Z2500 Series (Clover Trail Plus) Processer 1.2GHZ/2.0 GHz. and 3700 Series (Baytrail) Processer 1.3GHZ/I.8GHZ CPUs. The Tablets are available in three screen sizes, 7”, 8” and 10.1”.

A home-grown brand, Wishtel’s Ira range of Tablets PCs are aimed at providing a delightful user experience at an affordable price, ranging between Rs.7,000/- to Rs.18,000/-.

Amazon Announces Additional US $2 Billion Investment in India

Since its launch just over a year ago, Amazon’s marketplace (www.amazon.in) has grown to be India’s largest store with over 17 million products from a continually growing base of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, serving millions of customers across India and delighting customers with its guaranteed next-day delivery service. Amazon today announced that it will invest an additional US $2 billion to support its rapid growth and continue to enhance the customer and seller experience in India.

“After our first year in business, the response from customers and small and medium-sized businesses in India has far surpassed our expectations,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “We see huge potential in the Indian economy and for the growth of e-commerce in India. With this additional investment of US $2 billion, our team can continue to think big, innovate, and raise the bar for customers in India. At current scale and growth rates, India is on track to be our fastest country ever to a billion dollars in gross sales. A big ‘thank you’ to our customers in India - we’ve never seen anything like this."

SAP rolls out Cloud-Based Mobile Application Management

SAP  announced the expansion of the SAP Mobile Secure portfolio with the addition of mobile application management; a brandable, localizable and secure enterprise app store that makes it easy for companies to simply and proactively push their mobile apps into the hands of employees, business partners and consumers. The mobile place feature offers a superior experience for users and delivers apps, services and content in a simple way to both managed and unmanaged mobile devices. For managed users, it identifies when their device is out of compliance and directs them to download the appropriate mobile device management (MDM) solution, regardless of the MDM vendor, before they are able to install any apps. Mobile place is included at no additional cost with the purchase of SAP® Mobile Secure portfolio.

“Mobile for the enterprise has to be both intuitive and secure,” said Maria Yauger, director, Messaging, Meeting Technology and Web Infrastructure, Phillips 66. “Being able to manage our environment so that these two important facets of mobile come together is critical for the success of our mobility strategy.”

Wipro Partners with OpenLink

Wipro announced a global strategic consulting partnership with OpenLink, the global leader in Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM) software for the commodity, energy and financial services industries.  The services provided by this alliance will serve customers across the energy and commodity sectors.

This year, OpenLink has invested in building an alliance program that will support its accelerated growth plans and both companies will collaborate in the area of technological innovation as well as complement each other in terms of domain expertise. Wipro’s global delivery footprint will give OpenLink service spread across the world for its customers. Wipro and OpenLink will work towards creating service excellence for customers, especially in the area of testing services, product upgrades and support services.

Microsoft Azure powered e-Commerce platform signed on top retail brands in India

MartJack ‘Enterprise’ has signed on more than 250 Enterprise customers globally for its Multichannel Commerce Platform, making it the leader in the Enterprise eCommerce Platform space across India and Middle East. The company also said that moving to Microsoft Azure has helped Martjack ‘Enterprise’ acquire this large a customer base in record time.  

“The flexibility, scalability, agility and security offered by Microsoft Azure helped us focus on customer acquisition and bring in customized deployments at quick pace with minimal investments,” said Abhay Deshpande, Founder and CEO, MartJack. “Our core interest remains in fulfilling the needs of retail businesses and helping them to win in multichannel commerce world.  To achieve this, we were looking for a cloud platform that could power up businesses online, while also being flexible to deal with sudden growth and reduce investment in infrastructure.  With the migration to Azure, we have not just added more customers but also supported existing customers to enhance their eCommerce services to offer superior value to their end consumers,” he added.

Intuit to Acquire KDK Softwares

 Intuit announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire KDK Softwares India Private Limited a leader in providing professional tax solutions in India. This acquisition will further strengthen Intuit’s commitment of becoming the ecosystem behind small business success and establishes a strong position for the company to reach accountants in India. Intuit looks to add a significant base of over 20,000 of KDK Softwares’s customers.  KDK Softwares states that with its current market base it is serving 1 in 5 practicing chartered accountants in India.

Intuit will also expand its portfolio of offerings to include simplified tax filing for accountants, bookkeepers and their small business clients. KDK Softwares is a leading provider of professional tax computation and e-filing solutions, both in desktop and cloud models, with a base of over 100 channel partners in over 60 cities in India.  

Survey: NSA, Retail Breaches Influenced Corporate Security Strategies the Most

Sixty eight per cent of businesses stated that the NSA breach by Edward Snowden and the number of retail/point of sale (PoS) system breaches in the past year were the most impactful in terms of changing security strategies to protect against the latest threats. The findings are part of CyberArk’s 8th Annual Global Advanced Threat Landscape survey - developed through interviews with 373 C-level and IT security executives across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. The full survey can be downloaded for free here. 

The majority of organisations surveyed believe that attacks reaching the privileged account takeover stage are the most difficult to detect, respond to and remediate. While the NSA breach is widely regarded as the prototypical insider-based attack, and the retail/PoS breaches are regarded similarly for outside attacks, the critical link between both attacks was the compromise and exploitation of privileged credentials. 

Strontium launches its Nitro MicroSD with OTG Card Reader - Mobile Kit

Strontium is set to launch its superior mobile data solution - the Nitro MicroSD with an OTG Card Reader - Mobile Kit, in the Indian market. The UHS-1 microSDHC/SDXC Flash Memory Card enables consumers to store HD pictures, videos and mp3 files and use them on their smartphones, tablets, GPS, and digital camcorders.

The Class 10 microSD card maximizes the UHS-1 technology for outstanding NITRO performance, and guarantees performance of at least 85MB/s (566X) read transfer speed. It also contains storage up to 960 minutes of 1080p HD video, 26,208 photos, or 16,000 MP3 songs.

Cyan signs MOU with Ecolibrium Energy

Cyan Technology Ltd., an integrated system and software design company delivering mesh based flexible wireless solutions for utility metering and lighting control, today announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ecolibrium Energy Private Limited (“Ecolibrium”) to enter into a partnership to develop, market and deploy integrated smart metering solutions in India.


Ecolibrium and Cyan, as a consortium, will tender for a number of smart metering projects in India. The consortium’s solution will provide seamless integration between Cyan’s sub GHz wireless communication platform, delivering last mile connectivity, and Ecolibrium’s smart grid platform, GridSense. This will enable utilities to track all existing meters in the network and monitor their usage, allowing timely and accurate billing for customers and leading to improved revenue assurance for electricity distributors.

GreenField Software to embed Intel DCM

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software provider, GreenField Software, has embedded Intel DCM: Energy Director into its comprehensive DCIM suite GFS Crane.

GFS Crane is an ERP for Data Centers, allocating and optimizing key resources - power, space, cooling and networks. The software from India-based GreenField Software helps data centers control capital costs, reduce operating expenses, and mitigate the risks of data center failures.