All Posts in Technology

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 2 Comments

Zappfresh, a fast growing online fresh meat brand focusing on delivering high quality ready to cook meat products has tied up with SRS Grocery, a Delhi based e-tailer having both, online and offline presence with over 100,000 plus customers. This tie-up will not only help Zappfresh to reach out to the customer base of SRS grocery but also give them access to newer markets.

Customers of SRS Grocery will now be able to choose from a wide range of over 40 high quality fresh non-vegetarian options including chicken, mutton, fish & pork and pre-cooked items like ham, sausages and salami. SRS’s already has a comprehensive online product catalogue of over 7500 SKU’s and reach in Gurgaon, Noida & Faridabad. This tie-up will enable them to enter into a new product category altogether. This service is currently available in Gurgaon and South Delhi and would shortly be available in other cities.

Zappfresh, founded by Shruti Gochhwal and Deepanshu Manchanda in 2015, is one of the fastest growing direct to consumer online fresh meat brand focusing on delivering high quality ready to cook meat products. Currently available in the Gurgaon and Delhi, Zappfresh is already delivering to over 10,000 happy customers in these two markets and aims to reach 30,000 customers by mid-2016.

Zappfresh currently delivers fresh meats, fish, pork, chicken, sea food and other non-vegetarian ready to eats. The company has also partnered with ‘ColdEX’, India’s number one cold chain logistic company for managing their supply chain inventory.

Commenting on the tie up, Shruti Gochhwal, co-founder, said

The meat business in India is growing at an impressive rate. The segment has grown at an average 18% CAGR across category. Chicken tops the list followed by fish and other meat products. The Poultry industry alone is a INR 40,000 crore market now. Even if we are able to scratch the surface of this market, we are talking about Zappfresh being in pole position. We have aggressive expansion plans and are looking at similar synergies in newer markets.

Deepanshu Manchanda, Co-founder, Zappfresh further added

We are very pleased on our association with SRS Grocery, as it aligns with our strategy of delivering high quality products to customers.  With this tie-up we look forward to further increasing our market share in the geographies we are currently present in and also get access to newer markets. Currently we are reaching out to over 30,000 unique customers a month and expect to double this number by the mid-2016.

Pratik Jindal, Managing Director of SRS e-Retail Ltd., said

Zappfresh has created its own niche in the meat space industry by providing neatly packaged and carefully inspected high quality meat products. With this association we want to leverage Zappfresh products and offer a convenient solution to consumers who want to shop for quality and hygienic meat products but are strapped for time.

Zappfresh had earlier raised INR 2 crore [$300,000] in angel round of funding from a couple of high profile investors in 2015.

About ZappFresh

Founded by Shruti Gochhwal and Deepanshu Manchanda in 2015, Zappfresh is one of the fastest growing direct to consumer online fresh meat brand focusing on delivering high quality fresh and ready to cook meat products. Currently available in the Gurgaon and Delhi, Zappfresh is already delivering to over 10,000 happy customers in these two markets and aims to reach 30,000 customers by mid-2016.  The company has already created local fulfillment centers in these markets and have partnered with several online and offline channels to further boost delivery. They have one central processing unit in Gurgaon and two delivery hubs in Delhi. The company has also partnered with ‘ColdEX’, India’s number one cold chain logistic company for managing their supply chain inventory.For more details, please refer Zappfresh

[Image Credit* – WorkAdvantage]

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

What if a mobile phone app could assess the risk of an individual and provide ideas to better manage that risk? Well, that thought helped IIT-B bag the first prize.

Between 30-31 January, Swiss Re held an event entitled My Personal Risk Advisor Hackathon where 16 teams of 70 technologists comprising students, developers and entrepreneurs built applications that enable individuals or small business owners to assess their total risk.

Organised along with IBM, India’s first reinsurance hackathon offered a unique garage-like experience for its participants and provided an opportunity to develop ideas into prototypes. The prototypes were judged based on innovative technology integration, dimensions of risks that were considered while developing the solution, user experience and technical complexity. A panel of esteem judges, which included members from Swiss Re and IBM evaluated the apps.

Alok Kumar, Managing Director, Swiss Re Bangalore said

The reinsurance sector is at the cusp of a radical transition and the convergence of new technologies will help us manage consumer expectations and to better manage risk. Such a platform enables exploration of emerging and disruptive technology to reduce the protection gap, besides further encouraging and nurturing entrepreneurs and start-ups in the sector.

Team IIIT-B represented by Abhijay Vuyyuru, Anubhav Bhardwaj & Lijo Johny were adjudged as the winners for their solution. This WhatsApp-based application can click a picture of the food you eat and distribute it to a specific group. This application analyses the image of the food and highlights the calorie content and recommends healthier alternatives. The winning team was awarded a cash prize of INR 3 lakhs.

  • An app for monitoring food intake of high-risk patients using image recognition and NLP, wins the first prize.
  • 16 teams representing brightest minds from start-ups, developers & students community developed prototypes using IBM Bluemix suite.

Team IIIT-B represented by Amit Gupta, Daksh Varshneya, Tanmayee Narendra, Prerit Jain, Pawan Dhananjay bagged the second prize and were awarded INR 2 Lakhs.

Manu Dwivedi, Chakshu Ahuja, Rahul Radhakrishnan and Saurav Tomar were declared as the second runners-up and were awarded Rs 1 Lakh.

Commenting on winning the hackathon, the first prize winners said

We are thrilled to win. Being the second most populous nation, India is prone to high health risks and diseases. Our idea was to develop a solution that enable individual to assess and foresee their risk based on the individual’s personality and dietary profiling. 

About Swiss Re

The Swiss Re Group is a leading wholesale provider of reinsurance, insurance and other insurance-based forms of risk transfer. Dealing direct and working through brokers, its global client base consists of insurance companies, mid-to-large-sized corporations and public sector clients. From standard products to tailor-made coverage across all lines of business, Swiss Re deploys its capital strength, expertise and innovation power to enable the risk-taking upon which enterprise and progress in society depend. For more information about Swiss Re Group, please visit Swiss Re

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

Shimply, one of India’s fastest growing, multi-­category online bazaar for Indian products has launched its mobile app. The app features a patent pending technology of Virtual Trial Room which gives you the freedom to see in advance how the products of your choice look on you, before you decide on one. These products have been sourced from different states of India & Shimply guarantees dual benefit of unmatched selection of products and value for money.

The virtual trial room by Shimply.com addresses the common problem that every woman faces while shopping online – trying on the product. With this feature, Shimply.com will make online shopping experience as close to physical shopping.

This technology makes use of the camera on the customer’s phone to click their picture and then place a product on it to see how it will look. With the app, customers can try on multiple products, virtually; the product can be dragged to any part on top of the picture with hand gestures and touch features. The product and base picture [of customer] can be resized to generate a parallax and 3D effect that allows the customer to see the product in a way as if customer is actually wearing it.

Another amazing quality of this technology is that the customers can actually try home decors [like paintings/furniture, etc.] virtually to see how it looks on their wall/room. This ground breaking technology can also be used in shopping malls to let customers try on various dresses, without actually going to a trial room.

The patent pending technology aids the users to click their picture and try the products on the app without saving the picture on the phone. Also, it saves the customers from the peeping tom problem.

Rajat Garg, Founder and CEO of Shimply.com said

In e-tailing categories like apparel, accessories, and furniture, consumers want to touch, feel and try before buying. Not only the consumers’ hesitation about the look of clothing or an accessory, disappears with our app, it also helps them try unique products which represent the Indian diversity and culture. This is the reason why we encourage people by saying ‘India ko try kar ke dekho’.

Features of Shimply.com App

Virtual Trial Room – With this feature, Shimply.com’s app will not only come home to deliver your product, but also give you the freedom to see in advance how the outfits of your choice look on you, before you decide on one. We are bridging the gap between online and offline through its virtual trial room technology and is enabling users to try India in the online world.

Huge Selection – Choose from an exhaustive collection of 1.7 crore products. You can shop for Sarees, Jewellery, Salwar kameez, Bridal Suits, Kurtis, Men Apparel, Bollywood Actress Dresses etc. Shimply.com online shopping app will also provide you with huge discounts on ethnic wear, jewellery, beauty & personal care, ayurveda, books and more.

Authentic products, fast shipping – We take pride in having hand-picked sellers who have certificates like pure silk mark, hand-loom mark, GI certification etc to make sure that you are getting the best of the products. These products are sourced from different parts of India and reflect India’s diversity & culture.

Shimply app can be downloaded from the Google Play store from here

[Image Credit* – Shimply]

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Delhi-based commercial real estate portal Creindia has launched an online commercial property fest CREBazaar on the 30th January. Being hosted on the site till 2nd February, this four day fest is showcasing more than 500 commercial properties in Delhi-NCR with limited period deals. Further addition of properties will be kept on adding during the event days.Projects being offered are nearing possession and include sale, lease and pre-leased options.

Ajay Rakheja, CEO & Co-Founder, Creindia said

Our USP of the event lies with our plan to showcase only ready to move-in or 70% completed commercial properties, with the added advantage of attractive discounts for limited time period

Commercial real estate market in India has in recent times opened up avenues for retail investors to enter and benefit from the higher yields than those offered by other asset classes such as residential. With smaller floor plates [10,000 sq.ft. or lower] now being offered in markets like Delhi NCR, it is easier for potential investors as well as smaller companies to take up office or retail space.

Increasing consolidation among corporates as well as the growth of new sectors such as e-commerce are fueling the demand for commercial real estate. Against this backdrop, technology intensive tools that are built around information gathered from the field are reducing the lead time for transactions.

Creindia offers a decision tool that is being used by corporates, start-ups, developers, consultants and investors to gain access to on-ground information about selected micro-markets. The listings on the site are all verified by a team of experts and the details being presented are up to date with the current status of each property.

Ajay Rakheja, CEO & Co-Founder, Creindia further added

Through the CREBazaar four day showcase, interested buyers and investors are being offered a selection of the best deals in the Delhi NCR commercial real estate landscape. This is the best time to invest in commercial real estate and we have seen increasing interest from all sections of the market for the products on offer.

The ‘CREBazaar pre-registration’ that we opened 15 days ago saw more than five lakh visitors, The reach of this event is spread and targeted to HNI, NRI , Startups , SME, Brokers, Developers , landlords and Fraternity members.

The site currently showcases more than 15,000 listings of properties in and around Delhi NCR , Chandigarh and Lucknow. The products on offer include offices, high street retail options, IT/ITeS buildings and will soon be expanded to include warehouses, malls, industrial spaces, standalone buildings, built-to-suit options and other commercial real estate offerings in Delhi NCR and beyond.

CREindia was awarded ‘Emerging Commercial Real Estate Portal Award’ at India International Property Awards 2015 in September.

About Creindia

CREIndia is India’s fastest growing marketplace for the commercial real estate fraternity, integrating innovative technology, inventory data bank and research on macro and micro markets to offer the best real estate solutions. CREIndia aims to break traditional ways of searching an office or retail space cross cities in India. For more information, please visit Credindia

[Image Credit* – Creindia]

|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’