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12 R&D Tax Reliefs for Software Developers: Opportunities and Avoiding the Pitfalls
The 2017 Smart Home Revolution
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From heating which turns on automatically when we’re within two miles of the house, to front doors which only open when a recognised face appears, we now have the opportunity to turn our regular homes into smart homes. Page 18
Also in this issue: New App to Help Drone Pilots Comply with UK Rules Voice and Facial Recognition to Be Used in over 600 Million Mobile Devices by 2021 December 2016
www.softech-intl.com
Welcome to the December edition of Softech International Magazine In this issue we have a section dedicated to corporate and consumer advice. Rebecca Oatley, Managing Director of Little Bear, highlights the top apps on the market at the moment which can help to transform your small business. Meanwhile, Alipay, the world’s leading mobile payment platform, run by Ant Financial Services Group, has partnered with Zapper, the fast growing consumer insights and marketing platform, to allow 250,000 Chinese tourists visiting the UK to pay using the Alipay app. Also featured in this month are two brand new sections – Education and VR software. Improving and refining IT Service Management is helping universities cope with staff and student demand, whilst in the virtual reality market, a new study from Juniper Research has found that gesture and motion control will become vital for human-computer interaction in the coming years. Lastly, we wrap up all the news and deals in the software and technology industry. We hope you enjoy this issue. Matt Lewis, Editor Phone: +44 (0) 203 725 6842 Email: matthew.lewis@ai-globalmedia.com Website: www.softech-intl.com
Contents 4. News TAX 12. R&D Tax Reliefs for Software Developers: Opportunities and Avoiding the Pitfalls SOFTWARE 14. DAM: Digital Asset Management 18. The 2017 Smart Home Revolution 20. Voice and Facial Recognition to Be Used in over 600 Million Mobile Devices by 2021 TECHNOLOGY 22. Built for Lawyers, by Lawyers 27. Deals
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
NEWS
LANGUAGEWIRE AND EPISERVER MAKE IT EASIER TO REACH GLOBAL AUDIENCES The new LanguageWire Episerver Connector makes it quicker and easier than ever before to translate digital content. LanguageWire, a Danish tech company that connects brands with language experts via its language collaboration platform, has announced the release of a new Episerver integration. The LanguageWire Episerver Connector acts as an automatic link between a company’s Episerver software and LanguageWire. This dramatically reduces the time spent on the translation of web content in Episerver, an innovative .NET Experience Platform. The average time savings equal a massive 20 minutes per page per language according to research conducted by LanguageWire of their customers. With the internet and digitalisation continually making the world a smaller place and brands increasing their content output, the need for new and more efficient translation integration technology is clear according to Jesper Lehrmann, Product Director for Connectivity at LanguageWire. “At LanguageWire, we develop new solutions that make it easier for our customers to communicate globally. Our new Episerver Connector makes it possible for businesses to create multilingual content in just a few clicks directly in the Episerver Platform,” said the experienced digital strategist. “By integrating and automating translation processes, we eliminate the majority of manual tasks and errors that come with the production of localised content. This dramatically reduces time spent on translation and speeds up time-to-publish.
About LanguageWire Since 2000, LanguageWire has built a solid reputation for quality translations and superior technology solutions, and today we enjoy a leading position amongst translation companies worldwide. Every day we earn the loyalty of our customers by delivering hassle-free solutions, high-quality translations and measureable value. We do this through our overall commitment to excellence; our skilled people and handpicked translators and editors; and by providing innovative technology and proven results to companies who want to reach markets abroad.
“For example, translating a new website of 100 pages into five languages would save a massive 10,000 minutes. This corresponds to over a month’s work, or 166 hours,” Lehrmann said. “This quickly becomes a lot of money in terms of pounds and pence. “As with all of our customers, our language collaboration platform provides access to our outstanding network of language experts,” the connectivity expert explained. “Consistently high quality translations are vital in a world of customer experiences. We ensure this by giving our customers the ability to choose their own team of preferred suppliers. This means they work with people who understand the brand and deliver quality every time.”
About Episerver Episerver connects digital commerce and digital marketing to help organizations create unique digital experiences for their customers, with measurable business results. The Episerver Digital Experience Cloud™ combines content, commerce, multi-channel marketing, and predictive analytics in a single platform to work fullcircle for businesses online - from intelligent real-time personalization and lead-generation through to conversion and repeat business - with unprecedented ease-of-use. Sitting at the center of the digital experience ecosystem, Episerver empowers digital leaders to embrace disruptive, transformational strategies to deliver standout experiences for their customers - everywhere they engage.
Further information as well as the possibility to book a demo of the LanguageWire Episerver Connector can be found at languagewire.com/episerver or go directly to the Episerver add-on store http://www.episerver.com/partners/ add-on-store/languagewire.
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4G MOBILE CALLS STILL OPEN TO EAVESDROPPERS Newest mobile network fails to solve 2G and 3G security issue. Armour Communications, a provider of specialist, secure communications platforms explain in a paper entitled, ‘Is someone listening in on your confidential calls?’ how the latest 4G network fails to solve the problem of electronic eavesdropping. Firms’ intellectual property (IP) and commercially sensitive information can still be listened into by perpetrators using an IMSI catcher, despite new security measures and stronger encryption used by the 4G network. This type of hack can be set up with equipment that is highly portable and costs less than £1000. A rogue base station attracts mobiles by offering a stronger signal, and once connected forces the mobile back to 2G technology, where encryption is negligible and easily bypassed. This attack was demonstrated recently at the Ruxcon Security Conference, in Melbourne. Andy Lilly, director and co-founder of Armour Communications commented; “Given the many years of experience and the huge investment in time to develop the specification for the 4G network, it has been assumed that it would be much better at protecting privacy. While it is to some degree, 4G does not solve the issue of potential IMSI catcher style attacks leaving commercial and public sector/government organisations vulnerable.” 4G enforces mutual authentication between handset and network base station, unlike 2G/GSM, but it still requires the mobile to transmit its International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) at least once in order to connect. Also, because 4G coverage is not ubiquitous, a fraudulent base station can trick handsets into downgrading to 2G, meaning any communication, voice, text or attachment can be compromised. Andy Lilly added; “There is currently a proliferation of free apps and services that claim to be secure and encrypted, however, organisations should be careful about using such services. These services are not explicit about exactly what is encrypted and therefore there can be gaps that the user is unaware of. Furthermore, companies should not rely on services over which they have no control – for example the carrier service in some countries – in order to protect commercially sensitive information on which the success of their business depends.”
CNL SOFTWARE EXPANDS GLOBAL SALES TEAM The company has appointed Simon Jones as their Sales Manager in the UK and Europe. CNL Software, a world leader in Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) software, is pleased to announce that it has expanded its global sales team with the appointment of Simon Jones to the role of Sales Manager UK & Europe. Simon’s primary role will be to nurture the company’s existing customer relationships and to develop and expand the UK and European customer base in line with the company’s global growth strategy. With over 20 years’ experience in technical sales, Simon has recently completed a 5-year tenure at Reliance High-Tech, where he was responsible for integrated security sales into various high profile accounts, including some of the UK’s largest police forces and Thames Water. He has a detailed understanding of the CNI market and the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) sector, offering a unique insight into the challenges facing industries grappling with the exponential growth in data acquisition as well as challenges outside of traditional security applications that CNL Software is also addressing with IPSecurityCenter™ to create business value and drive innovation. “Simon brings a wealth of experience to CNL Software, not only technical, but also operational and cultural, having lived and worked extensively in Europe.”, says James Condron, VP Global Sales & Marketing at CNL Software. “We are excited to have Simon join the CNL Software global sales team at a time when we are seeing significant and increasing interest in our software solutions around the world and this appointment supports our planned growth strategy across the UK and mainland Europe.” “CNL Software offers innovative solutions, which are supported by a team of very talented, committed staff and I am delighted to have joined the team”, adds Simon Jones. “I look forward to expanding our portfolio of customers, while ensuring the highest possible levels of professionalism and integrity throughout the commercial engagement process. Adding increasing value to existing customers, and feeding back innovative applications for IPSecurityCenter to the technical teams will also prove an important and rewarding element to the role.”
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
NEWS
BULLGUARD ANNOUNCES STRONGER CLOUD STORAGE PROTECTION WITH BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY Public sector organisations now able to leverage the power of security data and analytics with Rapid7’s industry-leading, cloudbased products and services through G-Cloud 8 Framework.
BullGuard (https://www.bullguard.com), the number one rated consumer security company, has announced the latest version of its industry-leading antimalware protection software, BullGuard Internet Security. • Known for delivering award-winning, easy-to-use security tools designed to protect consumers from online threats, the latest version of BullGuard Internet Security offers greater protection for cloud storage services including Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft’s OneDrive. This advanced protection extends to PC, Mac and Android devices including smartphones and tablets. Consumers can experience a free trial of BullGuard Internet Security for 60 days by visiting www.bullguard.com.
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“Dropbox’s 500 million user base proves that cloud storage services are increasingly prominent in today’s world. As demand for these services grow, so too does the level of security threats. There’s never been a more important time to close the gap of basic security essentials that are missing with these ever-growing cloud-based services,” said Paul Lipman, CEO, BullGuard. “Our latest version of BullGuard Internet Security addresses these issues by providing backup tools that help extend protection to all major cloud storage platforms.
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directly from BullGuard to their preferred cloud storage provider with a click; they don’t need to move their files from their computer to a virtual Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive folder. Scheduled backups: Scheduled backups can be made at predetermined intervals for greater control and reassurance that important files and folders are backed up regularly. Users also have the choice of backing up ‘on-demand.’ Robust encryption: File and folders can be encrypted before they leave the computer. This critical update addresses concerns among consumers that their data, such as photos, could be compromised by hackers. The encryption key is set by the user and neither BullGuard nor the cloud storage provider has access to it so no one other than the user can access files. Safeguards against ransomware: BullGuard protects against ransomware, one of the most common and dangerous forms of malware today. According to a recent report 54% of UK businesses have been targeted by ransomware. BullGuard constantly scans for all forms of malware, including ransomware, so when customers back up their files they know they have a clean version of their data available.
BullGuard also provides the choice of synchronising or not synchronising backups. This is an important point. With Dropbox, for example, all backups are synchronised, which means that if files on a desktop computer are corrupted, the backed up files will also be corrupted. BullGuard however provides the option to turn off synchronisation, so backed up files are protected.
We’ve also extended the range of BullGuard protection to PC, Mac and Android devices so that consumers can keep themselves safe across multiple devices and multiple platforms at any given time.” New features include: • Simple backups: BullGuard backup is disarmingly simple. Users can back up their files and folders
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Multi-device protection: BullGuard protection also now extends to PC, Mac and Android devices all from one license. This includes BullGuard Premium Protection, which alongside awardwinning BullGuard Internet Security provides industry-leading identity protection and robust social media safeguards to keep children safe. Performance enhancements: A number of performance enhancements for both BullGuard Internet Security and BullGuard Premium Protection have also been made. These include faster and safer operation, revisions to the parental control module, registry protection, and a streamlined behavioural engine for trouble-free operation. PC optimisation has been improved with a range of new cleanup options and intuitive tweaks.
BullGuard Internet Security is available to trial for 60 days, and can be bought for up to three devices for £49.95 annually. BullGuard Premium Protection is available to trial for 30 days, and can be bought for up to 10 devices for £69.95 annually. Existing customers will be migrated to the new multi-license product starting with their first renewal purchase. About BullGuard BullGuard is Europe’s number one rated consumer security company. Its award-winning product portfolio includes in-depth internet security, comprehensive mobile security, 24/7 identity protection, and social media protection for both home and small business users. BullGuard is also a pioneer in the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected device security for consumers. The company released the world’s first IoT vulnerability checker, and following the acquisition of Dojo Labs is leading the consumer-cyber security industry in providing the highest level of protection to consumers across all of their internet-connected devices and smart homes. All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
NEWS
NEW APP TO HELP DRONE PILOTS COMPLY WITH UK RULES There has been a significant increase in reports of near misses between drones and commercial aircraft in the UK during the past year, causing disruption to air traffic and risking a major incident.
The problem of drones being flown near airports has become increasingly serious in recent years, but it’s one that a new app from the air traffic control provider NATS is hoping to solve.
“We’re delighted to have partnered with Altitude Angel to develop a tool that we hope will help improve drone safety in the UK and lead the way in international best practice.”
Drone Assist, powered by Altitude Angel and available for free on Android and iOS from Saturday 3 December, presents drone pilots with an interactive map of areas of airspace used by commercial air traffic. Drone operators planning to fly near these areas - usually around airports and airfields - should ideally avoid them or exercise great caution. It will also contain a ‘Fly Now’ feature that will share the user’s drone flight location with other app users, and the wider drone community, helping to reduce the risk of a drone related incident in the UK’s airspace.
The UK Airprox Board, which investigates reports of aircraft near misses, has so far reported on approximately 50 drone incidents this year up from 11 during 2015. With drones expected to be among the top gifts received this Christmas, NATS is urging would-be drone pilots to be sure of the rules and regulations before taking to the skies. Richard Parker, founder and CEO of Altitude Angel commented: “We are delighted to be working with NATS, and are proud that the UK is taking a global lead in addressing this issue as we work to keep our skies safe for all aerial citizens. Partnerships like this are an essential first-step to bringing together drone pilots and other stakeholders, all working towards greater airspace safety, and laying the foundation for a future where drones and manned aircraft can coexist without incident.”
Drones should always be kept well away from aircraft, airports and airfields. The app has been developed in partnership with Altitude Angel, a leading UK-based company working on innovative future drone traffic management solutions, and also includes the location of ground based hazards that might pose a safety or privacy risk, such as power lines, schools or sports venues.
In a recent study by the CAA, 90% of people agreed that adherence to the CAAs Dronecode is important but only 40% of drone owners were aware of it. Tools like Drone Assist are designed to help, as is the new website launched by NATS and the CAA called dronesafe.uk. The site, which is easily accessible directly within the app, provides further information on the rules around drone flying in the UK, including the CAAs Drone Code and information on CAA-approved training courses.
Phil Binks, NATS drone lead, said: “With the number of drone incidents on the rise, it’s clear that many people are unaware of the rules or their legal obligations as pilots. Drone Assist is designed to help everyone abide by the rules, identify areas of controlled and restricted airspace and help them enjoy flying whilst ensuring their safety and the safety of other airspace users.
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Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
NEWS
CLOUD DISTRIBUTION SIGNS CLOUD SECURITY VENDOR, CYREN Cyren is an established innovator and leading provider of cloudbased security solutions that protect businesses against Internet threats in web and email traffic.
Next generation value-added distributor Cloud Distribution, a specialist in security, networking and storage, has just signed a major new vendor, Cyren, to add to the impressive roster of vendors already in its portfolio.
Adam Davison, Director, Cloud Distribution comments: “Right now the market is moving security into the cloud and this presents a massive opportunity for our partners. Businesses need to protect themselves from Internet threats, as their data and applications move to the cloud, employees are more mobile than ever before, and cyber-attacks are growing more sophisticated. Put simply, traditional appliance-based security solutions are failing to protect organisations from these threats because of limited compute capacity and the limited scope of on premise protection. Now we have a highly disruptive solution which will be in big demand and even better we are going to give our partners significant margin which is always attractive.”
In order to grow its business in the UK market, Cyren needed to find a partner with strong expertise in SaaS-based solutions. Cloud Distribution has an enviable track record of bringing highly innovative and disruptive vendors to market and was a natural choice. For its part, Cloud Distribution was looking for a new vendor to bolster its security offerings, and Cyren’s suite of internet security products made perfect sense. As a result, the two companies have just signed a distribution agreement.
Cyren’s cloud security solutions are poised to disrupt the legacy security market, leveraging cloud-scale computing and global visibility across the internet to deliver protection to any user, anywhere. Cyren offers a suite of SaaS security products delivered from the cloud, including secure web gateway (Cyren WebSecurity), secure email gateway (Cyren EmailSecurity, DNS firewall (Cyren DNS Security), and cloud sandboxing (Cyren Advanced Threat Protection) services.
Atif Ahmed, Vice President of Sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa region, Cyren comments: “Cyren’s SaaS web and email security products are poised to dramatically disrupt the appliance-based approach to security. We were looking for a distributor that could help us take these innovative solutions to market and who better than Cloud Distribution. We partnered with Cloud because of the company’s proactive approach, channel enablement tools, inside sales capabilities and support programmes, as well as its ability to create the right type of partner base in order to accelerate market adoption.”
Cloud Distribution will be building an internal sales team to generate leads for Cyren, and Cyren already has five sales people on the ground here in the UK. All leads will be passed onto the partners to help drive sales. There is also a full schedule of joint marketing campaigns underway to help stimulate opportunities for the channel. For more information on any of the campaigns and events or if you are interested in finding out more about Cyren please contact Cloud Distribution on 01635 800410 or email south@clouddistribution.com.
This new partnership means that Cloud partners now have the opportunity to sell to legacy on premise customers and migrate them into the cloud. Cyren’s web and email security products are incredibly easy to manage and far more scalable and elastic than other solutions offered by many of the traditional cloud based vendors.
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Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
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R&D TAX RELIEFS FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS: OPPORTUNITIES AND AVOIDING THE PITFALLS
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By Mark Shewring, tax partner at haysmacintyre.
In the recent Autumn Statement, the Chancellor highlighted that Research and Development (R&D) is a key driver of economic growth, announcing the government is looking to ensure the UK tax system is strongly pro-innovation. A key part of this is a generous R&D tax relief regime which has been in place in the UK for over ten years. More and more software companies are now taking advantage of these reliefs, which can provide a tax credit of up to 33 pence for every £1 spent on qualifying R&D expenditure. Do you qualify? For many software companies, tax reliefs are crucial elements of budget and cost plans and should not be overlooked. R&D tax credits may be claimed by UK companies undertaking activities which seek to achieve an advance in science or technology. This can be an appreciable improvement to existing software and may include where software is developed as a tool for use in a larger R&D projects, the development of new operating systems or languages, creation of newer/more efficient algorithms, and even the development of new encryption or security techniques. Thankfully, given the amount of international trade in the software sector, R&D relief is available even if those involved in the development are based overseas. This is often the case as many choose to outsource elements of the development to a team of overseas subcontractors. To assist with uncertainty over eligibility and to encourage more claims to be made, HMRC introduced an R&D advance assurance procedure in November 2015. This aims to notify business owners whether their project will qualify for relief, therefore allowing for more accurate business planning and streamlined processes. The procedure is available for companies who have never previously claimed R&D relief, have less than 50 employees and a turnover of less than £2 million. Potential pitfalls There are however key pitfalls that businesses must ensure they avoid when seeking this type of relief, particularly for software companies. Categorisation: Of crucial importance to obtaining the correct relief is the categorisation of software – R&D cannot be claimed on capital expenditure. As such, the product or service developed must be an ‘intangible asset’ or ‘revenue expense’ in order to qualify. Sub-contracting to group companies: When subcontracting part of a company’s R&D activities to group companies, such as overseas subsidiaries, claims can be made on the lower of the qualifying R&D expenditure for the group company, and the amount recharged to the R&D company making the claim. Companies must ensure that their recharges are therefore sufficient.
Remuneration: For owner managed businesses in particular, the method of remuneration is important. Only salary costs (together with employer NI and pension costs) are qualifying R&D expenditure for employees or directors, and credits are not available on dividend expenditure. Companies should therefore consider carefully the most appropriate method of remuneration, taking into account the potentially lower dividend tax rates. Time constraints: A claim can be made up to two years from the end of the accounting period in which the R&D qualifying expenditure is incurred. Don’t miss out because you were too late. Alternative relief Patents are another useful tool and should also be considered for software companies, particularly those undertaking R&D. The Patent Box is a UK scheme providing a 10% corporate tax rate on income deriving from patented goods, and is valuable for those businesses that are used to paying large sums for patents. Having been phased in initially, full relief will be in place by 2017 and is becoming increasingly attractive. Care should be taken though when considering whether to patent in the first place. Those who have profits from sales or licenses that involve UK or EEA patents are in the best position to benefit from this relief and claim through the company tax return. Smaller companies, or those worried about trade secrets being out in the open, must also be wary; once you take a leap into the market with patents, the risk of copycat designs naturally increases. However, not patenting means you could be copied by a competitor, so it is worth weighing up the pros and cons and speaking to a patent attorney. Overall, getting your taxation strategy right as a software company can be difficult and seem tedious. But, hopefully this article has shown how important it is to understand where you qualify for relief and how failing to do so can affect your business strategy. Our advice to software developers is to always keep close watch on their development activities to ensure they are aware of what relief the company is eligible for. This shouldn’t be affected by size – whether you are three or three hundred employees, getting your tax strategy right will enable you to avoid paying more than you should. To ensure you are taking full advantage of the breaks available, it’s always best to seek professional help. Mark Shewring is a partner at chartered accountants haysmacintyre. He provides tax advisory services for entrepreneurial clients and early stage businesses with particular experience in the creative, media and technology sector.
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
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DAM: DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
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By Jenny Ridge, marketing director at Third Light Ltd. What is a Digital Asset Management system? A digital asset management system is a central storage place for all your digital media, where you can search for files by keyword, edit images and videos yourself, download them in different formats and sizes, share and compare them instantly with your colleagues and collaborate using real-time chat. Main features and benefits include: • Version control • Brand management • Image editing and format conversion • Video editing and clipping • File reformatting and resizing • Multi-channel sharing • Approval paths and workflows • Instant search and find with meta-data tagging • Real-time chat for internal and external users • Seamless integration with other internal applications • Usage reports • User access, editing and rights administration • Hosted, secure storage How can it help me and my business? DAM software can put an end to many day-to-day frustrations. Relying on specialist software and key design personnel to reformat images and other graphics. Printing old logos or out-of-date images on new marketing collateral. Having to download images, save them to your desktop and then upload them to email to be able to share. Not being able to send files because they’re too big. Not being able to find files, because you can’t remember where you saved them. These are common problems, and they’re not just confined to the marketing department or creative agencies. In today’s world, it’s difficult to imagine a business where digital media isn’t a key driver for success, whether it’s to promote their services with media rich advertising or to fundamentally support their day-to-day processes. With DAM software, you can upload and download files and folders with ease, from any location. Once in the system, or as they’re being imported, you can easily tag your files and folders with metadata, that will enable you to find those files later on with a simple keyword search. Sharing and collaboration are key functions in a DAM, and in good systems, you can share assets and chat in realtime, which means you can compare images and agree which media to use in one central, online space. You can also publish and share links to your media which can be emailed or used in your website CMS, or social channels. Additionally, DAM software will help you and your business keep on brand, by ensuring your employees have access to the same version of logos, stock images and corporate templates. You can also manage employees’ access to assets, set different editing rights and download permissions. And to help you keep track of all your assets, you can use various reporting functions, showing you how and where assets have been used and published.
Who is using DAM, and how? DAM is rapidly becoming a necessity in the world of photographers, graphic designers, marketing teams, website developers and PR personnel. Because of the software’s multi-functionality, more and more business sectors are benefiting from having a digital media library in place. It could be a veterinary practice for example, where images are used amongst vets to compare and contrast skin diseases, or to teach junior vets about surgical procedures. Or it could be a large, multi-national corporation, with regional marketing and PR teams, where marketing and corporate media assets are used by staff, agencies and suppliers around the world. The list of potential business users is endless - TV companies, sports organizations, schools and Universities, tourist attractions, holiday companies, event and exhibition companies, medical companies, retail and professional services, the music industry, engineering and property. Any business that uses, manages and stores media should investigate the benefits and features of using a DAM. So when we think about what businesses are using DAM for, we can see that these intuitive systems are taking over from old and often complex legacy systems that may pose all sorts of problems with compatibility, security or simply functionality, which means they no longer meet the company’s requirements. Here are the six key reasons businesses are using digital asset management solutions today, each of which deliver substantial business advantages. 1.
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6. Finally, to keep costs at bay, many suppliers provide hosted storage on a high-speed private cloud, so there’s no need for expensive hardware or IT requirements.
To manage media rich marketing campaigns where images, video and animation are the key to winning content. This includes advertising, website content, social media, email campaigns, PR, brand management and so much more. To enable live coverage of media rich events, where images and video are captured, shared and published in real-time. Good examples of this would be the live, visual coverage of sports games or celebrity awards. To manage and host visually engaging business support materials where product and service demos, proposals and training documents are fundamental to effective sales. These broadly include how-to video guides for building and DIY products through to beauty treatments, software video demos and interactive sales proposals. We can also include the use of media to deliver online teaching and learning packages. To assess data, where images are used to facilitate informed decisions and validate reports or a diagnosis. This might be comparing medical images for assessment and teaching, recording material and product fault images or failures to determine cause and remedy. To commercialize business assets, where the media becomes the product itself, available to customers through a public facing digital media library like iStock and Shutterstock. To archive and centralize media assets for historical and reference purposes that may or may not relate to any of the above.
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
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Investing in DAM If you’ve decided that your business needs an intuitive DAM system to take over from your old, complex legacy systems, demonstrating business value may be fairly easy, given the problems they pose with compatibility, integration, security or lack of functionality. If existing systems no longer meet the company’s requirements, that’s your obvious starting point. If you’ve never had any comparable tools before, your job may be harder, especially if budgets are tight, but it could be an easy win if you can effectively demonstrate the benefits of using DAM. Whatever situation you may be in, one thing’s for certain. You’ll need buy-in from your key decision makers, and those in charge of the budget. Creating a solid business case or proposal will invaluable, and here’s how you can do just that. How do I demonstrate the business value of DAM and create a business case for investment? If you’re battling the case to move on from legacy systems, the best place to start is by writing a list of key current problems. This itself may help you identify some requirements as it’ll highlight what you can’t do right now. Your list might include lack of integration with your CMS, and the inability to access your files remotely. It might include having to use several applications to be able to share images. Your next step will be to identify any further user requirements, like being able to edit images or set predetermined download formats. If you’re looking to introduce a system like this for the first time, this is where you start. Think about all the potential users in your business, as well as people who may be external, such as contract photographers or marketing agencies. Make a list of users as well as system managers, and make sure you involve them in your plan. You need them on board just as much as you need those who hold the purse-strings. It will also be essential to define roles so everyone knows who will be doing what during implementation and afterwards. The options to you and your business may seem daunting, but the best way to start your search for a DAM system is to write a list of features your business will need as well as a list of users. Budget is important, and there’s no point buying in the most expensive, state-of-the-art system if your business doesn’t need it, but there is a lot of sense in thinking about functionality that is not only necessary, but will help you save time and therefore money, and adding these to your list. A good example of this is the ability to automatically tag assets with their geographic location on upload. Not essential, but could be a very useful addition to the more standard meta data tagging function for a travel company. Ask the questions: “What will we use DAM for?” and “What functionality is necessary for that?” Understanding what you will use DAM for will help you define the business requirements, which could be simply to manage your image library in an easily searchable database for sole use of marketing and other promotions. Or it could be to manage and edit video content for training and learning purposes in the HR department. Or it could be a more business wide objective, such as maximizing efficiency of business processes through collaboration, workflow and systems integration. Whether it’ll be used by one department or the whole business, it’s important to make a note so you can be clear in your proposal. It’s also essential to make a note of systems and applications that will remain in place and may therefore need to integrate with your new DAM system. Cloud-based
solutions hosted by a supplier could also remove the need for potentially expensive hardware, so consult with your IT department where necessary as this could be a costsaving exercise in itself. By now you will have a pretty good idea how a DAM will benefit your business, and for the best business case, make a list, highlighting what those benefits are. Where possible, put a measure against the benefits. If the benefit is ‘saving time’ expand on that by putting ‘tagging whole image folders at a time will save each member of the creative team (10 staff) a minimum of 2 hours every week.’ In this example you then have a very tangible benefit which makes for a stronger business case. In some scenarios you won’t be apply a measure where the benefit is more like ‘sharing images instantly, without leaving the system.’ There are obvious benefits there, as it’s probably a quicker and easier way of working than you’re used to, but it’s difficult to apply exact figures to it. Similarly, something like ‘maximising value by reusing and repurposing media rich assets,’ is difficult to attribute a value to before the system’s in place, but in this example you can apply an objective. So it then becomes, ‘reduce new media spend by 20% by reusing and repurposing assets.’ Put like this, colleagues and decision makers will be able to put real values and business savings against your proposed benefits. If you have all of the above information, you should have all you need to present your business case or proposal. Use this check-list to make sure you’ve covered the essentials. Your business case will also be a priceless resource when you come to meet suppliers, as it’ll act like a brief, and enable them to see exactly what you need. It can be difficult to determine timescales and any training required before you’ve chosen a solution, but it’s useful to have an idea. Contacting a few suppliers and asking a few questions may give you enough information for now. Knowing whether training is included will help you plan for extra costs, and knowing how much is required will also help you plan your implementation when the time comes. Quick check-list • Current system and usability issues • List of users, system managers and roles • Core DAM business uses • Essential DAM user requirements • Luxury DAM functionality • System requirements and integration • Benefits • Budget • Timescales • Training How do I find the best DAM solution for my business? With your document in hand, and your budget approved, you should be ready to start having a look at the market. Use search engines, visit supplier listings, check out supplier websites, and most importantly, see who their clients are and what they’re saying about them. Reviews and case studies are key to identifying a good supplier who will not only meet your requirements, but provide an honest and reliable service too. Keep checking back to your list of requirements, and use it as a score card against possible solutions. Finally, any good supplier should be able to offer a free trail, so make sure you and your colleagues sign up and use some trial sites as much as possible before making any decisions. Jenny Ridge, MCIM is Head of Marketing at Third Light Ltd and specializes in digital marketing and marketing software.
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
SOFTWARE
THE 2017 SMART HOME REVOLUTION From heating which turns on automatically when we’re within two miles of the house, to front doors which only open when a recognised face appears, we now have the opportunity to turn our regular homes into smart homes.
A new study by appliance repair network Go-Assist.co.uk reveals that 29% of the UK adult population would consider purchasing at least one smart home device in 2017. However, recent figures from Deloitte state that just 3% of households currently have smart home devices installed, up from 2% the year before. These figures are slightly below PwC’s figures, which estimate 5% of homes are using smart technology.
Home security is another popular area which smart devices are tackling. Sentri, which is less expensive than a traditional security system and does not require professional installation, provides a 360-view camera which allows you to view your house remotely via your phone. There’s also Canary, a small home security camera device which includes a siren to chase away thieves. Goji takes this one step further, acting as a lock for your front door, sending photos of visitors to your phone and even giving temporary access if you’re away.
The most well-known smart home product is NEST, a thermostat which learns your habits and controls your heating, allowing for complex personalisation and automation. The device uses Wi-Fi to connect to your mobile phone, giving you complete access to your home’s temperature no matter where you are.
Handling all these devices from many different apps can become complicated and problematic. To solve this, Amazon has created Echo, a voice activated device which allows you to control everything plus play certain music depending on your mood.
NEST, the poster child of the industry, was acquired for $3.2 billion (£2.6 million) by Google in 2014. However, earlier this year the founder Tony Fadell stepped down after disappointing sales over the last 24 months.
In the latest Apple IOS updates, iPhones now include the ‘home’ button, designed to be the hub for connecting and controlling your smart home devices. This is undoubtedly the way the future is taking our homes.
Similar products have joined the market to rival NEST. These include British Gas’ HIVE and the Honeywell Lyric, a thermostat which tracks your location via your mobile phone and turns on the heating or air conditioning depending on your distance from the house.
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VOICE AND FACIAL RECOGNITION TO BE USED IN OVER 600 MILLION MOBILE DEVICES BY 2021 These methods will become part of many more consumers’ lives, installed on an estimated 190 million mobile devices, including smartphones and wearables, in 2016, before exceeding 600 million devices by 2021. A new study from Juniper Research has found that biometric authentication is now ready to move beyond fingerprints alone and use a range of identifiers, from facial recognition to voiceprints. Towards a Multimodal Biometric Future The new research, Mobile Biometrics: Consumer Markets, Opportunities & Forecasts 2016-2021, has found that demand from businesses for methods that rely less on hardware will raise the profile of newer biometrics over the next 5 years, in particular voiceprints and facial recognition.
“While biometrics offer an increased amount of security and convenience, they need higher levels of protection,” remarked research author James Moar. “Establishing best practices for storage and transmission of newer biometrics will be key to ensuring both consumer control over and the security of these most personal data.” The whitepaper, Consumer Biometrics ~ Skin Deep, or Heartfelt? is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full research. Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.
These technologies are easier to deploy than fingerprinting, as they do not require dedicated hardware, bringing biometric security to a whole new audience in markets with lower-tier smartphones, with fingerprinting remaining common in more affluent regions. With many different biometric technologies now emerging for consumer use, Juniper predicts that multiple biometrics will become part of consumers’ mobile experience in the near future. From Identification to Verification The research found that use cases for biometrics will shift from identification to verification, thanks to the need for increased security of the biometric itself. In these cases, the biometric is stored and approved on-device and an affirmation sent to a service, rather than the biometric being transmitted and compared to a remotely held record. This is because biometrics cannot be changed like passwords, and so if they are compromised, they are unusable for life.
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
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BUILT FOR LAWYERS, BY LAWYERS Founded in 2001 and still privately owned, Redbrick Solutions are experts at developing cutting edge case management technology for UK law firms. The company predominantly deals with mid-tier law firms who tend to have multiple offices and undertake a wide range of legal activities. We spoke to Jo Hodges, Sales and Marketing Director at the firm. As the Sales and Marketing Director, I am responsible for developing and implementing our sales and marketing strategies, managing budgets and ensuring we hit our business targets. I recruit and manage the sales and marketing teams and develop complementary business partnerships. At Redbrick Solutions Ltd, our aim is to create the tools to give law firms the ability to deliver a more efficient, profitable and transparent transaction to their clients. We offer a range of quality, user friendly, fully integrated products to meet our clients’ requirements. The two core products we offer are; Redbrick Practice Management, which is our front office practice and case management product that can be used across a whole range of legal activities to drive efficiency and profitability at every stage of a matter. This is fully integrated with our back office product, Redbrick Business Intelligence; our legal accounting and management information product, to remove duplication and deliver real time reports to law firm owners enabling them to make better informed business decisions. We offer a host of other complementary white labelled products such as anti-money laundering checks, which are also fully integrated into Redbrick Practice Management. We believe that a ‘one stop shop’ approach is the most efficient and user friendly way of working. We meet many law firms who have to keep jumping from product to product, with multiple screens open, with lots of passwords to remember and the resulting data stored in numerous different places. Once we show them that there is only one case management product they need, they never look back. Over 5,000 lawyers and support staff use our software every day and tell us that they couldn’t live without it. The majority of our clients are private client lawyers offering services such as conveyancing, probate, wills and family, although we also have clients using our products for a range of other activities as they can be used to build bespoke workflows to suit individual requirements. Our head office is based in Oakham, Rutland but we have
staff based all over the country to enable us to offer a comprehensive support service to our clients. I have been with Redbrick Solutions since 2005 and have seen them grow substantially in that time. However, the business has always managed to retain the feel of a small business, where everyone is a part of a very close knit team. There is an open door policy to all of the directors in the business and we have avoided getting tied up in the bureaucratic red tape that many firms do when they grow quickly. The advantage to this is that we can act quickly to implement changes and enhancements for our clients which is great news for them and it means we stay ahead of our competitors. It also means Redbrick is a great place to work! We have a very low turnover of staff which helps us provide a high level of continuity of service to clients and means that we retain a lot of expert knowledge within our business. When a new client first joins us, our team of experts will analyse the way they currently work, perform a gap analysis to highlight areas where time could be saved and implement solutions to ensure they deliver an efficient and more profitable service. Our products can be delivered ‘out of the box’ or we can build bespoke solutions to suit the individual firms’ requirements. We assign all new clients a business consultant who is responsible for customising, implementing and training the law firm on the use of our products. Then moving forwards, we work closely with the law firm to ensure they continue to get the maximum benefit from our technology solutions. Clients consistently vote our service and support as ‘exceptional’ so we must be doing something right! We make ‘Horizon Scanning’ an integral part of our business strategy so that we are always aware of potential changes and trends in the market, whether they are regulatory, environmental, political or technological, so that we can act quickly and accordingly to develop the best solutions for our clients.
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
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In order to ensure our products are innovative and will become best sellers in the market, Redbrick Solutions release four product updates a year, free of charge to our clients, to ensure they are always using the most advanced technology available, effectively ‘future proofing’ their firm. In addition to our horizon scanning activities, we run regular client focus groups which are very popular with our clients and enable them to have an input into the future development of our products and services. Our technology is very much ‘built for lawyers, by lawyers.’ This helps us ensure that as well as being technologically advanced, our new innovations are delivered in a way that makes a tangible, positive difference to the lawyers’ day to day working life. It’s all very well having a great idea but the success of that innovation is all in the delivery. In addition to our own product development, we offer an API, which enables Redbrick Practice Management to integrate with all of the third party links a law firm might need, to ensure they work smarter – not harder. Redbrick Solutions are widely recognised as ‘innovators’ in the legal technology market and have been first to market with a large number of initiatives. Finally, it is worth highlighting the attributes I believe make Redbrick Solutions stand out as expert legal case management providers. Law firms choose us because of the high quality of our technology, it is incredibly user friendly and intuitive and we back that up with an exceptional support service. We make the daily handling of legal matters easier by removing duplication, bringing consistency and transparency to the firm, removing risk and increasing compliance to enable the law firm to offer a better service to their clients. We offer a unique pay per transaction business model that sets us apart from other software providers, removing the barrier to entry for many law firms and ensuring our focus is on delivering outstanding client care. Our innovative business model provides upgrades, training, support and maintenance at no cost to our clients, which means that we have to deliver on our promises and ensure that our clients have the best products and the most exceptional service at all times, otherwise we simply wouldn’t be here. Our business has grown by 400% in the last three years and we have some very exciting plans for the future.
Company: Redbrick Solutions UK Ltd Name: Jo Hodges Email: jhodges@redbricksolutions.co.uk Web Address: www.redbricksolutions.co.uk Telephone: 0845 166 2629
Client Testimonial Marcus Baum LLP are a specialist conveyancing operation based in Southendon-Sea. Founded in 1995, they have recently opened additional offices in Rayleigh and Leigh-on-Sea, where they also now handle probate matters. They employ over 40 staff in their dedicated property operation and have been using Redbrick Solutions case management technology for several years. Marcus Baum have seen instruction levels increase by 105% since 2012, yet they have had to increase their headcount by only a fraction of that amount. Matthew Clark, Director says “We’ve become so much more reliant on the case management technology to do practically everything for us that we’re able to more efficiently deal with a greater number of cases.” In the recent past as activity levels started to recover Matthew seized the opportunity to further streamline their operation with the use of Redbrick’s Business Intelligence solution which runs their back office finance function. “It was clear to me that to be able to drive our top line without a significant increase in the operational costs, including salaries, technology was the most sensible way of improving the overall performance of our business.” As Marcus Baum now have a joined up front and back office function, further duplication of effort between fee earners, case handlers and the finance team has been entirely eliminated. Customer facing staff have instant access to the ledger and excellent visibility of what’s going on in a matter from a monetary point of view, whilst the back office staff benefit from fully automated pre-population of the financial payment and receipt requisitions generated by the case management product. “Additionally, through the use of the business intelligence product I can now get much better information as to the performance of my business. On a practical note, I can now get real-time updates on pretty much any metric whether it be compliance based or performance focused – every fee earner within the business is targeted and they manage themselves against these KPI’s. The visibility that we all get really is game changing” added Matthew. “Dealing with many hundreds of cases a month, on a cost per file basis, incremental changes in operational efficiency translate to significant savings on the volumes we handle,” concludes Matthew. “Redbrick’s technology has really given us the ability to operate much more efficiently than was ever the case, and as a result of that we are now more compliant and profitable than ever before.”
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
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TransitionManager provides an empowering view spanning all IT silos, orchestrates IT evolution and facilitates business resiliency in the constant changing environment of modern IT. 26
Deals ESEYE LAUNCH BREAKTHROUGH IN IOT SECURITY WITH AMAZON WEB SERVICES Demonstrated live onstage at the Re:Invent convention, the new Eseye AnyNet Secure™ SIM was introduced as a new cellular connectivity solution integrated fully with the AWS Cloud management console and Cloud platform. Eseye and Amazon Web Services have announced the launch of a breakthrough in IoT Security, AnyNet Secure™. Eseye, a leading global cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity provider for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, saw the culmination of many months working with AWS at the global corporation’s Re:Invent convention in Las Vegas. Eseye, the UK based IoT specialist, provides AWS IoT customers with enhanced security and connectivity features that enables IoT devices across the globe to remotely, automatically and securely activate, provision, authenticate and certify ‘things’, over-the-air, and to then ingest data into AWS customers’ clouds. This innovative British technology delivers several IoT breakthroughs. It launches devices or ‘things’ securely onto the global AWS Cloud network without the need
for any physical configuration; no manual passwords or onsite intervention is required; and the need for the release of third party security keys to manufacturers is also now removed. The potential reductions in risk and costs for AWS customer IoT deployments are significant. Julian Hardy, CEO at Eseye, says: “This new technology will ultimately allow more and varied products to go to market and to succeed by offering AWS customers the chance to take much of the cost, risk and time out of M2M IoT deployments. Collectively, we create a globallyavailable ubiquitous service layer through which projects can be deployed at scale, in a more secure manner and way that was previously impossible for customers. AnyNet Secure removes the need to make long-term sacrifices on security or go through a painstaking deployment process of manual intervention, one device at a time.” The new ‘plug-and-play’ or ‘zero touch’ SIM delivers increased efficiency thanks to its simple installation and remote management. Through the multi-IMSI technology embedded within the solution, the SIM allows organizations to deploy almost anywhere in the world, while establishing more robust levels of security.
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
Deals ZEN UNVEILS HUAWEI AS NEW NETWORK TECHNOLOGY PARTNER Zen and Huawei are working closely on the new network’s design and build, with Huawei installing its best-in-class networking technology as part of Zen’s ambition to create the UK’s first truly software-defined ISP network.
Zen’s major network investment will be complemented by a significant expansion of its on-net presence. Its number of Points of Presence (PoPs) in BT exchanges will rise from 270 to over 400 in the next few months, and expand Zen’s robust, cost-effective on-net reach to well over 500,000 postcodes, covering nearly every corner of the UK.
Zen Internet has announced that Huawei will provide the technology to power its new carrier-grade network, supplying the hardware at the core of what the independent telecommunications and internet service provider believes will be the UK’s most cutting edge network.
Jon said the company is creating a network that is ‘fit for the future’, with capacity and performance to meet both evergrowing demands for data and Zen’s ambitions in managed voice and cloud services.
The next generation infrastructure will allow Zen to decouple the services it offers to its business customers from the underlying physical architecture, leaving a network that is more cost-effective, agile, scalable and efficient.
Jon added: “For customers it means a network that will, with Huawei equipment at its core, make their businesses more competitive now and in the future. It means we will be able to grow capacity more cheaply and quickly than our competitors, adding extra services and emerging technologies to our portfolio whenever the demand arises. In the short term it will mean major performance efficiencies, much better fault tolerance and more costeffective solutions.”
Specifically, Zen will be installing Huawei’s NetEngine ‘NE’ series routers in its Manchester, Rochdale, Leeds and London core sites as a standard building block in a new modular, horizontally scalable design. This simplifies the network while greatly expanding its capacity and the variety of services Zen can offer to customers. Zen is leveraging both Huawei MultiAccess ‘MA’ series and smaller companion NE series routers to extend the intelligent network capability directly to the edge with designs for the full range of unbundled local exchange services.
Steven Harrison, Huawei’s chief design architect on the project, said: “The network we’re building together with Zen makes the best use of time-proven technologies together with cutting edge SDN capabilities to deliver a network with easier operation and more in-built agility than ever before.” Shiweiliang, UK managing director for Huawei Enterprise Business, added: “Huawei are incredibly proud to be chosen as Zen’s network technology partner. We’re fully committed to Zen and we’re very excited about the future together.”
Jon Bauer, Zen’s technical director for network and infrastructure, said: “We chose Huawei because it has a wealth of experience in building networks and offers the right technology to match our ambitions. With Huawei we’re creating a carrier-grade network that will, for business customers, mean a more dynamic and flexible portfolio of products and services, alongside even greater resilience and performance.”
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SIMPLIVITY AND HUAWEI JOIN FORCES TO DELIVER GAME-CHANGING HYPERCONVERGENCE AROUND THE GLOBE AND ACCELERATE INTERNATIONAL GROWTH OmniStack with Huawei FusionServer is offered on SimpliVity’s all-flash hyperconverged models, providing the speed and reliability of all-flash with the efficiency, ease of use, and resiliency of SimpliVity’s top hyperconverged platform. SimpliVity, a leader in hyperconverged infrastructure powering the world’s most efficient and resilient data centres, has announced that its transformative OmniStack technology is now available for sale on Huawei FusionServer. Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, reaching 3.5 billion end users worldwide with an especially strong presence in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, as well as Brazil, Russia, China, India, and South Africa. As two of the fastest growing companies in IT addressing the fastest growing markets, SimpliVity and Huawei are uniquely-positioned to expand and lead the international hyperconverged industry. “Huawei constantly looks to bring value to customers across the world through partnerships like this one with SimpliVity,” said Qiu Long, President of Huawei IT Server Product Line, Huawei. “Huawei servers running SimpliVity OmniStack technology represent a win-win for businesses needing hyperconverged infrastructure.” Only SimpliVity’s foundational technology offers true enterprise-grade hyperconvergence, with comprehensive storage data services built in – including native data deduplication and data protection. With 50 percent of sales already coming from outside North America, SimpliVity’s partnership with Huawei will further advance the company’s market position. “By combining SimpliVity’s revolutionary hyperconverged technology with Huawei’s servers and strong global footprint, more customers will be able to realize the unique benefits that only SimpliVity delivers,” said Doron Kempel, chief executive officer, SimpliVity. “We know customers want choice when it comes to hyperconverged infrastructure, and we deliver our technology in combination with the world’s leading server providers—Cisco, Lenovo, Dell, and now Huawei. By providing the most complete hyperconverged solution on the industry’s leading server platforms, SimpliVity is putting customer needs front and center.”
PAYPAL PARTNERS WITH ALZA.CO.UK TO OFFER CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS A GBP10 REBATE PayPal the online payment processing industry leader has partnered with Alza.co.uk to offer shoppers a timely saving off their Christmas shopping bills for the first 3 weeks in December. PayPal partners with Alza.co.uk, Europe’s leading eCommerce retailer, to offer customers a £10 rebate off items bought through their online portal. The £10 rebate will be applied at checkout after selecting PayPal as the payment method on orders that are worth £60 and over. Alza who rival both Amazon and Curry’s in pricing, stock a comprehensive range of over 50,000 products ranging from virtual reality games, PC’s, tablets and toys, popular fragrances, mobile phones, televisions and household appliances to name but a few. With great discounts already on offer such as the Galaxy S6 edge (SM-G925F) 32GB White Pearl, down from £684.12 to £419.90 inclusive of VAT, any extra savings on purchases at this expensive time of the year can only be of added benefit to most households. Popular items on most shopping lists such as the PlayStation VR for PS4, Sony Playstation 4 Pro - 1TB, CHRISTIAN DIOR Fahrenheit 200 ml, Playmobil 5303 Deluxe Dollhouse, LEGO DUPLO 10508 Deluxe Train Set, Lenovo PHAB 7” 16GB Aqua Blue, Sony MDR-RF865RK Black and NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1 are all currently available at great prices. So, are there any terms and conditions to be aware of? This promo will run from the 1st of December for a limited only and is valid only for customers using PayPal on the Alza.co.uk e-shop for the first time. If a customer has used PayPal before on Alza. co.uk, then the offer will not be applicable, although an easy way around this would be to use a spouse, partner or family member’s account to proceed with the transaction. As is usual with this type of promotion, it cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer and is valid on first orders using PayPal, providing the same PayPal accounts have not been used to make purchases on Alza.co.uk prior to the promotion. For more information on Alza and the range of discounted products please visit Alza.co.uk or alternatively contact customer services on +44 203 514 4411 for further help with this offer.
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
Deals MOBILE LABS ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP FOR SOFTWARE TESTING WITH LOGIGEAR Mobile Labs’ and LogiGear’s partnership gives customers the ability to securely and quickly develop automated tests on real mobile devices, from anywhere in the world.
performing to the highest standard. Mobile Labs’ deviceConnect provides comprehensive mobile device management allowing organizations to simplify testing across multiple platforms, operating systems, and device types.
Mobile Labs, a leading provider of enterprise-grade mobile app and web development and testing solutions, has announced a strategic partnership with LogiGear, a world leader in software testing solutions.
Learn more about Mobile Labs’ enterprise mobile testing abilities at www.mobilelabsinc.com. About Mobile Labs Mobile Labs provides enterprise-grade mobile device clouds that improve efficiency and raise quality for agile–based, cross-platform mobile app and mobile web deployments. The company’s patented device cloud, deviceConnect™, is available in both public and on-premises configurations. deviceConnect provides affordable, highly-secure access to a large inventory of mobile devices across major mobile platforms to developers, test engineers, and customer support representatives, among others. At the heart of enterprise mobile app deployment, deviceConnect enables automated continuous quality integration, DevOps processes, automated testing, and manual app/web/ device testing on managed devices. deviceConnect supports all major integrated app development environments (IDEs), such as Xcode, as well as automated app and web testing on real mobile devices using a wide variety of mobile UI test automation tools. deviceBridge™, an extension to deviceConnect, serves as a “virtual USB cable” to checkout and debug cloudbased devices as if they are locally connected. For more information, please visit www.mobilelabsinc.com.
“As more enterprises embrace the digital transformation, they recognize the need to provide a high-quality experience across every platform customers use,” said Dan McFall, president of Mobile Labs. “Our partnership with LogiGear, an industry leader in automated testing, allows developers to improve testing speed and quality, ultimately resulting in a faster, better release and rapid bug detection and correction.” The partnership will provide support and referral services for Mobile Labs’ and LogiGear’s products. Mobile Labs’ deviceConnect™ mobile device cloud supports LogiGear’s TestArchitect™ mobile test automation platform for both Android and iOS devices using Mac or Windows workstations. “Mobile Labs’ digital, web and mobile testing expertise and products will complement the testing services we provide our customers,” said Hung Nguyen, CEO of LogiGear. “We look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship.” More enterprises today have teams located across the globe working to ensure their applications are always
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TOMTOM AND PITNEY BOWES EXPAND PARTNERSHIP TO SERVE GROWING MARKET FOR LOCATION-BASED INTELLIGENCE AND DATA SOLUTIONS TomTom (TOM2) and Pitney Bowes has announced an expansion of their partnership. TomTom’s global location content is assisting Pitney Bowes to strengthen its position as the preferred singlesource provider of enterprise-grade location intelligence solutions worldwide. This announcement bolsters the long-standing partnership between TomTom and Pitney Bowes, and demonstrates both companies’ commitment to serving the Enterprise GIS market. “When we think about location intelligence, we are guided by a powerful motto: ‘Locate success’,” states Bob Guidotti, Pitney Bowes’ President of Software Solutions. “Our clients trust our software solutions and data to help them make informed business decisions, take advantage of new location-based marketing opportunities and identify and manage previously unseen risks.” The sophisticated Location Intelligence Suite of software solutions from Pitney Bowes is enhanced with the accuracy and freshness of TomTom’s international map content and diverse layers of location-based data. Businesses across all industries are looking to extract valuable insights from data to deliver a clear view of customers, including who they are and what they want, no matter where they are located. The mapping and location technologies from Pitney Bowes help
businesses better communicate with their customers, create more targeted promotions and pursue new cross-selling opportunities. “Being selected by Pitney Bowes reaffirms that TomTom is the industry standard for global maps and location data used in enterprise-grade GIS applications,” says Anders Truelsen, Managing Director of TomTom’s Licensing Business Unit. “We are extremely proud to partner with Pitney Bowes and support them as they harness the full potential of our mapping services and data: including road networks, address points, postal codes, administrative boundaries and, with this latest agreement, additional data-driven insights from TomTom’s best-in-class Traffic services.” TomTom data accuracy is critical to the performance of the location intelligence solutions of Pitney Bowes, particularly for industries such as Telecommunications looking to optimize mobile network performance; Insurance for precisely locating assets to identify potential risks; and State and Local Government to efficiently allocate and manage government assets and services. Going beyond these core offerings, Pitney Bowes is rolling out a suite of new vertical solutions addressing common business challenges including fraud management, compliance and customer communication. With this accelerated partnership, TomTom and Pitney Bowes will jointly collaborate to redefine GIS products and location intelligence services worldwide.
Soft Tech INTL / December 2016
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