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|In: Embedded|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

NI, the provider of systems that enable engineers and scientists to solve the world’s greatest engineering challenges, today successfully hosted the 14th edition of NIDays – an annual conference on graphical system design – in Bangalore. The event was attended by over 700 engineers, scientists, and experts from Industry and Academia who discussed the trends, opportunities and challenges that will enable the future technology to grow faster.

At the seminar, NI India discussed the next generation of LabVIEW software, LabVIEW NXG 1.0, that gets faster engineering insights with instant hardware discovery, integrated data analysis, and interactive data exploration tools. The attendees got to experience LabVIEW NXG 1.0 and LabVIEW 2017 with experts from Applications Engineering and NI RnD. NIDays offered 22 technical & academic track sessions and tutorials along with a wide range of products and application demonstrations.

Speakers and exhibitors from automated test domain joined the event. The diverse set of panelists shared their experiences and best practices in the areas of processes, management and technology that address the challenges and opportunities for future systems.

Addressing the media at the event, Jayaram Pillai, Managing Director – IndRAA, National Instruments, said

Over the years, we have partnered with local and global experts in our Alliance program, constantly striving to innovate and evolve with every challenge and opportunity that comes our way. With technology growing sooner that predicted, it is inspiring to see all the future ready innovation and products at this year’s NIDays. It gives me immense pride to witness the passion and determination from the engineering community and I look forward to see what’s next.

Commenting on the success of the event, Shelley Gretlein, NI Vice President of Corporate Marketing, National Instruments, said

As we are racing through the 21st century, where technological progression is faster than ever before, the demand for faster and smarter applications is essential. We help our customers to keep up with the pace by providing industry trends impacting the industry along with actionable insights. Our open, software-centric platform aids in developing cutting-edge innovative solutions in areas such as machine learning applications, wireless technology, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and transportation. Now we can truly be prepared for our future.

Presented at NIDays, NI’s Trend Watch 2018 examined the technological advances propelling towards a future faster than ever before along with some of the biggest challenges engineers face looking ahead to 2018. Five key topics were explored –

  • Machine Learning –  Explores the development of Intelligent nodes across manufacturing machines, test systems, and industrial assets that will provide the data needed to build better products and make better operational decisions
  • Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – Predicts that Industries will have to adopt to IIoT to maximize uptime, optimize performance, and drive product and process innovation.
  • 5G – Signifies a generational transformation that will provide untethered experience with much faster data, shorter network response times (lower latency), instant access anywhere and everywhere, and the capacity for billions of devices.
  • Vehicles Electrification – Discusses the reliance on power electronics and electric motor drives that adds complexity to control systems.
  • Breaking Moore’s Law – Industries will demonstrate each scaling challenge with an innovation in alternative architectures seemingly ending processing advancements

The new range of products presented at the event includes LabVIEW NXG 1.0, bridging the gap between configuration-based software and custom programming languages, Vehicle Radar Test System [VRTS] delivering object simulation and radar measurement capabilities for engineers testing autonomous driving technology, and ATE Core Configurations which supply core mechanical, power and safety infrastructure to help users accelerate the design and build of automated test systems in industries ranging from semiconductor and consumer electronics to aerospace and automotive.

|In: DCMN|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Analytics has become an integral part of any online business. It is not only relevant to online business, even if you own a blog it becomes important to understand the impact of the posts, target audience, decision making, keywords relevant to the blog, etc. In naive terms, it helps in audience measurement and putting the buck at the right place since everything is ‘Measurable’.

However, the question is ‘Do we have any such solution for offline mode?’ e.g. If the advertiser is an e-commerce brand, can the brand figure out whether the consumer has downloaded the app after looking at the advertisement on TV or via some offline medium [Hoarding, Newspaper advertisement] or some other mechanism. Though advertising on TV is the best possible mechanism to reach maximum audience and generate brand awareness, its ROI is still not directly measurable!

DCMN, a Berlin based startup that is a leading full-stack growth specialist and marketing firm seems to have an effective solution where brands can leverage DCMN’s technological expertise to optimize a TV Commercial (TVC) for the best reach as well as for generating measurable results! DCMN executes campaigns across all media with services spanning right from creation and production, media planning and buying, to campaign optimization with one of a kind in-house technology.

We were invited for the Bloggers Meet in Bengaluru where we had an opportunity to interact with Bindu Balakrishnan, Country Head India, DCMN. The interaction revolved around the problem being solved by DCMN, change in Marketer’s mindset for shifting to performance-driven TVC’s, some technical aspects of DCMN, etc.

Bindu Balakrishnan [third from Left] with Bloggers from Bengaluru

She also touched upon their association with CARS24 where they helped CARS24 launch their newest performance-driven and optimized TVC, which aims at educating customers on how to use the second-hand automotive marketplace to get the best rate for their vehicles.

Drawing on its expertise as an international leader in performance-driven TV marketing, DCMN India recently won the mandate to produce the media strategy for CARS24. The company created a data-driven media campaign that allows tracking and optimisation based on DCMN’s in-house TV attribution technology, thus bridging the age-old gap between offline and online.

Following the successful first flight of the campaign that ran for about six weeks, DCMN delivered an in-depth optimisation and performance evaluation report, to analyse the TVC and work towards an optimised next flight.

In the first flight, DCMN tracked key KPIs for the client such as cost per visit, cost per call and Cost per booked appointment. In flight two, the media buying has been optimised in line with these KPIs with a focus on channels, dayparts, weekdays and spot length.

Consequently, while planning for the new spot, CARS24 approached DCMN at the initial storyboard level to help with optimising their media strategy

Bindu Balakrishnan, Country Head – DCMN India added

With this campaign, DCMN has given CARS24’s new TV spot a performance focus. Using our in-house TV attribution technology, we can optimise the campaign from the moment it goes to air, allowing us to focus on the best-performing genres, channels, days, and dayparts for optimal performance.

For the festive seasons, CARS24 has also decided to almost double their media spend for the second flight. DCMN recommended here including more infotainment channels, with programming similar to the History channel. The optimised media strategy included more business news channels, as well more Hindi news channels while further expanding the Hindi movies channel mix and focusing on the earlier dayparts.

The newest TVC is airing currently with a strong presence across genres, including Infotainment, Hindi News, Hindi Movies, English movies and English business news.

Vikram Chopra, CEO and Co-Founder, CARS24, added

Following a successful first flight with our previous TVC, we’ve optimised the campaign for even better performance. Our continued partnership with DCMN allows us to take advantage of their performance-driven approach, which ensures we can measure the direct response of the spot as it goes to air.

DCMN also counts more than 120 digital brands in its portfolio, including Indian brands CARS24, EaseMyTrip, Fynd and more. For more information, please visit DCMN

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Upon integration of its web and mobile app products with Truecaller’s mobile identity solution, Truecaller SDK, leading e-commerce healthcare start-up 1mg has witnessed an impact upside of 21% increase in their daily user registration.

This integration with Truecaller SDK enables new 1mg users to instantly sign-up in a simple and quick manner using auto-fill functionality and completely bypassing the SMS based OTP process, using their Truecaller mobile identity.

With the above impact, this integration has enabled 1mg to seamlessly on-board new users and appropriately connect with them for fulfilling key use cases in their platform like doctor consultations, diagnostic tests and last mile medicine ordering and delivery. The Truecaller SDK solution has been live on 1mg for about a year now and they have seen very encouraging results.

Truecaller SDK is a developer toolkit for digital startups, app developers, and other online businesses. An efficient, secure and asset-light solution, Truecaller SDK is designed to minimize complexity in user on-boarding and verification process as well as helps businesses build more trust on their products, offer more personalisation and enables further evolution of the quality of users being served by them.

Commenting on the partnership, Priyam Bose, Director & Head, Global Developer & Startup Relations, Truecaller said

Our partnership with 1mg epitomizes the value we bring to the burgeoning integrated digital and mobile healthcare sector in India. Truecaller’s Mobile identity toolkit is enabling better personalization, more trust and seamless consumer experience, and predictable last mile service delivery. This in turn is leading businesses like 1mg to achieve better customer satisfaction and repeat engagements.

Gaurav Agarwal, Co-founder, 1mg said

Truecaller enabled us to obtain verified user identities, right at the time of signup, significantly improving sign up rates while reducing hurdles associated with OTP based registration processes. For a mobile first country like India, Truecaller helped us bridge the chasm to giving users a seamless and automated mobile registration process thus reducing user drop offs and increasing engagement across the board.

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

BookMyShow witnessed its biggest ever blockbuster Diwali weekend and sold over 3.5 million movie tickets only for Golmaal Again, Mersal and Secret Superstar between October 18~22, averaging over 500 tickets a minute!

Golmaal Again drove the maximum ticket bookings on BookMyShow, followed by Mersal and Secret Superstar. However, actor Vijay’s popularity was evident in South India as the region contributed a majority share to the overall movie ticket sales.

High number of transactions were recorded across regions like Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh along with metro and mini-metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad Chennai and Bangalore. Tier-II & Tier-III markets of Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Vadodara, Jaipur especially saw a surge in ticket purchase for movies.

During this festive period, viewers preferred show times between 6-8 pm and on an average bought over 3 tickets per transaction, indicating that they went out in larger groups.

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

Movies were a big hit during the Diwali weekend. With three blockbuster releases, Golmaal Again, Mersal and Secret Superstar, audiences were definitely spoilt for choice and all three films saw tremendous response on the box office. Secret Superstar had the advantage of a head start and BookMyShow contributed to as high as 40% of the film’s opening weekend collection.

We alone sold millions of tickets for Golmaal Again, the highly awaited instalment of this zany movie series. Mersal is a typical revenge drama, and we expect it to have atleast a 2 week clear run owing to Vijay’s tremendous fan following. Together for these three blockbusters, BookMyShow is thrilled to have sold over 3 million tickets in a single weekend.

BookMyShow also ran its popular Blockbuster Week during this period that saw a phenomenal response from movie buffs across the country. As part of it, BookMyShow offered exclusive discounts on pre-booking F&B and cashbacks through Amazon Pay.

This month, Secret Superstar and Mersal also emerged as favourites on Jukebox, the audio entertainment service by BookMyShow. While almost half of the downloads for Mersal’s music on Jukebox happened from Chennai and Bengaluru, Secret Superstar’s music was popular across geographies including Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

|In: Marketing|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

With Diwali just around the corner, there has been a lot of questions raised about the air quality after the Diwali festivities. Some cities like Delhi where pollution is at an all-time high, the sale of firecrackers has been curbed in Delhi-NCR as per the verdict from Supreme Court. Though the firecrackers ban has not been imposed in other cities, citizens are becoming more and more vigilant about pollution, air quality and the implications of bursting crackers on the environment.

Many brands are coming up with very innovative concepts so that Diwali can be celebrated in a manner that there is less (or no) noise pollution! Adding to the festivities this Diwali, Vodafone India, in hallmark style, has come up with an innovative concept to delight its customers. Vodafone is encouraging customers to walk into any Vodafone stores across India on 18th and 19th October to get a unique & differentiated Diwali experience and create a personalized Diwali GIF with Augmented Reality to wish an eco-friendly Diwali to their loved ones.

All Vodafone stores are decked with Diwali accessories and each customer would be greeted by traditionally attired Vodafone personnel, with a custom created offer, an opportunity to send a unique, personalized Diwali greeting (GIF) to their loved ones and a chance to take home a gift hamper. There would be on-going promotions on the MyVodafone App where customers can choose personalized plans.

With the help of store employees, Vodafone customers can create eco-friendly Diwali ‘phuljaris’ greetings for their loved ones, through a twist of Augmented Reality. The personalized GIF can then be sent to friends & family, through social media by tagging them. Each customer will also receive a special Thank You card from Vodafone.

Kavita Nair, Associate Director – Commercial Operations, Vodafone India, said

We, at Vodafone, have always been customer obsessed and believe in delighting our customers. This festive season, we invite them to visit our stores for an innovative Augmented Reality [AR] experience and use it to create their own, unique Diwali greeting for wishing their family and friends.

We walked into their Whitefield store and tried out this simple, yet effective AR solution to wish the dear ones ‘Happy Diwali’. It is an interesting way to promote e-Diwali, create more customer engagement and customized offers ensures that customers can make their Diwali more eventful 🙂

If you are Vodafone customer, you should definitely give this a spin to wish your dear ones ‘Happy Diwali’ 🙂 If you have already tried the Vodafone AR experience, do leave your experience in the comments section…

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Uber announced the launch of PREMIER,  a superior ride option at every day, affordable fares. Starting today, riders in Bangalore will be offered PREMIER as an in-app product option that serves as an upgrade to their current uberX experience. PREMIER is currently available in Mumbai and Pune.

Commenting on the launch, an Uber Spokesperson, said

At Uber, we strive to make every ride a great experience. With a focus on building products that will go further in replacing the need for personal mobility options, we are launching PREMIER in Bangalore. We are constantly listening to our riders’ and work towards enhancing their Uber experiences. PREMIER has been devised to deliver on rider expectations for in-city rides that takes the core experience further.

Whether its mid-day meetings or shopping sprees, outings with friends and family, hosting business partners or taking rides to the airport, the PREMIER experience has been crafted to better serve rider needs on-trip and continue to iterate via enhanced post-trip feedback and support. Riders have indicated the need and helped shape the product by sharing feedback through features such as Driver Compliments and Driver Ratings.

  • On average, these best-in-class driver-partners have completed 1000+ lifetime trips & acknowledged by riders via the Driver Compliments feature and Driver Ratings.
  • Riders themselves have consistently rated these driver-partners for their 5-star service, making them the top-rated driver-partners on Uber.

In Bengaluru, PREMIER will complement the current product range of POOL, GO & XL to serve unmet needs in the economy-plus and premium segments where there is immense scope to match a personal car experience.

When booking a PREMIER ride, one can expect

  • Rides in select, high-comfort, economy-range sedans every time
  • To be driven by best-in-class driver partners endorsed by riders
  • Enhanced customer support for a superior post-ride experience
  • Affordable, everyday fares

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National Instruments is hosting NIDays Conference and Exhibition, the ultimate learning experience that unites the brightest minds in engineering and science. This year, NIDays India will take place at ITC Gardenia on 26th October 2017.

Image Source – NI Days

At NIDays, scientists and engineers will learn about the latest technology to accelerate productivity for software defined systems in test, measurement and control, in a full day of interactive, technical and networking sessions from industry leaders and NI experts.

Hosted by National Instruments, NIDays is an event ideal for engineers, scientists and academicians, supplying the tools and knowledge to develop applications faster and smarter. This years Thought Leadership Keynotes aim to inspire, giving those in attendance a glimpse at the latest, cutting-edge innovations that demonstrate how engineers and scientists use NI technology to change and improve the world we live in.

The morning keynote Impacting Today’s Business, demonstrates how the NI platform is accelerating innovation in applications ranging from transportation safety, wireless communication, automated test and the IIoT. In the afternoon, see how NI continues the LabVIEW legacy with the evolution of the world’s most productive and efficient engineering software, in the keynote A Glimpse into The Future.

Attendees can tailor the event to their specific industry, application or interest and can choose from a vast array of Targeted Application Area Tracks including IIoT, Test & Measurement, Automotive, Academics and Software advancements. Test engineers and managers can take advantage of unique opportunity in form of a test leadership panel which will have leaders in test and measurement come and share their experiences and best practices for improving the impact of test.

To register for NIDays, please visit NIDays Registration Page

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Leading health and fitness start-up, HealthifyMe have unveiled the world’s first-ever conversational AI-enabled nutritionist Ria. The advanced AI coach, which has been under works for a while, will be launched in the coming months in BETA, and is expected to transform the way people manage their nutrition and fitness plans.

The unveiling was done at HealthifyMe’s annual event Ignite, where the company also announced that it has achieved a 4.6-star rating on Google Play Store, becoming one of the few Indian apps over 1 million downloads to have ever reached the landmark rating.

Developed under the code-name ‘Project Amadeus’, Ria uses key learnings obtained from HealthifyMe’s 150 million tracked meals [20 billion+ macro/micro nutrients] and 10 million message exchanges [1 billion+ words] between coaches and clients. Amadeus is the next step to ‘Jarvis’, the AI that has been assisting coaches to become more efficient by learning from their interactions with clients. Like fellow ‘intelligent assistants’ Siri and Assistant, Ria can answer questions around nutrition and fitness via both audio and text. It can do so in more than 10 languages and provides personalised responses based on the users’ lifestyle habits.

Speaking at HealthifyMe’s annual event, Ignite, Tushar Vashisht, CEO HealthifyMe said

Our vision is to make healthy living accessible for all. As a first step, we used mobile and cloud to cater to Tier 2/3 cities. Now with AI capabilities, we intend to refine Ria and Jarvis to the point where they can allow us to serve beyond India using qualified nutritionists working from their homes in India but catering to the world.

HealthifyMe has been talking about its data insights on HealthifyMeter and has run several campaigns in 2017 focused on improving public awareness around nutrition. Tushar also recently presented to Prime Minister Modi on behalf of Health & Nutrition group at an event organised by Niti Aayog.

The HealthifyMe app is available to download for free and enables users to keep a track of their calories, set personal fitness goals and measure progress. It boasts of the world’s largest database of Indian foods and syncs with all leading wearables including Fitbit, YuFit, MiBand amongst others besides its own fitness band RIST. As part of its subscription services, HealthifyMe connects users with elite nutritionists and trainers who review their progress, provide diet and exercise plans and work with the users to help them achieve their fitness goals.

The current HealthifyMe subscription plans cost from INR 999 ~ INR 1699 per month, depending on the number of coaches needed and other special packages for targeted programmes like weight loss, muscle gain, diabetes prevention.

HealthifyMe AI solutions team comprises of data scientists, ML & NLP experts with relevant degrees from IITs, Stanford, Georgia Tech, IIMs and experience of working with companies like Google, ZS Associates, McKinsey, Mu Sigma.

About HealthifyMe

HealthifyMe is a mobile health and fitness app that combines the power of technology with real human services to deliver measurable impact. Co-founded in 2012 by Tushar Vashisht and Sachin Shenoy, and incubated by Microsoft Accelerator, it today is India’s largest digital wellness platform catering to 3 million users with over 200 coaches. For more information, please visit HealthifyMe