|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

iPredictt Data Labs, an advanced data analytics company introduced the Chatbots functionality based on Artificial Intelligence [AI] to their recruitment intelligence platform, Careerletics. The AI Chatbots automatically identifies the scope of missing data in the profiles of candidates who have uploaded their resumes on Careerletics and reaches out to those candidates to fill in the missing information via chat links. This will help resolve one of the key problems of incomplete data available in resumes for pre-interview evaluation.

AI chatbots can assist users with rather simple quick responses and gives customer service representatives a chance to handle pressing problems for its clients. Once the set of resumes are uploaded on the platform, Careerletics, the Chatbot triggers a chat link with questions to the candidates. The candidate then clicks on the link and answers all questions such as current CTC, expected CTC, preferred location, reasons for applying for the job, notice period etc. This data immediately is saved into the database and enables the predictive algorithms to provide much more accurate results.

Rohit Verma, CEO, iPredictt commented

Resume data, the main source of information for a talent acquirer is mostly incomplete. Employers invariably then have an arduous task upon them to touch base with multiple candidates to source the missing data. This is a time taking process and delays the hiring time thus causing immense loss to the business.

We have automated that process by using an AI based Chatbot in our platform, Careerletics which can connect with hundreds of resumes at one time and collect information. This updates the data base in real time and helps simplify the process, making it easy for the TA to perform their function much more efficiently.

About Careerletics

Careerletics is a SaaS based recruitment intelligence platform by iPredictt Data Labs that uses advanced Predictive analytics to exponentially improve quality of new hires at added speed. The platform calculates an Employability Score and Probability of ‘Offer Decline’ for candidates. The Platform helps at the pre-selection stage by bringing in auto parsing of resumes, skill set identification and over median accuracy in JD-candidate matchmaking, thus delivering high quality of candidates from among searched resumes. For more information, please visit Careerletics

About iPredictt Data Labs

iPredictt Data Labs is a big data analytics company that provides machine learning software to B2C companies to solve their complex data challenges. The company brings groundbreaking new approaches to transform how data-rich companies can make sense of structured and unstructured data. The company differentiates itself by offering premium data science solutions that are customized for businesses trying to mine their data for getting better return on technology investment. For more information, please visit iPredictt Data Labs

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Flurry Analytics, division of Yahoo announced the findings for State of the App Nation in India – the study uncovers insights around mobile app activity and their usage, emerging growth categories & device adoption trends in India.

The State of the App Nation in India study is backed by data gleaned from over 940,000 applications, across 2.1 billion global devices from across the world, and the 58,000 apps, across 147 million devices from India, that use Flurry.

The trends show Asia and India leading the phablet revolution. The phablet [devices with screens between 5″ and 6.9″] is the fastest growing mobile device globally. In India, phablets have a market share of 61%, outpacing growth in the US which has 48% market share. When looking into the mobile usage in India, one major trend emerged – India’s mobile usage looks a lot like global usage did six months ago, still ascending on the growth curve but not at the rate we saw the year prior.

Presenting the study in Bangalore, Christopher Klotzbach, Director, Flurry from Yahoo said

As smartphones celebrate their first decade; the mobile app industry has grown into a dog-eat-dog world. The decelerating rate of global growth could signal market maturity, saturation or simply the end of the app gold rush. Going back to India’s six-month mobile trend delay, there is no better time for local developers to innovate, and lessen or possibly stop a local industry pause. We are excited to see what app developers do in the next decade and watch which industry they chose to disrupt, again.

Key Insights and Trends from Flurry : State of the App Nation in India

Note : All data as measured by Flurry YoY from 2015~2016

India’s app usage grew 43% YoY : The India app usage grew at 92% during the same period last year (2015).

Asia and India are leading the phablet revolution : Indian mobile consumers are phablet lovers, with the form factor size securing 61% of the market share in India. This footprint is also the driving force behind global adoption figures.

Diversification of apps : App categories seeing the fastest growth in India

The top 3 app growth categories in India are Music, Media and Entertainment followed by Business and Finance apps, and Utilities and Productivity apps.

  • Music, Media and Entertainment applications saw the biggest usage increase at 188% YOY, which can be attributed to rise of phablet devices and better Internet connectivity in India.
  • Business and Finance apps grew 176% YoY.
  • Utilities and Productivity apps grew 99% YoY

Messaging and social apps remain one of the most engaged categories in Asia and India : Time spent in Messaging and Social apps grew by an impressive 52% in India and 44% globally.

Personalization apps see decline : Much like the global trends, Personalization apps saw the biggest usage decrease at -32%. This decrease is due to operating systems integrating the functionality of these apps natively.

Indian mobile consumers have very diverse tastes while selecting their mobile manufacturer : More than 12 mobile makers have a substantial footprint locally with Samsung leading with 40% market share, followed by brands like Micromax, Redmi and Lenovo. This is an interesting phenomenon, compared to mobile manufacturer popularity globally where on average there are about six major mobile manufacturers.

Sticky Apps Tied to Daily Habits : Some of the most successful app categories throughout the years have tapped into the mobile addict population. They are also apps that rely on live data, such as Business and Finance [up 43% globally in time-spent; up 176% in India].

Interestingly in India, this trend is best seen in Health and Fitness app usage [up 27% locally]. These apps see high hourly engagement throughout the day, as users turn to their mobile and wearable devices to track their fitness goals and progress.

Shopping Apps Spell the Doom and Gloom of Brick and Mortars : In 2016, shopping apps continued to gain popularity, growing 31% globally and 12% in India.

Video Killed the Gaming Star : Gaming, the app category known as ‘the darling of the mobile industry’, saw time-spent decline by 4% globally and a small growth in India of just 8%.

Mobile consumers in India are night owls : With peak usage rolling in around 9 PM. Indian users are generally slower to turn to their phones in the morning but quickly scale usage throughout the later morning hours.

Top Global Trends

  • The burgeoning trend of ‘Communitainment’ (or, social sharing of media) is driving mobile consumers to spend more than 2 hours/day on Social and Messaging apps.
  • The average mobile consumer spends just under 5 hours a day on their smartphones.
  • Shopping applications saw over 17 billion sessions in 2016; effectively changing retail window shoppers into mobile impulse buyers.
  • Compared to 2015, global app usage grew by 11% in 2016. In previous years, we’ve seen all app categories grow in tandem; however, for 2016 year the story is different. In 2016 mobile apps started eating their own, with session and time-spent growth in some app categories occurring at the expense of others. While Messaging and Social apps use rose year-over-year by 44%, Personalization apps (like emoji keyboards) declined by 46%.

About Flurry

Flurry is an industry-leading mobile analytics, monetization and advertising platform. With Flurry, developers and marketers can analyze user interactions with mobile applications and advertise in-apps.

Flurry supports more than 250,000 developers, reaching more than 940,000 apps across more than 2.1 billion devices with 10 billion sessions every day. Flurry was acquired by Yahoo! in July 2014. For more information on Flurry, visit developer.yahoo.com or the Flurry Insights blog

|In: AI|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Synechron Inc. [earlier coverage here] a global financial services consulting and technology services provider, has today announced the launch of Neo, a set of Artificial Intelligence [AI]-based solutions for the financial services industry. Neo brings together Synechron’s digital, business, and technology consulting to allow financial institutions to deploy cutting-edge, AI solutions that solve complex business challenges.

Synechron has built 14 reusable applications – Accelerators, that allow financial institutions to reduce time-to-market when applying AI to enhance business operations, reduce operating costs, and create better client experiences.

Synechron’s AI Accelerator applications have taken a business challenge that can be best solved through AI and re-designed business processes to build a solution powered by artificial intelligence and optimized for user experience.  The Accelerators use techniques like Natural Language Processing [NLP], Chatbots, Robotic Process Automation [RPA], Cognitive Machine Learning, Data Science and Robo-Advisors to address a range of use cases.

The AI Accelerators enable financial industry players to solve complex data challenges, efficiently address regulatory and compliance requirements, and service growing customer needs. They also help automate repetitive processing tasks while cutting down time and costs in the long run, with customized and advanced bots for specialized operations such as trading, mortgages, insurance, and even personal banking.

Details of the various accelerators are below

The AI Accelerators broken down by the core underlying AI technology include:

Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Generation [NLG]

Automated Data Extraction allows firms to automatically extract written language data from reports [e.g. earnings reports] and understand what it means and why it’s significant [e.g. its intent]
Automated Financial Advice Generation can be achieved to extract CRM data and NLG to reach a compliant conclusion through real-time queries and contextual user information.
Automated Executive Summaries written in plain language.

Chatbots serve as either an internal virtual assistant or a front-line customer representative and have been created with an understanding of financial services business operations and systems integration expertise. The accelerators include – BankBOT for personal banking, TraderBOT for traders, LoanBOT for mortgages, and InsureBOT for insurance.

Robotic Process Automation [RPA]

Client On-boarding pulls information from images of documents such as driver’s licenses and passport to auto-populate forms and create a frictionless on-boarding experience.
Automated Resolution of Failures ‘Breaks’ in Reconciliation processes completely automates general ledger [GL] reconciliation.
Margin Call Management analyses emails and automatically understands relevant margin call information based on pre-set criteria.
Automated Pitch-book Generation allows financial institutions to automatically generate presentation decks by understanding what content is on the slides and the appropriate disclosures required based on that information.

Cognitive Machine Learning

OTC Price Automation – derives real-time OTC pricing for liquid OTC products where this data is currently de-centralized and difficult for traders to factor into their pricing models and further using that data to advance collateral management reporting.
LCR Reporting – uses historic data and machine learning to come up with a reliable intra-day liquidity estimate for LCR reporting.

Data Science

Customer Insights has 4 Modules for Banks, Credit Cards, e-Commerce and Mortgages that allow banks to bring together their Know Your Customer (KYC), Banking, and Credit Card Data into a database, and join them with the customer’s online behavior (if opts in) via web and social platforms.
Product Recommendation uses behavioral analysis to understand customer patterns for new client acquisition.
AML/Fraud Detection uses AI and behavioral analysis to identify potentially suspicious activity indicative of money laundering and fraud.

Artificial Intelligence Accelerator for Robo-Advisors – allows wealth managers to create a hybrid-robo-advisor that augments their existing services with an automated platform, creating the self-service experience clients are looking for, balanced with the high-touch, high-trust experience advisors are known to deliver with added capabilities like social investing, chat and more.

Faisal Husain, Synechron Co-founder & CEO, said

Financial institutions are looking to implement the latest technology to address real-world problems in financial services. Neo and Synechron’s AI Accelerators will be pivotal in helping clients be at the forefront of technological advancement, while providing a comprehensive set of tools to ease and streamline processes. This will allow businesses to deploy technology-enabled processes that augment the role of individuals, allowing them to be elevated to higher-value business tasks.

The AI engine, business, and technical analysis at the core of these accelerators can be applied to additional use cases to progress more quickly with similar initiatives. Along with the use of the AI applications, the Accelerator Program offers access to Synechron’s consultants, technologists and digital teams who are experts in financial services business processes, products, regulation, operating models and data architectures which are critical to constructing effective AI applications.

About Synechron

Synechron, one of the fastest-growing digital, business consulting & technology services providers, is a USD 400 million firm based in New York. Since inception in 2001, Synechron has been on a steep growth trajectory. For more information, please visit Synechron

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Mindtree has released the findings of a study on how rapidly evolving digital trends like social media, mobile apps & automation are reshaping the way retailers engage with customers. Titled Sixth Sense of Retail, the study is based on a survey conducted with 2,000 consumers across in UK by Censuswide – an independent polling company.

The study has identified widely diverse shopper preferences across age and gender pertaining to new retail technologies like automation, artificial intelligence and robotics. Over half [51 per cent] of young shoppers in the age group of 16-24 years were comfortable with the idea of automated technologies and would visit robot-driven stores.

78 per cent of older shoppers over 55 years of age were apprehensive about this trend. Additionally, opinions were divided by gender with 44 per cent of men happy with a robotic shopping experience, compared with just 30 per of women. In order to address this sharp divide retailers should adopt a balanced mix of technology and human assistance to accommodate customers of different ages and genders.

The study also states that there is a growing demand for retailers to deliver more personalized experiences with nearly one in five [17 per cent] of 16~24 year olds asking for more personalized engagement from retailers throughout the purchasing cycle. It also highlights the influence of social media on shopping decisions.

Facebook has been reaffirmed as the most influential social platform with just under one third of consumers [32 per cent] acknowledging it as a major influencer for shopping and purchasing decisions. Retailers therefore need to harness social media channels to drive brand loyalty by harvesting the growing volumes of customer data available across multi-channels. Consumers should be reached through social channel engagements that are personalized around preferences the retailer is looking at appealing to.

Infographic Source – Mindtree Sixth Sense of Retail Report

Further, as more consumers go online to make purchases, it is important retailers create content that is optimised for mobile platforms. They should focus on building strong digital relationships with customers, providing the blueprint for successful conversions both in-store and online.

Anil Gandharve, Associate Vice President of Retail, CPG and Manufacturing, Mindtree said

The retail industry has an exciting future ahead, but the key to success will be driven by the right balance between technology and in-store human experience. Additionally, retailers need to harness personalized customer information available through social media and mobile phone apps, to develop more impactful customer relationships.

Sixth Sense of Retail report is available here and the infographic is available here

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

To enhance and complement the overall movie going experience, India’s largest entertainment ticketing platform-BookMyShow, has expanded its ‘MyCoupons‘ offering to 45 cities across India. MyCoupons are exclusive & free discount coupons that can be availed at popular restaurants & cafes in the vicinity of the cinema a user is visiting. With a validity of two days [including the day of the movie show], a user can pick upto two Free MyCoupons right after making the seat selection on BookMyShow and redeem at their preferred restaurant or cafe, by simply showing the received e-mail or SMS to avail fabulous discounts.

BookMyShow piloted this offering in Mumbai and Pune in 2016 and in a span of just ten months has expanded MyCoupons across 45 cities, which include all metros, mini-metros and cities such as Lucknow, Jalandhar, Warangal, Vizag, Mangalore and Jaipur among others.

BookMyShow has partnered with more than 1500 food retail brands right from local city food joints to popular national chains including McDonald’s, Chaayos, Mainland China, Dunkin Donuts, Barbeque Nation, Subway, Bikanerwalaetc. to cover a combined 5000+ outlets around 1000+ cinemas across these cities.  The offering, which was earlier available through bookings made on BookMyShow website, can now also be availed through BookMyShow Android & BookMyShow iOS apps.

Marzdi Kalianiwala, VP- Business Intelligence and Marketing, BookMyShow said

Movie watching in India is not just an activity but rather an experience that we share with friends and family. In most cases, this experience remains incomplete unless we eat out with them either before or after the movie. Since we know when and where our user is consuming the content, we are able to ensure that relevant and highly contextual offers are targeted towards them, thus strengthening the overall proposition through MyCoupons for our users.

We have witnessed an extremely warm and rapid response to MyCoupons across all markets, with adoption rates growing at as high as 200% month-on-month. We are now aggressively working towards expanding this to other markets and delighting many more users with our offering.

About BookMyShow

BookMyShow is India’s largest online entertainment ticketing platform that allows users to book tickets for movies, plays, sports and live events through its website, mobile app and mobile site. Founded in Mumbai  in 1999 and launched in 2007, BookMyShow is now present in over 400 towns and cities across India, currently meeting the entertainment demands of millions of customers. For more information, please visit BookMyShow

|In: Google|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

“Where are you now?” and “What’s your ETA?” Whether you are heading to a party or meeting up for dinner, you probably hear questions like this pretty often from family and friends. Soon Google Maps users worldwide will be able to answer those questions in just a few taps, without ever leaving the app.

Google Maps has announced a new real-time location sharing feature which will be available for both Android and iOS users. Users will be able to share their real-time location with anyone and the people they share with will be able to see the location on Android, iPhone, mobile web, and desktop.

Whenever you want to let someone know where you are, just open the side menu or tap the blue dot that represents where you are. Tap “Share location” and then select who to share with and how long to share-and you’re done! You can share your real-time location with your Google contacts, or even share with friends and family by sending a link on your favorite messenger apps. When you are sharing your location, the people you have chosen to share with will see you on their map.

And you will see an icon above the compass on your own map reminding you that you are actively sharing your location. You can change your mind and stop sharing at any time-it’s entirely up to you.

Next time you are on your way or running late, you can share your real-time location and trip progress from navigation as well. During your next trip, tap the “More” button on the bottom on the navigation screen, and then tap “Share trip.” When you share your trip with people, they will see your expected arrival time and can follow your journey as you head towards your destination. Sharing automatically ends when you arrive.

Sanket Gupta, Product Manager, Google Maps, said

Location sharing on Google Maps is rolling worldwide over the coming week, and you will be able to quickly let your friends and family know where you are and when you’ll get where you are going. The answer to ‘where are you?’ is only a tap away.

|In: Cinqo|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Cinqo, an emerging player in the mobile and digital payments space has announced the launch of its new digital solutions in the employee tax benefits and rewards space. The ‘Cinqo’ app has been launched on the mobile platform that can be downloaded on Android and iOs smart phones.

Cinqo is a smart, simple and swift mobile application designed for managing digital vouchers and corporate reimbursements that help employees save tax benefits. The app has been launched with a view to digitize the paper voucher system created in order to save tax for meal vouchers, medical reimbursements, gift cards & expense management solutions that stream lines handling  and disbursements of any employee benefits in the first phase.

It facilitates easy disbursement of tax-free perquisites to employees. It also allows employer to set limits, budget and track business expenses and makes reimbursement to employee very simple.

Employees can use digital vouchers and claim reimbursements via an effortless mobile application with a click of a button, which also brings down the logistics and distribution cost to zero. One can get on board with Cinqo immediately and employees can save upto 30%tax. They can customize plans as per the requirements and the policies of the companies’ they have tied up with.

Companies such as Shopper Stop, Blue Star Diamonds, Pamac, etc. are currently using the services of the company. Cinqo can be used anywhere, anytime across 300,000+ merchants across India. Cinqo solution can be used by any corporate irrespective of the employee strength or location and an HR Manager can set up Cinqo within few minutes.

The company issues meal vouchers and medical vouchers to employees and handles fuel reimbursements as well. Cinqo also issues gift cards. All these products are completely digital, and offered via a prepaid card in partnership with DCB Bank and Visa.

Ankush Gupta, Co-Founder, Cinqo expressed his views and said

Through this launch, Cinqo aims to re-define the corporate wallet and rewards space. Cinqo has already tied up with 15 corporates so far and we are confident of our growth path in India. With a growing number of tie- ups with merchants, Cinqo will be available with more options, not only limited for meal vouchers, but also for other employee benefits such as medical reimbursements, gift cards, travel reimbursements etc in the coming months.

Besides this, we are also heavily doing analytic behaviour which studies the customer spend which will in turn help us to cross-sell and up-sell different deals to the customers. The service currently is free of cost to both employees and employers.

Moreover, the technology that we have used is cutting-edge and is intuitive. We use machine-learning and image processing technology that helps in reduction of time and cost for processing of bills. The total size of the industry is 6000 cr and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25% YOY.

On the occasion, Smeet Modi, Co-Founder, Cinqo said

Keeping up with the Digital India initiative, we wanted to create an app which would change the paper voucher system used in order save taxes. The employee and rewards space is quite big in India and factors like losing vouchers, not being able to use it everywhere, issues in reimbursements due to fixed denominations of the vouchers inspired us to come up with new age innovative and cutting-edge solutions and give that extra benefit to employees.

Cinqo will bring revolution in the way the employers handle tax free perquisites and reimbursements and give the employee ability to complete transactions with ease at zero cost. We have also included a unique feature for disputes wherein employees can raise a red flag in case their expectations are not being met. Once the employees upload a bill on the Cinqo account, their reimbursements get cleared within one business working day.

About Cinqo

Cinqo is a sparkling concept of digital meal vouchers that is smart, simple and a swift digital solution which unlocks new benefit for your company and employees. It simplifies expense management in a secure way, while guaranteeing your employee easy transaction and loads of tax benefits.

Cinqo facilitates easy disbursement of Tax Free Perquisites to employees. It also allows employer to set limits, budget & track business expenses and makes reimbursement to employee very simple. Employees can use digital vouchers and claim reimbursements via an effortless mobile application -‘CINQO’. Cinqo meal and medical vouchers are 100% RBI and Income Tax compliant as per IT Rule 3(7). Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP has given us opinion to the effect. You can view the same here. For more information, please visit Cinqo.

|In: CloudComputing|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

IBM and Pace Automation Ltd, a leading ‘Solution as a Service Company’ announced a strategic partnership to offer ‘RetailSmart‘, an end-to-end fully integrated solution that will enable local ‘Kirana’ [unorganized] stores to become ecommerce ready. Powered by IBM Cloud, the solution allows Kirana stores to deliver a convenient online shopping experience to consumers and pay safely using a convenient payment mode [irrespective of the size of the purchase].

Image Source – Cloud

According to industry reports, the current number of Kirana stores in India is pegged to be at 15 million. These stores have been facing tremendous headwinds from the organized retail & ecommerce companies. Attractive product presentations, discounts and cash back offers have led consumers to shop online while saving both time and money through these ecommerce portals. In addition, with the government’s demonetisation campaign, it is imperative for Kirana stores to go digital.

To bridge the gap, Pace Automation Ltd. has developed a unique solution, ‘RetailSmart’ on IBM cloud to digitally enable Kirana stores across the country. By implementing the solution, a Kirana store automatically becomes a part of the SmartKirana Network, hosted on IBM Cloud from Chennai data-center. The network digitally interconnects all Kirana stores in the country. Customers can easily access the network of Kirana stores in the neighborhood via smartphone app on Android available on Google Play Store or the SmartKirana web portal. Initially, the service will be available in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and National Capital Region and will be gradually expanded to other states and rural areas via network of distributors.

The solution will also give these stores an immediate access to ecosystem partners in banking, communication, insurance, payment processing and National product data repository. It enables the Kirana stores to:

  • Automate business processes like billing, stock management and accounting with increased efficiency and profitability
  • Receive online orders from customers through a web portal or smartphone app
  • Accept all credit / debit cards, mobile wallets, Aadhar enabled payments or UPI, irrespective of the value of the transaction thus making the transactions Cashless.
  • Put all transactions through the system creating transaction transparency, an integral aspect of GST compliance
  • Provide micro banking and value added services to customers generating additional revenue streams

SG Chandru, Chairman & Mentor, Pace Automation Ltd said

The objective of this project is to digitally empower Kirana stores and help them scale business by adding new revenue streams. For this we have tied up with series of partners to create a successful business ecosystem for Kirana merchants. Our target is to bring 1,50,000 local grocery stores to the network in the next three years & allow customers to order their groceries online from the nearest Kirana shop.

IBM is our technology partner that enabled us to develop and seamlessly deploy the solution on the Cloud. RetailSmart connects all the Kirana Stores across the country in its network digitally through the communication Ecosystem partner. This project is a win-win for all the stakeholders involved – Kirana stores, Manufacturers and Suppliers of goods and the end use customers.

Mukul Mathur, VP, Global Business partners and CSI, IBM India/South Asia said

We are excited about partnering with PACE in their efforts to digitize the unorganised Kirana stores and transform them into organized retail, leveraging the IBM Cloud and Cognitive solutions. IBM cloud is open by design, offering a set of tools, flexibility and agility that helps organizations of all size and developers to easily translate their innovative ideas into technical solutions and business models. This tie-up is an extension of IBM’s commitment to the ecosystem and a great example of how our joint solutions reach deep into the SME segment making the vision of Digital India real.

Powered by IBM Cloud, the solution is fully integrated end-to-end consisting of a custom -built hardware, an intuitive application software, backend / payment processing engines. A physically separated disaster recovery system ensures business continuity.  

PACE has also developed and implemented several solutions on IBM cloud across verticals for retail sector. ServeSmart is the flagship solution of PACE to automate the operations of restaurant retail business and has automated Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) operations in 2004 when they had just 90 outlets which has grown to 1800 plus outlets today.

PACE now provides ‘ServeSmart’ services to more than thirty five hundred restaurant outlets of various leading restaurants in India. PACE hosts all its solutions on an IBM-IaaS Facility at Chennai and at Singapore to provide disaster recovery and business process continuation.

SmartKirana web portal can be accessed here