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Tag: software

  • From local to global: The digital evolution of Pashmina.com with VTEX

    From local to global: The digital evolution of Pashmina.com with VTEX

    Mumbai: The art of Pashmina, crafted with centuries-old techniques by Kashmiri artisans, represents a rich tradition of exquisite craftsmanship and cultural heritage. Each piece, meticulously handmade, embodies the delicate balance of artistry and skill passed down through generations. In an effort to preserve and promote this timeless craft, Pashmina.com has emerged as a vital platform, connecting these artisans with a global audience.

    To further enhance its impact and operational efficiency, Pashmina.com has partnered with VTEX, a leading digital commerce platform. This strategic migration from Adobe Commerce to VTEX signifies a new chapter for Pashmina.com, focusing on global expansion and streamlined commerce operations. By leveraging VTEX’s innovative technology, Pashmina.com aims to amplify its reach while continuing to support and sustain the traditional art of Pashmina through its commitment to its artisan community.

    Indiantelevision.com’s Arth Chakraborty caught up with VTEX general manager, EMEA & APAC, Prakash Gurumoorthy and Pashmina.com founder Varun Kumar to gain deeper insights about their recent partnership, recent product announcements and updates and more.

    Edited Excerpts:

    On Pashmina.com planning to leverage VTEX for its global expansion and streamlined operations

    We wanted to create a seamless online shopping experience for our customers from around the globe by optimising our website Pashmina.com for the international markets. The fully integrated and centralised order management system provided by VTEX is helpful for automating processes and analysing the performance metrics for customer delight. Having a single product portfolio while managing multiple markets with varied currencies & languages was surely the core feature that made us want to go ahead with VTEX.

    On Pashmina.com’s migration from Adobe Commerce to Vtex, and the benefits it anticipates from this transition

    As VTEX provides a single platform for commerce and marketplace functions, it is easier to analyse and reach out to specific customer segments with the niche of product mix we offer. VTEX has eliminated costly integrations like payments, CRM, and logistics by providing a fully integrated omnichannel solution for our business to run smoothly.

    On VTEX ensuring faster, high-conversion, composable experiences for both B2C and B2B brands, and its differentiating aspect in terms of user experience and conversion rates

    VTEX has ascended as the composable and complete commerce platform of choice for renowned household names in B2C and B2B commerce such as Samsung, Colgate, Stanley Black & Decker, Sony, Whirlpool, and many others, due to its ability to solve the diverse needs of global retailers and brands.

    As part of its core, VTEX’s composable and complete platform delivers a unified commerce approach, seamlessly intertwining online stores, marketplaces, and physical retail outlets to deliver a connected commerce shopping experience. This strategy fuels collaboration between VTEX, the vendor in this case, and its customer, which nurtures brand loyalty by providing a collaborative and seamless journey that resonates with today’s buyer.

    Supporting this approach is VTEX’s modular and scalable architecture, which significantly enhances user experience and boosts conversion rates by allowing seamless adaptation to market changes while maintaining peak performance. VTEX ensures that retailers avoid the overhead costs associated with extensive developer teams and ongoing maintenance. This efficiency translates directly into a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), as our platform empowers retailers with intuitive tools like FastStore. These tools enable swift implementation of changes, optimisation of product displays, and enhancement of user experiences without compromising on speed or performance. Thus, VTEX not only improves operational agility but also reduces costs, making it a superior choice for retailers aiming to thrive in dynamic markets.

    In order to showcase how VTEX can empower brands, we commissioned a “Total Economic Impact” (TEI) study with Forrester Consulting, which evaluated the financial impact and contributions of VTEX on businesses. The study found significant benefits for brands that transitioned to VTEX within three years, including $5.8 million saved by migrating from legacy digital commerce platforms to VTEX, along with a 133 per cent return on investment (ROI).

    On the recent product announcements and updates from VTEX, particularly regarding AI, security, and data enhancements

    As the comprehensive and composable platform serving enterprise businesses like Samsung, Sony, WhirlPool, and others, VTEX is constantly listening, reviewing, and gathering data on B2C consumer and B2B buyer trends. Additionally, we actively engage with enterprise brands to understand their needs, particularly in reaching new audiences, achieving sales targets, and integrating new innovations to unlock growth opportunities.

    As we are constantly responding to evolving demands and economic changes, we strategically utilise AI algorithms to enhance our offerings for enterprise brands to personalise products, collect valuable data on customer behavior, make informed decisions and optimise their marketing strategies and more to drive revenue forward.

    This is why we launched ‘VTEX Vision,’ a semi-annual product unveiling of cutting-edge solutions aimed at reducing the barriers to growth.  

    For our inaugural VTEX Vision, we created a comprehensive digital product showcase with solutions spanning advertising, data, security, software development, and more. Many of these innovations are embedded with AI integrations to empower both B2C and B2B enterprise brands to provide frictionless commerce for their internal team and buyers. Our latest AI-powered solutions include:

    AI-driven ad network: effectively manages ad space across digital stores using AI-driven optimisation. To maximise profits and simplify advertising efforts, it provides competitive auctions, precise targeting, and thorough ad campaign monitoring.

    WhatsApp integration for tailored sales: VTEX combines targeted campaigns, real-time campaign monitoring, AI-driven customisation, and personalised cart recovery messages with the WhatsApp Business Account builder. Personalised client communication is made possible by this connection, which improves sales conversion strategies.

    AI-powered intelligent search: Utilizing AI to discover patterns in user behaviour, this solution provides automatic find and suggest relevant synonyms for search terms to increase conversion rates.

    Live shopping with AI-powered live chat: VTEX enhances its popular live shopping product with AI-powered live chat to let users receive more prompt responses to their questions and requests during the live shopping experience. Conversion rates and customer happiness both rise with this interactive feature.

    AI is utilised in VTEX pick and pack operations to increase efficiency and decrease errors in fulfillment procedures. Reducing human error and enhancing the overall customer experience, it automates the approval or rejection of consumer return requests.

    These are just some of the ways we’ve built AI-driven solutions to streamline workflows,   tailor customer experiences, maximise advertising budgets and more. Our end goal is to ensure competitiveness for enterprise brands in the ever changing world of commerce.

    We have also introducted VTEX data pipeline to help customers gather all their data from their commerce operation. Unlocking actionable insights from digital commerce data is crucial for business success, yet high costs and complex integrations often pose challenges. VTEX Data Pipeline offers a streamlined solution for data sharing, ensuring secure and direct delivery of commerce data to your infrastructure. With a diverse range of datasets available, customise update frequencies and destinations, while maintaining GDPR compliance and data security. VTEX Data Pipeline empowers brands to access valuable insights, make informed decisions, and drive growth effectively.

    To fortify data protection and strengthen security across all modules, we introduced ‘VTEX Shield’ during VTEX Vision. This advanced security layer is meticulously crafted to elevate overall protection levels and enhance threat detection capabilities.

    VTEX Shield encompasses an advanced web application firewall (WAF) to defend against common online attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting, fortifying the security of digital stores hosted on the platform. Furthermore, VTEX offers a Pentest Readiness Service, allowing merchants to conduct regular penetration tests to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities, thus preventing potential security breaches.

    A key feature of VTEX Shield is its security monitor dashboard, providing real-time visibility into security events for swift risk mitigation. This comprehensive approach strengthens security measures, protects personally identifiable information (PII), and instills confidence in data security within the VTEX ecosystem, ensuring the safety of its customers and stakeholders.

    On Pashmina.com ensuring the authenticity and quality of the Pashmina products sourced from Kashmiri artisans, and some success stories or memorable experiences highlighting the positive impact Pashmina.com has had on their lives

    Each Pashmina we source from the artisans of Kashmir has a geographical indication seal from the ministry of textiles, government of India. This seal serves as the certificate of authenticity with a unique QR code for each Pashmina that indicates its purity. We work with over 100 artisan families assuring employment for both men and women in their families. We pay them upfront for them to have a sense of job security and make their living conditions better. This sustains their motivation to keep the dying art of Pashmina alive.

    On Pashmina.com navigating challenges such as competition in the e-commerce space and changing consumer preferences while staying true to its values

    To stay ahead of the curve, we try to keep our technology up to date for optimising the on-site user experience as per the shopper’s behaviour. The analytics help us to track the trends, drop-off points, and bounce rates for learning consumer preferences. We keep increasing our sustainable fashion product mix by adding traditional as well as contemporary Pashminas that attracts all generations.

    On how VTEX facilitates enhanced order fulfillment speed and efficiency through optimised inventory strategies and management updates

    Previously, enterprises managed their physical and e-commerce operations separately, leading to inventory issues and poor customer satisfaction, as deliveries were only handled by the e-commerce distribution center.

    Our OMS allows customers to integrate inventory from all distribution centers and physical stores, providing full visibility of inventory distribution. This integration reduces inventory breakage and offers multiple delivery options for customers, such as optimised delivery routes and in-store pick-up.

    With our OMS, you can track all sales from a single control panel, whether they occur on your DTC channel or through a third-party marketplace. Our native marketplace connection allows customers to list inventory on third-party marketplaces while maintaining a single source of truth, ensuring better operational control.

    Additionally, our native marketplace helps customers sell on external platforms and enables them to become a marketplace themselves, expanding their inventory without the burden of managing additional assortments.

    Furthermore, VTEX Vision, our semi-annual product showcase of innovative solutions unlocking growth strategies to boost conversion, recently introduced advanced functionalities for our VTEX Sales app such as efficient management of new product arrivals and top offers, the ability to recover abandoned shopping carts, and real-time inventory checks. These features not only streamline internal operations for brands, but also enhance the overall shopping experience for buyers. The integration of these capabilities within VTEX’s ecosystem ensures that businesses can leverage insights and utilize automation to deliver a seamless omnichannel experience that meets the evolving expectations of modern commerce.

    On ways in which VTEX empowers sales agents to enhance customer experience and increase customer lifetime value through improved access to inventory and productivity tools

    Our ecosystem includes sales reps who have a meaningful role in the consumer journey. We have been investing in connecting our customers’ sales reps across various channels, including call centers, brick-and-mortar stores, field sales, and multi-level marketing resellers. In addition to selling more, we enable them to take on other roles within the ecosystem, such as brand influencers, content creators, or part of the store fulfillment team. Our vision is that, in the long run, the sales app suite is so powerful and relevant to the salesperson that they will think twice before considering working somewhere that does not have it, as the software will provide them with so many new opportunities to sell more.

    Our VTEX Vision Spring 2024 announcement features an exciting update to help sales agents with our popular VTEX Sales app. The comprehensive tool is designed in managing sales processes and customer interactions efficiently. The recent updates introduced during VTEX Vision further amplify the app’s capabilities.

    New features within the VTEX Sales app include seamless integration with inventory management systems, ensuring real-time updates on stock levels. This integration enables sales agents to access accurate product availability information directly within the app, facilitating prompt and informed customer interactions. Additionally, we have introduced advanced functionalities for efficiently managing new product arrivals, top offers, recovering abandoned shopping carts, and checking inventory status.

    The VTEX Sales app is integrated with MasterData, consolidating all customer and order data. Moreover, it can seamlessly integrate with other business tools such as CRM software, payment gateways, and marketing tools, offering enhanced functionality and customisation options to meet specific business needs.

    Furthermore, the updated VTEX Sales app now incorporates advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms for inventory forecasting. By analysing historical sales data and customer behavior trends, the app generates precise forecasts for future demand. These predictive insights empower businesses to make data-driven decisions regarding inventory management, procurement strategies, and sales initiatives, ultimately enhancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

  • Our focus is to solidify Superbot’s position as India’s leading AI-powered voice agent solution: Sarvagya Mishra

    Our focus is to solidify Superbot’s position as India’s leading AI-powered voice agent solution: Sarvagya Mishra

    Mumbai: AI-powered voice agents are transforming the way businesses engage with customers, providing instant, personalized responses and streamlining communication processes across various industries. Amidst this transformation, Superbot, an AI-powered voice agent startup, founded by Sarvagya Mishra and Ankit Ruia in 2018, stands out as a pioneering solution.

    Based out of Gurugram, Superbot bridges the communication gap between organisations and their clients with its intelligent, AI-powered capabilities. With the potential to handle over one million calls a day, Superbot ensures seamless, 24/7 customer support, making it an essential tool for businesses looking to enhance customer engagement and satisfaction.

    To gain deeper insights into Superbot’s overall business framework and its solutions, Indiantelevision.com caught with Superbot co-founder & director Sarvagya Mishra.

    Edited Excerpts:

    On the inspiration behind starting Superbot in 2018 and the journey till now

    Our journey with Superbot began as a response to a challenge we faced while managing PinnacleWorks, our parent company in the education sector. Despite our diligent efforts and the deployment of dedicated counsellors, we encountered costly delays in addressing student queries, leading to missed opportunities and reduced conversion rates. This prompted us to conceive an automated chat agent capable of comprehending the sentiment behind customer queries and responding with human-like empathy. Initially designed for the education sector, Superbot quickly gained traction, becoming the preferred solution for round-the-clock customer query management among over 100 educational brands within a year. However, we soon realized that there was a need to proactively engage customers to boost ROI. This prompted us to evolve Superbot into an AI-powered conversation Agent, proficient in intelligent dialogues over telephony channels. As we transitioned Superbot into a versatile SaaS product, we expanded its capabilities to cater to diverse industries, addressing various calling needs from conducting large-scale surveys to handling critical tasks like lead verification and payment reminders. One of its standout features is serving as a 24/7 incoming helpline, guaranteeing zero wait time for user inquiries. This significantly reduces average handling time (AHT) and enhances customer satisfaction (CSAT). Today, Superbot is capable of managing over one million calls per day and supports 10 plus languages, with ongoing efforts to include more. It has become instrumental in facilitating seamless communication for businesses across India, and I am immensely proud of the journey Ankit Ruia and I (Sarvagya Mishra) have undertaken to make this vision a reality.

    On Superbot bridging the communication gap between organisations and clients

    Superbot bridges the communication gap between organisations and clients through its advanced AI-powered capabilities. Using cutting-edge natural language processing (NLU) and automatic speech recognition (ASR), Superbot responds to customer queries over calls in real time, reducing response times and enhancing satisfaction. In the education sector, it manages student inquiries, provides course information, and ensures 24/7 availability for prompt and accurate responses. Also it is being utilised by various organisations to verify their incoming leads on a real-time basis, and profile them, while saving 60 per cent of their counsellors time. In e-commerce, Superbot assists with product inquiries, order tracking, and issue resolution like returns or refunds, improving customer experience and reducing operational costs. Healthcare uses include patient queries, appointment scheduling, and service information, improving efficiency and satisfaction. With multilingual support, Superbot serves diverse customer bases, making it essential for organizations aiming to enhance customer service with faster, more accurate, and personalised responses, fostering stronger client relationships.

    On the unique features that Superbot offers to help brands stand out in a crowded market

    Superbot is a highly versatile platform, uniquely positioned to meet the diverse communication needs of various industries. One of its standout features is its in-house speech recognition modules, which achieve an exceptional accuracy rate of over 92 per cent. This capability allows Superbot to excel in understanding local Indian dialects and pronunciations, ensuring clear and effective communication with customers across different regions. Moreover, Superbot offers a user-friendly DIY platform that empowers businesses to customise their conversational experiences. This feature provides greater control and flexibility, allowing businesses to tailor Superbot’s interactions to their specific requirements without extensive technical knowledge. Additionally, Superbot supports over 100 use cases, demonstrating its versatility and adaptability across different industries. From e-commerce to healthcare, Superbot streamlines operations by handling tasks such as appointment scheduling, order confirmations, customer support, and more. This broad application makes it a comprehensive solution for businesses seeking to enhance customer engagement and operational efficiency. Furthermore, Superbot’s scalability is another key advantage. It can manage over one million concurrent calls per day, ensuring reliable performance even during peak times. This scalability, combined with its advanced AI-powered conversation capabilities, positions Superbot as a leading choice for businesses looking to improve customer satisfaction and stand out in a competitive market.

    On the role you see Superbot playing in the future of advertising and marketing

    At Superbot, we’re leading the charge in revolutionising advertising and marketing by capitalising on the increasing prominence of voice bots in consumer interactions. According to a Deloitte study (2022), it’s projected that by 2030, voice bots will contribute to 30 per cent of total e-commerce sales, highlighting the growing importance of voice-based communication channels in driving business transactions. With the voicebots market size estimated to reach $98.2 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 18.6 per cent during the forecast period 2022-2027, the opportunities for voice-based technologies like Superbot to transform businesses of all sizes are immense.

    At Superbot, we harness advanced AI-powered conversation capabilities to enable personalised and interactive engagement with customers. This empowers brands to deliver tailored messages and promotions directly through voice channels, enhancing customer interaction and conversion. Our 24×7 incoming helpline ensures zero wait time for user inquiries, significantly reducing average handling time (AHT) and enhancing customer satisfaction (CSAT). With our scalable and versatile platform, Superbot also supports various marketing strategies, from conducting surveys and gathering feedback to providing real-time assistance and personalized product recommendations. By integrating these cutting-edge capabilities, we empower businesses to drive innovation and efficiency in their advertising and marketing efforts, enabling them to maintain a competitive edge over their rivals.

    On Superbot ensuring credibility and reliability in the era of AI and deep fakes

    At Superbot, we ensure credibility and reliability in an era where AI is frequently misused through stringent security measures and ethical practices. We maintain data security with advanced encryption and hold ISO 27001 certification, ensuring secure storage and protection of user data against unauthorized access. Our robust authentication processes verify user identities, guaranteeing interactions with legitimate users and not malicious entities. We source information from reliable databases, ensuring responses are based on credible information and not susceptible to manipulation or misinformation. At Superbot, we also promote transparency by clearly communicating our capabilities and limitations to users, fostering trust. We adhere to ethical AI guidelines, ensuring our algorithms are fair, transparent, and free from biases. Continuous monitoring of performance and user feedback allows us to promptly address any issues that could affect credibility or reliability. Partnering with industry leaders and complying with regulatory standards further enhances Superbot’s credibility, providing a secure and trustworthy conversational experience.

    On Superbot enhancing customer engagement and retention for brands and transforming customer support for local businesses through AI-powered voice agents

    Superbot is revolutionising how brands engage and retain customers through its cutting-edge AI-powered voice interactions. It leverages advanced natural language processing and emotional intelligence to deeply understand customer queries and provide highly personalized, empathetic responses. This fosters meaningful connections and unparalleled customer intimacy, going beyond transactional interactions to cultivate brand loyalty and advocacy. Superbot’s multilingual capabilities ensure seamless communication across diverse regions, breaking down language barriers. By intelligently automating routine inquiries and streamlining complex processes like appointment scheduling or order confirmations, it drastically reduces response times, elevating customer satisfaction to new heights.

    For local businesses, Superbot offers a cost-effective and infinitely scalable solution for 24/7 exceptional customer service without compromising quality. Its real-time data access ensures prompt resolutions by providing the latest information. Additionally, Superbot’s feedback and survey tools enable continuous improvement, ensuring businesses can consistently meet evolving customer needs. Through its transformative voice capabilities, Superbot empowers brands to proactively engage customers, minimise churn, and build lasting, trust-based relationships. Local businesses gain a competitive edge by delivering unparalleled AI-driven customer experiences that transcend traditional limitations.

    On the impact of Superbot’s DIY portal on businesses of various sizes

    Superbot’s DIY (do-it-yourself) portal empowers businesses of all sizes to harness the power of AI-driven voice interactions without the need for extensive technical expertise. This user-friendly platform allows organizations to customize and tailor conversational experiences according to their specific needs, fostering a seamless integration with existing processes and workflows. For smaller enterprises, the DIY portal serves as a cost-effective solution, eliminating the barriers typically associated with implementing advanced AI technologies. It enables them to elevate their customer engagement strategies and deliver personalized experiences on par with their larger counterparts. Conversely, for larger corporations, the DIY portal offers unparalleled flexibility and control, allowing them to fine-tune Superbot’s capabilities to align with their unique business requirements and scale operations as needed. This democratisation of AI-powered voice solutions levels the playing field, enabling businesses of diverse sizes and industries to leverage Superbot’s transformative potential and gain a competitive edge in the ever-evolving landscape of customer experience management.

    On your future plans for Superbot, including global expansion

    At Superbot, our immediate focus is to solidify our position as the leading AI-powered voice agent solution in India. We intend to make an indelible mark across the nation by refining and augmenting our offerings to cater to the diverse needs of various industry verticals and regions. This strategic approach will enable us to gain a comprehensive understanding of the unique communication challenges faced by businesses operating in different sectors and geographic locations within India. By tailoring our solutions to address these specific requirements, we aim to establish Superbot as the go-to platform for seamless customer engagement and support across the country. Our commitment to continuous improvement will drive us to consistently enhance our natural language processing capabilities, expand our multilingual support, and integrate cutting-edge technologies to deliver unparalleled experiences for businesses and their customers.

    Once we have firmly established our presence and gained extensive insights from our nationwide operations, we will be well-positioned to embark on a global expansion strategy. With a robust foundation built on our success in India’s diverse market, we will leverage our expertise to adapt and localize our offerings for international markets. This will involve integrating new languages, cultural nuances, and region-specific communication preferences, ensuring Superbot’s relevance and effectiveness transcends geographical boundaries. Our global expansion plans will be driven by a steadfast commitment to innovation, collaboration with local partners, and a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by businesses in different regions.

  • Blockchain in telecom: Paving the way for secure, trustworthy data

    Blockchain in telecom: Paving the way for secure, trustworthy data

    Mumbai: Blockchain technology, renowned for its secure and decentralized nature, is making significant inroads into various industries, including telecommunications. The telecom industry, which constantly handles vast amounts of sensitive data, is poised for a transformation with the advent of Dhiway’s CORD blockchain. This cutting-edge solution from the Bangalore-based company promises to enhance trust and security in digital ecosystems, revolutionizing how telecom operators manage and exchange data within their networks.

    Delving deeper, Indiantelevision.com caught up with Dhiway co-founder & vice-president engineering Amar Tumballi.

    Edited Excerpts:

    On the business challenges that are being addressed by adopting blockchain/DLT in the telecom sector

    The telecommunication sector, a complex ecosystem of stakeholders, participants, service providers, and consumers, is at a crucial juncture. Designing applications and services around trustworthy data is a critical challenge. These data streams must be harmonised and have semantic interoperability and continuous assurance, making the adoption of blockchain a significant step forward.

    The adoption of blockchain in the telecommunication sector heralds a new era of possibilities. It paves the way for innovative businesses, such as caller identification services, leveraging reusable digital identifiers for IoT applications and services. The availability of secure, trustworthy data mitigates cybersecurity risks from data breaches and empowers a paradigm shift in application and service designs, including AI models and algorithms.

    Some immediate successes have been managing unsolicited commercial messages (or SPAM), infrastructure, and roaming profiles.

    On the ways in which CIOs and CSOs plan for the adoption of blockchain technology

    C-suite leaders lead initiatives that balance risk and rewards while devising an innovation-focused IT strategy. To effectively adopt blockchain technology, the technology stack must support strong collaboration and interoperability between services and functions. It is also important to adopt industry-leading best practices in infrastructure security and data governance to mitigate the risks associated with cybersecurity incidents. Lastly, shifting investments to a “blockchain-complete” solutions array would help build the momentum and technical capability within the businesses to benefit from the value of decentralised processes and infrastructure.

    On the necessary features and capabilities to evaluate in a blockchain implementation decision-making strategy

    A key driver in evaluating blockchain implementation is a fine-grained understanding of the use case and the business objectives that must be met. An agreement among the project stakeholders and sponsors on this topic can help drive the success of the pilot and production deployments.

    Blockchains enable a foundational digital infrastructure for the business – where the features of immutability and transparency provide the necessary attributes for provenance and authenticity. Organisations looking at digital transformation strategies and adopting blockchain technology must evaluate whether the codebase is available under a suitable open-source license and whether the project on which the enterprise product is based shows a vibrant community of participants. It is also important to ascertain whether some lighthouse deployments can support the choice of such blockchain frameworks. Token-less blockchain frameworks such as CORD allow enterprises to avoid the drama associated with tokens and crypto regulations while putting together a resilient infrastructure that is decentralized, secure, and extensible for many present and emerging use cases.

    On the role that large public cloud vendors play in shaping the adoption of blockchain technology in telcos

    Highly scalable, resilient, and large public clouds have enabled enterprises with the necessary tooling and infrastructure to quickly deploy, manage, and administer nodes that comprise the blockchain ecosystem. Elasticity, security, and high availability, including, in some cases, across cloud vendors, have enabled massively scaled blockchain deployments to service many use cases. In many cases, the availability of securely configured cloud infrastructure for federal/government usage has helped acquire necessary certifications, making these blockchain deployments suitable for government usage. Public cloud infrastructure brings developer-friendly standards-based tools, storage and computing resources, and redundancy, which makes it an attractive option for blockchains like CORD.

    On the regulatory issues that can be addressed through blockchain adoption

    Today’s dynamic digital economy is built around data – production, exchange, processing, and transformation of data drives applications and businesses. Quite naturally, the regulatory approach towards data governance is focused on data rights, consent-based exchange of data, anonymized and aggregation of data, and audit-readiness. Blockchain implementation can address multiple issues around data governance, including the very important one of enabling the logging of consent-based data exchange and abstracting the actual data through reusable digital identifiers.

    While blockchain-based systems enable friction-free transactions across trust boundaries, they also allow a more transparent application of governance mechanisms relevant to the jurisdictional boundaries where the services are available. So, regulatory and governance issues around data privacy, data security, and data access are also addressed in a scalable manner in blockchain infrastructure.

  • Siemens Digital Industries Software elevates Mathew Thomas as country manager & MD for India

    Siemens Digital Industries Software elevates Mathew Thomas as country manager & MD for India

    Mumbai: Siemens Digital Industries Software on Thursday announced the appointment of Mathew Thomas as the new country manager and managing director for India. Mathew succeeds Suprakash Chaudhuri, effective immediately.

    Bringing 30 years of industry experience to the role, Mathew and his team aim to drive profitable growth through customer success and by nurturing a high-performance organisation. Previously, Mathew served as the head of sales for the software and hardware business for four years, where he played an instrumental role in helping the India business witness significant year-on-year growth.

    “I am delighted to welcome Mathew as the country manager and managing director for India. His strong experience in business will help Siemens continue to develop solid relationships with our customers in the region, assist them in making the switch to a software-driven manufacturing strategy and open up fresh prospects for the market,” said Siemens Digital Industries Software senior vice president & managing director Asia Pacific Bas Kuper.

    Commenting on his appointment, Mathew said, “I am excited about the new role and thrilled to be a part of the Siemens digital transformation journey. I look forward to helping strengthen our client and ecosystem relationships in India that support our growth ambitions in this region.”

    Prior to joining Siemens Digital Industries Software, Mathew worked at Ernst & Young (EY), where he was part of the digital & technology advisory leadership team and helped to build and grow the technology business in India. Mathew also served as vice president-strategic industries with SAP, where he was responsible for building and growing the strategic industries unit. At Oracle, he worked as senior director of applications channels, driving growth for Oracle’s applications business. He has also worked at Wipro , Tata & Godrej in the early part of his career.

  • GUEST COLUMN: Why Software as a Service puts video service providers in control

    GUEST COLUMN: Why Software as a Service puts video service providers in control

    How can we increase market share? Can we meet the demands of consumers who want to watch high-quality video on any screen, anywhere, anytime? What should we do to protect our content, and build new revenue streams?

    These are some of the critical questions video service providers are continually asking themselves and us. And the Software as a Service (SaaS) model is proving it has what it takes to address these burning issues by allowing providers to quickly launch, scale and update streaming services and keep focusing on the right questions to stay competitive.

    Scaling ambition

    SaaS puts customers firmly in the driving seat. Flexible, affordable, and scalable – with the onus on the software provider to host and maintain the service – it means providers can start small and pay as their ambitions scale, whilst reaping the benefits of new product enhancements, features and functionality added as frequently as multiple times a day.

    Some early adopters are already turning their backs on inflexible, bespoke technology deployments and instead embracing SaaS solutions. Interestingly, we are finding these are not just those born-in-the cloud streaming services that might first spring to mind but also more traditional pay-TV providers and telcos.

    One particular factor driving SaaS demand is the increased appetite for TV advertising. Where once the focus was on subscriber acquisition and market share, broadcasters and other service providers are now demanding the flexibility to create new Avod and Fast services that help counter the cost of content. For example, a leading provider in southeast asia is deploying Synamedia Iris, our SaaS addressable advertising solution, to manage, deliver and measure advertising consistently across its entire subscriber base including set-top boxes with one-way connectivity. Synamedia Iris is a key area of focus at our R&D centre in Bengaluru along with the development of our other SaaS solutions, including Synamedia Go.

    Increasing modularity

    Until now, service providers have had little alternative to customised, complex deployments involving heavy Software Design Kits and pre-defined, sequential phases of testing with no overlap between phases. It sometimes takes many months for acceptance testing to support the launch of a single feature or a new device. In today’s rapidly evolving business and technology environment, that’s simply unsustainable.

    By contrast, the SaaS model offers flexibility, agility and Opex models that come with public cloud, service-based delivery and DevOps. With a modular suite of solutions, providers can start small, only paying for what they need, then easily add more packs or services as their needs evolve.

    And SaaS isn’t just for the big players. Its effects are disruptive because the entry barrier to these new levels of experimentation and creativity has been lowered and its modular nature opens up opportunities for smaller and non-conventional businesses.

    Our SaaS transformation

    At Synamedia, we are living and breathing multi-tenant SaaS internally and witnessing its power first-hand. As one example, in just the first six weeks of 2022 we made 130 discreet feature drops into production in our Synamedia Iris addressable advertising solution. In the previous generation software-based solution, we had releases every six months and our customers typically added two or three months of testing on top of that.

    In a rapidly changing world, this velocity and agility is game changing for us and more importantly for our customers. It has impacted every department in our company including the way we sell, support, and contract with customers. Where once our platform deployments were bespoke for each customer, with the SaaS model any customisation now only needs to happen at the edges.

    The result is our pace of change of product delivery has increased an order of magnitude over the last year. Importantly, we have also evolved our development approach to one that considers the complete customer experience. We are now more focused and efficient when releasing new features and everything is delivered with built-in market validation.

    Keeping pace with change

    Our industry is a late adopter of SaaS and one of the main reasons is that it requires changes not just within the vendor community but also within the user community. Put simply, users cannot realize the benefits of SaaS without changing their operating model to accommodate a high velocity and multi-tenanted approach, most notably acceptance testing.

    Those that don’t change will be outmanoeuvred by more agile competitors, maybe not in the short run, but inevitably over time. Those that adopt SaaS will give their subscribers a better service and will benefit from a much lower cost of ownership.

    Importantly, the product won’t just be better from a user experience and feature functionality perspective: releasing software in small batches that can be easily verified and backed out as necessary dramatically increases quality as well.

    And, finally, well-designed cloud-based APIs support a new level of openness that gives users the option of integrating point solutions or procuring suites of solutions from their preferred software suppliers. This openness is something that Synamedia has embraced strongly for its own solutions.

    Delivery the SaaS way has shifted Synamedia’s cultural mindset, and our internal teams have had to reorganise to support different priorities and responsibilities. In this golden age of content, where consumers want to change what and how they watch in the blink of an eye, it’s time for video service providers to buckle-up, rev-up the SaaS engine and make sure they’re not lagging behind.

    The author is Paul Segre, CEO, Synamedia

  • SES completes C-Band transition ahead of schedule with Harmonic’s XOS Edge Software

    SES completes C-Band transition ahead of schedule with Harmonic’s XOS Edge Software

    Mumbai: Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) has completed technology upgrades associated with SES’s Phase one transition plan for C-band spectrum in just nine months, it announced on Monday.

    This was accomplished utilising Harmonic’s XOS Edge software-based solution for satellite media processing and edge delivery.

    “Tight-knit collaboration between partnering companies led to a successful world-first deployment of software solutions for the transformation of C-band spectrum,” said Harmonic senior vice president – business development Jeremy Rosenberg. “Deploying software on off-the-shelf appliances for both the uplink and at hundreds of affiliate locations enabled rapid completion of this project, exceeding the FCC’s stringent deadline. It is a testament to the flexibility that Harmonic’s edge media processing provides and has opened the door to additional and ongoing opportunities with video programmers for new edge distribution strategies.”

    Harmonic’s XOS Edge media processing solution, integrated with encryption from NAGRA, enables satellite delivery networks to distribute video services with optimised bandwidth and improved quality utilising the inherent flexibility of software.

    “We are excited to lead this transformation for the communications industry and accelerate the path to 5G,” said SES vice president of technology Steve Corda. “Freeing up the 5G spectrum while maintaining the quality and resilience of critical video services was a significant challenge. We can ensure that millions of people across the United States will continue to receive high-quality programming.”

    The project aims at seamless transition for Comcast Technology Services (CTS) and its Managed Satellite Distribution affiliates.

    “The task of freeing up C-band spectrum was massive and complex,” said Comcast Technology Solutions vice president and general manager of the Communications and Technology Provider Suite Allison Olien. “We are in the midst of a significant technology change, and SES and Harmonic provided a clear and streamlined transition path that assures service continuity for our partners and customers.”

  • What’s Employee Monitoring Software and How Can

    What’s Employee Monitoring Software and How Can

    It Help Your Business?

    Since more and more business processes are being performed digitally, an increasing number of managers and business owners are looking for ways in which they can oversee these processes. Lately, a popular trend has been to use a tool known as employee monitoring software for precisely this purpose.

    You might have heard about this technology before, but if you haven’t used it yourself, it might be hard to comprehend what benefits it can bring to your company and, consequently, why it’s grown so much in popularity over the recent years.

    In this text, we’ll be discussing what exactly employee monitoring software is and how it works, as well as what benefits this system can bring to your business. After you’ve learned more, maybe you’ll even discover that implementing computer monitoring software could be a viable option for your company as well.

    What Is Employees Monitoring Software Exactly?

    Employee monitoring system is a business program that you install on every corporate computer you wish to track. Then, it automatically collects certain kinds of data from those computers, which you can access through a manager dashboard. The implementation is a very simple download-and-install process, and you can keep all the data on a secure cloud, or, if you wish, on the servers on your own premises.

    Employee monitoring software is pretty intuitive to use – it’s not made exclusively for those who are fluent in technology. You get graphs, timelines, statistics and other types of reports which reflect your employees’ performance at work.

    So, what kind of data does this software collect?

    The basic functionality is tracking which apps your workers are usings and which websites they’re visiting, and for how long. This gives you greater control over how your company’s time and resources are used. But there are almost necessarily other features that build up on this, so let’s mention a few of those too.

    Some platforms give you the functionality of time tracker software – you can measure time on different tasks, project duration, keep track of the budget and billable hours, and so on. This work time track feature is very useful is you want more in-depth analysis on your work on various projects or if you want to provide proof of work for your clients.

    Next, we have some advanced features of screen monitoring software, most notable of which are screenshots and keystroke logger. While the first one can be triggered manually or automatically, the second one is a bit more intrusive in terms of taking employees’ privacy into account.

    And finally, we’ll just mention productivity features, since they’re arguably one of the most useful functionalities of this software if performance improvement is what you’re looking for. These include active versus idle time, productivity reports and trends, daily timelines and biorhythms, etc.

    What Are the Benefits of Employee Monitoring Software?

    There are many ways in which this system can help your company move forward, grow and be more efficient. It all depends on what kind of business problems you wish to solve with it. Here, we’ll mention three broad categories of benefits that this software can provide.

    The first one is increased control over your employees’ digital activities. Just the fact that you can see what each of them is doing in real time and as historical data records can give you some sort of security that the time they spend working is really spent on the activities that provide value for your business. This software can also track attendance, which is one more thing that you can have more control over.

    Secondly, screenshots and other monitoring features can be used as an additional layer of data security. Even though it won’t be able to prevent a breach, it’s quite effective in discouraging malicious behavior, and can also be used as a tool during the investigation process.

    And finally, there are possible productivity improvements resulting from the analysis of employees’ performance with all the productivity stats and features we’ve mentioned earlier. Basically, if you know how to use these insights right, you’ll get to enjoy more efficient and less distracted teams.

    Conclusion

    All in all, as we’ve seen, employee monitoring software can be a pretty useful tool in many aspects. Improving your employees’ performance, increasing asset control and protecting your data are just some of the reasons why this system is so popular today and might be worth considering.

  • Infor appoints Dass as south Asian subcontinent V-P

    Infor appoints Dass as south Asian subcontinent V-P

    MUMBAI: Infor, a leading provider of business applications specialized by industry and built for the cloud, has appointed Ashish Dass as the vice president and managing director for the south Asian subcontinent. Infor software helps eliminate the need for costly customization through embedded deep industry domain expertise.

    Ashish will be responsible for further scaling Infor’s business operations in the region, driving the next level of innovation, growing a high performance sales team and partner network contributing to the next phase of growth.

    Ashish brings with him 20 years of international experience in P&L and Sales & Operations management, across both start-ups and established multinational organizations in the Enterprise Software Applications space across Europe, South Asia, Middle East & Africa. His previous roles called for diverse leadership, sales and business experience in the areas of ERP (Manufacturing, Retail & Distribution), BFSI (Core Banking, Treasury, lending, Investment Banking, AML & ALM, Analytics, CRM & BI), and professional & managed services. He has played major roles in directing organizations towards their growth paths, increasing sales and bottom line by establishing new growth markets and improving operational efficiencies. Prior to this appointment, Ashish has held senior management roles in 3i Infotech Ltd and Misys International Banking.

    Tarik Taman, general manager, India, Middle East and Africa (IMEA), Infor, said, “With a strong footprint in the region, India – which is leading the digital transformation wave and emerging as the fastest-growing major economy in the world – is a strategic market for Infor. At our ‘Inforum’ event in New York City recently, we announced plan to quintuple market share in the region by 2020, for which India will play an instrumental role. Ashish’s appointment is timely.”

    Dass, listed in the top 50 Indian influential leaders (2015) by Forbes Middle East in the Arab World, said, “I am certain that I will be able to further shape the success of Infor in the competitive Indian enterprise software market.”

    Infor automates critical processes for industries including healthcare, manufacturing, fashion, wholesale distribution, hospitality, retail, and public sector.

  • Infor appoints Dass as south Asian subcontinent V-P

    Infor appoints Dass as south Asian subcontinent V-P

    MUMBAI: Infor, a leading provider of business applications specialized by industry and built for the cloud, has appointed Ashish Dass as the vice president and managing director for the south Asian subcontinent. Infor software helps eliminate the need for costly customization through embedded deep industry domain expertise.

    Ashish will be responsible for further scaling Infor’s business operations in the region, driving the next level of innovation, growing a high performance sales team and partner network contributing to the next phase of growth.

    Ashish brings with him 20 years of international experience in P&L and Sales & Operations management, across both start-ups and established multinational organizations in the Enterprise Software Applications space across Europe, South Asia, Middle East & Africa. His previous roles called for diverse leadership, sales and business experience in the areas of ERP (Manufacturing, Retail & Distribution), BFSI (Core Banking, Treasury, lending, Investment Banking, AML & ALM, Analytics, CRM & BI), and professional & managed services. He has played major roles in directing organizations towards their growth paths, increasing sales and bottom line by establishing new growth markets and improving operational efficiencies. Prior to this appointment, Ashish has held senior management roles in 3i Infotech Ltd and Misys International Banking.

    Tarik Taman, general manager, India, Middle East and Africa (IMEA), Infor, said, “With a strong footprint in the region, India – which is leading the digital transformation wave and emerging as the fastest-growing major economy in the world – is a strategic market for Infor. At our ‘Inforum’ event in New York City recently, we announced plan to quintuple market share in the region by 2020, for which India will play an instrumental role. Ashish’s appointment is timely.”

    Dass, listed in the top 50 Indian influential leaders (2015) by Forbes Middle East in the Arab World, said, “I am certain that I will be able to further shape the success of Infor in the competitive Indian enterprise software market.”

    Infor automates critical processes for industries including healthcare, manufacturing, fashion, wholesale distribution, hospitality, retail, and public sector.