Blue Slate Acquired by BPO Firm EXL

Business process solutions company EXL has acquired New York-based Blue Slate Solutions to enhance its business process management capabilities.

Through this acquisition, the Nasdaq-listed EXL will also strengthen its ability to apply technology solutions to improve clients’ business operations.

“This acquisition brings us a set of domain experts who have significant experience advising large enterprises, optimising their business processes and also architecting and implementing changes to their technology applications and infrastructure,” Rohit Kapoor, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, EXL, said.

Blue Slate specialises in transforming operations through business process optimisation, data integration and analytics, leveraging innovative techniques and technologies, he said.

It has domain experience and success in delivering services within insurance, financial services and manufacturing industries and the team is comprised of industry leaders who come from senior positions within healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and software industries.

Its clients include 11 Blue Cross Blue Shield organisations, national and Governmental health plans and multiple Fortune 500 organisations.

EXL recently unveiled its Business EXLerater Framework, which combines operations management expertise, sophisticated analytics and technology tools to reduce costs and improve performance for clients.

Volvo Adds More Cities To Its Intra-City Travel In India

In June, Puducherry and Solapur became two new cities to opt for Volvo 8400 city buses, while Kolkata augmented its existing fleet of Volvo city buses. With this, the presence of Volvo in the high-performance city bus segment in India expands to 15 cities.  

Volvo is among the first to be ready and commence delivering city buses under the recent Urban Bus Specification (UBS) scheme to State Transport Undertakings (STUs). 

By end of this year, one can expect to see more cities in India opting for Volvo city buses, besides existing cities working towards augmenting their current fleets. 

The new Volvo 8400 city bus, built to meet the current Urban Bus Specifications comes with a host of new features, and enhances standards in safety, and passenger convenience & comfort.

This includes features such as rear under-run protection; lateral protection; wider wheel chair ramps; walking crutch holders for passengers with special needs; new high-comfort seats with headrest & greater reclining; automatic fire detection & suppression system in the engine area and finally on-board telematics for better passenger information systems.

Xerox Rolls Out Next Generation MPS In India

Xerox India, a part of Xerox Corporation, the world's leading enterprise for business process and document management services expanded its services offering with the launch of Next Generation MPS for the India market. The Next Generation MPS is designed to build momentum and deliver new value that help customers of all sizes realize cost savings upto 30% with increase efficiencies, allowing them to focus on their core business. Xerox’s Next Generation MPS is an innovative solution with a shift in focus from optimizing printer fleets to optimizing business processes.

“As an enterprise’s knowledge capital grows – in both paper and electronic form – the challenge of unlocking it increases exponentially. Without proper management it becomes lost; since it lives in so many places and formats,” said Vishal Awal, Executive Director-Services, Xerox South Asia. “Our three-stage strategy – assess and optimize, secure and integrate, and automate and simplify – continues to evolve with these new offerings. The enhancements help clients manage their information demands more effectively, especially in the area of security and automating document workflows.”

He also added “As per E&Y survey, the Indian MPS market is slated to grow at 30% CAGR to $250Mn by 2015. This obviously presents a great opportunity for Xerox Corp. The enterprise and SME landscapes are changing and more and more customers are shifting from a Cap-Ex driven captive print infrastructure to an Op-Ex led Managed Print Services model. While we have seen good traction of MPS in verticals like BFSI and Telecom, other verticals viz Consumer Goods, Retail, Manufacturing, healthcare and Utilities are also showing great promise towards MPS adoption.”

Xerox’s MPS portfolio is designed to:

·* Analyze how and why documents are printed, and use that analytical intelligence to change the way information is accessed. It is way beyond merely managing customers’ existing fleet

* Enhance information security without disrupting the IT infrastructure

* Make mobile/cloud printing easier and more convenient

* Evaluate, simplify and improve everyday document-intensive business processes through workflow automation.

Alcatel-Lucent Addresses Challenge With New Switch, Analytics & SDN Capabilities

The Enterprise division of Alcatel-Lucent is today launching in India new technologies to address the challenges created by pervasive mobility and the explosion of new applications being introduced within enterprises. This comes amidst IDC predictions that the enterprise mobility sector in the Asia-Pacific region is set to boom, and is expected to reach a value of $2.3 billion by 2017.

As part of its Unified Access approach for both wired and wireless networks, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise has introduced an innovative access switch and additional network capabilities. This will give IT departments across India and the Asia-Pacific region more visibility and control of the network, while employees and customers will gain flexibility to use the applications they need.

Fueled by cloud services, a booming smartphone market growing at 166.8%and the ‘BYOD’ phenomenon in India, the number and type of applications used in enterprises is growing, requiring IT teams to be armed with new tools and capabilities that ensure business goals are met and the network remains secure.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is adding deep packet inspection at the wired and wireless access layer, expanding its Application Fluent Network capabilities. It can now consolidate this information with network analytics tools that help IT teams gain improved visibility into the applications, and also create policies and enforce them at the edge of the network to secure and optimize delivery of applications to employees and customers.

Additionally, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise helps businesses create more agile networks needed to deploy applications now that its entire portfolio has Software Defined Networking (SDN) capabilities. Its end-to-end SDN architecture is completed in this launch with the support of SDN interfaces reaching across the access, to the core and into the data center, providing customers investment protection and enabling interoperability with third-party solutions. The SDN capabilities include REST API’s, OpenFlow 1.0/1.3 and the ability to leverage OpenStack plug-ins for full orchestration across the entire network. 

Product details:

OmniSwitch 6860

The new OmniSwitch 6860 (OS6860) family, with embedded analytics and programmability is one of the industry’s most advanced gigabit access switches. Highlights include:

* An innovative ASIC and coprocessor providing wire-rate deep packet inspection (DPI) and policy enforcement right at the edge of the network. IT has more visibility of applications being used, how much bandwidth is being consumed, and the immediate ability to enforce policies to control prioritization, QoS and security.

* SDN-enabled with the support of OpenFlow and OpenStack.

* OmniSwitch 6860 models also support four unique 1G PoE ports that offer up to 60W Power over Ethernet (PoE) to support next generation devices that require high power, such as small cells that combine cellular and Wi-Fi, and high definition video surveillance cameras.

* The OmniSwitch 6860 is also data center and IT friendly: All ports are in the front, with front-to-back cooling and an innovative Bluetooth management connection so smart devices can be used to manage the switch. In addition, it can be used in the data center as a 1GbE top-of-rack switch.

Wireless LAN

Building on its Unified Access approach, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise makes every network service offered consistently available on the wired and wireless network. The enhancements include:

* DPI capability of up to 1500 applications and programmability support on Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OmniAccess WLAN controllers.

* New OmniAccess Access Points to better address the growing adoption of Gigabit wireless (802.11ac) and the diverse deployment needs with outdoor AP, low cost APs and Instant APs.

* The Aruba Networks’ AirGroup service enhancements to support Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) devices. Customers can use consumer devices for screen-sharing and media-streaming in the corporate network not only from Apple but also from manufacturers like Sony, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, etc. AirGroup enables end users and IT administrators to self-register devices and define who can access them. In the higher education environment, students can register their printers, TVs, games consoles, and other consumer devices, and set access limits for select friends’ use, all without IT involvement.

OmniVista 2500 Network Management System

OmniVista is redesigned to better support network analytics and provide the foundation for future consumption models as more enterprises move toward cloud-based services. The new OmniVista 2500 provides:

·         Multi-tenancy and a distributed architecture for resilience, scalability, and future cloud-based service offers.

·         Open northbound/southbound APIs for future interoperability in an SDN architecture.

·         New Web-based user interface allows IT to access the NMS from any device such as tablets and smartphones, anywhere.

·         Unified policy engine and cohesive visibility of both wired and wireless networks simplifies IT operations.

·         Centralized network analytics for wired and wireless provides IT a comprehensive view of the users, devices and applications in the network and enables them to apply the appropriate policies to the network devices.

Narendra Modi - Third Most Followed World Leader Twitter Account

Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi is now the third most followed world leader on Twitter after overtaking Indonesian President S B Yudhoyono today.

Modi (https://twitter.com/narendramodi) has around 5,087,980 followers to Yodoyono’s- 5,08743 followers (https://twitter.com/SBYudhoyono) as of 1pm IST today. Only the President of the United States Barack Obama and the Pope have more followers on Twitter.

This shows how Mr Modi has been actively using Twitter to connect with the masses reinforcing the tool of digital diplomacy in a larger context making the social media platform a powerful channel for communicating and engaging with all Indians across the country.

There were nearly 60 million elections-related Tweets during the Lok Sabha elections this year. Narendra Modi was the top elections-related term on Twitter during the entire polling period, more than AAP and INC combined. On Counting Day itself, Narendra Modi and BJP accounted for over half of the 2 million elections-related Tweets. His Twitter account (@narendramodi) has grown by more than 1 million followers since his election win, while the official account of the Prime Minister’s office (@PMOIndia) has grown more than 40% since his swearing-in ceremony. , His election victory Tweet remains the most retweeted Tweet of all time from India.

Some key tweets by Mr Narendra Modi

https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/467192528878329856

https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/482132959512637440

https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/478231592372953088

https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/475665477272743936

https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/474507718699384832

https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/468078410871226368

Idea & Quikr Now Offer Sponsored Opera Web Pass

Idea Cellular, India’s 3^rd-largest mobile operator and Opera Software have joined hands with Quikr, India's largest online mobile classifieds portal to offer sponsored mobile data through Sponsored Web Passes for over 137 million Idea customers in India. The tri-partnership is aimed at enabling more Indians to get online and experience the power of the internet on their mobile phones, the first such initiative in South Asia.

A web pass is a great alternative to monthly data plans for consumers who do not require full-time internet access. Opera partnered with Idea earlier this year to bring this innovative solution to Opera Mini users in India. This solution provides affordable internet packages, tailor-made to enable Idea subscribers to enjoy internet access for particular timelines or websites, such as Facebook access for a day or internet access for an hour at just Re. 1. Web passes allow transparent, self-explanatory transactions, along with affordable and controllable pay-as-you-go features.

With Sponsored Web Pass, Idea subscribers will enjoy internet on their mobile phones, sponsored by Quikr. To get sponsored web access, Idea users just need to open Opera Mini and click the “Idea Web Pass” Speed Dial entry, then select the “Free Internet by Quikr (10 MB)” web pass option. From there, users will be able to enjoy 10 MB of sponsored internet access on their mobile phones for an entire day.

Speaking about the association, Sashi Shankar, Chief Marketing Officer, Idea Cellular, says, “Data is going to be the next big game changer in the Indian telecom industry. However, there are certain entry-level barriers that must be overcome for mass adoption. The web pass concept has helped us surpass the barrier of cost and convenience and has led to a spike in the number of data users on our network. Now, with Sponsored Web Pass, we are confident that even more non-data users will come on board and enjoy the amazing world of internet on their mobile phones, while also giving an opportunity to advertisers to gain instant connect with consumers using the mobile platform.”

Sunil Kamath, Vice President for South Asia at Opera Software, says, “At Opera, we are always looking for new ways to break the barriers for internet access and ensure that more and more people get connected to the web. In line with that, we are extremely happy to deploy our first-ever Sponsored Web Pass in South Asia, with Idea and Quikr.

Kamath adds, “This revolutionary tool helps operators expand the reach of mobile internet to many more new users, who might otherwise be wary of spending on data plans. It’s a great avenue for advertisers as well, who gain an extremely positive brand association with millions of consumers through Opera Mini. Consumers love sponsored internet access, which is increasingly becoming a necessity today. Sponsored Web Pass is a win-win for everyone.”

Pranay Chulet, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Quikr.com says, “We are very excited to partner with Opera and Idea for this groundbreaking solution. Today, Indian consumers are increasingly using their mobile phones to reach out to all kinds of products and services. Given Opera Mini’s massive popularity in India, this is a great opportunity for us to connect with new consumers and create mindshare through this new platform of advertising, which directly benefits consumers, as well.”

Paytm Partners With Cleartax.in For Income Tax Filling

  

Paytm, India’s largest mobile commerce platform, has added Income Tax filing to its bouquet of services. It has tied up with ClearTax to enable Paytm users to file their tax returns free of cost and hassle free. The single-click tax filing experience enhances customer experience for a difficult process like tax payments – Paytm leading from the front again with the user experience and ease of payments

Shankar Nath, Senior Vice President, Paytm said, “It is our constant attempt to make things simpler and easy for our customers. We are right in the middle of the tax-filing season, and the online tax filing facility will make it convenient for our users. . The partnership with ClearTax  is in its second year and it blends perfectly with our objective of offering simple and uncomplicated  tax filing solutions for our users. The ‘Income Tax’ tab on Paytm.com helps customers navigate through the maze of tax slabs, making this otherwise lengthy process uncomplicated and convenient.”

To start e-filing of the taxes, all one needs to do is click on the ‘Income Tax’ tab on Paytm. After signing in on the Paytm account, one can choose to either upload a soft copy of the Form 16 or go through the simple step-by-step guide for filling the form. Both processes are simple and super fast. Additionally, one can also solicit the services of a Chartered Account for a nominal fee.

For Paytm users, the process of filing Tax Returns is truly not taxing anymore. All they need to do is log on through their Paytm account to simplify the daunting task of filing mandatory IT returns!     

New Colourful Lineup of Consumer Notebook PCs From HP

HP has unveiled its latest range of consumer notebook and touch convertible PCs, and a variety of colourful accessories delivering new eye-catching options for consumers in India to express their unique style and personality.  The new HP Pavilion Notebook Series, HP Pavilion x360, HP Pavilion 23 All-in-One and the HP ENVY 15 Notebook PC were showcased today at the HP APJ Media Summit 2014 in Mumbai.

“Consumers in India are looking for devices that enable them to express their personality without compromising performance,” said Ketan Patel, Director, Computing Category, Printing and Personal Systems, HP India. “Our latest line-up of consumer PCs delivers innovative design and a broad range of colour options that drive creativity and productivity.”

HP Pavilion 14 and HP Pavilion 15 Notebook PCs

The new HP Pavilion Notebook Series provides all the benefits of a desktop PC in a sleek, colourful package. The devices feature a fashionable uni-body design that allows for less flex and stress on the device. The thin and light notebook PCs are designed for users who want a combination of high performance and stylish design. The new range comes in a variety of colours including Natural Silver, Snow White, Aqua Blue and Vibrant Red. With Beats Audio and dual speakers, the HP Pavilion Notebook series delivers the best-sounding, richest audio on a PC. The notebooks also deliver the speed required for day-to-day work with industry-leading processors. The new HP Pavilion Notebooks are now available for Rs 39,990.

HP Pavilion x360

Designed for productivity and entertainment, the HP Pavilion x360 is a touch convertible PC featuring a 360-degree hinge that enables users to easily convert from notebook to a stand, tent or tablet mode. Music lovers will enjoy its powerful entertainment performance featuring built-in Beats Audio, dual speakers designed for great sound in any position, and an optimized touch screen. The HP Pavilion x360 is a Windows 8 device featuring an 11.6-inch LED antiglare widescreen, Pentium Quad Core Bay-Trail processor and 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard disk drive. The HP Pavilion x360 is priced at Rs 39,990 and is currently available in the Indian market.

HP ENVY 15 Notebook PCs 

The HP ENVY 15 Notebook PC is a powerful device, optimized for the ultimate Windows 8.1 touch experience, with a Full HD touchscreen display. Featuring the HP Control Zone trackpad optimized for Windows 8, the new HP ENVY Notebook allows easy navigation for the most comfortable user experience. The new HP ENVY Notebook also enables extra enjoyment with up to 1.5TB of additional storage for more music, videos, and photos. Dual speakers and a subwoofer deliver a premium Beats Audio experience. The HP Envy 15 will be available in India from July20 starting from Rs 62,990.

HP Pavilion 23 All-in-One Desktop – HP Pavilion 23 AiO Desktop is designed for entertainment and is easy to set-up. With a high-definition touchscreen and webcam, the compact desktop is ideal for movie viewing and web chatting. The 23-inch all-in-one has an intuitive touch technology and makes it a complete entertainment device to listen to your favourite music and play your favourite games. The desktop with a slim and trendy design will be available in the market from July 20 for Rs 67,990.

Amplifying the HP Experience

HP unveiled a variety of fun and stylish accessories including speakers, headphones and headsets to match its new colourful Notebook PC range. The impressively compact palm-sized USB and Bluetooth enabled speakers are technically engineered to deliver optimal sound quality. The colourful HP Headset range allows you to listen, game and chat with amazing sound clarity.  The speaker range starts from Rs 1,200 while the HP headphones and headsets range starts from 1,900 The wireless speakers and headphones will be available in Indian market from August 7, 2014.

Extending colour even further to the HP Slate and HP Slate VoiceTabs, five new coloured back covers have also been released. The back covers come in pink, purple, green, blue and white and will be available in the Indian market from August 10, 2014 for Rs 1,199.

Adobe Hosts Symposium For Over 350 Photographers

In concordance with its vision of empowering the creative community, Adobe  organized a Photography Symposium to enable hobbyists and professional photographers enhance their skills, get inspired by transcendent creations and learn about ways to boost their photography brand and business.

The Symposium that was open to all connoisseur of photography, witnessed a healthy participation from over 350 individuals.

During the symposium, celebrated professionals including Sudhir Shivaram (Wildlife Photographer), Naina Redhu (Luxury & Lifestyle Photographer), Neeta Shankar (Wedding Photographers), Swapnil Rane (Creative Head- Films Division, Marching Ants Pvt Ltd) and Jayanth Sharma (Natural History Photographer and Co-founder of Toehold Travel & Photography) among others, led a number of specially tailored sessions for photographers.

In addition to sharing insights on their professional journey, these specialists covered many aspects of the changing landscape in professional photography like balancing between shoots and how to become a pro photographer.

Neeta Shankar, Wedding & Lifestyle Photographer shared her experiences and aspects of photography beyond shooting. She highlighted how critical it is to engage with clients prior to the shoot to understand their culture and customs and setting the right expectations in terms of the work. These soft chords play a large role in capturing the intimate moments and emotions.

Jayanth Sharma, Natural History Photographer & Co-founder Toehold Travel & Photography Pvt. Ltd. spoke about the need to recognize business potentials in the photography space. He gave examples to commercialize photography in the form of workshops, tours, photo vacations for honeymooners, to name a few.

The 4 pillars of photography – subject matter knowledge, core concepts of photography, equipment and shooting techniques, digital post processing, were taken up in detail by Sudhir Shivaram, the well-known Wildlife Photographer.

Naina Redhu a Luxury & Lifestyle Photographer & Brand Storyteller believes that showcasing your work to the world is of paramount importance in photography. She advised all participants to keep an open mind and click everything in the dawn of their career and subsequently decide their genre.

Adobe has always been dedicated to help the photography community enhance their creative work. The Adobe Photography Symposium is a part of the endeavor to work as a partner of the creative community.

Recently Adobe announced the availability of the new Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan. Designed for anyone interested in photography, the new plan brings together –- for Rs. 499 per month -- Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5, two tools that have fundamentally impacted how photographs and imagery shape our visual culture, as well as Lightroom’s breakthrough mobile apps on iPad and now iPhone.

HP Enhances Managed Print Services In India

HP has unveiled a new Managed Print Services (MPS) service delivery mechanism that will enhance the experience of HP’s MPS customers.

Under the new service, authorized HP technicians will use HP’s MPS motorbike fleet to carry optimized parts and supplies inventory, allowing them to pre-empt maintenance and address multiple issues in a single visit.  To reduce down time, the HP technicians will also be assigned customers who are closest to them.

The new service will value add to all customers of HP Managed Print Services, including customers of channel partners under the HP Managed Print Specialist program. 

“Businesses need to effectively manage their print environment as they grow their operations,” said Rajiv Srivastava, Vice President, Printing and Personal Systems, HP India. “The new service delivery with HP’s MPS motorbike fleet will strengthen our Managed Print Services offering, by enhancing the customer experience and allowing more businesses in India to realize the efficiencies of an optimized print environment.”

New MPS Tool for Channel Partners 

HP also launched a new tool – the HP Express Decision Portal – for channel partners who are part of the HP Managed Print Specialist program.

The HP Managed Print Specialist program has allowed channel partners to capture new business opportunities in Managed Print Services (MPS). This structured program offers a suite of tools and resources that allows partners to focus on the MPS sales process and customer relationships, without needing to make a substantial investment in new infrastructure.

The HP Express Decision Portal will add to this suite of tools for channel partners. This cloud-based application comes with pricing, business proposal and opportunity management features, making it simpler and faster for partners to capture MPS business opportunities.

Narayan Ram Named MD of Lowe India

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. announced today that Narayan Ram will join the Company as Managing Director for India, where he will be responsible for overall strategy and operations.  He will report to Lowe’s Chief Financial Officer Robert F. Hull.  

Ram joins Lowe’s from Sony, where he served most recently as head of Sony’s Global Delivery Center for IT and Processes in India. He brings more than 24 years of experience in Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) to Lowe’s. 

He will lead the new Lowe’s Customer Support Center in Bangalore (Lowe’s Services India Private Limited), established to expand the Company’s analytics and technology functions in an area with critical access to a rich talent base.

“Ram’s experience building and leading a world-class service delivery team will help Lowe’s further its transformation to an omni-channel retailer with advanced web search, mobile and social systems,” explained Hull. “His ability to integrate world-class business practices and technology platforms will further our ability to rely on data-driven analysis to inform business decisions.”

In his new role, Ram will build a highly collaborative team to support data-driven analytical and technical functions. He will work with partners across the global organization to apply the power of analytics and technology to the Lowe’s business to ensure customers can engage with Lowe’s whenever and however they need support and inspiration for home improvement projects.