Google announces Indian Youth Congress and Punjlloyd moving to Google Apps for Business

Today in Mumbai, more than 400 IT and business leaders will join Google executives, industry experts and some of our local partners for the first Google Enterprise Roadshow in India. Themed around ‘The Future of Work’, the roadshow explores how local companies are embracing Google’s enterprise cloud computing solutions to improve company-wide communication, document management and team collaboration. We are seeing strong adoption of Google Apps for Business in India, and today we are excited to announce two new customers that are among the latest to go Google:


Indian Youth Congress (IYC) is the official youth wing of the Indian National Congress and one of the largest youth organizations in the world. After evaluating a number of solutions for email and collaboration, IYC opted to move its more than 28,000 elected officials and volunteers to Google Apps for Business. The collaborative capabilities of Google Apps will help IYC deliver on its mission of transparent and democratic participation and empower its members to work for local development in India using technology.



As Rajeev Satav, National President of IYC, says “Technology is a great enabler in bringing people together and operating efficiently. We’re excited about being the first social organization in India to adopt the latest cloud technology from Google. With Google Apps we will be better equipped to work with India’s youth and leverage the power of technology to conduct programs of local relevance and contribute to our vision.”



Punj Lloyd is a leading global provider of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services in the energy and infrastructure sectors. From the engineering of the world’s largest wheat-based Bioethanol plant in England to the design of the highest reinforced earth wall for an airport in the foothills of the Himalayas, virtually all of Punj Lloyds’ projects require great teamwork and knowledge-sharing among the company’s 24,000 employees.



Yet until now, Punj Lloyd’s teams had no easy way to collaborate with one another. With operations in over 20 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and South Asia, Punj Lloyd’s IT department had the tough job of maintaining a legacy email system with dozens of client applications being used to access email. After evaluating several on-premise and hosted options for email and collaboration, Punj Lloyd chose Google Apps for Business.



The company has just started the transition, and soon employees from different departments and teams working across timezones will be able to share documents and calendars, video chat, and create internal sites that everyone in the company can access. With Google Apps, Punj Lloyd’s IT department no longer has to maintain a legacy email system, and employees benefit from new, modern communication tools designed for team collaboration.



Hundreds of thousands of businesses have chosen to go Google across India. In doing so, they have made a choice to adopt secure and proven web-based productivity tools that are designed for team collaboration and accessibility from any device. We are committed to helping more Indian businesses make the transition to the 100% web world and we firmly believe that this will be a huge improvement for both users and IT departments in all organizations.

Virtusa Recognized by Zinnov as a leading Global R&D Service Provider for 2011

Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ: VRTU), a global IT services company that offers a broad spectrum of business consulting and outsourcing services, announced today that it has been honored by Zinnov Management Consulting as one of the leading global R&D service providers for 2011, in the category of Software and ISV. The study, “Global R&D Service Providers (GSPR) Rating 2011”, incorporates many geographies including the U.S, India, China, Russia and Eastern Europe. The annual assessment is undertaken by Zinnov to help business leaders drive global engineering initiatives and to assist them in identifying the right partners across geographies.



Virtusa was honored in the prestigious “Execution Zone” of ‘Zinnov Zones’, which identifies companies based on their high level of R&D practice maturity. Recognition in this zone indicates that Virtusa is capable of delivering complete product development as a true engineering partner. Companies honored in the ‘Execution Zone’ have a presence in almost all sub verticals and are distinguished by their innovative practices. Furthermore, this zone recognizes companies such as Virtusa for having the capabilities to work in all business models, including Risk Reward and Revenue Share.

“Business and technology leaders are increasingly facing new demands and challenges relating to the rapidly evolving IT landscape. To maintain a leadership position, corporations often turn to partners like Virtusa with proven technology execution expertise to accelerate their business outcomes,” said Kris Canekeratne, chairman and CEO at Virtusa. “Virtusa is honored to be recognized in this year’s Global R&D Service Provider Rating as one of the leading global service providers uniquely positioned and equipped to help clients overcome industry challenges and achieve their business goals.”

“Virtusa’s listing reinforces the company’s strong focus on engineering excellence, and at the same time, that of being a reliable partner which can deliver high quality, innovative products for its Software/ISV clients. Virtusa and the other companies recognized by this year’s Global R&D Service Providers Rating are those exceptional companies that have been able to thrive in a challenging economic environment to help their clients achieve growth,” said Pari Natarajan, Co-Founder & CEO, Zinnov Management Consulting. “Our study indicates that in the wake of increased competition within the R&D service provider market, these companies are demonstrating innovation as they embrace emerging macro trends such as convergence and mobility, enterprise adoption and cloud computing -- allowing them to differentiate themselves and better serve their customers.”

About Zinnov Management Consulting:

Zinnov is a leading management consulting company founded in 2002, providing services in the area of Offshore Advisory, Human Capital Optimization and Market Expansion and to Fortune 1000 companies. To create this year’s Global R&D Service Providers Rating, the company assessed the 44 participating companies on parameters such as Human capital, capabilities, financials, ecosystem linkages, infrastructure and business sustainability. Participants were then ranked in various verticals including aerospace and defense, automotive, computer peripherals and storage, consumer electronics, healthcare, industrial automation, semiconductor, software/ISV, telecommunication, transport, communication stack, and cloud computing.

To learn more about this year’s Global R&D Service Provider Rating, please visit http://zinnov.com/press.php?pr_id=499.

Reliance Entertainment Selects Accenture for Systems Integration of its Digital Rights Management System

Reliance Entertainment Ltd., one of India’s leading media and entertainment companies, has selected Accenture (NYSE: ACN) to integrate a revenue-generating digital rights management system for two of its businesses: Reliance Entertainment and Reliance Home Video. Reliance Entertainment produces and distributes motion pictures and Reliance Home Video distributes home entertainment products. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.




Under the contract, Accenture is integrating a third-party’s digital rights management software with Reliance’s pre-existing rights management system and enterprise resource planning tool. This will enable Reliance to collect digital rights revenues globally from delivering content on multiple platforms including cinema, mobile handsets and tablet computers.



This systems integration initiative allows Reliance to automate many functions to generate more revenues by streamlining its business processes to handle larger transaction volumes, thus leading to a more effective calculation and collection of digital rights and royalties.



“A growing number of Reliance customers are deciding when, where and on what platform they want to consume media and entertainment content,” said Sanjeev Lamba, CEO, Reliance Entertainment. “To address these diverse needs, our company needs a versatile, intelligent and reliable digital rights management system that will ultimately generate more revenues from our media assets.”



“There is immense scope for the monetization of content in the media and entertainment industry today, said Ashish Khanna, managing director of Accenture’s Communications & High-Tech group in India. “We’re excited to be working with Reliance Entertainment and Home Video to handle its digital rights management globally as they overcome this hurdle for their business.”




About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 215,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

India Gets Set to Game as Sony Ericsson Announces 'Be The Master of Games'

Adding a third dimension to the communication entertainment industry, Sony Ericsson has announced ‘Be The Master of Games’, India’s biggest mobile gaming tournament across 11 cities. Flagging off on June 24, the initiative will bring alive the immersive experience of the recently launched Xperia PLAY, the world’s first PlayStation-certified smartphone powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile processor with integrated AdrenoTM graphics processor, bringing console quality gaming experience to end users. The tournament will be open for all – from ardent gamers to corporate professionals, and even you!



The corporate gaming championship will be held across six cities – Delhi/NCR, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Pune – reaching out to more than 100 organizations. Endorsing the spirit of teamwork, ‘Be The Master of Games’ will present an opportunity for employees to showcase their gaming skills, show teamwork and be a part of a national experience.


For those who love to game, this tournament will run across 44 Zapak Gameplexes in 11 cities – Delhi/NCR, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. Indian gamers will come together to compete for the title of ‘Best Gamer,’ and will have the opportunity to live the revolutionary technology on Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAY smartphone.


Elaborating on this announcement, Prasun Kumar, Marketing Head, Sony Ericsson India, said, “Taking experiential marketing to the next level, Sony Ericsson has collaborated with Zapak to create experiences around the Xperia PLAY. Consumers will be able to enjoy the rich and vibrant ecosystem through this nationwide competition. Powered by Qualcomm’s high-performance and power efficient Snapdragon mobile processor, Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAY brings the best-in-class gaming experience on the phone.”


Dr. Sandeep Sibal, vice president of Business Development for Qualcomm India and South Asia, said, “Qualcomm’s highly integrated Snapdragon processor with embedded Adreno 205 GPU works to power the high-performance, console quality game experience on the Xperia PLAY with extended hours of game-play between charges.”


A joint report by KPMG and FICCI, based on Indian Media and Entertainment Industry 2011, suggests that the Indian gaming industry is valued at INR 10.0 billion and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 31 percent to INR 38.3 billion by 2015. In addition, the report states that the mobile gaming segment might become a more competitive alternative to handheld consoles with INR 17.1 Billion earnings expected through mobile gaming by 2015.


As a game changer in the smartphone industry, Sony Ericsson has invested in not only revolutionary devices, such as the Xperia PLAY, but also in marketing campaigns that are engaging for the end consumer. This tournament is designed for users to have a ‘hands-on’ feel of a Snapdragon-enabled gaming smartphone and in association with Zapak.com.

HP Extends Cloud Leadership

HP today extended its Hybrid Delivery solutions portfolio so enterprises can improve their agility and quickly respond to changing customer and citizen needs.


Hybrid delivery environments, which combine traditional IT infrastructures with private and public clouds, enable enterprise agility by using flexible delivery models to best meet changing market demands.

Recent research conducted on behalf of HP reveals that 95 percent of business and government executives believe agility is important to the success of their organizations. Investments in technology were viewed as a key factor to increasing agility in the next five years. (1)

Building hybrid environments to enhance enterprise agility

HP CloudSystem – the most complete, integrated and open platform for building and managing services across private, public and hybrid cloud environments – now includes the industry’s first “dual bursting” capability to help clients manage uneven demands. This innovation allows clients to provision and dynamically scale resources up and down either via a public cloud provider or through an onsite pay-as-you-go cloud model.

In addition, to enable service providers to take advantage of the rapidly growing cloud market, HP announced HP CloudAgile, a comprehensive program that spans the full HP enterprise portfolio including CloudSystem. To speed time to revenue and improve financial flexibility for a broad range of service providers, the program provides participants with direct access to HP’s global sales force and its worldwide network of channel partners, as well as opportunities to deliver new cloud services.



Transforming technology environments to leverage sourcing options



HP Hybrid Delivery services enable clients to select the best method of delivery for their organizations, tuned to their environments.



HP Support Services for CloudSystem provides a single point of accountability with integrated hardware and software support, 24/7 coverage, proactive problem prevention and automated HP Remote Support. As a result, clients can shift resources from trouble shooting to innovation, improving their ability to quickly respond to changing customer and citizen demands.



In addition, HP CloudStart services extend the capabilities of HP CloudSystem to help clients define initial private cloud services, implement internal costing and chargeback, and comply with clients’ existing security and backup policies. New functionality automates deployments of basic applications, compliance monitoring and patch management in a private cloud. This allows clients to realize the benefits of cloud computing in a compressed timeframe.



New HP CloudSystem curriculum and courses from HP Education Services provide clients with knowledge and change management support to quickly realize the full potential of their cloud technology investments.



Delivering cloud-based security services



New HP security services, available through the cloud, mitigate risk of security vulnerabilities, while lowering the financial commitment often required for security contracts. Services include:



— HP Enterprise Cloud Service – Vulnerability Scanning, which reduces the risk of data loss or unauthorized access by reducing common security mistakes. The service scans network nodes – including servers and networking devices where vulnerabilities may exist.



— HP Enterprise Cloud Service – Vulnerability Intelligence, which provides information on newly discovered potential threats, enabling clients to take corrective actions with targeted, actionable information before an outage or network loss occurs.



HP also announced enhancements to HP Cloud Services Enablement for Communications as a Service (HP CSE for CaaS). These services enable communications service providers to help their small- and midsize business customers take advantage of utility pricing and the flexibility of an on-demand services model. HP CSE for CaaS enables wireless, wireline and broadband companies to offer clients a “one-stop shop” for IT and communications services, such as messaging, collaboration and automated voice services. As a result, service providers can expand their customer reach, ultimately increasing overall revenue.



“Organizations today realize that agility is critical to their future success. They need it to meet the changing demands of customers and citizens, as well as drive competitive advantage,” said Biswanath Bhattacharya, Director, Technology Services, HP India. “HP’s experience, breadth of portfolio and global service delivery organization are integral to helping businesses and governments take advantage of cloud as part of their journeys to becoming Instant-On Enterprises.”



In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.



More information about HP’s new offerings is available at www.hp.com/go/agility2011.

Bangalore based Ms Nicole Faria, Miss earth is the global Brand Ambassador of Frederique Constant

Frédérique Constant, the independent family owned watch manufacturer based in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, has signed Miss Earth Nicole Faria as global Brand Ambassador. Frédérique Constant hereby also seals its association with conservation and environmental projects in India as Nicole Faria is actively involved with earth-related initiatives. Frédérique Constant announced this partnership in Mumbai where it presented the stunning Nicole Faria a special Chocolate Double Heart Beat watch to commence their association.


Miss Earth Nicole Faria, now Brand Ambassador, Frédérique Constant, said, “Time has always fascinated me. I was amazed to hear of the fact that Frédérique Constant is a rare brand that supports earth-related initiatives. I strongly believe that this earth is a legacy that we need to pass on to future generations and the time to act is now. Similarly Frédérique Constant is a brand that one would like to pass on to Gen-Next as a legacy. From the fashionista point of view, its classical styles is exactly what the Indian customer requires today.”



Originally from Bangalore, Nicole Faria is passionate about modelling and improving the world. She strongly believes in the values of honesty, integrity and fair-play. Her dream is to leave a legacy of goodness, peace and happiness amongst people. She loves to learn from every experience and to grow in someway through everyone she meets. Some of her more memorable moments were when she won the Miss India crown in 2010 and later the Miss Earth title. Her hobbies include listening to music, dancing, reading and visiting orphanages.



Sebastien Cretegny, International Sales Manager, Frédérique Constant, said, “In India, we decided to do something daringly different. When we met Miss Earth Nicole Faria, we felt that there was a sharing of passion, especially when she spoke about her conservation projects. I am proud to announce that this is the first time that Frédérique Constant has associated with a beauty pageant icon anywhere in the world and it happened in India. We have seen that Miss Earth Nicole Faria is very passionate about earth-related social causes such as global warming, environment hazards, pollution, etc. Most of the target customers we associate with are involved with such causes and initiatives. There is a need to create more awareness in a country like India about various aspects of the earth-related issues. We have just taken a step ahead and there will be continuity in thought process.”

Independent Research Firm Ranks Wipro Technologies as a ‘Leader’ among Oracle Service Providers

Wipro Technologies, the Global Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing business of Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT) announced that the company has been has been ranked a ‘Leader’ among Oracle Services Providers by Forrester Research Inc.



Forrester, a leading industry analyst firm, evaluated a total of 14 leading global services providers in the Oracle applications market, placing Wipro Technologies among the leaders. The ranking was published in a May 2011 independent report titled, “The Forrester Wave™: Oracle Services Providers, Q2 2011”.


Forrester has based its findings based on interviews and briefings with the companies it evaluated, among other things, and has measured the companies against 68 levels of capability across three categories – current offering, strategy, and market presence.


According to the report, "Wipro’s Oracle resources are dedicated to serving industries such as manufacturing, retail, and telecommunications across a range of Oracle product lines. The provider has one of the larger bases of offshore resources. Its 2008 acquisition of Infocrossing makes it a provider of hosting services as well." It further mentions how providers use innovative ways to drive down costs, improve efficiency, and drive process improvements such as Wipro's Flex Delivery for Oracle support.


‘Flex Delivery’ is a non linear delivery model that Wipro uses to provide managed services to customers who require post implementation support for their enterprise applications. It addresses the key pain areas of application management outsourcing.


“We are committed to help our clients take a value-driven approach to enterprise applications by combining innovative solutions with sound strategies,” said Srini Pallia, Senior Vice President, Business Applications Services, Wipro Technologies. "Our placement in the Forrester report reflects our ability to deliver valuable strategic insight coupled with strong implementation capabilities and industry solutions for our global clients using Oracle applications."


Wipro is a Platinum level member of Oracle Partner Network.


Trademarks

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.



About Wipro Technologies

Wipro Technologies, the global IT business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) is a leading Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing company, that delivers solutions to enable its clients do business better. Wipro Technologies delivers winning business outcomes through its deep industry experience and a 360 degree view of “Business through Technology” – helping clients create successful and adaptive businesses. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, a practitioner’s approach to delivering innovation and an organization wide commitment to sustainability, Wipro Technologies has 120,000 employees and clients across 54 countries. For more information, please visit www.wipro.com

Saab AB and Mahindra Satyam announce strategic agreement-to establish an India Technology Center

Mahindra Satyam, a leading global consulting and IT services provider, today announced that Saab AB, further to its intent expressed at Aero India Feb 2011, has entered into an agreement to establish Saab India Technology Center (SITC). This decision strengthens the already strategic relationship between Saab and the Mahindra Group.



The aim is to increase development in India in terms of identified concrete programs and technologies to SITC. The center will provide a secure platform to facilitate development of Aerospace & Defence projects in India, supporting the establishment Saab is pursuing. India presents a huge opportunity for Saab across their business areas Aeronautics, Dynamics, Electronic Defense Systems and Security and Defence Solutions.


This 300-seater dedicated center would be established at one of the Mahindra sites and will be an extended arm of Saab working on New Product Development and Product Sustenance Engineering. While supporting the internal operational excellence and optimization initiatives within Saab, this center will also support offset obligations for all Saab products and services in India.


Engineering services is a one-of-the key focus and growth areas within Mahindra Satyam, which currently runs some of the largest dedicated R&D centers for global majors across industry segments including Aerospace. Mahindra Satyam has the right operational expertise and technical maturity to ensure this center delivers the set organizational targets.


Saab’s experience and technological prowess providing services and solutions ranging from military defence to civil security combined with Mahindra Satyam’s proven Global Engineering practice would result in a highly efficient and technically mature development environment in India that can successfully address opportunities arising in these domains from emerging markets.



Saab serves the global market with world-leading products, services and solutions ranging from military defence to civil security. Saab has operations and employees on all continents and constantly develops, adopts and improves new technology to meet customers’ changing needs.


About Mahindra Satyam


Mahindra Satyam is a leading global business and information technology services company that leverages deep industry and functional expertise, leading technology practices, and an advanced, global delivery model to help clients transform their highest-value business processes and improve their business performance.



The company's professionals excel in enterprise solutions, supply chain management, client relationship management, business intelligence, business process quality, engineering and product lifecycle management, and infrastructure services, among other key capabilities.







Mahindra Satyam is part of the $12.5 billion Mahindra Group, a global federation of companies and one of the top 10 business houses based in India. The Group’s interests span automotive products, aviation, components, farm equipment, financial services, hospitality, information technology, logistics, real estate and retail.


Mahindra Satyam development and delivery centers in the US, Canada, Brazil, the UK, Hungary, Egypt, UAE, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia serve numerous clients, including many Fortune 500 organizations.

Plextor Unveils New SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive

Plextor (www.plextor.com), a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces the immediate U.S. availability of its new M2 Series SSD. Supporting the latest SATA 6Gb/s, the M2 Series SSD is currently one of the fastest SSDs available in the market.



Utilizing a Marvell 88SS9174 controller, this 2.5 inch SSD is available in three capacities: 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. The 256GB model provides sequential read rate up to 480MB/s and sequential write rate up to 330MB/s, allowing users to read and transfer data much faster compared to other SSDs with SATA II interface.


"Plextor is pleased to continue building its presence in the SSD market by offering a new and faster generation of SSD," said Kathy Huynh, Product Marketing of Plextor. "The M2 Series SSD is ideal for any demanding gamer, system integrator or user who demands dependability but won’t sacrifice speed."


By incorporating Plextor’s Instant Restore technology and Global Wear Leveling algorithm along with Windows 7 TRIM command support, the M2 Series SSD is able to manage memories ever so efficiently to overcome the performance loss typically associated with prolonged usage.


Also featured, are the 128MB DDR3 cache buffer resulting in even faster response times for consumers, and the large cache also helps ensures each drive will provide reliable and sustained performance over time.


With a MTBF rate beyond 1.5 million-hour, the M2 Series SSD comes with Plextor’s three (3) year warranty and is bundled with Acronis True Image software which gives users instant tool for disk cloning and backup.


About Plextor


Plextor LLC is a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment for professionals, consumers and enterprises. In 1990, Plextor established a U.S. operation in Silicon Valley with dedicated sales force for serving North and South America. Since then, the Plextor brand has been continually recognized as high-quality product, receiving numerous awards for its optical drives. Plextor will continue to deliver generations of award-winning products, including CD-R/RW, DVDplusR/RW, & Blu-ray optical disk drives, digital video converters and multimedia products. The Plextor brand of optical disc drives and multimedia products are owned by Shinano Kenshi in Japan.


Prices:

PX- 64M2S: USD160 (64GB) INR 8,000.00
PX-128M2S: USD280 (128GB) INR 14,000.00

PX-256M2S: USD550 (256GB) INR 27,500.00

IndiaFirst Life Insurance opens its Financial Planning Centre in Bangalore

IndiaFirst Life Insurance, a joint venture between two of India's largest public sector banks - Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank along with UK's leading risk, wealth and investment company Legal & General, today announced the opening of its Financial Planning Centre (FPC) in Bangalore. The centre was inaugurated by Dr. P. Nandagopal, Managing Director & CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance.



The company will offer its entire range of services including new business application processing, policy servicing request processing, advisor licensing processing, advisor/ sales training, claim intimation processing and document collection and record management for business applications.

“Our Financial Planning Centers are one more step towards moving closer to our customers – both potential as well as existing. We are sure that these FPCs will help take our service standards to the next level. Our FPCs will also act as exclusive training centers for new recruits and advisor orientation” said Dr. Nandagopal.


While this is the first FPC in Bangalore, the company has been present in the state through close to 152 outlets of its partner banks.


“We aim to reach out to a wider set of customers through our alternate channel. We expect to enhance our overall profitability and cost efficiency while building a stronger connect with our customers through the launch of our alternate channel and FPCs,” added Dr. Nandagopal.


There will be nearly 1000 advisors attached to each FPC along with IndiaFirst employees. The advisor lounge would be used by advisors and customers to complete their transactions. Customers can also visit the FPC to meet the company’s relationship managers and analyze their overall financial plans.


The company has generated approximately Rs. 17 crores through their Bancassurance model in the first 15 months of its operations from Bangalore. It also expects its alternate distribution model to contribute 1/3rd of its business over a period of 2-3 years.

The company proposes to set up such FPCs across important cities in India.


IndiaFirst was the first life insurance company in the country to be awarded the ISO 9001:2008 certification for its best-in-class business processes within 7 months of its operations. The company recently announced the roll-out of its Six Sigma Certification program across the company. Adoption of Lean Six Sigma methodology is a logical extension of the ISO program.


It has also achieved the fastest run rate by crossing the Rs. 900 crore mark in new business premium within 500 days of its operations – covering over 1.2 million lives.


About IndiaFirst Life Insurance


Headquartered in Mumbai, IndiaFirst, which is capitalized at Rs. 455 crore, is the country's youngest life insurance company promoted by two of India's largest public sector banks - Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank along with UK's leading risk, wealth and investment company Legal & General. Bank of Baroda holds a 44 per cent stake in IndiaFirst, while Andhra Bank and Legal & General hold a 30 per cent and 26 per cent stake respectively.

Brand Definition for Personal Vehicle Division and Name of the much anticipated SUV – Unveiled!

To commemorate their long awaited entry into the Personal Vehicles arena, Force Motors today unveiled a brand new logo for the Division. The existing corporate logo had been the face of the company for the commercial vehicles, agricultural tractors and encompassed brands like Trax, Traveller, Trump and Balwan. The company is now entering into the personal vehicle segment, where the needs and aspirations of the consumers are very different. The new logo intends to create an independent identity that resonates with the desires of the non-commercial vehicle buyer.



In order to differentiate the commercial vehicle unit from the Personal Vehicle Division it was natural to be different, hence the new logo. The new logo stands for a need to never be content with the status quo. The deep red colour brings this across visually. The deep red represents a never-say-die attitude, an indomitable determination and attitude that will do all it can within its power to effect positive change. It is all about energy and vibrancy. The new symbol signifies the commencement of a new era for Force Motors.


Mr. Prasan Firodia, Managing Director added, “The logo represents a movement independent of any inertia, a movement that is natural and represents both growth and change. It represents ambition and hunger for more and is an indication of the direction that Force Motors is headed towards rapidly.”


Simultaneously along with unveiling of the logo for the Personal Vehicle Division, the name of the first SUV from Force Motors was announced, which will be called ‘Force One’. Force One is one of the most anticipated vehicles in the Indian market as it is being launched by Force Motors, a company known to make commercial vehicles, which will enhance the SUV’s imagery of ruggedness, strength and power, ‘Force One’ encapsulates these points succinctly in a name. The SUV will provide state of the art interior comfort and convenience which will be inclusive of high end features like driver information system, cruise control, audio control mounted on steering, dual AC vents for each row. Along with these the SUV will also have OSRVM side indicators and plush leather seats. The ride and handling will have suspension that has been fine tuned by Lotus Engineering with sixteen inch alloy wheels along with high ground clearance. FMTech stands for Force Motors Technology and the Power Train is made under license from Daimler. The engine capacity is 2.2Ltr. The complete vehicle and the onboard electronics is audited and validated by Mercedes-Benz Technologies.

Force Motors has exciting plans for the Personal Vehicle Division and is committed to ensuring its success by continuously incorporating additional features sought for by the discerning SUV buyer.

 About Force Motors


Force Motors Ltd is a fully vertically integrated and complete automobile company - concentrating on satisfying customer needs with high quality, high utility and high technology products through superior product design, production engineering, hi-tech manufacturing and innovative marketing.

Force Motors Ltd. was incorporated in the year 1958 with the name Bajaj Tempo Ltd. The company was promoted by Late Shri N. K. Firodia; a dedicated Gandhian and Visionary Industrialist, was the Founder-Managing Director of Force Motors, he established the concept of low cost public transport – the Auto rickshaw. Force Motors are the pioneers of the Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) Industry that gave India iconic brands like the Tempo, Matador and Traveller. Force Motors stands on the threshold of a new era in the automobile industry in India, with a stake in “Five Product segments” - Small Commercial Vehicles (SCV), Multi Utility Vehicles (MUV), Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV), Agricultural Tractors and Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HCV).The other group companies are MAN FORCE Trucks Pvt. Ltd. and Jaya Hind Industries Ltd.

Textile service company Lindström expands its operations in India

Lindström, the Finnish textile services company, expands its operations in India. A service centre providing corporate workwear services has been established in Hyderabad in Southern India. Lindström’s goal in India is to construct a service network that covers the entire country. Lindström, which began operation in the Indian marketplace in 2007, is expanding its operations to the city of Hyderabad in Southern India. Hyderabad, with four million residents, is the country’s sixth largest urban area.  Lindström provides extensive workwear services for companiesLindström has brought to the Indian market a completely new kind of workwear concept whereby it will respond to the workwear needs of companies with the help of extensive service. Lindström´s locker service is a popular way of maintaining completely outsourced and efficient workwear service for companies. Lindström will deliver maintained workwear to the premises of customer companies regularly and reliably. Lindström is also responsible for the design, procurement, warehousing and final disposal of the clothes. “Our service has been received well in India”, says Mika Hartikainen, who is responsible for European and Asian operations. “We provide customers with service where we bear the responsibility for the condition and sufficiency of the workwear. The customers can focus on their own core operations”, Hartikainen explains the benefits of the service. The Hyderabad unit will serve customers in the area“The Hyderabad area is an interesting market for Lindström. There is a lot of potential within local companies as well as within our existing customers served in other areas in India", Mika Hartikainen continues. “The establishment of a service centre in Southern India is within our operating philosophy: we want to be located close to the customer and know the special needs in that area”, Hartikainen emphasises.  The manager of the new business unit is Yogendra Bhadoria. Previously, he has worked as National Account Manager at India LG Electronics and held several manager positions with Philips in India and England. The goal in India is a service network that covers the whole countryLindström’s goal in India is to construct a service network that covers the entire country. In the course of five years, Lindström has established a service centre and started workwear service in Mumbai in Western India, in New Delhi in the North, in Chennai in Southern India, and now in Hyderabad. Environmental Sustainability and Corporate Social ResponsibilityAn environmentally responsible organization, Lindström has various initiatives in place for waste water management as well as for energy, washing detergent and water consumption. The details are published in Lindström’s annual sustainability report, which is done in compliance with the G3 standard of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Reducing carbon footprint is on Lindström’s agenda globally.

McAfee Family Protection Software Launched in India

McAfee today announced the launch of McAfee® Family Protection, a parental control program that protects children of all ages from online risks while allowing them the freedom to safely explore the Internet.  “Online concerns for tweens and teens are not what they were two years ago” said Venkat Krishnapur, Senior Director, McAfee India. “The threat landscape has changed dramatically – especially in the context of how children of various ages in urban India use the internet and how they are exposed to various forms of threats online. McAfee Family Protection is a powerful tool that helps parents get better insight to the digital lifestyles of their children. Parents can choose to block categories of sites, filter out only a handful of sites, or block nothing at all and simply review online activity reports. Its innovative features such as online activity reports, age appropriate settings and YouTube, games and website blocking and so on gives Indian parents a powerful tool to ensure their kids stay safe when using the Internet.”

Use of the Internet by Indian children and new parenting challenges

McAfee commissioned Synovate, to conduct a comprehensive research titled ‘How safe are Indian kids online?’  across 10 cities- New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ludhiana, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Cochin, covering 500 children and 496 parents. Following are key highlights of the revelations from this survey: (Please refer to Annexure 1 for a detailed analysis of the survey) 

    62% of all polled kids have shared personal information online.     
   58% kids share their home addresses on the internet.     
   39% of all polled kids do not tell their parents about these online activities 
  12% of all polled kids had been victims of some kind of cyber threat

“These findings are extremely relevant from the perspective of Indian parents. As the internet evolves into a new platform for self expression and social interaction, children are indiscriminately indulging in information exchange leading to an increasing rate of cyber exploits. The introduction of technologies like McAfee Family Protection is a step in the right direction as it enables us parents to understand, handhold and mould our children’s online persona and behavior”, said Anindita Mishra- McAfee Cybermum India.

In the context of these newfound online threats, McAfee Family Protection offers a host of essential features to enable Indian families in monitoring their children’s online activities:

·         Age-Appropriate Settings – Settings are customized according to age-groups

·         Filtering for Music and Online Games –Parents can decide what rating of content children have access to. Types of filtering include:

   Songs with explicit lyrics from iTuneso
   Access to online gaming siteso 
   Viewing of objectionable videos on YouTube

Encrypted website blocking blocks teens from accessing proxy sites so they cannot try to bypass content filters;

Program blocking enables parents to block any program, including file sharing networks which can lead to malware infections on PCs;

Instant messaging monitoring enables parents to monitor and record complete instant message conversations to alert them of improper dialogue with strangers;

Time limits help families manage the amount of time their children spend online: families are able to set the day and/or time for when their child can access the Internet;

Email blocking pre-approves email accounts that a child is able to access and blocks emails from unknown sources

Instant email alerts can be sent to parents when access to objectionable material is attempted;

Social network filtering records all social network postings that contain profanity and posts that include confidential information that has been predetermined by parents--such as a home address, phone, school name, etc

McAfee Family Protection incorporates technology from McAfee® Safe Eyes® software, which has won the following awards

Ranked #1 in parental control programs in the European Commission Report , earning the highest overall score of 29 filtering products

The National Parenting Center’s 2011 Seal of Approval two years in a row
Winner of PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award two years in a row
Rated #1 in Independent Testing of 11 Leading Products
Outstanding Score of 4.5 out of 5 by MacFan Magazine
For additional information on where to purchase McAfee Family Protection, please visit http://home.mcafee.com/Store/family-protection

About McAfeeMcAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), is the world's largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world, allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the Web more securely. Backed by its unrivaled Global Threat Intelligence, McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. McAfee is relentlessly focused on constantly finding new ways to keep our customers safe. http://www.mcafee.com

Note: McAfee and Safe Eyes are registered trademarks or trademarks of McAfee, or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. © 2011 McAfee All rights reserved. The product plans, specifications and descriptions herein are provided for information only, subject to change without notice, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied.

About Synovate Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group plc, generates insights to help clients drive competitive brand, product and customer experience strategies. A truly borderless company with offices in over 60 countries, our approach combines best in class global research capabilities with personalised service, local knowledge and the flexibility to create teams and processes that meet clients' specific requirements. At Synovate, our clients sit at the top of our organisational chart, driving us to continually develop more innovative research solutions that predict actual business outcomes. For more information, visit www.synovate.com.  

Neo Events managed the DHFL office inauguration in Bangalore on 20th June 2011



Mr.M.K.Aiyappa,I.A.S, Deputy Commissioner & District Magistrate,Bangalore District at DHFL new office inauguration

 Neo Events the leading event management company from Bangalore has successfully managed the brand new office inauguration ceremony of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL), India’s leading housing finance company. On this occasion Mr.M.K.Aiyappa, I.A.S, Deputy Commissioner & District Magistrate, Bangalore District was present as the chief guest. The newly opened office building is located at Dr.Rajkumar Road.


Neo Events was instrumental in making all the arrangements right from event invite design, to office decoration, to food and snacks for the guests and event hostess and event photography and all other associated arrangements related to the flawless conduct of the entire ceremony. More than 500 guests and well wishers were present on the occasion. The event was a grand success and has added another feather in the shining cap of Neo Events.

About Neo Events: Neo Events is a full service Event Management company. We can help you intelligently shape and respond to your customers’ demands. We are constantly creating better platform to reach out to customers, and as one of India’s leading event management company, we plan and execute events that goes beyond your expectations. Our vast experience and professional expertise and sound financial backing give us the competitive edge in the event industry. With us you can be assured of high performance, complete customer satisfaction and value for your money. We are ready to make a difference in your business performance and turn your visions into highly marketable solutions.


Neo Events is part of Neo e-Watch Media and provides event management and event promotion related services. Neo Events is known for its innovative concepts, stylish execution and customer satisfaction

Two Chinese Industry Groups Honor CommScope For Top Wireless Products and Technologi​es

Two innovative wireless solutions offered by CommScope, a global leader in infrastructure solutions for communication networks, have won awards from industry groups in China recently.

The China Center for Information Industry Development—along with Chinese wireless operators China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom—named CommScope’s DualPol® base station antenna as a top 10 commercially promising technology during the 2011 Fifth Annual China Communications Technology Meeting held in Beijing.

Chinese rail transportation industry experts and media also recognized CommScope’s RADIAX® radiating cable as a top 10 innovative product at the 7th World Metro Rail Summit—China 2011, also held in Beijing

 “CommScope is flattered by this joint recognition from key players in China’s wireless and rail transport communications industries,” said Chinnee Tong, vice president of sales, China, CommScope. “We are committed to offering innovative, locally manufactured solutions to China’s wireless operators for meeting subscriber needs wherever they are and with almost any wireless technology.”

DualPol base station antennas from CommScope were successfully demonstrated at the 16th Asian Games held in Guangzhou in November 2010 where they helped enable reliable wireless coverage for the multitude of visiting fans and athletes. DualPol antennas are dual polarized to support two frequency bands in one antenna, decreasing the number of antennas needed to support multiple technologies. DualPol antennas are also remote electrical tilt compatible, meaning they can be tilted vertically to optimize cell configurations.

RADIAX cables from CommScope have been installed in numerous high speed railways, subways, stadiums, airports and office buildings throughout China. RADIAX cables help bring wireless coverage inside such structures by allowing RF signal to radiate out of the cable, enabling service in areas that macro network signals cannot reach. As mobile subscribers increasingly expect service wherever they are located, RADIAX cable and other Andrew® branded coverage and capacity solutions can help wireless operators meet customer demand.

“Advanced wireless networks require state-of-the-art infrastructure solutions, which CommScope remains committed to sharing with our valued customers and partners across China,” said Tong.

CommScope has facilities in Suzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen, China to support the domestic wireless marketplace with product design and large-scale production capacities. The Suzhou facility was opened in 1997 by Andrew Corporation, which began operations in China in the 1970s and was acquired by CommScope in 2007. CommScope manufactures many of its Andrew Solutions products in Suzhou including HELIAX® and RADIAX cables, connectors, and cable assemblies; base station antennas; ValuLine® microwave antennas and RF filters. CommScope has also supplied robust coverage and capacity solutions for several large-scale projects in China including the National Center for the Performing Arts; Ministry of Environmental Protection Building; Taiyuan-Zhongwei-Yinchuan, Beijing-Tianjin and Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan high speed railways; the Beijing Subway and Shanghai Metro, among others.

SAP Makes Analytics Easy for SMEs and Lines of Business

As part of its goal to bring customers of all sizes powerful, easy-to-use analytics solutions that lead the market, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the latest offerings tailored to fit the needs of small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) and lines of business. Via flexible deployment options, SAP® Crystal Server 2011 software and the 4.0 release of SAP® BusinessObjects™ Edge Business Intelligence (BI) software are designed to help enable customers to get up and running quickly to better understand all facets of their businesses and make confident, data-driven decisions as events unfold, in real time.

These latest solutions from the business analytics portfolio from SAP are intended to help SMEs and lines of business get the most out of their IT investments and maximize their available resources by putting analytics tools directly into the hands of the people who need them most. SAP Crystal Server (formerly, SAP Crystal Reports Server) is an entry-level BI solution for small companies and departments that will include self-serve data search and exploration in addition to the core functionality of report and dashboard viewing; SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI will help enable them to address virtually any BI requirement – from reporting, visualization and ad-hoc analysis to data integration and data quality.

“SAP Crystal Server and SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI are two perfect examples of how we are innovating to address the challenges commonly experienced by SMEs and lines of business,” said Maneesh Sharma, Head-Business Analytics and Technology, SAP India. “The new release in India reinforces our market leadership and brings SAP’s vision for business analytics to a full circle. We work closely with our customers and we are turning business analytics easily accessible by making it more affordable and less time-consuming. A broader range of organizations and departments will now be able to solve business problems efficiently and effectively.”

Additionally, with user-friendly enhancements such as a consistent, customizable and more intuitive user experience as well as delivery to any mobile device, the analytics software will help empower all types of users – from novices to professionals – to make more effective business decisions, enabling faster response times to impact the business and ultimately help drive greater profitability.

“In a new era of economic growth, small and midsize companies constantly need insights that help minimize risk and capture fleeing new business opportunities,” said Dan Vesset, program vice president of Business Analytics research, IDC. “The latest release of business intelligence software for small and midsize companies from SAP empowers growing companies to adopt brand new innovations such as integrating structured and unstructured data and even information from social networks. Newly refreshed and intuitive user interface and brand new mobility functionality help more users in the growing company get the relevant and accurate data on time, decide and act with confidence, and contribute to greater growth and profitability.”
With the 4.0 release of SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, for the first time SMEs and lines of business will have quick insight into structured information as well as unstructured information like data from social networks using new text analysis functionality. Regardless of where the most relevant information resides, it will assist anyone within an organization to analyze it and collaborate to make informed decisions based on facts rather than gut reactions – all without needing to rely on IT.

With new event insight capabilities and 64-bit architecture, customers will be able to use SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI to monitor business scenarios as they happen in real time, formulate action plans accordingly and even compare and contrast historical trends to help predict future outcomes. The organizations will be able to equip their customer-care call centers with text analysis to watch what is being said on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, and help mitigate potential brand damage by creating alerts for product defects and recalls.

With SAP Crystal Server 2011, sales and marketing departments challenged with correlating the success of their campaigns with overall revenue will be able to use the included SAP BusinessObjects Explorer™ software to navigate and  drill down to granular levels and monitor how those campaigns are affecting return on investment (ROI) in real time. The goal is to help them to quickly cease investing in less successful campaigns in a particular global region and reallocate those investments to campaigns that are driving substantial sources of revenue.

By delivering tight integration between its BI and enterprise information management (EIM) solutions, SAP helps customers better understand their businesses by supporting the entire information life cycle – from data to dashboard. Not only can they embed things like BI dashboards into other business applications, but with EIM they can help ensure the data comprising those dashboards is accurate, current and trusted.

SAP Crystal Server 2011 and the 4.0 release of SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI are planned for general availability in the third quarter of 2011. For more information, visit the Business Analytics newsroom. Follow SAP BusinessObjects on Twitter at @businessobjects and SAP at @sapnews.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 170,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Sybase) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

Microchip and Digilent launch first ArduinoT compatible 32-bit microcontr​oller developmen​t platform

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions, and Digilent, Inc. today launched the first 32-bit-microcontroller-based, open-source development platform that is compatible with Arduino™ hardware and software.  Designed and manufactured by Digilent, a Microchip Authorized Design Partner, the chipKIT™ platform is the first and only 32-bit Arduino solution in the industry to enable hobbyists and academics to easily, and inexpensively, integrate electronics into their projects, even if they do not have an electronic-engineering background.

The platform consists of two PIC32-based development boards and open-source software that is compatible with the Arduino programming language and development environment, thanks to the incredible work done by Mark Sproul and Rick Anderson through Fair Use Building and Research Labs.  The chipKIT hardware is compatible with existing 3.3V Arduino shields and applications, and can be developed using a modified version of the Arduino IDE and existing Arduino resources, such as code examples, libraries, references and tutorials.  The platform provides an unprecedented level of features for the Arduino community, and four times the performance of any existing Arduino solution at a low price. A video can be viewed online at (feel free to embed on your site): http://www.microchip.com/get/D268.

Hobbyists and academics from many disciplines, such as mechanical engineering, computer science and even art, want easy-to-use, low-cost solutions for creating projects.  The PIC32-based chipKIT boards enable 80 MHz performance, and provide up to 512 KB

Flash, with up to 128 KB RAM.  The boards feature connectivity peripherals, including Ethernet, CAN, and USB (Full-Speed Host, Device and OTG); plus peripherals such as multiple timers, a 16-channel 1 MSPS Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC), two comparators, and multiple I2C™, SPI, and UART interfaces.  Not only is chipKIT the first Arduino-compatible platform to provide 32-bit performance, but Microchip's PIC32 microcontroller is also the highest performance 32-bit microcontroller in its class, featuring the industry-leading MIPS32® M4K® core from MIPS Technologies, Inc.

A tremendous software engineering effort has been invested to ensure maximum compatibility with existing Arduino shields, applications and courseware.  The Arduino programming environment has been modified and extended so that it supports the PIC32-based chipKIT boards, as well as traditional Arduino boards.  The Arduino standard libraries have been also been modified to support chipKIT boards and traditional Arduino boards.  All of this work has been contributed back to the open-source Arduino community.  Aside from a small number of shields that require 5V operation, many existing Arduino hardware and software sketches are compatible with the chipKIT platform, without modification.

"Students, educators and hobbyists, with or without electronic-engineering backgrounds, are looking for inexpensive solutions that will enable them to easily integrate electronics into their projects," said Derek Carlson, Microchip's vice president of Development Systems.  "The chipKIT boards and software meet these needs, providing far more features, performance and functionality than any other Arduino solution on the market, at a low cost."

"The chipKIT platform is the first and only 32-bit solution of its kind in the industry," said Clint Cole, president of Digilent, Inc. "Academics and hobbyists can plug the boards into their design, download the open-source software and have their project up and running in minutes."

Art Swift, vice president of marketing and business development for MIPS Technologies, Inc., said, "The chipKIT platform enables academia and hobbyists to experience the superior performance efficiency of the MIPS® architecture, which many professional electronics designers have preferred for years."

Board-specific features and availability
The chipKIT Uno32™ (part # TDGL002) development board is a clone of the Arduino Uno board, and features 128 KB Flash program memory and 16 KB RAM, with two each of the I2C, SPI and UART peripherals. A clone of the Arduino Mega board, the chipKIT Max32™ (part # TDGL003) development board features 512 KB Flash program memory and 128 KB RAM, with USB, CAN and Ethernet communication, as well as 5 each I2C, 4 each SPI, and 6 each UART peripherals.  Both chipKIT boards can be ordered today, http://www.microchip.com/get/TDD2.  Additionally, the open-source software for both boards is available today at http://www.microchip.com/get/TDD2.  chipKIT Network and I/O Shields are expected to be available in June 2011.
About Digilent, Inc:
Digilent, Inc. is a leader in providing academic and research solutions to high-end electronics fields. Their headquarters are in Pullman, Washington, with offices in Taiwan, China, and Romania.  Currently, over 1,000 universities, training centers and research laboratories in more than 70 countries use Digilent products and services. For more information, please visit the Digilent Web site (http://www.microchip.com/get/VUSS).Microchip expands MiWi™ wireless development environment
for IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz and unlicensed sub-GHz networks
 
About Microchip Technology:
Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:  MCHP) is a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions, providing low-risk product development, lower total system cost and faster time to market for thousands of diverse customer applications worldwide.  Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip offers outstanding technical support along with dependable delivery and quality.  For more information, visit the Microchip website at http://www.microchip.com/get/L3UR.

Customer XPs secures US$ 4 Million Series A commitment from JAFCO

CustomerXPs Software Private Limited, a real-time intelligence software product company has raised its first institutional round of funding with a Series A commitment of up to US$4M from a fund managed by JAFCO Investment (Asia Pacific) Limited. Ernst & Young acted as financial advisor to CustomerXPs on this transaction.
Innovative IP: CustomerXPs, founded by product veterans of the enterprise software industry, is into creating “Moments of Truth” Real-time systems for enterprises, system with thinking, learning, inferring capability. CustomerXPs software can identify and solve, in real-time, complex problems in the areas of customer engagement, contextual right-sell, fraud, pricing and compliance while a transaction occurs, by using a human-like fuzzy, judgement-based approach. The company has cracked this problem by using an innovative multi-disciplinary approach spanning artificial intelligence, statistics, mathematics, psychology and behavioural sciences.

Customers and markets: CustomerXPs’ products are initially aimed at Global Tier 1 banks. ICICI Bank is a customer of CustomerXPs’ suite of products. The Series A investment will be used to rapidly expand the company’s Global sales, marketing and delivery teams, and towards further R&D including creating distributed SaaS versions of its offerings. Beyond banking, the firm has seen substantial interest in its offerings across the telecom, retail, internet, insurance, healthcare and airline industries.

Rivi Varghese, CEO and co-founder of CustomerXPs, said, “Our ambition has always been to create an innovative, IP-led global product company. We have deliberately not sold services to fund product development as this corrupts the Product DNA permanently. Products don’t happen overnight. What is needed is an integrated approach with a robust process framework to innovate, deliver, sustain, fund and support products. While we have laid the foundations for our long-term goals, our biggest concern when we started fund-raising was whether we could find the right investor who understood the product business and could engage with us deeply on both strategic and operational issues. We are very happy to partner with JAFCO, with whom we had a meeting of minds from our first meeting.”

JAFCO Asia’s Murli Ravi, who now joins the company’s Board of Directors, commented, “India is renowned for its prowess in software outsourcing. However, few Indian software product companies exist and barely a handful can be said to make truly innovative world-beating products. CustomerXPs is one of those few. Moreover, the entire team, including its advisors Sharad and Anuradha Hegde, has shown exceptional passion and commitment to the long-term vision. We are honoured that the CustomerXPs team chose to partner with us.”

About CustomerXPs Software Private Limited
 CustomerXPs is a company that makes real-time intelligent software for high-transaction domains with an initial focus on the banking industry. The company was founded by Rivi Varghese (CEO), Aditya Lal (CTO) and Balaji Suryanarayana (COO), who have previously worked in senior roles at global leaders such as Infosys, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Accenture and Wipro. The company’s product team has proven experience in conceiving, creating and delivering innovative software products, having previously delivered 12 “new-to-the-world” products that are now being extensively used by leading global banks. Visit www.customerxps.com for more.
 
About JAFCO Investment (Asia Pacific) Ltd
JAFCO Asia is one of Asia’s leading venture capital firms. Its primary focus is to invest in promising technology enterprises with high growth potential. Headquartered in Singapore, and with entities in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul, JAFCO Asia has approximately USD 730 million in funds under management. It is a subsidiary of JAFCO Co. Ltd, which is one of the largest private equity firms in Japan and is part of the Nomura group of companies. JAFCO Co. Ltd has over USD 5 billion under management and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. More information is available at www.jafcoasia.com.

Virtusa Corp Wins PMI Atlanta’s 2011 Manufacturing Project of the Year Award

Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ: VRTU), a global IT services company that offers a broad spectrum of business consulting and outsourcing services, announced today that it has been honored by Project Management Institute Atlanta (PMI) as the winner of its 2011 Manufacturing Project of the Year Award. The purpose of the award is to recognize the accomplishments of a project and the involved project team for superior performance and execution of exemplary project management.

The winning project was commissioned by Siemens Industry, Inc., the U.S. affiliate of Siemens’ global Industry Sector business—a leading supplier of production, transportation and building technology solutions. In May 2010, Siemens retired an outside vendor that provided an online order tracking tool for Siemens’ Building Technologies Division (BT). Instead of rebuilding or replacing the decommissioned system, Siemens contracted Virtusa to develop a solution that would consolidate the system with an order tracker already in place for Siemens’ Energy Power Distribution Division (PD).  Virtusa took all the features and components of the decommissioned BT system and transferred them into the existing PD system.

“Virtusa not only duplicated the features and functionalities of the decommissioned system, but also enhanced it. It was great for our customers as well because they did not experience any service interruptions and that was imperative to us,” said Siemens Application Manager, Jeff Kroeger. “The entire project went more smoothly than anyone could have imagined.”

In addition to successfully consolidating the two online tracking systems, Virtusa also delivered the project 25 percent under budget and saved $15,000 annually.  “This project is a testament to our solid 8 year working relationship with the Siemens team. We worked efficiently and achieved excellence as a result of effective communication, planning and project management,” said Harsha Kumar, Senior Vice President of Virtusa’s Media, Information, Technology and Entertainment Business Unit. “We are honored that PMI Atlanta has recognized the hard work, collaboration and dedication of the entire group that worked to create this project.”

PMI Atlanta is the largest project management member association serving the North Georgia and Metro Atlanta area. The organization represents more than 4,400 members and strives to increase recognition to the profession of Project Management. Submissions for PMI Atlanta’s Project of the Year awards were judged by an independent outside panel that selected a winning project from each industry group.

About Virtusa
Virtusa provides end-to-end information technology (IT) services to Global 2000 companies. These services, which include IT consulting, application maintenance, development, systems integration and managed services, leverage a unique Platforming methodology that transforms clients’ businesses through IT rationalization. Virtusa helps customers accelerate business outcomes by consolidating, rationalizing and modernizing their core customer facing processes into one or more core systems.
Virtusa delivers cost-effective solutions through a global delivery model, applying advanced methods such as Agile and Accelerated Solution Design to ensure that its solutions meet the clients’ requirements.  As a result, its clients simultaneously reduce their IT operations cost while increasing their ability to meet changing business needs.
Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Massachusetts, Virtusa has operations in North America, Europe and Asia.

Pu​njab Government selects Wipro for deploying Tax Management System for Department of Excise and Taxation

Wipro Infotech, the India, Middle East and Africa, IT Business unit  of Wipro Ltd and a leading provider of IT and business transformation services announced today that it has been selected by the Department of Excise & Taxation, Government of Punjab to deploy the Tax Management System across the State. Wipro will also manage the solution for a period of five years.

The Excise & Taxation Department is one of the major revenue collecting agencies in the State. It plays an important role in the fiscal structure of the State. There are 23 tax districts in Punjab for which there are about 100 offices at all levels. The revenue is collected in the shape of various levies such as Taxes, Excise duties and fees etc. The department had proposed a scheme for computerization of Sales Tax procedures in July, 2000. To implement this, the Government created an autonomous body called Excise and Taxation Technical Services Agency (ETTSA). ETTSA selected Wipro to deploy and manage the solution for the Department of Excise and Taxation, Punjab.

The genesis of the proposed project is rooted in the desire of the Department for effective and efficient discharge of its functions to its taxpayers as well as to its internal staff. Taking its IT maturity to the next level and with an aim to improve upon its business processes, resolve the bottlenecks of the existing system and to ensure end-to-end visibility of each and every Tax process, the Department has embarked on this key initiative.

As part of the scope, Wipro will be responsible for design, implementation and management of IT infrastructure and outsourced transaction processing along with other support activities. This includes procurement, deployment, operations and maintenance of the Department’s IT Infrastructure at various project locations as well as  data migration, setting up of various front windows, training, helpdesk  and maintenance activities. Migration of the application and data as required for implementation of GST is also a part of the project.

Wipro would also undertake design, development, customization, testing and rollout of the Application Software across the state including support for a period of 5 years. The engagement includes migration of the application and data to the new Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime when it is rolled out nationally.

Speaking on the occasion, Vivek Sharma, General Manager and Business Head, Government and Defence Vertical, Wipro said “We are delighted to be partnering with the Punjab Government to further the cause of e-governance. We plan to deploy IT systems and services that are extremely robust, scalable and flexible to ensure efficient payment and collection of taxes across the state.”

Wipro was chosen after a rigorous techno-commercial selection process which saw top IT firms contesting for the deal. Wipro was finally selected based on its technical expertise and commercial proposition.


About Wipro Infotech
Wipro Infotech, a division of the US $7 billion Wipro Limited, provides enterprise customers with high value Information Technology Products, Software Services, Solutions and Consulting Services in India and the Middle East. Headquartered at Bangalore, Wipro Infotech serves customers in India through a network of 22 offices and 170 service locations across the country. It also has regional offices across the Middle East serving the region.

About Wipro Ltd
Wipro Limited provides comprehensive IT solutions and services, including systems integration, information systems outsourcing, IT enabled services, package implementation, software application development and maintenance, and research and development services to corporations globally. Wipro Limited is the first PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMM Level 5 certified IT Services Company globally. In the Indian market, Wipro is a leader in providing IT solutions and services for the corporate segment in India offering system integration, network integration, software solutions and IT services. In the Asia Pacific and Middle East markets, Wipro provides IT solutions and services for global corporations. Wipro also has profitable presence in niche market segments of consumer products and lighting. Wipro's ADSs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and its equity shares are listed in India on the Stock Exchange - Mumbai, and the National Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit our website at www.wipro.com.

totus HR School launched in Bangalore

totus, the consulting firm and premier institution engaged in building organizations around ideas, unveiled the latest feather in its cap with the totus HR School. The school was launched in Bengaluru with its premier course - the ‘Strategic HR Leader’ in the Integrated Professional Development Program (IPDP) yesterday. Directed solely at existing HR professionals with a minimum of 3 years experience in the field of HR;  the focus of the school will not be in generating more HR professionals, but raising the quality and standards of existing HR practices in the country. The totus HR School is dedicated to breathing new life into the HR industry by helping HR persons imbibe professional development inputs in the form of new knowledge, insights and skills.


The ‘Strategic HR Leader’ program, the top tier offering in the IPDP series, is an eight-month course designed to meet the unique needs of HR Leaders at a strategic level. The first such program will commence from August 2011 in Bangalore and enrollments have already begun. The program is targeted specifically at HR Heads with 12-20 years of experience in the field. It aims at enabling HR heads to provide exemplary leadership to the HR function of their company and transforming them into world class CHROs. Unlike its theory centric counterparts, totus HR school is the first of its kind to place prime focus on actual hands-on-experience in the field of HR.


“For a career with such high stakes, continuing professional development is a necessity, an urgent priority and a lifelong journey” said Mr. Ganesh Chella, the Founder & CEO of totus HR School. “The totus HR School has been founded to address this need and empower existing HR practitioners to support the scale and pace of business growth. While the program will have National-Level participation, Bangalore was chosen as the ideal venue, as it represents the face of modern India”, he added.


The totus HR School offers the IPDP series for HR practitioners across three career levels – ‘The Emerging HR Professional’, ‘The Trusted HR Partner’ and ‘The Strategic HR Leader’. Along with these, standalone, week-long programs in specific areas for all HR practitioners will also be offered.



“H.R. is a field that has faced maximum changes in recent years, besides basic requirements such as training and recruitment. However, HR professionals are also responsible for helping employees deal with psychological problems such as depression and lack of motivation, adapting to new environments and social changes as well as assisting them to make important lifestyle and career decisions, which are mostly ignored by employers and HR Professionals alike.” believes Mr. Harish Devarajan, HR Planner at totus HR School. “totus’ holistic approach aims at creating high quality national level HR leaders who can manage all these aspects of HR efficiently. The ideal ratio in a company is one HR for every 150 employees, even though most companies possess merely one HR person for every 1000 employees”, he added.


Bringing together some of the most distinguished professionals from the field of Psychology, Sociology, Organisation Development and Human Resources, the totus HR School has been founded to address the need for competence in the ever-changing world of work and is deeply committed to focusing on humanness in all its endeavours, helping shape the identity of people through their performance, potential, necessities and aspirations.

About totus HR School
Totus HR School is born out of the proud parentage of Totus Consulting.
Since its inception in June 2000, Totus Consulting has been busy building organisations around great ideas. As a strategic HR consulting firm, Totus Consulting has been successfully using its expertise in Organisation Development and Human Resources, as well as its deep insight into Business, Human and Organisation Behaviour, to build organisations which are vibrant and effective, around the great ideas of its clients.
Totus clients have always found its approach to consulting unique, distinctive and enduring in terms of its process consultation style, partnership orientation and thought leadership.
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YouTube launches YouTube Box Office in India

All netizens in India have more reasons to rejoice as YouTube is introducing a new destination for all the movie buffs titled ‘YouTube Box Office’. This exclusive channel will feature a premium block buster movie every month absolutely free of cost. Kick-starting the initiative will be the latest hit 'Band Baaja Baaraat', starring Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma.

The YouTube Box Office channel will also feature other popular movies which users can watch for free from the YouTube catalogue of movies which includes over 1500 titles including regional language films. The channel will be available to all users in India and will be IP blocked for users in other countries. Intel has taken the lead to bring this initiative to users in India and will be the exclusive presenting sponsor for the channel.

Commenting on the new initiative, Gautam Anand, Director Content Partnerships for YouTube Japan-APAC said, “We wish to create a destination for users which is easily discoverable and also help our content partners get more viewers for their premium content. With over 48 hours of content being uploaded on YouTube every minute, this is our attempt to curate premium and exclusive content which our users enjoy. This initiative also opens up a new window of opportunities for marketers to utilize the platform and engage the YouTube community”.

Sandeep Aurora, Director-Marketing, Intel South Asia said, “Intel is extending the “Smart visuals, brilliant performance” positioning  of its latest 2nd generation Core processors with this association. The YouTube Box Office channel provides the consumers an opportunity to view premium, high quality movies on their PCs. Consumers can also enjoy these movies on their big screen HDTV with Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi) feature on the 2nd Generation Intel Core Processor based PCs and bring YouTube to life in HD format on their TVs.”

YouTube will collaborate with its partners in India on a revenue share basis to bring more of such premium content on YouTube Box Office every month. Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Anand Gurnani, General Manager – Digital & New Media, Yash Raj Films - the producer and distributor of Band Baaja Baaraat said, “Apart from offering tremendous reach, evolved digital platforms like YouTube also enable the monetization aspect through advertising revenues in an unobtrusive manner, while offering a great online viewing experience to the users. We are sure this project will throw up interesting insights and consumption patterns of the digital-friendly audience.”

After the big success with IPL, YouTube in India has continued to grow in both users and premium content offerings from Bollywood and popular TV shows. A recent premier of mega hit Dabangg on YouTube got a phenomenal response from the users in India with over 1.3 million channel views.


About YouTube
YouTube is the world's most popular online video community allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share original videos.  YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. YouTube, LLC is based in San Bruno, Calif., and is a subsidiary of Google Inc.