|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Zeta, the newest portfolio company of the Directi group, introduces Zeta Meal Vouchers, a mobile-based meal voucher platform. Introduced for the first time in India, this revolutionary new solution will provide HR Managers with an instant one-click distribution platform to employees across cities.

This path breaking solution provides HR Managers a simple desktop interface that can be used to initiate transfer of meal vouchers to hundreds of employees at one go. Employees can then receive these meal vouchers on their smartphones and start using them instantly.

What’s even more interesting is that Zeta Meal Vouchers can be used across any outlet for purchasing food and non-alcoholic beverages – irrespective of whether the outlet is a Zeta affiliated partner or not.

Zeta CEO & Co-founder Bhavin Turakhia said

We are really excited about our new initiative and foresee a lot of scope for this product. The meal voucher market today is worth about Rs 4,000 crore with approximately one million employees using meal vouchers in some form or the other. The potential market size is estimated at over 10 million users. However, given the cumbersome distribution process, many corporates and employees shy away from this benefit. We genuinely think Zeta can make this process 10x better than any current practice.

This tax saving instrument is also the only solution in India that is fully compliant with Income Tax and RBI laws as prescribed under the new RBI norms updated in December 2014.

With Zeta, HR Managers can easily distribute vouchers digitally to employees without wasting time or resources. This solution also eliminates the problem of storage of vouchers until employees have collected them. The fact that these vouchers are available to employees on their smartphones also implies that they do not have to carry bulky booklets or worry about vouchers being damaged or stolen. The Zeta app ensures the vouchers are tamper-proof and fully secure.

Zeta CTO and Co-founder Ramki Gaddipati said

Technology is at the heart of this product. We have directed all our efforts to make Zeta a completely secure product. Zeta is smarter and more relevant in this fast-changing world. Moving from paper to digital is the way to go. Whether it is about saving trees from being sacrificed for paper manufacturing or making complicated processes streamlined and quick, digital is the new way of life today.

Zeta Meal Vouchers are also equipped with many other features that make it even more convenient for users. The app has a location-sensitive merchant directory that helps users locate outlets in the vicinity. The app also eliminates transaction hassles caused by rigid denominations in paper-based solutions, thereby allowing employees to pay odd amounts without worrying about change. All-in-all it is the most convenient meal voucher solution in the market today.

The Zeta app is supported on Android, Windows & iOS platforms currently. To know more on how Zeta Meal Vouchers work, click here

About Zeta

Zeta is the newest portfolio company of the Directi Group. It promises to give the world ground breaking offerings and tech solutions that would change the face of commerce. Completely digital in nature, Zeta believes in making commerce more inclusive and accessible to more and more people. Zeta is co-founded by Bhavin Turakhia, the CEO and co-founder of the Directi Group and Ramki Gaddipati, who is also the CTO of this tech-driven company. To know more, log on to www.zeta.in

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

EPPS Infotech, a new-age start-up in the ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] landscape announced the formal launch of its indigenously developed ERP solution devised on the aspects of agility, efficiency, customization and scalability.

The solution, while catering across to all industries irrespective of the size of the organizations, specifically focuses on addressing the needs of the SME’s [Small & Medium Enterprises], who otherwise have a very limited access to advanced technologies in this field.

EPPS’ ERP solution aims to address the latent demand of enterprises that are presently sandwiched between using either a modestly developed ERP solution offered by domestic players or premium priced solutions offered by global MNCs.

EPPS’ value proposition comprising of a competitive price as well as product innovation promises to auger well to the overall business interests of the enterprises in general and SMEs in particular. The most noteworthy feature of EPPS’ new-age ERP solution is the mobile ERP functionality; a feature that till now is not offered by even the premium priced ERP solutions from global MNCs. The mobile ERP solution offered by EPPS will enable quick decision-making even while on the move – ‘Business Any-time Any-where’ redefined.

The competitive price point of the EPPS solution will extend the reach of mobile ERP feature beyond the large enterprises to even the SMEs.  The solution works seamlessly across all prevalent OS [Operating Systems], browsers and smartphones as well as tablets.

Asheer Kapoor, Managing Director, EPPS Infotech commented

With the launch of our ERP solution, we aim to further drive  the Digital India and Make in India initiatives announced by the government of the India to the extent of making it inclusive and accessible for the SMEs as well. We are confident that our foray in the new-age ERP space will usher in new industry benchmarks and apparently benefit the interests of the end-user.

Apart from Asheer Kapoor, the Pune head quartered company is also managed by Atul Pimple, in the capacity of Joint Managing Director. Together they have over 30 years of experience in the ERP landscape. The leadership of EPPS has established success in other ongoing business ventures as well that cater to the Steel and Packaging industries.

About EPPS Infotech

EPPS Infotech is a new-age start-up in the ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] landscape. It has developed a technology platform that promises to offer an ERP solution devised on the aspects of agility, efficiency, customization and scalability. The company’s vision is to facilitate efficient, agile, balanced and enduring business decisions for customers. For more information, please visit EPPS Infotech

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The NEW YEAR is a great time to make resolution for fitness/lifestyle goals & the latest fitness cum daily routine monitor with attractive new features is Swipe F-Band at an astounding price of Rs. 1,499 only. The device will be available exclusively on Snapdeal from 7th Jan 2016 onwards. First 100 customers can avail this fitness band at a special price for Rs. 1,299.

F-Band, Swipe’s first offering in the Fitness segment, is lightweight, comfortable and stylish. The comfortably textured band is suitable for daily use and can be worn all day and all night long.

 

The band offers some of the most innovative features:

  • Steps Tracker : The feature will help users accurately track all-day statistics like steps taken & calories burned. One can Work towards a healthier lifestyle & accomplish the exercise targets set for himself/herself.
  • Sleep Monitor : F-Band monitors how long and how well an individual sleeps. Silent wake alarm can be activated too under this feature.
  • Calling Reminder : Users can track all their important calls through an instant alert.
  • Mobile App : One can sync with the F-Band app in real-time via Bluetooth to view fitness and sleep records. This can allow users to save up to a 1 year worth of data and get healthy.
  • Watch Function : Designed with advanced smart watch features, F-Band lets an individual run the day as per the individual’s way.
  • Battery : Built with the best-in-class battery life, F-Band transitions seamlessly from workouts to tracking real-time statistics. F-Band has a Rechargeable 55 mAh Battery which can last upto 7 days. The charge time is approximately 30 minutes via USB charging cable.

First 100 customers can avail F-Band at a special price for Rs. 1,299. Watch this space on Snapdeal for updates.

About Swipe Technologies

Swipe is an innovation-centric company with a vision to empower India to be one of the top nations in the world in terms of availability of new Tablet technologies and innovative solutions. Swipe was started in India to bring exciting devices to market and today we are a leading consumer brand with key innovations across product, pricing and support. In November 2012, Swipe Telecom was awarded the “Most Innovation driven Company in India by World Brand Congress.” In December 2012, Swipe Telecom was also recognized in ‘CNBC Young Turks’ for its breakthrough strategies and innovation. For more details visit Swipe Telecom

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

Pitney Bowes Inc, a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce have revealed ‘Five drivers of commerce for 2016‘.

  1. The Internet of Things [IoT] technologies will drive better business outcomes.
  2. Small and medium businesses will greatly benefit from the digitization of physical communications.
  3. Personalization and hyper-localization will drive explosive growth in global commerce.
  4. Data Analytics will play a key role in fraud detection and prevention.
  5. Omni-Channel Marketing will increasingly use data analytics and optimize physical and digital technologies to deliver a seamless experience for the customer.

Roger Pilc, Chief Innovation Officer for Pitney Bowes said

At Pitney Bowes, we are increasingly seeing clients of all sizes reexamine how physical and digital technologies converge to power commerce. Consumers are already demanding a more seamless way of integrating their physical and digital worlds. Businesses will need to transform their competencies to seamlessly serve customers across the physical and digital worlds of commerce. For Pitney Bowes, the Internet of Things, machine learning and data analytics continue to be areas of investment to enable us to better serve our clients.

The Internet of Things (IoT) technologies will drive better business outcomes across industries

When it comes to industrial businesses, the opportunity exists to leverage machine-to-machine and Internet of Things technologies, and extract and analyze data from industrial machines to drive better business outcomes. Industries across the board are experiencing a greater focus on creating and measuring operational efficiency in production settings.

The business benefits include lower cost of operations, greater productivity and output and higher service levels. Businesses also need the flexibility to toggle between the physical and digital worlds to reach their customers in their preferred channels.

Small & Medium Businesses will greatly benefit from the digitization of physical communications

Significant shifts in technology, mobility and information are creating new global commerce opportunities for small and medium businesses. New tools and technologies enable small and medium businesses to better target, engage and serve new customers from around the corner to around the globe.

These new technologies and cloud-based solutions are becoming available to integrate physical and digital experiences and simplify processes on one platform. Integrating physical with digital is reinventing mail, making it more interactive and more sophisticated. For example, businesses can now complement physical mail pieces with digital experiences through QR codes, create more interactive and targeted direct mail, and deliver messages across multiple channels to boost impact.

Personalization & Hyper-Localization will drive explosive growth in global commerce

As cross-border ecommerce becomes more mainstream, consumers are becoming savvier. Retailers and marketplaces must continuously improve the global consumer experience, but shopping experiences across the world are not all the same.

The challenge facing retailers is to create deeper, more personalized localized experiences that resonate with consumers from varying countries and regions. To make international purchases not only possible, but probable, retailers must deliver what their global consumers want, while also taking into account how they like to shop.

Data Analytics will play a key role in Fraud detection & Prevention

The same data analytics in the Cloud that help create one view of the customer are moonlighting to fight crime, help meet regulatory requirements and detect fraud. Businesses across different industries – Financial, Insurance, Retail, Healthcare and Public sector – have the common interest in protecting their assets and minimizing their losses.

Personal identities, which are captured in the databases of retailers, insurance companies, healthcare providers, mobile phone providers and more, are almost always variable. Data quality solutions reconcile these variables and connect different personas to the same record, matched by a common address, in a simple, single view. This technology combats the many faces of fraud, while protecting a business against financial vulnerabilities and ensuring greater compliance.

Physical and digital technologies must be aligned to protect consumers and their personally identifiable information. Integrated solutions that streamline regulatory compliance can help, as can address cleansing and database cleansing software.

Almost a quarter of security breaches involve accessing private data in paper-based form. New cloud-enabled multi-channel communications platforms are now available to help small and medium businesses ensure client data privacy, meet growing regulatory requirements & integrate their physical and digital transactional communications.

Omni-Channel Marketing will increasingly use data analytics and optimize physical and digital technologies to deliver a seamless experience for the customer

An old strategy has new technologies that make 2016 the year of one view of the customer. Best next actions in any physical or digital channel will determine whether marketing wins the day or drops the ball. Marketing influences within the enterprise are looking for ways to lower costs and improve ROI.

Making bills and statements more personalized, colorful, interactive, engaging, and more tightly integrated with digital channels, helps create more timely relevant and personalized messages for customers.

Customer service is at the heart of brand loyalty. In today’s technologically-advanced society, there are more opportunities for prospective and existing customers to communicate with a brand. Interactive and personalized video offers human-like communications that improve customer satisfaction, lower call center volumes and deliver higher customer retention rates.

With a 95-year track record of innovation, Pitney Bowes is leveraging physical and digital technologies to drive business outcomes for clients, including 1.5 million small businesses, 90% of the Fortune 500 and more than 200 retailers. Pitney Bowes collaborates with clients on open cloud platforms to create solutions that transform business. Globally, more than 1,100 Pitney Bowes innovators have been trained in the areas of the Internet of Things, Big Data, Data Analytics, Cloud, Mobile, and API Management. 

About Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes is a global technology company offering innovative products and solutions that enable commerce in the areas of customer information management, location intelligence, customer engagement, shipping and mailing, and global e-commerce.  More than 1.5 million clients in approximately 100 countries around the world rely on products, solutions and services from Pitney Bowes.  For additional information, visit Pitney Bowes at www.pb.com

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Increasing use of banking apps on smartphone are set to cause nightmare to consumers and financial institution as per the predictions for 2016 by Trend Micro. Reports say that 3 in 4 apps in India are malicious. Irrespective of the slow adoption rate of mobile payment apps, the introduction of next generation mobile payment systems will inspire a renewed interest for threat actors to carry out real-world testing to steal information from new payment processing technologies like EMV credit cards, contactless RFID credit cards, and mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

trend-micro-logo

In 2016, the improved security brought by these modes of payment will be challenged by online criminals. Google, on the other hand, released a report that says less than 1% of apps found in Android devices are potentially harmful. Based on the data gathered by Trend Micro as predictions for 2016, this distinction stands, showing that 13% of apps found in Play Store are found to be malicious while Google Play only registered 0.16% malicious apps. This will not be felt in other countries where users typically turn to official app stores for their apps.

Mobile malware will also continue to affect users in India due to the availability of third-party platforms and channels that offer free app downloads. Google Play, for example, is available in India, but reaches only 21 million of the estimated 800 million Chinese mobile users. Given this user behavior, there is no stopping the exponential growth of mobile malware at a rate that’s projected to reach the 20 million mark by the end of 2016.

Online threats will evolve to rely more on mastering the psychology behind each scheme than mastering the technical aspects of the operation. Attackers will continue to use fear as its main tool, as it has proven to be effective in the past.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in security software, strives to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Trend Micro enables the smart protection of information, with innovative security technology that is simple to deploy and manage, and fits an evolving ecosystem. Their solutions are powered by cloud-based global threat intelligence, the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ infrastructure & are supported by more than 1,200 threat experts around the globe.  For more information, visit TrendMicro

|In: Marketing|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

They say time is money and only time determines how far you’ve come with your business. Growing a business is no child’s play and marketing it to the optimum level is essential. So, how does one go on about this seemingly complicated concept which is rather simple?

Let’s find out the four best hacks in growth in marketing techniques.

Social Presence

Your social presence can largely determine the impact that you’ve created on your customers. In this competitive industry, connections sure do help. Display your best clients, trustworthy testimonials, customer satisfaction rates and throw in a decent number of case studies.

This not only will prove to be an anchor for newer lot but also reassure the existing base. The more personalized your website is, the more people tend to connect with it. Like for example, take a look at Freecharge website, the way they portrait shopping coupons to be grabbed by their online recharge users. And not just they promote them on their website but also on their social channels.

Speed

Today, almost everybody lacks patience. Fats food, fast cars, smooth technology, nothing makes us wait. So, why should your website? Get on the bandwagon and stay ahead of times.

When the customer is willing to spend time and money on you, the least you can do is be quick to offer and oblige to the services he’s looking for. It won’t take long for them to turn towards better sites if you lag behind.

Customer Services

How do you ensure that he new customers keep pouring in and the existing ones stay loyal? For that each and every customer matters. One fault on your behalf and it’ll take him seconds to criticize and defame you. You cannot possibly afford that. Achieve this by knowing the core needs of your customers and making the site easy to navigate even for the newbies.

Viral Looping

This is one of the paramount tools in marketing. Word of mouth is probably one marketing technique that businesses swear by. This is basically a simple concept where a customer gets in few more and they get some more. This chain continues and ensures you’ve a well prepped base.

This is achievable when your goal is crystal clear and you succeed in getting the best interests of your customers. This can include integrating the product in the right platform and reaching out to those who need it and will pay for it.

Know essential marketing statistics

If you see the growth chart of social channels and stats, there are a couple of significant players that are fighting for the pie. And no surprise that Facebook and Twitter are the two dominant players when it comes to the social platforms that many businesses would like to leverage their business.

What is under-noticed is a lot other channels that has potential to send four times more users to your website than Facebook and Twitter. One such channel is – LinkedIn. So before heading into any social campaigns, know its statistics.

Growth hacks is an efficient strategy where in initial stages you’ll need to invest considerable amount of time and intellect but once you’re past that phase, the returns will only be the cherry on top!

About the author

Sree Reddy is a content and social media marketer for GrabOn, an online coupons and deals venture. You can check out awesome deals on GrabOn.

[Image Credit* – Venturesity]

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

BlrDroid is a group of enthusiastic android developers who love creating apps. It also offers a platform for developers & enthusiasts either working within the Android ecosystem or interested in learning more about Android to collaborate and network among each other.

BlrDroid kicks off 2016 with their meetup on 9th January,2016.

Detailed Agenda

  • Registration start at 9:30 AM
  • 10:00 to 11:00 – Android Development at Scale – Lessons from Twitter for Android by Aman Alam
  • 11:00 to 12: 00 – Deep-linking, what, why and how !!  by Ankit Saxena Branch
  • 12:00 to 1:00 – TBD
  • 1:00 to 1:30 – TBD

Event Venue

Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd
#26, Bannerghatta Main Road [Near Gopalan Mall], J.P. Nagar 3rd Phase
Bangalore

RSVPs will close 2 days before the event, at 4 PM so, go ahead and register for the event. You can RSVP for the event here You can have a look at their event calendar here

Other information

BlrDroid Facebook Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/blrdroid
Reaching out to organizers : organizers@blrdroid.org

[Image Credit* – Twimg]

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Hike messenger, India’s first homegrown and fastest growing messaging platform have announced the launch of Hike 3.5 for Windows Phone 8.1. The update will bring Windows Phone 8.1 users a host of Hike’s most popular and much wanted features.

Commenting on this new release, Kavin Bharti Mittal, CEO and Founder, Hike Messenger, said

Our users on Windows Phones absolutely love hike. Today, Windows is our 2nd largest platform by users. We know they have been eagerly waiting for this update, which is the biggest we’ve ever released for Windows, and we’re excited to finally get it in their hands.

What’s new in Hike 3.5 for Windows Phone 8.1

Hike Now Looks Better than Ever Before – Hike 3.5 has a brand new user interface that makes navigating simpler than ever before. It has 10 brand new exciting chat themes that will allow you to set the tone of every conversation you have!

Share Files and Attachments that are up to 100 MB – Sharing will never be the same with this new update as one can send practically all formats and any number of files through hike — PDF, ZIP, APK, MP3, Audio, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc. The update also allows one to send or receive files and videos that are up to 100 MB in size!

Take Better Control of Your Social Circles – You can now form large groups of up to 500 members on hike — friends, colleagues, alumni etc. Not only this, you can even manage these groups better by having multiple administrators in each group and also the ability to mute groups and messages from your contacts so you are not disturbed if you don’t want to.

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

[Image Credit* – Wikimedia]