|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Accenture has released a report titled Accenture Technology Vision report for 2016. The report investigates five trends behind a ‘people-first’ approach: Intelligent automation, liquid workforces, the platform economy, predictable disruption and digital trust.

Winners in the digital age do much more than complete a technology check-list, they focus on enabling people – consumers, employees and ecosystem partners – to do more with technology. That demands a digital corporate culture enabling people to continuously adapt, learn, create new solutions, drive relentless change, and disrupt the status quo. The end goal for every organisation to adapt itself in this digital age would be to integrate change into one’s organizational DNA and this could only be done through the most effective means possible- people.

The Accenture Technology Vision 2016 was conducted a global survey of more than 3,100 business and IT executives across 11 countries with India contributing to about 8 % of the sample size to understand their perspectives on the impact of technology on their organizations, and to identify their priority technology investments over the next few years.

In the report, Accenture identifies five technology trends fuelled by the people first principal that are essential to business success in the digital economy. The trends include:

Intelligent automation : Leaders are embracing automation – powered by artificial intelligence [AI], robotics and augmented reality – to fundamentally change the way their business operates and drive a new, more productive relationship between people and machines. Significant investments are well under way with 70 percent of survey respondents acknowledging increased AI-related technology investments compared to two years ago, and 55 percent revealing that they plan on using machine learning and embedded AI solutions like IPsoft Amelia extensively.

Liquid workforce : By exploiting technology to enable workforce transformation, leading companies will create highly adaptable and change-ready environments that are able to meet today’s dynamic digital demands. The competitive advantage offered by a liquid workforce is apparent as survey respondents indicated that “deep expertise for the specialized task at hand” was only the fifth-most-important characteristic they required for employees to perform well in a digital work environment. Other qualities such as ‘the ability to quickly learn’ or ‘the ability to shift gears’ were ranked higher.

Platform economy : Industry leaders are unleashing the power of technology by developing platform-based business models to capture new growth opportunities, driving the most profound change in the global macroeconomic environment since the Industrial Revolution. This is reinforced by 81 percent of our survey respondents who agree that platform-based business models will become part of their organization’s core growth strategy within three years.

Predictable disruption : Fast-emerging digital ecosystems are creating the foundation for the next wave of disruption by straddling markets and blurring industry boundaries; forward-thinking leaders can pro-actively predict these ecosystem trajectories to gain a competitive advantage. Companies are already significantly or moderately experiencing ecosystem disruption, with 81 percent of survey respondents indicating that they are seeing this in their industry.

Digital Trust : Trust is a cornerstone of the digital economy, said 83 percent of survey respondents. To gain the trust of individuals, ecosystems and regulators in this new landscape, businesses must focus on digital ethics as a core strategy; better security alone won’t be enough.

The complete report can be downloaded from here

For nearly 16 years, Accenture has taken a systematic look across the enterprise landscape to identify emerging technology trends that hold the greatest potential to disrupt businesses and industries. For more information on this year’s report, visit technology vision on Accenture or follow the conversation on Twitter with #TechVision2016.

About the Methodology
Accenture’s Technology Vision is developed annually by the Accenture Technology Labs. For the 2016 report, the research process included gathering input from the Technology Vision External Advisory Board, a group comprising more than two dozen experienced individuals from the public and private sectors, academia, venture capital firms and entrepreneurial companies. In addition, the Technology Vision team conducted interviews with technology luminaries and industry experts, as well as with nearly 100 Accenture business leaders.

In parallel, Accenture Research conducted a global survey of more than 3,100 business and IT executives across 11 countries and 12 industries to capture insights into the adoption of emerging technologies. The survey helped identify the key issues and priorities for technology adoption and investment. Respondents were mostly C-level executives and directors, with some functional and line-of-business leads, at companies with annual revenues of at least US$500 million, with the majority of companies having annual revenues greater than US$6 billion.

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Cheetah Mobile, the world’s leading mobile utility provider committed to providing a safer, faster and simpler mobile internet experience, announced findings from its latest global mobile security report focused on Android devices.

The report details the growth of viruses, phishing sites, malware’s, infected devices across major markets [including India], data leakages, and rounds out with security predictions for 2016. The Company’s annual security report is cumulative data based on 567 million global monthly active users and an overall install base of almost two billion users using Cheetah Mobile’s utility applications on their devices.

Key trends in mobile security for 2015

Android viruses rose sharply

The number of Android viruses exceeded 9.5 million, which is larger than twice the total number in the past three years. Compared with 2014’s 2.8million, the growth rate of 2015 is over 22%.

Root Trojans soared in 2015

As it gains system-level privilege, Root Trojans can take complete control of the device and are very hard to remove.

Mobile payments have been targeted by viruses

With the popularization of mobile payment, the number of malware’s targeting mobile banking has increased rapidly.

Data leakage caused great damage

Thousands of companies and hundreds of millions of users have been affected by information leaks in 2015.

Android vulnerabilities emerge one after another

From the Stage fright vulnerability which affected 95% Android devices to the wormhole compromising millions, it seemed like Android vulnerabilities would never end.

China, India and Indonesia were the three most severely afflicted countries. Apart from large Android user bases, another reason of these countries becoming the worst-hit ones is that third-party app markets are prevailing in these areas, and most of these third-party app markets have been contaminated by malware’s due to the weak monitoring of third-party app markets.

Biggest Data Leaks

  • Anthem: 80 million customers’ and employees’ personal information
  • OPM: About 27 million employees’ and applicants’ personal information
  • Ashley Madison: 37 million users’ personal information
  • Hacking Team: 400 GB of data was leaked and scattered on the internet

The graph above represents the number of unique infections detected across all devices that Cheetah Mobile is present on in that market. This number doesn’t represent the total number of devices that Cheetah Mobile’s applications are installed on in that particular country but only the individual devices that were infected over the span of 2015.

In the graphs below, one each for China, the United States & India, the numbers showcase the number of infections overall. The data here means that a single device could have multiple infections multiple times over the course of a year.

Total infections in India: 11,170,960

Total infections in China: 10,461,684

Total infections in America: 9,007,913

Here’s an image depicting the Trojans causing the most infections among devices in India

A Trojan horse or Trojan is a type of malware that is often disguised as legitimate software. Trojans can be employed by cyber-thieves & hackers trying to gain access to users’ systems. Users are typically tricked by some form of social engineering into loading and executing Trojans on their systems.

The manner in which they behave differs – some hides in users’ mobile devices to steal text messages, contact information, location data, and even personal photos. Others, like Ghost Push, obtains root access to the affected device and installs more malicious apps and a never ending stream of ads.

Mobile Security Predictions for 2016

  • New security features in Android 5.0 Lollipop and its successors are expected to make Android phones more secure.
  • As Google Play is available in China, Chinese app markets are expected to become more standardized and secure.
  • More effective steps will be taken by Google to enhance Android security in 2016.
  • Globally, mobile payment methods will be attacked more frequently.

For more in-depth data on the state of Mobile Security in 2015, you can refer the detailed report released by Cheetah Mobile

[Image Credit* – Cheetah Mobile]

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

IBM have announced that Chumbak, India’s leading retailer of lifestyle products, has selected IBM Cloud to ensure seamless operation of business processes to fast-track their growth. IBM will enable Chumbak to significantly improve management efficiency of critical data across multiple locations. As part of the agreement, Chumbak will host and run their enterprise resource planning [ERP] applications on IBM Cloud.

Chumbak is a leading retail company with wide range of products across an assortment of apparel, home and accessories. The company runs over 40 stores across India and also has large format flagship stores in six cities.

Chumbak plans to increase their large format store count across the country and is also poised for strong growth in its online business. Given the rapid scale of expansion, Chumbak needed an IT infrastructure that could scale up adequately, and propel the critical applications necessary for such growth. Among the decision factors used to evaluate the options, one of the main requirements was seamless integration with the ERP being deployed. Cost effectiveness and performance efficiency rounded off the top three considerations posted by the business requirements.

Rajath Kedilaya, CIO, Chumbak said

Over the last five years, Chumbak has grown over 300 percent year on year. As we plan to scale our presence both online and offline, we wanted a technology partner who could support us over the next phase of our hyper growth. The IBM Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, with its unique combination of virtual and bare metal features, has helped us streamline our operations seamlessly.

While evaluating the IT partner for our requirement, we considered Microsoft Azure and AWS as well. But in the process we realized that IBM Cloud offered the most cost effective solution and could be deployed and integrated seamlessly with our ERP infrastructure. Also, the bare metal feature is a unique offering that provides on-demand access to the right resources for the right workloads.

Vivek Malhotra, Cloud Leader, IBM India/SA said

Today, enterprises require their IT infrastructure to enable them to enhance business performance, spur innovation and get better insights into complex supply chains and distributed development environment. Chumbak also required a holistic approach to manage their IT infrastructure. IBM not only proved to be the IT backbone of the organization but also reduced Chumbak’s overall IT services costs significantly. 

IBM Cloud delivers fast, easy and automated access to public, private and hybrid cloud services to help clients digitally transform. IBM Cloud is a growing collection of services including analytics, mobile, networking, storage, Internet of Things and cognitive computing. With more than 40 global cloud data centers, IBM helps companies securely manage and gain insight into their data no matter where it resides.

About Chumbak

For more information, please visit Chumbak

[Image Credit* – SocialSamosa]

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

How many of us would have thought of dancing our heart out in order to enjoy & release all the tension 🙂 . The only thing that worries us is ‘I do not know dancing’, ‘I will look like an idiot if I dance in front of so many people…’ We would have all wished that we can fearlessly dance like this Old Man dancing in the video below –

Many startups are helping connect like-minded people living nearby so that they can either get-together over a game of tennis or solve each other’s problems. Today we review a startup The Dance Bible that wants to bring people together under one umbrella of ‘Dance’. It aims to be a one stop platform for all dance lovers to come together and connect through the art of Dance.

The Dance Bible : What’s in store

The Dance Bible; a first of its kind online platform for dancers, choreographers, dance educators, dance parents and all dance enthusiasts worldwide; promises to cater everything related to dance. It was started with the following problem [Source]

Living in the age of 140 characters and selfies, we all understand the importance of web presence; every industry has been using the social revolution to its advantage to grow its business. Yet, Dance as an Industry is still shy and hasn’t been able to tap its way into the online world as it should. The Dance Bible, with their goal of being a one stop portal for dancers, is designed to provide the right accessories to every dance soul to shine and empower themselves in their journey.

The Dance Bible consists of the following sections:

Dance Styles : It gives the user crystal clear information about the various dancing styles like Belly Dancing, Ballet, BBoying, Bharatnatyam etc. They could have added a Sub-Category based on the Origin of Dance namely Indian, Spanish etc. or an option to filter Dance Styles based on user preferences. You can various dance styles here

Dance Zone : Just like many of us who work-out & have a specific target in mind i.e. gain weight, loose weight, fitness, flexibility etc.; the Dance Anatomy section gives details about exercises for developing better physique or postures. It offers unique content about various dance styles informing the user about dance histories, biographies, health & nutrition etc

DanceBible_anatomy

The Dance Bible wants user’s to try out ‘Dance As A Work-Out’ in order to stay fit. It would have been better if they could have linked various Dance Forms on how would result in toning of different body parts. An example of the same can be Aerobics Style Garba as seen in the video below:

Dance Audio & Video Playlists : It contains collection of dance video and audio clips that dancers can use to sharpen their dance skills.

The Dance Bible : Unique Features

Two of the unique features of The Dance Bible are  – Portfolio and the Dance Forum section.

Dance Portfolio – Under Portfolio section  of The Dance Bible, a dancer can create his/her profile by telling their dance story, uploading photos and videos of dance. We found this feature very useful as users can make their video viral by sharing on various social media channels. You can create your Dance Portfolio here. If you are Dance Freelancer, you can create a profile on The Dance Bible here. If you are keen about learning dance, there is separate section of Dance Schools. One feature that could have been added is ‘Integration of Maps’ so that users can get idea about the exact location of Dance School.

In order to get your Dance school listed on their platform, you can do the following:

  • Login with your details and head to the Dance School section.
  • Click on Add yourself.
  • Fill in the details, list your USP(s), link other social handles for more coverage and click on Submit.
  • Share your dance school page with the industry, ask your existing students to rate and comment and see your enrollments increase.

Dance Forum – Dance Forum is a unique feature where Dancers or aspiring dancers can network with other like-minded dancers on The Bible Dance. It also provides a platform to promote their talent to a worldwide audience and get genuine feedback from experts in the group.

Dance Events – If you are interested in Dance Events and do not want to miss out on any of them happening in your city, than you should definitely check-out the Dance Events section. We found the number of listed events less in number, a better idea would have been to curate those events from other sites like Explara, MeraEvents, BookMyShow in order to drive in more traffic & build user-base.

The Dance Bible : Dance and Dance Anatomy Blog

We particularly liked the Dance Blog where their team shares stories of dancers on their platform, useful tips, events [anything & everything related to dance]. The Dance Anatomy Blog has interesting content revolving around nutrition, prevention & cure of common injuries caused while dancing and more. They also have a Youtube Channel though we wish that the updates are more frequent since many novice dancers turn to Youtube to learn dancing.

The Dance Bible : Closing Thoughts

The Dance Bible tries to spread the joy of Dance and aims to be the de-facto destination for ‘Anything related to Dance’. We found the ‘Dance Forum’ & ‘Dance Portfolio’ sections to be very useful !! On a lighter note, if actors in ABCD would have known about The Dance Bible, they would have found a Dance Trainer more easily 🙂 . You can connect with them here, here & here.

ABCD – Anybody Can Dance with the help of ‘The Dance Bible’

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

SnapBizz, a retail-technology firm, has raised $7.2 million led by Jungle Ventures, Taurus Value creation, Konly Venture and Blume Ventures. The funds raised will be used to continue the firm’s rapid growth and spur market expansion across key cities. The company had earlier received a seed fund of $1.7 million from Qualcomm, Jungle Ventures, National Research Foundation of Singapore, Taurus Value creation and Blume Ventures

SnapBizz is already transforming thousands of traditional retail outlets in Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad via a technology solution addressing the key business challenges faced by them. SnapBizz also connects and provides immense value to all stakeholders of the fragmented retail ecosystem of India.

The cost-effective, end-to-end solution is an Android-based, cloud-connected business platform. The solution comprises a tablet, barcode scanner, printer and an intelligent consumer-facing LED display for consumer engagement.

Prem Kumar, Founder and CEO, SnapBizz said

We are thrilled that all ecosystem players have shown confidence in our solution and that our existing investors have reiterated their support to us. Large retail and online players account for only 10-15% of any brand’s business. The remaining 90% happens through traditional trade and there is zero or minimal last mile connectivity between brands, consumers and retailers. We are on a mission to address this big gap while addressing the pain points of the kirana stores.

David Gowdey, Managing Partner, Jungle Ventures said

We are convinced with the SnapBizz business model, which brings a tailored technology solution to kirana stores and believe that it will play a large role in India’s retail growth story. Prem and team have a rich and diverse experience across multiple markets and verticals that has led to their impressive growth over a short span of time.  We are confident that this momentum will continue as more kirana stores look to leverage technology to improve their business.

SnapBizz empowers retailers by delivering a competitive edge through leveraging their strengths to achieve improved profitability. SnapBizz also drives digital inclusion of a large part of the economy and provides the much needed last mile connect in keeping with the national agenda of Digital India.

Chirantan Bhabhra, Director- Brands Engagement, SnapBizz added

SnapBizz is bringing in more money to kirana stores through partnership with FMCG companies. Brands, large and small, find SnapBizz a must-be-on platform. They can now contextually engage consumers in and out of stores, track promotions efficiently, analyse their business like never before and connect directly with kirana retailers.

Prem Kumar, Founder and CEO, SnapBizz added

Kirana stores have been the face of India’s retail ecosystem for ages. The last few years witnessed the entry of large players in the form of supermarkets, hypermarkets and e-commerce posing a huge threat to kirana stores’ business. Despite stiff competition, kirana stores are still considered as the most trusted retail format in our country.

They have unique strengths like trust, convenience, flexibility and competitive pricing which make them highly relevant. SnapBizz helps kirana stores leverage these strengths to get a competitive edge. In line with the changing business environment and consumer expectations, kirana stores have realized the need to transform the business through advanced technology solutions

About SnapBizz

SnapBizz Cloudtech Pvt Ltd is a retail-technology company founded in 2013 to transform the small scale retail sector in the country. To reverse marginalization of SMB’s and drive digital inclusion in the large consumer goods industry, it has developed a technology platform to connect all stakeholders of the fragmented retail ecosystem of India, while adding value to individual stakeholders.

The end-to-end solution it offers is an android based, cloud-connected business platform that is also cost-effective. The solution comprises of tablet, barcode scanner, printer and an intelligent external large consumer facing LED display for consumer engagement. SnapBizz is backed by leading investors and strategic partners who are captains of industry and bring in an innovation funnel of cutting edge technology.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Hike Messenger, India’s only home-grown and fastest growing messaging app, crossed the 100 million user mark in just 3 months after crossing 70 million users in October 2015. Also, Hike is now logging a monthly messaging volume of 40 billion messages, having doubled on messaging in a span of 5 months [from 20 billion messages per month logged in August 2015]. Users are spending over 120 minutes per week on Hike.

Apart from messaging, there’s a lot more one can do on Hike as it emerges a platform. For example, users are viewing 11.2 News stories on average per user per day & since the launch of Hike Direct in October 2015, have transferred close to 10 million files totalling to more than 200 TB of data till date without the internet.

Kavin Bharti Mittal, CEO & Founder, Hike Messenger said

We’re off to a great start in 2016. Crossing 100 million users is a big milestone for us and we have achieved this well ahead of our expectations. Hikers aren’t only messaging and calling on Hike, they’re also reading News on Hike in Hindi and English, viewing live Cricket scores, getting inspired on Hike Daily, transferring huge files without internet on Hike Direct and so on. Hike has emerged as a true platform over the last year and in 2016 we’re going to double down.

90% of Hike users are under the age of 30 and 90% of them are based in India; and this is the mobile-first young-India that Hike is building for. Hike has a localized strategy for the country and continues to reach this young user base that consumes enormous amounts of byte-sized information, craves social interactions, shares like never before and survives on many challenges such as poor connectivity and limited data.

Hike’s Growth Story

  • Dec 2012 – Global launch
  • Feb 2013 – Messaging traffic grows 10X week on week
  • April 2013 – Hit the first 5M user milestone in just 4 months of its launch | Raised $7M from BSB
  • Feb 2014 – Hit the 15M user mark
  • April 2014 – Received $14M fresh funding from BSB
  • June 2014 – Crossed 20M user mark, launched first TVC
  • July 2014 – Hit #1 rank on App stores
  • August 2014 – Crossed 35M user mark, receives $65M fresh funding led by Tiger Global & BSB
  • November 2014 – Launches regional stickers on hike
  • January 2015 – Launched free Hike Calls
  • February 2015 – Launched Cricket Scores on hike
  • Aug 2015: Hike announces 20 billion messages per month and launched Hike News
  • Sep 2015: Launched Group Calling with upto 100 people

Additional information

You can download the app at – http://get.hike.in For more information, please visit the Hike Blog

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

FreeCharge, in its endeavour to make transactions ubiquitous, secure and rewarding for the customers has launched its new virtual card ‘FreeCharge Go‘. FreeCharge Go is linked with FreeCharge wallet and will make the wallet universally accepted across all online merchants in India. FreeCharge will soon be available for payments at offline stores as well in coming months.

Launched in association with YES Bank, ‘FreeCharge Go’ is powered by MasterCard. The card can be activated in just a few seconds. Customers can log on to the FreeCharge account and generate their FreeCharge Go card. They can top it up by adding money to FreeCharge wallet and use it on- the- go for all their online transactions.

Govind Rajan, Chief Operating Officer, FreeCharge said

FreeCharge Wallet is the fastest growing wallet in the country. We are insanely focused on UI – 0ver 99% of our transactions are completed in less than 10 seconds. As a result we have amongst the stickiest cohort – with over 72% consumers being repeat consumers

Today, in our journey we are entering the next phase. We are partnering with MasterCard and YES Bank to launch the FreeCharge Go card. FreeCharge Go card can be generated by the consumer in less than 5 seconds! Also, the card will be accepted universally across all major online portals in India. Transacting online will not only be swifter and safer with “FreeCharge Go” but universal too.

Porush Singh, Country Corporate Officer, India and Division President, South Asia, MasterCard said

In India, digital wallets are emerging as the new trend among consumers in tandem with smartphone adoption and rise in the number of internet users. Consumers are fascinated with the digital wallet as its use has been expanded beyond paying bills and it is a hassle-free way to make payments from anywhere.

The potential of digital wallets is promising as it has simplified the online payment process. FreeCharge and MasterCard pursue a shared dream of driving the country towards a digital future. Our partnership with ‘FreeCharge Go’ will provide a full spectrum of merchant services on a safe and secure payment platform to consumers and we are certain such innovative solutions will be accepted enthusiastically by consumers.

FreeCharge Go is built to ensure the safety and security of customer data. FreeCharge has deployed state of the art technology wherein data is secured with 128-bit encryption and stored as per PCI DSS compliance. Post activation, FreeCharge users will be able to see a 16 digit MasterCard number with an associated CVV in their FreeCharge account.

The card details are only accessible after entering security MPIN every time the customer has to view the card details to protect customer information. In addition, every transaction using the card needs to be verified by an OTP which is sent to the registered mobile number. With ‘FreeCharge Go’ customers can transact across all major e-commerce portals, pay for movie tickets, book event tickets, pay for various transportation services like bus, cabs and metro rides, leverage it for hyper-local services like grocery shopping etc. across all Indian websites.

With the aim to be the most rewarding wallet, ‘FreeCharge Go’ will soon launch a marketing program with targeted and personalized offers for customers based on their usage patterns.

About FreeCharge

FreeCharge is India’s leading digital platform for recharge and utility payments which provides prepaid, post-paid, DTH and Electricity bill payment for almost all Indian service providers. FreeCharge was founded in 2010 by Kunal Shah & Sandeep Tandon and had received funding of over $120 million in the last 4 years. In the largest acquisition in the consumer Internet space yet, Snapdeal acquired FreeCharge in Apr’15 resulting in India’s largest m-commerce ecosystem.  For more details, please visit FreeCharge

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

CREO, a Bangalore based fast-growing consumer Technology Company, has secured $3 Million funding from Sequoia India, Beenext Ventures & India Quotient. The home-grown tech startup will join the exclusive niche of global companies that produce smartphones by developing both, a proprietary software OS and the smartphone itself.

On the inception of the startup, Sai Srinivas, Co-Founder & CEO, CREO, said

The idea of building an Android based Operating System for a Smartphone stemmed from the realization that in the current market, while hardware is getting better very fast, there is not enough differentiation on the software front. We want to be the ones bridging that gap.

CREO will invest the funds in building an enriching and evolving software experience through their proprietary Android based Operating System and a flagship Smartphone to be launched later in the year.

Commenting on the round, Sai Srinivas, Co-Founder & CEO, CREO said

We believe when powerful hardware works hand-in-hand with continually evolving software, magical experiences can be created. Our team is gearing up to make an operating system and a smartphone that constantly evolves to give you new experiences every month; experiences that were never heard of on any smartphone. In the long run, we also plan to license our OS to other OEMs in India and worldwide.

Formerly known as Mango Man Consumer Electronics Pvt. Ltd, CREO’s first product offering was Teewe – an HDMI media streaming device that was launched in September 2014. With Teewe 2, launched in May 2015, Teewe has established itself in over 50,000 households across India.

About CREO

CREO is a Bangalore based Consumer Technology Company, on a mission to build software that empowers every device, to deliver new experiences every month. CREO delivers its core promise of a new experience every month, by building features which stem from ideas and suggestions given by its community of users and makers. Formerly known as Mango Man Consumer Electronics Pvt. Ltd., CREO’s first product offering was Teewe – an HDMI media streaming device.